Coombs Wooden Shoe Dutch Import Store – A Trip Down Memory Lane

Wooden Shoe Coombs wp My recent visit to Coombs Wooden Shoe Dutch Import Store (2 stores over from the famous ‘Goats on the Roof”) was a trip down memory lane. I grew up in a Dutch family who emigrated to Canada in the 1950’s.

Coombs Wooden Shoe Dutch Import Store
2268 Alberni Hwy in the heart of Coombs, BC
FacebookInstagram • Gluten Free Products (scroll down for complete product listing)
Owners Aranea & Mike – 250-954-2336
dutchstore@shaw.ca
Open Year Round – Monday to Saturday – 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. Sundays – 10:00 am to 5:00 pm

A tourist attraction in and of itself, you’ll want to take in the gorgeous mural that wraps around the building!

Dutch Wooden Shoe Coombs IG

Filled with Dutch music and customers speaking Dutch to one another, the Wooden Shoe is as authentic as it gets! A family run business since 2003, the store carries everything from trinkets to tea towels to t-shirts, with a host of wooden shoes thrown in for good measure. It was especially delightful to see that they carried many items from the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) where my mother was born and raised.

It was an entirely new adventure to see just how many of my childhood favourites are now available – gluten free! Bold signage helped me to find the GF items at the top of my list – salted licorice or ‘Drop!’ Mike provide me with a ‘Royal Tour’ of the many more celiac-friendly items sprinkled throughout the store,  like so much hagelslag! Many bore a gluten-free label while others contained no gluten in their ingredient lists. I don’t usually go for those but that is up to your discretion.

Wooden Shoe is only too happy to bring in the products we love – and miss! They also carry favourites from England, Finland, Germany  and beyond.

I left with an armful of gluten-free treats, most of which was consumed on the drive back to Victoria. Others will be used to add Dutch flavour to the foods I have been missing for too long!

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