Hey, let's go to Vidler's!!
I had been wanting to go for awhile having heard about the old-fashioned 5 & 10 department store located in East Aurora, NY. It would be a two hour drive for us heading west toward Buffalo, NY......
This buffalo is a steadfast symbol of the area, standing there,
rain or shine, (lots of) snow or sleet!
Buffalo Bills football country. Oh yeah! Never even thought of that till we got closer to the area and there were indications that fans were around! Our house does not currently have any Buffalo Bills fans!
No matter! Onward and westward.......we decided to take the drive and call it a day trip. I made chicken salad sandwiches for along the way and we were going to eat dinner at one of the many restaurants in the small, quaint, historic town.
And so our adventure began.
Once off the thruway, the drive takes you on winding country roads through beautiful Upstate NY. I love the farms and fields of corn. We came upon these turbine windmills and with the darkening sky and their very slow movement, it was an almost eerie, alien-esque movie feeling we got while driving by...
We made it by with no major injuries to our souls :)
The store website is full of information on Vidlers and their reputation is that they have ANYTHING you would want, from modern to nostalgic, and pride themselves on carrying all the old-fashioned items of a 5 & 10 of years gone by. You are advised that it could take you 2-3 hours to go through the two full floors of stuff. Here's why.....
In the gift area, stuff for bikers and their babes...
Any and all of the old toys and games
Gag gifts like instant underwear, and cupcake dental floss
Outdoor games
Hair and beauty accessories
A rubber ducky for any occasion
Kettle corn in a machine and local maple syrup products
Candy by the pound ($8.99 a pound!)
And candy bars, old-fashioned and everyday
Need a pack of gum? Or 10?
Oh, and the bacon and pickle products. There were
even candies to taste like brown gravy.
It's a little blurry, but yes, you are seeing Pickle lip balm and Pickle mints, Bacon Frosting, Bacon Toothpaste, and Gummy Bacon. There were bacon shaped bandaids and a bacon wallet.
More old-fashioned games
Remember Lamb Chop? There were puppets and talking stuffed
Lamb Chops.
Very cute Pop Goes the Weasel!
Two many lunch boxes and things to go with to fit in the picture.
I didn't see anyone trying this....I imagined that it told your secrets out
loud if you stepped on it!
These were tempting but I still had my extra large Chunky
candy bar to eat from the other section!
70's bandanas in every color
This won the "ugliest purse I have ever seen" contest
(the contest that was going on in my head!)
At the beginning you saw a glimpse of the outside of the store
which stretches for a good part of the block. Near one end we
found this gentlemen...."Vidler on the Roof"?
We could only enjoy the Elm Street shopping district through my camera lens. There was an antique store, an art gallery, a bakery and a florist.
We did find a cute ice cream place housed in an old train caboose. An electric train ran around the top part of the building.
Having ice cream at 3 p.m. did not help us be hungry enough for dinner in town so we were on the road again heading towards home. We did find a few places to stop along the way and of course I found a few vintage things to pick up at a Barn Sale at The Farm.
It started pouring as we left but by the time we reached this sign it started to clear up and become sunny skies again....
Our adventurous day ended that evening at the end of the thruway in Webster, NY at Proietti's Italian Restaurant. I worked there for 14 years as a waitress and they still have the best Italian food in our area.
Sandy, my friend and owner, picked up our tab for dinner, which was the perfect ending to our day trip.
What adventurous things did you do this Labor Day weekend?
AnnMarie :)
Linking up with these great blog hops:
Let's Get Social Sunday
Monday Mingling Blog Hop
Marvelous Mondays Link Party
Amaze Me Monday
The Scoop
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
Tuesday Trivia
What's It Wednesday
Adorned From Above
Meet & Greet Blog Hop
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
The Weekend re-Treat
TGIF Link Party
Freedom Fridays
Weekend Wonders
Looks like shopping heaven! I like the look of all those candies.
ReplyDeleteWhat an AMAZING place !!!
ReplyDeleteLMHO with the ugly purse contest :)
XOXO
Hi AnnMarie! I would get so lost in that store...you'd never find me. I LOVE shopping in stores that have all kinds of stuff, especially the silly items.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great day! And free dinner too. So happy you could rebound from your plans that didn't work out.
Happy Monday!
Ceil
That looks like a great place to visit. I would have a field day in that store! We were recently up that way…if only I'd have known! Thanks for sharing! I'm pinning on my places to go board.
ReplyDeleteYour photos really capture the coolness of Vidlers! Next time you're in East Aurora, you need to go to the Roycroft Inn and gift shop--amazing!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun day trip you had. I'm on the west coast and my daughter and son-in-law live in Buffalo :( so it was fun to have a peek and read about things close to them. I'll have to tell them about the places you visited if they haven't already been.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing and blessings to you,
Patti
Hey - my old stomping ground!! Glad you could enjoy so much on this day trip. Fun pictures!!!
ReplyDeleteHi AnnMarie,
ReplyDeleteWell, FINALLY am up and running and proud to say that I fixed the GFC problem and photo uploading snag all by myself! So...JUST followed you back; thanks so much for being patient and understanding.
Really enjoyed this post of upstate NY, especially the introduction to Vidlers! I wonder if they have my favourite (discontinued) candy bars of all time: Coffee Ripple and Bar Six. Could be Canadian, though. Thank you for the amazing tour and info; it was great 'following' you around here today, too!
xo
Poppy
Glad you made it to our neck of the woods. We love that place. The guy on the roof gets dressed up for Christmas also. Lol.
ReplyDeleteBuffalo gets forgotten a lot,cause around here we say it is Western New York not Upstate. Come visit us agian!!! Did you get some wings?
There is a little know children museum there also. Just around the cornor from the caboose ice cream shop. If ya have little ones it is a lot of fun!!!!
I've said it before and I'll say it again- I LOVE your posts :) I would enjoy that store too much! Did you get anything besides candy??
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely day trip! My kids would have loved those gag gifts!
ReplyDeleteAudrey at http://eleganteconomies.blogspot.com/
Yes! I got a large Gumby to go with my Pokey! Love Gumby and Pokey!
ReplyDeleteAdorable :) There is a barntique village literally 5 minutes from my house. Tons of vintage stuff. One day I'll get over there and take some pictures for you! Just can't go with the little children :)
DeleteThat's a lot more fun than anything I did this past Labor Day weekend. The most exciting thing being mowing the lawn. I did, however, make a trip to Vidler's in the Spring and blogged about it, too.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a lot of fun!! Cute Lamb chops!
ReplyDeleteWow, this sounds like so much fun! I was laughing until tears with the items you found at the 5 & 10! My niece would love the odd pickle items.
ReplyDeleteWow, this sure looks like a fun day trip. That store has so many fun things and the bakery goods looks yummy!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had quite a fun adventure exploring a quaint little town.
ReplyDeleteMary Alice
Fun photos! (love the caboose!) What an awesome idea for an ice cream shop!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun post! I love that store, I could be there all day!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a fun time, glad you enjoyed yourself.
Hugs,
Patti
Oh mah goodness! What a lot of stuff. My hubby would love the vintage style candies. He gets a big kick out of finding candy he ate as a kid. We may be able to head up there or uh, over there, someday as we have a summer place in NY. Cool!
ReplyDeleteI want to go to that store and that town!!! That looks so neat! I can definitely see why one could spend hours in there. I'm so glad you took all those great pics! And I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten the pickle lip balm!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you'll be joining the Five on Friday! I loved linking up - it's like the opportunity to say things you wouldn't ordinarily because they are too simple or not worthy of a stand alone blogpost. I love it. :)
WOW...what fun!!! I just loving outings like this and a great dinner to end the day makes it perfect. I agree, ugliest pocketbook for sure...LOL!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing at Amaze Me Monday!!!
Blessings,
Cindy
We live just an hour east of East Aurora and have never been to Viddler's. I'll be putting it on my to-do list. Thans
ReplyDeleteWe haven't had an old 5 and 10 here for years. Those stores are so much fun. You can find anything your looking for. The ice cream shop looks adorable.
ReplyDeleteAnn