The Talk Shop is the world's first conversation salon. An artist opened up a space in Manhattan where patrons spin a conversation wheel to talk with total strangers.
posted by rageagainsttherobots on May 30, 2013 - 24 comments

If you like watching other people work, you are going to love the YouTube channels of Myfordboy, Keith Fenner and Tubal Cain. [more inside]
posted by DU on Dec 12, 2012 - 11 comments

A Collector's Weekly article on 19th Century butcher shop playsets. [more inside]
posted by zamboni on Aug 14, 2012 - 12 comments

Waffle shop is a place to eat waffles, and also a live streaming talk show. [more inside]
posted by idiopath on Apr 18, 2011 - 14 comments

The San Francisco Fire Department has a ladder making shop (SLYT)
posted by zerobyproxy on Sep 30, 2010 - 19 comments

London Shop Fronts
posted by nthdegx on Jun 2, 2009 - 71 comments

The Lido was a shop on a busy road in East Vancouver that was always closed -- yet clearly occupied and maintained. It's been an intriguing mystery for locals for many years. Following the recent death of the owner, an elderly woman who lived above the shop, cleanup crews found old furniture, cans of dry goods -- and more than $400,000 in antique banknotes. [more inside]
posted by PercussivePaul on Jul 11, 2008 - 30 comments

Better World Books - Recently recognized by Fast Company as one of the best for-profit social enterprises of 2008, they offer a wide selection of new and used books with free shipping in the US and less than $3 shipping elsewhere. A portion of the profits go to fund literacy organizations such as Room to Read and WorldFund, and their shipping is carbon-neutral. The only thing missing is the ability to import Amazon wishlists.
posted by divabat on Jan 16, 2008 - 18 comments

The Next Generation Rabbit Pearl Wireless Vibrator is just one of a range of products in Amazon's sex shop.
posted by bobbyelliott on Aug 20, 2005 - 47 comments

Copy Shop   is a 12-minute dialogue-free film by director Virgil Widrich about a guy inadvertently duplicating himself over and over (320 x 240 streaming Real format download link). The most interesting aspect of the short, however, is that it was made frame-by-frame of photocopies, manipulated for jarring visual effects and then shot with a camera to put together the final cut. (Mentioned previously by film aficionado pxe2000.) Also see Widrich's photocopied short Fast Film with even more calamitous, unraveling effects. Get this guy toner refills for his birthday.
posted by planetkyoto on Mar 21, 2005 - 14 comments

Father's day is coming! What do you get for the dad who has everything? Well, you can't get him a Dayak poisoned dart blowpipe from Kenya, or a Lohar throwing sickle, or even a gorgeous domed shield from Persia, because they've all been sold. Better hurry, or it's another tie this year. Maybe you could get him something to poke his elephants with. And yes, I am just a shill for this company: for every 10 scary-looking shark's tooth swords I sell, I get a free decorative skull.
posted by Hildago on May 28, 2003 - 7 comments

I already have plenty of reasons to not buy from buy.com, but this is the latest, and perhaps most bizarre. I do a search for "Phantom Menace," but it instead searches for "KIT MAN POON," which I take to be a Klingon anagram or something. No wonder its stock is wallowing.
posted by luke on Apr 7, 2000 - 7 comments