Lets reminisce about Spencer Gifts in the 80s.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My mother was a Spencers girl in the mid to late 80’s. There. I said it. It’s true.

I was 10-14 years old when she worked there. I didn’t understand what she was doing or why. I remember getting dropped off at the mall by my dad to go get some pretzel sticks from Hot Sam’s. I walked into the Spencers next to Musicland to see my mom and there was a line of people waiting to check out with items that I still vividly remember to this day:

Whoopie cushions,
Slutty nurse costume,
Body condom,
Petuli scented oils/incense/stickers,
A Freddy Kruger poster,
Comical beer mugs,
Batman belt buckles,
Sesame Street backpacks,
Fake poop,
Hard hat with beer holders on top,
lava lamp,
disco lamp,
A ball cap with two hands on it that you pulled strings and it clapped,
A ball cap with a fan built into the brim,
A ball cap with fake poop on it.

I remember sneaking to the back section of the store to look at all the pseudosextoys. Lots of cheap nylon stockings, sexboard games. Sensual oils. Calendars. Fuzzy handcuffs. Mens thongs.

There was an entire section of the store devoted to hilarious Over the Hill trinkets like keychains, hats, posters, cards, shirts, mugs, glasses, buttons.

There was a whole section devoted to Tim Burtons BATMAN. I’m convinced this section broke off and became Hot Topic.

My mom worked there. Yep. Pretty cool. Those were the days…

2

There’s still a Spencer’s in my local mall, or there was the last time I was there, a few months ago.

I think they’re pretty much still exactly like they were in the 80s.

3

Yeah, but my mom worked there. She doesn’t work in the one in your mall. And does it stock hand buzzers and beanbag chairs??

There was a photo booth right outside in the hallway. And a Hot Sam’s pretzel place right across the way. I think there was a Things Remembered next door where you could get things engraved.

4

I was in a Spencers at a mall just a few years ago. The staff rushed right up to help me, and stayed with me to see I got what I wanted, cleared a register for me, and saw me to the door. My guess is, nobody at Spencers wants the image of the store to include gray-haired 60-year old men standing around. I could be overly sensitive, but… {Oh, I was getting something Harley Quinn-related (not a sex toy) for my daughter.}

5

Lord. My three-year-old likes to go in there to look at the fancy light-up party gadgets. They’re right beside the naughty bachelorette section. I foresee this becoming a problem in the near future.

6

There was a Newbury Comics around here that seemed to fill that niche.

7

God. Spencer’s. I believe there’s still one here - if I ever need to get a greeting card with a morbidly obese woman on it in a bikini, or a giant puzzle of a wizard and a dragon, or a sleazy sex-themed board game, I’ll be upset if it isn’t there anymore.

8

According to their website, they still operate over 600 stores in the US.

Considering the state of retail shopping malls, and the fact they ONLY seem to operate within enclosed shopping malls, that’s pretty darn impressive.

They’ve branched out into seasonal Halloween stores as well, and I don’t know whether those are included in their “count” or not.

Seems like I recall hearing several years ago that Spencer’s was in big trouble financially, but apparently they’re still plugging along.

9

I believe Spencer’s is where people bought their Pet Rock.

I always liked to go there and look at the posters. (Especially the one of the female tennis player)

I think we bought our Lava Lamp from there.

10

I’d never heard of Spencers until they opened one at the mall in my city recently.

I call it Hot Topic’s perverted little brother.

Closest thing we had in the 80’s was The It Store.

11

I remember the animal themed men’s underwear. Specifically the elephant ones. Totally different definition of junk in the trunk.

12

Someone opened a store in my small town that was sort of like Spencer’s, but I think without the “naughty” section. I remember going in there and it was just an explosion of bright colors, sounds, and even smells. I really wanted to buy a crazy pen or something.

But like with Spencer’s (which was/is in our malls) everything was just slightly too expensive for me. Especially because nothing ever seemed to have a purpose. So I don’t remember buying anything at the local shop or Spencer’s. And I don’t know that the local shop lasted more than a year.

Boy did I love to browse there, though!

There’s a chain store now called 5 Below which, to me has the same sort of “burst of color” feeling to it. It doesn’t have all the cheeky stuff that Spencer’s has but you can get your funny magnets and your WWE posters there, your silly tee shirts and candy in weird containers. Plus boring stuff like crayons and basketballs. And everything is $5 or less.

I like that for a fun pick-me-up shopping trip, even if I don’t buy anything.

13

Pretty sure that’s where mine came from too. There’s still a Spencer’s at the mall, at least I think I remember it being there the last time I was there. I used to love going in there but Mom never wanted us to go in when we were kids.

14

I remember when the back third of the store was dark with everything fluorescent/psychadelic and black-lit. They still have a lot of disco balls, party lights, and tie-dye, but I miss those black light days. Look! I glow!

15

And here I was thinking of the Spencer catalog of the 1970s that used to entertain the hell out of us. You kids and yer “mall stores.”

16

I remember them having an awesome Halloween selection when I was a kid. A year or two ago, I went in there with my son (would have been 13ish at the time) and half the place was sex stuff. I remember there being “naughty” stuff back in the day but not nearly as much as now. Anyway, we made a fairly quick exit and went to one of those temporary Halloween shops that rent abandoned strip mall space.

17

I can’t believe that store still exists. I used to love going in there as a kid and looking at the nudie cards and sex-related stuff.

18

Geez, I remember when the Spencers at IIRC Eastview Mall in Rocheser NY was an out and out head store. Black lights, black light posters, bongs, incense, lava lamps, bead curtains …

19

I cannot believe people still purchase enough things from Spencer’s that they continue to be in business. Crazy.

It was THE place to buy gifts for your friends from about 6th grade to 8th grade. And they were the first store (in our area at least) to carry glitter nail polish. Which now, you can buy anywhere. But when it came out (this would be about 1982) it was a BIG DEAL. I saved a lot of allowance money for glitter nail polish from Spencer’s.

20

Hmm. I wonder what the Toronto equivalent is. “Spence” here is a diamond shop.

Edit: Weirdly, Spencer’s lists Canadian cities om their store finder page, but when you click on one, it does its best to find one just across the border, and if it can’t, it simply says “no store has been opened YET within 25 miles of the ZIP code <Canadian postal code>”…