Do not panic. This new location is in addition to the Hope Street store. Located between White Electric and Ada Books on Westminster Street, the new shop is longer, wider, and taller, with more room for cool stuff like this illuminated globe which you can take home for $100. (Wide range of price points here — many items under $10.) The merchandise is similar to the original store — cards, mugs, T-shirts, wall art, faux trophies, totes, bags, scarves, ironic votive candles, etc. — but now they have space for even more stuff, including a vending machine loaded with ramen, cables, pregnancy tests, rain ponchos, prawn crackers . . . that sort of thing.
Courtney Dell’Agnese spoke with owner Asher Schofield in the recent Rhode Island Monthly. Here he shares his merchandising philosophy regarding the two shops:
Asher Schofield says he likes to look at the two locations as a right brain, left brain comparison. “On the East Side, our merchandising is very much like a patchwork quilt or a collage. And it’s stimulating and interesting, but it can be overwhelming for some people,” he says.
With this new larger space they are able to show the merchandise “in more of a mercantile way that’s more traditional like an old hardware store,” he says. “There’s some structure and spacing so that more of a right brain thinker will be able to see many of the same things but in a way that’s a bit more discernible.”
In addition to running one of my favorite gift shops ever, co-owners Asher and Erin Schofield have become fixtures in the local political scene, organizing relief efforts, and speaking out against injustice and corruption. Some of the merchandise reflects those progressive politics, and a lot of the merchandise reflects their wicked sense of humor. And I love the wooden floor!
Frog and Toad, 713 Westminster Street, 401.831.3434, (directions)
They sound like great people. I assume they have joined Next Door, the neighborhood based social/commercial web site. I wonder of they might sell some products made by the HS students at New Urban Arts just down the street from the new store. I’ve seen some excellent things, especially from the women and minorities there. Some would be first rate, amazingly mature poetry nicely illustrated and mounted. Just a thought.