The difference between the two stores changed was somewhat striking; the athlete's shoe store now mostly focused on beauty, showing off beautiful fit women in their adverts, drawing the looks and admiration of just as many women as there were the lusty looks of men.
Meanwhile, the bookstore had undergone from a politically neutral establishment to a political stronghold for a political movement held by only a fraction of women with a stranglehold on political attention.
Or at least it seemed, that way, until you stopped looking at the books that were on the shelves and started looking at what was selling and sold out. The books on gender issues were priced for clearance, and yet nobody was even touching them. Instead the hot sellers were the romantic novels like the one you saw the former boy reading, the dating advice section, and various books related to domestic life or fashion.
Noting the prevalence of beautiful women on the pages of the books, even the ones marketed to straight women, to the point the man's face was cut off at the top of the covers, you begin to get the impression that women really like beautiful women; maybe even more than men do.
With a glimpse at a video games store, you get the impression that it would be an easy way to see if that's truly the case. With a quick flick, you cover the store's lights with the flashlight's beam.
Almost immediately, the store changes from having many gritty looking shooters advertised next to post-apocalyptic fantasy games, to having almost entirely Japanese Role-playing games, with a handful of western ones as well with some very busty women on the covers. Much of the stock looks to be imported and untranslated, drawing the attention of a few boys and girls from outside the store who seem drawn to the new stock.
You looked around for the handful of games sporting supposedly 'strong independent women' on the covers that you could have sworn you saw before you shone the light, but it seemed they were absent. Not even a single copy of the latest shooter who's entire marketing campaign was 'women were in world war two as well'; At least until you saw the clearance bin, and despite them being new games it was clear people were avoiding it like the plague. Whatever women bought here, it seemed that was one thing they weren't interested in. It probably didn't help that the girl on the cover was missing two of her limbs.
You paid attention to a couple who you noticed were a boy and a girl before, you noticed that before they were both showing interest in the same game that advertised busty ninja schoolgirls and jiggle physics, and the game itself hadn't changed now that you'd shone the light; but there were now posters of the game plastered all over the store. The took it and another similar but older game to the counter, and you noticed it was the entry in its series from right before the developers tore the giggle physics out; the latest entry without the jiggle physics sitting in the clearance bin.
The couple themselves had also changed a lot. The original girl was previously wearing a somewhat smart looking clothing, like what you'd expect on a girl working their first office job, while the former boy was wearing something more casual with just a tee-shirt and pants.
But now the original girl was dressed up as one of the beautiful protagonists from a certain long running JRPG with numbers in the double digits, her red hair grown long and spiralling down one side, with a leather skirt hugging her hips and a white jacket and a long sleeve glove on one hand, with fingerless gloves over it and her other hand; she'd also gotten shorter and cuter, and she wore glasses that were supposed to make her look more serious like the character despite the character not having glasses, but she just looked mischievous instead.
The former boy was now wearing a cat ear style hoodie, mostly blue, and with a band of black ringing the hood, shoulders, neck and waist, with a cream yellow covering her torso. Her pants had almost completely disappeared, and you'd have thought she was wearing the hoodie like a dress if not for her leaning herself over the counter to talk to the cashier and showing a pair of hot pants that looked silky enough to qualify as underwear; accented by the black stockings that went up to her thigh, capped with black sneakers with pink soles.
You couldn't quite over-hear them from how far away you were looking at them from, but from the way they were miming out the appeal to them of jiggle physics with their own modest and shapely breasts bouncing alluringly as they did so; the cashier looking downcast as they did, gazing disappointed at the clearance bin as if it's going to be their fault the new games that wound up in it aren't selling despite the huge marketing push.
For a moment, you start wondering why there aren't any light puzzle games or other casual games being sold there like you'd heard girls normally like... But then you remember those kinds of games are all on smart-phones nowadays, and those that buy them would likely avoid game stores like the plague, while a girl who walks into a video game store would have to be a more devoted gamer.
You couldn't help but smile, its a weird trip into the mind of girls there. Perhaps you should take more notes on what people actually buy in the stores you change, it could be informative.