The most niche shop you know of

magicbastarder

Heading up Dorset Street this morning, we passed Fay's Dancing Shoes. With the closure of the Irish yeast company years ago, we were wondering what the most specialist shop there might be in Ireland or in Dublin, which operates from a publicly accessible retail premises?

gipi

Rory's fishing tackle in the Temple Bar area is pretty niche (and has been going for years!)

the_amazing_raisin

I always reckoned Knobs and Knockers around Nassau Street was pretty niche

geographica

marks models

magicbastarder

There also used to be a place called ecclesiastical metal on Gardiner street. Closed in 2018.

pgj2015

That Duck shop in Kilarney.

magicbastarder

That's going to be hard to beat.

Sleepy

I'll give a local shop to me a shoutout: https://www.theboltstore.ie/

A shop that sells nothing but nuts, bolts and screws.

Rocket_GD

We now have Duck World in St Stephen's Green, Assuming it's a Summer pop up but still how does this make money

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123679521#Comment_123679521

I thought this was going to be the thread winner, but God damn, just one post later?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123679557#Comment_123679557

https://duck-world.com/collections

That’s brilliant 😂

Seth Brundle

House of Names, Temple Bar (formerly Nassau St.), Dublin

https://houseofnames.ie/

Seth Brundle

Actually, Tommy Tighe's Sound Cellar on Nassau St

griffin100

The Stick Shop in Shilleagh, Co. Wicklow.

https://www.oldeshillelagh.com/store

watchclocker

The duck shop is in every city I've been to

Edit; maybe not every city I've been to, but I've been to every city listed

https://collectionduckstore.com/

salmocab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123679894#Comment_123679894

that was a great place to get concert tickets before everything moved online. I presume these days it survives based on loyalty of some metal heads.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123680058#Comment_123680058

Once covid came, I kinda stopped going in but up to then I had been fairly regular. You could still get paper concert tickets off him. I often phoned him up and got him to hold tickets for me for an upcoming gig. But yeah, any income is derived pretty much from rock & metal

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123679557#Comment_123679557

Perhaps I'm being too cynical, but I always look at those pop up shops with some bizarre niche product and wonder if there's a bit of dodgy business like money laundering going on

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123679521#Comment_123679521

huh, i wouldn't have considered that as nuts and bolts are such a generic product!

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123680302#Comment_123680302

Well you can get them from any hardware shop, so a shop specialising purely in nuts and bolts sounds pretty niche IMOI

Strumms

there used to be a shop on Marlborough St here in Dublin that sold only catholic clergy supplies. Looks like it’s gone now or I can’t find a listing for it but it sold priests shirts & collars, vestments, chalices, crosses, incense, communion, communion bowls and various other Catholic Church / priest supplies and curios …..

A friend of my parents has been on the missions in various Asian locations for decades.. Before the world was as well commercially connected as it is nowadays they’d visit that place to get him stuff for Christmas, like a couple of priests shirts and whatever he needed and send off a package to him…

I always enjoyed going in for the sheer weirdness of the old timey and niche experience…..even in the 1990’s the place was like genuinely something from a land that time had forgotten. Extremely old fashioned…

megaten

Little Dear comics in Stonybatter I guess. Sells a lot of small press comics you can't get elsewhere

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123679262#Comment_123679262

Here is another one…. Any Dubliners remember this place in Phibsboro ? My Dad had a bit of a grá for trains and model railways and we’d end up down here two or three times every year.

cml387

Marks Models is not that niche. They have a branch in Cork and in an industrial estate near Baldonnel.

I once saw a shop selling lap dancing outfits, I think in Mary St.somewhere.

xl500

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123679256#Comment_123679256

Long gone

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123680930#Comment_123680930

this one? i suspect they sell more than just lap dancing outfits.

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.3485713,-6.2681575,3a,75y,20.39h,81.83t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s9u2Un50h7hwXXiMMZzDBjQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D8.168461954251413%26panoid%3D9u2Un50h7hwXXiMMZzDBjQ%26yaw%3D20.388088887072826!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDcyMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123680943#Comment_123680943

Ah no ☹️

I guess they were too niche

cml387

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123680961#Comment_123680961

Actually I looked and it's there on streetview. It could also be called knobs and Knockers

Oscar_Madison

O’Reilleys Tripe and drisheen stall - English Makets Cork

https://www.corkcity.ie/en/english-market/market-traders/meat-poultry-and-game/o-reillys/

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123680930#Comment_123680930

yep, a shop catering to a hobby (or several hobbies) is not 'niche' otherwise we'd call golf shops and bike shops niche shops.

the one i mentioned at the start - it's not a shop supplying general dance supplies, but seems to specialise in dancing shoes; so a specific subsection of a hobby.

bbbbb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123680962#Comment_123680962

they moved from nassau st. to dun laoghaire

https://knobsandknockers.ie/

L1011

Tie Rack, actual major chain with branches everywhere at one point. Only sold ties. An item already going out of regular use by the time they opened!