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A big box toy store called Toy City opened in my home town and holy gently caress that place was incredible in the 80s when the entirety of Saturday morning was cartoons that were half hour toy commercials but that was fine because the toys were plentiful and rad af. You younger nerds missed out on the good times before the trifecta of the Children's Television Act, helicopter parenting, and 24/7 news networks figuring out that terrifying people about stuff that almost never happens drives viewership ruined being a child.
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Nov 21, 2022 01:30
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*customer walks in* toy city over here, heh
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Nov 21, 2022 01:49
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the Spain Virus posted:Oh, J.J. Newberry's, the last of the dime stores.  Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in 30 years. That place ruled for toys. You also knocked loose a memory of buying a portable cassette player at Sprouse-Reitz, another old dime store that kicked the bucket around the same time as Newberry’s in the early ‘90s. In fact, it seemed a lot of places like those two disappeared by the ‘90s, altogether. Here in the southwestern US, we had a place called Yellow Front that had just a little bit of everything. I remember getting toys and clothes there, and I even won a kickass BMX bike in a raffle drawing when I was about 9 years old. I enjoyed winning so much that I entered another raffle a year later for a 19 inch color television and won that, too, but the store wouldn’t let me claim it because I wasn’t 18 years old. My mom tried to pass it off to her, but the store wouldn’t budge, and they gave the TV to someone else. Shortly thereafter, they went out of business. Whoops. Should have just given me the TV, Yellow Front 
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Nov 21, 2022 02:09
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I’m extending this thread to include restaurants that no longer exist (or might still exist, just not in your area anymore). Sizzler Steakhouse. Their all-you-can-eat shrimp deal with a steak was out of this world, and their salad bar was amazing, even for kid and teenager me. Round Table Pizza. It was the pizza for me growing up since it was within walking distance from my house. The hours I spent playing Golden Axe, Crystal Castles, and 1942 while scarfing down pizza in the corner arcade area was probably 70% of my summer break from elementary school.
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Nov 21, 2022 16:52
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Both of those are a 10 minute drive from me OP.
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Nov 21, 2022 16:58
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You Are A Elf posted:I’m extending this thread to include restaurants that no longer exist (or might still exist, just not in your area anymore). Roundtable is still around. There's one like two miles away from me, little janky arcade/ticket games and all! Edit: last time I was there, the wife and I were goofing off in the arcade area while the maintenance dude was working on a machine. Before he left he threw like 40 credits on everything before leaving and it ruled Roundup Ready fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Nov 21, 2022 |
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Nov 21, 2022 16:59
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the wedding dress store in my town just got replaced by a head shop that sells $500 techno-bongs
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Nov 21, 2022 17:00
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Mumpy Puffinz posted:wait wait wait It's like the third largest city in the country lol
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Nov 21, 2022 17:52
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Media Play. Basically a massive version of Suncoast. They also had a membership card that, to me as a kid, seemed like the most amazing deal imaginable. I bought a ton of CDs and DVDs there and it felt like I was getting a $5 gift certificate every few weeks in the mail.
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Nov 21, 2022 17:57
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Mumpy Puffinz posted:wait wait wait Calgary has quadrants. Calgary’s urban sprawl extends into an adjacent reality. Calgary’s urban sprawl is both the Alpha and the Omega.
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Nov 21, 2022 19:48
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EvilJoven posted:A big box toy store called Toy City opened in my home town and holy gently caress that place was incredible in the 80s when the entirety of Saturday morning was cartoons that were half hour toy commercials but that was fine because the toys were plentiful and rad af.  Saturday morning cartoon poster here. Remember when the networks would air a prime time special in the fall showing all the new Saturday cartoons? That whole toy/cartoon synergy was a great time to be a kid, not so much for the parent's wallet.
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Nov 21, 2022 20:40
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The Nature Company. It was all neat gizmos and rocks and soothing music played.
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Nov 21, 2022 20:47
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I miss going to malls to shop and it's a shame so many stores in them are no longer around. It's awesome to be indoors, have a bunch of different stores all around you, and can eat and watch a movie, too. I miss the smaller stores that had one thing in mind. Koenig's sporting goods. Got my first few pairs of soccer shoes there. Roger & Wray's. Had bikes but also other random poo poo. Got Grimlock there. Gold Circle always had cool layouts and nice displays, especially when laser tag came out. Kiddie City was better than Toys r us, but I miss both. Especially as an adult: it'd nice to see all the stuff my kid might be into in one place. I know it was the same back then, but it's way more obvious now that all stores are full of the same poo poo. They all have a Nike or Adidas section. Large and prominent. Back then, it wasn't as obvious and there was a decent chance you could only get that one shirt at that store. There was also so much more variety in styles, overall, because of the smaller stores. Restaurants I miss? Chi chi's. I also miss Wallaby's not because of the food, but because of the lol's that we lived in an economy that could support two Australian themed chain restaurants. I miss The Flats and some of those bars. Anyway, I'll be beside myself if JC Penney goes out of business.
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Nov 21, 2022 20:53
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You Are A Elf posted:I’m extending this thread to include restaurants that no longer exist (or might still exist, just not in your area anymore). I almost posted about Sizzler and Round Table but then I realized they didn't close, I just moved away from California
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Nov 21, 2022 21:24
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I miss Arcades. We still technically have them around here but they're all lovely ticket games from the 90s and phone games ported to a giant touch screen. Aladdin's Castle was crazy fun back in the 90s. I had ~4 birthdays there, and every one kicked rear end.
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Nov 21, 2022 21:29
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Deki posted:I miss Arcades. We still technically have them around here but they're all lovely ticket games from the 90s and phone games ported to a giant touch screen. Birthday kid got to be Wolverine, I’d usually go with Colossus so I wouldn’t be stuck with Dazzler or Cyclops.
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Nov 21, 2022 21:45
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Deki posted:I miss Arcades. We still technically have them around here but they're all lovely ticket games from the 90s and phone games ported to a giant touch screen. My malls arcade was above the ice rink next to the food court, all in the same big interior space. I wish I could find a photo because it was Peak 90s styled out.
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Nov 21, 2022 21:50
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Play posted:The dope thing about Fry's though was there were two in San Jose with absolutely crazy design I had to pick up a monitor because I forgot mine at home once and ended up in the "Hollywood" one in Burbank, CA. Had a big UFO crashed into the front of it. Giant ants fighting army dudes. Robots being robots. Legally Distinct Giant Reptile With Legally Distinct Firey Breath(it might have actually just been straight-up godzilla?? But nothing else was branded that was not in public domain) . This weird statue of a little girl crying into her hands that was distinctly audible for multiple aisles around her despite not being audible directly next to her. I was like "haha wow, this sure is a thing! Hollywood loves its tourism!" and my girlfriend without being phased at all just said "They're all like this." Turns out, they are: https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/02/24/photos-frys-electronics-closes-along-with-their-distinctive-themed-stores/
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Nov 21, 2022 22:00
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Vincent Valentine posted:I had to pick up a monitor because I forgot mine at home once and ended up in the "Hollywood" one in Burbank, CA. Holy poo poo I had no idea fry's was doing this lol I went into a sears on its last day... That was a very weird experience.
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Nov 21, 2022 22:07
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Doctor Butts posted:I miss going to malls to shop and it's a shame so many stores in them are no longer around. It's awesome to be indoors, have a bunch of different stores all around you, and can eat and watch a movie, too. For everyone nostalgic about malls, I've been running this really great indie rpg about exploring a surreal mall: https://comemartin.itch.io/green-dawn-mall Idk if there's any nerds that find the premise of exploring a weird mall intriguing but this game absolutely delivers
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Nov 21, 2022 22:33
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The last time I tried to buy anything from Sears it was a washing machine in the early aughts and it was a 4-6 week wait for it to be delivered so I went into Sams Club and bought one immediately. Sears was always The Store for appliances and stereos and anything big but it went to poo poo so fast.
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Nov 21, 2022 22:57
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The other day Mrs Super-NintendoUser noticed that the winter jackets we had for our kids didn't fit. So instead of driving the entire family to Montgomery Ward's and yelling at our kids all afternoon, two taps on a phone and we had the coats driven to our house the next day.
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Nov 21, 2022 23:01
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Deki posted:I miss Arcades. I dont miss people asking if I want to see a puppy
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Nov 22, 2022 00:08
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Super-NintendoUser posted:The other day Mrs Super-NintendoUser noticed that the winter jackets we had for our kids didn't fit. So instead of driving the entire family to Montgomery Ward's and yelling at our kids all afternoon, two taps on a phone and we had the coats driven to our house the next day. Not sure you "get" the thread
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Nov 22, 2022 00:18
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A Strange Aeon posted:What did this place sell? Was it all just those things you have to cross your eyes to see a boat or was it more like a magic shop too? All they had was the cross-eye art in books and on posters or maybe on mugs too. It was the most specific store I ever saw at the mall and probably the dumbest. It was out of business by the time Mallrats came out, too, so they couldn't even take advantage of a movie tie-in.
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Nov 22, 2022 00:43
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Our local indoor shopping mall has always been a wreck. 50% occupancy on the store fronts at best. It did have a JC Penney which carried a clothing line that fit great for tall lanky guys like myself; and everything was always on sale. There would be 7 employees and 3 customers on most times. They closed shop 2 years ago and you could buy anything in the the store. Clothing racks, cash registers, etc. were all on the block. There was also this great dive bar there. They had a kitchen and would serve food. It was all locals. No seasonal tourist would ever find it. The best part was that the main entrance was about a 300' walk from the mall's main entrance; but they had a rear entrance. You could park in the alley behind the mall and literally be parked 20' from your favorite barstool. It rocked. Both are long gone now and I shed a tear thinking about it.
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Nov 22, 2022 01:16
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Kirk Vikernes posted:Living in a small town, going to Incredible Universe in Indy was awesome. Sure, I knew people with SNES and I had a Genesis (and later a Playstation), but getting to see 3DO, Jaguar, NeoGeo, TG16, CD-i and others that I'd only seen in magazines and actually play demos on them was cool. Plus, it seemed like they had a million games for PC and it was almost overwhelming picking just one. Oh poo poo, I've been to that Fry's. A few months before they suddenly closed, I went in for the first time in years and I vividly remember there just being this huge pile of dirty, horribly cheap-looking mattresses shoved in a distant corner of the store near the weirdly large and extremely dusty perfume/cologne selection. I later learned that those were the inventory for whatever dude left those "$200 mattress, $10 down NO CREDIT" handwritten signs at every intersection in that area. I walked around that store for two hours and did not see an employee other than the one standing at the computer parts area and the cashier; the one time I saw another customer we both jumped a little like we'd been caught trespassing. Just an insane vibe.
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Nov 22, 2022 01:28
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Lossy Compression posted:Radio Shack, hell yes. Basically everything I was going to say. They’ve supposedly got little store within a store places inside some hobby chain.
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Nov 22, 2022 01:43
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Deki posted:I miss Arcades. We still technically have them around here but they're all lovely ticket games from the 90s and phone games ported to a giant touch screen. I miss the old chuck e cheeses that had billions of arcade games, crazy loving animatronics, and it was so dimly lit that you could get abducted. Whenever we had parties there it was fun. Those big long rear end tables and the goofy Chuck e cheese animatronic shows. Pizza was better back then too. Only time I got mad there was when some dipshit server there made us act like airplanes in order to get our loving food. Now it's all lit like a 90's car showroom, there's nowhere to hide from the parents and every loving game is all about tickets. Doctor Butts fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Nov 22, 2022 |
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Nov 22, 2022 02:00
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Bad Purchase posted:i'm not sure i miss them, but i do enjoy seeing the buildings that had very specific architectural flourishes unique to defunct businesses from old eras, where you can still tell exactly what store it was. 
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Nov 22, 2022 02:11
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Dairy Fresh Candies on Salem Street in Boston. I used to live down the street from it and bought a lot of candy there. They had imported Italian stuff. Then it became a yoga store. Now it's a dog bakery. Fuckin' Boston. I rode the monorail. Sibley's, Scrantom's, McCurdy's, clock of the nations, it's all gone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg-z7Nqju-E Also Woolworth's 
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Nov 22, 2022 02:12
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was that a burger king before?
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Nov 22, 2022 03:09
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I think so, but I cannot confirm. It made me think I was having a stroke the first time I saw it.
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Nov 22, 2022 03:25
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I miss The Wall so much. The Wall was a regional (northeast US) music retailer. What made this store so great was its lifetime guarantee. Every CD and cassette sold included a "guarantee" sticker you'd put on the case. If that CD or cassette broke or became damaged (for whatever reason), all you had to do was return it to The Wall and you'd get a free replacement -- as long as that sticker was on the case. The Wall is responsible for much of my teenage music selections, and thanks to that guarantee, I replaced a lot of cassettes I wore out from playing too much.
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Nov 22, 2022 03:41
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I bought so many weird Japanese movies at Suncoast
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Nov 22, 2022 04:33
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I used to have so much fun running through toys r us with the wife around Christmas getting ridiculous poo poo for the kids E: also real boardwalk arcades at the beach that has actual video games and weren’t just reskinned lame flash games geared towards winning tickets Frank Frank fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Nov 22, 2022 |
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Nov 22, 2022 04:43
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Doctor Butts posted:I miss the old chuck e cheeses that had billions of arcade games, crazy loving animatronics, and it was so dimly lit that you could get abducted. I meant to post about this earlier but forgot. Not that I could enjoy them now anyway, but man do I feel bad for kids today and the sorry excuse they have as a Chuck E Cheese experience. The Chuck E Cheese in my hometown that I grew up with was dimly lit - it only had one tiny window at the front of the place and was a long narrow-ish unit stretching the entire depth of the adjoining K-Mart. It was formerly a Showbizz Pizza (which I did get to see once or twice), so this meant it had the superior 3 stage animatronics show. It was loud, dingy, and felt appropriately like a seedy kids' casino. The animatronics were indeed crazy, but even more fun was daring to pull aside the curtain in between shows and see them sitting there in the darkness. One time I peaked behind the curtain at Pasqually, the drummer, and his head suddenly turned and looked right at me. It was creepy as gently caress and no one believed me. I would later learn that they actually just do occasionally move back and forth while idle to keep the parts warmed up or whatever. Still. An unsettling but good memory. Not only are modern Chuck E Cheese stores brightly lit with windows everywhere, if they have any sort of "stage" at all it either has only a Chuck E Cheese animatronic by itself or just a bunch of screens and nothing else. They're depressingly quiet too. It just feels like... a Walgreens with ticket games and terrible pizza. I can't imagine kids going to these are developing any lasting fond memories.
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Nov 22, 2022 05:04
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Similar to others, Fry's. I moved to the US in 2011, to work in software engineering in Silicon Valley, so it was kind of a mecca for me - my dad was a hardware engineer when I was small so I'd heard about all the companies making the chips on the computers I'd used like Zilog, Intel, etc. and was moving to their location, it was almost magical. I genuinely enjoyed driving past the Zilog building even though they're now just the boring subsidiary of a less interesting company. I'd obviously also heard of Fry's, them being intertwined with the hobbyist and startup electronics feel of the Bay Area, and though in retrospect they'd definitely already started on their descent to failure by then, it was still a fun place I'd visit regularly. And as noted, each of their stores had themes, like Egyptian stuff in Campbell, kind of sad Wild West in Palo Alto, Mayan in San Jose, and so on. Similarly, growing up in the UK I'd loved going to Maplin and Tandy. After Christmas/my birthday I'd get my dad to take me there so I could look at random electronics kits I might buy with any money I got, and just wandering around looking at all the random gadgets and things they had. Both eventually collapsed similarly to Radio Shack in the US.
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Nov 22, 2022 07:25
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Doctor J Off posted:Does anyone remember clover? It was kind of like a kmart or something, but more quaint. I mostly only remember the name and not the actual clover experience Was this a Philly-area thing? Because I vaguely remember it having something to do with Strawbridge and Clothier. That whole genre of Woolworth-type stores that were midway between a CVS, a dollar store, and a big box store was definitely a big thing into the early 90s. So were stores like Best where you went in to order out of a catalog and they would make you sit for a half hour or so until they fished it out of the warehouse in the back. When I lived in New Orleans in the late 90s there was a cheap, ancient department store called Krauss that had vintage 60s-70s interiors and a vacuum tube system where you'd give them a 20, they'd woosh it away, and your change would come back in a minute or two. Most of my favorite retail memories were seedy places like that and hipster used record stores in bad/remote neighborhoods. Up until Nirvana got big, that was the only way to get anything anything weird.
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Nov 22, 2022 08:53
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There used to be a great little tea shop called Tealuxe in Harvard Square with this weird little copper tables and a pretty good selection of tea. It was super cozy and I spent a lot of time there over the years, even though they didn't have a bathroom so you'd have to go down the street to piss . Then a big conglomerate purchased the building they were in, tripled the rent to drive everyone out, and turned it into chain stores. Now there's a lovely chain taco place there called "El Jefe's" that sucks rear end. I just found out that they're gonna do the same thing to The Garage, which was this little independent mall made out of an old parking structure that used to have a cool sci-fi bookstore (which has now moved and still exists thank god) and a bunch of weird anime stores etc. The structure of The Garage was super weird since it was all adapted from ramps for cars so there are all sorts of weird mezzanines and so on. It's gonna be bulldozed though, and I haven't had the heart to look up what they're turning it into. Probably more chains, it's all we get in Boston now. gently caress developers
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Nov 22, 2022 14:02
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