[Market Research] What's the Charmingly Mediocre Local Business in Your Town?
3Mediocrity isn’t confined to the internet. We’d like to draw some retail-level inspiration from your favorite odd stores, bad diners, and questionable food trucks. Tell us about your faves!
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My ex-brother-in-law worked at a local vacuum repair and sales shop. They kept pretty busy and he was a reliable source of those good ol’ classic rebuilt Kirbys.
This was way looong ago tho…
@therealjrn
mine just closed. they kept my vacuum in for repair!
@jouest
/giphy shocked!
@jouest @therealjrn
well, that SUCKS!
@chienfou @therealjrn It’s a Miele, too!!
guess I’m waiting on @troy to come up with a juicy deal on a truckload of refurbs or something…
@jouest
Sweet!
@chienfou used to be!
@chienfou So @jouest - They still have your unrepaired vacuum?
@chienfou @Kyeh presumably. it’s a jamba juice now.
the counter girl either didn’t know anything about where my vacuum went or is playing dumb.
@chienfou @jouest Oh, that’s horrid.
@chienfou @jouest @Kyeh I can’t imagine how that vacuum would make a good juicer.
@chienfou @Kyeh @therealjrn no, it sucks
Local businesses? Hmm. Well, my closest town has a population of 2371, up from 2331 in 2020, so it’s growing! We even have our own DMV - open Wednesdays.
Maybe the oddest/most eccentric business we have makes fantasy coins - like copper coins of Gondor and Dale (legal tender at the Green Dragon), and the Valor Morghulis coins of the Faceless Men (GoT) - useful if you ever need passage to Braavos. And they sell lots of other stuff you never needed until you see it and realize you “need” it.
https://www.shirepost.com/
@rockblossom is this a tourist destination or something? how in the money laundering hell can this survive? (I love it.)
@jouest I’ve seen tour buses parked there.
They are officially licensed by the various fantasy writers/owners/producers to make the coins, so they have some ready-made marketing. Beyond that, perhaps it’s just
@jouest @rockblossom
Yeah, it’s funny. But then again, all that shit has to be made somewhere so why not Arkansas? I’m guessing a LOT of their stuff is mail/net orders and shipped out to specialty stores hither and yon.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@chienfou @rockblossom
not gonna lie, was not thinking of online sales. who buys stuff from a website anyway??
@rockblossom hey, thanks!! Alien coins and such?? Christmas gift ideas abound!!
Red Shirt Comics
@heartny perfection.
and now I’m motivated to snap a picture of our local weird comics/toy store…
EDIT: okay realistically that isn’t happening even though I drove by there 10 minutes ago and will again tomorrow, so here’s one from their website
@heartny @jouest Wowwww. Several decades ago I got into collecting female action figures, because at the time they were fairly scarce. I would have been dying to visit that store! I’ve moved on to other obsessions now, but that store looks very cool. (I looked at the website.)
@heartny @Kyeh
yeah I’ve been driving by it for 20 years and went in for the first time the other week. is QUITE cool.
@heartny @jouest @Kyeh
The fact that they managed to stay open for 20 plus years it is testament in and of itself.
@chienfou @heartny @Kyeh longer than that! (I think.)
@heartny ah makes me miss Jim Haley’s even more
Local Burger/BBQ spot. Pretty good (locally grown) food.
@macromeh those mascots look delicious
The diner.
CypressNCedar Designs
@sillyheathen Not so mediocre.
@Kyeh @sillyheathen WHY DO I KNOW THIS PLACE
@jouest @sillyheathen Also I love the color of your siding.
@Kyeh @sillyheathen looks comfy (as long as heat works this time of year). Eyeing the tractor hiding on the left.
@Kyeh @pmarin I give rides on the tractor.
And the HVAC isn’t installed yet but I will say that I had a little space heater in the office side to help expedite drying time with the paint and it stayed nice and cozy. I actually had to turn it off because it got too warm.
@Kyeh @pmarin @sillyheathen Is that a Yanmar tractor? (I just bought a new one earlier this year after my 30 year old John Deere finally gave up.)
@Kyeh @macromeh @pmarin she’s a small Massey Ferguson. I have a backhoe attachment and the bucket. I love her to bits! The only thing I regret is not getting her sooner.
@Kyeh @pmarin @sillyheathen Ah, the red paint w/black bucket is the same scheme as my Yanmar.
)
Yeah, you can do a lot of work with a good compact tractor. (I had tractor withdrawal when the old John Deere gave up.
Here’s a fascinating story that seems like it fits this thread (unlocked article):
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/business/vicky-szuflita-vintage-store.html?unlocked_article_code=1.yk8.7Oxw.ZDD0NiLfHG6C&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
@Kyeh yeah! that’s the stuff.
@Kyeh that’s amazeballs.
This charming, local restaurant is the Flying Pig Cafe. In addition to the giant flying pig outside, the inside has a pig-themed décor. Unfortunately the owner’s husband recently passed away, so the restaurant is permanently closed. We don’t know the fate of the pig statue.