Alpaca Advantage

I came across this shop over the summer of 2015, while doing some sightseeing during a business trip to Reno. I wandered in looking for a gift for my wife, and this place was perfect as she loves warm and comfortable things. Being a typical guy, I have no idea how to shop, and the owner was more than helpful. He happily showed me all sizes, shapes and colors of «Alpaca ware» and I left with a beautiful, well made, hand crafted, reasonably priced pullover sweater. I’ve been back several times since, each trip returning home with a new fuzzy gift. I’m writing this because I’m back in town this week — and I’m planning on heading down this morning. I only hope he’s open!

Awesome bears and boots. Sweet man working and a pleasant deal for us. Thank you for the Boys Bears!

Apparently browsing is frowned upon in this store full of gift and art items?
Four of us (gainfully-​employed gay men in our mid-​thirties) were browsing the store talking about how cool a lot of the peruvian wares were. I used to travel to Peru often and LOVE the artisanal products from the Andes.
The shopkeep unpleasantly asked us several times if we needed help, to which we replied that we were just looking around (and were talking about what we would like to buy). Finally, he raised his voice and said that we were wasting his time by hanging out in his shop and asked us to leave. We exchange some heated words because I felt like I needed to defend my group.
I’ve *NEVER* been treated so badly in a store before. He doesn’t realized that people need time to fall in love with art in order to commit to buy it. I pretty much felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman shopping on Rodeo Drive.
And guess what, I was planning on buying a $ 375 grey alpaca rug. Clearly I decided not support a place that treats clients like shoplifters.
Big Mistake. HUGE.

A quaint little shop with an eccentric owner.
Parking: Free parking in front and to the side by the gas station. If the jury-​rigged rugs holders are out front, you’ll have to park to the side.
The venue: An entire shop dedicated to alpaca, interesting…
Even if you aren’t in the market for anything made from alpaca, you’ll want to stop by. Just to run your hands over the silky goodness: the rugs, the slippers, scarves and just about anything else you can think of.
We were window shopping, killing time in between events and looking for anything pink for the late night party.
Everything was so soft, it was all I could not to strip naked and lounge on the rugs.
Didn’t buy anything but had an intriguing conversation with the owner. One of those people with a dry sense of humor and wit. And like a tennis player, if you aren’t quick enough to vault back one of those volleys, you’ll miss out.
Prices seemed on par for other alpaca items I’ve seen.

The store was pretty interesting, a lot of cool stuff in there but the guest service was lacking. My family and I walked in and The guy working didn’t greet us or acknowledge us when we were looking around and he made a rude comment to my brother while shopping. Maybe he didn’t want anything to do with us because we were clearly tourists but he lost out on a sale because we felt uncomfortable in his store. His work area was also dirty and cluttered. Overall not impressed with the service but really awesome product.

We drove past this place and decided to go in cause it looked really cute. The man working there was really nice and told us about Who put the different stones they had there. They had really nice scarves and whimsical stuffed animals (like a chicken and unicorn). Overall, it’s a really nice place.

While in Lake Tahoe we strolled around Heavenly Village and saw this store across the street. When we headed over we were amazed to see the amazing merchandise they had in stock. This store had an incredible selection of blankets, stuffed animals and other unique alpaca fur goods.
In the end we wish we could have walked out with a billion different items, but obviously the items here are a bit expensive due to the high quality. In the future we hope to take out a loan to buy everything in the store, so that we can outfit our house with comfy alpaca items.

Got a great alpaca teddy bear! Pricey yes, but of so soft and cute!
Worker was super nice and I left a happy camper!

The guy who worked there was very helpful to my mother, who purchased a pair of slippers. The shop needed some air conditioning.

So after being in Tahoe and seeing carved bears here and there, we decided we needed one of these things as a souvenir. Based on our limited time, this was the only place we found that had carved bears for sale. We didn’t have time to comparison shop, but we found a cute little wooden critter to take home. According to the person helping us, who was the daughter of the owners, the one we chose was done by a local artist named John King. Follow suit, come here to get your little carved bear!
We weren’t really into the Alpaca products, but they were very soft.

Awesome softness! This store is full of them! I was in heaven here. Alpaca pillows, throws, rugs and little toys made of Alpaca hair.
I immediately fell I love with a white throw/​rug that was on display. I touched almost everything in the store but I kept on going back to the white one.
Apparently the Alpaca throw/​rug is very easy to take care of. Aside from absolutely no soap to clean it-​all you have to do is to throw in some baking powder comb thru and shrug it and presto! Fresh Alpaca throw/​rug.
The lady that helped us was awesome. So I went home with a rug/​throw.
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Here’s what I found on Wiki about the Alpaca:
Alpaca (Vicugna pacos) is a domesticated species of South American camelid. It resembles a small llama in appearance.
Alpacas are kept in herds that graze on the level heights of the Andes of southern Peru, northern Bolivia, Ecuador, and northern Chile at an altitude of 3,500 m (11,500 ft) to 5,000 m (16,000 ft) above sea-​level, throughout the year. Alpacas are considerably smaller than llamas, and unlike llamas, alpacas were not bred to be beasts of burden but were bred and slaughtered specifically for their fiber. Alpaca fiber is used for making knitted and woven items, much as wool is. These items include blankets, sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves, a wide variety of textiles and ponchos in South America, and sweaters, socks, coats and bedding in other parts of the world. The fiber comes in more than 52 natural colors as classified in Peru, 12 as classified in Australia and 16 as classified in the United States.

Little ma & pop shop with gifts and clothing you can buy. Prices are decent I can understand since its located in a tourist area. The lady working that specific day was very kind and nice. She answered any questions we had and was very patient with us since we were all over the store.

Cute store. Tons of Knic-​Knacks and nature items. Love the artistic stuff thats in here. Alpaca items are expensive but i can see and feel the worth of it. I would get one if i had the $$$. Parking area is a bit small but its right off the main street. The register lady was really nice, helped me with all my questions and needs. Really unique store

This is a very small shop off route 50. I noticed it because they had a string of teddy bears hanging out front. Went in to buy one ($ 25) and am somehow also now the proud owner of the most amazing purple alpaca purse. This thing is so unique. They had tons of other crazy colored stuff on top of the traditional rugs and crap. A great stop to find an unusual gift.

The Story of Mr. Tire Chains, aka Chains.
One hot and sunny day in South Lake Tahoe, my friends and I walked around the shops at the Heavenly Village Resort. My friend was very adamant in going through various gear shops so that she could find the perfect beanie that: 1) looked really cute on her, and 2) was functional in keeping her head and ears warm.
I was still barely awake because I had been up since 5am that day, packing for this weekend trip. The only thing that piqued my interest in this trek were the different shops that sold alpaca goods.
The Alpaca, or the Vicugna pacos, are domesticated animals raised in places like Peru, Chile, and Bolivia. They look like sheep, but have longer necks. They are most valuable for their wool, which are very warm and soft to the touch. The wool varies in color from camel brown, white, white with spots, or a combination of those three. The very first time I fell in love with alpaca wool was when my friend received a cute alpaca teddy bear during her baby shower. I secretly coveted the furry miniature ewok, and I have dreamt about it for six months, until I had that glorious opportunity to look for one in Tahoe.
I checked out a store at the Village, and my hands went crazy trying to feel up the different soft alpaca teddy bears. The place was pricey and I am a cheap bastard, so I left.
Across the street, I saw this quaint store nextdoor to a gas station that also sold Alpaca – Alpaca Advantage. I didn’t get a chance to go there, because the bitches I was with were all hella hungry, tired, and getting premenstrual.
On the day we were going to return to San Francisco, it snowed. Bernadette had to gas up, so I suggested that she filled her tank at that gas station. While she did that, I scurried nextdoor to Alpaca Advantage. It was filled with all kinds of gifts, from silver jewelry, little fake animals covered in rabbit fur (*tear*), leather goods, dreamcatchers, and loads of alpaca goods – boots, hats, rugs, and TEDDY BEARS!
The prices were a lot lower than that first store I saw in the Village. The only drawback is that the bears were not as symmetrical/​cute. I looked in the medium-​sized bear bin. OMG, they are all ugly… I was losing hope until he made eye contact with me. I gasped in overwhelming excitement and grabbed the cutie from the pile.
I brought him to the cashier, who was this lady who straight up used her fingers to count how much change I should get back. I ain’t trying to hate, but… okay yeah I guess I am tryin’. Overall, nice people in a furry-​but-​scary store that have reasonably-​priced merchandise.
Our tire chains broke on the way out of Tahoe. This dude tried to hustle us by «offering» to help install new tire chains… «I could help you put the chains on»… I asked «so uhm. for free?»… he said, «well… it’s the holidays” – which is pretty much a great ass excuse to use when asking for extraneous shit… Luis got down, balls to the freezing ground, to install the new cables on Berna’s car… and we were back on the road.
The girls wanted to remember that adventure, so we named my new alpaca bear, «Mr. Tire Chains»… or simply «Chains.»
The End.
Moral of the story: it’s always good to do some comparison shopping to get more bang for your buck.