Shops selling disparate items

[Stumpy Pepys]

An old Danny Baker trope …

My favourite in Bolton was always Home Brew & Pet Stores. "So, love, I intended to pick up some chlorine sterilizer and siphon tubing, but I bought this parrot instead."

What prompted this thread was a shop near me in Munich, which is concerned with installing saunas, hot-tubs and swimming pools, along with associated accessories. Except they also sell, erm … gravestones.

[Kevin S]

Eddie Izzard did a bit in Definite Article, but I've no idea if it was true or if the shop still exists?

There’s a shop in South London which was a very… it’s still there, apparently. It’s in Tooting High Street, and it sells two very disparate items. On one side of the shop – they put them on different sides, it’s great! One side is guns, and knives, and harpoons and fucking- really mean fucking weapons. On the other side, there’s banjos, and violins, and bassoons, and you know about it, don’t you? Yeah! It’s fucking there! And what’s the guy doing? “Oh, we’re way down in weaponry, but up on banjos this week… That’s good, people are getting lighter these days, in tough times. They shift to music like crazy at the moment! Way down on bassoons!” What, is this mad guy going… Someone browsing around… “An Uzi machine gun, slices a man in two, 200 rounds a minute, or… a banjo!” (mimes playing banjo) “A ukulele, like George Formby.” You remember that famous fight, George Formby against Muhammad Ali? That was very… A dyslexic promoter put it on, and it was brilliant… “I’m gonna kill him, I’m gonna kill him…” (mimes playing banjo) “Hey, turn that… “ (mimes getting punched while playing) “Hey! Oh, it’s a big bugger! (mimes running away while playing) Who put me up for this gig? (punch) Fucking ‘ell!” (bell sound) The trainer comes up,

“You’re doing well, you’re doing well!”

“He’s fucking hitting me!” (continues to play banjo and sings nonsense) “My ukulele is smashed. I’m going to that gun shop!”

[Stumpy Pepys]

When I lived in Sydney there was a local launderette that was also an internet cafe.

[WOM]

My mate and I were in a pub one time when we heard a guy say ‘Yeah, my brother’s coming up from the states next week for a visit. That should be good.’ And the other guy said ‘What’s he do?’ And the first guy says ‘He’s in used cars. And hats.’

[Benjm]

There used to be a newsagent/halal butcher by Norbury station. I don't know whether the original idea was a more conventional convenience store/mini mart but that at some point the proprietors decided that the middle 90% of their range was unnecessary fluff.

At the bottom of Newington Green Road in Islington there was a shop that sold pianos and hydroponic equipment. Eventually the hydroponics edged out the pianos, the kids clearly preferring to grow their own entertainment.

[Jah Womble]

When I lived in Sydney there was a local launderette that was also an internet cafe.

The BrainWash in Soma, San Francisco was 'the' place to do your laundry, eat decent food and latterly use the internet. It sadly closed last year after nearly three decades:

https://sf.eater.com/platform/amp/20...ndromat-closed

[EIM]

Mad how we used to think Eddie Izzard was funny.

[Eggchaser]

Mad how we used to think Eddie Izzard was funny.

Where's my gauntlet?

[Patrick Thistle]

Mad how we used to think Eddie Izzard was funny.

He was funny.

Back then. Been rubbish since Glorious.

[sw2borshch]

I can't believe Fussbudget hasn't been here yet to report the existence of the darts & TVs shop on Leith Walk.

[Fussbudget]

This shop on Leith Walk never fails to amuse:


There used to be a chemist-slash-bicycle repair shop in Bow when I lived in the area, not sure if that's still around.

[Fussbudget]

Ha, I see sw2boro had been expecting me.

[slackster]

In Tun Wells there’s a gentlemans outfitters squarely aimed at the dapper elderly chap stuck in the 1950s, complete with old school wooden draws where the stock is kept. Bizarrely, they also display and sell commemorative plates and small items of crockery which can be hand painted with bespoke designs and are popular with local clubs who want to reward some member for service/achievement. The proprietors are a doddery old couple and I guess it’ll hang around until they are pushing up the daisies.

[Southport Zeb]

I'm sure I've mentioned before the (now closed) shop in Alfreton that sold washing machines and jigsaw puzzles.

[George]

Sutton-in-Ashfield card shop which had a curtained off doorway leading to a large back room rammed with records. Another room with records was found in a PC parts and repair place on a Rotherham industrial estate.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Bakers in Sheerness a few years ago. Also sold small wooden ornaments.

[adams house cat]

In Counsellor NM the post office shares premises with the bingo hall.

[Snake Plissken]

Sort of on-topic, in Coventry I've discovered Shawns Furniture and Carpet Warehouse. Which is right next to Shawns Dream Cars used car salesroom.

[Patrick Thistle]

You should all go to Wroxham where the famous Roy's of Wroxham sells everything imaginable in various premises throughout the village. Including ladies fashion at "Miss Roy".

[adams house cat]

I used to know Alfreton quite well in the late seventies SZ. Changed a lot now, no doubt.

[3 Colours Red]

DB's Emporium in Wrexham is half second-hand video games, half vapes.

[diggedy derek]

The corner shop at the end of my road sells just a paltry few newspapers and magazines, almost all red tops and Turkish language stuff, but with one notable exception - they always carry the Times Literary Supplement.

[gavc23]

I bought a set of darts from Borlands on Leith Walk years ago and it was like Harry Potter, he gave a set of test darts and after watching me throw pulled out various boxes of different weights, sizes and flights until he (not me) was happy I’d got the right ones.

I did think about getting a length of co-ax whilst I was there, but couldn’t face the interrogation about what I’d be using it for.

[BallochSonsFan]

Not so much a shop selling disparate items but I was in the states in 2005. Part of the holiday was a road trip from Kansas to St Louis.

Missouri laws prohibited the selling of fireworks and adult material within many town and city limits. It always made me smile that when we passed what was the interstate equivalent of a motorway service station there would always be a petrol station, a diner, a fireworks factory and a sex toy/porn shop.

[Jah Womble]

When I lived in Wyoming as a kid, that was something I noticed regularly on the depressingly-long weekend shopping trips.

We'd have to do a 100-150 mile round trip by car to take in a decent-sized supermarket - however, had my family subsisted on a diet of gunpowder, we'd have been fine since we'd generally pass at least six firework warehouses before arriving at anything resembling a food store.