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There's something magical about going into a physical store and perusing items by touch and sight before you buy them that is lost by simply tapping a keyboard or tablet/phone screen. But this is not a thread for current trends of online shopping, but rather physical stores that have gone the way of the dodo that you used to frequent. It can be ANY store and not just department or big box stores. K-Mart (U.S., I know there's a K-Mart Australia still going) has to be the big one for me. It was the only store near my parent's house for decades, and it's where I would always go with my mom for most things. I miss hearing "attention K-Mart shoppers..." whenever a blue light special would appear at a random spot in the store, and they would wheel out the cart with a spinning blue light on it  . Bought a lot of NES games and my first CD player in 1992 from there. And their eatery had some of the best pizza and hot pretzels ever. Walmart moved in around the turn of the '90s, so what did K-Mart do? They closed the old location down and built a brand new SUPER K-Mart right next to Walmart around 1994. K-Mart ruled even more after that, that is until Walmart expanded and siphoned off anything that made the Super K-Mart worth going into. It couldn't compete with Walmart (along with becoming really lovely and sad by then), closed around 2002, and I've never gone into a K-Mart since then. Just looked up how many stores are left, and there are 9 stores total (3 in the continental U.S.). Just lmao, why? Also, ANY local video rental place and/or Blockbuster Video/Hollywood Video. Nothing like perusing walls of videotapes and renting something based off the vague description on the back or the cool box art. Some of the DVDs I still have came from both Blockbuster and Hollywood Video inventory sales. EVERYBODY got into video rental around the turn of the '90s, and it was pretty common to find them in the strangest places. I remember Circle K dabbled in it for a bit, and the Safeway by my parent's house is where I would walk to to rent NES game after NES game after NES game. Ah, memories 
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Nov 19, 2022 18:19
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| # ? May 3, 2024 07:24 |
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Things, which kinda took over/destroyed Copperart before the Red Dot appeared.
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Nov 19, 2022 18:25
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Basically every indoor mall, even the lovely one-level ones. Outdoor malls blow. One of my favorite haunts, Lakeside Mall, is getting replaced with this monstrosity in 2024: 
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Nov 19, 2022 18:29
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Suncoast, bought a lot of anime vhs/dvds there and other assorted movies.
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Nov 19, 2022 18:29
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Turtle record stores, snd their double stamp Wednesdays
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Nov 19, 2022 18:31
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i went to a Jersey Kmart traveling for a wedding a few years back. it was cool. think it's closed since then.
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Nov 19, 2022 18:31
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Toys r us I used to spend an hour just walking around looking at all the cool poo poo
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Nov 19, 2022 18:34
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one thing brick and mortar stores have over online shopping: glory holes.
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Nov 19, 2022 18:44
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Kb toys and Toys R Us. Also indoor malls in general... When we bought our house there was a thriving mall a few blocks away but now it's almost empty. Everyone moved to the outdoor walking mall which sucks
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Nov 19, 2022 18:46
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kdrudy posted:Suncoast, bought a lot of anime vhs/dvds there and other assorted movies. Yeah seconding this, especially when they were in their dying gasp and everything was stupid cheap. I bought some anime to see if I liked it (not really) along with tons of random movies and even got some dollar soft-core porn (the only one I can remember the name of was The Erotic Ghost) near the very end.
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Nov 19, 2022 18:46
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Also they're not totally gone but as a cinnamon fiend the general lack of Cinnabon is fuckin' TRAGIC
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Nov 19, 2022 18:47
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Tower Records, I miss them so much.
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Nov 19, 2022 18:48
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CompUSA. I'm at least lucky enough to live nearby a microcenter, but big box computer stores rule.
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Nov 19, 2022 18:53
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Electronics Boutique
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Nov 19, 2022 18:54
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thomawesome posted:CompUSA. I'm at least lucky enough to live nearby a microcenter, but big box computer stores rule. 
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Nov 19, 2022 19:03
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William Henry Hairytaint posted:Also they're not totally gone but as a cinnamon fiend the general lack of Cinnabon is fuckin' TRAGIC they killed the vastly superior Saint Cinnamon so gently caress em
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Nov 19, 2022 19:06
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GameCrazy. So much better than Gamestop ever was.
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Nov 19, 2022 19:24
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Fry's Electronics. Before Amazon it was incredible. It had everything.
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Nov 19, 2022 19:39
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Genovese. I don't care that it's Rite Aid now. 
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Nov 19, 2022 19:39
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JnnyThndrs posted:Tower Records, I miss them so much.
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Nov 19, 2022 19:56
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JnnyThndrs posted:Tower Records, I miss them so much. Pretty much every other record store was poo poo, both by comparison and just on their own. Tower was just on another level completely.
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Nov 19, 2022 20:01
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Diarrhea Depot
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Nov 19, 2022 20:02
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Jimmies Cool Shack, you wouldnt have been invited anyway, it was the best man, close the thread. Who cares man
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Nov 19, 2022 20:07
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Executive Computer Systems, where I got my first 90s computer back in '93. It was an independent computer store in a time when these types of stores were fairly common. I miss going in to buy computer stuff in these types of stores a lot. One of the guys who worked there had survived an attack by a bear, so his nickname was Grizz, and he ran a BBS called "Grizz's Den". It was one of the first BBSes I ever called.
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Nov 19, 2022 20:09
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Did anyone play Barren Realms Elite on BBS's And is there somewhere to play it now (Dont just google ive done that, have you played one of them and is it good) CumBlast Radius Jr fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Nov 19, 2022 |
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Nov 19, 2022 20:12
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remember when you used to have to go to a porn store to buy a porn. lmao
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Nov 19, 2022 20:16
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Buce posted:remember when you used to have to go to a porn store to buy a porn. lmao
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Nov 19, 2022 20:17
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Jelly posted:Or if you wanted to rent one you walked into the shady back room at the video store. As a small child I thought the hidden adult section had extra scary movies.
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Nov 19, 2022 20:22
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Buce posted:remember when you used to have to go to a porn store to buy a porn. lmao Its hard to get jobs in them. The smaller and non chain ones are run in a particular way.
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Nov 19, 2022 20:25
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Blockbuster Music
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Nov 19, 2022 20:28
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Jelly posted:Or if you wanted to rent one you walked into the shady back room at the video store. My wife worked at a Family Video in a college town in 2012 and apparently porn rentals continued to be a big profit center. This wasn’t like a “video store” where the porn is obviously the point, it was the last mainstream rental chain standing until closing a few years ago. They got new games on release and had really good deals and were generally a decent business. Middle aged and old guys would shamelessly walk in and slap down their rental of Jizz Mops 32 or whatever in honest to god public for the poor 20 something blonde girl (they hired these exclusively) to ring up. Well into the age of streaming. The lengths to which boomers will go to not figure out technology blows the mind.
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Nov 19, 2022 20:33
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CumBlast Radius Jr posted:Did anyone play Barren Realms Elite on BBS's I played BRE, but never really got into it. I was really into Tradewars 2002, Land of Devastation/Operation Overkill ][, and The Pit. I actually bought the ANSI terminal program for The Pit back when I had a Tandy 1000 with a 2400 bps modem. The game "Warsim" on Steam might scratch that itch for you. I bought it, but haven't really tried it yet. It looks really similar. im_sorry fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Nov 19, 2022 |
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Nov 19, 2022 20:38
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Buce posted:remember when you used to have to go to a porn store to buy a porn. lmao woods porn worked just fine for me when I was 8, older brother's "hidden" mags got me through to 14 when I got on AOL for the first time, at which point just entering a chatroom and announcing 14/m got the attention of predatory adults who'd send me pics and then one of them told me about the private porn trading channels and all I had to do was join and wait for a mass mail the worlds a twisted place but you don't really ever have to pay with a little luck
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Nov 19, 2022 20:48
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Daffy's, Clothing Bargains for Millionaires Borders Walden Books that one handjob store in somerville
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Nov 19, 2022 20:56
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all the toy stores that piece of poo poo mitt romney personally killed. the nature store having more than just cocksucking funkopop gamestop, ie ebx, software etc, babbages etc
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Nov 19, 2022 20:57
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JnnyThndrs posted:Tower Records, I miss them so much. Yup.  I also miss Sears Roebuck stores. The loving CEO killed it so bad it makes me scream. "A brief history of the store, from a recent Forbes article: “the Silver Spring Sears opened in early 1966 and stands as a symbol of the company’s suburban initiatives. It’s a stand-alone store, not located within a mall. There was a time when Sears carried practically everything. It didn’t need to attach itself to an enclosed shopping mall.”
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Nov 19, 2022 21:01
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I have very fond memories of the interiors of Circuit City. The weird rubber perimeters on the floors and ledges. I also went to the big flagship FAO Schwarz in NYC as a kid. As an adult it would probably just feel like any other store, but it did feel pretty special when I was a tot. I think they've opened new stores since then but I haven't been to any since.
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Nov 19, 2022 21:02
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im_sorry posted:I played BRE, but never really got into it. I was really into Tradewars 2002, Land of Devastation/Operation Overkill ][, and The Pit. I actually bought the ANSI terminal program for The Pit back when I had a Tandy 1000 with a 2400 bps modem. Ah gently caress, Trade Wars. I think we moved from that to BRE.
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Nov 19, 2022 21:04
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Doc Fission posted:I have very fond memories of the interiors of Circuit City. The weird rubber perimeters on the floors and ledges. it's not the same. i actually miss the disney store in the city. they had lots of cells in frames and cool stuff a kid would like. nowadays it would just be avengers star wars poo poo so it's good that it's dead Hammacher Schlemmer in the city is still alive and probably the closest thing a kid can get to that old FAO Schwarz experience
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Nov 19, 2022 21:07
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| # ? May 3, 2024 07:24 |
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You can still go to the back area of the food court at the Galleria Morley and get a real intense late 80's, early 90's and also kinda off vibe.
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Nov 19, 2022 21:12
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