Couple of thoughts. 1. In the background you can hear a series of two or three chimes/tones. This was a constant part of the department store experience. It wa

Couple of thoughts. 1. In the background you can hear a series of two or three chimes/tones. This was a constant part of the department store experience. It was a communication system that I guess eliminated the need to tell customers what exactly was happening. https://ask.metafilter.com/14044/Department-Store-Chimes https://ask.metafilter.com/14044/Department-Store-Chimes 2. That vertical black box with the space wars clone was a Vectrex. A kid was playing it and it was on display at the checkout counter (amazingly, unoccupied). It would have been brand new at the time. > The Vectrex is a vector display-based home video game console–the only one ever designed and released for the home market, developed by Smith Engineering. It was first released for the North America market in November 1982 and then Europe and Japan in 1983. Originally manufactured by General Consumer Electronics, it was later licensed to Milton Bradley after they acquired the company. Bandai released the system in Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vectrex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vectrex 3. November 1982 marked the end of the then-worst recession since the Great Depression. > Prior to the 2007-09 recession, the 1981-82 recession was the worst economic downturn in the United States since the Great Depression. Indeed, the nearly 11 percent unemployment rate reached late in 1982 remains the apex of the post-World War II era (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis). Unemployment during the 1981-82 recession was widespread, but manufacturing, construction, and the auto industries were particularly affected. Although goods producers accounted for only 30 percent of total employment at the time, they suffered 90 percent of job losses in 1982. Three-fourths of all job losses in the goods-producing sector were in manufacturing, and the residential construction industry and auto manufacturers ended the year with 22 percent and 24 percent unemployment, respectively (Urquhart and Hewson 1983, 4-7). https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/recession-of-1981-82 https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/recession-of-19... 4. It's interesting to consider that the raw footage collected in the clip may be more valuable than the actual news story ever was. It's really hard to know what future generations will find compelling.