Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - ShopTales
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neocloud9
 Posts: 1178 Location: Atlanta, GA |
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Very cool article. There's a great little anime merch shop at my local mall called Niko Niko and I was always a little disappointed they didn't sell DVDs, but I guess it makes sense when you explain it like that. They've got loads of plushies, wall scrolls, keychains and other whatnot though, so I always wind up coming out with some sort of purchase...
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kawaiibunny3
 Posts: 534 Location: Houston, Texas |
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I miss anime stores. I haven't been in one that sold anime goods exclusively in years. All the ones near me keep getting closed down :<
What I've seen more of now are all purpose nerd stores, with anime taking up about a small fraction of the space. Which still makes me super happy to go into mind you, but still, I miss the feeling of walking in and being whammed in the face with anime goods. that aside, I suppose my favorite one is the Dragon's Lair branches (one in Austin and one in San Antonio) it's almost always worth the long drive |
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Kiyoko
 Posts: 131 Location: Pennsylvania |
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I'm sad to say I've only ever been to one anime store in my life, and that was when I flew down to Georgia to visit a friend. Since I was there, she said the store has changed into smaller and smaller locations about once every few months. She hasn't mentioned it in months leading me to think it's finally gone out of business.
Where I live in Pennsylvania is a nerd wasteland. There are no anime stores in existence here. We had 5 comic book & general nerd stores open up in the last 8 years, and all have gone out of business within 3 months of opening. The only thing I had was the anime sections in my local Suncoast and Waldenbooks. But alas, both those stores are gone now too. So the internet and conventions is all I have left. |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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NOOO! I was up in Boston not long ago to visit my uncle, and I wasn't able to make it to Tokyo Kid, and now I find out that that would have been my last chance ever to visit?! The last time I was in Boston, I got my swell Astro Boy wallscroll there! Sad panda face
I don't think I have any dedicated anime/manga only stores anywhere near me, despite being in the Baltimore suburbs (y'know, Baltimore being where Otakon is held). Sure, there's comic book shops, but of the two most local to me, neither one carry more than a hand full of manga. I can go to the one a bit further away, they have a much bigger selection, but still nothing compared to even the local B&N (but they carry used stuff, making it worth checking them out for that, got Bone's one volume edition there for $19 after all) For anime, sure there's like two Best Buy, but they mostly carry stuff like Bleach, which I don't really watch (anymore) or buy. I can further to the Suncoast, not dedicated to anime but they've still got a pretty good selection, but the prices are usually cheaper online and the selection online is larger. It's a shame, I really think that there's something special to buying something in store. But yeah, I do know that almost any given anime, especially if it's from Funi, will find its way to $50 MSRP or lower, which is then the time to pounce, especially when said $50 series will eventually be $30 on TRSI due to a studio sale, weekly special, or daily deal, usually within a month or two of its release. New manga are still cheaper online, TRSI, Amazon, and Book Depository (especially with free shipping on all three over a certain price, except for BD which is on any order), and then for older manga, I'll scour the local used bookstore which has a very nice manga selection, almost weekly (man, how many series have I gotten used or mostly used over the years at fractions of the original prce? GTO, Fruits Basket, Kodocha, Land of the Blindfolded, Chrono Crusade, Lament of the Lamb, Hikaru no Go, Firefighter Daigo, Gimmick!, What's Michael?, lots of Yoshinaga, plenty of other stuff here and there). But for me, it's just way too easy to not pay full price for something, so why would I? I still spend most of my free money on manga, sometimes anime, and the occasional game, I'm just getting more for my money, and as a consumer, it's hard to blame me for wanting to do that. At the same time, I know that buying used doesn't usually directly support the publisher, but when I'm supporting the small used bookstore, it's hard to feel bad about that in this economy for sure. And even if I want a new release, I can usually get it for at least 33% off on the internets. |
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Primus
 Posts: 2820 Location: Toronto |
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Toronto anime fans will know of AnimeXtreme which thankfully has a pretty decent location in Chinatown to attract customers, so they can afford to keep tabs on the latest DVD, and manga customers. Though, they're obviously very heavy on selling merchandise like model kits, key chains, and the such.
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Emerje
 Posts: 7412 Location: Maine |
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Being from New England myself I feel the need to mention Newbury Comics. Sure, there's nothing small about them, but I've bought a lot of anime and figures from them over the years. Unfortunately that's the closest thing I've seen to a Japan-friendly shop in this state.
Emerje |
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Cecilthedarkknight_234
 Posts: 3820 Location: Louisville, KY |
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huh.. interesting... however i use rightstuf, amazon or ebay.. I hardly think there will be any anime shops in Kentucky soon
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jrnemanich
 Posts: 238 Location: Denver |
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While I haven't been to either one of them, there are two stores in Colorado Springs. There is Rainy Day Anime and Leak's Anime & More. Rainy Day Anime does a lot of viewings and is affiliated with an anime club in town They also sell a lot of homemade items like hats, buttons and some small figures. And Leak's looks like it mainly sells models and figures.
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EnigmaticSky
 Posts: 750 |
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I'm stuck in Arkansas at the moment, which is of course known for it's cultural diversity (do you pick up the sarcasm i'm putting in here?). I haven't met anybody who likes anime since I've moved here over the summer, yet alone an anime store. I plan on going to AZ for college in 1 2/3 years, so hopefully they have some. I always buy my anime via Amazon, but will buy from a place like that if I can find a good deal. I just know that almost everything online has insane sales ALL THE TIME, so if I do it would probably have to be for a just released series that hasn't had a chance to be marked down yet.
I actually haven't ever bought anything like a nendroid or a figure though. The thought of spending like $50 on plastic... |
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L stole my cookie!
Posts: 76 |
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There are only 2 stores (to my knowledge) that sell anime related stuff in the part of Florida that I live in and those stores are both in my local mall, the stores are FYE and Echo Gifts. FYE mostly sells non-anime related things but they have a pretty good selection of anime DVDs and box sets but they sadly don`t sell manga there anymore (I looked around the store and couldn`t find any manga AT ALL!) and Echo gifts doesn`t sell DVDs they just sell collectables (and a good chunk of them are bootlegged) wall scrolls (most of them, If not all are bootlegged).
I really wish people would open more anime shops in Florida because I can barley afford to buy anime in retail stores I have to order my anime online because it`s cheaper! FYE is just WAY to overpriced with they`re anime! They want around 60 dollars for THE STANDARD EDITION of season 2 of Bleach! 
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yamiangie
 Posts: 465 |
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Yeah I wouldn't be stocking anime DVD with how quick it goes from half season sets to cheaper full season sets, then the really cheap edition. So that one store has galaxy express 999 figures. Are those the blind boxes from the other year. I'm looking for a Conductor.
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Julia-the-Great
 Posts: 328 |
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Living literally in the middle of nowhere, the idea of an anime store sounds like paradise to me.
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nekedo
 Posts: 94 |
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I really hope that everyone who reads this article who resides in the Boston area will go to Animadness. Finally, after 10 years, we have an alternative to a horrible, bootleg-ridden store. I have multiple CDs and plushies I bought there that I later found out were bootleg. Good riddance. Now anime fans won't be ripped off anymore.
I've seen the guys who own Animadness at Anime Boston, and they seem like really cool guys. I can't make it down there much, but they have a lot to offer. Viva la Animadness! |
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Asterisk-CGY
 Posts: 398 |
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I definitely think if stores want to survive they should be pushing physical goods and moreso social benefits of a store. This same story can be said about anime clubs as well. Home viewing killed club interest, but once you get people involved with each other it got better.
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FaytLein
 Posts: 1260 Location: Williamsburg, VA |
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The only anime store we had around here shut down probably 10 years ago, they carried a bunch of cheap anime goods and the like, but being broke at the time, I never could go in and buy anything. By the time I actually could, they had shut down and had been replaced by an urban shoe dealer. Pretty sad.
The two or three comic shops we have in the Seven Cities had pretty sparse Japanese merchandise in them, only one of them had Gundam models, I haven't checked out my local one yet, but even the local Barnes and Noble and Booksamillion have very reduced manga selection. If we had a store like Animadness around here, I would be in there every week! |
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