As the holiday season sweeps across Los Angeles, the city becomes busier than any other time of year. The streets teem with cars, and shopping malls overflow with bustling crowds. Every day feels like a sprint against time, making Angelinos feel like there’s never ample time in a day to get everything done. However, within this chaos lies a tucked away spot, where time seems to stop.
Nestled in the heart of Echo Park, jammed between a local bookstore and coffee shop, sits a mysterious little store. While at first glance, it looks like every other convenience store, a closer look reveals a treasure trove of extraordinary goods. Known as a “Time Travel Mart”, this shop provides customers with the essentials needed for time travel as well as gadgets and belongings from both the past and future.
On the shelves mammoth remains, freezers brimming with preserved dinosaur eggs, and helpful time travel sickness pills jostle for attention. Near the front of the store sat a magnet that is used for erasing robots’ memories. Visitors navigate the aisles, eyes wide with fascination, marveling at items they’d only imagined in dreams.
Carinne Mangold, the mart’s seasoned general operation manager, beamed with enthusiasm to showcase her favorite product. She held out a large seed titled ‘shade.’ “Essentially, you go back in time, plant the seed, and then go back to the present day, and you permanently have shade around you, so you never have to get hot in the sun. It sells a lot in the summertime,” she explained.
Mangold, who has been working at the Time Travel Mart for almost 15 years, had many favorite products she was eager to share. She explained that the mysterious and atypical products the store sells bring in unsuspecting customers, who have no idea they just walked into a non-profit.
“When people come in, they have no idea what they just walked into, in a way, the time travel aspect is a way to bait them into learning what we really are about” Mangold said.
Behind the façade of fantasy lies a profound purpose—the Mart serves as a clever conduit to raise awareness for 826LA, a non-profit committed to nurturing writing skills among students ages 6 to 18. They are a part of a much larger organization, 826 National, which is part of the largest youth writing organization in the United States. Teaming up with Barnacle & Barnacle Publishers, the Mart sells published works by these students, supporting over 9,000 aspiring authors annually while encouraging many to return as mentors and volunteers.
A current university student, Jackie Hernandez, is a recent addition to the Time Travel Mart staff. “I am a UCLA Student and I really wanted to intern for a non-profit and I was randomly assigned to the time travel mart,” she said. “I had heard of 826LA before because I used to be an 826 student myself up in the bay area but had never heard of the store.”
Hernandez is now able to give back to the organization that fostered her success from a young age, “Helping children write stories, and then actually being able to publish their work here is really empowering. I got to publish two stories back when I was a student and it genuinely inspired me to keep writing,” Hernandez said.
The partnership of 826LA and the Time Travel Mart work to help students in the Los Angeles area while still keeping the image of Echo Park and what makes it so unique alive.
Mangold mentioned, “In Echo Park, when we arrived in 2008, there were tons of convenience stores, so they modeled it after that so it would feel like we belonged here. We wanted to fit the look of the area, so others accepted us, especially because we are selling stuff that is already considered odd.”
The Time Travel Mart now does much more than just “belong” in Echo Park. It has become a leading attraction, bringing in many tourists and Angelinos to the historic neighborhood. The store is a lighthearted and engrossing place with a much more significant mission behind it.
The Mart also partners with many local businesses to bring in new faces and attention. The most recent addition is the iconic Children’s theater, Bob Baker’s Marionette Theater which first opened in 1963 in downtown L.A.
The theater utilizes puppetry to spark creativity and imagination in both children and adults. Their new partnership with the Time Travel Mart does just that. As the customers explored all the mysterious items in the shop, a voice played over the speaker announcing a puppet show would soon be taking place in the back room.
Everyone hurried in, many saying how they hadn’t been to a puppet show in years. Kids sat crisscross applesauce in the front, while parents and other adults sat in a semi-circle around a small stage. There was coffee, tea, and a buffet style lunch serving small sandwiches and pastas. The show began with orchestra music blasting through the room as the audience sat anxiously waiting for the puppets to pop out.
From chickens and turtles to clowns and a sweet young girl, the puppets came to life. They lip synched to classics such as “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from the hit musical “Funny Girl” and Bobby Vinton’s classic “Mr. Lonely”.
The audience cheered and applauded after every puppet took a bow. Each one had unique movements, character, and an aura that fascinated the audience and kept everyone engaged for the 30-minute show.
The show was advertised throughout Echo Park with flyers in practically every window. Emails were sent out to prior 826LA volunteers who were happy to come back to support the newest addition to the Time Travel Mart.
Avrielle Gallagher, a former 826LA volunteer, was in attendance for the puppet show. She laughed boisterously, sitting with the biggest smile on her face as puppets jumped on her lap and danced all around her.
After the show ended, Gallagher said, “I used to volunteer for 826LA, and I got this email inviting me to their first ever puppet show. This location in L.A. is always finding new ways to get people to donate, volunteer, or be a part of it, so bringing in Bob Barker was another smart way of advertising for them. The show was so much fun, everyone had a great time, and it really was just a great way to bring in more kids as well!”
Time Travel Mart’s collaboration with Bob Baker’s Marionette Theater was an innovative and unique way to raise awareness for 826LA; even during the puppet show, the spirit of 826LA prevailed throughout the room. Colorful and innovative posters hung on the walls with helpful sentence structure tips, grammar reminders, and prompts to inspire the kid’s creative stories.
The Time Travel Mart, with its allure and altruistic mission, stands as a testament to the power of imagination and community support. The store’s motto sits proudly above the front door, “Whenever you are, we’re already then” bringing in travelers and while they revel in the store’s magic, it’s the aspiring young authors who reap the greatest rewards. This is much more than just a convenience store, it is creativity fueled by a touch of enchantment, or perhaps, the wonders of time travel.
