I am all about supporting locally- owned businesses, but the markup here is through the roof (even compared with other local stores) and the staff and manager are difficult to deal with. I compare this local business to, for example, Park Road Books. At PRB, you're happy to pay a markup for your book because the staff are super helpful and friendly. The problem with local business these days in a small city like Charlotte is that big stores provide so much competition that there may only be one small store per category. For instance, there are few independent toy stores in Charlotte so, if you want independent, you are stuck with this one. If there were a couple other independent toy stores for those of us who like indy stores to choose from, this one would go out of business.