There used to be a Rand McNally store in Chicago, right near the Wrigley Building. Alas, it is long gone.
Here in the PacNW we have a small chain of four Root Beer stores.
Similarly, there’s a button store in Manhattan. And there’s another store that specializes in zippers, although that’s not all it sells.
Does Las Vegas still have the store that sells nothing but M&Ms in every color, and M&M merchandise?
ETA: Saw a later post.
Map stores used to be a thing in most cities - this is one of those things that has largely disappeared over time.
Well, hell, there’s all kinds of stores around here that sell paint.
I still have no idea how a paint store stay in business when there’s invariably a Home Depot within five minutes. You can buy ten different brands of paint at a Home Depot, from the cheap shit on up to the really, really good stuff, at prices that will beat anyone.
I can understand in a weird way what a sock store or a purple store would do a sort of quirky trade, but how do paint stores makes it? It’s not from contractors, because I’ve asked four contractors now this very question and to a man they all said “I get my paint from Home Depot (or Lowe’s, or some similar outfit) and so does everyone I know. No idea how paint stores are still a thing.”
Do they sell all sorts of bones? Because if they do, I think Skulls Unlimited beats them out for specificity.
(Kidding - actually, they sell all bones as well.)
Long shot, but is it called Oilerie? I think it’s set up as a franchise (so they’re getting out of my home state and the midwest), but before he doing the oil thing, I did a lot of business with Curt.
Well, until someone makes the Boner Room (“Baculums and only baculums!”)
Yes. In Greenlake.
Islamorada here in Panama specializes in nautical charts and other nautical publications. Of course, the Panama Canal is a logical place for such a store.
I know of a long-running vintage map store in Bangkok too. Some fascinating stuff in there, and it ain’t cheap either.
Better training? Last time I was in a Home Depot, someone was trying to match a specific Pantone color to ANY paint and got no joy. Seems the all-paint shops can do that.
Yeah. There is a <name redacted> in the town that I work. Five minutes from my office. The big box store is in another town, but just about 15 min away.
Since I don’t paint that much, I much prefer going to the specialty place. And it’s damn damn good paint. Service is good, and matching is no problem at all.
When you talked to contractors, were you talking to contractors that just called themselves that but were actually just guys running their own business with no employees or people with 10+ employees? IME, people with lots of employees like to use actual paint stores (ie Benjamin Moore) because they can keep a line of credit there. Then, they can call, order the paint they need for a job and have their guys pick it up on the way there. Or if the someone out on a job needs a new part for the paint sprayer or some roller covers or whatever, no one is running around for money or a credit card to run to Home Depot, they can just go down to Benny Moore and have them put it account.
Also, as someone else said, you get a lot more experience from the people that have owned the paint store for 25 years than the people that have been working at the Home Depot counter for 3 months.
I work in the lighting industry in New York. Just Bulbs is one of those places that I don’t use much -( mostly because of retail pricing ) but when you need them you really need them and they’ve pulled my butt out of a fire a couple of times. Most of my cohort feels the same way.
They really do stock EVERYTHING.
:eek: I had no idea such stores actually existed. In fact, I opened this thread just to see if anyone had mentioned one of my favorite fake stores from the Simpsons - Just Vinegar.
I LOVED Gargoyles. The floor of the store was (deliberately) covered in dry leaves. I bought several inexpensive plaster of paris gargoyles there as inspiration for the “Gargoyles” chapter in my book.
Across the street there used to be another store called The Gods, which sold nothing but statues, paintings, and bas reliefs of gods from various pantheons around the world. There was another store in Provincetown.
There’s Rita Ford Music Boxes at 18 East 65th Street in New York City, just off Central Park. I don’t know if it’s still there (the current website gives an address in New Jersey – http://www.ritafordmusicboxes.com/ ), but it was fabulous store that sold only music boxes, including some enormous room-sized devices that sounded like organs. Little old Rita Ford used to run the store, but I’m sure she’s dead by now. There are several recordings available made from the music boxes in her store.
My uncle actually ran a paint store for many years. We broke a leaf spring on the truck helping him haul all his stuff from one place to another. One of the pieces of equipment he had was a large color mixer, so if he did not have the right shade on the shelf, he could cook it up for you. A big box store usually cannot offer that kind of service/skill.
I feel like that’s a place that could thrive IRL, given the right market (Whole Foods crowd). They’d probably sell olive oil, too though.