Exploring Cities by Stationery Shopping
A tried and true strategy!! 🧱🛍️
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I like to employ the strategy of the Flâneur when I travel, wandering streets with the aim of absorbing the aura1 of the city I am touring. But where to start! If you’re staying in a non-walkable area, or in the outskirts, one needs a point from which to begin the wandering, a launch pad to propel you into the the cultural center of the city. Much like a concentration of vintage stores or art galleries2, a stationery shop* can be harbinger of cute3 neighborhoods to explore.
*Meaning an independent, small business that sells paper goods/office tools/art supplies. No chain stores!
Here are a few* my favorite stationery shops I have ever visited, along with their lovely neighborhoods!
*Narrowed it down to six, limit one per city + shops I haven’t posted about for a while! Also, who is going to send me to Japan to find more!?!?!✈️
Maido - Japantown, San Francisco
Floor 2, Kinokuniya Building, Japan Center
One of my favorites of all time!! Maido Fine Stationery and Gifts is in Japantown, San Francisco. Nestled between the Fillmore District and Pacific Heights, Japantown can and should be easily added to your SF itinerary! The neighborhood is just a 20 minute walk north of the Painted Ladies in Alamo Square, and I find the Japan Center mall to be a very underrated pit stop while climbing the hills of the city. The lively mall has many restaurants and shops selling Japanese kitchen and home goods, toys, books + can’t miss the Matcha soft serve in a Taiyaki cone at Uji Time.
Maido can be found inside the Japan Center mall on the second floor, across from the entrance of Kinokuniya (venerable Japanese Bookstore chain). The tiny store is very well stocked (pictured) with super cute washi tape, sticky notes, stamps, stickers, notebooks, pens, calendars, folders, etc. etc. - all imported from Japan! I often find I want to purchase everything inside. Many of my beloved stationery purchases are from here! Need to plan a return trip to SF soon.🥲
Marin Montagut - 6ieme Arrondissement, Paris
48 Rue Madame, 6th Arrondisement
Marin Montagut!! Literally across the street from the Jardin du Luxembourg, at the perfect address of 48 Rue Madame. The 6th Arrondissement is well known for its famous cafes and shopping BUT it’s also the home of art stores like Charvin, the famed paint maker with a long history just shy of 200 years.
It is difficult to choose one Paris shop, but this one is singular. It’s founded by the eponymous watercolor artist: Marin Montagut. His parents were antique dealers, his grandmother was an artist, and the shop is a perfect marriage of both: a home goods store with a vintage Parisian flavor and the added flair of his original watercolor art.
Beautiful home decor aside, as an artist, Marin stocks amazing watercolor supplies and paper goods. The stationery section is gorgeous! + This original watercolor palette is my favorite to use. Neighbors Marin Montagut and Charvin have also collaborated on a watercolor palette (on my wishlist)! If you don’t paint, be sure to take home a few postcards from the papeterie.
Paper + Cloth - Parkdale, Toronto
1340 Queen St W, Parkdale
Parkdale, Toronto is known as a vibrant shopping district by the water, and Paper + Cloth is just one of a few stationery shops on Queen Street! They’re in good company with Hanji Gifts and The Paper Place (I also recommend). Walking the length of Queen Street, you’ll also find vintage clothing stores, home goods shops, an arcade bar, etc. etc. (a great street to walk)!
I love Paper + Cloth for the sheer amount and quality of stationery they stock. They specialize in Japanese stationery of course, and everything is lovingly curated and displayed. Hobonichi and Traveler’s Notebooks abound, and their stamp selection is so special. The shop also hosts planner meetups and workshops, its use as a community space only adds to the good vibes in the shop. I love Paper + Cloth.
Viva Las Vegastamps - [South of] Downtown, Las Vegas
1008 E Sahara Ave
LAS VEGAS IS not known for stationery. But there’s so much more to the city when you leave the strip! Just a short drive north, Downtown Las Vegas offers a more laid-back, alternative, more authentic and slightly weird version of the city. Here you’ll find historical venues like the Golden Nugget4, and uniquely Vegas-y experiences like The Neon Museum: a glowing graveyard of vintage signage in the desert. The Las Vegas arts district is here, rife with craft breweries and galleries and mini-museums like the Office of Collecting and Design.
Viva Las Vegastamps! Is just across Sahara Avenue from said Office of Collecting and Design, and it is not just a shop, but an emporium. A genuinely massive collection of rubber stamps! (Real rubber stamps are the best, the polymer ones are not very good, real ones know.) According to staff, 20,000 unique stamps line the maze-like neon-lit aisles. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was an out of body experience. I spent about an hour shopping in here and a lot of money. I attempted to capture the experience in this video. A very special place!!! Viva las Vegas[tamps]!!
Nico Neco Zakkaya - East Village, NYC
263 E 10th St, East Village
A local favorite to me! Right between the 1st Avenue and Avenue A, this block of E10th street is a good one. We have chic French cake bakery From Lucie, homey coffee shop Lê Phin, and the classic plant shop Evflorist Corp’s leafy stock overtaking the sidewalk. Until recently “Crops for Girls” hair salon, offering only pixies and short bobs for women, bookended the block. I really liked their sign that said “my name is Michael and I do women’s short hair cuts ONLY,” I will never cut my hair that short but it was an iconic shop! RIP.
Anyway, between the old location of Crops for Girls, and bakery From Lucie, we have Nico Neco Zakkaya: a teeny tiny Japanese stationery shop that stocks teeny tiny beautiful things! Nico Neco rose to fame as an online retailer for stationery, and have become an East Village fixture since they opened their first brick and mortar location five years ago. Their original designs and collaborations with Japanese stationery manufacturers are amazing, I find I can never leave without buying something. Nearby you’ll find other iconic (to me) stationery shops like East Village Postal, and Casey’s Rubber Stamps. I ♥️ the Nico Neco neighborhood.
Present & Correct - Bloomsbury, London
12 Bury Place, Bloomsbury
Home to The University of London and quiet garden squares like Russell Square, (a fave) Bedford Square, and the titular Bloomsbury Square, there’s much to love about the neighborhood. (Caffè Tropea in Russell Square rules, the Fitzroy Hotel rules.)
Present & Correct also rules, and is found on Bury Place, right next to the British Museum. Next door you’ll find the London Review Bookshop, owned by the magazine of the same name, and down the street, Camera City, a second hand camera shop.
The displays in the are extreeeeemely satisfying, and stationery gadgets and gizmos are a plenty! I’ve talked about it A LOT but the perpetual calendar stamp goes so hard. They also have a selection of large objects like this huge paperclip and XL binder clip. Still thinking about them. The staff is so nice here! A perfect shop to visit on a cute street in a lovely neighborhood.
Conclusion
Exploring cities via stationery shop is a flawless methodology. I could produce another series of examples. Maybe later!
lol sorry
Are we talking about gentrified neighborhoods? Are stationery shops gentrifying?!?! Adding to Substack drafts.
sorry again
Hi Mercedes
Daniela, I've found a soul sister in you! Very rarely does one come across a stationery junkie and I'm thrilled to find you here🥰🥰🥰