All things considered I'd rather be in . . .

[EL Alamein]

Philadelphia!

Mod's please move this if it's not in the appropriate forum.

Well, had to run an errand in the city this week and wound up at Pickwick Pharmacy. Been there in the past and never noted anything out of the ordinary. This time my eyes nearly popped out of my head for the shear novelty of seeing things return to the pharmacy shelves that seemingly haven't been there for most of my lifetime.

They had a decent selection of more traditional shaving products. Sadly there didn't seem to be any traditional English products (hope springs eternal, though). I saw Arko shaving sticks, Kingsley shaving soap cakes, wooden bowls, lower end shaving brushes of badger, boar and synthetic bristles. There was most of the Pinaud line, most of the Jack Black line, a ton of Roger et Gallet stuff, Proraso and Omega stuff and lots of other stuff I can't remember. I'll try to remember more inventory next time I'm there.

I figured I'd mention this as we seem to get a fair amount of questions over the years about where to go shopping when in Philadelphia. With the closing of Black Cat Cigar shop there hasn't been much to recommend except the AOS shop on Market Street.

I'm not affiliated in any way with Pickwick, just thought this might be helpful to some who may be planning a visit and I also thought some folks might get a lift to hear of traditional products returning to at least one pharmacy's shelves. Walking in there and seeing that was similar to what I would imagine it might be like to have done so 60 years ago.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the news.

Chris

[ShadowsDad]

That's good to read! Hope springs eternal!

We will know that blade shaving is mainstream when I see a decent selection of the "makin's" in my local stores here in Maine.

[bernards66]

Chris, Decidedly encouraging. I'm glad I made it once to the old Black Cat Cigars on Walnut Street before it closed.
Regards,
Gordon

[brothers]

I'm still puzzled by the appearance then the disappearance of Proraso products in Target.

[Squire]

You too Gordon? I've been to Philadelphia just once but Black Cat was one of my stops.

[bernards66]

Squire, Yeah, me too. Even though I grew up not that far away we never went to Philadelphia; our area of New Jersey was oriented toward New York City. The one and only time I was there was to take my older son up for the start of his freshman year at Temple University and out hotel was just around the block from Black Cat Cigar....which was damned fine luck. I was sorry to hear that they moved it to some generic mall in the burbs as it was a charming old shop.
Regards,
Gordon