B & I Circus Amusements

The Arcade has been downsized significantly, the game choices aren’t as broad but many all of them work, not just a few as before… One thing that would be kind of cool would be to see a little pride taken in the Nostalgic value this place has as well as the appearance outside and inside. Something else that would also help the customer experience is the cleanliness of the place could be better.

best historical place in town. fun.fun.fun.

Growing up in Tacoma In the 60’s and 70’s, visiting this place was a treat. It wasn’t the «mall» it is today, but it was a department store owned by the Irwin family. Still it was a great place to shop while visiting Ivan and enjoying a soda and corn dog. Not to mention the arcade was a place where kids could play for hours with 5 and 10 cent games and rides. Fast forward to present day and you’ll still find an interesting place with the food court serving a variety of worldly tastes, and many stores with everything from A to Z. Worth a visit.

Ghetto, dirty and very RUDE employees! The only reason why we still go to B&I is because of Luis Panes Bakery!

I’ve been here before a few times to get Kalbi and I wanted to try the Chinese food. Unfortunately, I went on a day that the Chinese «food court» was closed. The Korean «food court» was open and they have decent Kalbi. It’s a little greasy, but for the price and the sides, I enjoyed it. I’ve eaten there a few times and I didn’t have any complaints. The price was also very reasonable.
Besides the «food court», there are small stores — like a swap meet. It’s pretty cool to go look around if you find yourself w/​some extra time.

GHETTO SHOPPING!
(4 stars)
MEMORIES. You know you is oldskool, if you come here. In the 80’s, you knew who Ivan the Gorrilla was. In the 90’s, you bought your dickies and ben davis gear here and homies tshirts and filipino/​chomorro/​hawaiian strength t-​shirts and took those «studio» pictures with the backdrop with your hood friends and had the gangsta pose.
My BESTest and I use to come here to buy our baggy clothes and Sanrio stationary. And annually, we’d come here to take those «studio» pictures because they were dirt cheap. GOOD TIMES.

Eh… A far cry from the good ol’ days with the circus tent sales and the water slide. The best thing about this place now is the nostalgic value. There are a fair amount of news clippings from past times on the wall.
There is still a pretty good arcade there, which seems to be the busiest place in the whole shopping center at any point in time. It even has quite a few pinball machines! Also, there are a couple skee-​ball games. Other than that, the store that sells work clothing such as Dickies and Ben Davis is pretty good. There is still the fabric shop as well.
However, this place just has a feeling of sadness in it. If someone had the money to buy it, kick out all the ghetto elements, and make it cool again, it would be one of the funnest places in Tacoma. However, perhaps it simply serves the available clientele, and gold teeth, getting your checks cashed, hair care products, asian food, candles with images of Mary orJesus on them, air fresheners, generic batteries, having a photo printed on a T-​shirt, ghetto audio equipment and rims, clownish bright-​colored clothing too large for its buyers, and more hair products are all the rage these days.
I went to the area where Ivan the Gorilla was caged. His old concrete cage is now some kind of storage area, but there is still a handwritten «Ivan» sign taped to the window. Other information about Ivan can be found stuffed in a corner. The Ivan «update center» is now a place where the security guards hang out and has information about missing people handy.
I guess the horse carousel gets turned on from time to time. There is a photocopied note about free rides once a week.
The pet store is still there. The one puppy I saw tried to convince me to break him out of the glass cage they had him in.

Holy Hooker Hair!
I am a total sucker for weaves and hair flair, and B&I delivers in spades!
Kicked it in the arcade for a bit, rode one of the little kid rides, I think it was a space cycle or some such thing. It was hilarious. Especially when one of us tipped it over backwards (whoopsie daisy).
pro tip: Dickies pants in long lengths for only $ 20.

WOW.
What in the world?
No really.
While driving through the city of Tacoma for business, I passed this interesting looking building that said «B&I Public Market Place» — and thought to myself, «Swap Meet»?
In need of a birthday gift, I decided to brave this interesting looking «mall» and see what they had to offer.
Inside:
Food Court — I was starving, yet nothing was appealing
East Indian goods with belly dancer clothes
Fabric Stores
Clothing Stores (think FUBU from 1996, bad knockoffs of Coach)
XXXL sized clothing for people fond of the styles from 1994
Check Cashing (this place was busy)
Cell phones
Construction Clothing/​Gear
HUGE Arcade. Might be a kid’s dream
WIGS!
You need a wig, weave, or glue?
Then you need to come here. There was a HUGE selection of faux hair, real hair, and all kinds. Two different vendors.
All I can say is: Wow.
Just as Michelle B. says in her review, apparently this really was a well known and successful mall in the 1940’s-1970’s.
It was intriguing, as a history buff, to see the wall lined with ads from 60 years ago and the full staff from the 1950’s. For me, that was the best part of my 30 minute experience here.
In 2010, the stores were depressing, along with staff at every single venue/​market completely bored out of their mind. Sad.
There would be potential for this place, I suppose, if the economy picked up, but for now, not so much. I truly feel for the small business owners trying to make it in here.
My opinion, if you need or want a wig, or happen to be in the city of Tacoma, which I know nothing about, then stop by and check it out, just for fun! Basically, a bunch of craptastic items.
+1 star for having a/​c!

I love this place. Great hair store.
Great Indian store.
African store where you can find rare foods and Nigerian videos.
Gold teeth
Old video games
FANTASTIC GARLIC CHICKEN
crazy club clothes
Adollar store
A check cashing establishment
Cell phone Place
Photography studio
Carpet Sellers
Crazy Hip hop clothing
An ATM
A hair salon
Everything is here
Better than Tacoma mall!

I used to go to the B and I when I was kid. Place has changed alot. but they got some good food there and the stores are awesome.

B & I is a force to be reckoned with. I have been coming here since as far back as I can remember (I can remember back to about 3 yo– so 1982) and tho it has changed significantly, I will say the awe and freak-​show type atmosphere is still going strong. When I was a kid, we came here all the time to see Ivan the Gorilla. I used to be so excited to see that gorilla, looking through the little plate glass windows into his «pin» seeing a gorilla just laying there looking lethargic and depressed. I am glad to say Ivan was sent away to a sanctuary in Georgia I believe but they still have a massive amount of «Ivan the Gorilla» Memorabilia hanging around.
You can also get your tongue pierced, a shirt silk screened with your favorite family photo, cash yo check, buy a puppy that came from a puppy mill, eat Mexican food while smelling the puppies that came from the puppy mill, look at puppies while eating Mexican food who look lethargic and depressed a little like Ivan used too, get your nails did, buy some rims, get Mexican Ostrich boots/​hats/​belts, get colored contacts, get your fake Gucci bag or as I like to call it Pucci bag, all the beauty supply products you could think of, weave, and you could go skateboarding on there ramp inside (i think that is still there), ride rides, play vintage video games (hit or miss if they work) OH and so much more. if you want a afternoon of feeling sad, nostalgic, weird, happy and sad — Go to the B&I! :)

Reminds me if the swap meet… but dirtier. I do not recommend taking the kids here without hand sanitizer… the merry go round is a must ride if you come from tacoma. This place has definitely seen better days. If you’re looking for some generic brands and cheap suitcases ok but for anything else yuck. There are some great islander stores… The pet shop conditions are disgusting. I feel sorry for the animals trapped in the glass, I feel like breaking them out.

Oh, Holy-​sweet-​baby-​Jesus-​crackers! The B & I is such a guilty pleasure!
For anyone on the fence about visiting this oddity … do it! Think Mallrats and the dirt mall Brody loves to frequent. No, no, no, no! It’s a good thing, trust me!
Looking for a puppy, snake, or bunny? How about a booth specializing in custom grillz? Movie sword replica’s? Arcade? How about comics and action figures? A Mr. T full-​sized cardboard cutout???
You can find all of this and more … at ye olde B & I! Oh, eek gads this place is so fantastically kitsch! I mean, there’s old news clippings and photo’s from the 60’s when Burt Ward (Yes, Robin from the Batman series) visited the B & I!
So, if you’re ever bored. go to the B & I and buy yourself a hooker-​wig, Arwen sword Replica, and some Danger Girl comics!
You won’t regret it! Well, you won’t regret it, so long as you lock your car up nice and good!

I have a mild obsession with photo booths. I had heard a rumor of a black and white at the B & I arcade in Tacoma. This is all I had to go on. I grabbed a buddy and hoped for the best. Little did we know we would embark on a most magical of days.
The rumors are true: kitten covered upholstery fabric, grillz, churros, $ 20 bunnies & bird eating tarantulas, bee bee guns, tiger rugs, wigs, nails, and bargain thongs. Not to mention the rows and rows of pinball and indoor carousel (well worth the $ 1.50 a ride once Nirvana comes on the juke box)…
The digital photo booth was a disappointment, but the B&I more then made up for it. Hope I didn’t spoil the surprise.

I absolute LOVE this place! also to mention that I crave for Mr. Wongs food at least twice a week. But other than the Mexican burgers, phở and mouthwatering baked ziti — I love B & I for so many reasons! It’s so interesting to just people watch sitting in their food court! I swear to goodness I saw Lil’ Wayne and Trina there last weekend! haha! But seriously — it’s just real there!

Like most of my reviews here, only here to review pin spots. And this might be the mecca of pinball in Tacoma. 9 working pins here, so nice. The only thing missing here is a nice cold one, but you have everything else including a ball pit to throw your kids into.
If you’ve read the other reviews here, you’ll see this place is pretty diverse as far as food and merch goes. So if you do drop in, you’re not going to have any issues finding something to eat/​drink. Shopping might be another thing, but if you’re into wigs, gold teeth, pets and baseball cards, you should be fine. Actually, the baseball card place has a ton of old consoles (nes, genesis) coming in and out.
So the pins! Lots here, look at the list below. Supposedly some take tokens, most take quarters and most of them are out of bars. So some of these did look a little beat up. I gave Addams Family a few credits before leaving and it held up well and played fine, little slow it seemed, but everything seemed to be functioning. I think most of the games were 3/​$ 1, but who knows, doesn’t seem like anyone is showing these any real attention.
If pinball isn’t your thing, but other coin-​op goodies are, this is still the place. Tons of old arcades and tons of new ones. I guess I didn’t even think there would still be this much stuff there, but really, biggest arcade I know of in Tacoma.
The Addams Family —
Jurassic Park —
Indiana Jones —
Twilight Zone —
EarthShaker —
Star Terk —
Cue Ball Wizard —
Judge Dredd —
Plus a few non working machines — earthshaker, cyclone, whirlwind

Gold Teeth
Notary Public
DoLLLar Store
Beauty Supplies
Discount
Check Cashing
Ladies Clothes
Cell Phones
Pet Store
Foam & Fabric
That is the sign that caused me to whip my car around in an illegal U-​Turn maneuver just to check out what the hell was going on here. Wandering through the «mall» was every bit as wonderful as the sign promised. Go around the corner and find some Mexican hamburguesas right next to the beautiful Indian sari shop, round the next corner you’ll find an X-​TREME hobby store full of remote control cars along with a check cashing place, a tobacco shop, a pet store full of puppies and kittens for sale (who knew pet stores still did this?) a Chinese take-​out counter, and a store full of foam.
Little did I know that this place was THE place to be in Tacoma back in the day. There is a whole wall outlining the history of the shopping mall — it even talks (unashamedly) about the capturing of a baby Indian elephant that lived there, and the famous Ivan the gorilla who was finally sprung to lead a happy life in an Atlanta zoo.
I am definitely heading back here sometime soon. There was a store that was closed (closed consisted of throwing some bright orange netting around their merchandise) where there were all sorts of faux cowboy boots for sale. Since I didn’t understand what orange plastic netting meant we asked the nice guy that ran the adjacent Gold Rims shop what was going on and he told us that they were at the hospital. Sad.
There is so much to see and do here that I’m probably going to have to make an entire weekend out of it!!!