Nerd Alert will celebrate with a grand opening Saturday, May 15th, in Cooper-Young.
That means nerds or want-to-be-nerds can purchase a wide range of items, including Pee Wee Herman toys, a Frankenstein mask, switchblade combs, and candy cigarettes. “Everything we always liked and wanted when we were kids,” says Tyler Oswald, 43, who owns the shop with his wife, Melissa, 40. “Our main plan was if we didn’t sell it, we could use it at home. Every T-shirt we carry, we would wear. Every toy, we could use.”
The front of the shop features the “1980s, ’90s kind of kitschy stuff and horror,” Melissa says.
The rear of the shop is the arcade, with vintage games, including Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Mortal Combat, and Street Fighter. “We want to build a nostalgia factor,” Tyler says. “When you go into the arcade, we want to give people a certain feeling when all the sounds and lights come one. We have black lights in the back. Everything is going. We’ve got ’80s music playing all the time.”
And, Melissa says, “We wanted “just a place for all kinds of nerds.”
And, Tyler adds, “We want it to be an experience.”
They also want people to use the shop as an event space for birthday and other parties.
Nerd Alert, which opened late last year, originated in Chicago, where the Oswalds previously lived. The Chicago version of the shop, which was called Clutter, opened in 2017.
The Oswalds made up their minds to move during the polar vortex of 2019. “When it was minus 40 degrees, we decided it was time to get out of there,” Tyler says.
“You could throw water up in the air and it would turn to snow,” Melissa says.
They looked at other cities, but, Melissa says, “We kind of picked Memphis to move to ’cause we really loved it down here when we came to visit.”
They liked the vibe in Memphis, Melissa says. And they particularly liked Cooper-Young. So, they packed up their four kids and — in three trips using a horse trailer, cars, a camper, and a truck full of nostalgia, arcade games, a 7-Up drink machine, a 1950s amusement park ride car, and fun house bears — moved to Memphis in March 2020.
They bought a 1,500 square foot building, which had been an old printing shop. “On my 40th birthday,” Melissa says. “I said that’s what I wanted for my birthday.”
They spent two months renovating the building. “We were here every day,” Melissa says. “There was no HVAC in here.”
And, she says, “We opened during COVID, but we needed to have a grand opening. We said it was like the longest soft opening.”
So, what is a “nerd”? “I think it’s somebody who is really passionate, to the point of obsession,” Tyler says. “They dress up a certain way. They have to buy something in a certain category because they love it so much and they can’t stop. We have sports nerds, dance nerds. They’re obsessed with whatever their category is.
“Not that they’re the outcasts, but they think about things little differently. We wanted a place where they could gather.”
Melissa spends time talking to visitors about horror, and Tyler talks to them about new games that have been released. They wanted Nerd Alert to be a place “for people who don’t have a store,” Melissa says.
Tyler and Melissa are proud to say they were nerds growing up. “I’m the video game nerd,” Tyler says. “I think about it 24 hours a day. I make the kids play all the different kinds. Most kids in their school don’t know what Dig Dug or Centipede are. But the kids have been breathing that since day one.”
He also was a big skateboarder growing up. “I’d ride my skateboard to play video games.” Tyler dressed as a “skate rat. Giant pants. I’d always have a big skateboard. Skate shoes. Just really big black T-shirts.”
“I was a legit nerd,” Melissa says. “I studied really hard and I was in the band. But all my friends were punk rockers, so we would go into the city.”
She would sneak off to go to CBGB’s, but, she says she also “would stay home just to watch B movies. I loved science fiction. I’d spend the entire weekend watching Forbidden Planet, Day the Earth Stood Still.”
Melissa, who grew up in New Jersey, and Tyler, who grew up outside Philadelphia, met on American Online Instant Messenger, which Melissa describes as “the ’90s version of Facebook.”
“I gathered from her profile that we liked the same music: punk rock and hardcore metal,” Tyler says.
“I used to dress up in a robot costume and danced in a punk rock band,” Melissa says.
You might say it was love at first sight. “When I met Tyler, he had the Star Trek ships hanging from his ceiling,” Melissa says.
Though it was during the pandemic, business boomed after they opened their shop last December. “The people in Cooper-Young are so supportive of anybody that opens,” Melissa says. “I didn’t think anybody was going to come in. Anyone. And we were busy all weekend. Some of the people still come in every week.”
As for their stock, Melissa says, “We only try to keep obscure things at this shop you can’t find at any of the stores. ‘Dirt’ soda. ‘Kiss’ soda. They’re good sellers. We’ve got a Pee Wee Herman doll, Garbage Pail Kids from the ’80s. We’ve got every single one of the horror and monster memorabilia. People come in for that a lot.”
The arcade games “start in the ’80s, Space Invaders and Pong, up to the early 2,000,” says Tyler, who finds games “in people’s garages and in their basements. One lady said, ‘I’ll give you an excellent price if you’ll just get it out of my house.’ Because it was in the basement. Thirteen steps. Oh, my goodness, it was perfect. it looked like it came off the assembly line. Centipede.”
The Oswalds have more plans for Nerd Alert. “I’m always thinking of the next step,” Melissa says. “I would like to go upstairs and expand the birthday parties. And there’s a big back lot. We’ll have bands playing this coming weekend. [Cassette Set and Turnstiles]. And I’ve had some requests for other bands. It’s open to anything anyone wants to use the space for.”
They’re happily settled in Cooper-Young, but the frigid temperature stalwarts admit they were surprised to see the heavy snowfall in Memphis a few months ago. “We thought we’d never see snow again,” Tyler says.
Nerd Alert is at 1061 South Cooper Street; (901) 501-1949.
