Department Stores Remembered.

[pacman000]

http://www.wtv-zone.com/dpjohnson/60sdiscountstores/

 

Thought this page was fun for awhile now. Pictures of Ames, Zayre, Treasury, and other old discounters.

[Gabriel]

My Atari 2600 was from Woolco. I think I also got Adventure from there. It was also the only place I've ever seen a real-live Astrocade.

My aunt bought me Pitfall II from Target. At that time they had the games in individual security boxes on hanger racks on a wall. It was very odd at the time. But long before that, my aunt had bought me Othello from Target for Christmas. However, I had been playing with the difficulty switches on my 2600 and since I was a moron, I thought the Othello game was defective. We spent one of the days after Christmas waiting in line at Target to exchange the game for another copy. Mainly what I liked about Target was their Intellivision demo unit. I'd sit and play Tank Battle on that with other kids while my family shopped.

When I got my copy of Pac-Man, my aunt and I went to Sears. It turns out it wasn't the street date for the game yet. It was a Saturday and I think the street date was the following Monday. However, one of the clerks thought my aunt was cute and said he'd sell us a copy from the back if she'd go out with him. She agreed. We played Pac-Man all weekend. The date was probably a bad one, though. She refuses to speak about it to this day. Sears was also my first exposure to the 2600. They had the console in the garden center demoing Target Fun. I picked up the controller to play and one of the employees snatched it out of my hand and told me it wasn't for children.

I bought Swordquest: Earthworld with some birthday money from K-Mart. I returned it and exchanged it for E.T. the same day. I was much happier with E.T.

There was this one shop on the local mall called The Game Peddler. They sold videogames and tabletop games. I liked going there for the 1 or 2 years it existed. One of the first things I got from there was Star Voyager. My mom had bought it for me, but what she had really wanted me to get was Demon Attack. She liked Demon Attack better. I managed to play that into going back a couple of weeks later and getting Demon Attack as well, so I got both games I wanted.

I think a couple of my games were from Service Merchandise. I have some firm memories of getting Space Invaders from there, but I can't recall any others.

I got my copy of Asteroids from Circus World. I was pretty excited about it at the time. Then I got the game home and saw that it wasn't Asteroids and was instead a game about shooting globs of sherbet. My recollection is that Circus World was a really good place for games, but I can't recall any other 2600 games I got from there.

Kay-Bee Toys is another one I have memories of thinking was really good for 2600 games, but I can't recall ever buying anything there until the post crash bargain bin period. I got Stargate from there. Stargate blew me away. It was a 2600 game that could compete with a 5200 game.

I got Empire Strikes Back from Toys R Us. This was in the early 90s. Yes, Toys R Us still had huge numbers of brand new ESB carts well into the 16 bit era.

I'm almost certain I got at least a game or two from Montgomery Ward, but I can't recall a single one. The only thing I can recall is my mom buying a Coleco ADAM from there.

Despite always hanging out in Dillards and watching their demo Odyssey 2 running Quest for the Rings, I can't recall ever getting a game from there either. I did often play their Atari 2600 which they had running Dodge 'Em most of the time.

JC Penney had a gaming section, but they were more of a Colecovision place. I can't recall ever getting any 2600 games from there, but it's possible.

Edit: Crap. I forgot some more.

Winns was the store where I bought my very first Atari game with my own money. I bought Night Driver. It was priced at 24.95. It was my first realization that not all video games were great. Winns was one of my favorite stores when I was little. They had a great toy section for the time. I also got a lot of model kits and Choose Your Own Adventure books from there.

There was also an Eckerd's near me. I remember they had 2600 games. I'm not sure if I ever bought one from there, but I used to be there all the time, so I'd be surprised if at least one of my games didn't come from there. Now that I think of it, I think my copy of Yars Revenge was bought there.

Edited January 31, 2018 by Gabriel

[toneinblack]

I remember buying activision fishing from selfridges in oxford street , berzerk from boots the chemist, also in the film called electric dreams (film about a home computer taking over the home owners house ) has a few minutes shot inside a department store video games area .

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Dreams_(film)

 

5 minutes in and you see an imagic display , think there maybe more , film is on youtube.

Edited January 31, 2018 by toneinblack

[zzip]

My games came from these stores:

 

Jefferson Ward (a Target-style store run by Montgomery Ward)

Clover (a Target-style store run by Strawbridge and Clothier)

Kmart

JC Penney (hard to believe they used to sell videogames)

Sears

Service Merchandise

Revco drug (discount bin)

Kay-Bee toys

Toys R Us

Kidde City

Wall-to-Wall sound and video

Rey and Dereck drug store.

[jhd]

Did anyone from the greater Boston-area ever shop at Filene's?

 

I grew-up in Nova Scotia, but I spent many Summers in the 1980s vacationing in Worcester, Massachusetts. Filene's was an anchor store at the now long gone Worcester Galleria mall.

 

That is the only place that I can recall having ever seen Odyssey 2 games for sale.

 

(There was also a massive Dream Machine video arcade in that same mall.)

[+sramirez2008]

I remember a Filene's Basement at The Galleria at White Plains (White Plains N.Y.).

[jhd]

I remember a Filene's Basement at The Galleria at White Plains (White Plains N.Y.).

 

Filene's Basement was the discount/clearance part of the store -- there was one in Worcester, too, but I only remember it selling clothing.

[helmsm]

Here in the Sunnyvale, CA area, I remember Atari products being sold at the world-famous Toys R Us in Sunnyvale (the one with the ghost), Sears in Mountain View, and I got a ton of 2600 carts at the Emporium basement sales on the Sunnyvale/Mountain View border. I'm sure there were other places, like the electronics stores and Montgomery Wards in the Sunnyvale Town Center, but those are the places I definitely remember seling Atari products.

Edited February 1, 2018 by helmsm

[lingyi]

Two interesting stores in Hawaii were GEM and Gibson's. They were department stores (GEM stores even had a supermarket), but the 'departments' were run by independent vendors, which meant that they could be there one week and gone the next. I'm not sure, but I think at some point Holiday Mart > Daiei > Don Quijote also had independent vendors, which is why prices and availability would vary store to to store.

 

I usually got my carts from Payless > Pay n' Save because they were usually up to date with their inventory.

 

In the mid 80's, I used to visit a game store (can't remember the name) in one of our local malls and used to see $0.50 & $1.00 carts in bins.

[pacman000]

Gipson's Department Stores, based in the North East, or Gibson's Discount Centers, based in the South?

[tremoloman2006]

The primary stores I purchased games from were:

 

 

[Gabriel]

Gipson's Department Stores, based in the North East, or Gibson's Discount Centers, based in the South?

 

Obviously not an answer to the question, and completely unrelated.

 

I had almost completely forgotten about Gibson's. Lingyi's post brought a flood of memories coming back, although the Gibson's I recall probably isn't the same chain as Lingyi's.

 

I don't associate Gibson's with video games. I'm pretty sure they were long gone from my neck of the woods by the time I was enthralled with video games in 1981.

 

The one I recall was on a little strip mall. It was actually next door to the previously mentioned Winn's I liked so much. The store originally had a completely different decor which I really don't clearly remember. Then there was a fire when I was very young which caused the store to have to remodel and start over. After the remodel they were much more what I'd now call Wal-Marty.

 

I remember getting Star Wars toys there. In particular, I remember getting a Kenner Die Cast Millennium Falcon from there, and I regretted that for years, because I really wanted a Y-Wing because I thought the Y-Wing looked cool.

 

I got numerous Goodyear blimp models. Any kid who grew up in the 70s probably knows the one I'm talking about. It had a light and motor in it, and you'd color these pixel paper things to make colored messages scroll on the blimp.

 

I have pretty vivid memories of a Stretch Armstrong endcap display. I also remember them selling the big Shogun Warriors and Godzilla toys. And this was the age of SLIME. I don't know how many of those little plastic trash pails I got with green slime or green slime with plastic worms in it.

 

I have a Star Wars board game story related to Gibson's, but that's long and even more off topic than I've already ventured.

 

Maybe they sold video games. I think they had a watch/electronics counter. My age was in the single digits, and I hadn't really discovered video games yet. I only cared about the toys.

[zzip]

I got numerous Goodyear blimp models. Any kid who grew up in the 70s probably knows the one I'm talking about.

No, never heard of them, lol! But it sounds like something I might have liked. Did they fly?

[Gabriel]

No, never heard of them, lol! But it sounds like something I might have liked. Did they fly?

 

Really? Maybe it was just my world, since I saw them displayed in several local stores prominently. I was fascinated by them.

 

No, they didn't fly. They were very basic plastic kits.

 

Do a search for 1977 Goodyear blimp model kit. There will be pictures and videos of it in operation. From the perspective of a grade-schooler in the 70s, I thought they were pretty awesome.

[+save2600]

Oh, you're not alone... I had a Goodyear blimp as you're describing. Was very cool for what it was! I remember making funny messages and hanging the blimp in the middle of the room, off a light fixture. lol

 

Also had Stretch Armstrong and the green monster thing just like him. Ended up tearing one of Stretch's arms off and watching the syrup gunk ooze out all over the floor. Got my ass beat for that mess.

 

Stretch Monster, that's him!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming back to me a little more... pretty sure the blimp came with some string or wire that you could affix to things like a shelf or wall, then manually string or pull it along across the room, giving it the appearance of "flight". If it didn't come with such a contraption, then my brother and I rigged one up.

 

 

[MaximRecoil]

 

In 1985 when I was 10 years old, I bought my first console, an Atari 2600 "Vader", barebones set (1 joystick, no pack-in game) for $35 at Zayre in Bangor, Maine. They also had a bin of games near the checkout counter for $0.99 each. I had a total of $40 saved up from my allowance, so I had enough for 5 games (my older brother said he would pay the 5% sales tax).

 

A few years ago I screen printed a Zayre T-shirt for myself:

 

Edited February 2, 2018 by MaximRecoil

[Turbo-Torch]

I know I responded to this thread back in 2003 but did anyone else purchase games from a store named 3D?

 

There was one nearby in Valparaiso Indiana. I don't think I ever bought any games there as they didn't have much selection and were always higher priced than Zayre or Venture.

I think Camelot Music was my overall favorite store to buy games at.

[Sapicco]

I also live in eastern MA and I remember going to Child World to buy games. "Child World, Child World, the biggest toy store and a whole lot more"

 

I also bought a Bradlees, Lechmere, Kings and Circus World Toys. Ahhh... the memories of staring at the wall of video games wishing I had them all.

Eastern mass here too. Calder, Bradleys, service merchandise, lechmere, Woolworth, Zayre

[Rom Collector]

I wanted that Goodyear blimp so damn bad as a 9 or 10 year old.

It was sold out, and when I built it, it wasn't as good as the store display model.

[+sramirez2008]

I love blimps.

 

[+x=usr(1536)]

Both of these received mentions earlier in the thread, but I don't believe that either one had accompanying photos.

 

 

 

Pretty sure I still have a Vectrex cartridge somewhere with a Zody's price tag on it.

[lingyi]

I always thought the Gibson's in Hawaii was local only, but I just found out that there were GEM stores in various other states as well as Puerto Rico and Europe, so it's possible our Gibson's (which I think was Gibson's Department Store) could have been part of a chain..Other chain stores we had were Wigwam, Kress and Woolworth (as well as Sears and JC Penny).

 

One store that I know was unique to Hawaii was Arakawa's. This was a family owned store in Waipahu (originally a plantation centered town) that was know as THE place to buy sporting goods, but had a bit of everything from food items to high end electronics. You could spend hours looking in every nook and cranny for something that may have been there for years or placed there that day.

 

We also have Shirokiya, a Japanese goods / services focused store that has roots dating back to 1662 when the first store (dealing in dry goods) was opened in Japan, Because of the Japanese market focus, they used to carry some Japanese market games and systems, as well as their American counterparts. Hmm...if only I knew back then, I may have scored a 2800!

 

 

[+sramirez2008]

We had Woolworth's all over NY. I remember getting my Six Milion Dollar Man from Woolworth's.

[Jinks]

Woolco, target, sears, zellers, toys are us.

I had to travel 40-180miles to see these stores...

Sucked when I picked up a dud..

[5200Fanatic]

I actually played in a Laser Blast contest in Macy's. They were into video games at the time.