Cor Azer said:
I have to say The Hairy T is possibly my least favorite FLGS in Toronto... he may have a fair bit of stuff, but he seems clueless about anything upcoming as far as RPGs, CCGs, and boardgames go.
Conversely, the 401 is almost always my first stop in Toronto.
The Hairy T has a large number of employees. My expectation is that the "he" you refer to was not the owner but a part timer filling in on the day you were there.
As it so happens, the Hairy T is my FLGS. It is located in a grimy building, above a headshop on Yonge St. - about a block north of Yonge & Dundas - Canada's "Times Square".
Across the street from the Hairy T is the Zanzibar - the largest strip club in downtown Toronto and one of the few strip clubs left on Yonge St..
Tattoo shops, army surplus, arcades and electronics and camera stores with metal grates in the windows surround the area block on either side. On the street are a perpetual mass of teenagers and punks in their early 20's - more piercings and tattoos then you'll see mostly anywhere. They look odd - but it's a wink and a nod and they step aside.
The doorway up to the shop is extremely easy to miss. There is an old painting of a 4 foot tarantula on the sidewalk right by the doorway. I've been there dozens of times - and I still miss that doorway all the time.
The stairs up to the shop are on the building interior: steep, narrow and carpeted in an ugly grey ratty indoor/outdoor fabric. The walls have graffiti: old posters of comics and old game product lines appear and flash by your dimly lit way on the climb up.
The door to the shop is solid wood, painted over a bazillon times. There is no latch on the door. You just push it to open. The door is one of those things with several dead bolts which lock up after the store closes.
Inside the store is well lit and - to your relief - nowhere near as grimy as the way in and the street below might indicate. Racks line the walls and reach up high. shelf space is at a premium and filled with product.
A table forms a centre island of product on sale.
There is a rickety back room where people game, another back room where they store older stuff you can ask to see and a side room for comics, anime and weird stuff.
The Hairy T does not pretend to be flashy. There is little chrome and glass, apart from the counters which are also crammed with more CCG and dice than you thought were being manufactured.
What there is what you came there for: a CANOE FULL of stuff at decent prices. An entire wall is devoted to books shelved so only the spine shows of 3rd party published products. All the stuff you see mentioned on ENworld and wonder where on earth you can find something from a small press like that? The products which appear in small business card size ads in the back of Dragon/Dungeon which appear to be mail order only?
Where do you find this stuff?
Simple: You can find it at the Hairy T at a reasonable price.
And that's why its my FLGS.
)
The strip mall took that space, cut it in half and made two shops from it. Visions moved in about, oh, six years ago after it spun off from a comics store. 
I also appreciate a store that doesn't have the home decor of a bachelor gamer's bedroom in his mom's basement.
