watching expired appliances align

bringing it back to shopping

i awoke from an odd dream this morning. influenced by dave eggers' new book, you shall know our velocity, i dreamed of traveling america's southwest. and i ended up inside a big box retailer. the dream is hazy now. work was busy this morning and i didn't get the chance to make this entry at 11am, as i'd hoped to do. but when i woke up i couldn't stop thinking about visiting a store called BEST in northern virginia circa 1982. or maybe 1981. it was a great sort of prequel to the world of big box retail. sort of like a department store, but not attached to a shopping mall like all those anchor stores. my fond memories of comparing prices between the toy department of BEST and the toys of TOYS R US made my morning thoughts shift. suddenly i was consumed with the idea of TOYS R US' shopping gauntlet! as a child i was so amazed that TOYS R US was so big and that every one of them looked strikingly similar. and no matter what, to get to the real toys, you had to enter and then veer down an aisle and back - passing all the seasonal items. is that kind of store design legal? i haven't been inside a TOYS R US in years. surely the one in times square that has the ferris wheel isn't like this. is it?

this morning i was convinced i hadn't been inside toys r us in five years. it turns out i haven't been inside a suburban toys r us in five years. the company's stores in manhattan and brooklyn have a different outside appearance than the ones i remember from when i was seven. i've been inside them, i just haven't made any purchases.