Goodbye isn’t Forever

Staff Writer: Gia Gunderman

When you think of Downtown Woodstock, what is the first store attraction that you think of? With the answer in your head, did it happen to be a little place called “The Wright Stuff”? If not, that’s understandable and many people don’t even know where or what that store is.

However, you have probably stepped by at least one time before being completely unaware of the store’s name or purpose, maybe you stopped by because of the abundance of records that filled the store, you saw something that was most popular in the 70’s being sold to this day, or maybe the vintage-like aura piqued your interest. This store was truly a legendary masterpiece in disguise.

The Wright Stuff was a record and collectable store that was opened by Tom Wright about 11 years ago. This store sold every collector’s heaven in a store, ranging from vintage records, figurines, funko pops, old porcelain items, vintage dolls, old comic books, almost anything you could think of.

But where did all this stuff come from? The most amazing thing about the objects in the store being sold are actually Mr. Wright’s old collectables from 50 years of collecting. This whole store’s origin was because of Mr. Wright’s love for collecting. This love wasn’t fully because of passion. It also was because Mr. Wright, as he has stated before, dealt with ADHD, ADD, and OCD. Fully unaware of these mental disorders, he found collecting these items really helped tame them.

This store was truly like walking into the past, by walking in and smelling the oldness of tethering record cases, from dust years old. You never saw this place super busy, but you could always see people walk in the tight walkways, observing every detail of the store, every now and then, and for good reason.

There was so much stuff crowding the store, you could be there for hours without evening realizing. Every store that takes up space in Downtown has their own uniqueness, but The Wright Stuff will take the cake in originality.

It would be a given to recommend this store heavily, but unfortunately this year Mr. Wright and the landlords decided it was time to close the doors of this legendary realness. A young lady by the name of Andrea Huckelby says, “My dad is a huge fan of vintage items so whenever we were able to come to Downtown, we’d always stop by to buy something new or just to look, so I was pretty upset hearing the store was closing.”

There are a few reasons as to why Mr. Wright and his wife decided to shut down the store, but the biggest reason for them is that it’s just time to retire. Mr. Wright has claimed before that he wishes to see and spend time with his grandchildren more that are located all around the U.S. but running the store never really allowed him to, so it was time to go.

A local named Josh White stated, “I actually got along with the owner quite a bit, but we weren’t like super close. Visibly, I could see they were getting tired, so I wasn’t too surprised when I saw those closing signs, I hope they do well.”

It was very sad to see such a place that sold such historical pieces and expressed originality in more ways than one decides to close down, but your own happiness is in your hands, and you must do what’s best for you, even if it feels hard to do so. This store will always remain in the heart of Downtown Woodstock.