ThinkGeek Opens First Physical Store In Orlando

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ThinkGeek Opens First Physical Store In Orlando

Posted by Soulskill on Friday September 4, 2015 @01:40AM from the aims-to-disrupt-local-pen-laser-business dept.

New submitter Enderxeno writes with news that on September 25th, geek merchandise retailer ThinkGeek will open its first brick-and-mortar store in Orlando, Florida. The store will open in a mall, and the company will be running it with the help of GameStop, who bought ThinkGeek back in June. The new store will have a 3,000 square foot space that used to be occupied by Radio Shack, and it will focus "entirely on collectibles." (Disclosure: Slashdot and ThinkGeek used to share a corporate overlord. We don't talk anymore, but we still like them. Even though they finally took away our employee discounts.)

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No more discount? by Noryungi · 2015-09-04 01:43 · Score: 3, Funny

What? No more discount on ThinkGeek for /. employees?
Man, that's harsh.

--
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Boycott their asses by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 01:44 · Score: 0

I wouldn't touch their wares with a 10 meter pole now that Gamestop owns them.
1. Re:Boycott their asses by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 01:50 · Score: 0
  
  I'm sure it'll turn out for the best. Look at all the success garnered through their other ventures...
2. Re:Boycott their asses by NotDrWho · 2015-09-04 02:01 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, but you can get a *25 cents* in trade-in credit for that signed Babe Ruth card. Don't you want that credit?
  
  --
  SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
I'd go by FranTaylor · 2015-09-04 01:46 · Score: 1

but I have an air freshener in my car and I don't want to get shot
Busy location by Infiniti2000 · 2015-09-04 01:48 · Score: 3, Informative

For those who wonder, the Florida Mall is a very busy mall. Elsewhere around the country, the malls are getting thin on customers, but there are a lot of tourists here. The Florida Hotel is in the mall and gets a lot of customers who want to visit the touristy areas of Orlando, particularly on International Drive.
1. Re:Busy location by FranTaylor · 2015-09-04 04:22 · Score: 2
  
  there are a lot of tourists here.
  
  hey honey, we're on vacation, instead of going to disney world or nasa, let's go to a mall and look at electronic gizmos, yeah that's the ticket
2. Re:Busy location by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 04:47 · Score: 0
  
  Living here, I can tell you it's truer than ever. I worked at the Toys R Us there at Florida Mall, and we would have "code red" exercises, which meant tour buses just pulled up and we're about to get slammed. It would usually be tourists from Brazil or Britain, and other south American and European countries. Literally 3 or 4 buses at a time, couple of times a day. Tourist LOVE to shop here, for whatever reason.
3. Re:Busy location by FranTaylor · 2015-09-04 05:04 · Score: 2
  
  Living here, I can tell you it's truer than ever. I worked at the Toys R Us there at Florida Mall, and we would have "code red" exercises, which meant tour buses just pulled up and we're about to get slammed. It would usually be tourists from Brazil or Britain, and other south American and European countries. Literally 3 or 4 buses at a time, couple of times a day. Tourist LOVE to shop here, for whatever reason.
  the entire state is about to be ankle-deep in salt water, gotta enjoy it while you can
4. Re:Busy location by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 06:15 · Score: 0
  
  You just described my parents. "Wow, there's an outlet mall here, what a great place!".
  Kill me now. Fortunately, apart from one mistake to try to have a three generation vacation (And, of course, there was a fucking outlet mall involved. Again...), it's been 20 years since I've been on vacation with them.
  Also, to back up the point that shopping is a big draw, Disney has a massive area dedicated just to shopping outside of the theme parks.
5. Re:Busy location by dreamchaser · 2015-09-04 06:37 · Score: 1
  
  Every mall here in the greater Pittsburgh region is packed the rare times I go, and all seem to be doing quite well. There, I countered your anecdote with another! Have at you!
  You're correct about that mall though. I've been there and it was very busy indeed.
6. Re:Busy location by Infiniti2000 · 2015-09-04 07:41 · Score: 1
  
  Well, the customer base at Fashion Square Mall (also here in Orlando) is extremely thin. They are building a hotel inside it, too, hoping to capitalize on the theme that seems to work at Florida Mall. So, I think it's more than an anecdote. The Oviedo Marketplace also has low attendance, worse than it was 10 years ago, but not as bad as Fashion Square. The Artegon Marketplace, on the other hand, can be quite busy and has an awesome store called Gods and Monsters, which I bet would appeal to a lot more /. members than ThinkGeek.
7. Re:Busy location by NormalVisual · 2015-09-04 13:35 · Score: 1
  
  Well, the customer base at Fashion Square Mall (also here in Orlando) is extremely thin.
  
  Florida and Fashion Square aren't anywhere near comparable, though. Florida Mall is clearly visible to visiting tourists from 528, and is quite easy to get to. To get to Fashion Square Mall from the airport, you have to drive north on Semoran for a few miles through some increasingly rough parts of town, then west on Colonial for another mile or two, assuming you even know the mall is there to begin with. If you're coming down Colonial from the west off of I-4, you run a good chance of becoming suicidal because of the traffic. For about 10 years, I lived just north of MCO, and even from there, Florida Mall was still my first choice - it's a better mall, and it was easier to get there than any of the others.
  
  In short, Florida Mall and Mall of Millennia are doing well because of location, location, location. Fashion Square doesn't have that luxury, and a hotel isn't going to change that or the fact that it's in a declining part of town.
  
  --
  Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
8. Re:Busy location by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 14:45 · Score: 0
  
  What's wrong with a 3 generation vacation? It sounds great, free baby sitters. The grandparents put the kids to bed while mom and dad can go out for drinks and dancing or catch a show, or whatever grownup stuff they want to do. The grandparents get the kids up showered, dressed, make breakfast, while the mom and dad get an extra hour of sleep on park days. On pool days, let the grandparents watch the kid all morning, and the mom and dad sleep in as much as they want. When your daughter wants to do something stupid, you can send her off with a grandparent or two instead of making the whole family do the stupid thing. You can go off with your son on more rides or whatever. The more adults, the less compromises me and the misses would have to make. This makes the time together that much better, because there is no resentment diminishing it's value. When I was a kid, I would have rather spent time with my grandparents rather then be forced to watch TV in the hotel or sit by the pool, when my sisters and parents wanted to do those things.
  I don't have kids yet, but I think if I had kids and was taking them to Disney, I'd want to bring their grandparents along.
SlashDot EMPLOYEES? by xxxJonBoyxxx · 2015-09-04 01:57 · Score: 3, Funny

>> What? No more discount on ThinkGeek for /. employees?
I'm more surprised that there are actual SlashDot employees. From the quality of editing and community response we get around here I guess I just thought this place was run by a bunch of unpaid Dice interns.
1. Re:SlashDot EMPLOYEES? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 02:15 · Score: 1
  
  Unpaid internships are largely illegal.
2. Re:SlashDot EMPLOYEES? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 02:32 · Score: 1
  
  Nobody wants your facts.
3. Re:SlashDot EMPLOYEES? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 02:35 · Score: 0
  
  Unpaid internships are largely illegal.
  Is that true?
  I always thought "internship" meant "work for experience instead of money" to solve that whole "cant get a job without experience / can't get experience without a job".
4. Re:SlashDot EMPLOYEES? by HideyoshiJP · 2015-09-04 02:55 · Score: 2
  
  Unpaid internships are largely illegal.
  I read that as "barely legal." I'll see myself out.
5. Re:SlashDot EMPLOYEES? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 03:04 · Score: 0
  
  Slashdot: Opinions stated as fact.
  Do your homework, junior. You'll find that you're wrong... not the first time you've heard that I'm sure.
6. Re:SlashDot EMPLOYEES? by xxxJonBoyxxx · 2015-09-04 04:02 · Score: 1
  
  Says who?
  http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=U...
7. Re:SlashDot EMPLOYEES? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 04:34 · Score: 1
  
  I read that as "barely legal."
  "Barely legal Slashdot interns"
  Does ThinkGeek sell eye bleach?
8. Re:SlashDot EMPLOYEES? by dpidcoe · 2015-09-04 04:55 · Score: 1
  
  I always thought "internship" meant "work for experience instead of money" to solve that whole "cant get a job without experience / can't get experience without a job".
  That's not at all what it means. I worked my way through college first as a helpdesk intern, then moved over to software and programming. It didn't pay a ton, but it paid enough to graduate debt free by working full time in the summers and part time during the semesters.
9. Re:SlashDot EMPLOYEES? by dreamchaser · 2015-09-04 06:35 · Score: 1
  
  I read that as "barely legal."
  "Barely legal Slashdot interns"
  Does ThinkGeek sell eye bleach?
  I just had a horrible mental image of chubby, pasty colored 18 year old boys trying to grow neckbeards and failing. Now I need to go get some real eyebleach. Even that might not be enough.
10. Re:SlashDot EMPLOYEES? by Darinbob · 2015-09-04 08:06 · Score: 1
  
  The interns turned out to be overqualified.
11. Re:SlashDot EMPLOYEES? by Darinbob · 2015-09-04 08:08 · Score: 1
  
  When I was in college, intern meant you worked at or below minimum wage but you also got college credits. So most students in engineering did not get internships because they had enough credits but they did get summer jobs. But in arts and humanities they went for internships as a way to get credits and a little spending cash.
12. Re:SlashDot EMPLOYEES? by Darinbob · 2015-09-04 08:08 · Score: 1
  
  I worked full time in the summers, but these were not internships.
13. Re:SlashDot EMPLOYEES? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-08 05:27 · Score: 0
  
  Well, Slashdot *could* hire an intern with the job of knocking down the upper-case D you've given their name with your creative camel-casing ...
Should have went to Millenia by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 01:58 · Score: 0

Florida Mall has steadily been going downhill for at least a decade. Nordstroms and Saks fled, heck even the big Disney Store folded up ran for the hills.
Sure, it still gets a lot of tourist traffic, but I don't see a lot of geek market in there. Those who know better and want to go to a mall or shopping go to Millenia or the 2 closest Prime Outlets to International Drive.
I don't know what contract they signed, but I expect to see the ThinkGeek store abandoned within 18mos, tops.
1. Re:Should have went to Millenia by RogueyWon · 2015-09-04 02:04 · Score: 2
  
  Personally, I thought the point where they began their downwards slide was when they lost their FYE and the book store. At that point, it basically became an Apple Store, two Gamestops and a vast array of over-priced clothing and accessory stores. Millennia's better but is inexorably going the same direction. When I'm in Orlando these days (got a family place out there that we used to run as a rental business), I end up driving right up to Altamonte Mall for shopping (which is relatively civilised and has stores that non-hipster males might be interested in).
  Parking at the Prime Outlets is almost impossible now, for around 10 months of the year (unless you feel like driving slowly in circles for half an hour first). To some degree they've become victims of their own success.
2. Re:Should have went to Millenia by RabidReindeer · 2015-09-04 02:07 · Score: 1
  
  Florida Mall was pretty upscale - Princess Di used to shop there. But the surrounding neighborhoods aren't all that impressive. And I'm not sure that it's a tourist pull (I'd locate on I-Drive if that's what I wanted).
  All the actual "local geeks" I've known were located towards the north and east parts of town - Maitland and beyond to the North is where most of the (non-military) tech jobs are and UCF to the East where the students and research park people are.
3. Re:Should have went to Millenia by Shadow+of+Eternity · 2015-09-04 02:11 · Score: 1
  
  Clearly you're not in orlando very often because Altamonte's almost as much of a ghost town as Oviedo and Fashion Square while Millenia's still doing well and has high end retailers like Tiffany's, Brooks Brothers, Allen Edmonds, and Burberry.
  
  --
  A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
4. Re:Should have went to Millenia by RogueyWon · 2015-09-04 02:17 · Score: 1
  
  But nowhere that sells books, DVDs, music or anything else that isn't clothing or video games. Depends what you're after, really. Millennia is certainly better in the clothing niche than Florida or Altamonte, but not everybody just wants clothing.
5. Re:Should have went to Millenia by FranTaylor · 2015-09-04 04:42 · Score: 1
  
  Florida Mall was pretty upscale - Princess Di used to shop there.
  
  Hernando De Soto went shopping there in 1539, he found that the native human lives were very cheap and he brought home a big bag of skulls.
6. Re:Should have went to Millenia by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 09:05 · Score: 0
  
  The big customer base is foreign tourists. Lots of Brazilians with money. They show up, buy nice luggage, then proceed to fill the luggage with all sorts of goodies that they buy to take back home. Prices on luxury goods is a half to a third what they pay back home in Brazil. Florida Mall, Mall at Millenia, and Orlando Premium Outlets all get hit with masses of foreign tourists. The retailers love to see them because they're serious about shopping and they drop wads of cash in a short time.
7. Re:Should have went to Millenia by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 09:12 · Score: 0
  
  The big customer base is foreign tourists. Lots of Brazilians with money. They show up, buy nice luggage, then proceed to fill the luggage with all sorts of goodies that they buy to take back home. Prices on luxury goods is a half to a third what they pay back home in Brazil. Florida Mall, Mall at Millenia, and Orlando Premium Outlets all get hit with masses of foreign tourists. The retailers love to see them because they're serious about shopping and they drop wads of cash in a short time.
  Oh, one more thing. An amusing thing to see is the dumpsters in the parking lot at the premium outlets at the end of a busy shopping day. Filled with empty boxes from newly purchased goods. The foreign tourists will buy stuff, unbox it, then put it into the luggage. Lots of empty shoe boxes. Electronics boxes too. I've watched in the parking lot while electronics were unboxed, wrapped in some newly purchased clothing, then stuffed into the suitcase. Box went into the dumpster. Some of those suitcases have to worth well into the 5 figures.
In an old Radio Shack? by NotDrWho · 2015-09-04 01:59 · Score: 0

You can start by selling off the thousands of crappy cellphones and cheap toys piled on the floor then.

--
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
1. Re:In an old Radio Shack? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 02:53 · Score: 0
  
  "You can start by selling off the thousands of... cheap toys"
  
  That's ThinkGeek's business model in a nutshell.
BB-8? by KatchooNJ · 2015-09-04 02:06 · Score: 1

Do they sell the new BB-8 toy or the Millennium Falcon drone? That's all I give a shit about.
I gots the nerd sweats! MUST.... HAVE!!!

--
"Never give up, for that is just the time and place when the tide will change." -Harriet Beecher Stowe ^_^
A brick & mortar store, lol by JustAnotherOldGuy · 2015-09-04 02:22 · Score: 1

A brick & mortar store selling overpriced shit that you can get online without leaving the house, what could go wrong?

--
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
1. Re:A brick & mortar store, lol by blazer1024 · 2015-09-04 02:35 · Score: 1
  
  Hey, it seems to work for Hot Topic!
  ...actually, the same could be asked for nearly every brick and mortar store!
2. Re:A brick & mortar store, lol by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 02:56 · Score: 0
  
  In the defense of Hot Topic (not that I shop there), clothing is one of the things I do not buy online unless I already have something of the same "model" as what I'm buying. Clothing sizes are fickle (to be polite about it). I can't depend on a size 13 DC shoe to fit like a size 13 Vans shoe or even a size 13 Vans shoe that isn't the same model as what I'm wearing now. And Levi's jeans? You can't depend on two pair on the same rack to fit the same let alone buying a new pair 12 months after the last pair.
  
  This is a place where the standard really isn't a standard.
3. Re: A brick & mortar store, lol by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 08:51 · Score: 0
  
  Maybe you should be less fat.
Battletoads by mrr · 2015-09-04 02:25 · Score: 2

You know what's collectible?
Battletoads.
Will Game Stop finally carry Battletoads?!
1. Re:Battletoads by blazer1024 · 2015-09-04 02:37 · Score: 1
  
  Are you sure they don't? Are you sure it isn't just snagged up 10 seconds after someone trades it in? (That is, if you believe anyone would trade it in!)
collectables? orlando? by nimbius · 2015-09-04 02:38 · Score: 1

all the inconvenience of putting on pants and schlepping to a brick and mortar, now with the added detest of having to enter the state of florida for something.

--
Good people go to bed earlier.
1. Re:collectables? orlando? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 03:01 · Score: 0
  
  I realize it's popular to say "lolz Foriduh" on the Internet, but you do realize that Orlando is the tourism capitol of the U.S., right? Where elsewhere this might be foolish and shortsighted from a business point of view, tourists are quick to part with cash for novelty stuff like this when on vacation.
Curious: What "corporate overlord" was that? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 02:44 · Score: 0

See subject: The question's explicit & thanks for the answer...
APK
P.S.=> Dice? I guess this leads to YET another question - who owns /. now, & perhaps even more importantly, has anyone "bought you up" from DICE yet (or @ least, has expressed interest in doing so)?
... apk
1. Re:Curious: What "corporate overlord" was that? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 04:06 · Score: 0
  
  Slashdot, Sourceforge, Freecode, and Thinkgeek used to all be owned by Geeknet until Dice bought everything but Thinkgeek from them. Unless something has been announced (hint: it hasn't) then Slashdot is still owned and operated by Dice
That's a pretty terrible location. by SvnLyrBrto · 2015-09-04 03:08 · Score: 1

Both the town and area seem just... wrong... for this.
I used to live in Orlando. And it's hardly a bastion of "geek culture". And what it does have is on pretty much the exact opposite side of town from the Florida Mall... in the Winter Park area that connects UCF and Rollins College. South OBT in general is pretty much a wasteland. And the ThinkGeek demographic, unless things have changed dramatically, doesn't go there.

--
Imagine all the people...
1. Re:That's a pretty terrible location. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 03:28 · Score: 0
  
  Perhaps you should return. Orlando has a thriving geek/technology/start up culture.
  But even if that's not the case, this is not meant for locals. This is meant for tourists, which the Florida Mall gets plenty of year-around.
2. Re:That's a pretty terrible location. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 03:32 · Score: 0
  
  Did you really used to live in Orlando? How long ago was it? Did you forget that each year millions of people from around the world are concentrated in this small area for the express purpose of spending money?
3. Re:That's a pretty terrible location. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 05:18 · Score: 0
  
  I would guess that he did. It's fairly common here among locals to view most of Orange Blossom Trail south of 50 as a "wasteland". It's really not one of the nicer parts of town; just a miles-long soul-less corridor of strip malls populated with generic chain stores and restaurants. When Pointe Orlando and Universal City-Walk opened, Florida Mall began a long spiral into decrepitude and irrelevance. And yes, unless they have a job extracting money from tourists, people from the UCF part of town don't go there. And if they are seeking out said jobs extracting money from tourists, they usually aspire to skip the OBT corridor and get jobs over on I-Drive or in the Disney/Universal area.
4. Re: That's a pretty terrible location. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 06:30 · Score: 0
  
  Things have changed. But not in the way you mean. It's been years since ThinkGeek has catered to the geek culture crowd. They're now just a purveyor of pop culture tchotchkes. Imagine Hot Topic without the fake goth and fake punk crap. That's ThinkGeek today.
  It's not all bad. I love my sonic screwdriver TV remote. And I don't think I've seen it for sale elsewhere. But you won't find things like the RSA free the code dolphin shirt there anymore.
5. Re:That's a pretty terrible location. by Mr+Foobar · 2015-09-04 08:16 · Score: 1
  
  I would guess that he did. It's fairly common here among locals to view most of Orange Blossom Trail south of 50 as a "wasteland". It's really not one of the nicer parts of town;
  Actually, in years past, OBT going south of where it goes under I-4 to just about Sandlake Rd was referred to as "Orlando's Best Tourism." For all the strip joints and 'baudy houses' aka places where one could get sexually serviced. Now it's been considerably cleaned up, especially once OBT got widened. But do I remember when you almost had to run over the damn street walkers to drive down that road. Pretty sad...
  
  --
  -> I dislike sigs...
Thank you... apk by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 04:37 · Score: 0

See subject - & again, thanks for the information!
* :)
APK
P.S.=> Never hurts to learn something new every day... apk
Nice to see Orlando mentioned positively for once. by Mr+Foobar · 2015-09-04 05:15 · Score: 1

Like the subject says, not often my home town gets a positive spin story. For all the complaints any local resident will have, this is still a pretty damn nice place to live and work.
But I find the location of the store odd: at Florida Mall, right near the tourist region. I guess they mean for this store to be shopped more by the tourists than residents. Those of us who live here don't usually go to that mall, unless they live relatively close to it. Seems like if they were selling more for residents, they would have put it more to the north of Orlando (Maitland, Altamonte, or Winter Park) or east (near UCF or Oviedo).

--
-> I dislike sigs...
Oh sure .... by NoSalt · 2015-09-04 05:52 · Score: 0

Don't open a store up here, where you were started, or anything.
I was excited... by sootman · 2015-09-04 13:09 · Score: 1

... up until I got to "will focus entirely on collectibles". Oh well. I'll still check it out. I'll just be a bit sad if I can't walk out with a titanium spork.

--
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
How would this be different than say..... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-04 16:42 · Score: 0

Hot Topic?
I'll check this store out in person by x_t0ken_407 · 2015-09-05 08:18 · Score: 1

Being that I'm from Orlando...not often we get the first of something -__-
Re:Nice to see Orlando mentioned positively for on by x_t0ken_407 · 2015-09-05 08:19 · Score: 1

Lol, just posted something similar. Agreed with the Florida Mall being an odd location to place this store.