Another Valley mall goes to the dogs ...

Just a few weeks after Maricopa County's Animal Care and Control announced an experimental retail location at the struggling Metrocenter Mall in Phoenix, the Arizona Humane Society is launching a similar venture at the arguably more down-at-heel Desert Sky Mall.

Times are ruff for retail, indeed.

Metrocenter goes to the dogs, officially

We knew times were rough at Metrocenter, but not this "ruff."

Starting in August, the troubled mall will be host to an experimental retail location of the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control department.

The store, approved by the county's Board of Supervisors on July 7, will be on the lower level near the Sears department store, in a space vacated by a pet shop.

It will offer dozens of dogs and cats for adoption. It will also offer dog licenses, but no vaccinations or pet drop-offs, according to a report in the Arizona Republic.

Metrocenter general manager Christine Cunningham told the paper that the shelter will drive foot traffic. Sounds like they are trying to play it as the cat's meow. But to others, it's just another sign of a once innovative mall going to the dogs.

Retrocenter: The Gamekeeper

Tucked in the southeast corner on the lower level of Metrocenter was a little store that had the power to inspire wonder and fear -- and fun.

There be dragons.

It was called the Gamekeeper, and it's where my mom bought my older brother his first polyhedral dice and rulebooks for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 1st Edition (which I now hold and cherish), and where I cleaned up on 3rd Edition books over 20 years later as it closed its once playing-card styled doors for the last time.

Yes, the doors were designed like giant King and Queen cards (I forget the suit, but I bet it was Hearts), and the large display window backed up onto a glass cabinet full of the strangest and finest chess sets anyone could ever covet.

It was beautiful.

Accounts differ on whether the name of the store was Game Keeper, Gamekeeper or GameKeeper. It's tough, even with the wikisphere, to track down official info on a store that has been out of business for so long -- and changed names in many markets long before it was shuttered. No offense is meant if the name is presented differently from what you remember.

The game store in the 1984 Dabney Coleman-Henry Thomas vehicle "Cloak and Dagger" was a Gamekeeper (it wasn't ours; the film used a location in Glendale, Calif. ... although "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" was filmed at Metrocenter -- a topic for another post, surely.)

The Gamekeeper was eventually bought by Wizards of the Coast, the company behind the popular collectible card games Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering that was later bought by Hasbro and would absorb the Dungeons & Dragonsempire of TSR. The Metrocenter location was renamed after the Washington state company, but some locations (such as in California) retained the traditional Gamekeeper name.

The stores were charming for their inventory and atmosphere, if not the friendliness or knowledge levels of their staff. I remember asking one clueless clerk at the Fiesta Mall location in Mesa about a Wizards of the Coast product that was due out that very week; she had never even heard of it! Still, when the lights were on it was a place you could rely on to find the basics.

But the rise of big-box toy stores and, later, Wal-Mart would squeeze this quaint chain out of business. The last Gamekeeper location closed down in 2004, after Wizards of the Coast announced it was ending its retail experiment and would focus on game design.

But at Metrocenter, games still go on where the GameKeeper fell. A GameStop electronics entertainment store sits in part of the space; the rest is a vacant storefront -- an all-too-familiar sight at the mall these days.

And, of course, the mall now has a very similar store: Game Nightz, just a few storefronts down near the elevator, right across the way from where Waldenbooks used to be.

But that's another story, and shall be told another time.

Cholla library closing on Fridays due to Phoenix budget cuts

Starting April 5, the Cholla branch of the Phoenix Public Library, located in the inner circle of Metrocenter, will be closed on Fridays as a result of city budget cuts.

Cholla joins the Cesar Chavez, Ironwood, Juniper, Mesquite, Palo Verde and Saguaro branches in Friday closures. Acacia, Agave, Century, Desert Broom, Desert Sage, Harmon, Ocotillo and Yucca will be closed on Sundays and Mondays.

The main branch, the Burton Barr Central Library, will remain open seven days a week.

All library hours will be as follows: Monday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday 1 to 5 p.m.

At the Burton Barr library, service reductions will make the Accessibility Center, which provides materials to disabled patrons, available by appointment only.

You can reach the libraries at (602) 262-4636 (if anyone's there) or http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org.