Wonder lost: Let’s bring it back to shopping

The entrance to our store in Elizabethtown.

One Sunday morning, I was behind our store counter when I heard a disembodied woman talking to someone in the hallway.

“Oh,” she said with disappointment. “They replaced it. It used to be a yarn store.”

She never revealed herself to me; she didn’t find out about Stay or discover exactly what had replaced the yarn store that previously inhabited our space at 206 S. Market St., Elizabethtown.

It was a tiny moment, but it got me thinking about something I've noticed during our early months in E-Town: Whatever happened to curiosity and discovery when it comes to shopping?

Not buying. Shopping.

Here and at our Hershey store before it, plenty of customers have crossed our threshold and marveled: “I’ve never been in here before.”

It always strikes me as odd, given that we have regular days and hours of operation and an unlocked door, that some shoppers seem to anguish over entering an independent retailer for the first time.

In this Amazonian era of algorithms, shopping has become less and less of an experience. We hardly leave home to shop, as evidenced by the hundreds and hundreds of shopping malls that have closed since their 1980s heyday.

About one-sixth of all U.S. retail spending now occurs online — and Amazon captures roughly 40 percent of that. It’s efficient and convenient, but there’s not much wonder in it.

I think it has tamped down consumer expectations to the point that some shoppers don’t know what to make of a place like Stay.

You have to come

That’s why I bristle when we’re essentially dismissed as a T-shirt shop. Yes, we sell graphic tees more than anything, but that’s not all that we are.

First of all, we only sell Made in the USA products, and we do our best to apply that to everything else we need to run the business. That means our kraft bags and the rubber stamp and ink pad we use to apply our logo to the bags.

Second, and increasingly, we carry a variety of useful products, both original and curated: dish cloths and dish towels, socks and bandanas, lip balm and hand lotion, can openers and jar openers, pens and notepads.

It’s our mini version of a general store. Some of it makes perfect sense together. Some of it probably doesn't.

That's part of the fun, the things you might happen upon. But you have to come to experience it.

We're tucked inside 206 S. Market, behind EVO 206 Coffee, across the hall from WhirliGig Unique Boutiques, and next to a new stationery store, Unfold.

It’s hard enough to get people into the building, and it’s really frustrating when they are literally at our door, look in our direction and turn around without further exploration.

Yup, the yarn store is gone (moved to Lancaster). But we’re here, Wednesday through Sunday. If our sign is on the sidewalk, we’re open.

Walk in.

It won’t cost you anything to look around, just your sense of wonder.