Everything she needs to sit down

This week's Letter was a gift guide, and Prim set herself one rule for it. Every single thing in it had to come with the door to buy it, because a gift guide that will not tell you where to shop is not a guide, it is a daydream. When she came to the woman on your list who is ready for a set of her very own, she skipped the showpiece shelf altogether. What a new player truly wants to unwrap, Prim wrote, is simply everything she needs to sit down and play. So she sent readers to Where The Winds Blow.

A shop for American Mahjong, and only that

Where The Winds Blow Mah Jongg was established in 2000, and it calls itself the number one American Mah Jongg exclusive store since then. It began in the Houston area: a 2014 press release described it as one of the foremost Mah Jongg companies around Houston for well over a decade, then based in Katy. Today the shop lists its home at 7344 Senate Avenue in Jersey Village, Texas, on the northwest side of Houston, with a brick and mortar store, and it says it keeps over 1,000 different products on location at its warehouse, including over 10,000 mah jongg sets, which it ships all over the world.

The range is the point. The shop sells American sets and Asian sets, in miniature, standard tournament size and jumbo tiles, in a huge assortment of styles and patterns. It sells racks, pushers, combo racks and bags, and it will embroider them. It sells the NMJL cards, the cases, the table covers and the books. It will even customize a set with your name on the back of every tile, custom jokers included.

“We love Mah Jongg and we love Mah Jongg players.”Where The Winds Blow

Tiles a woman can read

One shelf in particular made Prim's list. Where The Winds Blow carries Mah Jongg tiles for the visually impaired, the large and low vision sets that let a player who struggles with small print sit down at the table like everyone else. Prim has watched more than one beloved player drift away from the game because she could no longer read her own rack, and a shop that keeps those tiles in stock is a shop keeping women at the table.

A gift at every price

The shop says it has small gifts for when you want to give to a lot of people without spending a lot, and large gifts for that special someone or that special occasion. That is how Prim described it to her readers, too: prices running from a few dollars for a card up through the complete sets, so you can set a beginner up properly in a single order. And if you are not sure what to buy, the shop's own advice is to call during business hours and talk to one of its salespeople. It is open Monday through Thursday, from 9 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon, Central time, and closed on weekends and holidays.

Prim's view

A shop that has done one thing for more than a quarter of a century has earned a little attention, and Where The Winds Blow has done this one thing, American Mahjong, since 2000. It is also, Prim noticed, one of the sellers in our own free Where to Buy directory, found and checked by hand, and not paid to be there. Prim's one honest word, the same one she gave in the Letter: prices move and sets sell out, so shop the current range and read the reviews before you buy. But if you are setting someone brand new up this season, this is a very good door to knock on.