Why on earth did I just find out about this store? It's fantastic. What you'll find at Ampersand…read moreis an ecclectic mix of adorable kids items, movie/television paraphernalia, a wide variety of incense, kitchen accessories and many other unique and wonderful items. The prices are surprisingly low for a store of this type which is appreciated. Apparently they just finished a remodeling job on their business which included a lot of their new inventory. Not sure what it looked like before, but it's great. I love stores like this and I hope that it will continue to thrive here in Springfield.

so me and my couple of friends went to dollar tree in the mall. One of my friends grabbed a cup…read moreexcited to be there and the employees saw us and assumed that we were trashing and stealing. They kicked us out immediately and we complied and they proceeded to call security and police which shouldn't have been the case because we complied we felt deep betrayal and heavy discrimination of sort. I assured the so called "employee" that we truly weren't doing anything l. I don't recommend this place 0/10. I truly wish this place will change not to mention the slurs the mall security called us and over just trash employment. I rlly don't recommend this place

A friend of mine had gotten kicked out for doing nearly nothing but merely grabbing a cup in…read morerelation to his brothers.Then a woman who had no verification decided to kick us out for basically nothing and we complied. Yet she still had called security which led to the cops and we complied. But still got threatened and a unneeded curse word that was very hostile towards us was used. This place needs to be more open minded and they assumed we had trashed it too, which I will say it was already in horrible trashy condition and we had only touched one item.

Our road trip brought us into Ava, Missouri, one of those small Ozarks towns that immediately gives…read moreyou a sense of place. Coming into town, the city limit sign and the drop in speed let you know you've arrived somewhere that serves as more than just a dot on the map. I spent a little time learning about Ava while we were here, and it quickly became clear that this town is the hub for the surrounding area. A manager at Walmart told me that this store and the businesses around it are essentially the central gathering place for the entire county, and after being here, that feels exactly right. In a rural area like this, it's where people come to shop, get gas, run errands, and connect with everyday life. Since we're headed to visit my cousin in Mountain Home, Arkansas, in about an hour, we stopped to pick up flowers as a welcoming gift. While I was there, I also looked for one of those exterior windshield scrubber squeegees for the road ahead. The regular ones were sold out, but they did have an "intelligent" Rain-X style spray squeegee. One of the associates mentioned there's an O'Reilly down the street, so I may deal with that another time. One small moment that really stood out was seeing a gentleman bringing his grocery bags back into Walmart for recycling. It was such a simple thing, but it said a lot about the rhythm of this town and how this store really serves as part of the community's daily routine. That's what I love about traveling by road. Even a quick stop in a town like Ava tells a story. You learn a little local history, pick up something useful for the drive, find flowers for family, and get a glimpse of how a community comes together in one place before continuing on down the road toward Arkansas.

The store is generally in order. At times shoes are messy; sometimes clothing racks have tangled…read moreclothes. They have good produce most of the year. Carts are almost always available inside. Returns have been easy. During Black Friday, they have always done a good job keeping things organized.