This review is for the World's Window and its sister store right next door (and with an entry point…read morein the back of the store as well) The Cob Mercantile, which doesn't have its own Yelp page! I love the duology of these two stores! Anything you find at one store you can then take over to the other store to purchase, so you can browse both stores before making your final purchase! The World's Window contains products from all over the world that they have sourced globally. Meanwhile, The Cob Mercantile showcases products from local Iowan artisans! I love the dichotomy of the local and global goods and it's such a fun way to organize the two stores. We entered through The Cob Mercantile and was greeted with the friendly shop owner, who chatted to us about what the store contained and told us about World's Window too. From there, we went off shopping through all the different displays, nooks, and crannies in both stores that highlighted different goodies from different artisans throughout. There are SO many great options and variety here for yourself and gift options for all your loved ones as well! I made many mental notes on great gift options for so many of my loved ones and will definitely be back soon! The pricing is all reasonable and I love nothing more than being able to shop small! This set of stores is a must visit when you're in Cedar Falls, I love its prime location right in the heart of downtown and will definitely be stopping in every single time I come to visit from here on out!

Every time back in town I'm amazed at the breadth and quality of their fair trade itemsread more

I hadn't been here in years and I regret it. I should have been visiting more often because they…read morehave such cool stuff! This business has been around for many many years. It's full of fun gifts, home decor and funny unique items. I strongly recommend you visit the back room. Because who doesn't need a pot holder that says "I f#*%!ing love cheese!" They have several adult humor items in the back of the store and my husband and I had a good laugh. The front of the store has more tame and family friendly items. Lots of good gift ideas for a wedding, shower, graduation or just to get something for yourself or a friend. The woman attending the store was very personable and friendly. She offered gift wrapping for my items and had pleasant conversation without being pushy. The only reason for the 4 star instead of 5 is because it's so cluttered. There is stuff everywhere! They seem to have an organization to it but it's hard to shop. They're us stuff floor to ceiling crammed in there. It's hard to navigate through and if you were a bigger person or had to use a walker or a cane it would be even more difficult. But overall a neat store!

This shop has a lot of neat things, but most of it was stuff I had seen before in other shops and…read moreit was a little pricey. It is nearly impossible to move around if there are other shoppers in there because the aisles are so narrow and there is just stuff packed and packed in. I found a bracelet I wanted to buy so I went up to pay for it, sat it on the counter, and waited for both of the women working behind the counter to stop texting on their phones before they acknowledged I was there. HUGE turnoff.

Short Version: This is a pickier version of a thrift store…read more If you enjoy secondhand items and are okay with higher prices to ensure that you're choosing from good-quality items (instead of sorting through all of the junk), the Main Street Exchange is going to be perfect for you. However, the prices are definitely higher than standard thrift store prices. Long Version: This is like the higher-scale version of a thrift store. While I love shopping at thrift stores and picking up items for less than a dollar, it really does require some digging to find things that are in good shape and are something that I really want to purchase. I'm glad that most thrift stores carry the lower-quality items because everybody has their own budget and price range, but I'm looking for second-hand things that don't look so...secondhand. That's where The Main Street Exchange comes in. They are like a high-end thrift store. All of the pieces are sorted through when they accept them, and it looks like they're choosey about what items come into the shop. The clothing all appeared to be in good condition, and the furniture, DVDs, and books all seemed like they were still in "Good" to "Very Good" condition. While typical thrift stores may have dusty, dirty, or broken items, everything seemed to be well-cleaned and in very good shape here. However, along with that comes higher prices. You'll be more likely to find something you actually want to buy (versus a thrift store), but you might have to pay a bit more for the convenience. Nothing seemed insanely unreasonably priced, though, but I'll admit I didn't pay much attention to the clothing. This store sells a good range of things. They have a lot of clothing, and that makes up the bulk of their items, but they also have a book section with adult and children's books. They also have dinnerware and other knick knacks. Downstairs, you'll find some furniture and children's toys. Some of the furniture is on the affordable side ($10 for end tables and whatnot) while the larger pieces definitely cost more ($120-ish for a large wood dresser). I came out with 5 books in really good condition for slightly over $4. Most of the books were priced at 99 cents or 1.99. DVDs were priced around $1.99 to $2.99. Staff was pretty friendly. They were cleaning and putting away things when I came, but when I asked where to check out, one of the employees was happy to point me to where. She even mentioned their current promotion in case I wanted to go get another book for just a penny. I passed, but it was nice of her to let me know that. As a sidenote, there does seem to be a Christian, religious theme going on in this store. There's even a Christian quote printed on the receipt I received. It's nothing that's going to annoy a non-religious person, but there are religious items and books for sale alongside the regular items.

Great place to consign but they are particular which makes them an even greater place to shop!read more

Went here one time. Great place to look and buy. Only been here once but never really talked to the…read moreowner. They have some very retro records though. The place was really clean. I value this place a lot and my grandma liked it to, just didnt have what I was looking for.

Great Service! The owner Austin is super nice and helpful. They have THE BEST Selection out of…read moreCassettes tapes, CDs and Vinyl. They have super good pricing for what they have. They have cassettes that work for a dollar that sounds Brand New. Versus a different Record Store near me sells cassettes for 20 bucks and dosent work at all. This is the best record store I have been to and will ever have.

We love this place and make it a point to dine there every time we stay in the area. They have some…read moreof the best pancakes, even though they don't advertise as such. We will be in town next week and plan to eat there at least once.

2 floors of beautiful antiques! They are a little pricey with some things but overall a great place!read more

This is a used bookstore that presents like a new one. Everything is organized, clean and shelved…read more Nothing is tattered and the prices are pretty darn amazing. Most of the novels I picked up were $4.99 and in excellent condition. You might not find a deep discount bargain here but you also won't have to search through dusty stacks on the floor.

Books on Main is the "used books" version of The Nook bookstore (that only sells new books) across…read morethe street. They have similar availability and stylization between both stores. Impressively low prices (between $4 to $12 for most books I saw) with books in pretty solid shape. Honestly, after I saw a few books go for $18 at The Nook and then $8 over here, I'm not sure why you'd buy at The Nook (though the Nook was awesome too). Didn't see any stained covers or bent pages; the spines of the books are clearly "used" (no new book smells) here, but they're in really good shape. Staff was really friendly but left us alone to shop. I ended up picking up a few books, and I was happy to receive them in a cute brown paper bag as well (which I used to take out recycling today!). If you shop at Books on Main, you get a 10% coupon off a coffee across the street at the Reader Cafe (which is attached to Books on Main). Books on Main does not have a bathroom in it (unlike the Cafe and The Nook across the street). It is, however, attached to Raygun at the back of the store, allowing you to shop two stores without having to pop back outside. As a single semi-large room, the books here are very focused on popular fiction niches. You get lots of mystery thrillers, romance, and romantasy books. There's a very small section of cookbooks, non-fiction, and SciFi, but it's relatively clear that this book is focusing most on what sells best (i.e. your BookTok genres). Would come back in an instant.

A surprisingly spacious and clean trading card game store. With the tall windows and the open…read moreaisles, this is probably the most comfortable I've ever felt in a nerd store. Everything is really clearly and nicely organized, and it was ridiculously easy to find exactly what I wanted. Attached to here is a large room (looks like they bought out the store next to this store in the strip mall) with lots of newer tables and chairs for game nights. Looks like Dark Vassal Gaming focuses pretty heavily on trading card games and trading card game accessories. I didn't see any board games or figurines or D&D stuff. While they were already sold out of the set we were looking for, the employee was super friendly and helpful and had a very extroverted personality. We ended up finding a different set we hadn't seen before, and we left feeling a bit jealous that this wasn't a place that existed a couple years earlier when I lived in the city. Everything we were browsing seemed to be sold at or pretty close to MSRP. Didn't see any price gouging.

NWT Consignment, while it doesn't seem to have as many "new with tags" items as I expected, is…read morestill a good consignment store. I'm in love with their Facebook/Craigslist drop-off exchange service! You can find some pretty good deals here - but you'll probably have to be careful as some of their items seem more expensive than necessary. PROS: -Facebook/Craigslist item drop-off is pretty amazing. Selling something online? Come in here, drop off your item along with $1, and they'll hold the item and allow the other person to pick up the item at the other person's leisure (and they'll collect the money for you + $1 extra dollar from the second person for the service). No trying to arrange suitable times between two people. No meeting in front of random stores to "make the exchange". They'll do it for you, and they only charge $2 - which is split between the two people. -Friendly service. There was a woman that greeted us when we walked in, let us know to ask her if we had any questions. Another woman asked her for help, and she went around and showed the woman all of the shirts she knew of that fit her request. She wasn't pushy, but she was friendly and around to help - and she was happy to answer my questions too. -Nothing seemed to smell like smoke or have pet hair on it. The building itself has a bit of a musky smell to it, but you get used to it within minutes. -Good sales. When we came here, everything (outside of wedding dresses, designer purses, and such) was $10 each. This discounted a lot of the prices within the shop to see well-within reach for consignment items. -Large variety of items. There's jewelry here, everyday clothes, business clothes, men's/women's/children's clothes, wedding dresses, shoes/heels/boots, prom-type dresses, furniture, and some industrial-type building supplies in the back. There are designer and non-designer purses too. They also have men's suits and shoes. -They offer layaway. I imagine this is for their big-ticket items (like wedding dresses) and less-so for their $5 jewelry rack. CONS: -Regular, everyday prices do seem a bit high. $30 for a non-brand name dress at a consignment store is a bit intense - and that seemed to be a standard price for some of it. That being said, they do have regular sales - and it seems like the pricing really does seem to vary by item. I found $5 sweat pants that I thought about walking home with. You can find some good deals if you look around. -It doesn't seem like everything here is new/unworn. I'm not sure what the estimate would be, but especially with shoes, there's a whole lot of wearing on many of the treads. -Organization isn't great among some of the racks. There are different areas for Small/Medium/Large/XLarge/Plus, but pants/skirts/dresses/shirts seem to be mixed in along each rack. The plus-size rack seemed to vary sizes from 14 all the way up to 28, and all of those were all sorts of mixed up too.

Potential buyers, be aware that the owner and employees do not check the product coming in for…read moredefects and they do not offer any type of returns or exchanges. I recently bought a gift only to find that the zipper had teeth missing. I called immediately and left a message. I received no response for four days. When I went in to the store to ask about it, I was shown a small sign about six inches above the floor, hidden behind a shirt saying no returns. When I asked why no one had called back the owner got very abusive. Buy at your own risk.