Oh noes. While looking up info for this Flashback Friday, I just discovered that Suncoast Motion Picture Company is officially no more \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

Why does this make me so very sad? Because most of every week’s allowance when I was a young geekling somehow made its way into Suncoast’s cash registers. This was, hands down, the most awesome store in our local mall. In fact, Suncoast and the Walden Books were the only two stores that I ever wanted…nay, needed<\/em> to go to (Spencer Gifts was also a favorite haunt, but it was too tacky to be considered mandatory). I literally spent hours wandering around Suncoast, most often abandoned there by friends or family who grew weary of trying to coax me away. <\/p>\n

What made Suncoast so special? Simply put, it was a nerd store. In addition to an impressive (and impressively overpriced) movie collection, they sold books, T-shirts, action figures, posters, games, and the odd movie memorabilia. Remember the photo I posted a while ago of my nerdy book shelf<\/a>? A lot of the books on that top shelf were bought from Suncoast. As were several of my movie posters, practically all of the VHS tapes that I’ve been slowly replacing with DVDs, a fair number of action figures…and half of my wardrobe from my teenage years. <\/p>\n

Oh, how I loved Suncoast’s T-shirt collection. The photos below only show some of the shirts I bought from Suncoast (and, yes, most of the shirts not pictured were black, too). Actually, though, for full disclosure, the TNG excuse shirt came from Intergalactic Trading Company,<\/a> another of my favorite haunts when I was younger. <\/p>\n

Obviously, I still own these shirts, still in relatively mint condition, except for poor Batman, who now looks a bit on the charcoal gray side (I’m freakishly particular about my laundry style). They’re all in storage at my parents’ house, though. I find that people tend to take you more seriously in certain situations when you don’t have Cyclops glaring at them from your T-shirt. <\/p>\n

Okay, that’s all a lie. I placed them in storage because I didn’t want them to fade anymore than they already have. Oh, that confession is just riddled<\/em> with nerd shame! <\/p>\n

What could be even nerdier? How about admitting that when I went to the Trek convention where I met Gates McFadden, I was wearing the X-Files<\/em> T-shirt pictured below? Yeah, I know, wrong franchise. It was my way of showing solidarity with red-haired doctors on sci-fi shows. Think Ms. McFadden caught that? <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

I’m now incredibly sad. Suncoast is no more and I’ve been so disconnected from those days that I wasn’t even remotely aware of this until now. Who knows how long ago this took place. Apparently, they were absorbed by f.y.e, which is pretty much a hybrid of Suncoast and Sam Goody. <\/p>\n

Holy crap! Sam Goody is gone now, too! They’ve been absorbed by f.y.e! WTH? Is this store the mall version of the Borg? Or am I pretty much giving away the fact that I step inside a mall about twice a year, and usually it’s with a particular destination in mind that I run to with blinders of disdain for my surroundings firmly in place? <\/p>\n

Oh well. It’s not like I’ve set foot in a Suncoast in years anyway. Last time was at a Going Out of Business sale at the store near where I live now. That was about 6 years ago. Still, it does make me feel slightly more reminiscent for those days in which my biggest decision was whether I wanted to buy the new X-Men<\/em> T-shirt or the special edition VHS of Halloween<\/em>…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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