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¿Question #228956?
freechinanow: The shutting down of GeekMarket is a surprise, yes (and to think of all those contributor dollars wasted on its outside development). But what I find very interesting about it all is that the announcement was made in a locked thread. The last half-dozen major BGG announcements have usually been followed by 20 or so pages of intense criticism, most from dedicated financial supporters of The Geek. Anyway, not sure there's a question to this. It's just funny. I suppose that even early into the life of a company like Starbucks, only the hippest teens would go, bucking the trends of a corporate Dunkin' Donuts America. Anyhoo... let’s think of a related question. Can you think of a place/establishment you used to go to because it seemed "indie" or "counter-culture" but then it became fully corporate as it eliminated each little piece of its organic, community-driven roots?

Woelf: Caribou Coffee always felt like an indie place, but that's mostly just because they're primarily located around the Twin Cities in Minnesota and haven't really branched out nationwide on the scale of Starbucks or Dunkin' yet. Barnes&Noble seemed kind of indie at first too, at least while Borders and Waldenbooks were still around.
Inkedad: In-N-Out burger: I still eat there, but now I never eat on site. Used to be you could sit outside or in your parked car, but now they are so big and busy... I just grab & go.
Derang3d: Yes, but there's a Q&A thread where they remove anything they dislike. Which is stupid, as none of them even read the complain-threads anyway. Euhm idk I went to some indie places but all of those got demolished from the outside.
pricero1: The USA.
oriecat: There is a separate thread for discussion or questions, but yeah it is weird to do it separately, like why not just in the one place... who knows... as for the question, hmm I can't really think of anything right now.
freechinanow: I certainly think back to HMV (the music store) which was where you went to find music that you couldn't get anywhere else. A place you knew you'd get the best out-there recommendations, and likely find the new best thing that nobody was talking about yet. I worked there between 2001-2006, and in between that very small window I saw CDs having their most banner year to witnessing the precipice of a digital future coming on at full speed, and the owners having absolutely no idea what to do except to keep pushing CDs and DVDs and hoping the technology wouldn't die. But in their fear it became a Top-40 store only, where you had to push only the radio-friendly hits so that we could get back bigger discounts from the top music companies (Sony, BMI, Universal). It was the most interesting thing to watch implode on itself, though painful for someone working in it and seeing their dream job (I work at a record shop!!) transform quickly into a Wal-mart that only sold two types of dying media and had no chance of survival. Those were strange times indeed!