Paxton Gate — Attraction in Portland

What an odd and delightful shop. Walking into it is like walking into another world with all of the taxidermied animals watching you from the walls - there was even a taxidermied hippo when I visited that the saleperson let my friends and I touch! The sales associates there were both incredibly helpful and incredibly friendly - one of them led my friends who were just tagging along and not buying anything through the shop and showed off some of their weirder items like a preserved walrus penis. Also, for how much effort clearly went into the specimens, I thought everything was reasonably priced and I left with a python preserved in a jar for $68. There were also skulls for $50-$100 and even a fully articulated rabbit skeleton for $105, which I thought was a steal (and mildly regret not getting). If you're looking for something that's interesting but less spendy, they also have smaller items like python ribs, boar vertebrae, porcupine quills, coyote teeth, etc. that you can purchase for a few dollars each and I think would look quite cool filling one of the preservation jars they sell there. My only recommendation would be try to visit it sometime other than a Saturday afternoon - the shop was incredibly crowded when I went, which made...

Knowledgeable staff, unfortunately I bought a 92$ beetle display. I should have done my research, many of the beetles in the display are known for being unethically collected, sold, and displayed. After a tad bit more research on each bettle I purchased, I found multiple Etsy listings for the exact set listed at 10$ dehydrated. As well as many of the other insects found in displays at the shop including their very expensive butterflies. It seems, to me at least, someone is purchasing these packages off Etsy, hydrating them, gluing (not pinning, but nasty yellow glue that ruins the esthetic of the display) and placing them in a glass display. The mark up is absolutely insane and I really regret my purchase. I understand it is an oddities shop, but oddieiest does not mean supporting unethical sourcing from typically developing countries. If you'd like one of those maybe DIY it, much cheaper, more fun, and you get to pick your species in stead of getting a few beauties and a few less appealing. There are some sets sold by a retired entomologist at the shop however, those pieces are incredibly pricy as the creater located the specimen himself instead of sourcing from online, unknown,...

I had a very poor customer service experience . I purchased the Fischer fragrance discovery set for around $80. Two of the three fragrances completely evaporated within two months. I was only able to use them a few times.

When I called to ask for an exchange or in store credit for the seemingly defective product, the store manager at the Mississippi location told me shortly, that it is not defective, and that they are suppose to evaporate that quickly because they are a “sample kit”, she then hung up on me when I was in mid sentence, calmly trying to explain I don’t think they are suppose to just evaporate like that. They only sell sample sized bottles of that type of perfume, and there is no signage warning of a two month expiration date. I have purchased perfumes in this style of sample bottle before, and they have lasted for years.

I’ve been a big fan of this store for a very long time. It was disappointing to be treated in such a way. I’ve never felt the need to write a google review before now. I would recommend that anyone steer clear of this fragrance set. It saddens me to not shop...