Antique/thrift/resale stores
Bed Bath and Beyond
discount shoe stores
bookstore,goes without saying
I’d probably spend some time in a CHKD thrift store. Sometimes they have good T-shirts. Occasionally they have an XBox 360 video game I haven’t played, or a WWE DVD that looks good. I got a Ladder Match DVD set from them once.
I’d go to Tractor Supply if they had the chicks! I could watch them all day!
A large thrift store. A couple close by.
Microcenter (much better than Fry’s). One a bit far away.
A bookstore. If I was lucky enough to have one around. A big “if”.
I frequently wander around the large tropical fish store near my office whenever I have time to kill, either looking at the fish, or browsing all the tank equipment and supplies (I just have a pair of goldfish and some pond loaches at home).
I never got the attraction to women in flannel.
:: pictures Johanna, whom IIRC is a thoughtful Dylan-fan type, at the local GC playing face-melting shred leads on a guitar shaped like an iron cross fucking a dragon::
I like to check out guitars that are getting buzz on the interwebs, to separate fact from fiction. This $500 guitar outplays a Martin! Um, not exactly, but some can be great deals. I also like to birdwatch, i.e., look for brands, models, designs I haven’t played and add them to my knowledge base.
August West, that surplus store in Milwaukee sounds amazing.
They also have two stories in the Chicago area, although the only one I ever visited was in Geneva (in the west suburbs).
When I lived out there, my idea of a perfect day was breakfast or lunch at Mel’s Diner (a greasy-spoon in Geneva), a few hours at the Kane County Flea Market, a visit to American Science and Surplus, and the double feature at the Cascade Drive-In.
Goodwill or Savers, or even better, the Habitat for Humanity Restore store. Otherwise, a bookstore.
Holy crap… my teenaged self would have had some kind of spontaneous emission if I was to have gone to that store. How cool!
Thrift stores, bookstores, Target or the place I work. In that order.
Grocery store is #1 for me, particularly if I’m in a new location and the store is unfamiliar. I find it oddly therapeutic.
Fry’s is a good one too (the electronics store, not the grocery store.) They have all of the expected stuff: computer junk, movies, games… but they have a ton of random weirdness, too. I could spend a long time wandering around a Fry’s.
In the 1960s, it was a five & dime. Mr. Ayers sometimes would wander around the store greeting customers. Sometimes he gave us kids candy.
The store also had a type of soda machine I never saw anywhere else. The bottles were arranged in a column, with the tops facing out toward you. After you put your money in, you pulled out a bottle. The act of pulling one bottle caused metal grips around the other bottles to tighten, so you couldn’t pull out more than one bottle.
I remember those machines. My eight-year-old self dreaded them, because the bottles were very hard to pull out and I’d scrape my hand on the bottle cap in the process.
My sister lives in St. Charles, and I sometimes visit American Science and Surplus when I’m out there.
I also love the art supply store Blick. The variety of paints alone is just mesmerizing. Even if I’ll never do any serious painting again, I love to browse among them.
The Container Store. Although I find it very hard not to buy a little something when I’m there.
Bookstore. I couldn’t possibly spend enough time in one.
The Chicago store is in my neighborhood now and it’s a great place to kill an hour. When I was a kid, the store was a little further north on Northwest Hwy. My brother and I would save allowance money and beg mom to drive us there. She didn’t get much out of the place but we’d have a blast filling a basket of stuff for a couple bucks.
I love grocery stores. I can easily get lost in a new one for an hour.
Recently, I went to The Spice House (similar to Penzey’s, same family) for some chili powder. 45 minutes later, I was $63 poorer and my nose was pretty burnt out but I got a bunch of good stuff.
+1 on the big musician stores. I hang out by the keyboards, lighting and pro-sound gear, maybe a quick pass through percussion.
I never intend to lose an hour at Bed Bath & Beyond but it was light out when I went in and dark when I left.
I just read a book set in Kittery Maine, which I had never heard of before. This probably doesn’t excite you, but I think it’s neat!
But could you stick it out for that long, saving big money?
This is mine, too. Michael’s.
7-11.
Here in Taiwan, convenience stores have tables for eating and drinking. I get a Coke Zero, grab my phone and surf away.
My preference would be for a good English bookstore, but that’s asking too much for a town here.
I remember those as well! Here’s something else I can tell my kids about!
Spencers, Sharper Image, or any kind of gadget store.
But really, I’m easily entertained. I can waste time in just about any store. (Although the ladies at Victoria’s Secrets sometimes gives me dirty looks.)