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LEHI — Some might call it urban sprawl. Others call it the homogenization of America. In suburbia, there's often a chain store on every corner.
"Nobody's gonna help me," said Wes Gardner, referring to those massive businesses. "Nobody knows what's going on. I'm not gonna shop there. I won't go in there."
But here, in a strip mall in Lehi, there's something different.
"People are like, 'What the heck is that?'" Gardner said.
It's called Teton Toys, and it just opened in November. Gardner calls it his "grand experiment." To say it's turning heads would be an understatement.
To Gardner, it's an attempt to bring back a piece of the past — not just by selling toys like chemistry sets and cap guns, but to resurrect a a slice of America, from before the age of big box retailers.
"There is a certain nostalgia that comes with toys naturally," Gardner said. "People my age and older, it's like a blast from their childhood...we used to go into toy stores as kids, and they were like this."
In many ways, he's still a kid himself, especially when it comes to Legos.
"That's all I ever wanted," Gardner said. "If somebody every got me something other than Lego for Christmas, I was ticked off."
Reliving that past is something he relishes.
"When those Legos come in, I'm as excited as now as I was when I was eight," Gardner said with a smile.
He's run a similar store in Jackson, Wyoming for years, and when he was looking to branch out, a friend suggested he give Lehi a try.
"He was like, 'Lehi, Utah,'" Gardner said, recounting the conversation. "And I'm like, 'Where the heck is Lehi, Utah?'"
He's been pleasantly surprised — not just by the popularity of toys, but by the number of people who understand what he's trying to do.
"We've had a lot of customers come in, and they are salt of the earth, 'I want to support you, want this to work,'" Gardner said. "It's like, important to them that this works."
Gardner said his goal is to set himself apart from those big box stores, and provide a more pleasant and personal shopping experience.
"If we can't convince people that we're different than those stores, then what're we doing?" he asked.
While he may be finding support among parents, his fate lies in very small hands.
"Where you really know it works is the screams when they leave," Gardner said, thinking of the children being dragged out. "I have to constantly remind myself, that's proof that I'm doing something right."
Teton Toys is located at 1438 East Main St. in Lehi.
