I was looking and thinking about what I could write my next ReCollection about, going through various media, toys, and other things. But since I like to, or at least tend to, write articles about that sort of thing while I am currently ingesting the material, I wanted to try something different and not quite something that others will have any familiarity with.
So I landed on things that exist—or existed—in the town I live in that have now since been remodeled, closed, or rebranded.
The first was this little local chain of, I don't know what you would call them? Budget markets? Flashy dollar stores? I honestly don't know, but there are multiple stores around the town of similar quality, all with different names but the same smell and "stuck in the 80s/90s" atmosphere.
I'm talking about (now defunct) Super 10:
This was the sort of place that you'd go to if you wanted a stupid common item but didn't want to brave 421 to go to Wal-Mart. Prices were low, they offered discounts and it always smelled like there was an open bottle of detergent somewhere in the store. The air was damp and ailes were cluttered or unorganized. Product was oftentimes out of date, broken or just of quality even more inferior to that of something Walmart would sell on the cheap.
But it was that sort of place that you'd get taken to as a kid and you'd love because it usually meant you were going to get a toy. If you were good. The toy would never be something of a name brand, from a piece of popular media, or the likes of an action figure. But as a young child, you usually didn't care, just getting a toy was a treat, and that's something I feel people my age all over the world can relate to when it comes to smaller businesses like this.
A few memories I have of the place are:
Sometime in 1996, a friend and I had just finished watching Independence Day and were goofing off outside afterward. Just as he was heading home, my parents called for me saying to get ready and that we were going out. An exciting prospect for sure, but sometimes trips out never went much further than Super 10, which meant the chance to rent a game was next to zero.
We stopped by Super 10 and I remember walking the cluttered aisles, looking at the cheap merchandise. Going over the toy section which was mostly generic ninjas and soldiers mixed with the occasional dinosaur and aircraft figure.
Again a trip was made sometime in 1997, well into the summer as my grandparents on my father's side were once again living in town. I had my Nintendo 64 and was currently addicted to Mortal Kombat Trilogy. I had brought my Mortal Kombat Trilogy strategy guide with me as we had to stop by Super 10 for something for my grandparents. When we stopped at their house, I of course had my guide with me, of which I have a picture of me holding it up from that same day somewhere that I want to locate and post.
Super 10 had closed down this past year, and just across the street from it, a Roses opened up. We'd had a Roses in town decades ago so it was neat to see another one open up, but it was kinda sad to see Super 10 go after so long; It wasn't somewhere I ever went in my adulthood, but it was also just kind of something I always thought would be there.
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