Rubber stamp store. Just shelf after shelf of rubber stamps and rubber stamp accessories.

Rubber stamp store. Just shelf after shelf of rubber stamps and rubber stamp accessories.

I came across a very narrow, 5 story store in Japan, a bit off the beaten path in Akihabara, selling exclusively N scale model trains. They had a floor or two dedicated just to the models, another one for scenery, and at least one just for repair parts for your trains. It was really cool to get to see a store that was pretty clearly a passion project for the owner(s) apparently doing well, and filling quite the niche in the hobby (I imagine)
I think my favorite is Nothing Bundt Cakes that sells Bundt cakes. It's a chain, and yes I only like it because of the pun.
An entire store full of african-american romance novels. In a VERY white area. It did not stay open long 😞
The existence of that store feels more like a statement than a business decision
What statement do you suppose they were trying to make?
https://youtu.be/ilsef7LrrYw?is=HrIRX-yHF2gJ8dxa
In all seriousness, I didn't take the time to really think it through before, but: the store chose a narrow market and went out of business rather quickly, so it didn't have a good business plan; but it would make an interesting statement to see that store close so fast compared to bookstores which sell romance novels with characters likely to match their clients' race, which might reveal a sort of widespread casual racism. Or just that readers prefer characters they think they will relate to more strongly. It's an interesting conversation point whichever way you look at it, is my point.
My town has a mushroom shop.
Those stores that only sell Rubber Duckies come to mind.
There are several, for some unknown reason, in Amsterdam.
It's because of the river, duhh
We live at the same river, but I have yet to find a rubber duck store anywhere closer than Amsterdam - which is hundreds of kilometers from here.
In Turkey we have shops that only sell pickles!
It's very recently closed its doors, sadly, but you'd be hard pressed to find a more specific shop than long-time Edinburgh landmark, Borland's:

I used to live across the street from a ballbearing shop.
spirit halloween seems just the place for a certain one night event.
Cycling clothing. No bikes, no helmets, just more lycra than a gimp convention.
I had to go to a store that only sells custom made stirrups as my kid needed some for their horse. I was absolutely overwhelmed about how many differences there are about them. Kid was happy.
There used to be a store in my town called “Just Socks” that sold, just socks
There's a bunch of oddball stores in the Pike Place Market in Seattle but the Left Hand store was the most specific place. All left hand tools and stuff. Lots of different scissors.
I visited Pike Place in 2005 with my best friend and his wife, I had a horrible head cold and could not enjoy anything about the place. Sounds like I need to get back so I can visit the Left Hand store.
there are a lot of things to smell, like its a lot sometimes. especially if you arent feeling very well. they have expanded the market. No more car traffic on the street outside it and they expanded and built up the area closer to the waterfront, because the viaduct is gone. Many of the old school stuff is still there though. Make sure to give yourself a full day to explore, its a massive and confusing place
Batteries + Bulbs.
They sold nothing but batteries and lightbulbs.
I went there once because I needed a specific type of light bulb. But it wasn't in their inventory. So I don't even think of that place anymore when I need bulbs. Anyway they're rather small stores. How could they possibly stock all the millions of varieties of those two specific things? Spoiler: they don't.
I never went in for bulbs, but they certainly had a wide range of batteries. They were more reliable than Walmart or other places when I would need a random button style battery, like a CMOS or watch battery.
I've been in a Christmas store that all year long only sold Christmas stuff.
True story. My niece went into a Christmas shop in our home town looking for a nativity set.
Assistant: "A what?"
"A nativity set - you know, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus..."
Assistant: "What's Jesus got to do with Christmas?"
I used to live in Lancaster, PA and the outlets had one of these. I've only ever seen the one, but I was given to understand they are a chain.
I have been in a shop only for set equipment for cooking book pictures
I have not, myself, been there, but San Francisco has the Pirate Supply Store.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/826_Valencia
826 Valencia is a non-profit organization in the Mission District of San Francisco, California, United States, dedicated to helping children and young adults develop writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.
826 Valencia runs San Francisco's "only independent pirate supply store". The store is the front entrance of the tutoring center and has the look and feel of an authentic pirate shop.[5] It sells pirate clothing, eyepatches, compasses, spyglasses, pirate dice, skull flags, and secret treasures. It features handmade signs, scattered around the store, offering tongue-in-cheek wisdom, such as "Uses for Lard" (#5: "Lard Fights") and "Guidelines for New Shipmates" (#4: "No forgetting to swab"). Unsuspecting visitors are sometimes treated to surprise "moppings."
Shoppers can also find back issues of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, books published by McSweeney's, and literary compilations written by 826 Valencia students. The books of student writing published by 826 Valencia include forewords, illustrations and interviews from public figures such as Former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom and actor Robin Williams.
The Pirate Supply Store was originally created through necessity. After being turned down for regular use of church basements and school facilities, the founders discovered an empty store on Valencia Street. City ordinances required businesses in that area of the city to be either retail or catering, so the Pirate Supply Store was opened in 2002 as the "legitimate" business front for the writing center. It also helps fund the tutoring program.[6]
I have seen lots of niche stores, but what usually gets me is that they're in very premium locations. How is that empty Custom Umbrella Emporium still open while the packed coffee shop next door can't afford their lease?
Tap for spoiler
Money laundering, probably
I went into a store that specialized in selling canes when I visited London.
It sounds really British to pay a visit to the local canist when you find yourself needing a new cane, who is a super detailed professional who knows and supplies canes of all kinds to all walks of life
I'm sure that would have made a great Monty Python scetch
There's a chain of shops in my country that, at least for a while, pretty much only made and sold bean bags. Freaking fantastic ones, too.
There was a store in Vegas that was magnets. Fridge, city, anything magnets.
And sardine stores in Portugal, airports and elsewhere.
There's a "craft"-art shop in the same cave I work in that exclusively sells racism.
Synthesizer store. RIP to Seattle's Patchwerks. Such a damn shame they went out of business.
There’s a delicious little shop in my city that sells all types of synths, cassette players, custom pedals and circuit bent goodies.
We have a fairly robust noise and experimental scene here that loves them so they get lots of patronage but I’m going to cry if they ever go out of business.
In County Cork in Ireland I once saw a shop that was a "Gentleman's hairdresser and railway bookshop."
Disc Golf Mart in Columbus, Ohio.
There’s a small town I drive through frequently that, for many years, had a Christmas shop. It was always open, usually empty. It closed down last year.
My favorite was Wizard's welding and hair salon, sadly closed now.
The Catholic gift shop near me that's open like 8 hours a week. Maybe it's money laundering.
Envios a Cuba, some shops here just send items to Cuba for you. Only to Cuba, only from here
Mixed tape store. This was like 12 years ago, long after streaming was a thing. A buddy of mine went in and asked if they sold CDs and the guy legit said, "No. Just mixed tapes." Pretty sure it was a front for something.
I’ve been in a knitting store before. Just yarn and needles and patterns. I can’t imagine how they stay in business.
There are lots of those. Many people knit.
yep, I have two in the family, it just didn't seem like there could be enough knitter-foot-traffic to keep the place open selling $4 spools of yarn
That's because the skeins are $40.
It's been a long time since I've bought a skein of yarn, but surely one can get one for less than that.
hits Amazon
It looks like on Amazon, they start at about $4 individually. If you get a pack, it goes under $1/skein.
Those brick-and-mortar stores much have a pretty substantial markup, unless we're talking premium yarn of some sort.
Yes, it's not acrylic baby-melting trash. You're comparing McDonald's to omakase. Try visiting your local yarn store before making any more assumptions.
Is that... uncommon? There was one in the town I grew up in.
Actually I looked it up and it also sold thread, ribbons and stuff like that. I guess you'd call it a haberdashery. Maybe one just for wool is less common?
Those are fairly common in North America and in a lot of places in Europe are found everywhere. Knitting is having a resurgence with young people.
Saw a store that was just rubber ducks. They had celebrity ducks and colored ducks and all sorts of similar things.
Probably Pop Mart. A three-story shop filled with nothing but these odd little collectible toys of cartoon characters. It was absolutely mobbed.
Magic stores.
San Francisco has two of them: Misdirections, a store that's been there for decades, and Houdini's/Vanishing Inc. in touristy Pier 39 who have a second location near Disneyland.
Also, the San Francisco Archery Shop seems very specialized in this age of big box sporting goods stores, but again they've been around for decades it feels like.
The Bee Healthy Honey Shop in Oakland, selling honey, beeswax, and related products and also beekeeping equipment. It's run by a Yemeni family of beekeepers.
Childhood me loved magic stores, the best one I found was in Victoria BC
As a former archer there are a number of archery shops! I went to one place to buy something and found it very strange that it was just in a row of about 8 shops as part of a small housing estate's little "high street" - alongside a takeaway, tattoo parlour, beauty salon, funeral director - the kind of thing you need a lot more of than archery shops!
It's moved now, I assume something more normal has taken its old spot...
Stores that sell clothes branded with one college's logo / name.
I've been in not one, but three different round the year Christmas stuff stores.
There is a chain of stores in Europe only selling Gouda cheese (Henri Willig).
In Hamburg I've been in a shop specialized on umbrellas.
In Rotterdam I've found a shop selling only socks.
Well, that's an incredibly disappointing store ... :(
there's a store in seattle called The Purple Store that only sells purple stuff!!!
I just bumped into another oddly specific store: Darts Central in SF

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