I'm Puzzled! on Grand Avenue

Out on errands today, I decided I'd overlooked one little store too many times, so I went inside to say hello and have a look around.  


Before I go any further, imagine walking into any megastore:  They're huge, clerks are usually hard to find and don't know much about the products they sell, signs are meant to teach you about the merchandise and entice you to not only buy what you've gone there to buy but "companion products" as well.  The lighting is ugly, the image is impersonally corporate and you end up feeling like you've been processed somehow, churned through a mill, that you represent a statistic on the company balance sheet.  Products have to be "turned," items are "merchandised," and personnel do only what they are trained to do, just like their minimum-wage-earning "sales representative" co-workers.  Okay, end of rant; I'll step down from my high horse.  

I'm Puzzled! on the corner of Grand and Laurel Avenues, uphill one block from Lighthouse Avenue in downtown Pacific Grove represents the small-town, mom-and-pop groove in the best possible way.  They have oodles of charm, creativity, and imagination right alongside an interesting, engaging and generous array of fun stuff (aka puzzles and games).  It's a place you can feel well cared for:  You ask a question, you get a thoughtful answer.  You want to browse, you are handed a cup of steaming fresh coffee and asked if you'd like cream or sugar.  You need a snack, you can have a cookie.  


There are puzzles and puzzles and more puzzles, every shape, size, color and type ever imagined.  You can even have one made from a picture of your own charming self or anything else you wish.  People as young as six months old can find what they want, and everyone from geniuses to mentally challenged can also walk away with something appropriate and engaging.  Did I like the store?  I loved it!  

I bought a puzzle and within a minute it was set in a bag, gift wrapped with puzzle-printed tissue and a tag made from repurposed puzzle pieces.  They sell gift cards made the same way.  

Side streets off Lighthouse, like Grand Avenue, have lots to offer your specific groove.  Go looking for something and I can guarantee you will find it and probably lots you had given up on finding anywhere else.