Chesnutty Bargains

 

                “Deals so good they will make you squirrely!’ If a slogan like that, at a store called Chestnutty Bargains doesn’t get you at least a little bit interested, I’m not sure what will.

             

(Tammy Schaeffer)

  Chestnutty Bargains is little discount retail store located on the busy Chesnut Street located in Cressona, Pennsylvania. The first thing I noticed when pulling into the rocky, damaged stone parking lot is that there are gas pumps, “We actually used to be a discount grocery store, within the past year and a half we made the move over to selling all the things you see in here now, instead of groceries.” Explains Tammy Schaffer (Chesnutty Bargains manager).

 All the things in here now that she was talking about include- different kinds of appliances that are located in the far back corner of the store like air fryers, microwaves, and toaster ovens. Right when you walk through the double glass doors to the entrance of the store it is impossible not to notice the overwhelming rows of clothes, starting with women’s clothes and then the further to the back you go, men’s. And then scattered between is a bunch of home décor items like fake plants, rugs, candles, lamps, entertainment centers that are in big and beat up carboard boxes, and even things like those cheesy wall pictures that say things like “don’t talk to me until I had my coffee” or “pardon the mess my children are making memories”.

Those items all have one thing in common, they are all really cheap. “We buy lots and pallets of damaged Amazon goods but majority of the time there is very little damage done to any of the items you see in here”, Tammy tells me as we are standing in the household appliance isle. She picks up a long and skinny electronic vacuum box and points at the top right corner and says, “this is considered damaged”. The box had a little dent in it, nothing more than something you would see in any Walmart. It is very surprising what Amazon considers to be damaged product.

(Chesnutty Bargains)

            This upbeat, small-scale store is dispersed with people, some regulars that are still familiar with the place being a grocery store and some new faces. Tammy remarks “It is almost 50-50 with the people who come in, I recognize maybe 4 or 5 customers out of 10, the rest are people I don’t recognize but I want to try to establish a relationship with them, so they want to come back.” That is the type of person Tammy is. She is very kind and friendly with whoever walks through those doors. She always has a smile on her face and is always laughing. And she will always make an appoint to ask the customer if they need anything when she is walking by. If you are ever thinking about running your own store, you definitely would want a manager like Tammy.

I will for sure check out this store again and more than likely even begin to shop at when I need things for my apartment or future apartments. They have deals you cannot beat and staff that are as friendly as can be. I highly recommend if you get a chance, you visit as well.