B & I Public Marketplace — Local services in Lakewood

This place is definitely not what it used to be. It survives predominantly off of foreign business owners, that I personally have no problem with - But definitely leaves little common interests, aside from the Asian hair supply shops which are hard to want to visit because the staff and follow you as if you are there to steal everything they have, unfortunately. They'll let you try on wigs at a ridiculously limited amount of times (usually 3x) AND/ OR make you PAY for a stocking knit cap THEY require you to wear. Other than that bathrooms smell funny, even after being cleaned, which leads me to believe there may be mold issues. The interior design is basically non-existent and outdated. Each store seems to run into one another making it hard to know what store is what, if they even have a name or distinguishing attribute. Majority of the clothing stores are garments made of cheap material, that's overly priced and seems like it wouldn't survive a single wash at home. Clothes run small with loud colors, bedazzled jeans for men, tight fitting spandex dresses for women, which feature cuts and designs from the early 2000's with equally overpriced and tacky, bright material that seems to be shipped from overseas but couldn't withstand the light cycle from a residential wash machine. Hallway annexes and corridors that lead to nothing at all or an empty space, filled with packing or building materials or both. Laid about and randomly thrown around. OH. There is a food court featuring a multitude of ethnic and cultural foods, but again fairly overpriced with long wait times that seem to be worked by 1 to 3 people that barely have enough space to walk by each other, crammed behind a long countertop. All of which are overshadowed by the cooking area/ kitchen that is always veiled behind some dreary, dark colored heavy looking curtain. Each food stop has different, random hours. So none of the so-called "food court" eatery options are consistently available at once or at the same time. I won't even START on the sketchy looking "car detailing" businesses that are conveniently tucked behind along the back side of the B&I. That seem to be unadvertised and stashed away from...

Inexplicably disregarded by whomever owns or maintains the facility, the b&I's interior is shockingly neglected and its funereal atmosphere will haunt patrons who recall its former glory. Imagine my reaction when, after having not visited in 16 years, I was greeted with the same ancient Tacoma Tribune clippings about Ivan, beginning with the 60s/70s and stopping suddenly in 1996, each one tacked to the wall and apparently left to forever peel, yellow, and ultimately disintegrate before our eyes.

The same photos in dusty frames hang now slightly crooked, the smiling faces of hundreds of children playing in the arcade and riding the circus carousel, the photo of Burt Ward (Batman 1966) dressed down in his Robin regalia greeting Tacomans, all the faces in all the pictures frozen in time as the world races along around them, each year the halls before them growing evermore quiet and cold.

It was an unexpectedly impactful visit, one punctuated somberly by the sight of Ivan's drab, empty tank at the end of that long corridor. I couldn't believe it was still precisely as it was in the days following his departure. I last saw it 15 years ago? Maybe 20? It was stunning, and I decided after picking up my jaw from the floor that it was time to exit the time capsule. While it was amusing at first, the marvel of a place so frozen in time, amusement quickly gave way to nostalgia, then to melancholia and mild emotional discomfort.

Go visit if it means anything to you. As a kid, I so loved it there. Perhaps catharsis awaits you as it did myself. MuNch a $5 Bar-S hotdog...

Like this place they have very good deals on work related apparel like work clothes and work gloves, and they have a dozen [12] Atlas gloves for $30-35, or ones similar to Atlas for $30, and Carhartt jeans, double Dungarees for $47, and they have every size you could need, T shirts for around $10, and long sleeves, Hi Vis, for $12.95,, if you was ever wondering what they have and for what price, but the gloves are the best price you can get on work gloves and I know this cuz im always shopping around for good deals on work gloves made by Atlas, which are the best you can get for work gloves, they have a cool coin shop also, radio equipment everywhere in the store, and they'll hook it up also for the cheap and work boots, video game store also. Hair store, cutting and wig store, everything you could need they got it and a good selection of food, so it's a place to bring the family for a day out and have fun, cuz they also have a huge quarter game spot to play video games, with the kids and it's as big as anyone's around, race car games, pac man style games, it's huge and fun for the kids to play while you shop and eat, you can make a day out of it, if you want to, they're is that much too do, and that's a guarantee if you haven't been in a while, but the pet store is no longer there, but alot of other places, and a check cashing place, they will cash your check without id, also if your...