| 1 | %% Trope was declared Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease via crowner by the Real Life Maintenance thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php?crowner_id=ge84v32t %%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13350380440A15238800&page=558#comment-13929 |
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| 6 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 9 | %% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1638804215079159300 |
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| 12 | ->'''Marge:''' Eugh! Homer, where did you get that ugly thing?\ |
| 13 | '''Homer:''' From that little shop right over there-- ''[Points to an empty lot, where sand devils whirl. He gasps in disbelief, then corrects himself.]'' Oh, no, wait, it was right over there.\ |
| 14 | '''Shop Vendor:''' ''[waving]'' You'll be sorrrrrrry! |
| 15 | -->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E7TreehouseOfHorrorII Treehouse of Horror II]]: The Monkey's Paw" |
| 16 | %% |
| 17 | %%One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the Quotes tab. |
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| 19 | |
| 20 | You know the place. If you had come by at any other time, the only thing standing in its place would have been a run-down, abandoned building or maybe even a vacant lot. But right now, there's a shop there that looks like it came out of Creator/CharlesDickens -- or maybe Creator/HPLovecraft. If you go inside, you'll find a quirky old shopkeeper who has any number of potentially magical -- and potentially inconvenient -- artifacts available for sale. Cheap. Today only. ''Just'' what you were looking for -- although you may not have known you were looking for it when you came in. In fact, these items may ''look'' just like any other shop merchandise, but [[ParanormalMundaneItem they frequently have some weird supernatural properties]]. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | Just don't expect it to be there ''tomorrow.'' Especially if you need a refund... |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Originally a literary device from the surge of weird fantasy writing in the 1920s and earlier--H.G. Wells used it in ''The Crystal Egg'' (1897) and ''The Magic Shop'' (1903)--The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday still turns up occasionally. Nowadays, it's often a [[PostModernMagik website]]. Frequently an element of the modern CreepyPasta; when the store is virtual, it overlaps with MurderDotCom. A specific version of RevealingContinuityLapse. A MobileKiosk has a good reason for being this. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | !!Compare with: |
| 27 | * CircusOfFear: Another instance of [[LiminalTime a liminal space between the fantastic and the mundane]], but the Circus is ''expected'' to be ambulatory. |
| 28 | * CrazyWorkplace: With a shop that appears as it wants, this is inevitable. |
| 29 | * GrailInTheGarbage: This is what one often finds in these kind of stores. Keep in mind that this is not necessarily a good thing for the customer. |
| 30 | * InnBetweenTheWorlds: Another impossible place that's almost always stumbled across rather than deliberately sought out, but at Inns the payoff for visitors is usually decent enough drink and/or food, good company and good stories rather than material trinkets. Disclaimer: where you wind up after visiting is not necessarily the proprietors' responsibility. Check the rules of the establishment carefully. |
| 31 | * ItWasHereISwear: The protagonist tries to prove to someone else that this little shop (or other plot-relevant location) exists, only for the entire building to vanish without a trace. |
| 32 | * MagicalLibrary: An enchanted library or store where you can get books, often staffed by a MagicLibrarian. |
| 33 | * VanishingVillage: A whole ''town'' that wasn't there yesterday and won't be there tomorrow. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | !!Contrast with |
| 36 | * BazaarOfTheBizarre: Another place to get your esoteric shopping done, but it's rarely even ''accessible'' to mundanes--who are the clientele the Shop seems to prefer. |
| 37 | * TravelingLandmass: Also hard to find--and even harder to find on purpose--but generally a traveling landmass is ''known'' to travel and/or be weird, whereas it's key to Little Shop stories that the protagonists have never heard of the shop and have no reason to expect it to be magical. |
| 38 | ---- |
| 39 | !!Examples: |
| 40 | |
| 41 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 42 | |
| 43 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 44 | * The plot of ''Anime/SixteenBitSensationAnotherLayer'' begins when Konoha stumbles across a retro game store she doesn't recall seeing before and is amazed to see dozens of famous {{Bishoujo Game}}s being sold for 100 yen each. Unusually for the trope, she doesn't actually buy anything and instead just discusses her passion for bishoujo games with the store's owner. When she comes back the next day, the store is empty save for a bag full of bishoujo games with her name on it. When Konoha opens one, she finds herself transported back in time to 1992. |
| 45 | * ''Manga/{{ARIA}}'': Akari winds up in a cafe that is usually only open to cats. Sure enough, when she walks out it appears to have been long abandoned. |
| 46 | * ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'': Played with with the Twin Bells shop. The toy shop itself and its origin is not supernatural (although it did appear almost overnight), but the plushes it sells mysteriously disappear from the house of whoever bought them and reappear at Twin Bells. This raises suspicions on the owner committing theft, but the poor woman actually has no idea what is going on. Naturally, the culprit is [[MonsterOfTheWeek a Clow card]], and once it's dealt with the shop can operate normally, subverting the trope. It even makes a couple more appearances afterwards, showing that it's thriving. |
| 47 | * ''Chocolat no Mahou'' has a variation in the form of a chocolate shop, run by a mysterious girl named Chocola and her black cat, Cacao. The variation is that the shop will still be there tomorrow, but most of Chocola's clientele first find the shop by accident - and if they were actively looking for it in the beginning, it takes them a long time to find it. |
| 48 | * The Old Clock Store Owner's shop in ''Anime/DigimonXrosWarsTheYoungHuntersWhoLeaptThroughTime''. It's suggested it's part of [=DigiQuartz=] instead of the real world, and thus isn't grounded in our reality and shifts dependent on [=DigiQuartz=]. |
| 49 | * Despite its standing as a science fiction anime, in ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' one episode involved one of these. However, said shop was a ''memory'' shop. Its main purpose in the story was to [[spoiler: give some of the Major's backstory and foreshadow later events.]] |
| 50 | * In ''Manga/GhostSweeperMikami'' there is a mysterious shop. Yakuchindou is a shop, which specializes in cursed items, exorcism goods, and regular antiques. Yakuchin is the owner of Yakuchindou, a store that deals with many magical items. He is a pervert and very greedy, often overpricing his wares if he has the chance. Mikami frequents his shop for Ghost Sweeper equipments such as Absorbing Talismans and Reitai Bowgun bolts. Yakuchin keeps many dangerous products that can be considered a liability, and when he gets a new item he doesn't mind using customers as test subjects to see if the item is safe for sale, as he did with Yokoshima the first time they met. |
| 51 | * A more comedic instance in ''Anime/KiraKiraPrecureALaMode'': the Kira Kira Patisserie keeps moving because the management can't seem to pick a set location. At one point they end up at a farm surrounded by cows, facing a cliff, and in the middle of a highway. |
| 52 | * ''Anime/HellGirl'': Each episode typically follows the format of a self-contained short story where a person has been suffering torment from an acquaintance to the point that he or she accesses the Hell Correspondence website (that is available only for one minute at midnight) and submits a request to get rid of the person. Ai Enma, the Hell Girl, appears, and presents a doll with a red string on its neck that can send the named antagonist to Hell. When the string is pulled, Ai and her companions then torment the antagonist, offering a last chance to repent (which is usually refused), and ferries them to Hell. The price of the contract is that the person making the request will also have to go to Hell after his or her life is over. |
| 53 | * In "Let's Play With Sounds!" from ''Franchise/HelloKitty & Friends: Let's Learn Together'', Kitty and her friends discover a music shop in what should be an empty lot. They end up putting on a concert with the shopkeeper of a slightly jazzier version of the show's instrumental [[DiegeticSoundtrackUsage opening theme tune]], "Star." Afterwards, they find themselves alone in front of an empty lot of grass and wonder if it was AllJustADream, but then dismiss this possibility and say that they must have been visited by the spirit of music. |
| 54 | * In ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch Pure'', there were two instances of this, both set up by the villains. One was a videoke house (that somehow had the heroines' songs in their list), and a fortuneteller's tent. Both in the same place, but not at the same time, of course. One character even noted it. |
| 55 | * In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', [[CoolOldGuy Jiraiya]] sneaks into [[CityOfCanals Amegakure]] and sets up a pub on one of the lower levels of the city to lure in two Amegakure ninja. He plays the role of barkeeper before throwing off his [[PaperThinDisguise ridiculous disguise]], then the pub [[MalevolentArchitecture turns into a toad]]. |
| 56 | * The eponymous pet shop in ''Manga/PetShopOfHorrors'' tends to stay in one place a bit longer than most of the listed examples, but still has the ability to vanish mysteriously overnight, and fits the trope precisely in most other ways. |
| 57 | * ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' |
| 58 | ** In one of the stories, Kuno purchases a phoenix egg from such a shop. |
| 59 | ** Akane went to a similar shop and got a recipe and ingredients for a magical snack food (but she messed up the recipe and it tasted awful along with doing the exact opposite of what it intended). |
| 60 | ** In the anime, a number of ''mobile'' versions of these show up -- to be precise, [[SnakeOilSalesman traveling salesmen who sell magical stuff]]. There's also an anime-exclusive antique store with a haunted bra (the owner of which asks them to guard it from the underwear thief), and Ryoga in the manga has a weird knack for stumbling across magical stores. |
| 61 | * Chapter 2 of the ''[[Anime/ReadOrDie Read of Dream]]'' manga features a library that wasn't there yesterday. [[spoiler:It only appears once every ten years, and you can only take out one book at a time. But when you die you can spend eternity reading what seems to be every book in this [[InnBetweenTheWorlds and any other world]]. Just so long as you return every book you borrow.]] |
| 62 | * Contrary to popular belief, this didn't show up ''that'' often in the ''Anime/SailorMoon'' anime. While Jadeite had a habit of creating businesses from thin air and staffing them with a thematically appropriate youma, most of the other villains on the show simply took over existing businesses until they were uncovered by the Sailor Senshi. In one case, though, Palla Palla created a dentist's office in ''[=SuperS=]'', which did turn out to be another business like Jadeite's. Even Jadeite occasionally just infiltrated pre-existing businesses. |
| 63 | * The Boar Hat in ''Manga/TheSevenDeadlySins'' comes off as this to people who don't know beforehand that it is actually a bar carried by a giant pig. |
| 64 | * Yuki buys an antique coffee grinder at one of these in ''Manga/SilentMobius''. The shop is actually a front for a Lucifer Hawk (demon, basically) that sends her back in time, setting up [[spoiler: a slightly strange romance and StableTimeLoop]]. |
| 65 | * ''Manga/TamamoChansAFox'': A benign version pops up in chapters 56 and 57. Tamamo's human friends Nakki and Mikki come to visit her at a cafe where she is now working part-time at. Tenko is there and mentions being a regular, while the owner mentions not having customers like Nakki and Mikki around much. The end of the chapter reveals the shop's true form is a small shrine and the cafe is one for various gods. |
| 66 | * One of these traps Sasami in an episode of ''Anime/TenchiInTokyo''. (Although, neither she nor Tenchi had ever been in the area before, so nobody knew that the shop was magical.) |
| 67 | * ''Manga/VideoGirlAi'': Later in the story, the [[spoiler:Store Clerk at Gokuraku Video rebels against their cynical intentions, and opens a ''rival'']] Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday, [[spoiler:Neo Gokuraku, whose goal is to find and protect the pure hearted before Gokuraku Video can screw them up.]] |
| 68 | %%** An accidental, curious stopover at a store of this type sets up the entire plot |
| 69 | * Kaede gets the coffee mug that starts off the whole ''Wagamama Fairy Manga/MirumoDePon!'' series, but only in the anime. In the manga, her mother gives it to her as a souvenir from her recent trip. |
| 70 | * This is the type of store Yuuko the Dimension Witch runs in ''Manga/XxxHolic'', although it deviates slightly from the norm in that it ''will'' be there tomorrow. The key to being able to see and enter it, however, is that you must have need of Yuuko's wish-granting powers. Presumably this is very convenient for dealing with encyclopedia salesmen. [[spoiler: She does eventually say that the shop was built ''specifically'' for the sake of helping Syaoran and Sakura-hime of ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'', racking up magic credits from the wishes she grants until the day they needed to be used.]] |
| 71 | ** There's also an oden stand run by [[AsianFoxSpirit Kitsune]]. Watanuke only finds it because of his ability to see spirits and it vanishes after he finishes his meal. |
| 72 | [[/folder]] |
| 73 | |
| 74 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 75 | * One of the Egmont stories in TheNineties in ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'' -- "The Backdated Lucky Charm" -- had Donald stumble into one of these stores, a bookshop, where he purchases a book on making lucky charms and then when he tries to learn more about it, finds out it's missing when he returns. |
| 76 | * Creator/GrantMorrison's ''Comicbook/DoomPatrol'' had an entire ''street'' made of nothing but Little Shops That Weren't There Yesterday. Also, the street is a transvestite. ItMakesSenseInContext. Or not. |
| 77 | ** Specifically, Danny the Street, the sentient traveling locale. Later on known as Danny the World, Danny the Brick, Danny the Cabana, and finally, Danny the alley. |
| 78 | * ''ComicBook/DylanDog'' has Hameln's shop, that appears and disappears at Hameln's whim (though there are people who can track it down), usually in the same place. At least one story has the shop appear and disappear on page ''multiple times'', one of which ''in a phone booth'', as Hameln had hired Dylan to track down a powerful magical artifact that had been stolen from him and he was ''really'' desperate to have it back before the guy who he was supposed to sell the artifact to lost his patience. |
| 79 | * Barter from DC Comics (from ''ComicBook/HawkAndDove'' Vol 3 #1(June, 1989), first appearance) is the owner of a Dimensionally mobile Pawn Shop. The modest sign above his shop says: BARTER TRADING/Exotic Goods and Services. Inside the dimly lit pawn shop lay a potpourri of antiquities and merchandise, eccentric and cosmic in scope: A Green Lantern power battery. Demonic scrolls. Weapons from Apokolips. Ruby slippers. Vials filled with churning smoke labeled "youth" and "courage" and "love". A Legion flight ring. A lava lamp. The inventory constantly changes. None of this is for sale. Barter gives these things away— but he takes something in exchange. Another object. Information. Ten years of life. A first-born son. Never money. Barter doesn`t buy or sell— he trades. |
| 80 | * Subverted in the 90s version of DC's ''Comicbook/{{Starman}}''. Jack (Starman, on the run from the Bad Guys) ducks into an alley and discovers a fortune teller's shop that he's never seen before. He thinks it's something like this trope... until the fortune teller explains that she's been there for a few months, and there's nothing mysterious about Jack not noticing. |
| 81 | * One issue of ''ComicBook/{{Urbanus}}'', "Het Zwarte Winkeltje" (the little black shop) had this kind of shop appear whenever Urbanus was close by. |
| 82 | * This is where Aldo of ''Venerdì 12'' finds the cursed carillon that ends up turning him into a monster. In a variant from the usual, the shopkeeper ''did'' warn him of the curse in detail, including how he could defeat-but Aldo, being in deep denial about Bedelia loving him (the curse's trigger being giving the carillon to a girl who don't love him. Bedelia didn't love him. At all), ignored him because the carillon was free. |
| 83 | * The obscure and incredibly convoluted comic ''[[https://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics520.html Vector]]'' has its titular protagonist get a new computer from his girlfriend. After it correctly predicts him almost dying when an elevator he's in breaks its cable, they try to take the computer back only to find the store's gone. And according to an irate man who lives next door, there never was a computer store there. [[spoiler: Thanks to the influence of druids who live in another dimension and somehow drain people's life energy through the runic computers they distrbute. Or something.]] |
| 84 | [[/folder]] |
| 85 | |
| 86 | [[folder:Fanfiction]] |
| 87 | * ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9007910/1/Altered-Histories Altered Histories]]'': Harry buys some rather expensive pamphlets from a store called Meryl's Misunderstood Magical Minutia which is replaced by an empty, dilapidated building the moment after he leaves. |
| 88 | * [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/curios-worm.718030 "Curios"]]: Taylor Hebert works for the literal devil in one of these shops and improved buisness by using full disclosure regarding both the benefit and curse(s) and helping people find exact what they want. |
| 89 | * ''Fanfic/DiariesOfAMadman'': Navarone and Taya are guided to one of these in their travels. Unlike many cases, the store owner explicitly points out the nature of the shop and that the pair will never see it again -- and provides them with a book which sucks the erstwhile readers into [[Franchise/TheElderScrolls Apocrypha]], along with one or two other useful items. It's implied that the nature of the shop is intended specifically to keep Discord from finding it, but [[GambitPileup this may not be true]]. |
| 90 | * [[https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/keep-your-change.10168 "Keep Your Change"]] has the main focus being a retired Random Omnipotent Being selling things that change people. Early on the shop was shown to have the ability to move. |
| 91 | * ''Fanfic/TheNonBronyverse'' has less of a shop there, and more of a single unicorn proprietor who sells TD the staff Reginald for a song. |
| 92 | * ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11237394/7/One-Thread-Pulled One Thread Pulled]]'': Harry buys his wand at a store which vanishes immediately after he and his family exit it. |
| 93 | * ''Webcomic/PureLight'': Well, the little shop that isn't there anymore, at least. The Shopkeeper's store disappears when the heroes turn their back on it. |
| 94 | * ''Fanfic/RottenLuck'': When Jonathan eventually decides to head back to the antique store where he bought his blue statuette, he finds only a vacant lot where the shop's building used to stand. |
| 95 | * [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/shopkeeper-worm-au-crossover.449760 "Shopkeeper"]] has Taylor Hebert as the owner of a video game styled shop that comes off as one of these due to filtering who can and can not enter. It is implied it is hereditary. |
| 96 | * ''Fanfic/SunsetsIsekai'': The Isekai (an interdimensional bar) appears to those who really need a good drink (literally or not) and a good ear to listen to their problems. Those who possess one of the Isekai’s business cards, or a key for a certain few individuals, can pay the bar a visit at their leisure. Reference has also been made to the Isekai occasionally opening in a universe as if it were a normal bar for a time. |
| 97 | ** The Isekai’s door is known to both replace preexisting doors and to appear where no door was previously, including seemingly impossible locations. One time, for instance, it appeared on the outside of a building’s seventh story. |
| 98 | [[/folder]] |
| 99 | |
| 100 | [[folder:Film -- Animated]] |
| 101 | * PlayedWith in ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'': Merida is lead by [[WillOTheWisp the wisps]] to the cottage of a witch posing as a woodcarver. Her store is completely innocuous except for the talking crow and magic broom, and she won't entertain the possibility of even being a witch, let alone conjuring for someone, unless you buy a wood carving first. After she leaves the cottage, [[StealthHiBye Merida immediately finds herself back in the stone ring that the wisps found her in.]] After Eleanor is turned into a bear, Merida assumes that this trope is in effect, and that she'll need the wisps to lead them back to the witch, while Eleanor simply goes in the direction Merida said she went last time. Eleanor's plan works. |
| 102 | [[/folder]] |
| 103 | |
| 104 | [[folder:Film -- Live Action]] |
| 105 | * ''Film/Baghead2023'' has 'The Little Solicitor's Office That Wasn't There Yesterday'. Iris visits The Solicitor in his office and signs the deed for the pub. Later, Iris takes Katie to the office where she met The Solicitor, only to discover it is abandoned and seems to have been unoccupied for years. |
| 106 | * Michael buys his UniversalRemoteControl from Bed, Bath and Beyond in ''Film/{{Click}}'' but finds it in a mysterious "Beyond" section. |
| 107 | * A variation in ''Film/{{Crossworlds}}''. When Laura first takes Joe to A.T., he sees a large workshop. Later, he goes back to the building alone, but when he knocks on the door, he sees that it's an ordinary apartment with a different guy living there. He's about to leave, then he remembers that, the last time, they passed a certain tree on the other side. He does that and finds the shop in place of the apartment. Presumably, A.T. set up his shop to only be accessible to someone who knows the exact route to get there (or by accident). |
| 108 | * ''Film/FromBeyondTheGrave'', a 1973 episodic horror film from Creator/AmicusProductions. The shop keeper (Creator/PeterCushing) sells cursed antiques to four different customers, all [[spoiler:(but one)]] of whom end dead before they could return them.In the final scene, Cushing breaks the fourth wall and attempts to sell something to the audience; the camera escapes and the shop door closes. |
| 109 | * ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'': |
| 110 | ** In ''Film/HellraiserIIIHellOnEarth'', Monroe acquires the Pinhead artifact from an obscure antique shop in New York, who obtained it from Dr. Channard's private collection in England. When Joey goes to investigate, the shopkeeper has packed up and moved. |
| 111 | ** A similar situation occurs in ''Film/HellraiserHellseeker'', where Trevor acquires the box from a sweatshop[=/=]black market that quickly disappears. |
| 112 | * Downplayed in ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors'' where Audrey [=II=] was bought from an apparently normal plant shop. It beamed down onto a stall outside during a TotalEclipseOfThePlot while Seymour's back was turned. |
| 113 | * ''Film/MissGranny'': 74-year-old Mal-soon goes to the Youth Photo Studio to get a portrait taken. Instead, she winds up getting turned into her 20-year-old self. When a shocked Mal-soon goes back to that spot, the magic photography studio has disappeared and there is a Chinese restaurant there, and the owner has no idea what Mal-soon is talking about. |
| 114 | * Topsy Turvey's repair shop is down an alleyway that streetwise lamplighter, Jack claims never to have noticed before in ''Film/MaryPoppinsReturns''. Mary implies he's never seen it because he's never needed anything fixed and that the shop changes size depending and what you need repaired. |
| 115 | * In the film version of ''Literature/NeedfulThings'', the proprietor turns out to be the devil. |
| 116 | * In the 1984 ''Film/TheNeverendingStory'', the bookstore from which Bastian gets the book is empty and abandoned as if for years when he returns. In the original book, the store is still there, although the storekeeper says that he has never seen the book that Bastian took. |
| 117 | * The plot of the 2016 GenderBender comedy ''Film/{{Sam}}'' is set up by one of these. Sam, the HandsomeLech protagonist stumbles across 'Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe' and the shopkeeper decides to teach him a lesson after hearing Sam's less than positive views on women. The shopkeeper offers Sam some 'tea', Sam leaves and the next morning wakes up in a female body. |
| 118 | * A one-man version occurs in ''Film/{{Wendigo}}''. A mysterious Native American behind the counter of the drugstore tells Miles the legend of the {{wendigo}} and gives him a wooden carving of the monster. When Kim looks around for him, he has vanished. Kim asks the shopkeeper about it, she says that she is the only one who works there and that Kim and Miles are the only customers she's had all day. |
| 119 | [[/folder]] |
| 120 | |
| 121 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 122 | * "Books" by Peni R. Griffin (''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'', November 1991): In downtown San Antonio there is an interdimensional bookstore, Brock's, where the protagonist's female friend gets him books to read while he is in the hospital-—books written by Harriet Vane, Ariadne Oliver, and S. Morgenstern. After he recovers, she takes him there and he notes a customer trying to buy ''Cultes des Goules''. An accident to the bookseller cuts him off from the store and his friend. |
| 123 | * Creator/LordDunsany's "[[Literature/TheBureauDEchangeDeMaux The Bureau d'Echange de Maux]]": This 1915 ShortStory features a little shop in Paris where, after paying an entry and brokerage fees, customers may exchange whatever "evil" or burden they feel they have for a burden possessed by someone else. The curious protagonist, despite the urgings of the ObviouslyEvil proprietor, carefully chooses a minor trade -- he trades away his propensity to become seasick and takes on another man's fear of ElevatorFailure. Other people make bigger trades -- for example, one customer was able to trade the burden of being about to die for the "burden" of continued life. Potential customers can visit as often as they like, but once a trade is made, a client will never find the Bureau again, so they're stuck with whatever exchange they made. |
| 124 | * Creator/PatrickSkeneCatling's ''Literature/TheChocolateTouch'': This children's book has a boy who loves chocolate to the point of obsession buy some from a little shop he never saw before... It gives him sort of a "Midas touch", in which everything he eats is transformed to chocolate as it enters his mouth. Even a chocolate lover can grow quickly sick of it when he can't even have a drink of water. But even worse is what happens when he gives his mother a kiss... |
| 125 | * "The Cloak" (short story) by Creator/RobertBloch: It is Halloween and a man named Henderson is looking for a costume. The shop owner in this case offers him the cloak — not a cloak, but the cloak — and once Henderson puts it one, he is a new man — or is he? Later adapted as one of the segments in the AnthologyFilm ''Film/TheHouseThatDrippedBlood''. |
| 126 | * "Literature/ColdPrint" (1969) (short story) by Creator/RamseyCampbell: Sam Strutt has a yen for esoteric literature. His search for forbidden knowledge leads him through dingy backstreets to a basement bookshop advertising “American Books Bought and Sold.” On his second visit... [[spoiler:a macabre many-mouthed creature made an occult proposition that cooled his blood.]] |
| 127 | * Creator/TerryPratchett's ''{{Literature/Discworld}}'': |
| 128 | ** ''Literature/TheLightFantastic'': Twoflower reveals that the ill-tempered, sentient piece of luggage he's been travelling with came from one of these ''tavernes vagrantes'', or "mysterious wandering shops" (he asked for "traveling luggage" and got exactly that). Several theories are {{Discussed|Trope}} as to their origin, such as it being a way to avoid property taxes, or (in a ShoutOut Harlan Ellison's "Shoppe Keeper") that they are alien merchants escaping the heat death of their universe through dimension traveling technology. Later on they stumble into such a shop, and the real reason is revealed: a sorcerer who had an unpleasant retail experience cursed the shop and its owner to wander in and out of existence, never able to stay in the same place for long. He’d done this quite a few times. |
| 129 | ** ''Literature/SoulMusic'': The strange guitar that makes Buddy into an overnight sensation was bought from a mysterious little music shop. When his two friends return the next day, they find that it isn't there... then it's {{Subverted|Trope}} when one of them notices that it's still there, they were looking on the wrong side of the road. [[spoiler:After they comment on this to the shopkeeper, it's a DoubleSubversion as she realises her forgetfulness and pulls a lever to make it move to other side.]] |
| 130 | ** ''Literature/TheWeeFreeMen'': DefiedTrope when Tiffany exits a witch's tent and refuses to turn around to look at it, because "either it would still be there, which would be disappointing, or it wouldn't, which would be worrying". |
| 131 | * "[[Literature/DjinnNoChaser Djinn, No Chaser]]": In this 1982 story, shopkeeper Mohanadus Mukhar tells the shoppers outright that his shop will only be there for "...how long I do not know." |
| 132 | * Creator/RayBradbury's "{{Literature/Doodad}}": This ScienceFiction ShortStory features a man on the run from TheMafia (or equivalent) helps a man who turns out to be a shopkeeper of such a shop: it sells "gadgets, gimmicks, doodads, doohingeys" and so on, which are composite imaginary tools capable of doing anything that any item ever described by that name can do. |
| 133 | * Creator/FritzLeiber's ''Literature/FafhrdAndTheGrayMouser'': One of the {{novellas}} is set in the Bazaar of the Bizarre. It's a shop set up by an extra-dimensional being. |
| 134 | * Creator/GlenCook's ''Literature/GarrettPI'': In ''Deadly Quicksilver Lies'', Garrett exits the witch Handsome's shop without asking her a question he should've. He immediately turns back, but the shop entrance has vanished. Garrett isn't surprised, figuring it serves him right to be denied a second chance to ask. |
| 135 | * ''{{Literature/Goosebumps}}'': ''The Haunted Mask'' formed a StoryArc with several other stories. The eponymous mask was always purchased from the Little Shop (which had conveniently closed when the unhappy owner attempted to return). During ''The Scream of the Haunted Mask'', the shop had previously vanished entirely, leaving behind an empty plot of land. |
| 136 | ** Literally, in several endings in ''The Little Comic Shop of Horrors''. In one of them you escape the mysterious comic shop and learn that the comic book store was closed years ago because the owner Milo died. |
| 137 | * Creator/EdmundCrispin's ''Literature/GervaseFen'': The basic premise of ''The Moving Toyshop''. It's a detective story, so there's [[YouMeddlingKids a logical reason of course]]. |
| 138 | * "Literature/TheGreaterFestivalOfMasks": The mask shop seems to be one of these, although [[MindScrew it is probably one of the least mystifying things in said story]]. |
| 139 | * ''Literature/DeGriezelbus'': In one of the stories, a girl buys grass for her cat from a mysterious shop that turns into a ManEatingPlant, nearly eating her and her pet. After her father kills the plant, they return to the shop only to find that it's a derelict. One of the locals tells them that the former owner was a MadScientist who died years ago after trying to feed people to his plants. |
| 140 | * The wizard shopping street, [[BazaarOfTheBizarre Diagon Alley]] in the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' franchise is accessed through a pub called the Leaky Cauldron that Harry didn't notice until Hagrid pointed it out. He found his gaze seemed to [[PerceptionFilter automatically move]] to the shops either side. |
| 141 | * ''Literature/TheHauntingHourVolumeOne: Don't Think About It'': The shop from which Cassie purchased the book was located down an alley, changed its room layout to prevent her from leaving until she made the intended purchase, and disappeared soon after. The owner ''did'' stick around long enough to give them a cryptic clue as to how to deal with the thing that had been unleashed. And to remind her that she had broken the first rule of the book... |
| 142 | * Creator/TimPratt's "Literature/ImpossibleDreams": A movie buff discovers a Video/DVD store in another reality where differing history has led [[DifferentWorldDifferentMovies to different movies]] (''Film/TheMagnificentAmbersons'' is available in its uncut form, but ''Film/CitizenKane'' is a lost film, there was only one ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' movie and it starred Creator/TomSelleck, there is a big-time director who doesn't exist in our world, etc.); in an interesting subversion, everything he can get out of the store is useless due to interdimensional regional DVD differences and such. Oh, and only nickels are legal currency in both worlds. And in a further twist [[spoiler: the movie-buff store clerk finds our reality, with ''its'' different media, an enticing alternate universe]]. |
| 143 | * A short story from an old issue of ''Magazine/IsaacAsimovsScienceFiction'' had a dentist who noticed a new donut shop on the way to work and bought some. When he dunked them in milk (his personal donut-eating technique) they sucked all the milk into the hole with incredible force. After some examination he determined that they were mobius donuts, with a half-twist in them. With a little experimentation with some extracted teeth he had in his office, he realized they really, ''really'' liked to "eat" calcium and he considered what would have happened if he had taken a bite. He went back to the store and jammed two donuts together whereupon the store disappeared fairly spectacularly. |
| 144 | * In ''[[Literature/KnightLifeSeries Knight Life]]'', Gwen gets ''The Carpathian Book of Fey and Daemonfolk'' from one of these. She learns where to find it from Arthur Penn's secretary "Miss Basil" (a basilisk), who tells her of a little bookshop she's never seen before, even though she knows the area quite well. |
| 145 | -->'''Gwen''': I know that street...that block. I've walked past a hundred times. There's no bookshop there. Is this some kind of trick? |
| 146 | -->'''Miss Basil''': ... ... Tell me, have you ever been looking for it? |
| 147 | -->'''Gwen''': No. How could I look for something that isn't there? |
| 148 | -->'''Miss Basil''': All you have to do is not look where it isn't. |
| 149 | * Creator/BruceSterling's "Literature/TheLittleMagicShop": In the early 19th Century, a young man stumbles on a little shop in New York. The proprietor, Mr. O'Beronne, presses on him several magic items, finally persuading him to buy a bottle of youth potion in exchange for all he possesses. "Really? How much for two bottles?" They strike a bargain: Whenever the man comes back he can buy another bottle on the same terms. This doubly frustrates the shop owner: He has to stay put and keep his shop in business (changing it with the times), and his customer stubbornly refuses to learn the obvious Aesop about the futility of unnaturally prolonged life. Despite all this, there is a happy ending for both. |
| 150 | * In the ''Literature/{{Liavek}}'' shared-world anthologies, the shops all stay decently put, but an entire ''street'', Wizard's Row, comes and goes, as well as changing its appearance in accordance with the whim of the magicians who live there. |
| 151 | * Creator/HGWells' [[http://www.online-literature.com/wellshg/10/ "The Magic Shop"]], which also isn't accessible to just ''anybody''. Given a more sinister adaptation for ''The Alfred Hitchcock Hour'' (see Live-Action TV below). |
| 152 | * Creator/BruceCoville's ''Literature/MagicShop'': This series is related due to each protagonist going to "Elives' Magic Shop", on account of the proprietor being a man named Elives. The children leave with powerful magical relics. The [[AnAesop Aesop]] behind each item tends to be that they've been given what they want, but it's been subverted in a way that teaches them what they need. |
| 153 | ** ''Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher'': The title character buys a dragon's egg from the magic shop, which he then finds out he has to hatch. (Actually, the egg chose him. Dragons apparently have the power to attract their own prenatal egg-sitters.) |
| 154 | ** ''Jennifer Murdley's Toad'': A girl enters the shop and ends up buying a pet toad. The shop owner didn't warn her that said toad could talk, and was not only a smartass, but also had a bounty on its head -- or more accurately, ''in'' its head. |
| 155 | ** In ''Juliet Dove, Queen of Love'', an extremely shy girl named Juliet goes into the store, but instead of the old man we have come to expect, a strange woman gives her a necklace -- which can't be removed. It's the amulet once owned by Helen of Troy, and has the same effect on all the boys in Juliet's class... |
| 156 | ** "The Metamorphosis of Justin Jones": In this ShortStory, a young man who expresses interest in the metamorphosis stage trick (where the magician switches places with his assistant) is given a bag and an instruction manual. The instructions say to sleep in the bag every night over a certain period, and when he complies, he starts to grow wings. This story is actually one of the few times where what the character wants from the shop more or less matches up with what the character needs, because he happens to live with an extremely abusive uncle... |
| 157 | * The ''Literature/MidnightArcade'' series is about a magical video arcade that appears in place of an out of business arcade when an adventurous kid passes by, and then [[TrappedInTVLand transports them into the game they decide to play]]. |
| 158 | * Creator/PoulAnderson used the Old Phoenix tavern, an InnBetweenTheWorlds, as a Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday in more than one of his fantasy stories, notably ''Literature/AMidsummerTempest''. |
| 159 | * Creator/HPLovecraft's "Literature/TheMusicOfErichZann" features a variation of this trope: the protagonist is never able to find the ''street'' he lived by ever again, after the events of the story, despite of the fact that he had a normal landlord, and the street had many other inhabitants, as well. |
| 160 | * Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/NeedfulThings'': The building itself ''was'' there yesterday and will be there tomorrow: it's run as a perfectly normal small town curio store, complete with "coming soon" signs before the grand opening and regular business hours, plus Tuesdays and Thursdays by appointment only. Less suspicious that way. (It does tend to be inconveniently closed at odd hours with a different sign in the door every time.) Of course, given that the story is by ''Creator/StephenKing'', the question is: Will the ''town'' still be there by the time all is said and done? [[spoiler: The answer is, "No." This was the last Castle Rock story, for just that reason.]] |
| 161 | * Creator/DianaWynneJones's ''Literature/TheOgreDownstairs'': A funny old man sells strange science kits that do magical things. He also sells bright pink footballs. At the end of the story, his shop has vanished - or more accurately, been bulldozed. Even so, it's awfully convenient, don't you think? |
| 162 | * The Diagon Alley equivalent in ''Parry Hotter And The Seamy Side Of Magic'' is accessed through a sex shop that disappears and reappears. Sadly it's a parody of the costume shop from ''WesternAnimation/MrBenn''. |
| 163 | * ''La Peau de chagrin'' (French pronunciation: [la po də ʃaɡʁɛ̃], ''The Skin of Sorrow'') is an 1831 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850). Set in early 19th-century Paris, it tells the story of a young man who finds a magic piece of shagreen that fulfills his every desire. For each wish granted, however, the skin shrinks and consumes a portion of his physical energy. ''La Peau de chagrin'' belongs to the ''Études philosophiques'' group of Balzac's sequence of novels, ''La Comédie humaine''. |
| 164 | * Creator/AlfredBester and Creator/RogerZelazny's ''Psychoshop'' is a pawnshop, accessible from apparently any time period or place in the galaxy, "where you can dump any unwanted aspect of your spirit as long as you exchange it for something else". And, oh yeah -- all exchanges are final. The Psychoshop is actually a lot more benign than this trope usually is, though. |
| 165 | * The trope is perspective-flipped with the Western Cuisine Cat Restaurant of ''Literature/RestaurantToAnotherWorld'': the restaurant is based in a modern Japanese shopping district, but manifests a number of [[PortalDoor Portal Doors]] in a fantasy world every Saturday. In defiance of the usual mystery surrounding the trope, the restaurant's chef makes quite sure to inform his otherworldly customers of the weekly schedule, ensuring that they'll be able to return for more without having to search in vain. |
| 166 | * "The Shambler from the Stars" (1935)(Short Story) by Creator/RobertBloch: The story focuses on a nameless narrator who begins to yearn after the forbidden knowledge known only to those who are true practitioners of the occult. He then personally begins searching various bookstores around his hometown. At first, he again meets with disappointment, but his perseverance eventually pays off and, in an old bookstore on South Dearborn Street, he succeeds in obtaining an occult volume known as De Vermis Mysteriis, which he knows was written by a Belgian sorcerer named Ludvig Prinn, who was burned at the stake during the witchcraft trials. |
| 167 | * "Literature/ShoppeKeeper": Creator/HarlanEllison attempts to explain the phenomenon of the mysterious shop in this 1977 ShortStory. |
| 168 | * ''[[Literature/SideshowAndOtherStories "Sideshow", and Other Stories]]'': Played with in "The Astronomic Blur", a StoryWithinAStory in which a small shop that [[WeirdnessCensor no-one had previously noticed]] is suddenly inhabited by... [[OurMonstersAreDifferent something.]] |
| 169 | * "Literature/SpellMyNameWithAnS": A numerologist (a type of fortune-teller) who suggests Zebatinsky change his name to [[MyNaymeIs Sebatinsky]]. After a couple of months, Sebatinsky returns to thank the numerologist, but the store is empty, and has been for many years. Then the [[SwitchingPOV point-of-view shifts]], and we learn that [[spoiler:EnergyBeings betting on human beings are the reason for the shop and his name change]]. |
| 170 | * Creator/AlanDeanFoster's ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}: The Day of the Dissonance'': The Shop of the Aether and Neither is located in a town that can't be found unless it's really needed. After shoppers have departed, it promptly vanishes and [[VanishingVillage takes the village with it]]. |
| 171 | * The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe has The Captain's Table, a pub that appears on various planets, is accessible (or visible) only to Captains, and appears to exist outside of time (one inhabitant is very strongly implied to be the Captain of the ''Titanic'' (yes that one)). It has been encountered by Captains [[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Archer]], [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Kirk. Pike]], [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Picard]], [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Sisko]], and [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Janeway]], as well as Captains from the ExpandedUniverse, like [[Literature/StarTrekNewFrontier Calhoun]], [[Literature/StarfleetCorpsOfEngineers Gold]], [[Literature/StarTrekTitan and Riker]]. |
| 172 | * Creator/BentleyLittle's ''Literature/TheStore'': A nice little patch of land turns up bulldozed one day. Despite a dead guy under some knocked-over trees, the eponymous store is built and all kinds of horrors, mundane and supernatural happen. Anything can be bought, if you ask the right questions. From the oddly possible, powerful firecrackers for a nickel, to the insanely impossible, such as a video game called ''[=NiggerKill=]''. Eventually the whole place goes cockeyed, the villains seemingly defeated but...a small farmer's market several hundred miles away terrifies a traveling couple. |
| 173 | * Creator/JenniferBarnes's ''{{Literature/Tattoo}}'': Bailey, Delia, Annabelle, and Zo go to a Cart In The Mall That Wasn't There Yesterday. An old woman is selling temporary tattoos. These tattoos give each of them a different power. It is revealed that the old lady was the [[spoiler: goddess of the sea, trying to get Bailey to realize that she is TheChosenOne.]] |
| 174 | * Creator/ManlyWadeWellman's short story "The Theater Upstairs" applies this to a movie theatre that shouldn't exist, showing movies that cannot exist. In the epilogue, the narrator tries to find the theatre again, but cannot - though he does spot the ticket vender in a crowd. |
| 175 | * Creator/TerryCarr's "{{Literature/Touchstone}}": In this 1964 ShortStory ([[http://www.lexal.net/scifi/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/carr3/carr31.html link here]]), Helgar [[DiscussedTrope asked]] if this is one of those magical shops, but the proprietor dismisses the notion quickly. |
| 176 | -->'''Randolph Helgar''': If I come back here a week from now, will this store still be here? Or will it have disappeared, like magic shops are supposed to do?\ |
| 177 | '''Shopkeeper''': This isn't that kind of store. I'd go out of business if I kept moving my location. |
| 178 | * Creator/JohnDashney's ''Literature/WalterTheWeremouse'' features an old lady, a secret reading room in a library, some strange phone cards, an eleven key on payphones, and some strange cheese, all of which appear only under very specific circumstances. The old lady is at the center of it all, and she eventually turns out to be the daughter of a renowned supernatural expert, and terrible procrastinator; she's the daughter he never got around to having, the reading room is full of books he never got around to writing, and in fact he never got around to becoming renowned or even a supernatural expert. She appears to people who make up the dregs of society, but nonetheless have the potential to be something much more if only they were able to get around to it, and gives them the means to get around to it. |
| 179 | %%* Creator/AEVanVogt's ''Literature/TheWeaponShopsOfIsher'': In fact there's a whole chain of them throughout the Empire of the title. %%What makes the shops magical/untrackable? |
| 180 | * "Literature/WhatIf1952": A rare TravelingSalesman example; when Mr What If has finished showing the protagonists an AlternateUniverse where they didn't meet on the streetcar, he completely disappears, as if he hadn't been there to begin with. |
| 181 | -->Liwy said with sudden sharpness, "Where's Mr. If? [...] he wouldn't leave his hat." And she bent to pick it up.\ |
| 182 | Norman said, "What hat?"\ |
| 183 | And Liwy stopped her fingers hovering over nothingness. She said, "It was here-I almost touched it." |
| 184 | * "Literature/WhatYouNeed", by Creator/LewisPadgett ([[PenName writing team]] of Creator/HenryKuttner and Creator/CLMoore): Despite the protagonists not noticing the store before, the proprietor insists that he's been there before; it's just a very low-key place. |
| 185 | * Creator/JackWilliamson's "[[Literature/WithFoldedHands With Folded Hands...]]": This {{novelette}} features the protagonist of the story (a dealer in ordinary, garden-variety, non-enslaving-the-human-race-for-our-own-good robots) is walking home one day and finds a new competitor has sprung up overnight, a robot store run by the [[TheComputerIsYourFriend Humanoids]]. |
| 186 | * "Wo and Shade, Importers" in Creator/GeorgeRRMartin's "Sandkings". It has a number of curious goods inside, but the story's protagonist (a {{Jerkass}} rich idiot [[NightmareFetishist who loves dangerous pets]]) is only interested in the eponymous Sandkings, tiny insect-like creatures that form armies and war with each other, creating castles adorned with sculptures of their owner's face as if in worship. The story mentions that Wo and Shade have shops on multiple planets, and Martin intended to use them again in other stories, but, well, [[OrphanedSeries didn't.]] |
| 187 | * Creator/WilliamFWu's ''[[Literature/WongsLostAndFoundEmporium Wong's Lost and Found Emporium]]'' is about such a shop from the point of view of the shopkeeper. |
| 188 | * ''World of Heart's Desire'' by Robert Sheckley (also called ''The Store of the Worlds''(variant)) In a post-nuclear war world "the shop of the worlds" is a store in a small shack (constructed of bits of lumber and parts of cars) at the top of a mound of gray rubble, where you can travel to an alternative reality to fulfill deepest desires [[spoiler:At the cost of 10 years of your life]]. |
| 189 | [[/folder]] |
| 190 | |
| 191 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 192 | * An episode of ''Series/TheAlfredHitchcockHour'' named "The Magic Shop", based on the Creator/HGWells story. The shop appears, the owner gets a boy interested, and later the shop ''and boy'' disappear, and the boy is returned, ''different'', years later. |
| 193 | * ''Series/AmazingStories'', "Mr Magic": Old-timer Lou Bundles, once a world-famous magician, is now fumbling every trick, and desperately purchases an amazing old deck of cards at a small magic shop in hopes of going out in a spectacular display of legerdemain. |
| 194 | * Sardo's Magic Mansion from ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'' was a recurring setting in several episodes. |
| 195 | ** There was a magically appearing store in a DealWithTheDevil episode, where the more magic stuff a girl bought from the owner, the uglier she became. Website/TheAgonyBooth did [[http://www.agonybooth.com/tv/Are_You_Afraid_of_the_Dark/Tale_of_the_Vacant_Lot.aspx a recap]] of this one. |
| 196 | ** The toy factory in "The Thirteenth Floor". |
| 197 | ** It's a bit of a subversion, since Sardo has no idea how to actually do magic or how the stuff in his shop works. He's just the middleman. His shop being mobile is probably something in the store beyond his control. |
| 198 | * ''Series/BeyondBeliefFactOrFiction'' has a story of a very very shallow woman going into an independent salon, and is talking to the stylist about appearances. And the stylist speaks about a connection between appearances and personality. The woman ignores her, but then gets infuriated when the stylist makes one tiny mistake. She screams about how she's going to use her wealth and power to shut the place down. In which the stylist curses her to "Have a mirror to one's soul" which to put it simply, her appearance will reflect her personality. The woman laughs it off and leaves, but the next day she wakes up very ugly. So she goes back to the shop only for it to be all closed up and abandoned. |
| 199 | * ''Series/ABitOfFryAndLaurie'' has a little roadside flower stand that wasn't there yesterday. Its owner is mysteriously capable of discerning that it's evening, ''even though he's not wearing a watch''. |
| 200 | * The villain ([[ForTheEvulz Ethan Rayne]]) in the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E6Halloween "Halloween"]] opens a costume shop that sells items bewitched to make their wearers [[BecomingTheCostume actually become the things they dressed up as]]. Naturally when Giles goes to the shop the day after Halloween the place has been cleared out. |
| 201 | * ''Series/TheColbertReport'': Invoked by Stephen in [[https://www.cc.com/video/i8ohf4/the-colbert-report-put-the-cursed-monkey-paw-down this segment]]. Stephen concludes that things keep going wrong in the cleanup of the Mexican Gulf oil spill because someone keeps making wishes with a cursed monkey paw bought in such a shop. |
| 202 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven Face the Raven]]", it's revealed that trap streets (fake streets placed in maps as copyright protection) are actually this trope, protected by "misdirection circuits". It's possible to stumble into them accidentally (for instance if you're talking on your mobile phone) but those deliberately looking will pass them by without notice. |
| 203 | * ''Series/FridayThe13thTheSeries'' follows Micki and Ryan, owners of an antiques store, and their friend, Jack Marshak, as they try to recover cursed antiques, to put them into safety in the store's vault. |
| 204 | ** Lewis Vendredi made a deal with the devil to sell cursed antiques. But he broke the pact, and it cost him his soul. Now, his niece Micki, and her cousin Ryan have inherited the store... and with it, the curse. Now they must get everything back, and the real terror begins. |
| 205 | *** — prologue that opened the first episode of the third season. |
| 206 | * ''Series/Goosebumps1995'': |
| 207 | ** In the episode "[[Recap/Goosebumps1995S2E23TheBlobThatAteEveryone The Blob that Ate Everyone]]", Mrs. Carter discovers Zackie and Alex rummaging through her ruined shop and gladly gives Zackie the magic typewriter so long as he writes a truly terrifying story on it. As Zackie and Alex leave, they don't look back, so they don't see that Mrs. Carter vanishes behind them. |
| 208 | ** In the episode "[[Recap/Goosebumps1995S3E5Click Click]]", Seth orders the remote control after seeing an ad in the newspaper for a shady company called Armchair Electronics. They don't answer the phone and they have no physical address; Seth and Kevin visit one, but it's just an abandoned, dilapidated warehouse. However, [[BigBrotherIsWatching they seem to know what Seth is doing at any point]] and repeatedly warn him not to abuse the remote. |
| 209 | * Hikari Photo Studio in ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'' is an odd example, since it's also the main characters' home and the hub of their inter-dimensional travel. It also seems to replace an existing shop as long as it's in any given world, as evidenced by the brief RunningGag of natives entering, looking around, and asking "Wasn't this a coffee shop?" |
| 210 | * Not so much a shop as potential employer in ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle''. After eavesdropping on a coworker's phone interview, Hal took off to a building he'd never been to before for a new job. He'd never remembered it being there before. He went through a lot of weird trials and tests as part of the interview (say, spy-type stuff), and when he decided against the job...the entire building was gone the next day. |
| 211 | * ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S7E9AlienShop Alien Shop]]", Andy Pace runs into Sewell Lane in order to evade the cops, having attempted to steal from an undercover officer, and finds a strange curio shop. The shopkeeper, who is secretly an alien shapeshifter who was sent to Earth as a penance, offers him a wallet. When he later goes to the pub Dentry's, Andy finds that money that he doesn't have keeps appearing in the wallet. He quickly realizes that when he touches someone, all of the money that they have on them appears in his wallet as if by magic. As time passes, Andy becomes increasingly greedy. When his drinking buddies Red and Joe and the Dentry's bartender Phil win $43,000 on a football bet, he touches all of them to congratulate them and all of the money appears in his wallet. However, there is [[EmpathicHealing another unintended side effect]] as a delighted Red announces the melanomas on his hands caused by skin cancer have disappeared. Andy is horrified to find that they have appeared on his hands. He runs back to Sewell Lane to find the shopkeeper but he instead finds a brick wall in place of the shop. The skin cancer spreads all over his body within minutes and he drops the wallet as he has finally realized that it is more trouble than it is worth. As soon as he does so, Andy finds himself back at the moment that the shopkeeper first offered him the wallet. He tells the shopkeeper that he has finally learned his lesson. The episode ends with him and Gabby happily pushing their newborn baby along the street in a stroller. |
| 212 | %%* It also showed up in a Christmas Episode of ''Series/PunkyBrewster''. |
| 213 | * Happens in ''Series/TheRealHustle'' and it often works like this. Customers find a brand new phone store has opened selling phones extremely cheaply; but the catch is that the store doesn't keep the phones so it'll take a day or two for the phone to turn up, you still need to pay upfront but it's extremely cheap...even cheaper if you pay via card. Of course by the time they come back to the shop it's gone and if they were unfortunate to use their card it's been cloned. |
| 214 | ** One of the cons actually ''relied'' on the mark knowing this. Some guy on the phone talks about this valuable plate he found at this booth in the flea market, except he didn't have enough money to buy it. So he describes the plate and asks the friend he's talking to bring some money and buy the plate. The mark overhears the conversation, and goes to buy the plates themselves. The plates, of course, are worthless, but the con wouldn't work if the mark didn't know the booth would likely be gone by the next day. |
| 215 | %%* The club where all the beautiful people are from ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''. |
| 216 | * This was the basis for the ''Series/SharonLoisAndBramsElephantShow'' episode "Curio Shoppe". The titular shop sells magical antiques that let the trio live out their daydreams. When they go back to show Eric Nagler, the shop is gone. |
| 217 | %%* Michael Scot used this ruse in the first episode of ''Series/ShoeboxZoo'', to the bemusement of nearby builders. |
| 218 | * ''Series/StrangeFrequency 2'' (2002 TV Movie), Story #1, "Soul Man": is the story of a guitar tuner who wants to be a rock star and finds a sheet music that is supposedly the unpublished last song of Jimi Hendrix in a music curio shop. The keeper of the store warns the guitar tuner that playing the music will summon up the devil, but he doesn't listen, and he buys it anyway. |
| 219 | %%* The Little Shop showed up -- played lightly for laughs -- in ''Series/TalesFromTheDarkside'''s teleplay of Creator/HarlanEllison's short story "Djinn, No Chaser". |
| 220 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium", based on the short story by William F. Wu, the eponymous shop is magical and the entrance changes location. Some people stumble on it while others have to commit years of diligent effort to track it down. David Wong finds it in the backroom of a porn shop in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco after three years of searching, Mrs. Whitford finds it in Fort Lauderdale and an elderly man simply found himself there after a doctor's appointment. The emporium contains lost hopes, dreams, chances and attributes that people seek to regain. David Wong is searching for his compassion, Melinda for her sense of humor, Mrs. Whitford for lost time and the elderly man for the respect of his children. Each lost attribute appears in a glowing ball, which everyone except the intended recipient can see, and takes the form of a physical object or animal. The recipients must follow the instructions on the label to benefit from it. |
| 221 | [[/folder]] |
| 222 | |
| 223 | [[folder:Tabletop RPG]] |
| 224 | * ''1001 Science Fiction Weapons'', for OGL, has the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens Witherslant Masters]] opening a strange little black plastic store whenever the GM thinks of it; there is no reliable way to summon one. It could appear anywhere, even over an existing building. Inside there is a minimum of furniture, all in black plastic, with a plastic droid behind the counter. The store is stocked with strange black plastic energy weapons, however these, and the droid, are only simulations composed of projected energy, preventing theft. Characters can test the weapons, an impossible firing range extending upon command well beyond where the back of the store should be; the droid doesn't mind the customers testing the (incredibly powerful) weapons on him (in which case a new droid will appear to complete the transaction) or each other (the weapons seen may only be simulations of the products, but the bloodbaths can be very real). The prices are not quoted in money, but in violence - customers agree to perform multiple contract killings per year, the targets of which could be anyone, at the conclusion of which the item is mysteriously delivered. [[spoiler:there is a weapon available, but not advertised, whose price is to kill the one the character loves most.]] |
| 225 | * ''TabletopGame/DarkDungeons'' RPG, supplement ''Samaris, Island of Adventure''. In the city of Southport there's a small magickal shop called the Bizarre of the Bizarre. It can only be found at night, and even then only sometimes. Those who find it can buy the most wonderful gifts and items of all. Unfortunately most visitors never realize that these objects are mere delusions hiding worthless junk. Or are they? |
| 226 | ** One rulebook for the ''Scarred Lands'' setting introduced The Midnight Peddler. While not truly a shop, it was the same idea; this fiendish creature was a peddler who appeared in cities at midnight on foggy nights, and someone who bought his wares might gain a boon or a curse, depending on their luck. (In game terms, buying something from him gave a character a randomly chosen temporary bonus or penalty to an Ability Score or some other stat. |
| 227 | * Discussed in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Magic Items 3'' as an excellent trope to get magic items from, although it also notes the dangers of your players not taking it seriously. The book more or less defines it as an UndeadHorseTrope; one which keeps going even though subversions and parodies are numerous enough to form their own subgenre. |
| 228 | * One's an available location card in the Christmas movie expansion for ''TabletopGame/GraveRobbersFromOuterSpace''. |
| 229 | [[/folder]] |
| 230 | |
| 231 | [[folder:Theater]] |
| 232 | * A shop like this is where Seymour buys Audrey II in ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors''. He even says the Trope Name almost verbatim. |
| 233 | * In ''[[Theatre/{{Tsukipro}} ROMEO in the Darkness]]'', Rikka, Dai, and the twins find a shop like this on their first visit to Kanda. It's full of birdcages and picture frames. Once inside, Dai (in side Red) or Issei (in side Blue) picks up an old book that seems to be in German, and gets a paper cut on it, so he feels like he has to buy it. But the shopkeeper doesn't charge for it, he just says "May the blessings of Romeo be with you," and a strange light comes over the scene. The next day, Dai loses his sight (Red)/Issei loses his voice (Blue), and when the others go back to check the shop, it's not there anymore. Within days, the main cast are all swept into the memories of the mysterious vampire Romeo. |
| 234 | [[/folder]] |
| 235 | |
| 236 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 237 | * The title [[LovecraftCountry rural New England]] [[TownWithADarkSecret town]] of ''Videogame/{{Anchorhead}}'' has one (complete with odd old shopkeeper), which is also the source of a key artifact you'll need to win the game. |
| 238 | * ''VideoGame/CardmasterConflict'' has the [[http://www.cardmasterconflict.com:8000/wiki/index.php/Mysterious_Shop Mysterious Shop]], which only lasts one turn, but you can use it to "buy" cards from your deck with {{Mana}}. |
| 239 | * ''{{Franchise/Discworld}}'': |
| 240 | ** These shops appear in the game ''[[Videogame/DiscworldII Discworld II: Missing Presumed]]''. While inside, you can witness the shopkeeper pulling a lever. Once you leave, you are in another part of Ankh-Morpork. |
| 241 | ** ''VideoGame/DiscworldMUD'': There's a traveling shop which sells some very rare items, and is useful for getting to distant locations. |
| 242 | * In ''Dr. Ludwig and the Devil'' Dr. Ludwig went back to the shop where he bought the Grand Grimoire to complain that its cover is sheepskin instead of human skin, only to find the establishment no longer there. |
| 243 | * ''The Black Emporium'' from ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', run by the immortal Xenon the Antiquarian. Only those personally invited are able to find the shop, however Xenon warns if they decide to get rid of the charm he gave them, they will be rendered unable to do so, ''even if they already know where it is''. (Fortunately in terms of game mechanics the "charm" is not an actual item and cannot be lost or disposed of, so it's impossible to lose access to the Black Emporium this way.) |
| 244 | ** It should be noted that the Templars ''do'' occasionally manage to make their way to the shop with the intent of burning it down and destroying the many odd and dangerous items inside (it's never clarified if they're led there by a current customer or stumble across it on their own). What actually winds up happening is Templars being squashed flat by golems. |
| 245 | * Throughout the ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' series, there's a place called the Velvet Room. The long-nosed man who runs it, Igor, can fuse Personae together for you. Only the main character can even see its door, and it appears in the strangest places, such as [[VideoGame/{{Persona 3}} under the stairs of a karaoke bar]], [[VideoGame/{{Persona 4}} next to a small town bookstore]], or [[VideoGame/{{Persona 5}} down a side street in a shopping district]]. |
| 246 | ** But in Persona 1 and 2, everybody could enter it. Also, everybody could change Personas. |
| 247 | ** In the Persona 2 duology, there is the Time Castle Shop, owned by the Time Count. They primarily sell antique clocks, but spreading the right rumors can cause allow him to sell weapons (in ''Innocent Sin'') or Skill cards (in ''Eternal Punishment''). |
| 248 | * ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' has [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Mirage_Island Mirage Island]]; the chance that it appears is the same as winning a Master Ball in the daily lotto, except that boxed Pokémon don't count. If you actually manage to get there, [[spoiler: you'll find a bush with a single Liechi Berry (the best Berry for Pokeblocks) and a LOT of wild Wynaut.]] |
| 249 | ** The remakes have Mirage Spots. One is guaranteed to appear once a day after Steven gives you the Eon Flute (the only way of getting to one) but one also disappears once per day; more appear if you interact with other players. The Mirage Spots have rare Pokémon (legendary or otherwise), [=TMs=], and Evolution Items. However, there's no way to predict which will appear on which day. |
| 250 | * ''VisualNovel/TimeHollow'' has not only the store that wasn't there, but also the store that used to be there... and some other Fridge Logic moments |
| 251 | * ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' does this with one of its missions; namely, a competing ramen shop opens up and somehow closes in the span of one day. Somewhat subverted, as you can get the ramen shop to reopen depending on certain actions later in the game. |
| 252 | * ''VideoGame/WorldOfHorror'' has one crop up in "Rotten Report of Rancid Ramen": a restaurant that becomes insanely popular overnight, with customers acting ''obsessed'' with the food. Suspecting shenanigans, your protagonist decides to try and determine just what makes the ramen so disgustingly addictive. |
| 253 | [[/folder]] |
| 254 | |
| 255 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 256 | * In ''Webcomic/DragonMango'', [[http://dragon-mango.com/comic/chapter06/dm06-03.htm the guard asks Pumpkin whether her shop is one of these]]. She's not sure it isn't, but she does have a permit, so everything's okay. |
| 257 | * During their hunt for the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Necrotelenomicon]] in [[http://exterminatusnow.co.uk/2013-07-10/comic/the-phone-book-of-the-dead/little-shop-of-horrors/ this]] ''Webcomic/ExterminatusNow'' comic, Rogue suspects the used book shop Virus "[has] a good feeling about" fits this trope given its spooky appearance and the fact that there's no date next to "Established" on the front sign. Whether it actually is this trope is debatable, as a cultist previously bought the tome in question from it, though the shopkeeper reveals himself to be an ancient EldritchAbomination. |
| 258 | * In ''Webcomic/FullFrontalNerdity'', Frank buys a super-blender from a Costco kiosk, which turns outto have [[http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=1614 disturbingly supernatural blending abilities]]: |
| 259 | -->'''Nelson''': Let me guess, the kiosk where you got it is gone, Costco has never heard of Vivablend, and their website brings up a 404 error.\ |
| 260 | '''Frank''': But the purchase still shows up on my credit card bill, somehow.\ |
| 261 | '''Nelson''': There are no refunds for monkey's paws, dude. |
| 262 | * Parodied in ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' in the '[[http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/?date=2004-06-22 Goonmanji]]' arc. |
| 263 | * ''Webcomic/{{HERO}}'' does not have any little shops that weren't there yesterday. However, it ''does'' have an enormous oceanic base-on-stilts that wasn't there two seconds ago. |
| 264 | * ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}'': In the Halloween 2018 arc Peanut and Grape visit a creepy old video rental store and check out a strange unlabeled DVD, but after leaving the store they turn around to [[https://www.housepetscomic.com/comic/2018/10/26/stuff-it-in-your-pants/ an empty lot]]. |
| 265 | -->'''Grape:''' Wait, nevermind, now it's just been replaced by a coffee shop.\ |
| 266 | '''Peanut:''' Well that's just silly. |
| 267 | * ''Webcomic/{{Memoria}}'': The house in the woods may not have appeared, but it's certainly not there when the police check out it. |
| 268 | * ''Creator/{{Merryweathery}}'' made a small comic about these shops, specifically noting to NEVER GO IN ONE. |
| 269 | * ''Webcomic/MSFHigh'': Subverted: While Donovan's sword is said to be an ancient artifact wielded by a destined hero bought at one of these, it was revealed to be made by the Magic Teacher, who runs her own company! |
| 270 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Pixieverse}},'' Athena visits a bar that was closed recently due to fire damage, surprised to see it open again so soon. She talks to a woman about her problems, including her husband's health and issues at work. The next day she finds her husband is now in good health, though now has other issues, and she is being promoted at work. She returns to the bar, looking for clues, only to find it closed down again. |
| 271 | * Parodied in a ''Webcomic/{{Rhapsodies}}'' ChristmasEpisode, where [[CloudCuckooLander Kevin]] finds a [[http://rhapsodies.wpmorse.com/comic/candlelight-dinners/ perfectly ordinary sandwich shop]] that wasn't in the middle of a BazaarOfTheBizarre yesterday. |
| 272 | * In ''WebComic/SluggyFreelance'', this is unproven but there's reason to guess it applies to the magic shop from which Torg bought the evil talking rabbit Bun-bun. [[spoiler: Considering the shopkeeper was really a TricksterGod in disguise who was specifically out to deposit Bun-bun somewhere in an amusing way, and who resides outside of time, the shop may well have been created ''ad hoc'' too.]] It ''was'' there for long enough afterwards to say "no refunds," though. |
| 273 | * ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' has made a running theme of Beret Guy doing most of his shopping at them: |
| 274 | ** In strip [[https://xkcd.com/1772/ #1772]], Beret Guy claims he buys groceries from stores like this, and his startup considers the idea of disrupting the industry. |
| 275 | ** Subverted in strip [[https://xkcd.com/2332/ #2332]]. Beret Guy tried to return a supposedly cursed office chair, but the store was boarded up... because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. |
| 276 | ** And in strip [[https://xkcd.com/2376/ #2376]], Beret Guy makes a phone call: "Hi, is this the shop that sells cursed items but when you try to return them the shop is gone?" "Yes, how can I help you?" |
| 277 | [[/folder]] |
| 278 | |
| 279 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 280 | * ''Literature/TheBarber'' has a ''Barbershop'' that wasn't there yesterday. |
| 281 | * There is a Creepypasta story about VideoGame/SuperMario64 where the protagonist buys his copy of the game from a strange website advertised in a pop-up ad. The website is gone by the time he starts experiencing...problems...with the game. Read it [[http://sanctuary.prelucid.com/library/index.php?title=Super_Mario_64 here]]. |
| 282 | * WebVideo/BenDrowned has its protagonist getting a haunted [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]] cartridge from a garage sale. When he comes back to talk to the old man he bought it from after the game begins acting... ''strange'', he finds that his house is for sale. Really, this trope seems to be common in creepypasta about video games. |
| 283 | * In the CreepyPasta "Welcome Home", there is the cozy little bakery "Welcome Home". Similar to "Needful Things", the building and lot are there already, Maria just moves in and spruces it up a bit. And when she gets what she came for [[spoiler:some of the local children whom she renders into fresh ingredients and paint]] she vanishes, leaving the now-empty building the ruin it was when she first arrived. |
| 284 | * In an episode of ''Podcast/TheHiddenAlmanac'', one opens in the city and sells mysterious items to several people with cryptic instructions. On catching wind of this, the authorities shut the place down and confiscate the items. |
| 285 | * While Artax of ''Podcast/MetamorCity'' started as an homage to the “Spells R Us” wizard, his magic shop was stationary until a misunderstanding with an intelligence agency in ‘’Things Unseen’’. Then he starts hiding in plain sight by teleporting the shop to a different mall or strip every night (helps that it’s bigger on the inside.) |
| 286 | * ''[[http://www.improfanfic.com/shops/ One of Those Shops]]'' is an experimental branching RoundRobin writing project whose premise involves the main character ending up as the owner of a Little Shop. |
| 287 | * ''Website/SCPFoundation''; |
| 288 | ** Foundation Site 19, according to one of the propositions for SCP-001. |
| 289 | ** The people that [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-385 SCP-385]] was confiscated from are implied to have purchased it at one of these. |
| 290 | ** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1940 SCP-1940]] is a bizarre example, a shop that will appear in ''any'' enclosure, from an abandoned house to someone's sock drawer, and materialize a salesman who will try and sell everything inside the enclosure to passers-by. Any claims to the property inside the enclosure will be met with paperwork demonstrating that the enclosure and everything in it is property of Light Courier Enterprises. What's worse, any merchandise bought from the store will cause another instance to appear within six hours. |
| 291 | ** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-4828 SCP-4828]] is a SpellBook discarded from a man who claimed he bought it from ''The Multistore from Nowhere and Everywhere'' that appeared on the edge of his town. |
| 292 | ** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1472 SCP-1472]] is an interdimensional strip club that appears in an empty building for a few hours every Saturday night. |
| 293 | ** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1141 SCP-1141]] is a restaurant that frequently appears in New England zoos, but its operators always get one of the laws of physics wrong. (Once it appeared with gravity that was twice Earth's, and another time, its temperature was 5000˚C, causing fires in its section of the zoo.) |
| 294 | * Googling "Literature/SpellsRUs" yields a ''huge'' number of stories that fit this trope, and usually have male characters getting objects that [[GenderBender turn them into girls.]] These are based on a series that was started in the 90s by "Bill Hart". |
| 295 | * [[https://vimeo.com/23925061 In this online short,]] the protagonist gets his time-travelling sandwich from a mysterious shop run by a decidedly shifty hunchback. Of course, the shop and hunchback do get visited again...kind of. |
| 296 | * This trope is a rather popular concept among branching RoundRobin writers. Two of the largest interactive branching round robins, the Anime Addventure and the Unending BE Addventure (both contain material that is {{NSFW}}, especially the latter; BE stands for BreastExpansion), even have some storyline threads (often involving ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' characters, appropriately enough, the anime addventure has a much higher proportion of relatively normal action/adventure or non sex-related storylines) where there's an entire ''street'' filled with all manner of different Little Shops That Weren't There Yesterday, usually including ''Literature/SpellsRUs''. And sometimes [[OhCrap Stephen King's ''NeedfulThings'' too.]] |
| 297 | * This [[https://www.tumblr.com/del3141/188692130618/shopkeeper-increasingly-exasperated-im-trying chain]] of Website/{{Tumblr}} posts parodies the concept with a customer who can't understand how this is different to any other shop. |
| 298 | -->'''Spooky Shopkeeper''': I will warn you... every item comes with a price.\ |
| 299 | '''Me''': Yes, I know how shops work. |
| 300 | [[/folder]] |
| 301 | |
| 302 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 303 | * In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', the episode "Blade of Grass", Finn & Jake find a hut made of grass, where Finn purchases a sword made of grass that he finds out is unpleasantly enchanted. The next day they return to find it is gone. |
| 304 | * Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball''. Richard can't find the store he bought a turtle from... because it was actually a van. [[DoubleSubverted On the other hand]], the owner of that van sells a number of mysterious and sometimes dangerous things, including that same turtle (which is a [[NighInvulnerability Nigh-Invulnerable]] biting machine), a reality-warping universal remote, and [[spoiler:Darwin (before he grew legs)]]. |
| 305 | * The pilot of ''WesternAnimation/ClerksTheAnimatedSeries'' has both the Glossy Shopping Mall That Wasn't There Yesterday ("''That's'' new.") ''and'' The Towering Skyscraper That Wasn't There Yesterday ("I find it hard to believe no one noticed that either."), mainly to illustrate how stupidly oblivious the townsfolk are, especially when you consider the fact that both buildings (and the tents covering them) are gigantic and hard to miss. The Skyscraper remains, but the Mall soon disappears... less because of magic, and more because Jay and Silent Bob [[StuffBlowingUp blow it up]]. |
| 306 | * In "A Circus Town Christmas," the ChristmasEpisode of ''WesternAnimation/JoJosCircus'', the Circus Town Perfect Present Store appears in Circus Town once a year at Christmastime. As the teacher Mrs. Kersplatski explains, "The wind blows it in, then blows it away again!" |
| 307 | * In ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', Ron's parents adopt a child from the Adoption Agency that Wasn't There Yesterday. By the time Kim and Ron realize his sister has super powers, it's a newly-opening pet store. Fortunately, despite her super strength, Hana is friendly and benign (toward the protagonists, at least.) |
| 308 | * Played with in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E5MagicDuel Magic Duel]]" and the shop where Trixie acquires the Alicorn Amulet. The shopkeeper certainly fits the trope, as do the curios of the shop. |
| 309 | * The ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' episode "Store 23" features The Mr. Smoothy Franchise That Wasn't There Yesterday. Although there's nothing sinister or mysterious about what it sells, it does take Ben to an AlternateUniverse where he can learn AnAesop. |
| 310 | * Mr. Pong's exotic pet shop from the ''WesternAnimation/MovilleMysteries'' episode "Pet Shop Of No Return" pops up when Emil is banned from every other store, and vanishes without a trace after [[spoiler:Pong subjects Emil to a Karmic Transformation]]. |
| 311 | * Deconstructed, along with BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor, in the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS1E9SomethingRickedThisWayComes Something Ricked This Way Comes]]". Summer got a part-time job at a newly opened vintage thrift store called Literature/NeedfulThings, run by an eccentric gentleman who always knows what his customers desire. [[spoiler:Rick immediately figures out that Mr. Needful is actually The Devil himself, who gives him a golden microscope with a curse that would have made him stupid. Unfortunately for the devil, Rick is able to use his mad science to figure out how to detect, analyze, and counteract curses, and he opens up his own store across the street where he removes curses, leaving the items with just their beneficial magic. For instance, an aftershave that makes a man irresistible to women, but also leaves him impotent? Rick pairs it with a cure for impotence. Rick makes a ton of money, and Mr. Needful is so humiliated that Summer has to talk him out of suicide. Then Rick gets bored and burns the place down.]] |
| 312 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 313 | ** Parodied, of course, in several ''WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror'' episodes. In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E7TreehouseOfHorrorII Treehouse of Horror II]]", Homer buys a Monkey's Paw (subverts the expectation of the store mysteriously disappearing afterward), in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E5TreehouseOfHorrorIII Treehouse of Horror III]]", Homer buys a cursed Krusty the Clown doll for Bart (it came with a free frogurt... which was also cursed), and also in "[=ToH=] III", Bart finds the occult section of Springfield Elementary's library ("Gee, I never noticed that before!"). |
| 314 | ** Referenced in the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS25E20BrickLikeMe Brick Like Me]]", which is set in a world of LEGO bricks. LEGO Homer [[TomatoInTheMirror sees Regular Homer in the mirror]] and asks Marge if she bought the mirror in such a store. |
| 315 | --->'''Homer:''' Marge! Did you replace our regular mirror with a magical mirror from a mystical salesman at a weird store that if we went back to find it it wouldn't be there anymore?\ |
| 316 | '''Marge:''' No.\ |
| 317 | '''Homer:''' AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! |
| 318 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'' episode "[[Recap/TeenTitansS4E10MotherMaeEye Mother Mae-Eye]]", Cyborg buys the pie that the title character comes from at a shop like this, owned by a creepy-looking old gypsy woman. (Who may be Mother Mae-Eye herself; the two look similar.) |
| 319 | [[/folder]] |
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