Father-Husband-Marketer-Geek

I have quite a few shops listed in the resources section of the sidebar, but I'm looking to add some more. There have to be a good deal of brick and mortar retailers who are selling Department 56 whom we have NOT covered yet. I understand during these tough economic times, many gift shops, garden shops, and holiday retailers are facing a decline in business, a reduced demand, lowering prices on collectibles, etc., so I am sure some free advertising and exposure for their website would be welcome. The value these shops add to the collectibles buyer experience is immense: tremendous product knowledge, fun atmosphere, spontaneous bargains, touch and feel of product, variety of displays, etc. Please comment below with your own shops or your favorite shops, and links to their websites if you have them. I will publish a bio/history of the shop, sales notification, shop photos, website link, and add them to my Google Map of Recommended D56 Shops .

The Wooden Duck is a family owned fine gift, collectible and women’s apparel retail shop that was established in the historic town of Skippack, Pennsylvania in 1973, located in the town of Skippack Village (approximately 35 miles Northwest of Philadelphia) at 4033 Skippack Pike (PA Route 73) at the Homestead Shopping complex. The Wooden Duck offers a diverse line of merchandise, from collectibles (Department 56 and Byers’ Choice Carolers to name a few). Check out their Department 56 2006 and prior Snow Village price list

Who would have known that the piece I was looking for would be discovered in the home state of the rival Red Sox? My wife and I visited Graziano Gardens in East Longmeadow, MA, today. This was one of the recommended shops from last week's posts (see the Map of Recommended Shops below). It really was a nice garden store. There were four or five decent village scapes in the Christmas Shop, but you could tell it wasn't really ready for a holiday visit - much of it was in an "organizational" phase. Still, the store had some great scenes - especially Dickens' Village. My wife actually found a great deal on hanging plants there - buy one, get one for half off. We raced home and set up Yankee Stadium on our Kitchen Bar, temporarily (it will be heading to my office, where I can enjoy it during the workday). It has a bulb which shines through all the little windows of the ballpark. It's still hard to believe each piece is hand-cut. They must have lots of little elves...

This is my first crack at a mapping tool. I've placed all of the shop locations on one Google Map, making it easy to find shops in an area. Some of the placetags contain web addresses and street-level photos of the shops if you click on them or zoom in. There's a lot more I can do with this. It's only the beginning. Next I will figure out how to plot out a road trip with this. I know you can get directions if you go to the Department 56 Shop Google Map itself. A blog-friendly version of the map has been placed just below the blog posts.

"The Emporium Gallery at 3358 West 26th St. in Erie, Pennsylvania . They are a Showcase Dealer, with a complete room devoted to D 56 Villages. Ask for Audrey or Henry." "Rich, There is a fantastic shop in Winston Salem, North Carolina which has villages out year round in a nice large room with full displays. They carry every line of villages: original snow village, halloween village, dickens, christmas in city, alpine, north pole, new england as well as side line villages such as carnival, wizard of oz, peanuts, winnie the pooh The two "regular gals" that work there, Kathy and Laura, are truly spectacular as well. The shop is Salem Creek and it's on 694 Hanes Mall Blvd. I encourage everyone in the general area who are into villages to give them a look. By the way, they have a great Christmas in July sale coming towards the end of July with all their retired villages on sale." " The Christmas Place in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee is a huge Chr...

I belong to the Yahoo! Group for Department 56. It's a great group of knowledgeable villagers. I posted the following question to the group: "What are the best local shops in your state?" I was hoping to get some good answers that I could then post about, and I wasn't disappointed. The following are some of the excerpts and I will eventually post about each of their nominated shops: "I'm in New Jersey near Cherry Hill but I don't care for the shops around here. I love Amato's Garden Center in Monmouth Junction.it's about an hour but a nice drive." "Our favorite shop in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Presence Gift Shop is on 422 Hartz Avenue in Danville, California . The owners are Kit and Debbie. They carry the full line of D56 Villages" "The Village Shoppes in New Carlisle, Indiana , at 129 E. Michigan St. has 27,000 sq. ft. of accessories, furniture, gifts, and collectibles. They carry the full line of D56. Just 20 minute...