In Hollywood there is Dudley Do-Right’s Emporium which sells nothing but souveniers relating to the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon.
I always thought that mattress stores were a weird boutique sort of thing. All they sell is mattresses - and how often do people buy mattresses? Worse yet, near one of our malls there’s at least THREE of them within close proximity!
There’s an M&M store in Vegas. You’d think it was a nice little candy shop that sold M&M’s in all varieties and had a fun wall of “mix your own M&M’s” with 50 colors.
Nope…it’s got all that sure, but it’s THREE FLOORS of M&M crap. Clothing, plush toys, trinkets, different types of M&M packages…VERY odd.
I’m sure there’s alot more little weird boutiques in Vegas but I can’t think of any more off the top of my head. They all mix together 
In New York you can find:
• a chain of magazine-only newsdealers
• at least one roses-only florist
• numerous butchers (usually Italian or German) who sell only pork products
Horribly, terribly pedantic and quibbling remark: that’s not a jump cut. A jump cut is an edit that goes from one shot (say president Bush speaking) to another shot of the same subject framed exactly or nearly the same way but at a different point in time. The result looks like Bush’s head suddenly jumps from one position to another.
My hometown is a smallish college town with a burgeoning music scene, but was for many years without a musical instrument store within its limits. Someone filled this niche by opening up a small shop called The String Shop that sold just instrument strings, plus picks, winders, slides, etc. There were a few used instruments on consignment and a back room for guitar lessons, but the store was essentially the front counter of a regular music store with a lot of empty space around it. We used to call it The Toast Shop becuase it was like a restaurant that sold only toast – handy, useful, perhaps, but limited. It don’t think it lasted a year.
Thrasher’s in Ocean City, MD serves nothing but french fries.
Since their original location on the boardwalk is footsteps away from lots of other types of food stands, extreme specialization would make some sense.
I tried them once, and hated them – too goddamn greasy (and my favorite junk food is Long John Silver’s). Even worse, the grease seeps down, so that the further down you go in the cup, the greasier the fries are.
But since they’re been around since 1929, mine is clearly the minority opinion.
I used to work for a small alarm company whose yellow pages ad, business cards, and window stickers read:
Brilliant.
Mole Hole is a good one. A store dedicated to nothing but carvings, figurines, paintings, and various other items with… a mole theme. If you like moles, that’s the place to go.
Can’t forget specialty auto mechanics, who might work only on obscure brands of cars (one garage in Buffalo services only Italian cars – at least the few remaining that haven’t rusted out from the road salt), or specific parts like alternators and speedometers.
Somewhere in NYC, you know there’s got to be a garage that’s home to “the best damn Volkvo fuel pump specialist around.”
I saw a spot on CNN a couple of weeks ago about a store that one-ups that. They only sell single socks. You know, so when you lose one, you don’t have to throw the other one out, or keep it in your sock drawer for five years in the faint hope that its mate will turn up.
And I almost forgot: Vancouver has The Umbrella Shop, which has done well these past 70 years selling nothing but well-made, durable brollies of an extraordinary variety. (I guess that’s not so surprising, considering.)
A few more New Yorkish emporia, all in or around Grand Central Terminal:
A tiny shop that does nothing but re-string tennis racquets. New racquet? Not here. Busted frame? Tough. Worn out handgrip? Fuggedaboutit.
A watchmaker who only does repairs, no sales.
(Here’s a strange one) A father/son watch shop that sells, repairs, does bands and batteries, the whole nine yards, but calls itself simply “Watch Band Stand.”
New York also has a sportswriter who only covers boxing (Bert Sugar), a critic who only writes about “spirits” (Paul Pacult), and awhile back, Esquire must have employed Pacult’s cousin: a columnist who only discussed mixed drinks.
I remember some years ago strolling through the biggest shopping mall in town and seeing a store right in the center, that opened off into the food court. All they sold were - kites. Not super-fancy kites like you might see a newscast about, or anything revolutionary - just kites.
I can’t help but wonder what the rental was on the floor space in this optimal location in the largest shopping mall was, and how many paper and balsa-wood kites they had to sell just to keep the door open.
Bill Maher brought up this topic once on Politically Incorrect. What’s up with these stores you see in a high-traffic shopping mall that are centered on one product or one theme (the example he gave was “Everything’s Purple!” – toys, T-shirts, pens, notebooks, baseball caps, jelly beans, hairbows – everything they sell is purple)? One of his guests responded that it depends on novelty and a high traffic location: once the novelty wears off in a month or two, the owner closes his doors and re-tools the place with a different tack – “Everything’s Orange!” or fantasy posters or baseball caps with funny sayings – and starts all over again. It’s not going out of business – it’s the same guy. He makes his money until it stops being profitable and starts all over again, and the novelty value keeps people looking for his location to see what’s new.
Huh.
In Dallas (on 35 south towards Waco, I think) there is a big warehouse-lookin’ joint that proclaims itself: [So-and-so’s] Sumo Suit Rental.
If you want a Sumo suit…I know a place!
-Mike
I wonder how many Monty Python fans torture the clerks.
How?
“Let’s see, um… how about a little red Leicester?”
“Yes, sir. $3.99 per 100g. How much would you like?”
Oh, sorry, the cat’s eaten it.
My parents own and operate a store devoted to puzzles. They do all right, but most likely not nearly well enough that they’d be able to afford the rent were they in a mall. I’m aware of two other puzzle stores in this state, both of which are in malls. We’ll see if they manage to survive.
Right in my suburb we have a store devoted solely to buttons, and another one nearby only has braid and embroidery.