Weird shops
Years ago I had a wonderful idea in a vivid dream. I was so excited I woke myself up and scribbled it down on a piece of paper.
In the morning I eagerly searched for the note. It said, simply, “Rubber Hammers.”
The idea was you wouldn’t hurt your thumbs so much when knocking in nails. But of course they actually exist, and are used for knocking in wooden dowels and such.
I needed a rubber hammer to assemble some garden furniture. I went into Homebase, the local D-I-Y superstore, to find one. It had an elegant yellow handle and was priced at £15. I went out again.
A hundred yards up the road in Green Lanes is a mom ‘n’ pop tat shop, selling everything from plastic tablecloths to milk to fireworks. They had a rubber hammer for sale, same elegant yellow handle — £1.50. Sold.
Superstores have educated us to believe they are always cheaper. It’s not always the case.
Shopping is not for me because almost every shop I go into is a replica of another store in the next town, in the next county. We have handed our high streets over to chain stores, the only ones able to afford the rents. And a corporate mask has fallen over our shopping centres.
I yearn for parades of what Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker describes as ‘weird shops’ — outlets with just one or two branches, selling stuff you get the feeling the owner would really rather keep.
The city elders of Nantucket have written a law for people like me. No chain with more than 14 stores across the USA can open up on the island. So no Macdonalds, no Gap, no Old Navy, no Pizza Hut.
How wonderful.
February 20th, 2009 at 11:44
Any ideas why they chose the number of 14?
February 20th, 2009 at 12:00
Not a clue. The City Elders meeting must have been interesting!
February 20th, 2009 at 12:04
Indeed…
Maybe because the island is around 14 miles long?
(I only know that because I just looked it up on wiki!)
February 20th, 2009 at 13:14
Well done you!
February 20th, 2009 at 13:28
A great example is the Rue Esquermoise in Lille; starting with Meert, the world’s finest patisserie, there’s a furniture shop, ironmongery, chic little restaurant, small supermarket, gay bar, pralinerie, shop selling only soap, toy shop, bakery, shop selling different types of coloured paper, an artist’s workshop, kitchenware, newspaper shop, grocery, fine wine merchant and so on. No chain stores at all. Bliss — except when an American friend and I wandered into the gay bar by mistake, and I ordered a strawberry flavoured beer.
March 14th, 2009 at 07:32
I found your topic “fotoLibrarian » Blog Archive » Weird shops” when i was searching for plastic tablecloths and it is really intresting for me. If its OK for you i would like to translate your topic and post it on my german blog about plastic tablecloths. I link back to your topic of course!