Alton Mainstreet is once again putting on Night Market (every Thursday from 7-10pm) and once again we have a booth. This year the location changed; it's now in the green space between Cat Daddy's and Chez Marilyn. So far the turnout has been better than ever. Some of the bands have been awesome too. It's a free event! I strongly recommend checking it out!
I've been teaching Mahjong classes at the store now. In my opinion, Mahjong is the best card/tile game on the face of the earth. Sage and I learned it back in 2018 and we've been passionate fans ever since. It's a rummy game, so there's a little bit of luck, but a skilled player is going to win more often than an unskilled player.
Manufacturer's stock image of the set I use. Booze (apple juice?) not included.
I didn't want to go public until I perfected my lesson plan, but after 3 revisions and some trial and error I think I've got it down to a science. I'll post an official page soon on this website. Here are some preliminary details...
- I'm teaching what's called, "Unified Mahjong". A system that let's a group of players choose how intense of a ruleset they want to use. Groups can learn Casual Play, League Play, or an Advanced Defensive Ruleset. The variant has more in common with Asian variants vs. American Mah Jongg, but if you learn Unified, you can learn any variant (or keep playing Unified).
- Classes are after hours at the store.
- If you're interested, I recommend having a group of four people. A class session costs $40 for 2 hours ($10 per person). I can also teach a group of 3 (still $40).
- I've got a table and a nice set of chunky Mahjong tiles. As I always say, "Bring reading glasses".
It sure would be cool if we could get enough groups on board to start having tournaments or something. Baby steps though.
Here's some of the new toys we have...
We re-stocked Cobble Hill Puzzles. I think this our biggest variety yet. Piece counts range from 275 to 2000. Cobble Hill is one of the best in the business IMO. We also brought in the Romanian company Enjoy. I love the super vibrant colors of their puzzles.
We have a ton of Blind Boxes with more on the way. No, we don't have Labubu or Sonny Angel. There are a ton of other brilliant artists out there making equally quality blind boxes who don't make us jump through hoops to carry their figurines.
We expanded our engineering toys by Smartivity. These sets are super fun to build, and even more fun to play with. The Pinball Machine is my personal favorite.
We've got a bunch of new and interesting outdoor toys.
We've got a huge variety of very cool bead crafting sets.
And we're selling Wigglitz, teeny tiny 3D printed wiggly figurines that are made in the USA.
As always, a bunch of orders are in transit or planned. I know some mini animal plushies and a bunch of novelties are coming soon. I'm hoping to get a Smoko (plush and blind box) order placed this week. They have some fantastic Kewpie blind boxes too. Sea Monkeys and couple of other goofy old school novelty things suddenly sold out, so I'll be placing an order for those too.
We also really really want to get a shoppable website up and running soon. No easy task, but we see a path forward. I'll be very happy if it's up and running by Q3.
Last, we'll be closed July 30th to August 3rd for a vacation. I've got almost all of my family re-located to Alton, but Sage's is still spread out across the country.
All right, that's all. Hit me up if you wanna learn Mahjong.
~David
