The rise of the elevated general store
There’s a particular appeal to the general store. You don’t need anything urgently, yet the wares are such items that you could always do with stocking up on and you feel a sense of secure well-being at having that perfectly utilitarian stapler, milk pan, or toothpaste squeezer in your possession. A general store also satisfies your shopaholic impulses while tempering the dopamine spike with practical use as the end game.
Some examples I love: Jasper Morrison’s almost invisible shop at 24b Kingsland Road E2, where I bought my yellow steel stapler 17 years ago (below, a great example of an essential everyday object that brings joy). Morrison also designs saucepans, cutlery and even furniture for Muji, that temple of practicality, where I repeat-buy my cereal bowls, ‘right angle socks’ and 0.7 gel pens. (more…)
