By Zech Wheeler
news@joplinglobe.com
Engaged in virtual combat, Rickie Sems, 15, of Neosho, hunched toward a plasma television with a game controller in his hand.
He and his family venture into Joplin about once a week, and during that outing, Sems can often be found in Northpark Mall’s Vintage Stock.
“It’s a really cool place,” Sems said. “It’s probably my favorite store in the mall. I can just come and play games, stuff like that.”
Brandon Bond, manager of Vintage Stock’s mall store, said that the store’s sister locations are more like little sisters than big.
“It’s a really big place,” Bond said of the store. “If you’ve ever been to any Vintage Stock, they’re pretty tiny. We just had to find a way to utilize the space best.”
Business is booming at the new store, Bond said, partly because of the unique additions at the former location of Steve & Barry’s. The new store includes eight large TVs with video game consoles, an in-store theater, leather couches and a performing arts stage.
“It’s just ridiculous during the weekends and during the week,” Bond said. “It’s amazing how busy we’ve been. It’s been really awesome.”
Bond said that these attractions were the brainchildren of the store owners and employees.
Leslie McConnell, of Parsons, Kan., played her harp on the store’s stage last weekend.
She sat erect, her eyes fixed upon her songbook, fingers gliding from string to string seamlessly.
“I was just walking through here one day, and there was a young man playing his guitar here. People were coming and going. Some had stopped and seemed really interested in what he was doing,” McConnell said.
She said that an odd venue seemed appropriate for an unusual instrument such as a harp, and that the odd dynamic of the store only added to its appeal.
“There is stuff going on for everybody all around here,” McConnell said. “There’s videos, there’s games, there’s places for kids to play.”
Bond said that providing a family friendly music venue offers customers an alternative to venues that appeal to older audiences.
“There’s not a lot of venues that don’t include alcohol in the local community,” Bond said. “So it’s nice to give everybody a chance to come out and see these bands and artists. We don’t just want to do music, we’d like to do plays, art shows. There are a lot of things we think we can do other than just music.”
Relaxing in another section of the store, two girls — Cheradyn Baldwin and Marissa Ratliff, both 16 and of Granby — reclined in chairs and browsed the latest magazines.
“I really like the music section,” Baldwin said. “It’s really interesting, you hear different music that you’ve never heard before.”
They said they were impressed by the store, having just seen it for the first time.
“The theater was really cool,” Ratliff said. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Kyle Newman, 14, of Carthage, watched ‘A Bug’s Life’ on Saturday. He said that the theater stood out the most to him.
Bond said that the theater was one of the few projects that had been planned from the very beginning.
While he is happy with the store’s progress and success, he is still looking forward to changing Vintage Stock in bigger and better ways.
“We just want to keep expanding and keep adding,” Bond said. “We’ve just started in some areas. There are no plans on exactly what we’re going to do just yet. The plans for the future have no boundaries, really.”
Zech Wheeler is a senior at Webb City High School.
