Several months ago, I mentioned the Maine bargain store, Marden’s, in a blog post.
After moving this past summer, I’ve been slowly checking out a few more local stores here and there.
A neighbour recommended Renys, so I popped in the other day.
There was a big cardboard stand near the front (I’ll take a pic of it if/when I go back) about their “passport program,” similar to Marden’s bargain tour.
How it works is that you earn prizes like gift cards for visiting a number of store locations. The Marden’s one has to be completed in a year, while the Renys one has no time limit.
I actually completed half of the Marden’s tour before I moved.
I do have a longer blog post draft on that as I took nature & dragon-related photos at almost every stop I made! 🌲
So, if you visit the state of Maine or this area of the U.S. someday, I would like to recommend both of these bargain stores.
I was very impressed with the free Renys passport, as it has super pretty and scenic photos inside along with a few historical or fun facts about each of their 19 locations.
I’ve no idea if I’ll be completing half (or all…) of the Renys tour, and if I do it’ll be a 2027 and beyond thing. It’s a nice way to see more of Maine, and I almost visited the one in Dexter when I was in that area back in April 2026 (but it was very cold that morning and my hands were freezing, so I cut my local tour short and went off somewhere else).
The first Renys that I went to was in Bangor and very well-organized. I get a bit frazzled if a store has messy shelves, dim or dreary lighting, or is somewhat stressful in another way. As I like to take my time and wander around the aisles looking at stuff.
As for the dragon poetry collection, I finished narrating them all a few days ago. I need to edit them and stitch them together into one or two audio files so I can easily export the video before uploading it to YouTube.