|
There used to be a couple of video stores in town that had pool tables and arcade games. Then Blockbuster finally opened a store here in 2003, which strangely enough is where I rented Clerks. from for the first time.
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2018 22:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 03:24 |
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:It's very weird to see how Hot Topic and Spencer's have evolved from their origins; the store full of goth/raver stuff and the store full of penis-themed dice kinda met in the middle. Spencer's in particular also has lots of anime and gaming themed merchandise. Presto posted:Malls haven't been good since the arcades closed. This is true, but I rediscovered mall food a few months ago and it turns out some of it was good enough to do a few return trips. The teriyaki place in particular, despite changing ownership and name, has kept the same recipes from 25 years ago so that really helped the nostalgia trip.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 01:29
|
|
|
So it looks like KB Toys is being resurrected to fill the void left by TRU: https://trib.al/3ZaVpHm
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 01:31
|
|
|
Is that the bourbon chicken place
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 01:31
|
|
|
Crow Jane posted:So it looks like KB Toys is being resurrected to fill the void left by TRU: It'll be as successful as Crumbs' 5 minute 'resurrection'. BTW, does anyone have access to the current Moody's 'at risk for default' list for retailers?
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 01:37
|
|
|
Crow Jane posted:So it looks like KB Toys is being resurrected to fill the void left by TRU: Playing the long game. Next natural wonders will reopen to sell orbs again 🔮
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 01:39
|
|
|
Bellevue, WA has an awesome mall food court at crossroads. It's all small independent ethnic places. Then its got a good gaming store, good independent book store, and is packed with quarter ride machines.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 01:43
|
|
|
Presto posted:Malls haven't been good since the arcades closed. Yup. That's why I never got tagged for loitering as a kid, I was in and out of the arcade throwing quarters into things instead.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 01:50
|
|
|
Crow Jane posted:So it looks like KB Toys is being resurrected to fill the void left by TRU:
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 02:15
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:I never really even understood the practice of being a mallrat, because you needed gas money to drive 45 minutes to loiter. Where I grew up, you could get to like at least 16 different full on malls within a 45 minute drive's distance, as long as it wasnt around rush hour. Hell there was one within 10 minutes and like 6 or 7 within 20 minutes. And even if you were going the whole 20 minutes out you're going like 12-15 miles maybe. That's like $3 of gas tops back then if you had a real gas hungry car. You could probably manage to get a lot more malls within like a 45 minute drive in some place like California back in the heyday. Crow Jane posted:So it looks like KB Toys is being resurrected to fill the void left by TRU: Kinda weird since the people doing it had just bought the brand off of Toys R Us in the first place (TRU having bought it in the firesale of company assets after all the stores closed)
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 02:51
|
|
|
I remember TRU being a cavernous place filled with tons of stock, so much that the employees couldn't keep track of it all, so that if you looked hard enough you could find weird nerd poo poo. KayBee I don't remember being as specialized, so it wasn't as exciting.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 03:27
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:I remember TRU being a cavernous place filled with tons of stock, so much that the employees couldn't keep track of it all, so that if you looked hard enough you could find weird nerd poo poo. KayBee I don't remember being as specialized, so it wasn't as exciting. The only KayBee I ever saw was pretty depressing. Just stuffed off in a random corner of the mall. It had an aisle of standard board games, an aisle of Lego and random dolls, then an aisle of just whatever random crap. They had a selection of like 20 video games locked in a case and a tendency to lose the key. That corner of the mall was inexplicably badly lit all the time. It was like people forgot it existed and never bothered replacing the bulbs that burned out. To the surprise of exactly nobody it didn't last very long.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 04:09
|
|
|
The one in my mall was smaller than a Toys R Us but had a pretty good selection- nothing but good toys. About 5-6 aisles wide. The Waldenbooks of toy stores it was next to waldenbooks
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 04:28
|
|
|
Amazon is considering buying some Toys R Us locations: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-19/amazon-is-said-to-have-mulled-acquiring-some-toys-r-us-stores
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 16:55
|
|
|
Caganer posted:The one in my mall was smaller than a Toys R Us but had a pretty good selection- nothing but good toys. About 5-6 aisles wide. The Waldenbooks of toy stores As far as I can recall, all of the Toys R Us around me have always either been freestanding or the largest tenant in a strip mall. I never considered TRU and KB Toys to be very similar, other than the fact that they both sold toys. KB in our area only ever occupied small to medium sized spaces in the mall. Until TRU came to town (at least to my memory), Lionel's Kiddie City was the toy store. K-Mart had toys, but their selection (and displays) weren't as good as Gold Circle, and I think one time even Zayre.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 19:02
|
|
|
There were two flavors of KB: One is the smaller store you'd find in a mall interior, the other was KB Toy Works, which was a store more akin to a TRU (larger stores, strip malls, etc).
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 19:18
|
|
|
I bought a lot of stuff from KB Toys over the years. There was one in a strip mall about 2 miles down the road, which was way better than the half-hour drive to get the TRU. KB coming back could work. But it probably won't.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 19:29
|
|
|
KB Toys was an absolutely incredible place to purchase cheap video games in the late 90s and early 00s. They'd have tons of uncommon stuff for $5 all the time, weird defunct Neo Geo Pocket Color accessories, it was great.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 21:06
|
|
|
Now that I'm thinking about it, our mall's KB was also right next to the Waldenbooks, and I picked up some weird games for $5. AD&D Pool of Radiance was my introduction to D&D.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 21:14
|
|
|
I haven't seen a proper brick and mortar toy store since I was a kid, but boy are there a lot of "gaming stores" selling nerd poo poo and manchildren toys. It seems the business just grew with its aging demographic.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 21:19
|
|
|
Yeah board game shops blew up around the Seattle area in the last five years. A lot of them are combination bar/store/gaming tables and they rake in the dough alongside having private rooms for rent.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 21:29
|
|
|
Baronjutter posted:I haven't seen a proper brick and mortar toy store since I was a kid, but boy are there a lot of "gaming stores" selling nerd poo poo and manchildren toys. It seems the business just grew with its aging demographic. That's a pretty dumb assertion. It doesn't even make the most minimal of sense because Toys R Us type places have long skewed towards toys specifically for younger children as opposed to toys for teens and up. Additionally, toy stores first got huge in the US back in the 40s/50s. You also seem generally ignorant that kids continue to play video games and want toys for it so of course that stuff's going to be at gamestop, it's not like nobody under 25 plays video games or whatever.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 21:31
|
|
|
We have those stores in the UK as well I’m afraid. Collectable Stuff that used to be cheaply made tat that little Jimmy or Sally could save up pocket money for, is now “limited edition” and way above a child’s price point. It sucks for the collectors as well, in the 1990s that same money would have bought you a genuinely limited edition hand painted Star Trek statue or signed print or whatever not a lovely Pokemon key chain. The minecraft stuff is outrageous, a game they know is hugely popular with the young kiddies and every single item a rip off.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 21:39
|
|
|
Baronjutter posted:I haven't seen a proper brick and mortar toy store since I was a kid, but boy are there a lot of "gaming stores" selling nerd poo poo and manchildren toys. It seems the business just grew with its aging demographic.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 21:42
|
|
|
Why would you own toys if you didn’t have children?
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 21:45
|
|
|
HEY NONG MAN posted:Why would you own toys if you didn’t have children? Agreed, the manchildren in the NBA should get rid all of their childish crap.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 21:47
|
|
|
HEY NONG MAN posted:Why would you own toys if you didn’t have children? https://www.jayco.com/products/toy-haulers/ Take a guess, genius.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 21:48
|
|
|
fishmech posted:Agreed, the manchildren in the NBA should get rid all of their childish crap. I don’t even know what this means. Great post, though.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 21:51
|
|
|
HEY NONG MAN posted:I don’t even know what this means. Great post, though. Basketballs? Them's is toys.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 21:52
|
|
|
Oh ok. That surely makes a ton of sense. You got me.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 21:53
|
|
|
HEY NONG MAN posted:Why do people watch movies :dougwalker:
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 21:58
|
|
|
Why do people even have fun or pleasure? Why I drink my nutrient slurry three times a day and I I actually do have a kid, which is good social cover against judgmental asshats, but you shouldn't need one to be able to play with toys, because toys are rad.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 22:24
|
|
|
Whoa. It was a super basic question and I get it now. You love toys.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 22:25
|
|
|
everyone loves toys, some people get hung up on other people loving the wrong toys its like how games are games until they become sports, which are more serious, and for grown ups
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 22:34
|
|
|
HEY NONG MAN posted:Why would you own toys if you didn’t have children? You're typing on a toy right now, you dumbass.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 22:47
|
|
|
Well that doesn’t sound right at all. Wait, is everything a toy?
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 22:48
|
|
|
HEY NONG MAN posted:Whoa. It was a super basic question and I get it now. You love toys. It's very obvious what you're trying to do, dumbshit
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 22:49
|
|
|
Cicero posted:I actually do have a kid, which is good social cover against judgmental asshats, but you shouldn't need one to be able to play with toys, because toys are rad. I have a buddy that I've known since high school who never stopped being really into Lego. Not collecting, but just actually building stuff. I always thought it was a cool hobby, but over the years I've seen him take a ton of legitimately mean spirited poo poo over it. Of course, now that he has a kid who's old enough to enjoy his toys with him everything is fine.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 22:59
|
|
|
"i'm a big boy, because i play with big kid toys, and not baby toys" -a grown man itt
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 23:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 03:24 |
|
|
HEY NONG MAN posted:Well that doesn’t sound right at all. Wait, is everything a toy? If you use it to derive pleasure, yes. A toy is literally a tool for creating enjoyment. Surprise, if you bought a fast car to go fast when you don't require one, that car is a toy!
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2018 23:17
|
|