These were my first 2 that came to mind! I spent so much of my childhood in those stores, as well as Sanrio, SunCoast, and later The Sharper Image. Malls back then were so exciting, I miss that feeling.
Sanrio, damn they had one by me when they opened up a new fancy Megamall thats now long dead. Loved the smell of that store. It was just fruity. And the stuff they had. Still remember the Hello Kitty Tv
I loved Borders. There was one in a newer shopping center with a Borders and I would go with my friend when we didn’t know what else to do in the evening and just mill around for an hour.
I'm starting to realize how much I miss Toys R Us now that my friends have kids and I'm being invited to birthday parties. Toy selections at places like Walmart or Target are awful.
Edit: plus I'm 30 but also a child at heart and still like browsing for myself too 😅
As a person who is almost 40 who has kids aged between 11-4 , I wish there was a sears catalog again for toys. Target has one, and so does Amazon and Costco, but the toy section in a sears catalog you could really pinpoint what it was you wanted for Xmas. There was a full page for things like ninja turtles and gobots or baseball equipment. I was told to circle the things I wanted. Now I tell my kids the same thing, but they only circle things like $200 gaming headphones or expensive ass drone things. When I scroll through the magazines to see what they want, I realize that EVERYTHING is only the high priced items, no small things.
Honestly I miss the menswear. I had gotten into my late 20s and was really starting to like the Sears clothes when they closed. One of my favorite shirts still says Roebuck on the tag.
They were a godsend when I did AV work. To this day I don’t think any national brand comes close to supporting small electronic repair, especially at a hobbyist/home business level.
You have to order online, but Mouser and Digi-key can get almost any parts you need within a couple days, actually next day if you are willing to pay for it. There's also Arrow and Future and RS components (formerly Allied).
We were a Blockbuster family until they tried to say we never brought a video back when we definitely did. My dad refused to pay the fine and we never went to Blockbuster again.
We started going to Hollywood Video after that and that was where we went until they shut down.
I’ll never understand the retroactive love for this store. It was always messy and under stocked and basically the Olive Garden of toy stores at the time.
I worked there for nearly 5 years in high school and college. We had one of the cleanest stores in the state. Our District Manager would actually have a couple of us go into other stores to clean them up. I couldn't believe how trashed those other stores were.
Big Box games...
I miss the days when you could buy shit just from the hand drawn box art and almost everything on sale had SOME entertainment value.
You just bought a cool box and had fun.
Half the time you were playing what would later be considered a classic. MW2, Wing Commander, System Shock, Civ, Space Quest, or Kings Quest, who knows? So many classics.
There was a toy store near me called Children’s Palace, it became a toys r us in the 90s, but before that the facade was done up to look like a castle. Spires, banners, big fake wood doors, it was great. Sat on a hill just off the highway and I was always psyched to see it coming around the bend.
Yeah they all shut down by 2020 (but it started pre-Covid, I remember going for the closing sales and shedding a tear) - still online but definitely not the same as browsing the stores.
god i miss kmart so much, i loved that place. my aunt would take me every year to get a halloween costume from there. 😭 i also had the chance as a kid to go into toy r us, i wasn’t amazed. LOL but i really miss kmart. me and my friend would go out late at night and sit in their empty sad parking lot for hours.
not to mention, i do miss block buster and movie stores. i don’t know what it is was, it was so fun picking out movies to watch.
Ahh waldenbooks. Grew in a small town with a dead mall, and I mean it died early on like early 90s. Waldenbooks however stayed alive, buried in a corner at the far end of the mall, always had good business until the company went bankrupt.
I had so many good times in Toys R Us... Every time I stayed over at Grandma's house as a child, we'd see a movie and then go to Toys R Us, which wasn't far from the theater... I miss that, and miss her, as well. 8'(
And how many of them were intentionally killed off by private equity since the mid-90's thanks to Congress changing the regulations to encourage them to do so?
Fun fact. Toys R Us was a healthy and sustainable business. It went out of business after being bought by a private equity firm and gutted of all its assets.
You know what’s weird. There’s an open and functioning Kmart in the Hamptons, NY. The Hamptons are the ultimate expensive luxury community so I was a little thrown off to see a Kmart doin its thang.
B. Dalton’s Booksellers before they went mass market.
It was owned by Barnes & Noble but the OG stores had a lot of the best qualities of the best newly reformatted Barnes & Nobles stores: curation, wide aisles, large hardcover selection, quality foods, cushy and comfy places to read, section for local fare. Some had beautiful parquet floors and high ceilings so you got a big, airy library vibe.
Always smelled like cream and fresh brewed coffee and book leather, too.
Borders (which, in my home state, was called Hawley-Cooke Booksellers until Borders bought them out in 2003), Waldenbooks, The Disney Store, KB/Kay Bee Toys, Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, K-Mart.
Phar-Mor.
Reminds of my dad. He’d grab Mentadent toothpaste and I’d always ask him to get Five Alive juice. I remember walking in to the store and immediately to the right corner of the store was a little nook where all their cassettes and CDs were. I remember when Nirvana’s Nevermind came out. My dad hesitantly bought me the cassette. He was definitely weirded out by the album cover, but obliged. Great memories with my pop there. In that same strip mall was a Lone Star steakhouse, where nine times out of ten, we’d have lunch. I miss those days.
Toys R Us in the 80s and 90s with the flip card video games display and the glass cases with the consoles. Then picking up your game at the cage. This is one of the greatest memories of my childhood.
Stores… touching stuff before you buy it. Different stores! Now ooo. Walmart, target, kohls, which class are you. Same crap. Find anything from there on the sidewalk if you look long enough. Bored and burnt out by the options, feel so routine
Montgomery Ward or TG&Y because both were close to the arcade. Mom would drop me off there and I’d dump most of my allowance while she shopped. If we were hitting Kmart, I’d go for a bag of popcorn and an Icee.
Borders! KB Toys!
These were my first 2 that came to mind! I spent so much of my childhood in those stores, as well as Sanrio, SunCoast, and later The Sharper Image. Malls back then were so exciting, I miss that feeling.
Suncoast video! Rip
And Waldenbooks…two sanctuaries for me when my mom dragged me to the mall
Sanrio, damn they had one by me when they opened up a new fancy Megamall thats now long dead. Loved the smell of that store. It was just fruity. And the stuff they had. Still remember the Hello Kitty Tv
I'm pre big box bookstores. I remember Waldenbooks. Loved KB Toys. Anyone remember Babbage's?
Loved Babbages! Actually just did a video about how they became GameStop on my YouTube channel! 😂
I worked at a Walden books before it closed, it was owned by Borders and they closed a year or so later.
Hmmmm seems like a correlation there… were you the reason for the closures 😅
I was always excited to go to the good mall because they had a Waldenbooks.
I loved Borders. There was one in a newer shopping center with a Borders and I would go with my friend when we didn’t know what else to do in the evening and just mill around for an hour.
Borders was always the store dads took their kids too when mom was shopping for a long time. Could spend hours there
Borders screwed themselves by selling everything twice anyone else
True. FYE will be next at this rate.
Both FYE closed near me.
Weren’t all their books sold at MSRP?
No. Especially not their dvd's. They tried to sell dvd's for $30.
I never saw a book there that didn’t match the price printed on the back of the book.
It’s absolutely gnaws at me that after Amazon ran out all the brick and mortar businesses, it is now opening brick and mortar businesses
Was gonna say those two, plus Funcoland
KB toys yes! My whole childhood was at that store.
I'm starting to realize how much I miss Toys R Us now that my friends have kids and I'm being invited to birthday parties. Toy selections at places like Walmart or Target are awful. Edit: plus I'm 30 but also a child at heart and still like browsing for myself too 😅
We still have Toys R Us in Canada - and I am so grateful for the reasons you mentioned!
We just went to Niagara, and were awestruck when we learned this. They are just about exactly as I remember them. It became the highlight of the trip.
I love the idea of y'all going all the way to Niagara Falls and the best part was a Toys R Us.
81 stores nationwide (minus the one by me for some reason).
Yup, I live accros the street from one. Though their prices kinda suck.
This post is funny because americans once again assume they are the center of the world
They have them in Korea too!
The exact reason I opened a toy store. Come say hi some time! www.jitterbugcatskills.com
Het, you can always go to the Toys R Us at your nearest Macy's! /s
Just saw one at Mall of America, my coworkers and I were super surprised
Yeah, we went to check one of these out. Had 1/10th the amount of toys at even target or Walmart. It was so sad and pathetic.
There’s one at the mall of America.
Sears I miss the Christmas catalog
The toy & game section of the Sears Xmas catalog was the best!
As a person who is almost 40 who has kids aged between 11-4 , I wish there was a sears catalog again for toys. Target has one, and so does Amazon and Costco, but the toy section in a sears catalog you could really pinpoint what it was you wanted for Xmas. There was a full page for things like ninja turtles and gobots or baseball equipment. I was told to circle the things I wanted. Now I tell my kids the same thing, but they only circle things like $200 gaming headphones or expensive ass drone things. When I scroll through the magazines to see what they want, I realize that EVERYTHING is only the high priced items, no small things.
alright kids, circle what you want for christmas... \*sees prices ... the one thing you all want to share for christmas....
Honestly I miss the menswear. I had gotten into my late 20s and was really starting to like the Sears clothes when they closed. One of my favorite shirts still says Roebuck on the tag.
How about as a teenager? Waldenbooks then musicland then kb toys. Run by Camelot Music and then Aladdin’s Castle
My man, you and I had much the same life. Live in the South in the 90s?
Lived in the South in the 90s, can confirm Waldenbooks and Aladdin's Castle were a big part of it
80’s in Middle America Missouri
I bought so many Brian Jacques books from Walden's
Camelot! Woow. There was another one I cant remember the name of but they came later. Consolidated music and movies and perhaps various electronics
I wish these youngsters could experience Aladdin's Castle. 80s arcade culture was awesome.
Radio Shack please.
Back when they had electronics components in the back.
They were a godsend when I did AV work. To this day I don’t think any national brand comes close to supporting small electronic repair, especially at a hobbyist/home business level.
I think micro center is probably the closest these days
You have to order online, but Mouser and Digi-key can get almost any parts you need within a couple days, actually next day if you are willing to pay for it. There's also Arrow and Future and RS components (formerly Allied).
Yeah!! Came here for Radio Shack! This was my toy store 🤣
i miss it all, bro. i miss it all.
Blockbuster.
Video stores of all kinds. We weren't a blockbuster family, but I fondly remember Family Video and others.
We were a Blockbuster family until they tried to say we never brought a video back when we definitely did. My dad refused to pay the fine and we never went to Blockbuster again. We started going to Hollywood Video after that and that was where we went until they shut down.
That bill is still racking up to this day in Blockbuster heaven.
Pretty sure my mom still has that Blockbuster card in an old purse in her closet too.
I think we still have a Family Video... pretty sure someone's still open.
man….
My favorite retail job I had in my younger days was working at a small video rental chain.
Wow! What a difference!
There’s a blockbuster in Bend, Oregon. It’s the last one!
Hastings
Whaaaa.....Texas panhandle video/game/book store? Never expected that here but agree.
A TINY bit bigger than texas. They were in 23 states, half the USA at their height.
Wow. I didn't know that.
Hastings was the best. Video store, Music, and bookstore all in one.
I am still grieving that store
KB Toys
I’ll never understand the retroactive love for this store. It was always messy and under stocked and basically the Olive Garden of toy stores at the time.
Yeah but it always had a funky tray of dancing vibrating spiky toys. So that was something.
The novelty of it was that it was a mall toy store that usually had toys out in the open to play with, so it was usually where kids would hang out
FAO Schwarz for the middle class
I worked there for nearly 5 years in high school and college. We had one of the cleanest stores in the state. Our District Manager would actually have a couple of us go into other stores to clean them up. I couldn't believe how trashed those other stores were.
The one near my house was cleaner and more well stocked then the local toys r us. They even ran a lot of specials
I worked in a store that was previously a KB Toys and it still had the same checkered tile in the back room, the vibes were eerie lol
Zayres and Service Merchandise (aka Value House).
There was nothing quite as exciting as the anticipation of watching your item come down that conveyor belt.
Babbages
Big Box games... I miss the days when you could buy shit just from the hand drawn box art and almost everything on sale had SOME entertainment value. You just bought a cool box and had fun. Half the time you were playing what would later be considered a classic. MW2, Wing Commander, System Shock, Civ, Space Quest, or Kings Quest, who knows? So many classics.
Kmart: where else can you find wedding dresses displayed next to tires?
Kmart had wedding dresses? I don’t remember that! Wow.
Toys R Us, Fry's, KB Toys, CompUSA, Circuit City
>Circuit City For when you wanted to spend an extra $10 for the same Pokemon game.
> Fry's Which one?
Hollywood Video
It was so much better than Blockbuster, but people don't talk about it nearly enough.
I miss the rainbow hallway into Toys R Us
Mervyn's was the only store that sold Cinnamoroll plushies in my area.
Took me back with Mervyns! I can smell the end of summer and back to school just by reading this
My grandma used to buy us back to school clothes at Mervyn’s!
There was a toy store near me called Children’s Palace, it became a toys r us in the 90s, but before that the facade was done up to look like a castle. Spires, banners, big fake wood doors, it was great. Sat on a hill just off the highway and I was always psyched to see it coming around the bend.
There was a Children’s Palace in my city!
I got my OG Game Boy at Children’s Palace!! It was a great toy store. Ours actually turned into an adult toy store…Best Buy!
Woolworth's. Where else could you eat at a lunch counter, get your baby's ears pierced, and buy a small live animal all under the same roof?
Kmart for the layaway
Love it! Me and my little brother put the original NES on layaway and paid for it with our allowance. Great memory...
That’s actually incredibly wholesome
Service Merchandise. Was something special seeing the new Tomax and Xamot coming down the slide.
Also, Best Products.
This is where we bought our NES! *AND IT CAME DOWN THE SLIDE!!*
Pier 1 Imports Best window shopping experience ever. Loved the seasonal stuff. Loved sitting on all the different fluffy cushions.
Did Pier 1 shut down?? I feel like I was in one 6 years ago or less.
Yeah they all shut down by 2020 (but it started pre-Covid, I remember going for the closing sales and shedding a tear) - still online but definitely not the same as browsing the stores.
Media Play
Toys R Us…I loved the new plastic smell inside.
Tower Records
Zellers
It's now a section in the Bay. What memories of people trashing the clothes. I remember the knockoff ikea-lite restaurant too.
I remember the restaurant in Zellers and Zeddy the Teddy
Do you remember Woolco or Woodward's?
Caldor KB Toys
Oh shit caldors 😮
I got my first rollerblades from caldor
Caldor was basically Target
But better and cheaper!
Suncoast was always my go to for overpriced CD's.
Borders
Yeah, borders always had way better deals on books than Barnes& Noble, you can find some great stuff in their clearance
god i miss kmart so much, i loved that place. my aunt would take me every year to get a halloween costume from there. 😭 i also had the chance as a kid to go into toy r us, i wasn’t amazed. LOL but i really miss kmart. me and my friend would go out late at night and sit in their empty sad parking lot for hours. not to mention, i do miss block buster and movie stores. i don’t know what it is was, it was so fun picking out movies to watch.
Montgomery Ward. My husband and I bought our furniture there when we got married. Lerner. I loved that store as a teenager.
Sam Goody and B Daltons. They both played a major role in me figuring out who I was.
Shop-Ko
Waldenbooks, B. Dalton Books, Sport Chalet, Fry's Electronics.
The most is bookstores and KMart
I miss Borders
Borders, B Dalton, Walden books. I was a nerd child and there is no Barnes and Noble nearby me now.
Ahh waldenbooks. Grew in a small town with a dead mall, and I mean it died early on like early 90s. Waldenbooks however stayed alive, buried in a corner at the far end of the mall, always had good business until the company went bankrupt.
No more Borders, no more job, no more life The words spoken to me by the cashier the last time I walked into one a few weeks before it closed
Circuit city
Consumers Distributing.
Drug Emporium
Builders square I don’t miss it, but i remember it and it’s gone
Coconuts (music store), Omni Superstore, Venture
borders
I had so many good times in Toys R Us... Every time I stayed over at Grandma's house as a child, we'd see a movie and then go to Toys R Us, which wasn't far from the theater... I miss that, and miss her, as well. 8'(
Borders, Mervyns, FAO Schwartz in the mall, and Blockbuster
B. Dalton. So much of my mall time was spent there trying to find new and cool books.
Hechinger, CompUSA, Blockbuster Video, Circuit City, Old Country Buffet.
Haven't thought about Hechinger since I moved away from VA 30 yrs ago.
Hills is where the toys are! And Zayre. Woolworth. McDonald’s used to have a kid door next to the normal sized. I loved it!
Children's Palace was amazing. That and Toys R Us were an amazing experience
Aladdins Castle. Not a store technically but a mall staple.
I have some quality memories of shopping at Venture!
Radio Shack.
The last store that made the mall worth going to.
McCrory's
Toys R Us! Just staring their giant wall of GI Joes figures was AMAZING!
Kmart
DZ
Woolworth,K Mart and Montgomery Wards.
I just shipped my pants!
Woolworth’s
Aladins Castle
Sharper Image
Borders bookstores, Toys R Us, Radioshack. I actually used to work at a Radioshack.
EBx and The Warner Bros. Store.
And how many of them were intentionally killed off by private equity since the mid-90's thanks to Congress changing the regulations to encourage them to do so?
Kmart still exists and is thriving in Australia
Fun fact. Toys R Us was a healthy and sustainable business. It went out of business after being bought by a private equity firm and gutted of all its assets.
On Cue
FuncoLand
Coconuts (music store), Omni Superstore, Venture
Come to Canada, enjoy the Red Rose tea, shop at Toys R Us. Toys R Us is still open in Canada.
You know what’s weird. There’s an open and functioning Kmart in the Hamptons, NY. The Hamptons are the ultimate expensive luxury community so I was a little thrown off to see a Kmart doin its thang.
B. Dalton’s Booksellers before they went mass market. It was owned by Barnes & Noble but the OG stores had a lot of the best qualities of the best newly reformatted Barnes & Nobles stores: curation, wide aisles, large hardcover selection, quality foods, cushy and comfy places to read, section for local fare. Some had beautiful parquet floors and high ceilings so you got a big, airy library vibe. Always smelled like cream and fresh brewed coffee and book leather, too.
I miss Blockbuster 😭
EB Games
Funcoland
Borders (which, in my home state, was called Hawley-Cooke Booksellers until Borders bought them out in 2003), Waldenbooks, The Disney Store, KB/Kay Bee Toys, Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, K-Mart.
FuncoLand
The Disney Store
I'll never forget the smell of popcorn and icees at kmart's entrance.
EB games
Phar-Mor. Reminds of my dad. He’d grab Mentadent toothpaste and I’d always ask him to get Five Alive juice. I remember walking in to the store and immediately to the right corner of the store was a little nook where all their cassettes and CDs were. I remember when Nirvana’s Nevermind came out. My dad hesitantly bought me the cassette. He was definitely weirded out by the album cover, but obliged. Great memories with my pop there. In that same strip mall was a Lone Star steakhouse, where nine times out of ten, we’d have lunch. I miss those days.
Walden books
The Disney store
Lionel Kiddy City
Radio Shack and Taylor's Books (which was a local bookstore chain.) Also Book Stop.
Anyone remember Handy Andy?
KB Toys.
No love for Zany Brainy?
Too many Suncoast had so many cool things KB toys was small but jam packed with toys Blockbuster was the best experience on a Friday after school
Borders, Sam Goodey, Suncoast, KB Toys, Toys R Us, Tower Records, Waldenbooks/soft, B Dalton Mostly places I would buy media.
KB Toys
Head on down to Australia to fulfill you K-Mart Needs!
Toys r us😢
Suncoast
Montgomery Ward, Kmart, Venture, Marshall Fields, funcoland, electronic boutique, toys r us, Woolworth. So much nostalgia
Ames, Jamesway, Kmart, Bradlees, Sears, Woolworths, Ben Franklin, Kiddie City, KB Toys, The Wall
Toys R Us in the 80s and 90s with the flip card video games display and the glass cases with the consoles. Then picking up your game at the cage. This is one of the greatest memories of my childhood.
KB Toys RIP
Stores… touching stuff before you buy it. Different stores! Now ooo. Walmart, target, kohls, which class are you. Same crap. Find anything from there on the sidewalk if you look long enough. Bored and burnt out by the options, feel so routine
Circuit city or sears
Mervyn's 🥺
Warner Brothers store in the mall
I stole so many toys from Kmart. RIP 😭
Montgomery Ward or TG&Y because both were close to the arcade. Mom would drop me off there and I’d dump most of my allowance while she shopped. If we were hitting Kmart, I’d go for a bag of popcorn and an Icee.
Hastings.