Tom Nook’s Store: Best to worst shop expansions

[Alolan_Apples]

To continue the trend of Old School Animal Crossing blogs, I would like to discuss the shops we had before Timmy and Tommy were the shopkeepers.

The system we have now are five shop expansions. There were four parts that Tom Nook’s store had that separated from each other. The four things Tom Nook’s store did in every game leading up to New Leaf:

• House Expansions and debts
• The shop (furniture, carpet, wallpaper, tools, stationary, ordering, and remodeling)
• Gardening supplies (house plants, saplings, seeds, and two tools)
• Selling and turnip prices

In New Leaf, Tom Nook was still in charge of the first part as it also has more house renovation options. But he’s no longer in charge of the shop he used to run. Timmy and Tommy are now in charge of the shop (which was the second part). At the same time, the shop doesn’t sell gardening supplies anymore, at least from the same unit. And the last part went to the Re-Tail.

Now let’s go over the other part, which is Tom Nook’s Store. Based on the store hours and features as the series progressed by, it has peaked in City Folk. Even New Leaf’s system isn’t as good as City Folk’s. In the GameCube Version, all of them (except one of them) had the same operating hours. They open at 9:00 AM and then close at 10:00 PM. Usually, I like playing the game as long as it’s within the times Tom Nook’s Store is open. 6:00 AM may be the time a new day begins, but 9:00 AM is when everything starts waking up. Nook ‘N’ Go, however, opens up at 7:00 AM and closes at 11:00 PM. This not only meant I have an hour later, but I also have two hours earlier to explore. Due to the uneven opening hours, Nook ‘N’ Go is the best of the Nook’s Store expansions in the GameCube Version. In Wild World, all stores are open at 8:00 AM and close at 11:00 PM. Therefore, it gave me the impression that bigger is always better, especially when the Shampoodle is part of Nookington’s. So Nookington’s is the best of the Nook’s Store expansions in Wild World. Now let’s go to City Folk. The relationship with size and hours of operation is what made Tom Nook’s store better in City Folk than in previous games. With Nook’s Cranny not being part of the trend, you have an option to choose between longer hours or more items sold. If you prefer seeing more items sold in one day at Tom Nook’s Store, the department store (Nookington’s) is the best. If you prefer longer hours so you can sell your fish any time, the convenience store (Nook ‘N’ Go) is the best. If you want a balance in between, the supermarket (Nookway) is the best.

Now I’m going to rank the shop expansions from best to worst.

• #1 - Nook ‘N’ Go: Even if I were to judge by design or by soundtrack, Nook ‘N’ Go would be the best store expansion of Tom Nook’s store. The reason why I put Nook ‘N’ Go up there is because even for a small store, the interior design was great. Exterior design, it’s the only expansion of Tom Nook’s store to have a sign post outside. The double-light banner also appeals to me. Not only that, but it’s also a convenience store, and convenience stores are usually nice in real life. They may be smaller than a grocery store, but they have a neat variety of snacks. On the soundtrack note, the GameCube Version’s Nook ‘N’ Go is better than any shopping soundtrack in Animal Crossing. Last, and definitely not the least, it has the longest shop hours of Tom Nook’s Store expansions.
• #2 - Nook’s Cranny: Despite not being as good of a store as the others, Nook’s Cranny is high on my list because it shows how fresh and new a town is. The more progress you make, the better your town is, but I always liked the early stages of a game in general, even Animal Crossing. The later stages of a game makes it feel old, which makes me feel that it’s not as good anymore. Think of it as a school year. The first few weeks makes you feel that everything is new, but as you stay there for a while, it’s not as good anymore. This is how I feel about moving to a new house as well. Now in New Leaf, they treated the counterpart of this store as the worst, by having no carpets, no wallpaper, no medicine, and no way of ordering from the catalog.
• #3 - Nookington’s: The last two stores are among the bottom of my list. While I like department stores like Nebraska Furniture Mart (a rather obscure chain, but the stores are huge) better than mega markets like Wal-Mart and online retail like Amazon, Nookington’s is one of the lesser shop expansions of Tom Nook’s Store. While the New Leaf counterpart has a fantastic exterior design and a high-end luxurious boutique as part of the store, Nookington’s exterior design is among the worst. What I like about it (besides the Shampoodle in Wild World) is that it has a lot more items for sale, and they separated the commodities by floor. As someone who like home design, the second floor would be better, but at least Tom Nook is at the first floor. Shorter opening hours make the store worse, but the store’s interior design and how many items being sold daily make up for the disadvantages.
• #4 - Nookway: In all of the Animal Crossing games (especially New Leaf), the supermarket is the worst of the Nook’s Store expansions. Even if I’m avoiding negativity, it can’t be ranked any higher. The first reason is that it’s a supermarket. While I like convenience stores and department stores when it comes to design, supermarkets have never looked good in terms of interior design. Not even grocery stores. Not even Hobby Lobby. If there are any redeeming qualities about Nookway in the older Animal Crossing games, its exterior design is better than both Nook’s Cranny and Nookington’s, and its interior design is better than Nook’s Cranny. Oh, and its GameCube soundtrack is better than Nookington’s GameCube soundtrack while its Wild World soundtrack is better than Nook’s Cranny’s Wild World soundtrack. Now if I were to be negative, it’s not the store that I don’t like. It’s the change between Nook ‘N’ Go to Nookway that I don’t like. Going from long hours to short hours is a disappointment, and the design is not as nice as Nook ‘N’ Go’s design was.

Now if I were to rank the shop expansions in New Leaf, it would be 1) T&T Mart, 2) T.I.Y., 3) T&T Emporium, 4) Nookling Junction, and 5) Super T&T. But since this is Old School Animal Crossing Week, I’m only doing Tom Nook’s Store.