After an entire month off, I am refreshed and ready to come back to blogging. I had a great vacation and sickness, but I am back in full force. I took a trip to Ireland, and there were so many stores there that I did not know what they were. It got me thinking, there are kids today that do not know that there were stores from the 90s that don’t exist anymore. Throughout a mall, you would find these stores. So let’s look back at the stores that we loved and still miss…
K.B. Toys
Evidently, there were carpeted toy stores. I don’t remember that at all. That seems like a mistake, but in the Midwest, we have carpeted groceries stores, so I am not one to talk. I always thought of K.B. Toys as the alternative version of Toys R Us. They were the store that was stuck in the mall, so if you were there, you always went through it. Just a toy store, but you know you always wanted to just go to Toys R Us. They were founded in 1946 and continued until 2009. Although I know our K.B. Toys was gone way before that. Despite it being the lesser alternative to Toys R Us, I still miss you K. B. Toys!
Wet Seal
Wet Seal seemed like another one of those stores where you weren’t where you really wanted to be, but was there. I know there are people that loved Wet Seal, so much so that it was still around in brick and mortar until 2017. Actually, you can still buy items online on their website. The problem with Wet Seal was that it was like every other teen store of the 90s, and when there are so many, some are bound to fail. This just ended up being the less popular of all of those stores.
Toys R Us
This one hit hard. The closing of Toys R Us was like a closing of a chapter of my childhood. Toys R Us was “the” toy store everyone wanted to go to as a child. It had games, bikes, toys, and stuffed animals. You could get just about anything kid related at Toys R Us. Kids could spend hours there, because there was so much to see and so much that you could look at. The Toys R Us Catalog was something I got every Christmas time, and I would circle what I wanted so my parents would know. Rumor has it, they are coming back to brick and mortar soon, we can all hope…
Warner Bros Studio Store
This store is definitely one that I vividly remember and have amazing memories from. We didn’t have one in the mall where I lived. There was one in Seattle. So when we went it was a special trip that we were going on. I only went to the store maybe 3 times (the store went defunct in 2001) but those memories last forever. There was a rocket ship you can go into. There were character statues everywhere. This was also in the era where WB reigned supreme with Looney Tunes and Animaniacs of other cartoons on air. This was such a fun store for adults and kids. I miss it dearly.
Suncoast Motion Picture Company
A store that brought everything together, movies, tv, and the merchandise from those. Suncoast Motion Picture Company had it all. I always had to go into this store. I don’t remember buying anything from this store, though. Items were used and new, but they were all pretty expensive. Honestly, it was cheaper just to rent from Blockbuster and keep the movie. There was a certain aura that the store had, though, which makes me miss those days. There are still 3 stores that exist in Texas, Nebraska, and North Carolina.
Hopefully, this was a trip down memory lane. What stores do you remember and miss?
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As always, Creating Nostalgia Millennial Style!
