04-26-2022, 11:07 PM
I didn't have that many great memories starting High School, but this one certainly qualifies.
As you can imagine, our workload was pretty intense by then and we wanted to have something resembling a social life, so we didn't quite enjoyed the freedom we once had. Our lives were no longer about making it home in time to watch Pokemon or to play some video-game... but that still didn't mean that we couldn't hang out after school for a while and we did so every Friday from 2006 to 2008.
Why Friday? Because by then we would have saved up enough of our daily "school supply" allowance ($2 a day) to head to the local "Outlet Factory" shop and buy some cool trinkets and junk.
The "Outlet" was some sort of "mini-mall" in which tons of different shops would be set up next to each other, on individual booths that were more vertical than horizontal and that would zig-zag alongside large corridors until they formed a huge labyrinth. You could find EVERYTHING in there, from the latest T-shirt to an arcade to waste time on. Approaching it with $10 in your pocket was like a dream coming true, because then you'd be able to afford a ton of cool (albeit useless) stuff.
My favorite shop on the whole building was "Redhead's", a computer store in which a smiling, nerdy dude would try (and fail) to talk to us in (what he thought was) young people's jargon... it was jarring and produced the same effect as watching a train crash: you didn't wanna watch, yet you couldn't look away. Unfortunate... generational gap aside, though, he really knew his craft and I bought my first 40 GB HDD from him (to replace my 3 GB one!) and I even bought an USB card from him, so my Pentium II would have USB capabilities now, which I got to test with a joystick I also bought from him and to try with Flight Simulator 98, a heavily discounted title... bought on his store. Seriously, the guy would have everything you could think of in there! But he wasn't always the nicest guy and had a bit of an honesty issue which eventually drove us away from his store: whenever you'd complain about something not working as intended, he'd say that he'd have to "ask his boss" about giving you a refund... and that you'd have to wait for him to show up at closing time (10 PM). Of course, no-one on Earth would waste seven hours in there, so we took our sh*t and left. He was obviously self-employed and that lack of honesty really hurt his business.
Another unhappy seller was "Cap" (because he'd always wear a cap... inside), a small-time vendor who specialized in movies and who was quite rude for no apparent reason. Unsurprisingly, his shop didn't last.
But the vast majority of people in there were excellent and really cared about you having the best shopping experience possible. My personal favorite was "Rose" (for the rose she'd always wear on her long, silky hair), the music shop owner and one who truly loved her craft. If a song existed, she knew about it and she was always making sure that you walked away with the CD you wanted. She would go above and beyond, too, resulting on her offering to "make you original, custom mixed tapes of your favorite songs" for barely any added price. She wasn't shy about refunding a bad mix or a corrupted disc, either. "Rose" was the best and it is sad that her shop didn't survive the decade.
As you can see, we nicknamed a lot of people based on personal trades and traits, because this wasn't a large chain or a flea market, this was small, popular business and it showed. They never asked you for your name and you never asked for theirs. That's how we wanted it.
I still have some of the junk I bought from there... and a lot of it actually works to this day.
The mall itself still exists and I still shop in there from time to time, but none of the vendors and owners I knew more than a decade ago remain at their posts now. Surprisingly, "Redhead" was the last one to go, amidst a combination of decreasing interest and more affordable gadgets that made his stuff look overpriced. That was the story for a lot of them, actually... and now the vast majority of the shopping area is taken by "safer bets" like toys, books, cellphone stuff, footwear and clothing. Can't say I blame them, but the originality of the place (in which you could find all the craziest stuff) was part of what made it stand out... and now it looks and feels like a copy-pasted version of yet another mall. I literally just go there when I need new shoes or a T-shirt, when I used to buy hardware, skull chains and radio/flashlight hybrids. Guess none of those were that profitable after all!
As you can imagine, our workload was pretty intense by then and we wanted to have something resembling a social life, so we didn't quite enjoyed the freedom we once had. Our lives were no longer about making it home in time to watch Pokemon or to play some video-game... but that still didn't mean that we couldn't hang out after school for a while and we did so every Friday from 2006 to 2008.
Why Friday? Because by then we would have saved up enough of our daily "school supply" allowance ($2 a day) to head to the local "Outlet Factory" shop and buy some cool trinkets and junk.
The "Outlet" was some sort of "mini-mall" in which tons of different shops would be set up next to each other, on individual booths that were more vertical than horizontal and that would zig-zag alongside large corridors until they formed a huge labyrinth. You could find EVERYTHING in there, from the latest T-shirt to an arcade to waste time on. Approaching it with $10 in your pocket was like a dream coming true, because then you'd be able to afford a ton of cool (albeit useless) stuff.
My favorite shop on the whole building was "Redhead's", a computer store in which a smiling, nerdy dude would try (and fail) to talk to us in (what he thought was) young people's jargon... it was jarring and produced the same effect as watching a train crash: you didn't wanna watch, yet you couldn't look away. Unfortunate... generational gap aside, though, he really knew his craft and I bought my first 40 GB HDD from him (to replace my 3 GB one!) and I even bought an USB card from him, so my Pentium II would have USB capabilities now, which I got to test with a joystick I also bought from him and to try with Flight Simulator 98, a heavily discounted title... bought on his store. Seriously, the guy would have everything you could think of in there! But he wasn't always the nicest guy and had a bit of an honesty issue which eventually drove us away from his store: whenever you'd complain about something not working as intended, he'd say that he'd have to "ask his boss" about giving you a refund... and that you'd have to wait for him to show up at closing time (10 PM). Of course, no-one on Earth would waste seven hours in there, so we took our sh*t and left. He was obviously self-employed and that lack of honesty really hurt his business.
Another unhappy seller was "Cap" (because he'd always wear a cap... inside), a small-time vendor who specialized in movies and who was quite rude for no apparent reason. Unsurprisingly, his shop didn't last.
But the vast majority of people in there were excellent and really cared about you having the best shopping experience possible. My personal favorite was "Rose" (for the rose she'd always wear on her long, silky hair), the music shop owner and one who truly loved her craft. If a song existed, she knew about it and she was always making sure that you walked away with the CD you wanted. She would go above and beyond, too, resulting on her offering to "make you original, custom mixed tapes of your favorite songs" for barely any added price. She wasn't shy about refunding a bad mix or a corrupted disc, either. "Rose" was the best and it is sad that her shop didn't survive the decade.
As you can see, we nicknamed a lot of people based on personal trades and traits, because this wasn't a large chain or a flea market, this was small, popular business and it showed. They never asked you for your name and you never asked for theirs. That's how we wanted it.
I still have some of the junk I bought from there... and a lot of it actually works to this day.
The mall itself still exists and I still shop in there from time to time, but none of the vendors and owners I knew more than a decade ago remain at their posts now. Surprisingly, "Redhead" was the last one to go, amidst a combination of decreasing interest and more affordable gadgets that made his stuff look overpriced. That was the story for a lot of them, actually... and now the vast majority of the shopping area is taken by "safer bets" like toys, books, cellphone stuff, footwear and clothing. Can't say I blame them, but the originality of the place (in which you could find all the craziest stuff) was part of what made it stand out... and now it looks and feels like a copy-pasted version of yet another mall. I literally just go there when I need new shoes or a T-shirt, when I used to buy hardware, skull chains and radio/flashlight hybrids. Guess none of those were that profitable after all!
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