If I could go back in time I would have bought out my local Funcolands of all their SNES obscurities/rarities... and never traded in my SNES collection there way back when.
Hindsight is 20/20 though!
As an aside: I knew all the stores as I'm in the North Eastern US myself. Used to have a Bradless, Kay Bee, Caldor and a Little Brown (similar style store) all in my immediate area... now all gone.
I traded my entire SNES/64/PS1 collections for a Gamecube in 2003 to a Babbages... I used to have the recipt, but had to throw it away because of the pain it caused everytime I looked at it. most games traded for around $.025, but I was a poor college kid that wanted to play Starfox Adventures. lol
Those mall pics from the 80's are classic, I remember that shit. Sure beats today, where I go to the mall and play "dodge the morons texting and not looking where they're going".
I really wish I had saved more photos from that first development website that the photos on the original post all come from. There were still 1000's of photos from the 1997 era that I neglected to save before they all vanished from the internet. Really sucks that they are all gone forever, there were SO many more.
However, I stumbled on another development website that contains outdated retail locations
Their set of photos mostly seems to capture things in the mid/late 2000's, but some of the stuff on the site is already long gone. I figured I'd save a few of them before they vanish one day too.
This was the Woburn, Massachusetts Toys R Us when it still had the old style paint job. It has since been painted all blue.
Well wouldn't you know it, just as I say that, I stumble on dozens more from the Goldstein Group in 1997. I'll have to look through these better when I get the time. Here are some more that belong with the photos in the original post
I remember Woolworths! But wasn't it called Woolsworth? I have a funny memory as a 5 year old of my parents taking me into a Woolsworth, and I had to take a crap so bad. So I passed gas enough times to make it subside long enough for us to get home so I can use my home bathroom. I had a thing about crapping in public restrooms... couldn't do it to save my life.
LOL sorry, that was a gross TMI share, I reckon
Anyone remember Newberry? I think at one point it was an acronym like TJY or some other?
Also, remember BEST? I actually found a bag of BEST a couple months ago. Will try and post the picture later.
I really wish I had saved more photos from that first development website that the photos on the original post all come from. There were still 1000's of photos from the 1997 era that I neglected to save before they all vanished from the internet. Really sucks that they are all gone forever, there were SO many more.
However, I stumbled on another development website that contains outdated retail locations
Their set of photos mostly seems to capture things in the mid/late 2000's, but some of the stuff on the site is already long gone. I figured I'd save a few of them before they vanish one day too.
Holy shit -- that's my childhood Hollywood Video! I know it clear as a sunny cloudless day. The mountains in the back, the Target sign across the street... hell, I used to stand on that corner in that parking lot a shit ton back in the day! Wow, major chills. I remember reading a Goosebumps book one day on that corner while I was waiting for my mom to finish her shopping at Target. I guess I wanted some fresh air.
That Hollywood opened in 1994 and was a big deal. It was HUGE, too! It was 8,500 square foot. Now it's been replaced by some health care agency. Goes to show you the change of culture. Back then entertainment was running rampant, now everything's digital and the physical stores are left for more practical purposes.
Anyway, I have so many memories of just walking up and down those huge aisles, admiring the 100s of 16-bit games and horror movies for rent. I dunno how many school evenings I spent just reading the back of horror movie boxes. It was such a glorious time.
Years later they added a Game Crazy hub where I scored some great buy 2 get 1 free deals. Sadly, that location would finally close its doors around 2009, 2010. Before they closed, I did manage to snap this sick shot of the store on a rainy cold dark Monday evening:
That area was a gold mine for renting games back in the day. In fact, there was Hollywood there, and across the street there was a Wherehouse, and that picture where you see the Target sign there was a longstanding mom and pop shop called Video Mart. 3 rental options all within HALF A MILE of each other. It was flipping insane back then. God damn I'm so glad I grew up in the early-mid '90s and was able to experience this stuff as a kid.
Thanks for saving those pictures, TRJ. Really bought back fond childhood memories of a more innocent time.
I really wish I had enough sense as a kid to have taken a picture of each of my favorite childhood stores. It would be so cool to see them today preserved, somehow. At any rate, if anyone's nostalgic, you can read more about Hollywood Video and other defunct '90s rental stores from my childhood here, and the stories hidden inside each store:
There were actually quite a few photos of Woolworth in the series of photos that these come from but I only saved a handful of them before they were taken down. I didn't add them to the original post but here are the ones I still have. I know somewhere I have quite a few AP Photos of closures around the country when the entire chain went backrupt in 1997. I honestly have no memory of Woolworth ever selling videogames but there have been other members here who claimed they did buy games there. Most of my purchases at Woolworth were hamsters haha
Holy shit -- that's my childhood Hollywood Video! I know it clear as a sunny cloudless day. The mountains in the back, the Target sign across the street... hell, I used to stand on that corner in that parking lot a shit ton back in the day! Wow, major chills. I remember reading a Goosebumps book one day on that corner while I was waiting for my mom to finish her shopping at Target. I guess I wanted some fresh air.
Thanks for saving those pictures, TRJ. Really bought back fond childhood memories of a more innocent time.
Absolutely, that's what this thread is all about! It's unfortunate that my thread caters more to people that lived on the East Coast USA more than anything, but I like to see people have memories triggered by something as simple as a photograph to a place they used to go to all the time, and then suddenly it is gone and you realize that you actually had some pretty good times there, where as at the time it never seemed anything special. When these chains fold and close, they kind of become markers to our lives, they divide our lives up into certain periods.
When I lived in West Lebanon, NH there was a Hollywood Video right outside of the Kmart plaza, and then two buildings down there was another rental store called Videosmith which had been there since the 80's, I'd say that actually closed late in the SNES era though, and became a carpet store or something like that. And then you'd only need to travel about a 5 mile radius to stumble on multiple Videostop locations, which at one time was a chain of 6 stores in that area. I remember the first Videostop closed in 2001, it is where I bought my CIB copies of Majora's Mask and Banjo-Tooie for $5 each.
The final Videostop location. There were once 6 in the 90's that all had this look.
By 2014 the chain was down to one final store, and it closed back in November as the final rental store in the area. Renting videogames was a Friday ritual for me for years, and we literally rented from every single location in the area, if you couldn't find something at one store, there were still 5 more stores that might have what you wanted. Now everything is gone. Hard to believe.
The final Videostop location. There were once 6 in the 90's that all had this look.
By 2014 the chain was down to one final store, and it closed back in November as the final rental store in the area. Renting videogames was a Friday ritual for me for years, and we literally rented from every single location in the area, if you couldn't find something at one store, there were still 5 more stores that might have what you wanted. Now everything is gone. Hard to believe.
Thanks for sharing that. I didn't have Videostop in my area growing up, but seeing the picture and reading your description feels like it could have been one of the rental stores in town. I love the little red design they got going on there. It makes it pop out a bit, and I'm sure as a kid that would be like attracting moths to a flame. Yes, you hit the nail on the head. There was something magical about growing up in a town where there were 6 rental stores all within say a 20 mile radius. If the first or second stores didn't have your choice title, then surely the remaining 4 or so would.
There were times back in the day where my dad would drive me to 4, 5 different rental stores before I finally found my brother's choice. He was older so he always shipped me back in the day. I didn't mind, though, as it led to some quality father-son time that only in hindsight, I would come to truly appreciate. All those 30, 45 minute treks... going around town with my pops on a Saturday afternoon (after consuming the Saturday morning cartoons of course) are memories that will stay with me for a lifetime.
BTW, did you ever rent any of those Crash Dummy games at Videostop? LOL.
This store still exists, but I thought this was an appropriate thread to post this in.
On my way back from Dallas over the Holidays, I decided to stop at a Toys R Us in Waco. I was blown away when I drove into the parking lot and was greeted by this:
It only got better when I went inside and the videogames were setup the same way they used to be, with the little slips of paper you had to take to the front.
Wow, that Toys R Us definitely looks like it was forgotten in time, it even has the original paint still. It must be one of the final ones.
The Toys R Us in Horseheads, NY is still this style too with the ticket system and Kids R Us on the building even though they went out of business in 2003.
At this point Kids R Us is so long forgotten it almost sounds more like a slogan than the name of a store.
This store still exists, but I thought this was an appropriate thread to post this in.
On my way back from Dallas over the Holidays, I decided to stop at a Toys R Us in Waco. I was blown away when I drove into the parking lot and was greeted by this:
It only got better when I went inside and the videogames were setup the same way they used to be, with the little slips of paper you had to take to the front.
This is seriously awesome; I was transported back to 1990 just looking at this
Very bizarre news - Caldor, once the 5th largest chain in the United States, bankrupt in 1999, is now set to reopen 16 years later as an online retailer. A 24 year old University of Hartford graduate now owns 95% of the company and will be relaunching the site later this year. The logo is the same that the company used when it closed in 1999.
Here is a great series of photos from the Babbage's that was in Guilderland, New York on September 9th, 1999
Wow! These pics really took me back to 1998, I remember playing Powerstone on a kiosk that Babbages had at the Joplin, MO mall. That was a great summer. I bought My Dreamcast, and Age of Empires II(PC). Age of Empires is one of the games I still play almost weekly.
Comments
This entire mall was demolished in the early 2000's and a Home Depot was built in its place.
This is how I remember all of the Rich's looking on the inside.
"THE ORGAN GRINDER" 1973/1996, R.I.P. http://www.pstos.org/instruments/or/portland/organ-grinder.htm
- i had my first ever Arcade coin-op experiences there, in fact...
Originally posted by: Faltain1
If I could go back in time I would have bought out my local Funcolands of all their SNES obscurities/rarities... and never traded in my SNES collection there way back when.
Hindsight is 20/20 though!
As an aside: I knew all the stores as I'm in the North Eastern US myself. Used to have a Bradless, Kay Bee, Caldor and a Little Brown (similar style store) all in my immediate area... now all gone.
I traded my entire SNES/64/PS1 collections for a Gamecube in 2003 to a Babbages... I used to have the recipt, but had to throw it away because of the pain it caused everytime I looked at it. most games traded for around $.025, but I was a poor college kid that wanted to play Starfox Adventures. lol
thanks
However, I stumbled on another development website that contains outdated retail locations
Their set of photos mostly seems to capture things in the mid/late 2000's, but some of the stuff on the site is already long gone. I figured I'd save a few of them before they vanish one day too.
This was the Woburn, Massachusetts Toys R Us when it still had the old style paint job. It has since been painted all blue.
Originally posted by: Trj22487
By complete chance I stumbled on these two newspaper clipping from a Bradlees location featured in the original post.
The second photo is from February 2001, you can see the sign below the Bradlees sign was fully removed at that point.
Here is the Norwalk, Connecticut location in the 2010's fully remodeled as Wal-Mart.
Also found the sign to Delco Plaza in York, Pennsylvania back in 1993 when Kmart and Hills Dept Stores were there.
This was once a major plaza with an indoor mall and many stores. Hills was an original tennant, Kmart was originally a Grants Dept Store.
The Pathmart and movie theater closed in the mid 90's, Hills closed in 1998 with most of the restaurants and killed this plaza.
Kmart closed by 2002. The entire plaza was a ghost town when it was finally demolished to the ground in 2005.
Originally posted by: Trj22487
Last week I won an auction that was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I might have paid a bit
much but I really wanted to have these. Unfortunately the electronics dept wasn't photographed like
I'd hoped, but I bought 31 photographs of the Bridgewater, New Jersey Bradlees location (which could be seen in the OP as seen above)
I don't really wanna scan these and devalue my purchase but there are definitely some very nice shots in here.
There is also a clear shot of Stern's Dept Store (bought out by Macy's) taken from the parking lot of Bradlees
These are from the Grand Opening in either Autumn 1993 or 1994 (judged from the foliage & Mighty Morphin Power Rangers pillows on display)
The men and women in suits were the C.E.O.'s of Bradlees.
This store closed in 2001 and became a Best Buy in 2002.
Originally posted by: Cletus404
anyone remember woolworths or Winns?
I remember Woolworths! But wasn't it called Woolsworth? I have a funny memory as a 5 year old of my parents taking me into a Woolsworth, and I had to take a crap so bad. So I passed gas enough times to make it subside long enough for us to get home so I can use my home bathroom. I had a thing about crapping in public restrooms... couldn't do it to save my life.
LOL sorry, that was a gross TMI share, I reckon
Anyone remember Newberry? I think at one point it was an acronym like TJY or some other?
Also, remember BEST? I actually found a bag of BEST a couple months ago. Will try and post the picture later.
Originally posted by: Trj22487
I really wish I had saved more photos from that first development website that the photos on the original post all come from. There were still 1000's of photos from the 1997 era that I neglected to save before they all vanished from the internet. Really sucks that they are all gone forever, there were SO many more.
However, I stumbled on another development website that contains outdated retail locations
Their set of photos mostly seems to capture things in the mid/late 2000's, but some of the stuff on the site is already long gone. I figured I'd save a few of them before they vanish one day too.
Holy shit -- that's my childhood Hollywood Video! I know it clear as a sunny cloudless day. The mountains in the back, the Target sign across the street... hell, I used to stand on that corner in that parking lot a shit ton back in the day! Wow, major chills. I remember reading a Goosebumps book one day on that corner while I was waiting for my mom to finish her shopping at Target. I guess I wanted some fresh air.
That Hollywood opened in 1994 and was a big deal. It was HUGE, too! It was 8,500 square foot. Now it's been replaced by some health care agency. Goes to show you the change of culture. Back then entertainment was running rampant, now everything's digital and the physical stores are left for more practical purposes.
Anyway, I have so many memories of just walking up and down those huge aisles, admiring the 100s of 16-bit games and horror movies for rent. I dunno how many school evenings I spent just reading the back of horror movie boxes. It was such a glorious time.
Years later they added a Game Crazy hub where I scored some great buy 2 get 1 free deals. Sadly, that location would finally close its doors around 2009, 2010. Before they closed, I did manage to snap this sick shot of the store on a rainy cold dark Monday evening:
That area was a gold mine for renting games back in the day. In fact, there was Hollywood there, and across the street there was a Wherehouse, and that picture where you see the Target sign there was a longstanding mom and pop shop called Video Mart. 3 rental options all within HALF A MILE of each other. It was flipping insane back then. God damn I'm so glad I grew up in the early-mid '90s and was able to experience this stuff as a kid.
Thanks for saving those pictures, TRJ. Really bought back fond childhood memories of a more innocent time.
I really wish I had enough sense as a kid to have taken a picture of each of my favorite childhood stores. It would be so cool to see them today preserved, somehow. At any rate, if anyone's nostalgic, you can read more about Hollywood Video and other defunct '90s rental stores from my childhood here, and the stories hidden inside each store:
http://www.rvgfanatic.com/7443/259301.html
Originally posted by: Cletus404
anyone remember woolworths?
There were actually quite a few photos of Woolworth in the series of photos that these come from but I only saved a handful of them before they were taken down. I didn't add them to the original post but here are the ones I still have. I know somewhere I have quite a few AP Photos of closures around the country when the entire chain went backrupt in 1997. I honestly have no memory of Woolworth ever selling videogames but there have been other members here who claimed they did buy games there. Most of my purchases at Woolworth were hamsters haha
Originally posted by: Trj22487
This was the Target in Duluth, Minnesota.
I use to live there! Looks like a warm day in July
Originally posted by: Steve
Holy shit -- that's my childhood Hollywood Video! I know it clear as a sunny cloudless day. The mountains in the back, the Target sign across the street... hell, I used to stand on that corner in that parking lot a shit ton back in the day! Wow, major chills. I remember reading a Goosebumps book one day on that corner while I was waiting for my mom to finish her shopping at Target. I guess I wanted some fresh air.
Thanks for saving those pictures, TRJ. Really bought back fond childhood memories of a more innocent time.
Absolutely, that's what this thread is all about! It's unfortunate that my thread caters more to people that lived on the East Coast USA more than anything, but I like to see people have memories triggered by something as simple as a photograph to a place they used to go to all the time, and then suddenly it is gone and you realize that you actually had some pretty good times there, where as at the time it never seemed anything special. When these chains fold and close, they kind of become markers to our lives, they divide our lives up into certain periods.
When I lived in West Lebanon, NH there was a Hollywood Video right outside of the Kmart plaza, and then two buildings down there was another rental store called Videosmith which had been there since the 80's, I'd say that actually closed late in the SNES era though, and became a carpet store or something like that. And then you'd only need to travel about a 5 mile radius to stumble on multiple Videostop locations, which at one time was a chain of 6 stores in that area. I remember the first Videostop closed in 2001, it is where I bought my CIB copies of Majora's Mask and Banjo-Tooie for $5 each.
By 2014 the chain was down to one final store, and it closed back in November as the final rental store in the area. Renting videogames was a Friday ritual for me for years, and we literally rented from every single location in the area, if you couldn't find something at one store, there were still 5 more stores that might have what you wanted. Now everything is gone. Hard to believe.
This thread is awesome, dudes. Keep 'em coming!
Originally posted by: Trj22487
By 2014 the chain was down to one final store, and it closed back in November as the final rental store in the area. Renting videogames was a Friday ritual for me for years, and we literally rented from every single location in the area, if you couldn't find something at one store, there were still 5 more stores that might have what you wanted. Now everything is gone. Hard to believe.
Thanks for sharing that. I didn't have Videostop in my area growing up, but seeing the picture and reading your description feels like it could have been one of the rental stores in town. I love the little red design they got going on there. It makes it pop out a bit, and I'm sure as a kid that would be like attracting moths to a flame. Yes, you hit the nail on the head. There was something magical about growing up in a town where there were 6 rental stores all within say a 20 mile radius. If the first or second stores didn't have your choice title, then surely the remaining 4 or so would.
There were times back in the day where my dad would drive me to 4, 5 different rental stores before I finally found my brother's choice. He was older so he always shipped me back in the day. I didn't mind, though, as it led to some quality father-son time that only in hindsight, I would come to truly appreciate. All those 30, 45 minute treks... going around town with my pops on a Saturday afternoon (after consuming the Saturday morning cartoons of course) are memories that will stay with me for a lifetime.
BTW, did you ever rent any of those Crash Dummy games at Videostop? LOL.
They are from February 1999 in Newington, Connecticut and show the vacant locations of Nobody Beats The Wiz, Lechmere, and an already closed Bradlees.
The second photo is the Caldor in Newington down the street, which would close several months later with the rest of the chain.
The last photo is from Southington, Connecticut in 1999 showing that Caldor location going out of business.
This thread is awesome.
This was the K-Mart in West Valley, Utah when it first opened in 1985. They were taken by the HR woman. This location still exists today.
This is what all K-Mart stores used to look like on the inside in the 80's with wood counters, tan carts and an orange and black color scheme.
Most all stores with this look were either remodeled by the early 90's with anything black removed, or were put through closure.
On my way back from Dallas over the Holidays, I decided to stop at a Toys R Us in Waco. I was blown away when I drove into the parking lot and was greeted by this:
It only got better when I went inside and the videogames were setup the same way they used to be, with the little slips of paper you had to take to the front.
The Toys R Us in Horseheads, NY is still this style too with the ticket system and Kids R Us on the building even though they went out of business in 2003.
At this point Kids R Us is so long forgotten it almost sounds more like a slogan than the name of a store.
Originally posted by: ShyGuyMcFly83
This store still exists, but I thought this was an appropriate thread to post this in.
On my way back from Dallas over the Holidays, I decided to stop at a Toys R Us in Waco. I was blown away when I drove into the parking lot and was greeted by this:
It only got better when I went inside and the videogames were setup the same way they used to be, with the little slips of paper you had to take to the front.
This is seriously awesome; I was transported back to 1990 just looking at this
http://corporate.caldor.com/our-story/
In 1991 the chain had 138 stores in the United States. By December 1995 they were bankrupt and closed forever.
Originally posted by: Trj22487
Here is a great series of photos from the Babbage's that was in Guilderland, New York on September 9th, 1999
Wow! These pics really took me back to 1998, I remember playing Powerstone on a kiosk that Babbages had at the Joplin, MO mall. That was a great summer. I bought My Dreamcast, and Age of Empires II(PC). Age of Empires is one of the games I still play almost weekly.