What shops do you have fun in?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I mean other than shops that SELL real actual fun.

― Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 13:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Ermmmm... art supply stores. And I haven't been in one in YEARS!

I just love playing with all the paintchips and sampling all the coloured pens and sniffing the paper and oooooohhhh! What fun! I love love love them!

Why can't guitar stores be that fun? Cause they're not. They should be, but they're always filled with annoying wankers showing off how badly they play Stairway To Heaven and not letting you near the pedals. :-(

― kate, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm no Technophile, but I was literally salivating checking out Flatscreens and stereos and DVD players in Curry's the other day.

It's weird, because that's so not me, to go and drool over boy's toys, but clearly I have some sort of latent techno fetish.

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I like electrical equipment stores for some reason, as well. I miss Radio Shack. Anyplace you can buy LED's and speaker cable and things for adapting RCA stereo jacks to two mono quarter inch jacks and the like...

― kate, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't seem to have fun when commerce is involved. Oh how fucking prattish is that?

― hstencil, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Oddly, since I don't buy cosmetics beyond the bare minimum, Boots. And stationery-type shops with all little nice notebooks and pens and stuff. And flea markets.

Matt has just applied for a job in 'HIM: the shop for him' or something. Boy gadgets!

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Stationary shops = HEAVEN.

― kate, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I like going to Williams & Sonoma and pretending that yes, someday I would have use for all those fancy kitchen tools... or a melon baller

― phil-two (phil-two), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Stationary shops: oh yes! Especially ones that sell really esoteric stuff that only hardcore admin types know how to use.

― RickyT (RickyT), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I mean other than shops that SELL real actual fun.

What, are you putting these guys down?

http://www.euronet.nl/users/sjaak/Madness/HOFscan.gif

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I want a melon baller, despite the irredeemable naffness. Just because it sounds so dirty. Steamer Trading is a good shop for kitchen covetousness in general.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Radio shacks are both grebt and fustrating. The people working in them have no clue what they are talking about yet they have all sorts of great things like resistors, pots, switches, solder, record needles, all sorts of stereo plugs.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

RickyT:

http://www.fisco-fasteners.co.uk/Stationery/Ttags.JPG

― Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

another vote for stationary shops here. I get wacky in those places.

― Nathan W (Nathan Webb), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm glad this shop is stationary and not rolling down the street!

― kirsten (kirsten), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Ikea to thread!
They even have beer and swedish meatballs.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I quite like going to my local Maplin. Because even if I just give the vaguest, crappest description of what I need ('thing... two phone cables... one socket... thing') they know what I mean. And there's not many places where the shop assistants actually command my respect.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Treasury tags are esoteric?

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)

not esoteric, but SEXY as hell

― Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:20 (twenty-two years ago)

kirsten is OTM.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I get excited about second hand stores and yard sales. But actual factual shops... Hmmm... I like record stores, of course, and guitar stores. But I really only like tiny mom and pops type guitar stores - the kinds filled with lots of used stuff, because you can discover great things if you move stuff around. I get annoyed in huge Mars-ish stores that have 20 of the same new guitar on a wall and all those guys jammin' stupid slap riffs really loud. I also like crafts stores, like Michael's. And bookstores are very good too!

― Sarah MCLlUsky (coco), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:22 (twenty-two years ago)

That's one hot picture of treasure tags Alang, but I still think staple removers are the superior stationery product.

― RickyT (RickyT), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Radio Shack would be more fun if the employees gave me the benefit of the doubt that I actually DO know what I'm looking for and didn't follow me around with those terrified looks on their faces.

Circuit City can be fun.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha I was going to mention staple extractors. I alwasy keep one in my troll cupboard at work. They are the epitome of functional elegance.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Ditto on the second hand "THING" stores. Especially Salvation Army and their ilk. Oh, and second hand bookshops. Much better than big, overly well lit and overly clean first hand bookshops.

― kate, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:27 (twenty-two years ago)

(HSA cannot pass a second hand bookshop... he just can't do it! Even if there's nothing in it that he wants, he'll start buying books for other people under spurious reasoning... "Oh, here is a book about structural building cladding written by engineers... It's only 50p!" ::gives HSA that "you don't have room for another junk book in your house!" look:: "I'm buying it for your housemate Ed! He is an engineer! He will like it!")

― kate, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Another vote for the stationery shops and secondhand bookstores. Lovely.

Also, I like going to The Body Shop and re-doing my make-up at their expense. Including nail polish. I get a few funny looks, but generally they don't seem to mind.

I like Borders, the book shop, too. I like collecting up a dozen good CDs and a few magazines from the display stands then taking them to the coffee shop. There you can get comfy on a sofa, have a coffee, read the latest mags and scan the barcodes of the CDs into that clever little machine so you can sit there with headphones on listening to yr fave tracks. (Sometimes I forget where I am and embarrass myself and others by singing along). I could spend all day in there, if only I had the time to spare.

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Lush.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Hahahaha!

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, I like going to The Body Shop and re-doing my make-up at their expense. Including nail polish. I get a few funny looks, but generally they don't seem to mind.

Yeah, I'm not generally a big makeup person, but I love going to Sephora and trying on all the expensive stuff.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Lush gives me an asthma attack, just walking past it - never mind actually going in there. Phew!

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Fancy-ass kitchen shops -- YAY! Rare is the guitar shop where I can have fun, but I still go in and try.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah I find Lush overpowering. I go in there to buy gifts for Matt occasionally though, since he is a big ole gay...I mean since he likes to look after his body and soul and smell nice and stuff.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:36 (twenty-two years ago)

it's not a "shop" as such, but flea markets generally give me much fun.

― Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I also have fun in Ikea! This is my bourgeois confessions thread!

I like Borders in Brighton but not any of the other ones really, even though I buy most of my books there.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Lush! Good god, you can smell it from miles away! I made HSA go in there a few weeks ago and he nearly passed out.

― kate, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:41 (twenty-two years ago)

You get used to it after a few visits and the enormous bars of carveable soap are some of the most beautiful commercial objects on earth.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha in Victoria station you can find Lush and the International Cheese Centre next to each other! It's running a gauntlet of sensory overload to get to the Brighton line!

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I love going into computer hardware stores (my favourite local one)- the non-fancy ones like Circuit City or Future Shop, and talking to the guys (if they have time). I like Costco, too. Don't know why.

― Bryan (Bryan), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I have fun in the ICC too! Admittedly it's a poor combination placing.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

WARNING: do not read this boys. or girls who hate girlie stuff.

I think the shop I had most fun in was a wedding dress shop choosing a dress for my friend as instead of helping her choose a dress to fit her dull criteria (no bows. no flowers. no lace. no frills. no flounces. NO FUN) I just ran around grabbing armfuls of white tulle and shouting I WANT THIS ONE! NO THIS ONE! and then sat on the comfy sofa with other helper friend sniggering at the girls who had picked really crappy dresses (but at the same time feeling quite bad for them). Some people even got given glasses of champagne! but not us. I'm not sure what you had to do to get the champagne.

― Emma, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I feel so left out on this thread.

― hstencil, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I like the Lush on Queen Street. It used to cover the stench of the bars next too it in summer when they keep the doors open.
Shampoo bars of the world unite and take over.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:48 (twenty-two years ago)

That's because you haven't visited my OSCILLATOR SHOP yet, hstencil. You'd have fun there, rest assured! ;-)

― kate, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I had fun buying baby clothes for my drummer's baby shower next weekend. I was wrapping them last night and Nick teased me cuz I was just sitting there playing with them instead of actually wrapping them.

― Sarah McLUsky (coco), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I always think I should have fun in pound shops but to be honest they're miserable.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Okay now I can think of one: Weekend Records and Soap in Chicago. It's fun because of the people who own it/work there, mostly.

― hstencil, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah I sometimes go to pound shops for industrial size sacks of broken KitKats etc like the pig I am, but no joy is to be had there.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:52 (twenty-two years ago)

(Oh god Sarah I love baby gear shops, everything is so damned ickle and cute not to mention expensive. Wedding dress shops + baby shops = feminism is yet to reach my brain ha)

― Emma, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha I visited a pound shop today as a certain ILx-er will find out in a couple of hours.

I have fun in video games shops but also PAIN cos I can't afford all the lovely shiny things. And HMV Oxford St and charity shops and bookshops and NEALS YARD DAIRY oh yes indeed.

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Video game shops are disqualified by virtue of selling REAL ACTUAL FUN IN A BOX. Or at least I assume they are, and this is why no one has mentioned Hamleys or any record shops yet.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Noodles=OTM about Lush. I feel high after I go there. They have a location in Banff and there's something great about going in there and then stepping out into cool, stereotypically clean Canadian mountain air afterwards.

― Bryan (Bryan), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)

The most fun shop ever is the magic shop underneath Charing Cross station, mostly because its actually underground and hidden away like a really tacky Harry Potter scene.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:00 (twenty-two years ago)

i LOVE that (magic) shop just cos it exists. it actually feels just a bit sordid inside, but it's great that it's there at all.

― Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:01 (twenty-two years ago)

WHSmiths.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Ooh and I like that little tiny games shop at Camden lock that Liz and Robster showed me once. With the little wooden puzzles and the chess and everything.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Lush is nice! I loved going into the one on Queen St. in Toronto. A pity that they don't have any shops in the US.

Emma was also right about wedding dress shops, if you are not looking for a dress for yourself they can be very entertaining.

― Nicole (Nicole), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Austin Liqours and Julio's Liqours. I could spend hours in both. But I buy what I need, go home and get shitfaced.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Having never seen this Lush chain or anything, I am imagining a store where tracks from Spooky play endlessly while the entire staff downs varieties of cocktails all day.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

In reality, it sells poncey soap that you can smell for MILES outside the shop, and makes you feel a bit ill.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Where is the magic shop? In the arched bit off Villers street or in the tube bit? Do you need a password?

I have fun in Growshops and Gardening centres. Frustrating as I don't have a garden.

― Simeon (Simeon), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:26 (twenty-two years ago)

It's down the entrance to the tube station on the other side of the Strand, in the secret underground shopping mall that smells of centaur's wee, and has a sleeping wizard drinking magic potion in the corner.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

The Charing Cross magic shop is in the passageways underneath Strand that lead to the tube station, I think. I remember going there years and years ago, when I was v ickle.

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Or at least that's what my mum said.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:28 (twenty-two years ago)

In reality, it sells poncey soap that you can smell for MILES outside the shop, and makes you feel a bit ill.

Ruin my fun image, why don't you. Still, I think 4AD/v23-designed soap would definitely have an audience somewhere.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

They have a Middle Earth soap, you would like it.

― Nicole (Nicole), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:33 (twenty-two years ago)

No, that just makes me think of unwashed hobbits (still, Sarah and Katie to thread!).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Like you need a soap to think of unwashed hobbits...

― Nicole (Nicole), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Is there a more intimidating part of the tube? Maybe Vauxhall? Even as a hardened London those place give me the willies. (Disclaimer: I've never really understood what having 'the willies' entails)

― Simeon (Simeon), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Which bit of Vauxhall tube is intimidating?

― Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Like you need a soap to think of unwashed hobbits...

Frankly, given the state of sanitation that must have existed in Middle Earth, I would rather not think about anything unwashed in that milieu at all. And when the last time Gandalf laundered his robes?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Vauxhall tube used to home to the scariest bunch of aggressive beggars I ever saw, admittedly it was some years ago. The way it slopes down to the barriers just seems to shout 'impending violence'. Maybe it's just me!

Other shops I have fun in are foreign supermarkets - they're great.

― Simeon (Simeon), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Food shops rock my world, but chiefly when the hand over samples of the produce for nibbling. Cheese shops are probably king here becuase of the sensory overload as mentioned above. Props to the neals yard dairy for this especially, they won't sell you cheese wihout letting you try it which is only right and proper. They did try not to seel me the cheese that had turned into a puddle though, mainly because it was the last day they could sell it and if it hadn't sold they'd get it to take home at the end of the day. They did relent and sell me so puddle cheese though.

I also like cooking equipment shops, particularly pro shops. I like to play with all of the esoteric cooking gadgets and dream about what might be.

There is a magic shop at the corner of leather lane and clerkenwell road.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

...which Jerry Sadowitz works in.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Ruin my fun image, why don't you. Still, I think 4AD/v23-designed soap would definitely have an audience somewhere.

Well the Lush on Queen street looks like a cheese shop and its a few feet down from where Lush would have played in Toronto if they were at the Horseshoe (which is very likely) or Rivoli, Bammboo and 360 (Not as likely).

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Lush when I'm somewhere there is one
Do I really need to say Victoria's Secret? Any lingerie shop, really
Art supply stores
Places like Williams Sonoma and Sur Le Table - if I can buy something to cook with, I am in heaven.

― luna (luna.c), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 16:26 (twenty-two years ago)

sanrio

― help me lord (gygax!), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 16:52 (twenty-two years ago)

million year picnic/a comic shop in cambridge, ma that i hang out and read comics in. the funny farm is next door. it is filled with odd toys and good stuff, & of course BOrders has been a favorite for @10 years now. i like looking through all the $30 Art Magz that i can not afford. the marrs music used to have a drum room that was open all the time, another favorite, until they shut down.

― kephm, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 17:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Anywhere that sells clothes, food or makeup. Actually, all shops are fun.

Cheap clothes shops are especially fun, as are supermarkets. Last Friday I went to a cheap clothes shop and bought:
1. A rainbow scarf
2. Jeans with black courdroy bits
3. Three black jumpers
4. A very short pleated black skirt (probably too short to wear - but cute)
5. A black Chinese looking tee-shirt

― toraneko (toraneko), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 17:02 (twenty-two years ago)

oh man, I forgot bookstores

― luna (luna.c), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 17:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, and tonight I bought new shampoo and conditioner at the supermarket and they look and smell nice. I bought a lot of other things too. In fact, I went to two supermarkets. I spent $50 at Safeway and $150 at Coles. It was a big night. I even bought some plastic funnels.

― toraneko (toraneko), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 17:05 (twenty-two years ago)

It's funny, but a lot of the time I don't enjoy bookstores and record stores as much as I probably should, either because they have something I want very much but I can't afford right now or because I'm desperately searching for something that they don't have for some stupid reason. I don't have the complications of all of those expectations and unfufilled desires in other types of stores.

― Nicole (Nicole), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 17:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Air Market, Kiehl's, Metropolis, Sunrise Mart, Flying A, 99x, Tokyo 7, Zakka, yea Sanrio, and any of the shops along Mott St. stocking Sanrio products. I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot.

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 17:45 (twenty-two years ago)

What, Nicole, Gygax admits his Sanrio love and you say nothing?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 18:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I haven't been in a Sanrio store in about 3 years! Mainly because there aren't any around here. It's almost like they don't really exist.

― Nicole (Nicole), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 18:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Sanrio Michigan, it'll happen. Oh, it's true.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 18:39 (twenty-two years ago)

For me it's all about what I am looking through, so #1 is secondhand music stores, second is secondhand bookshops. Oddly, comic shops are a long way behind, because they are mostly unpleasant.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 18:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I forgot Hotel Venus, Delia's in Woodbury, and Super Lovers UK on Neal St.

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 18:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Lil' Thingamajigs -- they have two or three stores in the Washington area selling Sanrio and similar stuff. I think the stores' real purpose (Momus to thread?) is a social club for young Japanese people in the Washington area -- the Rockville store has turntables and apparently was open this past Christmas Day.

Used books and records stores are cool, but I really like high-end fabric stores. It's fun to study some fabric's weight and drape and imagine making it into some extraordinary outfit.

― j.lu (j.lu), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 20:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Dude, I will fucking buy a dirty used book off a homeless man in a subway station = I like all shops.

― Ally (mlescaut), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 21:57 (twenty-two years ago)

what ally said. I'm a fucking consumeristic whore. It would be easier to list shops I don't enjoy = wal-mart.

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 22:22 (twenty-two years ago)

A second vote for nurseries (plants, not kids). Especially the fancier ones that are laid out like the gardens in mansions or parks.

And the usual stuff, record/book stores where I can browse without being pounced upon by a sales drone. Antique/Junk stores. Guitar stores would be good if I could play something more advanced than the chords to "Smoke On The Water."

― nickn (nickn), Thursday, 15 May 2003 00:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Lush rocks, though I agree the overpowering pong out on the street is a bit much. Mmm bath bombs...

I also love Ikea, wacky kitchen stores, and art/craft supplies places. Paint! Paper! Sparkly things! Shells! Mosaic tiles! Oh dear there goes all my money! There's a store in Chapel street called Handworks that specialises in selling stuff wot you use to make things yourself. It is impossible to come out emptyhanded, and it *seems* cheap, but it really isnt (those pretty shells and glue and bits of shiny paper sho' do add up).

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 15 May 2003 00:33 (twenty-two years ago)

American Science and Surplus rules, and they do mail order!

http://www.sciplus.com

(I hope that lit up in blue.) The product descriptions alone are worth a visit. Also in Chicago, I recommend Hard Boiled on Roscoe (one-stop shop for all my music/comics/import video needs), and a vintage clothing shop (whose name I've forgotten) down the street and just the other side of Damen that had great stuff at low prices.

― sgs, Thursday, 15 May 2003 04:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, the street basically rules over all shops. Pearl River is fun because they have the gamut and it's totally cazj, they have like super-cheep alarm clocks and cookware and gesso and little pencils. Kiehl's is pretty fun because of the motorcycles and the assistant-consultant types in lab coats and silver Kiehl's brooches but it can get a little stressy when they ask "can I touch?" and start playing with your hair and basically playing God with the life of vos cheveux. I remember a toy shop on Mass Ave in Cambridge near Porter Square called "Joie de Vivre" that had all these low-tech toys from like Denmark and they encouraged you to play with all of them, that place rocked.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 15 May 2003 05:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I miss collectors corner. It was a shop round the back of Euston station where you could buy railway surplus. Everything from teaspoons to signals and electrical equipment from trains. It was the most amazing place ever and I want to know where all the stuff went. It's trendy 'loft style appartments' now.

Ienjoy junk shops like no others especiall when the sell old kitchen equipment.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 15 May 2003 06:10 (twenty-two years ago)

there's a stall on portobello under the rail bridge that sells old kitchen stuff. quite pricey though.

― Alan (Alan), Thursday, 15 May 2003 07:33 (twenty-two years ago)

The Middle Earth soap is the best.

MVE shops are the definition of anti-fun though you feel good when you get out and look at your bargainz.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 15 May 2003 08:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Oooh the supermarket and bookshop in Oriental City!!!

Ooh I am so going to Oriental City on Saturday.

― Sarah (starry), Thursday, 15 May 2003 09:57 (twenty-two years ago)

j.lu, where are the lil thingamujigs shops?

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 15 May 2003 11:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Collectors Corner moved to York, and then shut down.

― caitlin (caitlin), Thursday, 15 May 2003 14:34 (twenty-two years ago)

bugger that sucks

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 15 May 2003 16:29 (twenty-two years ago)

There was a shop on Leith Walk in Edinburgh (there may still be), that I was mostly too scared to go into, but whose window I used to have great fun gazing into. It was full of old electrical stuff, musical equipment, piled like the junk in somebody's cupboard. It was fun to guess what some of the stuff was. It was fun to wonder what the shop itself was, and why it just threw everything on top of everything else. Some people said the shop was a front for some kind of criminal activity, but I never understood how that would work. I expect organised criminals to be more organised. I wish there was a shop like this in London.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Thursday, 15 May 2003 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

also in Chicago, I recommend Hard Boiled on Roscoe

I think Hstencil knows the guy (Mark) who owns the place, am I right? I was actually just there last week. Went to Village Discount Outlet afterwards.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 15 May 2003 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Mary: The ones I've been to are in DC (Georgetown Park) and Rockville (1776 E. Jefferson St., the shopping center with the CompUSA). They also seem to be in Ellicott City and Dulles Town Center.

― j.lu (j.lu), Thursday, 15 May 2003 21:41 (twenty-two years ago)

eek none are metro friendly:(

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 15 May 2003 21:52 (twenty-two years ago)

The Rockville one is perhaps 5 blocks from the Twinbrook Metro, but you have to know where it is.

― j.lu (j.lu), Thursday, 15 May 2003 22:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Georgetown Park

the G2 will get you from Dupont to Georgetown. It stops at various points along P St., beginning at the island just below the circle.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 15 May 2003 23:25 (twenty-two years ago)

There was a shopfront like this on Chapel st next to the Astor Theatre (in Melbourne). It had piles and piles of lamps and similar decorative junk, but there was never any clear indication that it was an actual store, even though it was all on display in the window. I dont think it even had a sign.

One day, my boyfriend of the time went in to look at the lamps and this strange old man came out and told him to get out. It was like a warped Black Books episode, only with lamps.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 16 May 2003 01:07 (twenty-two years ago)

i have never taken a dc bus

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 16 May 2003 17:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Bookstores.

Exotic food stores.

Cookware stores.

Leather stores.

Kinky sex shops.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Saturday, 17 May 2003 01:42 (twenty-two years ago)

life is about adventure

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 17 May 2003 01:43 (twenty-two years ago)

the G2 will get you from Dupont to Georgetown. It stops at various points along P St., beginning at the island just below the circle.

Or walk it, you sissies. It's no more than 10 blocks. Closer to Georgetown Park is the Foggy Bottom Metro then up to M St. God I miss DC.

― adam (adam), Saturday, 17 May 2003 02:39 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, it's a very nice walk. though not exactly people-filled, especially if you take the shortcut through the park (following the running path once you cross the bridge on P and pass the rock creek parkway entrance/exit on the left). foggy bottom is a few blocks closer, i guess, but that walk is deadeningly boring.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 17 May 2003 12:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Ditto lush (and I'm not a big old gay). We got hooked on it in London. BUT, they do have a US shop, Nicole, it's in San Francisco near Union Square. We spent too much money and too much time in there now. I don't find the smell overpowering at all, not in a perfumy way.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Saturday, 17 May 2003 15:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Are you small and young, Anthony?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 17 May 2003 16:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Is that a come on?

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Sunday, 18 May 2003 02:37 (twenty-two years ago)

hahahahaha, what?

― RJG (RJG), Sunday, 18 May 2003 02:43 (twenty-two years ago)

This is a bit off-topic, but there is/was this tiny little hut a block of telegraph ave in berkeley where a little tiny old asian man repaired eyeglasses. He had a nude picture of himself cavorting amongst the wildlife posted on the door (!?), and one day I saw him come out of the shop and hop into the drivers seat of a convertible sports car with a breasty blonde on the passenger side, and drive off. I was like "Woah, the secret life of little old eyeglass repairmen!"

Also: if you are a child, Pier 1 is the best place on earth. You get to run around and CAUSE MAYHEM. For instance, the wall-shelves that they keep their pillows and comforters on are like 5 feet deep, so you can crawl all the way back in there and hide. And no one can resist stealing one of the little liquid-filled bath soap things and biting into it just to make sure that it really doesn't taste like candy (it doesn't). Plus just marveling at all the strange foreign objects of unknown function makes a kid feel like they're in the shop from the beginning of Gremlins.

― Dan I., Sunday, 18 May 2003 04:06 (twenty-two years ago)

candy shops. i like walking into a store where there's nothing but wall-to-wall sweets. it's very primal (esp. since Halloween was by far my favorite holiday as a little kid). and i used to have a "frequent customer" card with the Sweet Factory at 45th and 3d in Manhattan when i worked in the vicinity, i was so bad like that!

― Tad (llamasfur), Sunday, 18 May 2003 04:10 (twenty-two years ago)

hardware stores, the big megamart kind. i like that timber/paint/potting mix smell and to me it is a big playground

― minna (minna), Sunday, 18 May 2003 05:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Spatula City

― oops (Oops), Sunday, 18 May 2003 05:50 (twenty-two years ago)

what is lush?

I like record shops where the ppl who are working in them are a bit nuts. i do go to bookshops as well.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 18 May 2003 07:53 (twenty-two years ago)

lush is a bath shop, probably the best bath shop in the entire world.

Dan, the eyeglass guy is still there, right across from people's park.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Sunday, 18 May 2003 08:24 (twenty-two years ago)

My favourite times in a shop have been the times when Sean C and I would go to a bookstore owned by a guy we named Ciggydoo Don. We would go after hours and just hang out mostly, talk about books and listen to music. There were usually odd characters about (besides Don), and it was a rare occasion when I would leave without having laughed my ass off at least once.

― Bryan (Bryan), Sunday, 18 May 2003 09:17 (twenty-two years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.