The LOOK Store

So I’m driving around industrial Artarmon, looking for a printer who has completed a job for me. After several trips up and down Reserve Road, I find him down a side street — Taylors Lane. I pop in, collect the work, and am on my way off, when I see an odd little set of concrete steps, its stair rail hung with brightly coloured plastic watering cans.
Huh? Do many people in industrial Artarmon need plastic watering cans? Or do people who need plastic watering cans know it’s there and seek it out?
LOOK is an odd place. You wouldn’t know it was there unless someone told you (or you happened to be visiting the printer next door). It’s a small store, but quite densely packed with the sort of stuff you see in Peter’s of Kensington, Victoria’s Basement, and a host of other homewares stores all over town — except at lower prices. ‘Funwares’ is what they call them on their Facebook site. They claim to be a ‘wholesale clearance’ store — which I think must mean that they stock and sell the excess of whatever all these other stores don’t want. It makes for an unpredictable product range, but some great deals — I walked out with two large plastic magazine baskets and a purple jewellery tree (we all need one of those). Oh — and a free chupa-​chub, which for some reason is part of their marketing strategy.
If you can’t find it, look for the Victoria’s Basement on Reserve Road, then pop round the corner. Though I can’t help wondering why Victoria’s Basement wouldn’t object to their wholesaler selling product at a discount right round the corner. Perhaps it’s because no-​one knows they’re there?