Key cutting shops may be circling the retail store drain but their doom isn’t quite locked in, as these 15 classic key cutting shops and signs illustrate.

Key cutters occupy a cluttered end of the retail spectrum… no one has, is or will make a living on key cutting alone. As such, key cutting gets lumped in with other “orphan” services like shoe repair. It’s hardly a battle of equals, however, and for some reason shop owners feel the need to state and re-state their ability to cut keys… are their aged customers hard of hearing AND seeing?

Take Frank’s, a small old-style department store in Dublin, Ireland, that advertises their key cutting services no less than EIGHT times on the front facade. Not only that, the words “KEYS CUT” are even larger than the store’s name.

Pyramid Scheme

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then this venerable key cutting corner shop is pretty much priceless. Flickr member nadzferatu captured a sunny street scene featuring some nifty non-hieroglyphic signage in an unnamed Egyptian town back in October of 2007.

Off to the Pound

They don’t give tenants much storefront down in London’s Kentish Town West so store owners take what they’re given and run with it. This shop, which doesn’t appear to have a formal name, takes a multi-dimensional approach when advertising their key cutting services. Note the signs at the upper left and lower left, plus the jumbo key sticking out into the street on the right side to catch the eyes of passersby… not literally, one would hope. Flickr member Steve Bowbrick snapped this snazzy discount key cutting shop in the summer of 2010.

You’re the Topy

“Topy” Quality? Is this some sort of obscure Ye Olde anglicism we’re not aware of? In any case, this rather posh combination key cutter, shoe repair, name-plater, watchband adjustment (and doubtless more) store must be goode – just look at all that woode! Flickr member brennSL captured the redolent retro retail outlet from London’s Crystal Palace district in September of 2007.

Who You Callin’ Hong Key?

This possibly defunct key cutting shop in Hong Kong boasts unusually restrained signage – at least, for a key cuttery – and may only cut one key per customer. Left unsaid is the “while you wait” or even “while U wait” legend that seems to be de rigueur for most key cutting signage. Flickr member Randall van der Woning (Hong Kong Photography) snapped the ancient storefront in late 2006.

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Online trip planning has decimated storefront travel agents and these closed & abandoned travel agencies show the loss goes beyond just tour three.

The Jet Age saw an explosion of travel fueled by rising post-war prosperity accompanied by advances in aircraft design, capacity and performance. Our lead image featuring a still-vivid ghost sign from Toronto, Canada, epitomizes the optimism of that era. The above abandoned travel agent from Chicago, snapped by Flickr member ***kevin*** in late 2007, appears to equate foreign travel with esoteric artistic pursuits.

Is it any wonder Overseas Art & Travel is located in Chicago’s Chinatown? Not really. Could a business get away with that design and font today? Not likely.

Flickr members nils gore (mistersmed) and Meridith112 captured this gaudy relic of a bygone age in July 2010 and October 2013, respectively.

Direction Dereliction

Don’t most Brits look southwards when planning their holiday vacation trips? Evidently booking tours to Ireland and Denmark wasn’t a well-thought-out business plan, without even factoring “Jesus” into the equation. Flickr member leon S-D (littleweed1950) captured this closed travel agency in Chatham, Kent, UK on January 1st of 2013.

Cliff Diving

Travel agencies often scramble to find an inspirational name that strikes a chord with their target market – travelers in search of fun, adventure and/or just plain relaxation. Those looking for the opposite – or merely to end it all – may want to consider Lemming Tours. Hey, it’s one way to escape the rat race.

We won’t leave you with any er, cliffhangers though the same cannot be said for this inappropriately-named travel agency from Augsburg, Germany. Flickr member Oxymoron couldn’t resist the allure of Lemming Tours’ sign in April of 2005. Hopefully they resisted the primal urge to join one of their popular Norwegian package tours.

Space to Rent

This subdued and apparently shuttered travel agency must have been going for the double-take… how many potential clients were lured by the promise of space travel via rocket, and how many left disappointed. We’re guessing, like, all of ’em. Flickr member Kate Tomlinson snapped the over-the-top (though not out-of-this-world) travel agency from Washington DC in August of 2007.

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Going Going Gone 12 Closed Abandoned Travel Agents

Rendered obsolete by technology, hundreds of abandoned Fotomat drive-thru photo development kiosks still stand in suburban shopping center parking lots.

Founded in the mid-1960s, Fotomat specialized in drive-thru, “One Day Photo Service”… that’s right kids, people once had to wait until the next day to see photos (presumably of dinosaurs) they took with their clunky analog cameras. By 1980, over four thousand yellow & blue, pyramid-roofed Fotomat kiosks were scattered across suburban parking lots from coast to coast. Built to last on cast-concrete berms, hundreds of abandoned and re-purposed Fotomat kiosks still stand, reminding us of better days and good times cast in Kodachrome.

Wooden It Be Nice

Fotomat Corporation sold out to Konica in 1986 – a timely move to be sure, considering the late-1980s advent of film processing minilabs that reduced photo development time from a day to just an hour. Now that’s progress! The subsequent introduction of digital cameras and then, camera-equipped smartphones were the final nails in Fotomat’s coffin.

While some Fotomat booths were re-purposed into key-cutting kiosks, coffee drive-thru’s and so on, others were reborn in wholly unexpected ways. Flickr user Patrick Cummins (collations) brings us this odd ex-Fotomat located in a shopping center parking lot in northern Toronto, Canada. The kiosk appears to have been made over as some sort of naturist art project before being abandoned for good.

Unloved In Lovington

When you’re a Fotomac or Fotomate (as male and female staffers were cutely called) staffing a Fotomat kiosk in Lovington, New Mexico, your worst nightmare would be when the air conditioner conked out. At least one could compare miseries with whomever staffed that curious windmill booth in the near background. Flickr user Luis Capwell captured the poignant essence of this roofless abandoned Fotomat on March 5th of 2011.

A-Peeling

This faded & abandoned Fotomat kiosk in Dayton, Ohio lost its appeal long ago – even the OPEN/CLOSED sign has seen better days. “Yes, We’re Open”? No, you’re not.

A weathered coat of desultory grey/brown paint grudgingly reveals the booth’s original sky-blue walls through cracks encouraged by numerous bitter Ohio winters. Even the concrete is peeling. Flickr user Rob Anspach (Circa71) visited the decrepit former Fotomat at the Linden Shopping Center in April of 2009, if only to take photos – not leave them.

Forlorn & For Lease

“The cute little hut with the big yellow roof”… now there’s a Kodak moment for ya! On August 21st of 2007, Flickr user Joe Balynas (muledriver) photo-documented the above ex-Fotomat (most recently, a drive-thru coffee shack) looking for a further reincarnation. The jumbo add-on fluorescent sign should help.

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Once vital fixtures of the urban milieu, these inner city newsstands were abandoned by an information society evolving away from portable print media.

Time’s up for this classic green newsstand near the corner of 34th Street and 8th Avenue in New York City. One of many near-identical twins still thrives nearby at 33rd and 7th, however – blame the cold equations of economics driven by the relentless advance of technology.

Flickr user Brecht Bug captured the forlorn state of this formerly ubiquitous inner city icon in early February of 2010. One wonders if its grungy sister stand at 33rd and 7th (above) is still serving commuters the Daily News five years further on?

L.A. Times They Are a-Changin’

Our rickety old globe has spun many a time since Globe News, a Los Angeles storefront-style newsstand, locked & lowered its security grating for the last time. According to Flickr user vistavision (who snapped this intriguingly post-apocalyptic tableau), the stand closed for good sometime before July 16th of 2008.

Free At Last

An abandoned newsstand in midtown Manhattan presents a uniformly dull and dreary face to a world that no longer cares. Flickr user DeShaun Craddock captured the somber scene in April of 2011 and it’s noteworthy the only bright spot is an ad for a disposable, addictive, carcinogenic product.

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Unread 12 Abandoned Inner City Newsstands

Point, click, shut! Camera stores are rapidly fading into obsolescence as smartphones take the place of mass market cameras, film and paid photo processing.

Now here’s a developing story… NOT! The long-abandoned Foto Hut on Forbes Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh sold cameras, film and greeting cards while promising to develop film in an unknown number of “hour” – well, either “one” or “24”, it’s hard to tell from the red rectangle on the Kodak Yellow sign. Kudos to Flickr users strawbrryff and john (J Blough) for capturing this frozen-in-time, eternally bankrupt abandoned camera store in November 2010 and February 2011 respectively.

Chick Clinic

Once a one-stop-shop for Louisville, Kentucky’s photo fans, Schuhmann’s Click Clinic opened in 1946 and its eye-popping animated signage dates from the early 1950s. Schuhmann’s kicked the bucket in 2001, however, and the sign out front was modified to advertise the store’s new tenants: the Show-N-Tell Showgirls Lounge. No cameras allowed, we’re guessing.

Takes a licking and keeps on clicking? Both the club and the subsequent owners, the circa-2013 Meta bar, cleverly modified the front signage while completely ignoring the former camera store’s other sign, mounted on the back of the building overlooking the parking lot.

Foto Finis

Flickr user Who Cares? (busy.pochi) snapped this abandoned Photographies camera and book store in February of 2011, and it didn’t take long for graffiti taggers and handbill posters to take advantage of the stores neglected status. One would think a city as photogenic as Paris could support at least a few camera stores.

Morgue & Camera

A Hollywood landmark since the 1930s, Morgan Camera Shop finally gave up the ghost a few years into the twenty-first century. Boasting an idyllic location amongst Hollywood’s iconic tall palms and a sign influenced by Bauhaus architecture, Morgan Camera played a large roll in introducing 35mm photography to the United States from Europe.

Morgan Camera exists in an odd sort of limbo – closed to be sure, but otherwise left pretty much alone inside and out thanks to the efforts of the Morgan family, members of whom who still own both the shop and the building.

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