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Frank Restaneo III's avatar

Kb toys, it was the first store positioned in the malls entrance I used to go to. I use to joke about hot topic in the nineties, use to call it south street in the mall. I hung out a lot in Philadelphia back than on South st, RIP Zipperhead.

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John Toma | Nostalgia Nation's avatar

KB has prime mall positioning for sure, it was usually by an entrance... perfect for spending all your money before going anywhere else, lol!

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kMp's avatar

When visiting the Lehigh Valley Mall (near Allentown, PA) back in the day, I’d have visited the late and great ‘Wall to Wall Sound and Video’ store first!

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John Toma | Nostalgia Nation's avatar

Right on! I've been to Allentown quite a few times for business travel. Never got to stop in the mall unfortunately. I loved going into different music and movie stores back in the day.

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Tom Leveen: Rewind Reads's avatar

I'm a Hot Topic guy. But further back, first stop in the 80s was Waldenbooks, then B. Dalton Booksellers at Thomas Mall.

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John Toma | Nostalgia Nation's avatar

Love it! There was never a mall visit that didn't entail going into the book store of the time. Loved Walden and BD booksellers for sure! In the later years I enjoyed going to Borders too!

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Vince Roman's avatar

Loved this! So many memories

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John Toma | Nostalgia Nation's avatar

Thanks Vince, just checked out your substack and subscribed. Will have to make time to check out more of your posts. Stay rad!

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Jarret Sharp's avatar

Grew up in a small Colorado town, Basalt, and the mall was 30 minutes away…or one could head further west to Grand Junction…anyway…the record store was my first stop. Cassettes. Tunes. Music. Sounds. Before I had a car? With any change in my pocket, the Country Store in El Jebel got it all. Comic books and gum.

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John Toma | Nostalgia Nation's avatar

My dude! I was a music store and comic book baseball card store frequenter myself!! There was a Circle K near my mall and I would by a bunch of comics at before hitting them mall. What a time!!

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Michael Elliott's avatar

Record Bar, Camelot Music, B Dalton, and Waldenbooks.

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John Toma | Nostalgia Nation's avatar

It's interesting most of us hit the music and book stores so much at the malls. Walden was one I would go to a lot... later on it was Borders... miss that place, but there is a B&N nearby that I still frequent. Cheers!

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MaKenna Grace's avatar

I was a Hot Topic addict in their early days. Then their style started to change, less gothic and more grunge. I fell out of love with it at that point.

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John Toma | Nostalgia Nation's avatar

Hot Topic was definitely a must go to spot in the mall. My sisters loved it for sure!

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