History Main / ShapedLikeWhatItSells

Sometimes the easiest way to tell what a store sells is by looking at the shape of the store itself. Like a library shaped like a stack of books or a Burger Shack that's a giant burger, ShapedLikeWhatItSells is a building that is modeled and designed to look like the product(s) that's inside of it. According to ''The Field Guide to Sprawl,'' in RealLife, the name for this type of a building is a "duck," after a duck-shaped duckling stand.

* Tail o' the Pup in Los Angeles. This wiki breaks on [=URLs=] with apostrophes in them, so you'll just have to Google it.

** Almost every concession stand has an option to be shaped like the things it sells.

* In ''Disney/{{Pinocchio}}'' some of the buildings in Pleasure Island, including a smoking house shaped like a pipe and a pool hall in the form of an eight-ball.

[[AC: VideoGames]]
* In ''RollercoasterTycoon'', almost every concession stand has an option to be shaped like the things it sells (and most of these do so by default): A lemonade stand shaped like a lemon, a cold drinks stand shaped like four cans, a burger stand shaped like a cheeseburger...
** Almost every concession stand has an option to be shaped like the things it sells.
* ''ThemePark'' has the Coffee Shop, Pokey Cola, Big Time Fries and the Big Time Burger shops.
* ''BanjoTooie'' has Big Al's Burgers and Salty Joe's Fries, a hamburger stand and french fry stand shaped like their respective products.

[[AC: WebOriginal]]
* [[http://www.neopets.com/objects.phtml The main shops]] of ''{{NeoPets}}'' are themed like this: The food shop is a hamburger, the book shop is a book, the auction house is a mallet, the post office is a postal parcel, the pizza shop is a pizza, the school supply shop is a pencil, the music shop is a tuba of sorts, health food shop is broccoli, the defence item shop is a helmet, the gift shop is a gift box, the bakery is a peppercake house, the collectible card shop is a cardhouse, the hot dog shop is a hot dog, and the chocolate factory has chocolate topping.

* ''RollercoasterTycoon'' has several:
** A lemonade stand shaped like a lemon.
** A burger stand shaped like a cheeseburger.

Sometimes the easiest way to tell what a store sells is by looking at the shape of the store itself. Like a library shaped like a stack of books or a Burger Shack that's a giant burger, ShapedLikeWhatItSells is a building that is modeled and designed to look like the product(s) that's inside of it.

A Subtrope of {{Bizarchitecture}}.

* There's a fauna museum in Indonesia with a small reptilian zoo in the shape of a [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LJDDctMWc-Q/SoN661JFYeI/AAAAAAAAAYs/3PATq2IVldE/s400/museumkomodo.jpg giant komodo dragon]].

* The patio walk-up to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is [[http://johnkosich.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/the-rock-hall-record-player-design/ shaped like a giant record player]].

* ''ClarissaExplainsItAll'': Marshall Darling is an architect who seems to specialize in these.

* There was a joke along these lines in one episode of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother''. Ted was designing a building shaped like a 10-gallon hat for some cheesy Texan franchise. Instead, they went with a Mecha-Godzilla shaped building. No businessman is going to have a building design that needlessly complex if he's not going to sell souvenirs inside...unless, of course, he's been charmed by the powers of Sven.

* Here's a [[http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/the-piano-house music building]].

* There was a joke along these lines in one episode of ''HowIMetYourMother''. Ted was designing a building shaped like a 10-gallon hat for some cheesy Texan franchise. Instead, they went with a Mecha-Godzilla shaped building. No businessman is going to have a building design that needlessly complex if he's not going to sell souvenirs inside...unless, of course, he's been charmed by the powers of Sven.
* ''ArrestedDevelopment'': The Bluths' one consistent moneymaker is the frozen banana stand, which is shaped like a banana.

* There was a joke along these lines in one episode of ''HowIMetYourMother''. Ted was designing a building shaped like a 10-gallon hat for some cheesy Texan franchise. Instead, they went with a Mecha-Godzilla shaped building. No businessman is going to have a building design that needlessly complex if he's not going to sell souvenirs inside.

[[AC: {{Comics}}]]

* In ''GorskyAndButch'' the fish-themed mad scientist Fishtein's secret hideout is shaped like a giant cod.

[[AC: LiveActionTelevision]]

* There was a joke along these lines in one episode of ''HowIMetYourMother''-- Ted was designing a ten-gallon-hat shaped building for some cheesy Texan franchise. Instead, they went with a Mecha-Godzilla shaped building. No businessman is going to have a building design that needlessly complex if he's not going to sell souvenirs inside.
* ''ArrestedDevelopment'': The Bluths' one consistent money maker is the frozen banana stand, which is shaped like a banana.

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]

* In ''{{Disney/Pinocchio}}'' some of the buildings in Pleasure Island, including a smoking house shaped like a pipe and a pool hall in the form of an eight-ball.
* Used in ''CatDog,'' in the case of [[MakesSenseInContext bodily parts]].

* ''SpongebobSquarePants'':

* ''JimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' has McSpankey's Burgers, shaped like a giant burger (though it also has a giant Scotsman's head on the side).

* ''BanjoTooie'' has Big Al's Burgers and Salty Joe's Fries, a hamburger and french fry stand shaped like their respective products.

* [[http://www.neopets.com/objects.phtml The main shops]] of ''NeoPets'' are themed like this: food shop is a hamburger, book shop is a book, auction house is a mallet, post office is a postal parcel, pizza shop is a pizza, school supply shop is a pencil, music shop is a tuba of sorts, health food shop is broccoli, defence item shop is a helmet, gift shop is a gift box, bakery is a peppercake house, collectable card shop is a cardhouse, hot dog shop is a hot dog, and the chocolate factory has chocolate topping.

* The Oscar Meyer Weiner-Mobile is shaped like a giant wiener.

* Tail o' the Pup in Los Angeles. This wiki breaks on URLs with apostrophes in them, so you'll just have to Google it.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail_o'_the_Pup Tail o' the Pup]] in Los Angeles.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail_o'_the_Pup Tail o' the Pup]] in Los Angeles.

* Used in ''CatDog,'' in the case of [[MakesSenseInContext bodily parts]].