Well, quite off topic but weird nonetheless:
In a main street in a city near Brisbane is Dominoes, Pizza Hut and Pizza Haven (all pizza places, mostly takeaway though) AND red rooster all within 20 metres of each other.
I think the pizza places mainly rely on phone orders, but still…
At least in my case it has to do with credit cards. I have one gas station chain credit card and when I hit an intersection with 4 gas stations, I will go to the one that I have a credit card for, whether or not it is the cheapest.
Or on the rare occasions I am carrying cash, I will choose whichever one is the most convenient (i.e. a right turn in the direction I am going). But once again it is convenience over price in the gas station economy.
Maybe this doesn’t count because it did finally disappear, but the place I was convinced was a money-laundering operation was “Shell World.” It was a HUGE store, not at the beach where you would expect to have tourists wanting to buy shells and shell-related products, but in a grungy area of town. The store itself was big, clean and bright. But who in the world was buying this stuff? Chandeliers made of shells. Clear resin toilet seats with shells embedded in them. Soap dishes made of shells. Frog statuettes made of shells. And then there were bins and bins of every variety of shell you could think of from all around the world. Some of them were very beautiful, but still! Anyway, it’s gone now, but it was there for years.
Every time I go to the mall I get a lemonade at “Hot Dog on a Stick.” It’s excellent, fresh lemonade. The hot dogs are all right if you like corn dogs, but I really feel sorry for the teenage girls working there who have to wear those incredibly dorky caps during the time in their lives in which they’re at the height of selfconsciousness.
This is the funniest thing I’ve read in a while! Right up there with **Ceramic ** stores, you know the ones, selling unpainted and unholy garden gnomes. How do these things stay in business? Hasn’t the white trash world reached it saturation point for midget lawn ornaments?
On a lighter note:
There once was a business in downtown Oxford ( one street light, four bars and a whole lots of shops you wonder how they pay the rent since they haven’t changed their window displays since Truman was in office.) there was this clothing store that by the window displays you would have ( as all my friends did) sworn that it was a resale/thrift shop. After a few years of passing it and needing a themed- costume for a party, I mosied in. *Holy Moly * every in the store was not resale/donations, but actual stock from…well…Polyester Universe and Granny World and School Teacher Themed Sweaters all went into business together. it was so odd it defined explaining, I had fallen into some alternate universe. And (This is what killed me) Everything on hangers was covered in plastic bags, not dry cleaner bags, but thick, clear plastic. A themed teacher sweater was *$250.00 * When I had first walked in there my mouth hung open and I asked in a stunned voice, " This is not a resale shop?" the owner said, " no, what would ever make you think that?" " Well, the mannequin up front is dressed in something my grandma would wear in 1955…"
Other businesses I wonder about:
Pool Table Companies. You have to figure most of their sales are Xmas the rest of the year has got to be a drag.
Thanks for the site for **Swatch **. I did find my swatch band, in, of all places, London Gatwick Airport. I took my broken watch band with me in case I saw soemthing overseas and as we were going through all the shopping at the airport, I found my replacement.
I wonder how the local massage parlor/whorehouse stays open… I mean, I know that they have the MONEY flow to stay open, but isn’t their service, um, illegal? Everyone I’ve talked to knows what the business is, yet they stay open, year after year (not that I mind - I think that they should be legal, but that’s for another thread).
I thought this, too, until I went to the Home & Garden show this spring. Connelly Billiards had an enormous display area set up, and they sell a whole lot more than pool tables. Essentially, their business is any entertainment-oriented furniture. Pool tables, yes, but also bars, entertainment centers, home theater setups, accessories, casino tables (one very cool bar with blackjack slots inlaid on it), dining room tables (including high-quality combination pool table/dining room tables), nice dartboards, and much, much more.
When we have the money to do our big room up right, that’s where we’re going.
:::::::bump::::::: it’s my thread, it’s ok.
There has been this itty bitty storefront in downtown Oxford for over ten years that is a **Knitting Shop ** charmingly called
**Knit cetera **.
I have never seen it open. The closed sign is always up.
The store is about fifteen feet wide and stocked with loads of cross stitch-granny themed stuff.
But, no one is ever in there. It’s never open.
I’ve said for years that it is a whore house for the elderly, or something. After September 11th, I decided it was a front for the Taliban.
Well, something finally gave. It is now out of business. It’s all so mysterious.
I need closure on this.
There’s a furniture store in my town in which I’ve never seen any signs of human life. The displays never change, the lights are never on, and I swear the delivery van parked outside hasn’t moved at all in the last four years.
I noticed a sign on the door which says “Ring for Entry”, so obviously the owner keeps the place locked up and only opens the door when somebody wants to go inside. Maybe that puts people off, because I’ve never, ever seen anyone inside the store. Everyone else I know says exactly the same thing, and the place is somewhat of a mystery to us.
Halloween Club is very visible from the 5 freeway in the Los Angeles area, in Santa Fe Springs. It has a giant jack-o-lantern sign on the outside. How many people need costumes all year round?
The last time I went to one of the local malls (which, admittedly, was a while ago) there was a store that sold only copper plaques. As in, a copper rose affixed to a copper plaque, a copper fish affixed to a copper plaque, a copper Jesus affixed to a copper plaque, etc.
Also, on the side of town where I used to live, we had two 7-Elevens right next to each other. And the embarrasing thing? I’ve been to both of them.
Servicing the LA goth community…?
g,d,rlh…
Not to spoil the mysteriousness, but I bet a lot of those “one weird item stores in standalone buildings” are actually in the business of manufacturing the whatzit. And once you have your crew of elves merrily banging out pierced copper carriage lamps that you wholesale to other stores, it doesn’t add much to your costs to put a few of them in a window and buy a cash register. You may not sell all that many, but those you do are at retail and your incremental costs to make that sale are insignificant.
When I was living in a less than savory part of town, I found a fence totally by accident.
There was a building, and in the rear there was a thick door that had a hand made sign, that read simply “Pawn Shop”.
I went in. I was curious to know if he had any silver coins I could buy cheap for melting purposes… long story.
In addition to radios with suspiciously cut wires in the back, and a host of REALLY gaudy jewlery (all of it on dusty shelves), there was a rack of fairly expensive looking clothing off to the side.
I asked him about silver. He looked at his partner with an odd expression, and then reached down behind the counter and came out with an ingot of silver, I kid you not it was probably 5 pounds, wrapped up in a towel.
I politely declined, and left, taking care to open the door with my hand wrapped up in my sleeve.
I used to work at a film supply house in NYC that, if you didn’t know it existed, you likely wouldn’t find - it was non-descript and on the second floor with little signage. We had a few walk in customers each day, but the bulk of the business was mail order. You know how in the back of photography magazines you see full page ads in really small print? Well, it was one of those places.
So I think a lot of these low (or no) traffic shops have somewhat thriving mail order businesses. They aren’t even that interested in walk-ins because they are not set up for it, per se.
In 1977 I saw a store at a mall in Kentucky that specialized in selling–get this–toilet seats. I don’t think it was around very long. Even during all the silliness that was the 1970’s a store selling designer toilet seats wouldn’t have found much of a market.
Where I live they have several large party supply stores.
Well, sure, people have parties all the time, but what SPECIAL SUPPLIES are needed for parties that you cant’ get cheaply and easily at grocery stores and Targets and such?
But the most obscure biz I ever saw was
Ron Smith, Man About Town
a sign on a small converted residence near our city hall. Ron’s sign is down, now, I guess he doesn’t gad about like he used to.
I remember reading somewhere that guys who get trophy wives often buy wife #1 off with a small specialty shop that she can occupy her time iwth by selling knickknacks to her friends. It’s the best explanation I can come up with for all the stores selling stuff that is clearly destined for a garage or estate sale one day, for very high prices.
There’s a party store near where I live, and I’ve been to other such stores. The reason they exist is that they have a lot more variety than a conventional store. I can find cards for St. Swithin’s Day, if I put some effort into it.
Robin
I actually remember going into a Halloween shop that was open only in October and around Xmas (with different merchandise, obviously) but clearly said that it was closed the rest of the year. Plus, it said that no minors were allowed in the store after 8:30 or 9:00. Huh.
I know they get plenty of business, but I still can’t fathom how Christmas Tree Shops stay open. I hate them. So tacky. Then there are all the dollar stores I’ve been in. Never seen any other customers in there, but I guess they get people like me.
Meyer, do you live in Montreal? There’s one like this in my neighbourhood by Lionel-Groulx metro.