Our Regions
How We Chose Our “Regions”
It is next-to-impossible to mix and match America into homogenous regions that fully jibe, given the wildly divergent character of land and topography, cultural and linguistic influences, the historic rivalries, and simple change of atmosphere that drapes across this diverse land. And so, we admit imperfections in these groupings and allow such sectional rivalries their due if we have created regions others might find egregious. That said, we also have a business to run based on “regional ties”. And so, we had to make hard choices in order to make all 50 states + oceanic territories fit, knowing full well some might take exception, and knowing full well those folks might have a point! For instance, we would have preferred to have a region for “Appalachia,” given its unique cohesive traits. But to do so, we would have had to carve out southeast Ohio, southwest x west Virginia, eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, western North and South Carolina + North Georgia, and plunk those chunks in with the only full state that would work: West Virginia. Similar examples cropped up everywhere: all of west Texas more naturally grouping with New Mexico, Arizona, and Southwest California in a “Desert West” region; the eastern halves of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado all high plains and sand dunes, and not exactly “Mountain West”. Quite suddenly, our regional breakdown began to look like an overwhelming categorization project in and of itself; and honestly, we just wanted to start selling cool old stuff . . . So, state boundaries came to our rescue along with an acknowledgement that our “regions” were not ever going to be perfect. (Case in point: West Virginia winds up in the Mid-Atlantic region, though it touches no part of the Atlantic Ocean!) We are satisfied knowing that our awesome inventory of objects and items can fill the “perfection” role, even if our baseline regions fall short in the eyes of some … Here is the regional breakdown:
- Northeast: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York
- Mid-Atlantic: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia
- Atlantic South: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida + Caribbean Territories
- The Midwest: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota
- The South: Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas
- Mid-America + The Plains: Missouri, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma
- Mountain West: Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Utah
- Southwest + Pacific: New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Hawai’i + Pacific Territories
- Pacific Northwest: Oregon, Washington, Alaska
- America’s Neighbors: Canada + Mexico