About Us
As one of ten children growing up in a small Minnesota town, I experienced a childhood lifted straight from the pages of a Norman Rockwell book. We rode bikes to baseball practice, fished in the local river for whatever would bite, and delivered newspapers each afternoon through rain, sleet, or snow.
A Simpler Time started in the nation's largest shopping mall, the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, in 1997, with the idea of giving shoppers an island of nostalgic tranquility in a modern sea of Gaps, Banana Rebublics, and Limiteds.
Our store was about nostalgia, but more than that it was about growing up in an age of innocence. Watching an otherwise somber businessman smile as he plays with a replica tin Roy Roger toy or listens to Glenn Miller on a replica turntable is a reward we get each and every day.
From the art of Bob Byerley, featuring nostalgic paintings of children building tree forts or soap box cars, to replica metal pedal cars and wood sailboats, our goal was to bring that same smile to every customer who remembered something from their childhood.
We currently have retail stores on the third floor of the Mall of America and in the Riverwalk Marketplace in downtown New Orleans on the Mississippi River. If your travels take you near either location, we'd love to have you visit.
At A Simpler Time, we'll try to treat you like the "good old days," when attendants in white overalls smiled while they pumped your gas. We'll price items fairly, ship everything UPS fully insured, and promptly take care of any problems that might arise. Buy with confidence, knowing that if you're not happy with your purchase, we'll gladly refund your money. And if you have any problems or questions, feel free to email me at contact@asimplertime.com.
The Smile Train
Since the inception of this company, our locations in high traffic malls have resulted in many requests for charitable donations. Although we would love to fill every request, we also wanted to stay in business!
Because our company is, in effect, a "celebration" of childhood, we decided early on to focus our charitable giving on youth-related non-profits. And while we've given to such worthy organizations as the Ronald McDonald House, March of Dimes, and Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, we recently decided to "adopt" a pet charity.
We picked The Smile Train for a number of reasons. One, this charity gets high marks from independent watchdog agencies for efficiency. Two, it focuses on performing and training local doctors in third world countries to perform important cleft palate surgery on poor children who otherwise would lead hopeless lives. And finally, every dollar we donate goes to perform surgeries, as advertising overhead is covered by major corporations. For each $250 donated, a life is changed.
We donate $1 for every order online, and to date your donations have paid for 52 surgeries. Fifty-two children, facing a lifetime of being abandoned and ridiculed, can now smile...thanks to YOU.
We encourage you to visit their website at www.smiletrain.org to find out more about this wonderful charity and hopefully donate directly as well. Someday these children will be able to look back on their own childhood as...A Simpler Time.
Sincerely,
Jeff King, President
A Simpler Time, Inc.
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