Unique and Unusual Stores Across America

The Shops at Emerson combine a broad cluster of specialty departments with a separate admission-based kaleidoscope show housed in a towering former silo.

The Wizard's Chest turns shopping into a fantasy-castle expedition, combining a professional magic shop, massive costume department, theatrical makeup counter, toy store, tabletop-game shop, science-and-skill-toy department, event venue, and escape-room experience.

Unclaimed Baggage turns the contents of unclaimed travel bags and cargo into a sprawling treasure hunt, filling departments with apparel, cameras, electronics, sporting goods, jewelry, books, luggage, household goods, and whatever else travelers happened to leave behind.

Uranus Fudge Factory & General Store turns a Richmond fudge-and-gift shop into a giant roadside entertainment stop filled with candy, novelty merchandise, dinosaurs, a hanging airplane, a Vortex Tunnel and other intentionally ridiculous attractions.

Von's Shops turns a long-running campus-area bookstore into a maze of records, rocks, beads, jewelry, fashion, comics, cards and novelty merchandise that keeps changing retail categories as you move through it.

Waiāhole Poi Factory Country Store adds a local-artisan marketplace to one of Oʻahu's most historic food destinations, filling the old Waiāhole Valley property with apparel, beauty goods, home pieces, quilts, art, ceramics, stationery, snacks and locally made gifts.

Wall Drug is less a drugstore than an entire retail ecosystem that somehow still contains the operating pharmacy at its core.

Run by local artists and tattoo artists, Wantfull Things combines tattooing with thrift, vintage goods, oddities, punk and ska culture, original artwork, small collectibles, and deliberately strange objects.

Warm Glow Candle Outlet turns a candle-company store into a full I-70 shopping destination, combining fragrances with home décor, gourmet food, clothing, bath products, Indiana wine and beer, gifts and one enormous candle outside.