10 Businesses to Bring Back to Yakima

Hands down, my favorite video store of all time. Great selection of weird movies, awesome video game selection, the staff was always cool. I'd swear off of dvds and digital downloads and go back to VHS if it meant this place was still open.

Before everyone had a video game system at home, if you wanted to play real video games you'd have to go to the arcade. Jolly Joker was the premier arcade at the Yakima Mall. I've spent many quarters there.

We've had our share of pizza places in town. Many are still here and many others have come and gone. I don't know why I liked Pizza Haven so much as nothing really stands out on why I loved it, but I remember many fond memories of going there.

When you think of stores that "you knew you grew up in Yakima when..." one of the first stores that will come up is The Country Store. This place had an odd mix of farm and western supplies, pets (including a monkey), a few video games and you had the chance to play tic-tac-toe with a chicken. One of a kind, to say the least.

Growing up in Yakima, there was only one option when it came to going to a buffet as far as I was concerned. Royal Fork was similar to Old Country Buffet in its selection of home-cooked-style meals. All you can eat, but I never cared about the prime rib or potatoes, I wanted to go straight to the desserts. That's probably why we didn't go there very often when I was growing up.

Joker's Wild was another pitstop inside the Yakima Mall that featured gag gifts, practical jokes and pranks. It was fun to see what tricks they had. I remember buying things like the "fake arrow through the head" and the gimmick that looked like gum, but would snap your finger when you tried to pull a piece out. Fun stuff.

Growing up, I found it odd that Sprouse-Reitz was right next to Giant T (which was the store that, through various buyouts, turned into Rite Aid, soon to be Walgreens). Both were very similar, both had magazines and candy, I think Sprouse-Reitz also had a pharmacy, but one thing that Sprouse-Reitz had was popcorn at the cash register. I don't remember how much it was, but I do remember if you visited near closing time they would just give it away. I'd make sure to stop by if I happened to be in the area.

A second pizza location on the list? Yes! This was the first place I had hear heard of the "we make, you bake" philosophy that made Papa Murphy's so popular. To keep the price down and get you on your way quicker they'd make the pizza and you pop it in your own oven. This place would pile on the toppings as tall as Mount St. Helens (or as tall as it used to be).

When you take my favorite things of the '90s which were music, video games and comic books and put it at one location, what do you get? Well, sure, you have Ron's Coin and Book, too, but that was all the way downtown. Since I grew up off Nob Hill, the Music Station was just a block away. You could buy, sell and trade in your CDs, Nintendo games and also pick up the most recent issue of X-men. I loved it!

This place was in the food court at the old Yakima Mall before it closed. My friends and I would make a trip to the mall just to go here. When you walked by, their employees would bark at you to try a free sample of their sesame chicken, which was usually on special at $4.29. Yes, I still remember how much it cost. Their sesame chicken was fantastic and although we have plenty of great Asian restaurants in town, I'd go there all over again. I was happy to find they still exist in a few other malls, including one in Casper, Wyo., where I lived for a few months.