These closed and abandoned pet shops eerily echo with the long lost sights, sounds and smells (oh, those smells!) of what were effectively urban retail zoos.

Why Not Both?

It’s a pet shop, it’s a seafood store, it’s… both? It would appear so! Sure, Donna’s Aquatic Pet Shop and Lee’s Seafood Co., Inc may sport different signs but, as Flickr member Fuzzy Gerdes‘ horrified friend Erica reportedly and repeatedly shouted, “It’s the same phone number!” Our lead image of the fenced-over Chicago store(s) dates from April of 2008 while the second photo from Flickr member crowbert depicts a slightly more active scene from a couple of years previous.

Old Age of Aquaria

The hell is an “aquaria”? Also, shouldn’t that golden creature on the sign be a fish and not a bird? Looks like a “screaming chicken” from a Trans-Am’s hood ended up as roadkill and was painted over by a lane-line paint truck. So much for this broke-ass Bird of Paradise… Paradise Pets, to be exact. Flickr member Jon Southcoasting captured the closed not-quite-fish-or-fowl shop from Shoreham-by-Sea, UK, in April of 2014.

Reptile Needsssss

Much like a snake shedding its skin, Godiva Reptiles in Coventry, UK seems to be sloughing off its signage to reveal – no, not its final form – a previous incarnation as a video rental store. Unlike the apocryphal serpent, however, the sign’s piecemeal decomposition was a harbinger of things to come. According to photographer and Flickr member Hazel Nicholson, “As of May 2017 the shop has closed down and the former owner has been found guilty of trading without a licence.” Guess the most important “reptile need” is a license to trade in reptiles. Who knew?

Our Fur Feathers

According to photographer and Flickr member shrinkin’violet, “the number 9 in the telephone number on the signage is different from the rest. This was probably added after 1995 when Bristol received the new area code.” In related news, this rather bland “petfoods” (is that even a word?) shop in beautiful downtown Bristol, UK, managed to stay in business for well over 20 years. Still plenty of fur-lorn feathered customers (or freeloaders) hanging around outside the shop, though.

Zoohaus, Raus!

Sorry, Fur & Feathers, but the pet store longevity prize goes to the former Zoohaus-Altrock, a pet shop in Wiesbaden, Germany. From 1919 to 2011 – an incredible span of 92 years – Zoohaus-Altrock pet shop supplied the local Hessians with “erlebniswelt heimtiere” (“adventure world pets”) typified by the intrepid tuxedo kitty doing an adventurous spider-cat imitation just to the right of the sign. Flickr member Arjan Richter snapped the shop’s charming two-piece (three, including the cat) signage in March of 2011.

IAMS Abandoned

Ah, the pride of Pittsgrove Township… seriously, that is one sharp shop! From the outwardly-angled brickwork buttresses framing the store entrance to the snazzy Mid-century Modern eggcrate-grill window framing, this shop has got it all. Well, except for a tenant, of course. Flickr member Thomas captured this former Jersey store (near what appears to be a Jersey shore) in June of 2008.

Non-Starter

STOP me before I sell pets again… or buy POTS back from previous customers, whatever. Kudos to Flickr member Victor Reynolds for posting an explanation: it seems the store’s original name was “PET STOP” but once the store stopped selling pets, they removed the “PET” from the sign. You’ll find this abandoned pet shop in Pohatcong, New Jersey, where the photographer stopped to snap the sign in the summer of 2015.

Call it a Cock & Bull story but a disproportionate number of British pubs, bars and taverns have ‘cock’ in their name. What’s up with that?

Ye Olde Cock

While we’re on the topic, why don’t these outwardly manly establishments have any femininely-titled counterparts, as in “hen”… what did you think we meant? Anyway, the real reason England boasts so many “cock” pubs has nothing to do with salaciousness, Beavis- er, faithful reader, but for now feel free to feast your eyes upon one of the better known examples: Ye Olde Cock Tavern, on Fleet Street in central London.

It’s uncertain whether the famed 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys really “drank a cup of Cock ale” at Ye Olde Cock Tavern, though he was known to frequent a number of watering holes in and around Fleet Street. Modern-day publicans should have no hesitation when it comes to getting their Pepys on, however, because what happens at Ye Olde Cock Tavern STAYS at Ye Olde Cock Tavern. Credit photographers quite peculiar, David, and nikoretro for posting the images above at their respective Flickr accounts.

The Famous Cock

Note, if you will, that Pepys wasn’t just enamored of any type of ale. No indeed! The er, barley literate wordsmith expressed a specific hankering for “Cock ale”… not that there’s anything wrong with that. He wasn’t the only Brit-brew-bro to feel that way, either, although with the passage of time the cocks have fled from the beer barrels to the pub signs. Ponder on that if you will, while you ogle Flickr member Ewan Munro‘s shot of The Famous Cock (formerly The Cock, and before that The Old Cock Tavern) near Highbury & Islington station in north London.

Cock O’ The North

So, just what WAS this bewitchingly “cocky” beverage that had the perspicacious Pepys, pen in hand, popping into pub after pub? According to Hannah Woolley, who wrote “The Accomplish’d lady’s delight in preserving, physick, beautifying, and cookery” in 1670, the standard recipe for Cock Ale called for infusing a boiled cock in eight gallons of ale along with raisins, nutmeg, dates, mace, and fortified wine for about a week. And by “cock”, she means “rooster”… that’s almost a relief! Flickr member crabchick brings us this September 2000 image of Cock O’ The North (since renamed the Westbury Park Tavern) from the very cocky city of Bristol.

Cock & Crown

One might say Cock Ale was chicken soup for the drunkard’s soul, and you wouldn’t be far off the mark. Sure, pickling a whole chicken in spiced beer may be weird (not to mention being a gross violation of the German Beer Purity Law of 1516) but the restorative qualities of such con-cock-tions were rather well known by the late 1600s. Flickr member Tim Green snapped the Cock & Crown tavern in Crofton, West Yorkshire, late in 2014.

The Fighting Cocks

Them’s fightin’ words… or fighting cocks, which strikes us as being illegal, unpleasant, and a lyric from ELP’s Karn Evil 9. In any case, a pint of cock ale would really hit the spot iffen you was a’fixin’ to do some fightin’. A case of cock ale, on the other hand, might have you fightin’ to get up off the floor. Seems like a textbook example of the Fight or Flight reflex in action, and the action’s happening at The Fighting Cocks pub in Moseley, Birmingham. Snapped by Flickr member Elliott Brown in December of 2009, this Grade II Listed building dates from the dawn of the 20th century and boasts its own integral cock tower. Make that CLOCK tower, dangnabbit!

Next Page - Click Below to Read More:
Fully Cocked 10 British Cock Pubs Taverns

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.

Next Page - Click Below to Read More:
Good Lock 15 Kool Key Cutting Shops Signs

An orange by any other name doesn’t taste the same, as the owners of these Trump-named but otherwise unaffiliated stores and business can truly attest.

Take Trump Tobacco, a Huntington Beach, California store selling cigars, cigarettes and smoking accessories. One wonders what The Donald would think of the 10-year-old business founded, owned and operated by Mohammad Yousefi, an Afghan-born U.S. citizen and card-carrying – well, business-card-carrying at least – Muslim. “I chose the name Trump thinking, he’s a rich guy with a lot of buildings, so maybe I’ll get something out of his name,” explained Yousefi. Er, maybe a little TMI, dude. Trump (and his lawyers) may have small hands but they’ve got very good ears.

Trump Hair

You’d think “TrUMp Hair” – their spelling – would be the ultimate Trump-named business but no: we’re saving that one for the very end. Even so, calling your beauty salon “Trump Hair” might be expected to provoke the odd giggle if it weren’t for the fact the hairstylist is located in Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan.

Distanced, literally, from the American political scene, this Japanese salon will likely escape the fate of the KingsHead Salon in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Trump Lawn & Land

You may have heard or seen reports of Trump supporters, fed up with having their lawn signs stolen, actually mowing the name “TRUMP” into their lawns. Don’t blame Trump Lawn and Land Company for such bio-expressive shenanigans; the York, PA family-owned landscaping business has been conducting an entirely different type of grass-roots organizing since 2004.

Next Page - Click Below to Read More:
Trumped Up Stores Businesses Trading On The Trump Name

Part art project and part urban safety experiment, this series of Funnycross installations in Madrid have been positioned outside a cross section of city schools.

Designed by Bulgarian artist Christo Guelov (images by Rafael Perez Martinez, the creative crossings weave diamonds, circles and other shapes into the visual language of existing horizontal wide lines.

The brightly-colored interventions are designed to enliven the streets beyond conventional sign-posting while their eye-catching patterns are aimed at making the crossing points more visible.

The artist also aims to raise larger questions about the role of color in cities, where infrastructure is often monochromatic, systematic and ultimately dull.

“Opening up new horizons for human experience has always been the main source of creative energy, both in science and in art,” says guelov. “To inquire into something apparently non-existent or invisible to others and to provide it with real presence has always been the natural mechanism to generate usefulness for art objects.”