You ever go to castles n coasters by the mall? They had the coolest dang arcade in the 90s.
I remember when it was Golf &Stuff. I remember the Ice Skating rink below the food court and Farrell’s Ice Cream .
Yooooooooooooooo
Dude I never get to talk about that stuff so this is a blast lol
I’m so old I remember Maryvale Mall when it was open and an out door mall ,Christown , Valley West or when Desert Sky was called Westridge and wasn’t a dangerous place to go even in the day time.
I forget where in arizona this is but I also remember a mcdonalds by a mall and it was themed to be all jurassic park like. I have no idea why they did that but that was so cool to visit after Mom dragged me to that specific mall to get stuff I didn’t care about as a kid.
edit Or Atomic Comics. GOD I MISS THAT STORE YOU HAVE NO IDEA
I kind of remember it . I like comics but I was always a big music person .
Spent plenty of money at Zia records
I was gonna mention Zia Records lol. That place is rad too even if it’s a tad far from where we live
I am going to miss that place. It was like BestBuy on steroids. For a brick and mortar electronics store, it seemed like it had just about everything you would need to build a nice rig. The one here in H-Town paid homage to our oil legacy. I still have my gaming monitor that I bought there a few years back.
My only complaint was the one up in Portland, OR was cluttered and messy, but that was back in 1999.
I used to go to the one on T-Bird . I just looked and to my surprise still open . It’s been so long and I don’t really buy music any more because of downloads and streaming like Pandora.
Man I’m practically sprinting down memory lane.
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the real tragic loss to the electronics store world was outpost dot com, which fry’s apparently bought at one point.
omg, those outpost dot com commercials were AMAZING. “we here at outpost dot com wanted you to remember our name. that’s why decided to shoot gerbils through the O in outpost.”
or “in an effort to get ppl to remember our name, outpost dot com, we enlisted the local high school band. and to make it memorable, we unleashed a pack of ravenous wolves. heh heh heh. that’s good stuff!”
ah. good times.
Memory lane for me would be major concerts at Veterans Memorial Colosseum during the 80’s or Compton Terrace . Cruising either Metro Center or Central Ave .
The Dallas store was also a former Incredible Universe.
Like I said, for me, the glory days of Fry’s were roughly 2001-2010 or so. Maybe 2012 if I’m feeling generous. Tons of games. Tons of computer components. Tons of DVD’s and music CD’s. Pretty much anything and everything electronic, from zip ties to home security to installation hardware to voltage converters to fiberoptic cables and lighting to computer desks and chairs and on and on. Now I’ll admit that they weren’t the cheapest guys around but just going in the stores was fun. I purchased my hard copies of TBC and Cataclysm there (I purchased Vanilla and WOTLK at Best Buy, everything else was digitally downloaded).
And the place was always bustling. Parking lot full, many customers in all departments, and there was always staff willing and able to help. I am not the most knowledgable person when it comes to PC upgrades, I’ll admit that. I remember one time specifically, back probably around 2006 or so, when I was in need of a new graphics card for my PC. There were dozens of choices out there and I was at a loss. But the Fry’s folks talked to me, asked me good questions about my current system, and helped me make the best selection and it worked great until I finally upgraded to a whole new system a few years later. My wife, around 2010, built herself a completely new system from scratch and I’d say she bought about 75% of the components there (the rest was from Newegg). Again, it worked great for years.
Each store had it’s own theme - the Dallas store was, as you might expect, a “cattle drive” theme - statues of Texas Longhorn cattle over the door and all kinds of western decor inside. In fact, the first few times I was there they were playing the song “Roundup” outside (that’s one of those songs that you might not recognize from the title but I almost guarantee you’ve heard it at some point).
Fry’s was also the first store I remember where I saw the checkout system where everyone would get into a single line, and when you got to the front of the line there would be an electronic sign directing you to whichever checkout counter was available. And of course first you had to go through a nice long aisle full of snacks, drinks, and impulse buys. I know other stores do that now but that’s where I saw it first.
But all of that was long ago now. It was painful watching their slow decline. I continued to shop there, probably once every six or eight weeks on average, because I didn’t want to let go of the memories. Sigh. I’ll miss them.
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It was like eb or hmmm. Balls I can’t remember the name of the other one.
Man I hung out at Suncoast way too much.
I don’t think I ever shopped at Suncoast but I know where I did spend too much time and money. 
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/33/77/3b/33773ba0ba2497b6433066e63ebf08b1.jpg
you’d be sad to see what that place has turned into.
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Fry or FYE?
Fry’s Electronics
Games stores (or stores that made their money primarily by selling games) are a bit like video stores; as soon as online streaming services hit, they had to hear the closing bell in the distance. It’s a bit like how Kodak refused to adapt away from normal cameras to digital and went under. It’s adapt or die in business. We have stores here called EB Games, it was at one of these that I purchased my first WoW expansion, and I remember hitting the store at midnight to get the Cataclysm box. Now they just sell consoles, used ones, second hand games and toys. I suspect they are also winding down, or will end up online only.