The end of the Warner Bros. Studio Stores

[Jon Cooke]

Just saw on Jerry Beck's website that the end is near for all the Warner Bros. Studio Stores. Kind of a sad, even though the only WBSS in Maine closed its doors back in 1998.

I spent all sorts of my hard earned money on stuff from the Warner Stores over the years. In fact, I found my copy of Beck/Friedwald book at a WBSS in Connecticut waaaay back in Summer, 1993. I still have that same copy... even thoughh it looks pretty mangled now (no back cover now, and a few pages of the index have fallen out). I also really liked their bean bags of the WB, MGM, and H-B characters. Good thing I got all my favorites when I did (although I'd still love to get my hands on an Atom Ant or Augie Doggie...).



-Jon

[Thad Komorowski]

It's sad news for me too. I remember getting an LT coloring book that was HUGE. It was very nice. It contained the lobby cards that you could color in (reprints though), and a short sentence or two (at the beginning) explaining each short. I also got another coloring book of the same size, with the LT characters in new poses. In fact, Playboy Penguin is in it! I also got many beanbags there, including my favorites, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, and Tom & Jerry. I always loved that store, until it got full of Pokemon and Harry Potter crap. :mad: However, before it's closing, they started to reorganized and actually got RID of MOST of that junk! :eek:

Hey, Jon, I didn't get my copy of LT&MM at the WBSS, but it's in the same condition as yours! :D

Good bye, Warner Bros. Studio Store! You'll be missed!

-Thad:D

[Sveven Dvorking]

from a Warner Bros. studio store was related to pokemon! I also bought a Looney Tunes shirt that I never wore.

[Sogturtle]

The Warner's stores real fate was sealed MONTHS ago when some well-meaning entities offered to buy the GALLERY portions of the stores only... AOL (the bete noire supreme) sensing "the moment" tried to force the purchase of everything and when that failed happily and glibly issued orders to kill all the stores, back in March-April. "Brick and mortar"... we don't need no stinking brick and mortar!!!"


My last purchase there was the "Hillbilly Hare" sericel, complete with the chip playing back Bugsy's song...

[Jack]

My last purchase was a shirt with Bugs and Taz on it. It actaully prompted a short conversation with someone who asked me "Did you watch 'June Bugs?'" I said I did, and he sort of talked about cartoons a little bit, nothing really deep or anything, but he thinks Tex Avery is a genious (but everyone knows that.... :) )


Jack:D

[Joe Tully]

What I'll miss most about the stores was the cool statues. The WB store at our nearby mall was on the 2nd floor, and there was this giant boat will various LT characters like Bugs, Daffy, and Taz on it suspended between the 2nd and 1st floors. The first time I saw it, I was in complete awe of it. Now that it's gone, I kinda wish I had taken pictures of it.

My last purchase was the VHS tape Carrotblanca. Other than the title toon, it was a pretty good tape. I got it for the computer colorized You Ought To Be In Pictures.

[Matthew Hunter]

That really is too bad, I loved those stores. I bought I can't tell you how many things there. My local Fort Worth branch closes this wednesday, I hope I can get a chance to get out there and see what's left. The last thing I bought was a sound-activated "Serenading Speedy Gonzales", on sale for about 10 bucks. My favorite items there of all time were the PVC figurines, I still remember when they sold the old "Applause" ones. I have over 50 LT figures, from various places, but many came from that store. In fact, I went to New York city about 5 years ago, and saw a 7 story WB store. What did I buy? A t shirt that I still have with a bunch of characters around the "WB" shield, that says "New York City', and a figurine of Wile E. Coyote pushing a TNT detonator. The WB store was great!I didn't get my LT/MM book there, in fact, I think mine came from Barnes and Noble about 3 years ago. Mine is in pretty sorry condition, it still retains both covers, but they are now 90% clear tape, and the pages are worn out. In fact, a couple of the back pages are kind of rippled, I think it got water spilled on it once.
-Matthew

[ChrisWinston]

Were the WB stores not making enough money? I think it's sad, too, that they're closing. There isn't one near me here where i am now in South Carolina but every now and then i would think how i wanna go to one next time i'm on a roadtrip (and i have some dough to spend.)

My one and only purchase at a WB store i remember like it was yesterday. Had just seen The Dead in Salt Lake and Oakland in February of '95. Before heading east to Philly for the start of Spring Tour i was spending a few days with friends in San Francisco and doing a little of the tourist thing, riding BART, and the Trolley, seeing the sites. It was either at Fisherman's Wharf or a downtown mall, i forget which, i saw the store, went in and spent like an hour there. Had to get something, i did, needed a new hat so i got a baseball hat, nothin' bright, loud, & fancy, just with Bugs on the front of it. Have been wearing that same hat at least a few times a month, sometimes every week for the past about 6½ years now! It's somewhat dirty (but i clean it) and still in one piece and actually a prized possession of mine!

And now the stores are closing... oh well, it blows but that's life. Hopefully my hat'll still have life years from now if i can't find another like it.

[BillC]

And to think HOW the heck does UNIVERSAL/SPENCER gifts survive? there's no justice!

BillC

[Sogturtle]

ChrisWinston and BillC~

Actually by all accounts the vast bulk of all the Warner stores were making money, and oft-times quite a lot of money! The authentically unprofitable ones closed previously. The few that were marginal would have gone sooner or later, though there is a VERRRRRY strong argument that the stores provided better advertising than anything they could buy on TV or in print. Slaughtering all of the stores and firing EVERYONE was inexcusable!! No two ways about it!!

My local store had a gigantic Daffy on a camera crane and other figures inside... (As I recall one even came through the plate glass window!). They received so many offers to buy them that they finally had to post signs apologising that they weren't allowed to sell them.

Whether the French water and sewage company that owns Universal even knows of Spencer's existence is open to debate. Buuuuut let's not forget that Viacom (aka Viacom-Paramount-CBS) opted to set the stage by shuttering all of their Nickelodeon stores a short while back... AOL must have taken note of that.

[hippety hopper]

I have been to the WB store in London for ages.
I'll have to go again sometime soon to see if they have anything new.

[The Dork Knight]

I always loved that store, until it got full of Pokemon and Harry Potter crap.
Don't make fun of the Harry Potter books. Those and the Hobbet books are the best. I don't care what you say about pokemon though. It's starting to suck anyway.

I did'nt get my Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies book from the WBSS. I got mine from www.amazon.com. Where I live we have the gayest mall ever. All it has is 15 stores. AND THAT'S IT! At that mall they just got in at the toy store, POGS and Power Rangers crap. If I want to go to a good mall I got to go like 30 miles from where I live. They have like 90 stores there from the Arcade to Waldenbooks.Sadly no WBSS but we have a Disney Store. Oh joy. :mad:

[Rob]

Although I was never a regular shopper there, I did pick up some neat things from time to time. I've been to the WB Stores in Detroit, Boston, Las Vegas, New York City, and Seattle, the latter just opened a couple of years ago!

"oh, the places I've been and the things I've seen..."

I suppose a lot of that stuff will live on, through ebay.

[ChrisWinston]

So... how come they're closing all the stores?

At cartoonresearch.com it says: "AOL Time Warner Inc. is gearing up to close its U.S.-based Warner Bros. Studio Stores by the end of October, shedding another 3,800 jobs, after failing to find a buyer for the languishing chain, a company spokeswoman said on Friday."

Were the stores really not making money? If that is true then i can understand closing 'em... or at least leaving a few in major markets a la Planet Hollywood who shed about half of their joints but still not all of them.

Or is this some deeper conspiracy on AOL's part? Were the stores indeed making money but AOL, for some moronic reason, doesn't want them?! Maybe they wanna try to expand sales of merchandise on the internet only?

And soon Time magazine and other Time Warner publications will only be available on the internet, ceasing to exist in the physical realm???!!!??