For Customers Addicted to Stave Puzzles, the Torture Is the Point
The tiny Vermont company jokes that its brain teasers are so difficult, they were conceived by a sadist. And that’s exactly how their customers like it.
Almost all 175 pieces of The Mane Event are the same size and color.
Photographer: Eric Helgas for Bloomberg Businessweek
Hal Brierley looked at the 1,185-piece puzzle on the dining room table at his Dallas home with mounting frustration. It had been almost a month since his wife and sister-in-law had given it to him for Christmas to test his puzzling skills, and he was still only a third of the way through.
A designer of customer loyalty programs for companies such as Hilton and Hertz, Brierley craves fiendishly difficult puzzles. He usually has one going on the dining table at his family’s second home in Utah, too. “It’s probably a bit of an addiction,” he admits.