Barefoot employees draped in sarongs and Hawaiian shirts parade through incense-thick air, singing to each other and teasing customers.

Is this a scene from a bar on some exotic vacation destination? This is the world of the specialty import store Romancing the Stone.

“Honestly, at least five or six people a day come and tell me how cool it is,” said Lacy Criss, 20, Webb City, manager on duty.

The store opened in Northpark Mall in April to crowds of eager local shoppers mesmerized by the dramatic and exotic merchandise it offers. Criss said the store offers Joplin something the area was missing. The only other store in town offering similar items is Pier 1 Imports, and Criss said customers would pay significantly more there than at Romancing the Stone.

“Everything in our store is handmade and imported,” Criss said. “It’s not made on a line, not like Wal-Mart.”

The store carries miscellaneous specialty items including home decor, gifts, jewelry and clothing. Coiled stalks of bamboo and hermit crabs crowd one corner, paper lanterns and journals made from pressed leaves another.

A wall of carved masks stands guard in the rear of the store and a wall full of whimsical mirrors reflects the bright colored beads, jewels and paper umbrellas hanging from the ceiling. The store is full of foreign images like Buddhas. Criss said most people don’t have a problem with the statues and realize they are mainly for decoration.

Part of the store’s appeal is its physical atmosphere. Employees aren’t required to wear shoes and can wear any of the merchandise in the store while working, including sarongs, coconut bras, Hawaiian shirts and jewelry. During busy hours exotic music blasts so loudly that employees must shout to each other to communicate.

“The whole basis of the store is to have fun,” Criss said. “We’re supposed to give the customers a hard time and tease them. We have head massagers that we sneak up on them and use, and we throw things at them.”

The result is an environment that people enjoying being in, not just shopping. Criss said the store gets more people interested in just browsing than actually shopping.

“I’ve had people come in who said they just came in to get relaxed,” Criss said. “They like the atmosphere with the incense and the music.”

Other employees enjoy the atmosphere as well. Josh Labidie, 16, Joplin; Ashlea Baldwin, 18, Sarcoxie and Stephanie Halliwill, 30, Louisiana, work at Romancing the Stone and find it so enjoyable they are willing to put up with less than perfect co-workers and customers.

The environment is awesome,” she said. “You meet a lot of new people and they’re weird, but cool.”