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neondreamsplaza · 6 months

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Sam Goody 2001

#shopping malls #retro aesthetic #dead mall #Retro retail #retail #1990s retail #nostalgic #dinosaur dracula

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saleintothe90s · 2 years

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464. The Create a Card Machine

This is something I only remember seeing in stores for about a year, and that was it. It was definitely one of those we flew too close to the Sun ideas from the 90s. We were throwing our money away back then.

My WalMart in Hampton, Virginia had one of these, in the card section. I only ever remember kids, like myself and my niece and nephew playing with it, making our own cards, and stepping around the paper from cards nobody paid for.

I can't find the source on this image-any help would be great.

You already know the reason why these machines captured my attention -- there were Simpsons custom cards. My niece and nephew actually made me a Bart one for my 12th or 13th birthday. I just remembered he was at a hot dog stand and there was a joke about Weiners.

I've only found one example of a card online, on Reddit Here's an archive of the funny story behind it. Like I said, these machines were not in stores for very long in the mid 90s.

I'm looking at this photo from the article, and I now remember how flimsy these cards felt. It was very thin cardstock. It definitely felt like something you would just print at home. Also, they were nearly $4, which back then was a lot of money for a card.

Here is a photo of one at an abandoned mall. Another image where I can't find the source.

It seems like the machines were a runaway hit .... at first (1994):

``When we launched Creatacard, we had no real business plan you could follow,'' John Barker [company spokesperson] says. ``We started from scratch and planned to set up 3,000 [electronic] kiosks in retail stores. The demand was so strong, we ended up placing 9,000.'' 1

At Hills Department Stores, Canton, Mass., a one-unit test started before Christmas and has produced outstanding results, said Gary DeMarchis, general manager of the chain’s Robinson Town Centre store in the Pittsburg market. Use of the machine is so high that DeMarchis had his store associates learn how to service the machine themselves rather than use American Greetings’ field service organization. 3

Two years later:

American Greetings now expects the number of its CreataCard machines to drop from about 10,000 in 1995 to about 7,500 this year. Hallmark anticipates that the number of its Touch-Screens will decline from 2,700 to about 1,500.

[...]

“What maybe this is proving is people just don’t have the time,” said Marianne McDermott, executive vice president of the Greeting Card Assn., a trade group.

“Time is such an important factor now. With the basic, traditional card, someone has already designed a message. Probably that’s the way people want to go. But people also want choices.”

Curtis Nelson, 43, of Cleveland, spent about 30 minutes at a CreataCard machine recently at a suburban mall to make a card for his girlfriend after a spat.

“My only real complaint was it seemed to lack enough of a selection and detail in the graphics. Too much of it is too cute. It needs to me more serious and still more creative,” Nelson said.

Christian Science Monitor. ‘Greetings Made Easy: Card Company Goes On-Line’, 16 August 1994. https://www.csmonitor.com/1994/0816/16092.html.

‘Sales Rush Wasn’t in the Cards for Personalized Greetings’. Los Angeles Times, 27 June 1996. https://web.archive.org/web/20220730005443/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-06-27-fi-18966-story.html

IndexArticles. ‘CreataCard Personalizes Greetings; New Computerized Card Designing Kiosk Is Catching on at Discounters’, 1993. https://indexarticles.com/business/discount-store-news/creatacard-personalizes-greetings-new-computerized-card-designing-kiosk-is-catching-on-at-discounters/.

Blackwell, Roger D., and Kristina Stephan. Customers Rule! Why the e-Commerce Honeymoon Is over and Where Winning Businesses Go from Here. 1st ed. New York: Crown Business, 2001.

#the 1990s #1990s #greeting cards #create a card machine #createacard machine #create a card kiosk #1990s retail

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yodaprod · 7 months

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Computer Store, Tuscaloosa (1991)

Source: Youtube/Theleeoverstreet

#computer #retail #technology #alabama #mall #1990s #90s #90's #1991

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evan-collins90 · 7 months

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Selections from the book, Shopping Centers & Malls 3 (1990) - Pt. 1

1. Chesterfield Towne Center (1988/1990)

2. Bridgewater Commons (1988)

3. Burlington Mall (1988)

4. Georgetown Mall Phase II (1987)

5-6. Countryside Mall (1989)

7-8. Galleria at Southpointe (1989)

9. Fairview Mall (1988)

10. Maplewood Mall (1988)

11. Hamilton Place (1987)

12. Holly Hill Mall (1988)

#80s #90s #design #interior design #1990s #1980s #interiors #architecture #malls #mall #shopping #my scans #festival marketplace #retail

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goobersplat · 11 months

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Assorted Store Name Tags

First of all why are people selling these for $30+ and second of all, tag yourself, I’m Paul from the combination Toys R Us and drug store

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6

#png #transparent #nostalgiacore #nostaliga #store #retail #name tags #1990s #90s #1980s #80s #toys r us #Burger King #McDonald’s #walmart #random #weirdcore

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twoheadedfilmfan · 5 days

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The Warner Bros. Studio Store

#warner bros. studio store #warner bros studio store #warner brothers studio store #looney tunes #bugs bunny #batman #1990’s #90s #malls #defunct retail #defunct stores

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coolthingsguyslike · 2 years

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#KMart #Circuit City #Sears #Blockbuster #dead #retail #stores #apocalypse #malls #1980s #1990s #2000s

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wrongydkjquotes · 1 year

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youtube

Schmitty

#josh schmitty schmitstinstein #schmitty #all i want for christmas is you #mariah carey #Christmas #1990s #1990s nostalgia #home alone #spatnz #Youtube #wrongydkjvoicelines #ydkj #you don't know jack #wrongydkjquotes #retail job #retail #Walmart

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lizardsfromspace · 2 years

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As a kid there were three main places I went to see movies. One is a multiplex that still exists, mostly as it was. One was a downtown theater that, like many theaters in downtown areas, stopped showing movies in the 2000s and pivoted to live shows.

The other was in this decaying mall - with some parts enclosed by a ceiling and others, including a central plaza, open air. I cannot overstate how shady it was in there. A lot of storefronts were vacant, or at least closed (we usually went at night). The most prominent businesses, aside from the theater, were bars, tattoo parlors, and a plasma donation place, which alleviated the "if you spend too long in here you WILL get stabbed" fears, since at least there'd be a convenient place to replace all that blood.

It was within the blood donation-slash-knife crime mall where I first saw Star Trek First Contact and the Star Wars Special Editions, and where I saw Antz and A Bug's Life. I'll always cherish the memory of watching Woody Allen as an ant discover he was in Central Park, and then losing every other memory of the film Antz as I ran outside and watched my mom call a cab at a payphone while trying not to draw the attention of possibly, but not definitively, imaginary axe murderers

#when they demolished it i remember thinking 'yeah that sounds right'#it did not seem to be a thriving retail environment #movies #memories #1990s #blood mention

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strabius-berry · 1 year

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Obscure memories I am currently experiencing but cannot find proof of their existence Pt 1

There was a store my mom use to take me and my two younger sisters to called Once Upon a Child. I know there are still stores in other American states, but there use to be some in California. Specifically, there was one in I believe either Ventura or Oxnard, CA. And the one we went to the most was when we moved to Northridge. At some point the store was turned into a Cribs 2 Teens store, which was then closed and now I think there's only one left in Simi Valley, CA.

But back to memories thing, I remember this store having a play place the parents (mostly moms) could place their 3-5 year olds into to keep them occupied playing with toys and others in the play place. This play place was a cubicle covered in carpeting and a swinging door parents and employees could unlatch and either enter or exit in, and it was right next to the cash register so that employees could oversee the kids while also helping customers check out. 4 or 5 year olds could technically just climb over the carpeted walls though since they were tall enough at that point. By the time you were 5, though, you were more likely going to go into the shopping area with your mom, and if you were a little baby, you couldn't exactly leave your mom's sight until you were able to sit upright by yourself.

From my research of trying to find evidence of these obscure memories, I've found that none of the existing Once Upon a Child stores have these play places, and I cannot find any photographic or even textual evidence that they. Ever existed at all.

I even remember being a child, maybe between the ages of 8 or 10, and seeing a TV commercial around 2003-2005 in Northridge, CA, for this Once Upon a Child store, and it must have been a rerun for a 90s commercial since it had that VHS grainy look and loud electric buzz, and mentioned the play place for toddlers to play while the mom does her shopping. But alas, this old 90s commercial is also no where to be found on the internet.

I'm not even making this post to try and find others who remember it, I'm just documenting my own memories so that others who just so happen to share this obscure memory will know that something like this did, in fact, exist at one point.

#once upon a child retail store #cribs 2 teens store #retail store #i say stuff #nostalgia #90s nostalgia #1990s nostalgia #00s nostalgia #2000s nostalgia

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allretail · 2 years

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Carls Drugs TV commercial from 1990

#Carls Drugs #tv commercial #fay's drugs #1990 #vintage retail

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ryansbedroom · 3 months

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BI-LO Big Buy Warehouse Sale - Train Variant (1995)

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benremembers · 7 months

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Kwik Save

Discount Supermarket, 1967-2007 Kwik Save with its quirky spelling and cheap shelving was one of the first ‘discount’ supermarkets in the UK. It was cheap and cheerful but is remembered by me mainly for a few quirks with its stores when compared to other supermarkets of the era. These days when you think of discount supermarkets its Aldi and Lidl that have been leading the way for over a…