Today I was in a part of town I never have before.

I saw a store JUST for badminton.

Those stores that only sell Rubber Duckies come to mind.

I’ve been in a knitting store before. Just yarn and needles and patterns. I can’t imagine how they stay in business.

I've been in a Christmas store that all year long only sold Christmas stuff.

Screws. A whole shop especially for screws and nuts, and you could buy bigger boxes, or smaller boxes, or only one or two, and they took their time to give advice, always with the same friendliness and helpfulness, whether you left a few cents or some real money.

There are lots of those. Many people knit.

spirit halloween seems just the place for a certain one night event.

Art Smart's Dart Mart and Juggling Emporium in Milwaukee.

There's a chain of shops in my country that, at least for a while, pretty much only made and sold bean bags. Freaking fantastic ones, too.

yep, I have two in the family, it just didn't seem like there could be enough knitter-foot-traffic to keep the place open selling $4 spools of yarn

I think my favorite is Nothing Bundt Cakes that sells Bundt cakes. It's a chain, and yes I only like it because of the pun.

I wouldn't go in there often, but I'd be grateful for it when I did.

Rubber stamp store. Just shelf after shelf of rubber stamps and rubber stamp accessories.

For some of us, Halloween is not a night, but a way of life.

indeed. that's how the store stays alive 😄

My town has a mushroom shop.

An entire store full of african-american romance novels. In a VERY white area. It did not stay open long 😞

A good pun will get me in the door every time.

That's because the skeins are $40.

And the delicious cakes will keep you coming back.

Stores that sell clothes branded with one college's logo / name.

There's a bunch of oddball stores in the Pike Place Market in Seattle but the Left Hand store was the most specific place. All left hand tools and stuff. Lots of different scissors.

japan. anywhere in japan

I've been in not one, but three different round the year Christmas stuff stores.

There is a chain of stores in Europe only selling Gouda cheese (Henri Willig).

In Hamburg I've been in a shop specialized on umbrellas.

In Rotterdam I've found a shop selling only socks.

There are several, for some unknown reason, in Amsterdam.

There are at least three of them in Germany.

Würth?

Magic stores.

San Francisco has two of them: Misdirections, a store that's been there for decades, and Houdini's/Vanishing Inc. in touristy Pier 39 who have a second location near Disneyland.

Also, the San Francisco Archery Shop seems very specialized in this age of big box sporting goods stores, but again they've been around for decades it feels like.

The Bee Healthy Honey Shop in Oakland, selling honey, beeswax, and related products and also beekeeping equipment. It's run by a Yemeni family of beekeepers.

I have a container that is specifically used to store my flour.

The Glow In the Dark Cat Shop

You'll never guess what it sells

https://shop-york.co.uk/places/cats/

I came across a very narrow, 5 story store in Japan, a bit off the beaten path in Akihabara, selling exclusively N scale model trains. They had a floor or two dedicated just to the models, another one for scenery, and at least one just for repair parts for your trains. It was really cool to get to see a store that was pretty clearly a passion project for the owner(s) apparently doing well, and filling quite the niche in the hobby (I imagine)

Well, that's an incredibly disappointing store ... :(

In County Cork in Ireland I once saw a shop that was a "Gentleman's hairdresser and railway bookshop."

A glove shop in Lisbon.

Is that... uncommon? There was one in the town I grew up in.

Actually I looked it up and it also sold thread, ribbons and stuff like that. I guess you'd call it a haberdashery. Maybe one just for wool is less common?

I used to live across the street from a ballbearing shop.

As a former archer there are a number of archery shops! I went to one place to buy something and found it very strange that it was just in a row of about 8 shops as part of a small housing estate's little "high street" - alongside a takeaway, tattoo parlour, beauty salon, funeral director - the kind of thing you need a lot more of than archery shops!

It's moved now, I assume something more normal has taken its old spot...

We have a 'Mr Gwint' shop in my city ('gwint' means 'thread' in Polish, and the word is probably familiar to The Witcher players). They mainly sell various fastenings, but also tools and other related stuff. They have a big note on the door 'Only wholesale, no retail. Only full packaging.' But whenever I went there and asked for some screws, they would sell me much less than the full package. Friendly (to the Polish standards, that is) and helpful, unlike the sign on the door. But I wouldn't dare asking for just one or two basic screws.

I visited Pike Place in 2005 with my best friend and his wife, I had a horrible head cold and could not enjoy anything about the place. Sounds like I need to get back so I can visit the Left Hand store.

I have read it is 'nothing but burned cakes' and thought, that this quite specific and weird.

I guess underwear stores are pretty specific?

It's very recently closed its doors, sadly, but you'd be hard pressed to find a more specific shop than long-time Edinburgh landmark, Borland's:

there are a lot of things to smell, like its a lot sometimes. especially if you arent feeling very well. they have expanded the market. No more car traffic on the street outside it and they expanded and built up the area closer to the waterfront, because the viaduct is gone. Many of the old school stuff is still there though. Make sure to give yourself a full day to explore, its a massive and confusing place

My favorite was Wizard's welding and hair salon, sadly closed now.

The Catholic gift shop near me that's open like 8 hours a week. Maybe it's money laundering.

Envios a Cuba, some shops here just send items to Cuba for you. Only to Cuba, only from here

Synthesizer store. RIP to Seattle's Patchwerks. Such a damn shame they went out of business.

of course it's on Brady. of course it is

Haberdashery? Poppycock!

Saw a store that was just rubber ducks. They had celebrity ducks and colored ducks and all sorts of similar things.

I have not, myself, been there, but San Francisco has the Pirate Supply Store.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/826_Valencia

826 Valencia is a non-profit organization in the Mission District of San Francisco, California, United States, dedicated to helping children and young adults develop writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.

826 Valencia runs San Francisco's "only independent pirate supply store". The store is the front entrance of the tutoring center and has the look and feel of an authentic pirate shop.[5] It sells pirate clothing, eyepatches, compasses, spyglasses, pirate dice, skull flags, and secret treasures. It features handmade signs, scattered around the store, offering tongue-in-cheek wisdom, such as "Uses for Lard" (#5: "Lard Fights") and "Guidelines for New Shipmates" (#4: "No forgetting to swab"). Unsuspecting visitors are sometimes treated to surprise "moppings."

Shoppers can also find back issues of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, books published by McSweeney's, and literary compilations written by 826 Valencia students. The books of student writing published by 826 Valencia include forewords, illustrations and interviews from public figures such as Former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom and actor Robin Williams.

The Pirate Supply Store was originally created through necessity. After being turned down for regular use of church basements and school facilities, the founders discovered an empty store on Valencia Street. City ordinances required businesses in that area of the city to be either retail or catering, so the Pirate Supply Store was opened in 2002 as the "legitimate" business front for the writing center. It also helps fund the tutoring program.[6]

I went into a store that specialized in selling canes when I visited London.

It's been a long time since I've bought a skein of yarn, but surely one can get one for less than that.

hits Amazon

It looks like on Amazon, they start at about $4 individually. If you get a pack, it goes under $1/skein.

Those brick-and-mortar stores much have a pretty substantial markup, unless we're talking premium yarn of some sort.