Unique and Unusual Stores Across America

Toadlena Trading Post remains both a working marketplace for local weaving and a museum/archive devoted to the artists and families who built the Toadlena/Two Grey Hills tradition.

Toys “R” Us at American Dream turns the modern toy store back into a destination, combining serious retail with play, a slide and café.

Trackside at Crash’n Bash Hobbies combines radio-control culture, technical track design, and organized racing in Cedar Rapids, IA.

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.

Union Star's Fremont store sells its cheese at the working factory and runs free scheduled morning tours on four days of the week.

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.

VAMPA combines a vampire and paranormal museum, antiques retail, themed merchandise, art, taxidermy, unusual grounds, gardens, and outdoor attractions.

Vermont Teddy Bear’s Shelburne factory pairs plush retail and a make-your-own Design Studio with guided views of bear production.

Very Rich Dead People's Things For Sale turns an enormous Maui estate warehouse into part antique shop, part furniture store, part gallery and part roadside museum, filling it with art, jewelry, records, rugs, crystals, statues, furniture, Hawaiiana and genuinely baffling one-off objects.

Vision Comics & Oddities starts as an old-school comics and collectible shop and then wanders into taxidermy, specimens in jars, horror props, local art, dolls, masks, monsters, and bizarre oversized displays.

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.