IRL flashlight shops

I'm wondering... has anyone ever had the idea of opening an In Real Life (as in, non-online) shop selling nothing but flashlights?
Or maybe with other lighting hardware (LED bulbs yes, ceiling lamps no), but still focusing on portable lights?

Maybe carrying everything from the cheapest, nastiest chinese lights (for the people who normally go for supermarket lights) to Surefires and such (for connoisseurs)?

It'd have to be done in a large city, of course (preferably close to mountains or other flashlight-requiring environments). Do you think it'd be worth it?

Note that I'm not planning on doing this, I only ask out of curiosity.

Batteries Plus is a store in Southern California that sells all kinds of batteries and flashlights such as Streamlight and other Chinese LED lights. Ironically they do not sell any flashlights by Surefire or others with the Cree or Rebel LED.

Fallingwater said:

.... Note that I'm not planning on doing this, I only ask out of curiosity.

Click to expand...

Sorry, but it's not worth it.

An on-line shop is just much easier to set up. Much less overhead. The operation, at least early on, can be run out of a person's home. You don't even need a P.O. box for getting orders. Sellers PayPal account would be needed. If the business goes under, it's not as though a person's entire Life Savings is gone or they owe a lot of money on a business loan.

Another reason is that many of the B&M stores that I know of in NYC, they often sell other products. Not just flashlights. (Wilderness stores, Army & Navy Surplus stores, hardware stores; those sorts of businesses). Even the ones that specialize in lighting, often sell a bunch of other lighting products. Home lighting fixtures, artistic lighted statues, that sort of thing. I don't think there's enough profit to be made in a pure flashlight shop that sells flashlights, spare parts, bulbs, etc.

I agree with Monocrom, not a large enough market to make a store like that profitable. Even in a large city, you have the population. But most people are happy with the flashlight selection at Target, so why bother going to a shop just for flashlights. I don't think you can sustain a store like that on hobbyist alone.

Heck, even if you look at most flashlight sellers on the web, with some exceptions, they generally stock other items.

So, I think the idea would be awesome and I would probably day trip across a a state or two to check out the selection...but I don't see it happening.

Hmm.
Well, you'd get lots of CPFers day-tripping over states just to check your stock. That's something already.

But seriously, I see your point. Too bad, though. If people were more educated perhaps there would be real life stores where the height of technology aren't Luxeon 3s...
Oh well, a guy can dream.

You could definately have a combination internet and B&M store, like Brightguy..

It can be done if you mix in certain tactical items and high powered LED lights like floodlights but flashlights alone would be tough.

When I first saw the title, I though we were looking at Indy Racing League Flashlight Shops..