Poor Jean Teasdale of The Onion and her father recently got involved in an ill-fated year-round Christmas shop. There actually is, or was, such a place near Erie, PA. I can’t imagine wanting to shop for Christmas kitsch, well, anytime, never mind year-round.
Not far from my office is a place called Bearing Agencies that sells bearings. Not compass directions, but ball bearings. Despite the plural name, there seems to be just that one shop.
A similar distance away from here in another direction is a shop that sells casters. Maybe the occasional cart or dolly, but casters is their primary purpose.
Tiny little cluttered stores with very limited product lines are a quintessentially New York phenomenon, probably because of the city’s long tradition of small-time jobber-wholesalers competing feverishly for ever smaller niches to differentiate themselves.
My favorite story was of the guy who for 40+ years marketed the Dial-a-Pic, the ubiquitous stainless-steel toothpick dispenser. He was a one-man company whose entire line was one model of one product.
Of course, it has a model number: S-11.
There’s one of those in San Francisco for reasons I can’t begin to understand.
There are several “Condoms to Go” stores in the Dallas area.
WOOT! I guess it’s up to me to mention Ned Flander’s Leftorium, selling only items for left-handed people.
There used to be TWO Christmas stores in Savannah. I can’t imagine the horror of having to work there year round.
Yikes! What’s the alternative?
One of my professors mentioned going to Akhibara once and finding a manwho sold red push-buttons for electronics projects. That’s it. Only red push-buttons. If you want a red pushbutton, he’s your man. Momentaries, toggles, light-up or not, almost any shape or size, he could get you a red pushbutton. You want a red dial? Sorry; he knows a guy who can help you out, but he doesn’t have it. How about a blue pushbutton? Sorry; once again, he can point you in the right direction, but he doesn’t have it.
We have a flag store here. First, it is uncommon to fly a flag in this area. Second, if you had a burning desire for a Canadian flag, you can pick one up very cheaply without the expense of paying for parking to visit a downtown boutique.
I expect the shop to be open approximately five more minutes, if it hasn’t sunk already. I have no idea what the owner was thinking setting up shop here.
I haven’t been in a while, so I can’t say if it still exists, but there was a store like that here in San Diego at Seaport Village, a local tourist trap.
BWAHA! I took one look at the name, and thought to myself, “That sounds like a business that would do well here in Ballard, Greenwood, or Fremont.” Sure enough: Greenwood. Seriously, just cruise around north Seattle and you could probably find hundreds of these funky little specialised stores. And they do well! I’ll have to keep my eyes open for a contribution to this thread next time Mr. Stasaeon and I go for a drive. Or hell, next time I go for a walk. 
Oh! I thought of one, I think it’s around Greenwood or Phinney Ridge… or maybe it’s near the University? (still learning my way around here, I’m just a small town girl… thankfully this is a small city) - here in Seattle is a little bakery dedicated solely to selling specialised “adult” themed cakes and pastries. You need a cake that looks like a penis or a nice firm set of boobs? You go there. I can’t remember the name of it anymore, I’ll ask Mr. Stasaeon when he gets home. The company he works for is all male, and they like to go there and buy each other penis cakes for birthdays and send-offs. What’s that? Why, yes, I trust my husband not to sleep around on me. He never looks at other women… what? Oh. OHH!
I have two friends who once worked at the Chicago Newton Source. It was a national chain that sold Apple Newton PDAs and associated accessories only. They would often mention days where there were zero purchases.
In the local area (or at least I’ve seen adverts for it) is a place called “The stool store” they sold (You guessed it!)… stools. 3 legged, 4 legged, with backs and without backs. Nothing but stools.
Reminds me of Waiting For Guffman
I remember a skit on an ensemble type TV show, someone worked in a place called The Ball Store. The store was totally empty except for one ball on a table. A customer walks in and announces he wants to buy the ball and the salesman won’t sell it because if he did, he wouldn’t have anything to sell and would have to go out of business. The customer suggests the salesman go get more balls to sell and the salesman says he doesn’t have the money to buy more balls till he sells the ball he has. It ends with the customer buying the whole store for a ridiculous price and the salesman walking off with a fist full of money.
That would be the erotic bakery. NOTE: Link probably not work safe, use caution. I knew of some management types at my work that were suspended for bringing a cake from this bakery onto company property.
Are candle stores really unusual? There’s one in my local mall.
I’d assume they’d sell matches, too, but I don’t know for sure.
Used to be a kite store in my neighborhood, but I guess the idea really didn’t fly.
Yeah, we have a bunch in Montreal too, with names like Le Condom du Fun and La Capoterie.
Here too, a fairly large store one metro stop down from where I live. They have every conceivable flag. I think if you wanted the flag of the capital district of East Borogrovia, they would have it in stock.