Forget the Walmart Superstores… you won’t find them around here. Look what I spotted just the other day:
Pantofole.
Slippers.
That’s right: a slipper store. Since it was closed I couldn’t verify if they sold just slippers, or a few other slipper-related items, like perhaps pajamas or linens. My guess is probably, but a part of me kind of hopes not, because the idea of a store devoted entirely to just slippers is something that I find quite charming and quaint. I’d have to question how they manage to stay in business, but that’s another story.
Or, how about this shop?
Tessuti per camicie.
Fabric for shirts.
And it looks like that’s exactly what you’ll find…
…if you need to make a shirt.
The only thing I’ve ever seen in the States that comes close to these one-item shops is the One Book Bookstore in Bisbee, Arizona. Walter Swan couldn’t find a publisher for his book, so he self-published and opened a store to sell his book. Just that one book. When he wrote another book, he opened a shop next door called The Other Book Bookstore. I’m not making this up…for four years in the early 1990s I lived about 30 minutes from Bisbee.
But that was more of a publicity stunt, while shops like “Pantofole” and “Tessuti per Camicie” surely have loyal neighborhood customers who know just where to go when they find themselves in urgent need of a pair of slippers or fabric to make a dress shirt.
Does your city or town have any shops like this?
We used to have a lot of small stores here in NY,but now the chains are taking over. There are a few left,like store for sewing notions.
But last year in Naples I happened across a very small store selling only giftboxes made from paper in all kinds of colors & patterns. It was so charming. It’s a shame we are losing these places.
Well I loved it when I new store opened in town that sold ONLY cell phones and perfume. Strange combination and naturally it’s the last thing the town needed, another store with cell phones or perfume. It lasted about 3 months.
Jeff
New Orleans had several when I grew up there (1980s and 1990s). I don’t know what’s happened since Katrina.
It’s hard for stores like that to compete with the big chain stores here. I do wonder how the stores you photographed stay open.
I passed a shop in Budapest the other day called Tungsten. They sell many varieties of light bulbs. No lamps, no fixtures — just light bulbs. There’s another place a few blocks away that sells only buttons.
This type of shop is so charming. I really miss the good old days when there was a shop for each thing. We went to the bakery, the fruit and vegetable man, the butcher, the shoe repair man ect. Those are nice memories
The beauty of these stores is that the people working in them knew and/or know what they are selling inside and out. I really miss that now that most of the little stores near me have closed.
Forget one stop shopping in
Europe, that’s for sure. I personally enjoy the shopping in pieces aspect of living here.
I always wonder how a person decides, though, to open a slipper shop, for instance. Do they have a passion for slippers? Or do they just fall into it somehow?
p.s. I tagged you over at my blog!
I *heart* the window display with the old sewing machine. It reminds me of a good friend of mine in HS, Pina. There was Pina, Lina and Gina.They immigrated to the US. Her dad was a tailor and he had a fabulous shop here in So Cal. She always wore the best clothes and and of course her dad could alter anything she bought.
Oh, yes. In my neighbourhood in Florence, there is in fact a shop that sells only slippers, and that’s where I buy mine.
Need to know about more such shops. If any one knows about shops that sell high spun, high end fabrics for shirts then please do let me know.