Manic Mermaid Minerals — Attraction in Tacoma

Shop is pretty cool with what it carries. A bit pricey though and the staff will watch you the entire time. Made me feel uncomfortable.

Edit: Interesting that the owner responds to reviews in such a way that berates their prospective customers. I will always support small business's but I will also always be honest with my review and experience from said business. Usually like many reviewers I don't leave a review unless something really stuck out to me. That something being really positive or something that ruined the experience for me. In this case it was the cameras on me at every single shelf in the store. (Which I understand. People can be ruthless in their stealing.) But also the staff staring at me (not offering help or customer service) but staring at me from the moment I walked in until the moment I decided I didn't want to buy the item in my hand because I felt so uncomfortable. Since you're so big on negativity, I'm not sure if you realize it but you're creating a negative feeling for your customers when they're made to feel like a criminal in your shop. My original review was not meant to bash but to review how I felt in the environment. Currently after the response from the owner I don't feel I'd be back to the shop or want to support it. Per the owners request, I'll try to take this experience and do better as a human being...

I found this little shop this month (March '25) by accident and I'm so happy I did! Janelle and Charles are so kind and knowledgeable. I was looking for a specific tumble and Janelle helped me identify the correct term for the specimen and told me she'd speak with her lapidary connection to see if she could get me what I needed. I ended up buying some beautiful specimens from their treasure trays and had to add a chocolate truffle at checkout. They mentioned that they would be happy with me bringing my kiddo on the next visit so I did. We went today and he had a great time. Charles let him hold a giant shark tooth and Janelle showed him a light-reactive jellyfish specimen. We ended up leaving with a bee activity plate (gorgeous marbles and a tray to leave out with water for bees) and a hand-picked "shiny" (quartz). My kiddo is on the spectrum and can have a hard time in stores so I hover and apologize a lot. Today was a good day, and Janelle and Charles never made us feel unwelcome. I asked about the specimen again and sure enough, Janelle had reached out to her contact and will hopefully be getting some in soon. I couldn't be happier that we've found this shop. It's a 40-minute drive from home, but...

This place is extremely cool; they don’t have a ton of square footage but they make up for it by being packed with awesome stuff! Lots of cute mini carvings, little plastic display pieces for small slabs & spheres (you KNOW you don’t have enough at home), ready-to-gift pendants (they have ROMAN GLASS!!!) There was stuff I hadn’t seen in-person before like blue amber and “unicorn stone” (lepidolite + pink tourmaline + smokey quartz).

Learned at the shop that some fluorites glow under UV, so I got a cool English Weardale fluorite. They have some buckets of big rough Washington carnelians and jaspers, of which I need to go back for a few more chunks…

Also wanna note that the staff were knowledgeable and absolutely awesome! SUCH a fun place to take a look and find some treasures. It’s a great addition to Point Ruston and adds to the fun. Absolutely will have to...