9 Chicago Retail Shops That Stock Exceptionally Random sh*t (2024)

Via media.jrn.com*412/MJS_SCIENCE30-_BIZ-_PORTER-_7_science30.jpg

American Science & Surplus is a treasure trove of odds and ends, from beakers to stoppers to springs to magnets to parachutes to floppy discs to bouncy balls to paperweights to skeletons sold by the bone. Confused? Us too. Which is why we recently came here and walked out with a whoopee cushion, surgical shears, and all of the glassware we needed to build a probably-toxic tobacco pipe.

Via strangeclosets.com

Life-sized Academy Award statues, ships' wheels, deli-meat slicers, and other wonderment-inducing collectibles fill the 36,000-square-foot warehouse that is Zap Props. Besides huffing some nitrous and experiencing the dark recesses of David Lynch's mind, you should also come here to rent items for your micro-budget film or macro-budget house party, such as a gold throne or a penny farthing. One of our faves: a fat stack of $100 bills.

Via wordpress.com

Rebuilding Exchange is a non-profit-run warehouse stocked with reclaimed building materials ranging from de-nailed lumber to decommissioned elevator engines to gently used bowling alley flooring. Contractors love this place for its spread of affordable, sturdy materials. Casual creatives love it for its ability to inspire innovative, upcycled art & furniture projects. And we here at Hypelocal love it because it's just so damn fun to sift through the skeletal remains of so many once-giant structures.

Via rachelleb.com

U-Spy Store is a creepy place to visit if you're not an actual spy or rich person who owns nice things. The shop is stocked with all sorts of snooping and security-related gear, from ballpoint pen voice recorders to video-camera-eyed teddy bears. And while we're not too sure of how legal it is to use any of this stuff in real life, we ARE sure that browsing it feels downright wrong in the rightest way.

Via flickr.com

Even though the Internet has given us access to basically everything from bitcoins to alpaca socks, it's still way more fun to find interior-pillar moldings for a classic car in a junkyard than to order them online. U-Pull-It Junkyard turns parts-shopping into a treasure hunt of sorts, since it stocks row after row of scrapped cars and basically looks like a scene from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Bring tools, pull off anything you want, and pay at checkout.

Via flickr.com

Giftland looks like a psychedelic mushroom trip, as seen through the eyes of a sugar-binging 7-year old. Goodbye neutral tones, hello neon-flashing everything, from Hello Kitty accessories to solar-powered hula-dancing dinosaurs to oversized, heart-bedecked clicky pens that are as fun to use as they are to shove up your nose while seizing. There's a lot of too-loud toy shops like this in Chinatown, but this one takes the cake simply because it's just. so. very. very. stimulating.

Via upload.wikimedia.org

Discerning audiophiles, artists, and musicians from around the world know who to turn to when they need gear that absolutely cannot be one-upped: Ian Schneller. At his shop Specimen Products, the sculptor and his staff hand-craft everything from guitars to aerosol-spinning horn sculptures. In fact, Jack White and Jeff Tweedy are among his customers. Come in to check out the amazing craftsmanship and soak it all in, but if you're feeling extra-crafty, sign up for classes such as electric-guitar building.

Via Flickr: kvh

The Boring Store is the public-facing half of 826 Chicago, a local non-profit dedicated to helping kids write weller. The storefront is stocked with a variety of writerly trinkets such as journals, pens, and other novelties. That said, the real gems in the shop are the self-published books, written by tiny, 8-year-old humans, that promise to put a smile on your face and—if you buy enough of 'em—another kid in the afterschool tutoring program.

Via numelo.com

Rotofugi is an adult toy store that doesn't sell dild*s. Why? Because it's not a sex store—it's a legitimate toy store, for adults, stocked with seriously creative vinyl action figures, designer prints, and other artful, vector-based wonders. Although the shop's curiously cute collection of designer toys is assuredly worth a gander, be forewarned: though awesome, some of the larger figurines carry price tags in the hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Via hypelocal.co

Hi. The paragraph you're reading right now is a not-so-thinly-veiled advertisem*nt for Hypelocal Chicago, a mobile app that houses a crap ton of content like the content you just read/saw. For serious. Everything we put on the list above is cross-featured in our app, along with hundreds and hundreds of other crazy destinations ranging from subterranean bowling alleys to bow-and-arrow ranges to speakeasies to a bar that lets you bet on turtle races. Point is: after your leave this page, your brain will likely retain roughly 0% of what you just consumed. And that's cool. But what's really cool is letting Hypelocal remember interesting suggestions like this for you, because that's what we do. We curate adventurous suggestions and put them on an ever-growing map so that you can whip out your phone, see what's nearby, go experience something totally new. Anyhow, we'll leave you alone now, right after we finish this sentence about how you can download the Hypelocal app at www.hypelocal.co