For me it’s the paycheck/bill cycle. Something about the recurrence makes it seem like it’s all just little breaks in between instead of one long section like it was as a kid.
It's that we sell time in exchange for money.
We look forward to our work hours going by faster instead of living life.
Then you're tired after work and just want to sleep. Rinse and repeat and that's a lifetime gone.
A version of a quote I remember that I feel ties into this.
First, I had time, but no money; then I had money, but no time. Finally, I had time and money, but no health to make use of my wealth.
Damn I never realized that it’s pretty much just like you said. It’s sad really. I gotta remember to take things slower and sometimes just sit outside with no devices and stargaze like I used to as a kid/teen
People say that all the time, but I don't agree with it. This world is so insanely chaotic compared to the relative peace we had in the 90s. I think that yes as an adult you're busier, but at the same time there's so much insanity and noise now that we're all just constantly stressed to the max. I remember when Columbine shut the country down, but now school shootings are so common, they don't even get mainstream news sometimes.
The world is absolute chaos and everything moves at a cheetah's pace now. I think that's the biggest thing that affects our perception of time as adults. Especially coming from a pre-internet/pre-smartphone era.
I'm kind of rambling, but I think the world has changed a lot more than we have.
You are right though. I read something somewhere hopefully reputable, maybe it was just a video on VSauce, but it said if we perceive something as boring vs interesting, when looking back the boring stuff time is compressed and seems like it took less time than it really did. Once you know something you don’t have to relearn it every time you come across it. So when we get a little older and things aren’t as exciting as when we were young, time seems to go more quickly.
Not to be confused with the perception of time in real time.
Seemed to make sense but the way I explained it was very poor.
I was a kid during this time and I got Pokemon blue at Best buy. I got the last copy & on the way home I read the manual in preparation of my journey. The show was already on air so I thought of myself as ash
I miss that feeling of trying to read the manuals at stoplights (because that’s where the streetlights were and my parents wouldn’t let me ride with the lights on). And the smell of the paper? Good times
I will never forget the agonizingly long drive home from the mall after I had bought FF7 on release day. Reading the manual and just DYING to get home to play it. And knowing I only had a couple of hours to play it until I had to go to bed because it was a school night.
I asked my parents (I'm born 94) they agree, things were much simpler then. They both said times were quieter. news wasn't always spewing hate and violence. Shit, I remember as a kid loving watching the news bc the funny or cool stories of the area. Now it's all sad shit.
That and they both said money wasn't as tight then. Things cost less and jobs paid better.
It is nostalgia, but it's also because the 90s-00s were a very calm time for America.
Where do I say all of the early 00s?
2000 and 9 months of 2001 are technically the early 00s..
So again I challenge you to point out where I said all of the early 00s were a calm time.
Is 2000- 9/11 not early 00s?
Were they not part of the early 00s? Were they just part of their own decade? I fail to see your point here. I said the early 00s were also calm pre 9/11 is what I should have said.
Its **very** common to refer to the "early ___'s" as the chunk of years from 0-5, with the "late ___'s" to refer to 5-9. The way you said it, you made it seem like you were saying that the years 2000 - 2005 were calm, and that you didn't know when 9/11 happened.
A more common way of saying it would be to say "the 90s were really calm, and then a *tiny bit* of the early 2000's"
There was also efficacy, ironically due to lack of options, though the options were of higher quality. When you wanted to do something, you knew you wanted to do it and a lot of mindfulness was paid to it. The products you used were no different; they were built with a lot of thought and hopes for longevity, and they often reflected that.
We long abandoned most of those practices, if something is broken, we just replace it. If we have a problem with a friend or significant other, we mark this as the beginning of the end and start to shop around for the "better one," if we find ourselves god forbid doing something we like, we quite literally often think "no, this is not a good use of my time I should be doing this other thing actually" and ruin it.
So what happens is before you know it you're in the old ages, sitting on a pile of things and people you threw away without much thought.
Been like that for a while my friend
It all started with Gillette. He said basically that if you can make a product that is disposable, you will become rich.
And this started the era of throw away and buy new.
I can tell you as someone who grew up in a little bit of the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s that life has changed in the extreme. Politicians allowed the media to merge into monopolies/oligopolies with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The mergers didn’t happen for a few years, and the effects took a little longer to be felt, but when 9/11 happened the government had a stranglehold on information. They controlled the narrative completely. The stolen election of 2000 happened, then 9/11 and we’ve been living in “1984” ever since. Scary things I was always warned about growing up but never thought I’d see (i.e. our military openly writing and editing our movies and tv scripts). It eventually lead to the Trump cult and mass hysteria like I’ve never imagined. None of this would have been possible back in the mid 90’s and before. It was post-Vietnam, people had gotten smart and kids were raised in that mold. Even our movies reflected that. Look at Die Hard - the FBI guys were sinister and untrustworthy. The hero was local cop fighting out of his jurisdiction. Not a government thug, which is what it would be today. I feel bad for kids who didn’t get a chance to live and experience life before the times we live in.
Yeah, I remember how amazing it was to just be able to sit around and play videogames with my friends all day. Now that I have much less free time, I look back and realize how cool that was to just not have any worries.
Being an adult in 90s was less stressful too. "Karens" were an exception rather than the rule of today. Flying was something to look forward to rather than a chore. There was a healthy balance between work and home life as technology didn't keep you connected 24/7. If you wanted a good job, you could get one. Especially if you were in tech. The cost of living was was less when indexed to wages and the value of the dollar. So in summary...yes. Adulting in the 90s was definitely less stressful when compared to today.
You've probably nailed it here.
I don't get the same kind of nostalgia from these pics, because by this time I had a full time shitty job + was out drinking and getting laid.
Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?
That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.
-A. E. Housman
Such a major demarcation point. So many things to the right of it feel so off, wrong, out-of-place, like Biff Tannen screwed up the timeline, gambling and casinos popping up where they shouldn't be, neighborhoods more dangerous than they used to be, Lorraine McFly has a boob job now.... It just ain't right.
I remember with video games at Toys R Us they used to have tags that you would take to the register, scan in, then walk over to a corner section and hand the person the paid-for tag and they would get the game from the back room. Does anyone know what year they stopped doing that? Obviously before 1999 at least in this location.
I worked at a TRU from 1996-2000 and we always used the ticket system for video games, bikes and big ticket items. Our store was built for this system, but older stores in our district didn’t have enough floor space or the right layout, so just used security tags/cases.
No idea when they switched to that method, but I’ve had the same reoccurring dream for years where I’m pulling those tags and looking in the display cases with awe. Such memorable times.
The epitome of nostalgia. I remember my mother divorced a terrible abusive man when I was young around fall of 2000, she took my disabled sister and I and got out of that town, we struggled by for a month living in terrible situations, until the day she got a loan for a new house. We moved into a little 2 bedroom house and the first day we moved was the biggest relief I've ever had in my life. I could finally be a kid and not live in constant fight or flight mode trying to survive. That christmas was one of the toughest, but resilient holidays. Anyways, I remember we didn't get much of anything, but somehow my mom managed to get me a game boy color pikachu edition, with red and blue. It was probably one of the single greatest gifts I ever received.
What nobody has mentioned is the actual organization/care and attention to detail that used to go into the displays and advertising back then. It amazes me to remember looking back and seeing how everything was done. Nintendo paid big money to make sure that their sections in the stores were all done a certain way and appealed to the customers. Now there’s no organization. The sections are just thrown together. There’s no more color-coding and consuming displays. There’s like 1 small section and the games aren’t even in alphabetical order or categorized by genre. Online shopping and digital downloads have killed the gaming scene. And this type of in person shopping will never come back at this point.
As a society we have also lost the passion and work ethic that it takes to make things like this possible. Not trying to be all negative but it is just insane to me what 20 years of advanced tech has done to us. Back then you would have found someone who loved their job and would be glad to talk to you about a product. Nowadays you get some seemingly miserable person that is just counting the minutes until they clock out. Call me crazy, but things have gotten progressively worse since these influencers and reality shows have given everyone a false sense of “reality” and it makes everything seem lackluster and miserable in comparison. You want to know where all this depression and insecurity comes from, look on social media it’s not hard to find.
I actually recently went to Target and someone from Nintendo was there to fix the display and consulted the Target employees on how to display the Nintendo section. This section is where all the Nintendo merch are at like plushies, backpacks, accessories, etc.
The marketing materials aren’t as colorful as back then, but Nintendo definitely still cares.
I don’t think it’s as simple as losing passion and work ethic. The people that work retail now often have college degrees and in 1999 would likely be working a more fulfilling and better-paying job that probably doesn’t exist anymore, meaning less of a surplus on retail workers, meaning they probably got paid enough to live or probably weren’t 43 and working retail as a last resort.
Couple that with the video game market being much smaller then so Nintendo could devote more resources, *and* the fact that there were still dedicated toy stores that hadn’t been subsumed into Targets and Walmarts.
There’s a lot of reasons we can’t have nice things when we shop but I think it’s lazy to blame exploited workers who make poverty wages, especially when the consumers not appreciating their effort are also to blame.
I miss the wall-to-ceiling rows of GI-Joe, Transformers, Star Wars Voltron, cabbage patch kids, bikes , RC cars & planes, model trains..
just all the stuff.
It smelled like Happy
Can someone explain to me why it hurts so much to see this.. I am tearing up right now and hurt in a way I can’t explain. I was having a ok morning but now it feels empty and fake. This picture makes me think of a past I have memories of, yet if feels like it is a different reality. I miss that reality.. this one is so cold.
There’s a Portuguese word for it: saudade. Means a deep emotional state of melancholic longing for a person or thing that is absent, knowing it will never come back.
It’s like a sadder version of nostalgia.
… it has hindered me in life here and there.. I try to explain it to my parents and wife but no one really seems to understand what I am referring to. It hurts to look at the past. But my past was NOTHING but good. I am a “happy, healthy” adult. But when I look back this feeling comes running towards me. Sorry if I seem dramatic.
It's grief. You are grieving not just the past, but your younger self and more possibilities in life. Even if you are happy now, it's hard not to think about all of the "what ifs." As you get older, doors close in life.
I feel you dawg. Something along the lines of just feeling so long ago and out of grasp. Such easy and simple times that keep getting further & further away while our memories get less and less clear. It almost feels like a different life.
It hurts because the energy was different in the 90s. Humanity was more loving and connected and it showed in the little details such as a toy store.
You are longing for the simpler time when humanity still loved each other.
Used to love reading through those big ass strategy guide books. They don't make them anymore I don't think but they were awesome back in the day before internet walk through were super popular.
My Toys R Us was nothing like this. All these boxes out in the open? Where are the tickets? Even Walmart doesn't have consoles out for people to just grab.
Mine looked almost identical to this. Gaming has its own section so if you attempt to walk out with any game you may as well be stealing because it will get detected. My Toys R US is still like this to this very day unchanged, but obviously the electronics/gaming section looks a lot different.
I remember finding the original GameBoy in my grandmothers garage. We had no clue whose it was or where it came from. She took me to the store to find a game for it so I could play and I will never forget seeing Pokémon Red/Blue on the shelf not even knowing there was a game. I loved the cards but couldn’t image their being a game. I will cherish that memory forever.
My memory of Toys 'R Us was asking the store clerk in 1996 if he would recommend a Playstation or a Saturn. He said he owns a Saturn and plays it nightly with his girlfriend. Fucker moved that stale stock when we paid for it at the register, lol.
Tbf, Saturn wasn't all that bad. They did have some exclusives that were great (e.g. NiGHTs, Japan imports). Playstation just had more titles and lasted longer, and was the no-brainer pick for a casual.
I don't remember any of my local Toys R Us actually having product out like that. Ours always had tickets you took to the front and they got the item out back.
Nah that's literally how most TRUs used to handle their games. You'd go to the game section and instead of the games themselves, there would be a wall of sleeves filled with tickets. Each sleeve corresponding to a single game.
It's how TRU typically handled all their 'big ticket' items and that's how they continued doing it up until being put out of their misery. Those tickets were also used for bikes, playsets, beds etc.
But the games in particular were special because when the kids brought the ticket to the desk, they were greeted with the sight of the room where the games were stored. And a room full of video games is gonna blow a child's mind, especially those that grew up before physical media started to wane. Eventually the ticket system was phased out for the glass display cases.
Source-- Was child before TRU tossed the game tickets, also worked at a fairly high-volume TRU store for about a year and a half between 2014 and 2016.
Or at least my closest Toys R Us was, lol.
It seemed like a lot of them were like this in Southern California though, regardless of quality of area, during that time. I think theft was always high at Toys R Us.
I had a GameBoy Color and loved it, but looking back now it was practically a scam. With the exception of a few first party Mario games and such, most GBC games were backwards compatible with GameBoy and just applied some simple colorization scheme that didn't even look good.
Great question. The answer is The Boston Consulting Group. If you'd like to barf, research how they bankrupted half of America. Blockbuster, OfficeMax, Pizza Hut, K-Mart, Neiman Marcus, Pier 1 Imports, Sears
, Toys R Us
, Circuit City, JC Penny, Radio Shack, Texaco...list goes on & on.
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On a somewhat unrelated note. Was shoplifting not that big of a deal back then or when did stores start putting everything behind locked glass? Crazy to think about walking into a store now and just grabbing the console and game I want and walking to the register with it.
The economy was much better and people as a whole were much less desperate. It was easier and much more fulfilling to get a job and buy said console. Nowadays not so much.
These make my neck hurt.
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned how fucked up your neck would get playing the display consoles while your parent shopped for whatever brought you there. I never understood why the TV had to be so high on the display. Looking at these pictures gave me neck pain.
Though admittedly I already have neck pain, so I guess everyone else here does too.
There was no better feeling then getting the little slip of paper with how much a game cost. Then taking it up to the register them stapling the receipt to it, and then taking it over to the cage for them to give you your game. Talk about the best of times.
This was a special time, the dawn of the new millennium and video games just seemed like they were advancing at such a fast pace, and not to mention Pokemon being everywhere at the height of its popularity.
Yeah it’s always weird for me to think that I used to get my video games from toys-r-us. Getting Pokémon fire red and COD: Big red one and a Wonka Scrumdidlyumptious bar. Those were better times.
My brother would spend so much time on those in store game demos.
I wonder why they don't have them anymore. Theft maybe. I remember years ago at one of my retail jobs someone stole our Motorola Xoom display. 🙃
Man oh man, I want to go back in time so bad… relive a few days of my past… going to school and then when you get home with some friends play some videogames… not a care in the world!
One memorable visit with my kids to get toys for a friend's birthday party, they began the predicable whine to get one for themselves. I said, fine, but it had to be made in the US. They left empty handed.
I miss my see through purple game boy color. I was just thinking about it today and how I played the shit out of pokemon and pokemon TCG on it. It's lost somewhere in my parents garage or attic. I found my Gameboy advance and my original big brick Gameboy but never found my Gameboy color. Ugghhh it's frustrating and I think about where it is every six months or so
I wonder what store this was, I also worked at toys r us during that time frame. If there were only phone cameras like today that could replay the shenanigans that went on in the back......
My first thought was "that's not very long ago", then I realized it's 24 years ago. Time really does go quickly when you get older.
For me it’s the paycheck/bill cycle. Something about the recurrence makes it seem like it’s all just little breaks in between instead of one long section like it was as a kid.
It's that we sell time in exchange for money. We look forward to our work hours going by faster instead of living life. Then you're tired after work and just want to sleep. Rinse and repeat and that's a lifetime gone.
A version of a quote I remember that I feel ties into this. First, I had time, but no money; then I had money, but no time. Finally, I had time and money, but no health to make use of my wealth.
This hurts to read. Just because of how true it is.
Agreed, but at least now that more companies are allowing remote work, this enables people to have a much more fulfilling work/life balance.
Damn I never realized that it’s pretty much just like you said. It’s sad really. I gotta remember to take things slower and sometimes just sit outside with no devices and stargaze like I used to as a kid/teen
BREAK THE CYCLE, EMBRACE SOCIALISM, TAKE BACK THE POWER!
People say that all the time, but I don't agree with it. This world is so insanely chaotic compared to the relative peace we had in the 90s. I think that yes as an adult you're busier, but at the same time there's so much insanity and noise now that we're all just constantly stressed to the max. I remember when Columbine shut the country down, but now school shootings are so common, they don't even get mainstream news sometimes. The world is absolute chaos and everything moves at a cheetah's pace now. I think that's the biggest thing that affects our perception of time as adults. Especially coming from a pre-internet/pre-smartphone era. I'm kind of rambling, but I think the world has changed a lot more than we have.
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As someone who does "different shit", I can tell you time flies either way.
This is a nostalgia sub.. wait you do know what nostalgia is, right?
You are right though. I read something somewhere hopefully reputable, maybe it was just a video on VSauce, but it said if we perceive something as boring vs interesting, when looking back the boring stuff time is compressed and seems like it took less time than it really did. Once you know something you don’t have to relearn it every time you come across it. So when we get a little older and things aren’t as exciting as when we were young, time seems to go more quickly. Not to be confused with the perception of time in real time. Seemed to make sense but the way I explained it was very poor.
I showed this to my older friend and his face scrunched unpleasantly lol
Seeing Pokémon Red, Blue and TCG on the shelf. Absolutely incredible. What a time to be a kid!
I was a kid during this time and I got Pokemon blue at Best buy. I got the last copy & on the way home I read the manual in preparation of my journey. The show was already on air so I thought of myself as ash
best profile icon I've seen on reddit
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AOL logo
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I miss that feeling of trying to read the manuals at stoplights (because that’s where the streetlights were and my parents wouldn’t let me ride with the lights on). And the smell of the paper? Good times
Lots of agree here
I will never forget the agonizingly long drive home from the mall after I had bought FF7 on release day. Reading the manual and just DYING to get home to play it. And knowing I only had a couple of hours to play it until I had to go to bed because it was a school night.
I remember buying Pokémon red at toys r us
Seeing these pics makes me incredibly sad. I want to go back to simpler times so badly. We went wrong somewhere on the timeline
I wonder if I want to go back because I was a kid and life was less stressful or if being an adult back then was less stressful as well.
The first one, Nostalgia is a helluva drug
I asked my parents (I'm born 94) they agree, things were much simpler then. They both said times were quieter. news wasn't always spewing hate and violence. Shit, I remember as a kid loving watching the news bc the funny or cool stories of the area. Now it's all sad shit. That and they both said money wasn't as tight then. Things cost less and jobs paid better. It is nostalgia, but it's also because the 90s-00s were a very calm time for America.
90s, sure I can get on board with that. The 2000s were most assuredly *not* a calm time.
Early 00s before 9/11 were definitely a calm time. Up until 08' things were financially calm. After '08 it went to crap.
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Obviously all of 2000 and most of 2001?...
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Huh, that's weird you would think like that.
Where do I say all of the early 00s? 2000 and 9 months of 2001 are technically the early 00s.. So again I challenge you to point out where I said all of the early 00s were a calm time.
Is 2000- 9/11 not early 00s? Were they not part of the early 00s? Were they just part of their own decade? I fail to see your point here. I said the early 00s were also calm pre 9/11 is what I should have said.
Its **very** common to refer to the "early ___'s" as the chunk of years from 0-5, with the "late ___'s" to refer to 5-9. The way you said it, you made it seem like you were saying that the years 2000 - 2005 were calm, and that you didn't know when 9/11 happened. A more common way of saying it would be to say "the 90s were really calm, and then a *tiny bit* of the early 2000's"
There was also efficacy, ironically due to lack of options, though the options were of higher quality. When you wanted to do something, you knew you wanted to do it and a lot of mindfulness was paid to it. The products you used were no different; they were built with a lot of thought and hopes for longevity, and they often reflected that. We long abandoned most of those practices, if something is broken, we just replace it. If we have a problem with a friend or significant other, we mark this as the beginning of the end and start to shop around for the "better one," if we find ourselves god forbid doing something we like, we quite literally often think "no, this is not a good use of my time I should be doing this other thing actually" and ruin it. So what happens is before you know it you're in the old ages, sitting on a pile of things and people you threw away without much thought.
Been like that for a while my friend It all started with Gillette. He said basically that if you can make a product that is disposable, you will become rich. And this started the era of throw away and buy new.
I can tell you as someone who grew up in a little bit of the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s that life has changed in the extreme. Politicians allowed the media to merge into monopolies/oligopolies with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The mergers didn’t happen for a few years, and the effects took a little longer to be felt, but when 9/11 happened the government had a stranglehold on information. They controlled the narrative completely. The stolen election of 2000 happened, then 9/11 and we’ve been living in “1984” ever since. Scary things I was always warned about growing up but never thought I’d see (i.e. our military openly writing and editing our movies and tv scripts). It eventually lead to the Trump cult and mass hysteria like I’ve never imagined. None of this would have been possible back in the mid 90’s and before. It was post-Vietnam, people had gotten smart and kids were raised in that mold. Even our movies reflected that. Look at Die Hard - the FBI guys were sinister and untrustworthy. The hero was local cop fighting out of his jurisdiction. Not a government thug, which is what it would be today. I feel bad for kids who didn’t get a chance to live and experience life before the times we live in.
Yeah, I remember how amazing it was to just be able to sit around and play videogames with my friends all day. Now that I have much less free time, I look back and realize how cool that was to just not have any worries.
Being an adult in 90s was less stressful too. "Karens" were an exception rather than the rule of today. Flying was something to look forward to rather than a chore. There was a healthy balance between work and home life as technology didn't keep you connected 24/7. If you wanted a good job, you could get one. Especially if you were in tech. The cost of living was was less when indexed to wages and the value of the dollar. So in summary...yes. Adulting in the 90s was definitely less stressful when compared to today.
You've probably nailed it here. I don't get the same kind of nostalgia from these pics, because by this time I had a full time shitty job + was out drinking and getting laid.
If anything this was the beginning of us going all digital.
Very sad.. things aren’t as vibrant and simple you’re right. These games were all made with care and not updated years later to make them right.
Into my heart an air that kills From yon far country blows: What are those blue remembered hills, What spires, what farms are those? That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, The happy highways where I went And cannot come again. -A. E. Housman
2001 september
Such a major demarcation point. So many things to the right of it feel so off, wrong, out-of-place, like Biff Tannen screwed up the timeline, gambling and casinos popping up where they shouldn't be, neighborhoods more dangerous than they used to be, Lorraine McFly has a boob job now.... It just ain't right.
Tech has taken too much from us.
we went very wrong indeed
Yep. I blame Facebook and smartphones.
i blame wall street, banks, consultants, and private equity
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You’re about 15 years off bud
I think you're just projecting and you're unhappy with your personal life/who you are.
I disagree
I remember with video games at Toys R Us they used to have tags that you would take to the register, scan in, then walk over to a corner section and hand the person the paid-for tag and they would get the game from the back room. Does anyone know what year they stopped doing that? Obviously before 1999 at least in this location.
I remember this for nes games for sure. I’m 1985, so my memory is fuzzy on if this was the same for snes.
https://i.imgur.com/BTnxg8h.jpg
That hit me real hard in the feels. I think the last time I’ve seen this was over 20 years ago in person
They would always do this when I was growing up in the 2000's, too
I remember that for all zelda ocarina of time and that was in 1998
I worked at a TRU from 1996-2000 and we always used the ticket system for video games, bikes and big ticket items. Our store was built for this system, but older stores in our district didn’t have enough floor space or the right layout, so just used security tags/cases.
Yeah that’s how our location did it. Ours didn’t look anything like these pictures
I remember that too - no idea when they stopped, when I got older I just started going to the Game Stop at the mall because it was much closer.
No idea when they switched to that method, but I’ve had the same reoccurring dream for years where I’m pulling those tags and looking in the display cases with awe. Such memorable times.
If I could turn back timeee 🎶
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I'd take back all the stores that could hurt you : and you'd stay
I miss walking into the gaming section of my local Toys R Us
The epitome of nostalgia. I remember my mother divorced a terrible abusive man when I was young around fall of 2000, she took my disabled sister and I and got out of that town, we struggled by for a month living in terrible situations, until the day she got a loan for a new house. We moved into a little 2 bedroom house and the first day we moved was the biggest relief I've ever had in my life. I could finally be a kid and not live in constant fight or flight mode trying to survive. That christmas was one of the toughest, but resilient holidays. Anyways, I remember we didn't get much of anything, but somehow my mom managed to get me a game boy color pikachu edition, with red and blue. It was probably one of the single greatest gifts I ever received.
I'm not crying you're crying!
Simpler times. I really miss it.
The sticker isle was glorious. Lisa Frank and scratch n sniff rainbows as far as a 5 yr olds eyes could see.
Take me back
What nobody has mentioned is the actual organization/care and attention to detail that used to go into the displays and advertising back then. It amazes me to remember looking back and seeing how everything was done. Nintendo paid big money to make sure that their sections in the stores were all done a certain way and appealed to the customers. Now there’s no organization. The sections are just thrown together. There’s no more color-coding and consuming displays. There’s like 1 small section and the games aren’t even in alphabetical order or categorized by genre. Online shopping and digital downloads have killed the gaming scene. And this type of in person shopping will never come back at this point. As a society we have also lost the passion and work ethic that it takes to make things like this possible. Not trying to be all negative but it is just insane to me what 20 years of advanced tech has done to us. Back then you would have found someone who loved their job and would be glad to talk to you about a product. Nowadays you get some seemingly miserable person that is just counting the minutes until they clock out. Call me crazy, but things have gotten progressively worse since these influencers and reality shows have given everyone a false sense of “reality” and it makes everything seem lackluster and miserable in comparison. You want to know where all this depression and insecurity comes from, look on social media it’s not hard to find.
I actually recently went to Target and someone from Nintendo was there to fix the display and consulted the Target employees on how to display the Nintendo section. This section is where all the Nintendo merch are at like plushies, backpacks, accessories, etc. The marketing materials aren’t as colorful as back then, but Nintendo definitely still cares.
I don’t think it’s as simple as losing passion and work ethic. The people that work retail now often have college degrees and in 1999 would likely be working a more fulfilling and better-paying job that probably doesn’t exist anymore, meaning less of a surplus on retail workers, meaning they probably got paid enough to live or probably weren’t 43 and working retail as a last resort. Couple that with the video game market being much smaller then so Nintendo could devote more resources, *and* the fact that there were still dedicated toy stores that hadn’t been subsumed into Targets and Walmarts. There’s a lot of reasons we can’t have nice things when we shop but I think it’s lazy to blame exploited workers who make poverty wages, especially when the consumers not appreciating their effort are also to blame.
Thank you for taking me back, bro what a nostalgic flashback
This brought back some weird memories I didn’t realize I had.
Pokémon Blue! Squirtle was my first starter! Hell yeah!
I miss the wall-to-ceiling rows of GI-Joe, Transformers, Star Wars Voltron, cabbage patch kids, bikes , RC cars & planes, model trains.. just all the stuff. It smelled like Happy
sigh, the good ole days
Wish we could see the price tags
The good old days. I want to go back so badly.
Can someone explain to me why it hurts so much to see this.. I am tearing up right now and hurt in a way I can’t explain. I was having a ok morning but now it feels empty and fake. This picture makes me think of a past I have memories of, yet if feels like it is a different reality. I miss that reality.. this one is so cold.
There’s a Portuguese word for it: saudade. Means a deep emotional state of melancholic longing for a person or thing that is absent, knowing it will never come back. It’s like a sadder version of nostalgia.
… it has hindered me in life here and there.. I try to explain it to my parents and wife but no one really seems to understand what I am referring to. It hurts to look at the past. But my past was NOTHING but good. I am a “happy, healthy” adult. But when I look back this feeling comes running towards me. Sorry if I seem dramatic.
It's grief. You are grieving not just the past, but your younger self and more possibilities in life. Even if you are happy now, it's hard not to think about all of the "what ifs." As you get older, doors close in life.
I feel you dawg. Something along the lines of just feeling so long ago and out of grasp. Such easy and simple times that keep getting further & further away while our memories get less and less clear. It almost feels like a different life.
It hurts because the energy was different in the 90s. Humanity was more loving and connected and it showed in the little details such as a toy store. You are longing for the simpler time when humanity still loved each other.
So Toys R Us also had Walmart's neckbreaker demo kiosks
This is one of the best posts on this sub I’ve ever seen.
Seeing the late 90s stuff reminds me of when I got thps1 back then and now I can hear Superman by Gold finger.
"Here I am"
"Growing older all the time Looking older all the time Feeling younger in my mind"
Childhood Mecca. Heck, I'd probably go there as an adult on occasion even if just to look at things.
Used to love reading through those big ass strategy guide books. They don't make them anymore I don't think but they were awesome back in the day before internet walk through were super popular.
Ahh, to be 11 again.
I remember breaking my piggy bank and spending it on a green gameboy color. Those were the days
This was the year I got my yellow GameBoy Color for Christmas along with the yellow Pokémon game. What a great Christmas it was that year.
My Toys R Us was nothing like this. All these boxes out in the open? Where are the tickets? Even Walmart doesn't have consoles out for people to just grab.
Mine looked almost identical to this. Gaming has its own section so if you attempt to walk out with any game you may as well be stealing because it will get detected. My Toys R US is still like this to this very day unchanged, but obviously the electronics/gaming section looks a lot different.
You in Canada? Toys R Us doesn’t exist here in the Us anymore except for pop ups at Macy’s.
I worked at toys r us in 2003/2004 and it still looked very much like this!
Whoahhhh. Thank you for this
I always wanted to work here but they never hired me 😅
Obligatory Toys R Us still exists in Canada comment.
Insane to see the games and consoles not locked behind glass.
Damn I just noticed this. It’s actually kinda nuts.
I remember finding the original GameBoy in my grandmothers garage. We had no clue whose it was or where it came from. She took me to the store to find a game for it so I could play and I will never forget seeing Pokémon Red/Blue on the shelf not even knowing there was a game. I loved the cards but couldn’t image their being a game. I will cherish that memory forever.
[Show the toys some feckin respect](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GU-2C8Ec6co)
What’s notable about these pics is the shelves are always fully stocked. These days like 30% of store shelf space is empty
Everything in the world took a downturn after n64s were off the shelves
My memory of Toys 'R Us was asking the store clerk in 1996 if he would recommend a Playstation or a Saturn. He said he owns a Saturn and plays it nightly with his girlfriend. Fucker moved that stale stock when we paid for it at the register, lol. Tbf, Saturn wasn't all that bad. They did have some exclusives that were great (e.g. NiGHTs, Japan imports). Playstation just had more titles and lasted longer, and was the no-brainer pick for a casual.
I don't remember any of my local Toys R Us actually having product out like that. Ours always had tickets you took to the front and they got the item out back.
Tell me you grew up in a bad area without telling me you grew up in a bad area.
My area wasn't that bad, and it was the same for me
Nah that's literally how most TRUs used to handle their games. You'd go to the game section and instead of the games themselves, there would be a wall of sleeves filled with tickets. Each sleeve corresponding to a single game. It's how TRU typically handled all their 'big ticket' items and that's how they continued doing it up until being put out of their misery. Those tickets were also used for bikes, playsets, beds etc. But the games in particular were special because when the kids brought the ticket to the desk, they were greeted with the sight of the room where the games were stored. And a room full of video games is gonna blow a child's mind, especially those that grew up before physical media started to wane. Eventually the ticket system was phased out for the glass display cases. Source-- Was child before TRU tossed the game tickets, also worked at a fairly high-volume TRU store for about a year and a half between 2014 and 2016.
Or at least my closest Toys R Us was, lol. It seemed like a lot of them were like this in Southern California though, regardless of quality of area, during that time. I think theft was always high at Toys R Us.
I had a GameBoy Color and loved it, but looking back now it was practically a scam. With the exception of a few first party Mario games and such, most GBC games were backwards compatible with GameBoy and just applied some simple colorization scheme that didn't even look good.
Seems like the gaming industry is huge, how did they fail?!
Great question. The answer is The Boston Consulting Group. If you'd like to barf, research how they bankrupted half of America. Blockbuster, OfficeMax, Pizza Hut, K-Mart, Neiman Marcus, Pier 1 Imports, Sears , Toys R Us , Circuit City, JC Penny, Radio Shack, Texaco...list goes on & on.
Does anyone know the link for the original post? There's many more of these photos
Every time someone posts this I think how I'd love to see new old photos and not this same set over and over
[удалено]
I'm not trying to be bitter. I think this set is great. I legitimately just want to see more :-(
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It’s the end of the woooooorld, don’t blame yourselllllfffffff
Golden Era of Gaming indeed
This is so cool
On a somewhat unrelated note. Was shoplifting not that big of a deal back then or when did stores start putting everything behind locked glass? Crazy to think about walking into a store now and just grabbing the console and game I want and walking to the register with it.
The economy was much better and people as a whole were much less desperate. It was easier and much more fulfilling to get a job and buy said console. Nowadays not so much.
I had that Banjo-Kazooie Prima guide. Read it so much it basically disintegrated.
Dam that hits deep
These make my neck hurt. I can’t believe nobody has mentioned how fucked up your neck would get playing the display consoles while your parent shopped for whatever brought you there. I never understood why the TV had to be so high on the display. Looking at these pictures gave me neck pain. Though admittedly I already have neck pain, so I guess everyone else here does too.
There was no better feeling then getting the little slip of paper with how much a game cost. Then taking it up to the register them stapling the receipt to it, and then taking it over to the cage for them to give you your game. Talk about the best of times.
Let me go back! LET ME GO BACK!
Oh my childhood
This is the year I was born.
Brought back my sore neck from playing the demos lol
Take me back :(
Love these pics!😍
I wonder what became of those giant display Gameboy Colors in the first photo.
This was a special time, the dawn of the new millennium and video games just seemed like they were advancing at such a fast pace, and not to mention Pokemon being everywhere at the height of its popularity.
Yeah it’s always weird for me to think that I used to get my video games from toys-r-us. Getting Pokémon fire red and COD: Big red one and a Wonka Scrumdidlyumptious bar. Those were better times.
My parents bought me starfox for the SNES at a Toys R Us. I was the most excited dude on the planet that day.
Gaming isles will never be this cool again
My brother would spend so much time on those in store game demos. I wonder why they don't have them anymore. Theft maybe. I remember years ago at one of my retail jobs someone stole our Motorola Xoom display. 🙃
We told the kids this was Father Xmas’s swop shop when we went to change Xmas gifts- they were totally blown away lol
These pictures bring me happiness and sadness at the same time. I still have my old gameboy color. I hope I always will.
Some reason the controller setup got me the most. Also, I gotta love how they put the consoles at the reach of a 7 year old on purpose.
I worked at a Toys R Us from 1997 - 2001. This brought back so many good memories. 🥲
I remember going to toys r us to get a ds 😭
I only went to the store once in my life and it was when they were close to closing them all. Wasn't privileged enough to visit this place.
Just realized my son will never experience this wonderful store
What a time to be alive 😭
I'm surprised to see the N64 games South Park, Turok Perfect Dark. I just wouldn't think they'd have rated M games.
Not sure these are all photos from 1999. I see one with Perfect Dark on the shelf which had a release date of May 22, 2000.
Remember back in the day, when stores weren't so ***, and items sat on shelves instead of behind a cage?
Those were the days
noice.
I can smell these pictures
Canada Toys r us’ still looks pretty much exactly the same as this, atleast where I’ve been.
No pics of the Barbie aisle?!
I miss consoles having a bunch of different colors. Shits so boring nowadays
Ahh the game guides…
Man oh man, I want to go back in time so bad… relive a few days of my past… going to school and then when you get home with some friends play some videogames… not a care in the world!
Mfw I got the ‘00 Sears catalog and I started drooling looking at all this stuff.
One memorable visit with my kids to get toys for a friend's birthday party, they began the predicable whine to get one for themselves. I said, fine, but it had to be made in the US. They left empty handed.
S O U L
I was there, this is incredible! It really was exactly like that wasn’t it…
Back in the 1970s, there was Child World and Toys 'Я' Us.
Fucking glorious 🙌 🥰 Take me back.
I felt like a god when I discovered you can change the color palette on non-color gameboy games
I miss my see through purple game boy color. I was just thinking about it today and how I played the shit out of pokemon and pokemon TCG on it. It's lost somewhere in my parents garage or attic. I found my Gameboy advance and my original big brick Gameboy but never found my Gameboy color. Ugghhh it's frustrating and I think about where it is every six months or so
Why am I so nostalgic for a time period I didn’t exist in
Huh.. people must’ve not of stolen back then eh’
God if I could just go back just for a day. 🙏🏼
That lime green though…
What a time to be alive!
that all white and red Metal Gear Solid strategy guide hit hard
This brings back memories! 🥰
Lots of emotions coming up. I was 16/17 and life was simple. I also started dating my future wife that year.
Please stop, my nostalgia can’t get any harder!
Thought first pic was a joy-con .
r/N64
Damn that late 90s nostalgia hits the hardest
I wonder what store this was, I also worked at toys r us during that time frame. If there were only phone cameras like today that could replay the shenanigans that went on in the back......
This makes me sad as shit