Another store tumbles into downtown Christiansburg
CHRISTIANSBURG — Despite its reputation as the big-box capital of the New River Valley, Christiansburg does have some specialty shops.
There are stores that sell only tires, telephones and tans. There’s even a store offering nothing but beads — thousands and thousands of beads.
Now, there’s the Tumbler Store.
“Do what?” you ask.
“People understand cups,” said Reba Boyd, manager of the new store on Franklin Street. “They don’t understand tumblers.”
One woman was so confounded by the shop’s name, she asked Boyd if she offered gymnastics.
She doesn’t.
Tumblers — those simple stemless drinking cups — actually originated in the mid-17th century as cups with rounded or pointed bottoms. The idea was that the people drinking from the cups couldn’t put them down until they were empty, lest they tumble over and spill the beer.
Now, of course, tumblers don’t tumble.
The Tumbler Store, which opened June 19, sells only Tervis tumblers, the first double-walled insulated tumbler created by a couple of Detroit engineers named Frank Cotter and Howlett Davis in 1946. The duo came up with “Tervis” by combining the last three letters of their last names.
Tervis Tumblers, sold selectively in gift shops, boutiques, bookstores and other such businesses, as well as online, are available in only two shops with an exclusive tumbler inventory. One is in Williamsburg.
The other is now in Christiansburg.
