Olde Good Things

Dealing with the Grumpy Hippie Club is no fun. All pretense of civility vanishes five seconds after payment is tendered. Post payment, expect snide, arrogant and rude. The Madison Ave Santa Claus is particularly unpleasant. A little research revealed that the Olde Good Things stores are owned and operated by a cult, the Forever Family Church, started by Stewart Traill. That explains a lot.

Fun place to spend some time browsing if you like antiques and unusual items. They have lots of large items like chandeliers, doors and signs but they also have well organized hard to find small items. Great for someone doing a restoration. Prices may be high but are negotiable.

I was glad to see that Al B. wrote what he did. At first I was excited to find this store. I admit I didn’t know about OGT (although I’m sure I’ve walked by the location in Union Square a zillion times). I’m renovating a house and had been looking for antique lighting. Stumbled on this place and was quite interested in all of their selections. Went back on the weekend and purchased an overpriced chandelier and an overpriced ceiling mount. When I asked how long it would take to wrap and box them up the guy asked if we could come back. I hesitated because it never seems to go well if you come back later. It was hot out and so I agreed to come back later in the week — 9 to 10am on the Friday morning — making sure that these items would be boxed and ready to go. As we all know driving in the city is no picnic and the last thing one wants to do is wait around in their car double parked while people are taking care of what they should have done. Sure enough the same guy was there and said, «I didn’t know you were coming this early. I thought it was this afternoon.» I looked him in the eye and said, «we talked about this and you assured me that this wouldn’t happen.» Anyway, took about 30 minutes double parked waiting and waiting while cabs and trucks are honking crazy at you because you’re in the way. Needless to say that was not fun nor good business. The thing that struck me when I purchased the two light fixtures was that the same guy was talking about Haiti and how he himself had lived in Haiti overseeing his church organization’s orphanages and how proud he is of the work he has done for Haiti’s orphans. Hmmmm… now I don’t profess to have a lot of extra time on my hands, but I am the curious sort and tends to like to know whom I’m dealing with so I started doing a little (didn’t take much) checking around online about this store and owners/​operators. Turns out that Al B. is correct about what he wrote about the Church of Bible Understanding and these orphanages getting closed down. Pretty disgusting if you ask me. Further research uncovered the church leader/​founder lives in a multi-​million dollar mansion in Florida. The whole thing feels cultish and scamish and disgusting. Needless to say I won’t be purchasing anymore items from this place and I wish that I had done my research BEFORE I plunked down a couple grand. I don’t feel good about lining the pockets of people who are potentially using Haiti’s orphans as a fake tax shelter.

Newest OGT in town. Very clean, bright, well-​dispayed, and better organized than some of their other locations. Love that you can custom make/​order your dining or coffee table here, and with live edge wood too!