What happened to the store Natural Wonders?

October 18, 2006 4:14 PM

Does anyone know where I might be able to find a CD called "Thunderstorms" that was sold and manufactured by the now-defunct store Natural Wonders?

I'm trying to help a friend track down a CD he used to own called "Thunderstorms." It was one of those sounds-of-nature CDs. His copy was stolen and he hasn't been able to find anything comparable to replace it -- not just any ol' thunderstorm CD will do. Natural Wonders is no longer around, but does anyone know if their CDs are sold under a different name now or if there's a store (online or otherwise) that might still sell their stuff?

posted by awegz to media & arts (8 comments total)

Target has a bunch of thunderstorm CDs. Maybe he'll find the natural wonders CD there (under another name/distributor).
posted by necessitas at 4:20 PM on October 18, 2006

Here ya go.
posted by Neiltupper at 4:22 PM on October 18, 2006

or this?
posted by Sassyfras at 4:28 PM on October 18, 2006

oops
posted by Sassyfras at 4:29 PM on October 18, 2006

Oh, and the original release date was circa 1995, if that helps at all.
posted by awegz at 4:32 PM on October 18, 2006

I used to own that very CD. Don't bother hunting it down, this is better (and free).
posted by phrontist at 5:07 PM on October 18, 2006 [3 favorites]

I don't have a copy of the cd for you, but to answer your other question..."What happened to the store Natural Wonders?"...

From what I understand, they did one of those things where a store gets really popular and then decides to buy out another store, namely...shoot...what was it...World Of Science. Yeah. But apparently, a lot of malls had both WOS and Natural Wonders, and were more than reluctant to let one of them out of the lease, so we had malls with two of the same stores competing with each other, if that makes sense. And when WOS started closing, Natural Wonders began receiving their old stock, which was sort of junky. Except for the rocks and mineral stuff. That was pretty interesting.

Anyway. Long story short, overexpansion brought them to their knees, I learned how to juggle, and as a result, for a brief period of time I got paid ten dollars an hour to sit around and play Monopoly with my fellow Natural Wonders coworkers as the store closed down. I still have my apron, though, and I bring up the fact that I used to sell telescopes far more than I should. Just last night, in fact, I used it to justify my convictions during a conversation.
posted by redsparkler at 5:19 PM on October 18, 2006 [1 favorite]

redsparkler, I used to work for WoS, then Natural Wonders, and selling off all the stock in each of those stores was a hell of a time. I even managed to take home the "World of Science" letters from behind the counter, and some small display furniture. NW was a little too New-Age for me, but WoS was a great job while it lasted (even if the telescopes were too damn expensive). I played chess, and not Monopoly.

Anyway awegs, I was going to give you a link, but Sassyfras already provided it. Sorry for the useless reminiscing.
posted by jenovus at 10:34 PM on October 18, 2006