CACalifornia field entry
Soap Plant / WACKO
Los Angeles, CA
A Los Feliz megastore where handmade soap, books, toys, Japanese robots, postcards, jewelry, housewares, novelties, pop-culture ephemera, and an influential art gallery all share one building.
Soap Plant / WACKO grew from a 1971 family soap-and-craft shop into a sprawling pop-culture emporium and gallery complex, mixing handmade bath products with toys, books, jewelry, housewares, collectibles, strange gifts, and La Luz de Jesus Gallery.
Field notes
Why it belongs
Soap shop, toy store, bookstore, jewelry counter, housewares retailer, novelty emporium, postcard archive, collectible shop, and Lowbrow art gallery.
Few stores can move from handmade lotion to Japanese robots, books, kitchen goods, weird toys, postcards, art, jewelry, and gallery exhibitions without leaving the building.
Soap Plant / WACKO is the retail universe built by Los Angeles artist and entrepreneur Billy Shire and his family. What began as a handmade-soap and craft shop in 1971 expanded into WACKO's enormous collection of toys, books, pop-culture objects, jewelry, novelties, postcards, housewares, and strange gifts. La Luz de Jesus Gallery adds a major contemporary-art component inside the same Hollywood Boulevard complex, giving visitors a combination of retail overload, counterculture history, and gallery experience that defies an ordinary store label.
Store contents
What you will find
Directory categories
Known for
- Handmade Soap Plant products
- Pop-culture toys
- Japanese robots
- Tin toys
- Huge postcard selection
- Books
- Novelties
- La Luz de Jesus Gallery
- Strange gifts and housewares
Plan another detour