I'm not exactly old and I still remember them
The one I went to was great, a little independent store with a loyalty card that had absolutely no effect on anything that I could ever discern and filled with these huge bins that just had hundreds of games for PC, consoles, you name it all lined up. Spent many a happy hour flicking through there, and remember distinctly wondering why there were so many copies of Grim Fandango. Sadly I never bothered actually buying it because the box art looked so bizarre and missed that boat entirely.