Games Workshop in Manchester (UK) for me. Back when they sold really great stuff such as Role Playing Games, Avalon Hill Boardgames and a bit of Warhammer here and there. Then into Beatties for our Airfix models, Call of Cthulhu figurines, and so forth.
Me and my mate, at 15 decided we wanted to visit Germany (we both studied it) as we'd enjoyed a school trip there. So we started saving, got to about two hundred quid each, then decided it would make far more sense to trek down-town and spaff the whole lot in GW and Beatties.
Interestingly I did not find ASL/BV in either of those two shops. Me and said friend were browsing in Virgin Megastore. We were already mad into SL. So we divvied up, bought the rule book. Got home, opened it wondering "where the fook are the counters", read on, got back on the train to town, to buy BV
Great memories. I miss school so much. Not just the fact of being young and uncynical, but the fact RPGs and Wargames were a massive, intrinsic part of my life. We lived and breathed them. And we were a group of about a dozen really close friends who played three, four and sometimes more nights per week and then Saturday and Sunday. Our history teacher introduced us to AH Bookcase Games...he ran wargames club every Wednesday night. THE best teacher ever.
Sadly, at 52 now I've completely lost contact with all those friends. We all moved onto other things. I'm the only remaining one who plays ASL as far as I know. A friend of mine a while back, when we were talking about similar things made a very poignant remark I thought. "Think back to when you used to play football, or wargames, or just clown around with your friends...and there was a point, one-day, where it was the last time you'd ever do so".