The Hippy Shop – New Age Markets

The Hippy Shop in Springwood is right opposite the train station, and takes up almost the entire sidewalk!
But I like it, it has a very marketplace-​y feel. And, true to their name, all the products are hippy-​like! Tie-​dye tops, dresses and baggy pants, hemp totes, Buddha statues, antique-​looking artefacts like an old chest of drawers, a small cabinet, what looks to be an armoire, plush, ornate pouffes. and that’s just on the outside!
If you venture inside (where it’s dark and only lit with lamps), you’ll see more intricately designed artefacts, like little stone figurines, ornamental lanterns, windchimes which are constantly making soothing tinkling sounds in the background as you browse… it’s really quite a lovely atmosphere.
There’s even all kinds of incense, including one that is made to smell like marijuana. Why one would want incense that smells that marijuana, I’m not quite sure.
You also get a nice mix of cheap items, and expensive items, so there will always be something to fit your budget.

Ok, take a deep breath…
New Age Markets, known to all and sundry as ‘The Hippy Shop’ (it even says so on the sign) has been a much loved local institution for decades. It is not, however, for those whose nightmares involve asphyxiation by tie-​dyed Indian cotton and rampaging throw pillows. The Hippy Shop takes the notion of abundance to nigh absurd levels, consistently cramming a level of stock to the point where walking down an aisle becomes an all-​terrain obstacle course, leaving you clambering over piles of Vietnamese crockery, Nepalese picture frames and Buddhas in collective repose. Not the mention the death from above threat dealt by hanging lanterns and children’s toys of bewildering variety.
And that’s only the first half of the store.
Duck through a doorway suffocated by handbags I suspect are breeding together in quiet moments and you reach the clothing room, barely navigable for the arms of silk, cotton and hemp reaching out from the walls and from the centre racks. There’s an indiscriminate range here too — from the cheap and awful to some genuinely stylish pieces. My advice is to buy something straightaway if you like it, set it down for a moment and it’ll be sucked back into the seething maw never to be seen again.
The staff are more than friendly and the store itself stocks everything from crystals to handmade soap, shoes to jewellery; you can even get a psychic reading on request. I couldn’t bet on it, but there may be the odd kitchen sink lurking under piles of sari bedspreads and scented candles. I’m in two minds about this claustrophobe’s nightmare of a shop, although I can only manage a 15 minute stint before I feel like I’m drowning, if the store did clear out to normal levels, it just might lose a great deal of its oddball charm, and as it is you’re sure to find something to suit just about any taste. Just don’t expect to find it in a hurry.