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Comment by mikub | Hacker News Reader

I really love watching 90s footage from malls, shoppingcenters or just some people walking in the city, it is somehow calming. If anyone knows some good youtubevideos like this from germany instead of the US please let me know.

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I agree about calming and I feel we were all much calmer overall in daily life. For this video I can see myself being in such stores, looking at all the computers, listening to adults talk as these people were, and it’s such a calmer environment. I worry about my kids as they seem too excited always. I know I wasn’t like them.

It was just more relaxed somehow. One part of it I think was that you just had to wait for things, not everything was available instantly, it teaches you patience.

You don’t think we have to wait for things now? It’s worse than ever. One of your appliances breaks down, 6 month wait for a part cause of covid supply issues… or so they say.

What I meant was more some sort of buying consumer stuff, like shiny new toys, videogames, things you don't really need. All those goods that are perfect for impulsive buying.

Not Germany but here's another one showing very calm shoppers, even during Christmas season:

Raw footage inside Sears with Atari 800 and 2600 (1982) [video] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32282081

Not the nice in-store video, but a page from an Allkauf Supermarket ad in 1995, with some of the computers on sale. No Amigas, though: https://youtu.be/z9Rb0L-xK8w?t=27

Great observation. I'm trying to figure out why that is. Couple guesses:

* Less buying options

* No online shopping so the FOMO of a better deal is not there

* The staff actually knew what they were talking about and less salesy than they are today

I've found German train enthusiast channels to be a decent source of this. Don't have any to link at this moment, but they're out there.

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