The (Weird) Decline of Brookstone | Home of the Odd | History in the Dark

It was overpriced stuff no one needed. Pinnacle of Consumerism.

We've never had a Brookstone store where I live but there was a kiosk for a time.

I was always a Sharper Image kind of guy

Worked for many years love the place took a dive when the economy did right after 911

Brookstone was my first retail job i took to use the discount for the holiday season. Yeah, they actually made money hiring me cause i bought up everything i could with that employee discount 😅

"Koisk" lmfao!!😂😂

Fun, informative video. You’re hysterical dude! 😂🤣

Awesome video. Can you do Mervyns?

From my experience shopping at Brookstone in the early 2000’s I think Skymall was a very similar Store% they just didn’t have a retail side… very similar products I’d say Skymall actually had more of a selection

Brookstone was the start of consumerism being a middle class dream, imo. Nothing in there could my family ever afford, but you walked in and wandered around for the fantasy of being able to afford a bunch of random, unnecessary "luxury" crap. Timeless

It's cool someone helped you with "kiosk."
Can we work on "niche" next? 😂

I'm really liking your videos. 👍

You know, I almost wanna go to Miami International Airport just to see if there's a Brookstone there...

I loved going in this place when I was a kid.

NGL, I don't travel but I want that carry-on bag

FULL CIRCLE!!! I always saw Brookstone as a gift shop at an airport where a businessman would go to buy something to appease his wife & children

Still have a Brookstone Foot Spa, always wanted one of the massage chairs.

I didn't even know they had brick and mortar storefronts, i always thought it was one of those niche brand things you'd find in a Target or some hipster shop.

Ah, yes. The KOISKS 😂🤣😂

My husband pronounced Vienna sausages as Vie-ee-nee. Yes. Its true and still makes me laugh at his adorable sillyness.

I used to love this store and Sharper Image.

Never say "kiosk" correctly again. Your pronunciation is infinitely better. It's only one syllable and all the banger words are one syllable. Monosyllabic is best syllabic. That's a fact. Here's another one: The word "kiosk" is derived from the Turkish word "köşk" which (you can maybe guess just by looking at it) is ALSO only one syllable and sounds a hell of a lot closer to your pronunciation than the "correct" one. At least according to Google Translate.

I worked at Brookstone for about a year in a mall in New Jersey. 90% of items bought here were returned. Only about 10% were items that were eligible to return to the factory. Everything else that got returned had to be “destroyed” I have fond memories of getting to leave the sales floor to go down to the dumpsters and smash foot massagers with a hammer

Place was essentially "Duller Image"

Yeah getting bought by the communist is always a great move. It’s not the same company.

How have I spent the last 39 years secure in the knowledge that Brookstone was solely a luggage store and Sharper Image was solely an electronics store? 😂

I got a $40 muscle gun from this brand at walmart and i dont really have another muscle gun to compare it with but it feels like its worth $150 just putting it out there i literally searched the brand up because i was mesmerized

I would walk into a brookstone, play with the kinetic sand and leave.

Your voice is quite harsh when you raise it. Don't know if it's the mic or something else you can alter a bit.

I always thought Brookstone was just an overpriced home store so I never bothered to shop there. Maybe they needed better marketing.

Oh wow. I work for one the bigger retailers at the Nashville airport, and one of the stores we run is Brookstone. I always thought Brookstone was just an overpriced obscure electronics store only in airports

I had NO clue these existed outside of airports!!!

Kiosks 😂 If I heard that, I’d be too passive to correct ya. Just let chaos continue passing by…

Brookstone was the best last minute gift for Dad place

I love your videos. If there is any chance you might consider not shouting / speaking in a calm voice, I think it could be a great change.

You mean the place you ended up at 30m before the mall closed the Saturday before father's day? I'm at full attention 😂😂

LOL. I always though they were a cheap knockoff of Sharper Image.

Brookstone was where you went when you needed a "unique" gift for someone for like 50- 100$

Saying you lived in the rich part of town without saying it.........never saw this store at any malls that I went to in Michigan

My best friend and I worked at a Brookstone when we were in high school in the late 90s. Popular sellers were the hammocks, tempur pedic beds and pillows, electronic BBQ fork, and the nose hair trimmers. We never washed the sheets on that bed. People would try the nose hair trimmer that we also never cleaned. The best days were during the week when it was slow, and we could just swing in the hammock set we had on the store. The worst days were the holidays because people would have a million questions about crap.

The target customer back then was people making $60k and over, if I remember correctly.

Oh, and people thought that the lifetime guarantee meant their lifetime, so people would return 20 year old hammocks that had rusted. We would exchange for them, but had to explain the guarantee was the lifetime of the product whatever that means, lol.

I was more of a sharper image guy

The theme was luxury, but without gold trim. Comfort technology. Air purifiers, humidifiers, massage chairs, and maybe a swiss knife to make you feel snazzy.

Was basically just a high-end gift store for wealthy people to get gifts for other wealthy (but not like super rich) people. Basically if you wanted to give a gift that showed it cost a lot you got from there.

In 2009 I bought a shiatsu back massager from Brookstone for $80. I still use it to this day. It’s the best!

Don't feel bad about mispronouncing Kiosk. Everyone has at least one word they consistently get wrong. Personally, I mispronounce Homage all the time, as O-Maj. Instead of, you know, Homage lol.

I remember Brookstone, but when the catalog subject came up I immediately thought of Hammacher Schlemmer, talk about overpriced, but we still get the catalog that my dad used to get years ago anyway! I think I may have bought something from them once, you know, something not too ridiculously extravagantly priced. There's another business for you to look into, I know that it's German (what else) but not really much else. I'll have to keep checking in to see if you thought it was a good idea! 😁

Brookstone had been in Mohegan Sun in CT. It looked like it closed recently.

So, an extra fancy Sharper Image?

I think Brookstone is the store I first saw a memory foam mattress YEARS ago

All this stuff can be found hoarded in the garages of boomers in every American city and town