If you walk down 7th Avenue while heading into Greenwich Village, you may miss this gem. The Ink Pad is a small store located on 13th Street entirely devoted to decorative rubber stamps. The Ink Pad has all kinds of rubber stamps from tacky christmas greetings to elaborate sketches. All the staff in this store are avid stamp collectors and crafters. “The Ink Pad” also offers events and classes such as how to makeart journals (October 19th and 20th) and leaf print cards.
But “The Ink Pad” is not the only rubber stamp store in the city. Casey’s Rubber Stamps in the East Village (on 11th Street between First and Second Avenue) provides high quality custom-made rubber stamps drawn by Casey himself..
Small stores like this are only able to survive in dense urban areas. In small towns where there are less business opportunities, stores have to be sell more in order to cater to the needs of residents. In a big city, however, novelty stores spring up because they can offer an experience beyond your basic general store. When you take into consideration our current obsession with DIY and crafting, its no wonder that stores like “The Ink Pad” and “Casey’s Rubber Stamps” can stay in business.
New York is filled with novelty stores – check out these five stores which only sell one thing.