@joannaholman I remember going in there for paint with Mum and when we got home she was unpacking the bag and said "Why did I buy four packets of tassels?" and I said "Because they were 50 cents a packet?"
Just threw those out not long ago as it happens 🤣
@frogglin @joannaholman it must be a homage - it can't be a coincidence!
"Arthur Edward Daley (George Cole) is a mid-level professional criminal of mature years, a minor con man eternally involved in dodgy dealings and usually seen puffing Castella Panatella cigars."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minder_(TV_series)#Arthur_Daley
@futzle if they’re money laundering they’re playing a really long game
this is what their website says about it “Inspired by the character Arthur Daley from the British TV show 'Minder', Peter saw an opportunity to help out manufacturers clear excess stock, discontinued lines, and cancelled orders, offering Melbourne's bargain hunters the best deals around.”
@joannaholman @futzle I don't know its story but I'm fully convinced that it's a magical place.
If you enter with a clear idea of what problem you need to solve, you will find something to help you on the shelves.
Many, many comedy festival shows that had essential props obtained barely an hour before curtain can attest to this.
further to what some others have posted about buying cheap container loads of stuff…
part of the low cost is that dumping/ tipping of unwanted stuff can be more expensive than selling it ridiculously cheap
as well as private companies who operate wholesale auction rooms, customs or other govt depts sometimes have stuff to get rid of
Still remember when that space was occupied by one of several Timezone video game arcades operating simultaneously in the CBD in the 80s.
As a teen it always felt great to descend into the then dimly-lit subterranean space, anticipating what new games might be on offer. Sigh.
Its transformation into the long-running 'Arfur Daley' status quo was, to say the least, disappointing. I think I've been in the current establishment twice, both times looking for cheap Halloween tat.
Ooh... That rings a bell, and now I'm wondering if it was a McDonalds after, Timezone, or if I'm remembering it wrong and there were two large subterranean places in that section of Swanston BITD, and Arthur Daley's was the Maccas (your tiling note makes me think so) and TZ was at a slightly different address a couple of doors away...
I remember Timezone was carpeted - black I think, with stairs partway down to a landing with a railing before continuing to the floor.
Ah, I haven't been in the CBD for a couple of months cos reasons (though my day job in-house location is literally on Swanston) so not sure which place that is - the only underground clothing shop I can think of off top of head in that stretch is/was under the Capitol Theatre.
There also used to be an underground Hungry Jacks in the section between Collins and Bourke - for some reason was thinking that's where a discount chemist is now, but again not sure.
Quick update! Just found some info on an old arcade game forum, turns out we were all correct about Arthur Daleys!
That staircase split halfway (at the landing I mentioned) and down the left went to McDonalds and down the right went to Timezone!
Reading that brought memories back, both of that layout and also when Arthur Daleys first opened I recalled thinking, "Oh, they made it all one thing..." 😂
Aha, thanks for that confirmation - totally Maccas flooring (and the carpet in the arcade I vaguely remember would have been ripped up long ago). 👍 🏆
Oh yeah definitely! One of my favourite CBD arcades was on Bourke in the mid-80s to maybe early 90s. I think (having just done some searching) it was called Orbit 130, at 130 Bourke, between Russell and Exhibition.
It wasn't that big but their selection was top-notch and often a bit niche. Was the only place I ever saw Marble Madness in the wild and also had a ride-on hydraulic Space Harrier machine, amongst more popular stuff like a sit-down Star Wars cab, Tron, etc. 😎
I think the one you mentioned with the sit-in car racing stuff might have been one of the last #arcades in the CBD - I remember a place on Bourke just next to the now-gone Hungry Jacks on the corner of Russell, which had mostly arcade experiences that weren't easily replicable at home and more social, so the linked car racing ones, dance machines, a taiko drumming machine near the front. Maybe the same place?
Also remember one of the larger arcade franchise places on Bourke in the 80s - on the opposite side to others mentioned. A three-story place, either a Timezone or Flashback, near a McDonalds that also isn't there anymore.
We'd get the train in to see a movie, then use whatever money we had left mainly at the Swanston and Bourke streets' arcades, but also recall another place on Elizabeth, and a really dodgy-seeming underground one on Flinders Street, I think called "Invaders".
@joannaholman some (imo) fascinating details about how these stores work:
They sometimes buy just bulk stuff at auction like an entire written off trailer or trailers full of stuff where one of the parties just stiffed them.
They also get their stuff from storage units and stuff, you can buy an entire defaulted storage unit for like $500-1000 (in the US) or less, it's a bit of a gamble but like it can work out.
They also buy things from insurance companies who've written off the goods and are just selling them for whatever they can get for them, and there aren't often many bidders so you can get things really cheap.
Also they bid on returns from Amazon and eBay sellers, these often wind up at these shops. It can be a bit of a gamble, but a lot of returns are just "I didn't want it" or "I got the wrong item."
These places can often end up buying anything from a pallet full of lawn chairs, to a batch of extremely obsolete knockoff smartphones that never sold. Some wholesalers will sell the pallets direct, even.
@joannaholman I knew someone who did just that. You need a bullshit radar that's in tip-top shape. Because sometimes you might see a shiny storage unit that looks like it's full of rare collectables but then it turns out they're all Chinese knock-off figurines.
eBay and Amazon returns are always rolling the dice, sometimes you get a pallet and like 80% of the stuff works, sometimes you get a pallet with maybe 1-2 working items.
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