The recession has seen the closure of many stores - from small local outfits to famous longstanding chains. Brian Ulrich's Dark Stores chronicles the ghostboxes of America, and the Guardian's Recession Monitor Flickr pool shows the view from the other side of the Atlantic. [more inside]
posted by mippy on Aug 28, 2009 - 16 comments

"I’m Charlie Cappa floating through his nightclub in a sharp Italian suit in MEAN STREETS, Henry Hill being lead through the back door of the Copacabana to a table right in front of the stage in GOODFELLAS, or Ace Rothstein at the dead center of the frame as he walks through the Tangiers in CASINO. I’m also Michael Barnes and I am walking through Atlanta Game Factory on a summer day three years ago. Imagine the Ronettes or the Rolling Stones on the soundtrack and you’ve got a pretty good picture of what it felt like to walk into AGF at the peak of its powers. All my life I wanted to be a game store owner." Gameshark has just posted the tenth and final installment of the strange saga of the rise and fall of the Atlanta Game Factory.
posted by arcanecrowbar on Jun 26, 2008 - 13 comments

What, no Phở King? BWE's Top 50 Punny Store Names.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur on Jun 6, 2008 - 80 comments

Need some barbarian repellent ? How about some leeches? You can get it all at the Echo Park Time Travel Mart. They travel time so you don't have to.
posted by Doohickie on Feb 29, 2008 - 22 comments

20ltd.com is a new and unique online shop. They have 20 limited edition items for sale at any time, and each item is a limited edition made exclusively for 20ltd.com. And they have a jukebox with some great tunes on to shop by.
posted by allkindsoftime on Apr 30, 2007 - 49 comments

How not to rob a liquor store.
posted by Sfving on Jan 13, 2007 - 49 comments

Genki Gang has the most amazing anime-inspired hats ever. I wonder if I can get a Totoro one in time for the DC Meetup? Kawaii! (Sorry, Flash site so no direct links...click on "store" then "hats".)
posted by JoanArkham on Jul 23, 2003 - 5 comments

The Gord is the Basil Fawlty-like proprietor of a video game store in Canada. He appears to be a real-life Comic Book Guy. More inside ...
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen on Jun 22, 2003 - 25 comments

Live Phish (for flame's sake, this is not a post about the band itself) is a new service created by Phish through which people can download SHN or MP3's of their upcoming new years eve shows and burn them themselves, for a fee of course. The recordings are due to be available two days after the shows are over. It will be interesting to see if the service is successful and profitable. Assuming it is, will there be an effect on the music industry and the RIAA? Might they realize they can make money on music downloaded on the internet? Only time will tell.
posted by kurtosis on Dec 20, 2002 - 15 comments

Did you know "88" means "Heil Hitler"? Neither did a buyer at Target. "August 27, 2002 -- Target, the nationwide department-store chain, said today it will pull shorts and baseball caps emblazoned with neo-Nazi hate symbols from its shelves." After dithering for a few weeks, Target responded to tolerance.org's campaign, but is now shooting themselves in the foot again by being less than accomodating of returns of the offending (and I do mean offending!) product. The link above is to the original story, the Aug. 27 update is linked at the bottom of that page. Howcum I never saw this on CNN? 8
posted by BGM on Aug 27, 2002 - 104 comments

Wizards of the Coast was quite a strange place to work for in the early days. A gamer paradise of freebies, fun, and sex. A game or Truth of Swill changes everything. Now WOTC is owned by Hasbro and the February closing of the Seattle Gamecenter is the final nail in the coffin of gamer paradise.
posted by john on Mar 27, 2001 - 8 comments

Can you believe they sell these things online? $1.2 million Sun Enterprise 10000 server or a Sun StorEdge T3 Array, which has a mere 168TB capacity. (yeah that should hold my mp3z)
posted by grank on Jan 24, 2001 - 5 comments