New store in Granby taking people back in time with goods from the 80s, 90s

GRANBY, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - A brand new store in Granby is taking people back in time and helping the community relive their childhood.

Western Mass News stopped by Legends: Video Games, Movies and More, a brand-new store in Granby, and when we opened the door, it was like stepping into a time machine, taking us back to the 80s, 90s, early 2000s, and today.

“As soon as we stepped in here, the first thing we noticed was all these VHS are right there,” said Tyler Richards of Easthampton, “It’s kind of like that childhood feeling of having the VHS tapes and popping them in.”

Blue-rays, Pez dispensaries, Pokémon cards – you name it, Christopher Silvestri has it. He told Western Mass News that he has been dreaming of opening a store to sell, trade, and buy those nostalgic staples from his childhood for the last 15 years. And, thanks to the help of his wife Amy and daughter Evelyn, his dreams are coming true.

“My wife helps me a ton and Evelyn helps me a ton, too, my daughter, so they were both the MVPs of all this,” Silvestri told us.

Silvestri said that a lot of the items in the store came from his own personal collection and he is happy that he was able to open up a shop that allows his daughter and other kids to get some of the same experiences he did growing up.

“I looked around the surrounding areas – Granby, Belchertown, South Hadley. In it, there’s no stores like this anymore, so I wanted to bring back the nostalgia in the physical media, and a lot of things are going digital right now, so I want to bring it back to the area,” he told us.

Customers Tyler Richards and Robert Jacques tell Western Mass News that they are happy he did.

“With all the new stuff kids have nowadays, it’s cool to be able to have the ability to go back and see what stuff you see more so in the past,” Richards said.

“I feel like our time is the last generation of kids,” Jacques added. “I got to experience this stuff, so if it could be brought back, that would be amazing.”

Jacques told Western Mass News that walking into places like this gives him a feeling he just cannot describe.

“It’s sort of something that’s been lost,” he said. “That was so great, really. People used to go to the video store just to hang out. It was even a good area where you were just socializing with people, and I think that people need to be together. We have been separated for way too long.”

That is exactly what Silvestri was going for.

“I want you to feel like, almost like your kid again back from the 80s and 90s,” he said. “I want them, when they walk out, to feel like a legend.”

You can find Silvestri’s new store across from Dollar General on Route 202 in Granby.

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