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World of Tile — liquidation sale — going out of business — closing — The End — or so it seems

pam kueber - Updated: August 18, 2021

Retro Renovation stopped publishing in 2021; these stories remain for historical information, as potential continued resources, and for archival purposes.

vintage world of tile signThis weekend, I received confirmation from a reader who’s been to the liquidation sale, twice: Yes, World of Tile — our beloved time capsule tile store — chock full of New Old Stock going back to the 1960s — seems to be in the midst of closing. Currently, there is a big closeout of all stock going on — 80% off, Marie says, and you can wander throughout the cavernous structure to hunt treasure in every nook and cranny. I do love me a time capsule liquidation sale — and this may be one unlike any other — but even so, please say it ain’t so. Alas. Lovely photo of World of Tile’s classic 1960s sign courtesy Tony Zarak on flickr and professionally here (link now gone).

pam tours the basement storage area of world of tile
Me, amazed in the basement in 2011…. the New York Times was with me on this, my first visit…

Marie wrote to me on Saturday:

Thanks to you, I discovered World of Tile in Springfield, New Jersey.

Sadly today, I discovered it was sold and in liquidation.

Marie took these photos at the liquidation sale yesterday.
Marie took these photos at the liquidation sale on Sunday — she went back a second time over the weekend.

Yes. I went to the store today. It was so sad. Liquidator service is there. No one in charge really. [Marie had some info from the folks on site about what had occurred to lead to the liquidation sale, but I do not feel comfortable publishing this.]

yellow soap dish pink soap dish blue soap dishRight now every room is open to the public to roam and select things and pay for it in cash. So, those wonderful black ceramic bathroom fixtures she used to sell for $30 are going for $5. Boxes of 50 tiles – $8/box. There is room upon room of tile and you just make a deal for it. Very good deals indeed, I’m sorry to say.

But for your readers, if they go (with a mask and a flashlight-it’s dusty), the gigantic caverns are theres to explore and find treasures! You can go upstairs, downstairs, basement and the rooms in the warehouse. Crazy!

Marie

tile warehouse for NOS vintage tile world of tile
In the cavernous basement. It’s like that federal warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark….

Thank you, Marie!

Update: I spoke with Marie this morning — she added that on-site liquidators told her that the sale is expected to continue for about two weeks.

I had received hints of this news from a few other readers, but could not confirm what was going on. As of early last week, at least, the phone number was disconnected. My emails were not returned. I then began trying to reach a friend nearby to see if she could drive over to see if I could get some sort of official information on the situation. While I was trying to find out something definitive, I didn’t want to jump the gun with a speculative story. But now, we have Marie’s on-site report. So here’s the story, as much as I know.

vintage mosaic tile from world of tile image copyright retro renovation 2011
The “Mosaics Room”
Chippy....
Chippy, when the New York Times visited with me.
jason at world of tile
Nicky and Jason (Jason in this photo) were the ones to discover World of Tile and report their find to Retro Renovation, so’s we could share it with retroworld. Everlasting gobstopper thanks to you, Nicky and Jason!

World of Tile — the single most important discovery on Retro Renovation ever

This is really sad. I loved that place.

I loved that we — via readers Jason and Nicky (that’s Jason just above) — “discovered” World of Tile, “the single most important discovery” ever on Retro Renovation …

… and got it in The New York Times …

… and I wrote all about their many tile varieties and sinks and table legs and backsplashes and counted 95 colors of pink tile and more …

… and I became friends with Chippy …

… and when I called to say hi she would tell me about the latest excitement — like World of Tile tile being used in scene in American Hustle …

… and readers used World of Tile in their projects …

… and it was Our World of Tile.

tower of pink tileYikes, I have things going on today and tomorrow. But if I can confirm that doors are open on Wednesday… and if I can steel myself for the three-hour drive (each way, ugh), I might drive down to World of Tile with a camera and video camera and a big wad of cash for one last visit … and one final report.

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  1. Robin says

    Oh crud. What a shame. Does anyone know if there are any of those beautiful mosaic murals left? You know, the scenes of hillsides on the water and such? I could make an emergency trip down there. I hope the family is ok. Truly sad.

  3. Lorraine says

    As supposed to go two weeks ago but I was sick in bed and didn’t make it! Ugh..going to NC this weekend. If anyone finds out how long they’ll be open please post.

    • Steve says

      I went on Monday and they said till the end of this week for sure maybe a bit into next week, I’m going again tomorrow I’ll try to ask again

        • Cara says

          Pam,
          my partner, Gary, will be there tomorrow too, with a friend– each with flashlights. Say hello if you see him among all the searchers. My fingers are crossed that the tile has not been sold & he’ll find the ones Chippy sent photographs of that seemed to match our wavy tile!

  4. Jane says

    Too bad they didn’t contact any other salvage places to buy up their stock. There are many salvage places that do sell tile.

  5. Paige says

    Pam,

    PLEASE let us readers who aren’t close enough to drive if they are doing any phone or online sales.
    We had planned to completely overhaul a modern bathroom & make it MCM, we already have the crane sink, toilet & a cinderella bathtub, we planned to tile the bathroom to match the colors.
    This just makes me feel sick to my stomach for all of us who love these types of resources.

  6. pam kueber says

    Wednesday update to followers of this thread: I could not get my act together to drive down today. I will try for tomorrow…

  7. Jean says

    I just called them to find out their hours this coming Thursday and the number was disconnected. Are they still open? Does anyone know what their hours will be? This is a two-and-a-half hour drive for us so I can’t really go over just to check!

    • Jean says

      Ok, I see in the post you said the phone was disconnected when you tried, as well. Did you or anyone else learn about their hours??

        • Cara says

          Please do let us know asap, Pam. My partner’s visiting family in Wisconsin & is now planning also to visit friends in NYC tomorrow. They’ll drive out to WOT Thursday to try to find the tile Chippy sent pictures of but then didn’t return e-mails once I sent the sample. Fortunately I had one other tiny piece that I overnighted to NYC.

          I still don’t understand why this happened when she said they’re do busy.

          Is Chippy OK? I hope it wasn’t ill health.

          • pam kueber says

            I feel most certain they will be open all this week, at minimum. I will call Kate tomorrow and have her post an update here in Comments and at the top of the story.

  8. marya says

    Noooooo! I’ve been planning to contact them to try to match 3 missing light blue tiles from my otherwise awesome bathroom, but I was waiting (okay, I was procrastinating). I’m devastated.

  9. Matt Larkin says

    Will everyone keep us posted. I am going to D.C in two weeks and may have to go up if they are still open. I live in Mississippi and have been planning on making a trip, just not so soon.