Anyone remember the San Francisco novelty stores?
 

Ever wonder what happened to them? Here you go:

Background
San Francisco Gifts Ltd., Re

In the Matter of the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, R.S.A. 1985, c. C-36,
As Amended

5 San Francisco operates a national chain of novelty goods stores from its head office in Edmonton, Alberta. It currently has 62 locations and approximately 400 employees.

6 The group of companies is comprised of the operating company, San Francisco Gifts Ltd., and a number of hollow nominee companies. The operating company holds all of the group's assets. It is 100 percent owned by Laurier Investments Corp., which in turn is 100 percent owned by Barry Slawsky (Slawsky), the driving force behind the companies.

7 Apart from typical priority challenges in insolvency matters, this
proceeding has been punctuated by a series of challenges to the process and its continuation, led primarily by a group of landlords that includes the opposing landlords.

8 On December 30, 2004, San Francisco pleaded guilty to nine charges under s. 42 of the Copyright Act,[FN2] which creates offences for a variety of conduct constituting wilful copyright infringement. The evidence in that proceeding established that:

(a) An investigation by the St. John's, Newfoundland, Fire Marshall, arising from a complaint about a faulty lamp sold by San Francisco, led to the discovery that the lamp bore a counterfeit safety certification label commonly called a "UL" label.[FN3] The R.C.M.P. conducted searches of San Francisco stores across the country, its head office, and a warehouse, which turned up other counterfeit electrical UL labels as well as counterfeit products bearing the symbols of trademark holders of Playboy, Marvel Comics and others.


(b) Counterfeit UL labels were found in the offices of Slawsky and San Francisco's Head of Sales. There was also a fax from "a Chinese location" found in Slawsky's office that threatened that a report to Canadian authorities about the counterfeit safety labels would be made if payment was not forthcoming.

(c) Copyright Act charges against Slawsky were withdrawn when San Francisco entered a plea of guilty to the charges;

(d) The sentencing judge accepted counsels' joint submission that a
$150,000.00 fine would be appropriate. In passing sentence, he condemned the
company's conduct, particularly as it related to the counterfeit labels,
expressing grave concern for the safety of unknowing consumers.[FN4]

(e) San Francisco was co-operative during the R.C.M.P. investigation and the
Crown's prosecution of the case.

(f) San Francisco had been convicted of similar offences in 1998.


9 Judge Stevens-Guille's condemnation of San Francisco's conduct was the
subject of local and national newspaper coverage.

10 The company paid the $150,000.00 fine from last year's profits.

Oh I used to love those stores lol

There were even copycats, like one called "Hong Kong Imports".. they had some cool toys there, including somewhat hard to get Dick Tracy action figures

well we all knew they sold neat but crappy products; i didnt think they went that far as being counterfeits though lol

there was one at brentwood before and i used to always go to the back and check out the nudey posters when i was a kid hahaha:)

I always thought that they had just changed their name from San Francisco Store to Spencer's Gifts.

The store was awesome back in early 90's.. Then it became watered down and not as fun. And then it disappeared.

Best store in capilano mall
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I used to buy the stink bombs in those little glass jars and take them to high school and toss them in class rooms lol

it's not spencers?? lol

Ya man. That shit STUUUNK. Same with the fart spray they sold...

I had the topless babe playing cards.. first form of porn I ever owned!

no i'm pretty sure thinkgeek.com killed majority of the joke shops

^ never heard of that site til now.

Old times old times... Metro was a lot more different back then...

I still remember how the store looked like hahaha

They had both in Rutherford mall. remember those battery? powered planes that were tied to the roof with a string and spun around?

Oh the 90's.... Sigh.

No but seriously, it was the best decade ever.

Playdium :awwyeah:

but when it changed to winners... :rukidding:

LOL or fart spray... We got a can and ripped the top right off and left it in the bathroom at Tim Hortons... The whole place was bombed it was hilarious

Such a rebel :fuckyea:
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Or the lighters - when you held another lighters flame close the black dresses on the girls, they disappeared. I remember one exploding in my hand, I tried to make the dress disappear forever, needless to say, lighting one lighter on fire with another wasn't exactly a well thought out design.

We used to throw packs of those little glass stink bombs over the balconies at the mall into the food court. Good times.

Actually seems wholesome compared to what kids are doing these days.

Oh the stink bombs!! great times in high school with those.