The fluorescent-lit shell of a former 7-Eleven on Third Avenue in downtown Seattle looks, from the sidewalk, like any other convenience store. Step inside and the shelves are stocked with objects that are almost, but not quite, useful: shoulder bags sewn from Cheetos and Lay's bags, beeswax candles shaped like eggs, a keychain replica of a candy bar, and a corded "landline iPhone" that plays only U2's "Vertigo" when answered. The Inconvenience Store opened to the public on September 22.
The project comes from artists Lilia Deering and Mary Anne Carter, the duo behind the 2024 IKEA-spoof exhibit "STÖR." For this one, they recruited roughly 70 mostly local artists to fill fourteen mock departments of a store that sells nothing you'd actually want at 2 a.m., including a whole shelf of intentionally tangled USB cords.
We want to make purchasing art really approachable, because it's so important, as an artist, to be able to sell your work if you want to keep making art sustainably.
Lilia Deering, co-creator of the Inconvenience Store
A gallery that looks nothing like one
Prices run from $1 for small trinkets up to $10,000 for larger pieces, a range organizers say is meant to strip away the intimidation of a traditional white-walled gallery. The shop, billed by its creators as "your favorite corner store, reimagined entirely by artists," opened alongside WALKDONTRUN, a Seattle arts marathon, and is scheduled to keep its doors open on weekends through mid-2027.
The space, at 1524 Third Avenue, sat empty after its 7-Eleven closed, one of several downtown storefronts left vacant in recent years. Rather than disguise that history, Deering and Carter leaned into it, keeping the store's convenience-shop bones, its shelving, its layout, its checkout counter, while replacing every product with a handmade stand-in.
Admission is free, and the store is open to browsers as well as buyers. Hours are limited to Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m., turning a walk past a boarded-up storefront into a detour worth planning around for anyone downtown on a weekend.