Beef's post about the Yarn Store (much like the Bead Store strip) is so true because a lot of niche hobby shops - especially the small ones tucked away in aging strip malls and shopping plazas - tend to have this atmosphere of quiet boredom, a muffled quality about them. And it's not just beads and yarn, I know of shops devoted to everything from models (cars, boats, aircraft, trains, etc) and art supples where this atmosphere prevades.
I have been in the awkward position of visiting The Bead/Yarn Store myself, trying to pass the time by leafing through the hobby-specific publications available and whatnot. In one case, it was a shop that sold people's homemade arts and crafts, located in a mall between an nail salon and a long empty, blacked out storefront with the big FOR LEASE signs on the windows. All sorts of decorative knickknacks, the sort of thing you buy for your grandmother and she'll think it's just SO darling. I found myself perusing sewing magazines, a flimsy trade paperback all about the making of quaint holiday decorations out of stuff like pinecones, old ribbons, buttons, lace, etc. At one point I checked my watch to see how long it had been since we entered. It had been a half-hour when it felt like an hour-plus.
On the bright side, we did pick up a jar of homemade root-beer candy.