The Boring Store - Chicago |
Thursday, 01 March 2007 |
“Not a secret agent supply store”. Reads the sign placed in the window of the new Boring Store.
Located in Chicago’s Wicker Park, The Boring Store addresses all your
hollow needs including but not limited to, openings, apertures,
punctures, perforations, pits, cavities, and just plain hollows. It
also boasts zero customers for the past 28 years and sells nothing of
any utility. And, it doesn’t sell secret camera-glasses, moustache
disguise kits or underwater voice amplifiers. Just so you know.
So what is it? The owners, 826CHI, are an organisation that run free
after-school tutor and mentoring classes for children aged between
6-18. And they needed some money. So what better way of making
some cash than by duping people into buying well, nothing? Or so
they say.
The store’s real purpose, apart from raising money for new programmes
for kids, is to also serve as a catalyst for the community’s
creativity, and tempt locals to volunteer at the school. It’s
also a hell of a good way to spend a couple of hours. Each item that
you buy, including wallets disguised as moustaches, secret safe’s and
briefcases with handcuffs, is wrapped in an identical cardboard box
concealing the items inside. And all proceeds go towards funding the
courses. The only telling difference is a sign on the front that says,
“the product within this box is not comprised of a thirty-three foot
nylon rope and collapsible hook for grappling.” Or some other
non-description of the box’s contents.
Drawing inspiration from the founder of the free-writing programmes,
novelist Dave Eggers, the store combines charity, humour and everyone’s
desire to be a spy all into one extremely amusing package.
The store celebrated its “Bland Opening” on February 24 this year, and
has been inundated with kids, adults, spies (but how do they know
they’re spies?), and anyone who appreciates good writing. They
also stock pretty much every McSweeney publication in existence. By Matthew Hussey
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