Software Seconds, 4508 Saint Andrews Road Suite 3: 2012 (moved) 19 comments
This little storefront on Saint Andrews Road more or less across from the big industrial plant was in the used software business, presumably mostly games as the text of the (now painted over) marquee is: Software Seconds New & Used Video Games.
Like Labrasca's it has been reported closed before, but this time is definitely the real thing. They are listed in the February 2012 phonebook, so for lack of any better information, I'm just giving the date as 2012.
I don't know about console games, but pretty much anything that runs on a PC platform is pirated out the wazoo on the Internet now, and that puts stores like this one in the same fix as CD stores (and, increasingly, video stores).
UPDATE 27 August 2012 -- The store has moved to 6903 Saint Andrews Road on the other side of Harbison and is still in business.
19 Responses to 'Software Seconds, 4508 Saint Andrews Road Suite 3: 2012 (moved)'
Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'Software Seconds, 4508 Saint Andrews Road Suite 3: 2012 (moved)'.
-
Chris
27 Aug 12 at 5:02 am
-
6903 Saint Andrews Road is the NEW ADDRESS for this business (which is actually in the business of buying and selling of classic and antique games like ATARI, NINTENDO, SEGA ,etc) If maybe you had called the phone number you would have saved yourself alot of time of posting incorrect information. I expect a retraction. Mike Mistoler, Owner.
mike mistoler
27 Aug 12 at 10:47 pm
-
Sure, gladly -- Ted
ted
27 Aug 12 at 10:53 pm
-
Nice attitude, Mike.
tonkatoy
28 Aug 12 at 6:31 am
-
While abrupt, I can certainly understand Mike's attitude. It can be very hard to be a small business owner, and the internet make it harder. This site ranks quite high on Google searches a surprising amount of the time and it would be quite easy to have customers do a search, see the Columbia Closings link and just assume the business is closed, without ever clicking the link. EVEN if the listing is marked as moved, just being on this website could be detrimental to Mike's business.
Larry
28 Aug 12 at 11:20 am
-
When you Google "Software Seconds" it comes up on 4508 St. Andrews Road. Where are the "We've moved" signs on the storefront? Best thing to do is probably delete the whole link, but if that really is the manager of the store, he should have taken 10 and rethought that post. If he would have put a "we've moved" sign up, he would have saved himself some embarrassment. Glad I have no need to shop there.
jonathan
28 Aug 12 at 12:13 pm
-
Jonathan, I have no relation to software seconds, but two things: (1) Landlords won't always leave up a we've moved sign, say for instance a tenant moved instead of accepting a rent increase and the landlord is no longer friendly, or some centers prohibit such signs; (2) Google does pretty much what it wants with where it says a business is. Yes you can correct it and take control of the profile but sometimes business owners don't have the know-how or Google is just doing what it feels like. And the listing you saw looks like it was generated by Google based on publicly available information. Sure they could have done something but considering the landlord painted over their sign, I am pretty sure any "we have moved" signs were taken down by the landlord before Ted stopped by.
Larry
28 Aug 12 at 12:24 pm
-
I'm a bit in the middle on this one. I definitely see Larry and Mike's point but I get the same result when I google the store as Jonathan got. I think what a typical new customer would have done would have been to google it like we did, see the old address, visit the store physically and think that its closed if there are no "we're moving" signs. For a returning customer, they would have just visited and saw that it was closed unless that had been told of the move on a previous visit. Perhaps there are moving signs that just fell off or are difficult to see.
I'm not sure if this is possible but perhaps there's a way to tag a "moving" post from this website such that it doesn't show up on google's index. That might make everyone happy.
Justin
28 Aug 12 at 12:31 pm
-
Didn't see Larry's last post before I posted mine, he addresses part of my comments.
Justin
28 Aug 12 at 12:33 pm
-
@ Larry:
I can see his point, but not the attitude.
He could have gotten the point across without the last two sentences, which really rubbed me the wrong way. I'm not in the market for used games, but if I was, a post like that would have killed any desire to visit that business.
I think there have been one or two times in the past a business moved, and the owners responded positively and politely with info about the new business location.
tonkatoy
28 Aug 12 at 12:52 pm
-
@Larry. Point taken, and conveyed very well. I remember the Bubble Tea place in Harbison. The owner pretty much said "We have not closed, can you please remove the listing" in a very diplomatic way. tonkatoy, I think that is the place you are referencing w/o naming names. Anyway, tone is diffcult to read on the interweb sometimes, but I thought it was uncalled for. I doubt it matters much to anyone.
jonathan
28 Aug 12 at 2:44 pm
-
Like I said initially, Mike's response was terse and to the point, but having your own business is like having a love hate relationship with the internet. Every single customer with a gripe, legitimate or not, threatens to savage your business on the internet if they don't get their way. Those negative reviews are lasting and damaging way out of proportion to any wrong done by the business. So when Mike heard about this review, I can imagine it being just one more stone. And if he was not familiar with the site, he could have wrongly interpreted the mission of this site or the generally good-willed nature of its regulars.
Larry
28 Aug 12 at 3:53 pm
-
I want to point out that I had already posted the correct info before Mike posted his terse comment. He had every opportunity to make this into a positive thing. All he had to do is say something like..
Thanks, Chris! We're very excited to have moved to the CrossRoads Center at 6803 St. Andrews Rd. I hope you will all join us for our grand opening!
But he didn't. I hadn't been in this store before, but I was considering it since I go to the post office right there and Little Caesar's somewhat frequently.
Now I think I'll avoid it. I hope his customer service is better than his online presence.
Chris
Chris
29 Aug 12 at 5:01 pm
-
Chris, while I can agree that Mike's tone seemed to be rather harsh, consider that: he had just found a website saying his business was closed; most review sites are so automated that only a bot ever reads the complaint; and there is no private method to contact Ted about erroneous posts. I don't know Mike, but I do know the personal frustration of having to spend hours and even days trying to correct erroneous business information on the web. Consider that Google used to allow just 2 reports of a business closing to change that listing to "This business is closed." How many competitors or just mean spirited customers are unscrupulous enough. I'm not defending the guy, I am just saying cut him some slack. Think how you would feel if you came in to work and saw an email to everyone saying "Chris has been terminated," and you had no one to go to to get a correction. Check out the guys actual business before you judge him based on a reaction to something on the internet that has the potential to hurt his business, his wallet, and his family (and kids if he has such).
Larry
29 Aug 12 at 5:49 pm
-
What is the new number. I tried to call the old number and it does not work.
Hampton
9 Oct 12 at 5:43 pm
-
I shopped there a few times, but found them to be kind of rude. There was a girl there, that was super nice. I bought a Nintendo there and it broke, they fixed it once, and it broke again almost immediately, they said it was my fault. That was pretty much the last time I bothered shopping there. That was probably 12 years ago.
Mr Bill
15 Nov 12 at 11:54 am
-
Isn't this close to where Power Up Videogames (the business that became Software Seconds) was originally located?
BJ
15 Nov 12 at 4:18 pm
-
Power Up became Software Seconds? I'm not sure that's right - Power Up was a video game rental store (and pay per hour console) location that started in Ashland Park and moved to the strip between the middle and high school.
Software Seconds has always been a second hand game store. I suppose ownership could be the same, but that is two diverse enterprises.
Eh, I know several small business owners. I can see how I would be offended if my store (and livlihood) was being reported as closed. The internet allows for snap judgements, and I doubt there will be much, if any, repercussions to his business because of his terse comment on here. Unless you want to take your chances at a flea market (where they also have a used game presence) or ebay, you'll go here for vintage video games. I found this site by looking to see if they really closed or had moved - got my information - will visit them anyways.
Matt
28 Jan 13 at 4:34 pm
-
Me and my husband have been personal friends of Mike, going on nearly 5 years. Trust me, he has a stressful life, and he can be terse sometimes. But as others have said, you have to look at this from his point of view, it just makes sense.
To be honest, the only reason he moved was because his store became flooded nearly everytime there was a hard rain.
ReneeLouvier
4 Jun 14 at 5:19 am
They didn't close! They moved.
They moved up St. Andrews to the CrossRoads Center, right behind Little Caesar's. I think that's the 6800 block of St. Andrews? It's right next to CrossRoads Middle School. It's the little strip center that has the contract postal unit in it.