Pleasant Surprise

EMPLOYEES/​MANAGEMENT: I come in this store, from time to time, and not once have I been greeted when I walk into the store. I haven’t had an employee approach me to speak to me, even once as I was shopping. They do however, watch you as you shop, stalking you with their eyes, every move you make. Overall, it makes for an UNPLEASANT SURPRISE. With experience myself working in retail, I would NEVER treat customers the way that I have been treated.
SELECTION/​MERCHANDISE: Overall, UNPLEASANT Surprise has a great selection of merchandise. I love the unique finds in this store. I have bought a few birthday gifts for loved ones here. Beware, if you are on a tight budget, this is not the store for you. It is local, however, and I will always support local.
PROS: Merchandise.
CONS: UNPLEASANT employees, and management.

Great Scott! Yes this IS a pleasant surprise!
Bought our friends a «sex after 50» book for Xmas last year — it was blank but for like 3 pages and the copyright stuff lol
The place has awesome stuff for everyone — including uptight squares. Go there, you’ll see.

If you’re looking for nutty gifts to give to your over sexualized, over indulged, over obsessed with silly things friends, then Pleasant Surprise is the place to find it.
Options range from the traditional kitschy NEWPORT sweatshirts to the non-​geographic region specific Tootsie Pop purses. You can also find books on morality written by congressmen, joke encyclopedias about poop and coasters that say Boys are Dumb.
Pleasant Surprise is definitely a go-​to stop for tourists and locals alike. Everybody is guaranteed to find something useless to spend money they either have or don’t have on.

Talk about crafty crack.
This place is filled with so much cool stuff. Retro, nasty, glamorous, funny… Everything in between. I knew I liked the place the moment I walked it, but I fell in love with it when I saw a mug that read «Tea is for losers.»
The guy that works there was super nice and helpful. Next time I’m in Newport I will definitely be back!

This place could’ve easily drained my checking account if I had no self restraint. It was like a combination of Urban Outfitters and
, which is an awesome combination, and was filled with equally awesome and unique items… like books about how to poop at work, various «keep calm and carry on» stuff, and a weed cookbook. Fun times!

Pleasant Surprise is the kind of store that you can drag your man into and even he will find things to keep him occupied!
PS is the perfect place to buy gifts. They have tons of different, unique items, many of which you cannot find anywhere else.
The store is small and cannot handle more than a few people at a time, but it is usually not a problem.

This place is jam packed with tons of cute and quirky things!
It is not a store that you only spend 10 minutes in, so beware! There is so much to look at and play with that you will need some extra time!
If you want more, go across the alley (from the back door) to PS2, a sister store that has even more fun and eclectic things!!! It is really hard to go in there and not buy something!

A cute store in the «Brick Marketplace» area of Newport RI. Lots of odd and nifty gifts. Oddly, it is right across from another store called «Pleasant Surprise II» (which I assume is related).

I bought two hilarious books here… if I spent 10 more minutes, I probably would have bought one of everything.
The store is small but cute, the selection of «stuff» is absolutely amazing.
What a great store, there aren’t many like this anymore.

Talk about neat things to purchase… they have all the wild and eccletic things that you don’t need but make great gifts or trinkets you just can’t live without.
Books, purses, hats, lamps in the shape of heads, goofy toys, greeting cards you just can’t get anywhere… fun place.
Stop in if you are in the area.

Every year for the last ten years, I make a special trip out to Rhode Island to see family. At least one day is spent in Newport and Pleasant Surprise was one of my GO TO shops until last year.
While I was visiting town, I was looking for geeky/​girly stuff for my website to write reviews about. Pleasant Surprise had such the thing, a robot cocktail plate and napkins! Perfect, right? I snapped a few pictures and continued on my way and planned to go back and buy the plates, but wanted to see what else was there.
My dad came into the store and was mildly bored and asked to see my iPhone. He had heard about one of the apps where you can scan a bar code and look up information on the internet about the product. Now, I live in LA and my dad lives in Florida, so needless to say we don’t see each other much and so I decided to appease him and show him the app.
While I was demoing the app, the store owner got VERY angry and yelled across the store to us, «YOU KNOW, YOU COULD JUST BUY IT HERE.» I turned around and asked, «what?» I’m just showing my dad this app!” At this point the owner started to very loudly mumble under his breath a few things along the lines of «it’s because people want to save money that makes me have to work 18 hour days!» And then stormed out of his store.
I left the store as well very upset and also very upset that I had wanted to buy a couple of items and didn’t feel like going back to a place where I had been accosted. I calmed down a bit and went back in about 15 minutes later to buy a couple of the Fred Products (ice invaders!) I really wanted.
The owner was still not there, but the lady behind the register AGAIN gave me attitude even after I came back to BUY STUFF and was checking out. Here I am, giving them money, because I DO in fact like to support local stores, and I have this woman saying, «So, why WERE you doing that with your phone??»
Dear Pleasant Surprise
1) Way to yell at your customer! I get the economy has been hit hard for MANY people, but why would you take it out on your customers?
2) Considering I came back and bought stuff, despite how I was treated, with NO apologies form any staff — you have encouraged me to seek out online alternatives to any of the goods I see in your store IF I ever go back.
3) While I have spent many years toting how much I liked your store, it has been changed to how awful you treat customers.
4) Next time you want a customer to stop doing something, maybe try the approach of coming over and asking them kindly to put their phone away.

Pleasant surprise indeed! This store is absolutely intriguing! One of the largest collections of the most eclectic items imaginable, jam packed into a closet sized store in downtown Newport (ok.. . so it may be bigger than a closet but as someone with claustrophobia things appear smaller than they may seem).
Everything from frog staplers, pirate toothbrush holders, hand-​painted martini glasses, and sex position books to dirty birthday cards, piggy slippers, and wind-​up chattering teeth. Great place to come to find a gift for that hard to shop for friend. I can almost guarantee you will find the perfect item here.
For those of you who have had the chance to go to an Oop! Store, this business is along the same lines. My friend and I left, I having bought nothing.. . he having bought a log book to write your poops in? Wtf? Hahah, good times to be had at this place! A must stop when shopping downtown!