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The Best Airplane Propellers, Brass Bells, Wood Signs and Lake Signs
When started 13 years ago in the Mall of America in Minnesota, A Simpler Time didn't carry some of its current best sellers such as vintage wood propellers and aviation gifts, all types of brass bells, personalized lake house signs or nostalgic hockey gifts. Our gift and art selection on our first day in September of 1997 tilted heavily towards Norman Rockwell with sculpture and art by the famous illustrator who inspired our store concept.
We slowly dropped product that didn't sell, added to categories that did, and listened carefully to our customers.
One of our biggest (and first) "hits" was when we made our first prototype
antique wooden airplane propeller replica after hearing numerous customers
remark about the price of original wood props, which could range in the thousands of dollars. Hand carved in mahogany and edged in brass, our WWI replica propeller has been a best seller for years
and has spawned a whole collection of aviation gifts, including propeller bar stools, airplane models and many cool aviation signs.
Vintage nautical replicas became good sellers, so we started to produce our own product to be competitive in a new Internet world. We added a few brass ship bells to our product line and found that, surprisingly, our customers really liked them! Now we have bells in all different sizes, in types ranging from desk bells to hand bells. We've even added a sophisticated engraving machine so we can engrave bells up to ten inches in diameter.
Customized Wood Signs, Wood Propellers, Hockey Gifts and More!
A few years ago, we started selling unique vintage graphic lake signs, and they quickly became our best sellers. Who could have forecast that a company founded in the "Land of 10,000 lakes" could sell hundreds of cabin signs? Many of our customers now know us as the "Personalized Sign" company, as we carry retro and vintage style wood signs and metal signs that can often be personalized with your name, your company, etc. And we now stock a huge variety of popular nostalgic tin signs at some of the lowest prices anywhere online!
In keeping with our Minnesota roots, we also carry many hockey-themed gifts, including retro personalized hockey signs and even vintage-style hockey CD/DVD holders. And we've recently expanded (and plan on adding much more) to our train gifts and man cave signs pages.
We realize not all of you want a wood propeller (or any aviation gift for that matter), a brass bell, a lake house sign, or even the coolest hockey gift there is. These best sellers only scratch the surface of what you'll find at A Simpler Time. But we're pretty sure you won't find such an eclectic group of nostalgic products anywhere else.
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Smile Train Changes Children's Lives One Smile at a Time
At A Simpler Time, which celebrates the innocence of childhood, we feel it's important to give something back to kids who aren't as fortunate. We have chosen to support Smile Train (www.smiletrain.org), a top-notch charity that conducts cleft palate surgeries on thousands of third world children every year. To date, more than 650,000 children have seen their lives changed by Smile Train. Instead of being social outcasts facing lives of begging, these children have a chance to live a normal life. With major sponsors covering all advertising overhead, almost every dollar you donate goes to performing a surgery! The New York Times calls it "...one of the most productive charities...dollar for deed...in the world."
A Simpler Time donates a percentage of each online order to this wonderful charity, and so far (thanks to you!) the lives of 126 children have been changed forever! If you don't see anything on our website you can't live without (and we freely admit we don't sell necessities), or if you would like to donate more, we encourage you to go directly to Smile Train.
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126 New Smiles Donated!
Thanks to our customers, we've managed to donate enough money to Smile Train to pay for 126 cleft palate surgeries!
We donate a portion from each online purchase to Smile Train. |
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"Thank You for some excellent Customer Service! I placed an order on short notice, and I was most impressed with the prompt reply. The items arrived on time along with a follow-up call. Customer service of that nature is rare in today's world. Thanks again for a great effort and a unique product!
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Remember swinging on a tire
over the creek, building tree forts, or playing marbles? Perhaps your
nostalgia is a little more recent, like staring transfixed at a slowly
moving light in the early video game of Pong. |
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