tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1841841084671666214.post4899200894459795018..comments2024-03-11T02:26:38.210-05:00Comments on Always Drunk: Toys: A Bad Movie, A Beloved Retail ModelChuck Baudelairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07856142744531037691noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1841841084671666214.post-61463240428057789472018-03-21T12:07:18.194-05:002018-03-21T12:07:18.194-05:00Many hours spent on the computer games aisle as a ...Many hours spent on the computer games aisle as a kid, carefully deciding which tag to pull down and take to my mother so we could exchange it for the Commodore 64 game I had finally committed to. I remember saving pennies to finally get to that elusive ten dollars to buy that red box copy of Dungeons and Dragons from Toys R Us. I also remember my mother losing patience with me counting out said pennies, sweeping them all off the counter into her purse, and giving the sales clerk a ten dollar bill (and going through that change for tax). Toys R Us will always be wound around memories of my mother and I. By the time I was shopping there for kids it was a little more souless and generic. I can remember finding imported Ultraman toys there as a child and some off the wall stuff. Through the 90's and beyond the toys were about the same as what you found at Target or Wal-Mart. Still a sad passing for certain.Gaming Through Gauze Wrapped Milky Eyeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14215626624906626289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1841841084671666214.post-79209766243326293942018-03-20T20:39:23.240-05:002018-03-20T20:39:23.240-05:00We didn't have one in our town until I was in ...We didn't have one in our town until I was in college. We had K Mart, Richway (now Target), and one local place. But I love going now. I really miss the bookstores of my youth.aehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02708941765522865595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1841841084671666214.post-50413700521664586012018-03-15T07:53:08.345-05:002018-03-15T07:53:08.345-05:00I could reminisce about the time my friends and I ...I could reminisce about the time my friends and I got thrown out of a Toys'R'Us because we were running up and down the aisles playing with toys--and let's just say we were all old enough to drive there--but instead I want to consider what it means that brick and mortar stores are closing. <br />And they're not always closing because they're losing money or because customers are switching to online shopping. Some close because it's what investors want. I had the unpleasant experience of working for someone was so committed to a particular vision of the future he'd rather kill where we worked than give the customers what they wanted.<br />Sure, Toys'R'Us was a private, profit-driven company but its stores represented a communal space where people--especially kids--could meet and interact.<br />For me the iconic scene in <i>Big</i> isn't Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia playing "Chopsticks". It's the scene before that, when Tom Hanks and some random kid pretend to shoot each other with lasers. That's a bit problematic but consider this: two kids who didn't know each other happened to meet and bond, however briefly, by playing together.<br />That's not gonna happen online.Christopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10320886074658710855noreply@blogger.com