As they used to say on Laugh-In:
“Put that in your pipe and smoke it!”
Maybe not a good idea; I bet the fumes are toxic.
They are called “chenille stems” or “craft stems” now.
I’m no store clerk, but those are two products I’ve never heard of.
Way weirder. The Automobile Club of Southern California covers (wait for it) Southern California.
The California State Automobile Association covers Northern California but also has extended its tentacles to Nevada, Utah, and Arizona,
Since I’m like a 48 year member of the Auto Club of So Cal, I’d never thought of there being separate “clubs” in different regions. Everywhere I went locally was pretty much the same. Westways, our auto club magazine, always has an historial picture on the last page. There have been some pretty interesting ones.
The ones they sell on fleabay for that purpose are useless for cleaning pipes, soft things with feebly bendable wire.
That’s a sling blade? I’ve never seen the movie and I always thought a sling blade was another name for a switchblade knife.
Some folks call it a Sling Blade I call it a Kaiser Blade.
The real weird one is AAA Club Alliance, which according to that article provides coverage in all or part of Connecticut, Ohio, West Virginia, Kansas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
What kind of craft store sells drain cleaner? 
Yeah.
I’m struggling to imagine what kind of store nowadays might be expected to sell both (smoking) pipe cleaners and drain cleaner?
For sure a 1960s/1970s drugstore / five and dime would have. (For younger folks, think of a proto-CVS or Walgreens). That class of store sold all sorts of tobacco-related products and all sorts of household chemicals.
Nowadays finding anything related to smoking pipes means visiting a head shop or a tobacconist. At least that’s my last 15-20 years’ experience. Neither of which are likely to stock drain cleaner.
It’d be fun for @Mk_VII to tell us where they were shopping when this happened. Not disputing them, just curious to know. Then again, I know realize I’m coming at this from an urban / suburban perspective. It might be that Tractor Supply or Walmart in a small town would be the “everything store” with tobacco, drain cleaner, goat feed, and groceries.
The local grocery stores here carry both. The pipe cleaners are in a locked case with all of the other tobacco products, while the drain cleaner is located with toilet bowl cleaners and other such stuff.
Thanks. I used to smoke a pipe and still occasionally enjoy a cigar which I get from a local tobacconist. I’ve never smoked cigs.
I just realized I have no mental picture of where the cigs are kept at either of my regular supermarkets! Totally out-of-mind = out-of-sight! I CVS pulled all tobacco related products a few years ago and I believe Walgreens followed suit. The only related things they sell now are the quitting smoking nicotine patch kits & such.
Next time I hit the supermarket I’ll have to find the cigs and see what other smoking supplies they have.
It sold cigarettes, and probably pipe tobacco, and rolling papers, and newspapers, but also household items and food. Most high street stores here that sell cigarettes do, they cant survive on tobacco alone anymore.
Edit: we have a ‘Smokers Paradise’ chain here, but little of what they sell is smoking materials.
Nostalgia hit. I’m remembering the smell of tobacco and paper from the magazines.
Any general store with a crafts section will have pipe cleaners and drain cleaners. Wal-Mart, Target, Fred Meyer, etc.
A ha! Category error on my part.
“Pipe cleaners” are sold with tobacco. And pipes. The things that look like pipe cleaners sold for crafts aren’t “pipe cleaners”. Even if they really are. D’oh!
At the store where I work there are no longer any tobacco products or accessories in the main store. They are now found only at the gas station outbuilding. Where, in fact, you can find both actual pipe cleaners and drain cleaner.
At the main store you can find drain cleaner and “pipe cleaners” in the our craft department, although I suspect the highly colorful/sparkly chenille covered wire there may not really be suitable for cleaning pipes. Of any sort.
Holy shit. TIL that the “pipe” in “pipe cleaner” refers to a smoking pipe. I’m 47 and it never occurred to me.