And just like that, a prominent, although fictional, New Yorker left the city and came to Scranton to buy just the right thing.
Shopping is an obsession on HBO Max’s “And Just Like That … ” and its predecessor, “Sex and the City.” Series creator Michael Patrick King gave a shoutout to his Scranton hometown for a significant purchase in a recent episode, called “Silent Mode.”
The character of Aidan Shaw, played by John Corbett, searched out an unnamed vintage Scranton window warehouse after he broke irreplaceable antique window glass in the home of love interest and main character Carrie Bradshaw.
“I’m sure Aidan enjoyed his trip to town,” King said, by text message.
A broken vintage window leads to Scranton. (And Just Like That…)
Aidan after breaking an antique window in “And Just Like That…” (And Just Like That…)
Customers and employees wander Olde Good Things in Scranton on Thursday, July 17, 2025. The antique warehouse features a variety of doors, windows, and other fixtures. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRPAHER)
The walkway to the wider warehouse in Olde Good Things in Scranton on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRPAHER)
Stained glass windows in Olde Good Things in Scranton on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRPAHER)
Lighting fixtures at Olde Good Things in Scranton on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRPAHER)
(Melissa M. Janoski)
King unknowingly cast a spotlight in the direction of a store with ties to a controversial Christian group with a tragic past.
In an earlier phone call, King said he wanted Aidan’s search to take place within a reasonable drive from New York City. Scranton was chosen not just as a hometown reference, but because it is a “classic American city” that fits with Aidan’s career as a furniture designer.
The series gets mixed reviews but has a fervent audience, sparking a round of online references to Scranton. For some fans and commenters, it’s not just broken glass, but a metaphor for Aidan and Carrie’s troubled bond. Aidan accidentally broke the window by tossing a pebble to get Carrie’s attention.
Before sending Aidan to Scranton, King checked around to make sure there were places to buy vintage windows in Scranton, although he didn’t contact any stores. “Everything we do on the show is real,” he said.
One store King said he may have seen online is Olde Good Things, an architectural salvage business with three sites in Scranton as well as locations in New York City and Los Angeles. He’s never dealt with the store. “I’m not validating the place,” he said.
There are a few stores in the region that might fit.
But Olde Good Things assumed it was the store, said Haroldynne Rannels, one of the managers. So did some people online.
Olde Good Things does business out of a sprawling warehouse complex at 400 Gilligan St., near PenFed Field at Scranton Memorial Stadium and Scranton High School.
The store got the news from an employee’s mother and some customers. The store staked a claim to Aidan on various social media posts. Rannels hopes the TV reference, although vague, will be good for business.
But the posts were deleted after the business heard about the show’s famously raunchy reputation. “Most of us are Christians,” Rannels said. “A lot of us don’t watch the show, so didn’t realize it can be offensive to some people.” She is a member of the Church of Bible Understanding, which owns Olde Good Things and uses it to support its work.
It’s a group of around 30 to 40 people, she said, not all of whom live in Scranton. It has roots in a much larger group that started elsewhere in the 1970s.
For decades, the church has faced accusations of being a cult that exploits members for labor and money.
“I don’t think we are a cult,” Rannels said. “I think we are believers in Jesus. I don’t think, I know.”
A fire at a church-supported orphanage in Haiti in 2020 is too “sensitive” to talk about, Rannels said. “It was devastating.”
At least a dozen children died in a blaze that might have started with candles used when electricity was not available. News accounts of the fire at the Orphanage of the Church of Bible Understanding in Kenscoff gave varying estimates of how many children died and some mention two adult casualties.
The institution had previously been stripped of its accreditation by Haitian officials, according to the Associated Press. The facility is closed.
While it was called an orphanage, some of the children had at least one parent. According to an Associated Press account, the orphanage offered some compensation to families. Similar children’s homes are common in Haiti, and very few meet any accepted standards, it reported.
There is a New Testament verse on some Olde Good Things vehicles, but Rannels said “we don’t advertise that we are a church.”
“Our customers don’t care,” she said.
It has documented relationships with iconic properties, such as the Waldorf Astoria New York. The famous New York City hotel got rid of huge amounts of material, from plates to mantelpieces, during several years of renovations.
Some of the architecturally and artistically significant stained-glass windows from an old terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport, in New York City, ended up at Olde Good Things, according to multiple 2008 media reports. Some are stored up a flight of stairs, leaning against railings, in the warehouse. They are priced at around $40 to $50 a square foot, Rannels said.
The Gilligan Street lot and warehouse — Rannels doesn’t know the size — is filled with doors, windows, masonry, sinks, metal railings, stone and metal columns, hardware and decorative items.
This is at least the second TV reference to the Church of Bible Understanding. An episode of “Seinfeld” featured a cult called “Sunshine Carpet Cleaners.” It was a reference to a previous Church of Bible Understanding business with a different name, according to media reports.