Zany retailer refines the art of lollygagging

Author: Lea Calderon-Guthe

According to one of the many shirts hanging along the wooden walkway to the front door of Frog Hollow's newest store, lollygagging is "to spend time in a lazy, idle way; to dawdle." In a world so obsessed with efficiency and densely-packed schedules, finding time to lollygag is definitely an art, if not a miracle. The eight-week-old store is aptly-named Lollygaggers, and its owners, Middlebury locals Rick and Heather Viens, appreciate the value of a genuine lollygagging experience.

"You can just come in the store - maybe you've got a minute or two minutes or ten minutes - and lollygag, check things out," said Rick Viens. "If you see something you like, great. If not, hey, at least we're happy you came, and maybe we'll give you a free lollypop out of the lollypop bucket and see you next time."

The free lollypops are not the only reason to stop in, however, and a visit might take more than ten minutes. Besides perusing an eclectic mix of toys, t-shirts, cards and other unclassifiable but fun doodads, visitors can sit down for a quick game of giant checkers or lean back on the cushions against a green wall of Vermont license plates to read one of the local papers the Vienses have laid out.

"Hopefully when you come in the first time, it won't be your last," said Rick Viens. "We sell the experience, too, and we build one customer at a time."

All of the Vienses, including 11-year-old Paige, eight-year-old Brett and even Haley, the family dog, are always happy to give product demonstrations, answer questions and just make good conversation. Paige might inquire after her customers' homeland so she can add a pin to the nation and world maps behind the register, and Brett might be able to put in a good word with his parents if any of his customers have a special product request. It is this kind of personal, customer-oriented service on which the Viens pride themselves.

"It's just us. It's owner-run and-operated," said Rick Viens. "When we go out to eat, we look for chef-run and-operated because you know it's going to have that attention to detail and personal quality, and we can do that in retail, too."

Running the store and running their family are both full-time jobs for the Viens parents, but each is a labor of love, and though both Heather and Rick have experience in sales, it was a love of fun and community that pushed the pair to start their own business in town.

"We live right here in town, we walk or ride our bikes here and our kids are in school right up the street," said Heather Viens. "It just felt like, 'Let's fit in even more and make work fit right in with what we spend all of our other time doing - let's be a bigger part of [Middlebury].'"

This is not to say that the Viens were not already involved in their community, especially since they have been living here for 14 years. Rick Viens, a University of Vermont graduate who was a sales manager for Honda for 10 years, coaches local boys' hockey and soccer teams. Heather Viens, a University of Ohio graduate who formerly worked as a teaching assistant, still volunteers at the school when she is not working at the store. Both continually seek to give back more to the Middlebury community and anyone who walks through the door. Their whimsical little shop does just that in providing a little comic relief for everyday life.

"We have generally zany gifts - just stuff that makes people laugh, smile and is affordable," said Rick Viens. "People say, 'Oh, this will be great for Christmas or birthdays,' but you know, it's really for any occasion when you can uplift somebody."

Zany really is the perfect word to describe most of what the Vienses sell. It is possible to spend just five minutes looking around because every wacky product sits next to another, sillier one, and a large number of the more engaging toys have demos set up for customer use. A small sample of the Vienses' wild wares include toast stamps, stick-on mustaches (perfect for the upcoming Great Gatsby party), rubber doorstops shaped like high-heeled shoes, bracelets made of recycled bicycle chains, witty cards, single-serving microwaveable cakes, squirt guns, plenty of neat magnets, children's games, magnetic poetry and a section of the store devoted entirely to Christmas paraphernalia. The list goes on, but a visit is really the only way to see it all. The Vienses are always going to gift shows and museums to find new ways to tickle the community's fancy, and locals, tourists and College-affiliated folk alike will find something for everyone.

"We get the same response from every demographic, that 'Oh fun, oh cool,'" said Heather Viens. "That just validates what we think is a niche, so we'll keep finding stuff, we'll keep bringing it in to fill [the niche]. It's fun for us to do, and I think it's really neat when people think the same way that we do about fun."

It is fair to say that the Vienses are serious when it comes to generating fun, which is why they are open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. "Sunday is for lollygagging," according to Rick Viens. So, as Rick likes to say, "Come on in. Lollygag. Got any questions, just ask."