What was a super popular store/company that no longer exists in your city/state?

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erilaz7@reddit

B Dalton and Waldenbooks. Practically every mall had one or the other, if not both.

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eac555@reddit

Gemco, a department store chain. A lot of them became Targets. They had a full grocery store inside and were the cheapest groceries in town. I worked in one as a teen.

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erilaz7@reddit

I bought a number of books and records there as a teen. My family also used to go to the optometrist's office inside Gemco, and that's where I got my first pair of glasses.

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NemeanMiniLion@reddit

Blockbuster, Sam Goody, Macaroni Grill

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erilaz7@reddit

There's still a Macaroni Grill about half a mile from my home. I haven't eaten there in years, though.

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takemyaptplz@reddit

I went to a macaroni grill in an airport recently and it was HORRIBLE. Not at all like the real restaurant that I used to go to

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animepuppyluvr@reddit

Similar to Blockbuster, there used to be a Hollywood Video near my gmas house.

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eyetracker@reddit

There's exactly one Sam Goody, and it's in the same state as the remaining one Blockbuster video (Oregon, not the same part, about 3h apart)

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PAXICHEN@reddit

I mentioned Sam Goody as well. I loved just browsing that place.

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GenXer76@reddit

Ernst

J.K. Gill

Lamonts

PayLess (drug store)

Waterbed Warehouse

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PositiveAtmosphere13@reddit

The Bon Marche now Macy's

Frederick & Nelson department stores. A step above Nordstrom's. Sold Frango's chocolates. Fought with Marshall Field's over who had the right to the chocolate. Always had the real Santa at Christmas.

The Bon, F&N and Nordstrom's were all started and headquartered here. Nordstrom's brags about their customer service and return policy. But the big three department stores all had the same policy. Nordstroms was nothing special. That is until F&N closed and Macy's took over The Bon.

Bartels Drug stores. Bought by Rite Aid. Then Rite Aid was bought by CVS. The stores were closed so as not to compete with CVS.

Pay&Save drug/Ernst Hardware/Lamonts clothing. Same corporation. Couldn't compete with the big national big box stores.

Sears.

The reginal headquarters was here along with the catalog distribution center

J C Penny's.

Before Pennys focused on the big suburban malls. They had stores in small towns and neighborhood businesses districts. You could shop for clothes or order from the catalog. When you were a kid, JC Penny's stores were cool. The stores were all the same. They had an open sales floor. Their offices were on an upper open balcony or mezzanine level. The sales clerks on the floor would send up sales slips to the clerks on the mezzanine with pneumatic tubes. Whoosh. Like the bank drive thrus. They would do the transaction then send back down your change.

K mart. Saw a stand up comedian insult a heckler by saying his shirt looked like the middle of the k mart three pack.

Too many shoe stores to list.

Reginal beers exist in name only.

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781nnylasil@reddit

Lamonts

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GenXer76@reddit

My fellow Washingtonian…

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jellybeans_in_a_bag@reddit

Justice when I was a kid also sweet and sassy

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Penguin_Life_Now@reddit

There are so many that either no longer exist, or are down to only a few locations nation wide it is hard to count, Sears, Montgomery Ward, Ben Franklin's, K-Mart, Piggly Wiggly

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Redneck-ginger@reddit

still have piggly wiggly in Louisiana

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UnofficialCapital1@reddit

PigWig still kickin. It was never a nationwide brand though: semi regional to the south eastern US and Wisconsin.

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BorisTheHangman@reddit

Enron. They were “creating money” left and right.

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teslaactual@reddit

sears, Kmart, blimpie,Reams

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MVHood@reddit

Mervyn’s

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crispyrhetoric1@reddit

Market Basket and Alpha Beta were supermarkets when I was a kid.

Sambo’s was a family restaurant. There was one left in Santa Barbara but it finally changed its name.

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Sample-quantity@reddit

I recently saw a Market Basket and was amazed because I thought they had been gone for decades.

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tacitjane@reddit

Spencer's.

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Hamster_S_Thompson@reddit

Fry's electronics

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laughingmanzaq@reddit

They had a store in Renton Washington...

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OverSearch@reddit

We had several in Texas. It was a great place to while away 2-3 hours on a Saturday.

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MasterOfPuppetsMetal@reddit

I used to go to the Sacramento and Roseville locations all the time! I was pretty bummed out when they went of business.

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SnooGadgets5744@reddit

There used to be one in Indianapolis, but it didn't have any aliens.

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East_Direction_9366@reddit

Grants and Newberry’s

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Sample-quantity@reddit

I haven't thought of Newberry's in years. Used to get school clothes there, and Girl Scout uniforms.

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DrMindbendersMonocle@reddit

Departments stores like SEARS and Montgomery Ward. Online shopping basically killed them

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Blue387@reddit

Eddie Lampert drove Sears and K-Mart into the ground

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Specific-Peanut-8867@reddit

They’d be bankrupt regardless… every store tied to malls struggles that’s a large chain like that and while I used to agree with you, if you actually look at the financials of them, it’s not like he bought them when they were thriving

But a lot of people assume if he wouldn’t have bought them, they would be still open today and that’s not true

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laughingmanzaq@reddit

Being owned by a asset stripper probably expedited there end...

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my_clever-name@reddit

Sears had a great mail order business. They could have been bigger than Amazon.

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Specific-Peanut-8867@reddit

Not at all they were totally different business model than Amazon

And Amazon makes their money on web services and not the product delivered to your house

But have a great catalogue and like a lot of legacy companies new companies came around with different business models that had fewer legacy costs

Like having malls in every city that you own

So you think that they’re gonna wanna maintain that huge retail presence and then offer cheap prices like Amazon and you know Amazon doesn’t sell a lot of the products direct they just fulfill orders for other people

JCPenney’s had a great catalogue too. Why aren’t they thriving?

Montgomery Ward had a great catalogue, but they went out of business

You can read about sears catalog… you’d find that it was discontinued a little sooner than you think because of the costs

But if there’s wanted to compete with Amazon, they would’ve shut down most of their stores anyway and then just been an online retailer 🤣

You can look at your financials and you can read about the challenges they’ve had even before online stuff, but you never thought about how Walmart impacted their business or how shifts away from people shopping at malls impacted their business

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Jurneeka@reddit

The Sears catalog history is quite interesting. You can go on Archive.org or the local library and find reprints of their catalogs dating back to the late 1800s.

One big difference between Sears and Amazon is that most everything that Sears sold for years was under their own labels - "Sears Best" "Craftsman" "Kenmore" and so on. Their headquarters was in Chicago and the Sears complex grew to 3 million square feet. We always had the Sears Catalog at the house growing up. Except for the Wish Book, pretty much everything was Sears branded. My refrigerator is a Kenmore and still works great - I think it's early 1990s.

Amazon didn't start putting their own brand on merchandise until well after they got huge. Usually it's something that you can get through a brand name, but at a lower price.

Even if Sears hadn't ended their catalog business, I don't think they would have been able to pivot and be "bigger than Amazon". IMO.

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Specific-Peanut-8867@reddit

The series catalogue was revolutionary and this time but so many people assume that Amazon makes all their money selling products to people, but they make most of their money on things unrelated to selling products

And Amazon doesn’t have thousands of small properties that they own that have a ton of property taxes, and fees associated with owning properties at these locations

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4Q69freak@reddit

Actually, Amazon is almost following Sear’s business model exactly (so far). I read a Wall Street Journal article a few years ago that was a warning to Jeff Bezos to be wary of how he proceeds using Sear’s as a comparison. Both started as a “mail order” company selling 1 specific item, Sear’s sold watches, Amazon books. They both expanded what they carried to many more items. They both started brick and mortars (Amazon bought theirs, Whole Foods). Where Sear’s failed was in keeping up with technology. The WSJ article’s opinion was that Amazon cannot rest on its laurels like Sear’s did when Amazon came along or some new form of shopping may come along and replace Amazon like it did Sear’s.

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Specific-Peanut-8867@reddit

You’re 100% wrong because Amazon’s business model… and they do not make their money off of the products they sell

I mean, people assume that’s where they make their money, but it’s not where they make most their money

You don’t even understand what Amazon does they do product fulfillment for thousands of people

But Amazon makes most of their money off of their storage stuff. Their data center stuff.

Websites use their services

So you can think Sears had the same business model as they do, but you’d be a moron to actually believe that because Amazon makes most of their money on things that can be related to selling stuff to me and you

But you could tell me I’m a moron. I really don’t care.

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Specific-Peanut-8867@reddit

Not one thing I said, wasn’t factual

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8avian6@reddit

Exactly. By the time Eddie Lampert bought K-mart Sears, the company already had so much negative equity that it was beyond saving. At this point Eddie Lampert is just stripping the company for parts to benefit his hedge fund.

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Specific-Peanut-8867@reddit

I don’t even mind some criticisms of Lambert, but people have this myth in their mind that he destroyed a company that was thriving

He bought a company that was bankrupt and just couldn’t make it work

But people have weird memories

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sheeprancher594@reddit

Yup. A lot of mall anchor stores have bitten the dust. And, unfortunately, a lot of independently owned specialty stores in malls have gone belly up.

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Specific-Peanut-8867@reddit

What’s crazy is there’s a lot of strip malls out there that seem to do a while but the large concept malls for the most part struggle and one reason is the cost of being in them is very expensivelol

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Responsible_Slice134@reddit

I liked the lifetime warranty on Craftsman tools and I enjoyed the prices of Kenmore appliances.

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workntohard@reddit

We discussed the drawn out bankruptcy of Sears by Lampert when I was in business school long before it finally ended.

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Dizzy_Lengthiness_92@reddit

I sears invented the mail order catalog but decided to do nothing with the internet.

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gtne91@reddit

Sears should have had the easiest conversion to online. The Sears Catalog was how they got started, just stick it online.

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Ok-Entertainment5045@reddit

Sears killed Sears. They were basically the OG of online/ mail order shopping

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MegaTreeSeed@reddit

RIP SEARS. You used to be able to order house kits from them, way way back in the day.

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callmeprin2004@reddit

Mervyns

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Sample-quantity@reddit

Open - open - open

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Darmok47@reddit

I always felt bad the founder od Mervyn's outlived the store.

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Inconsequentialish@reddit

Galyan's. (Indiana)

Fantastic sports and outdoor stores.

Replaced by Dick's in some places, which is about 50% golf crap and 50% crappy clothes with giant sports brand logos.

No hiking boots, tents, kayaks, etc. and very little actual sporting goods aside from golf crap

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sapotts61@reddit

Radio Shack was my store from the 70's until the late 90's.

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morganproctor_19@reddit

Department store named Mervyns. "Open.Open.Open."

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MonsieurRuffles@reddit

Two Guys

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Blue387@reddit

Midtown had the automat and sadly I was too young for it when it closed.

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TK1129@reddit

My grandfather worked for NBC for a bit in the 50s and 60s and would occasionally bring my mom to work with him. She was there to see tv shows get made but her fondest memories were that my grandpa would take her to a Horn & Hardart a little further up off 6 Ave and he would let her get whatever she wanted and put the coins in the machine

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Atlas7-k@reddit

My grandfather was a fan on L&M automat. They kept their coffee at a nickel.

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Succulent_Roses@reddit

Ben Franklin's Five and Dime.

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4Q69freak@reddit

There are still a few Ben Franklin’s around. There is one in Macon, MO.

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Succulent_Roses@reddit

Not in my city/state.

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4Q69freak@reddit

Didn’t say there are a lot of them just stating that they haven’t gone completely extinct. I hadn’t seen one in a long time (Grandma worked at one in Decatur,Il in late ‘70s) until we moved to Macon in ‘05.

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Succulent_Roses@reddit

Didn't say they've gone completely extinct.

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pinniped90@reddit

I was in a small town in Kansas a few months ago that had an awesome 5 & Dime. Very well preserved and well supported by people now. A mix of nostalgia goods and modern stuff people go their regular shopping for now.

I forget if the affiliation with Ben Franklin was still alive, or if that even exists at all, but it 100% had the retro vibe and a crew taking good care of it.

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dwhite21787@reddit

Always got my Sherwin Williams paint from Ben Franklin

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Rarewear_fan@reddit

Enron

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chriswaco@reddit

I was working for an internet startup in 2000 and Enron was going to be one of our largest customers as they moved into streaming services.

You can guess how well that turned out.

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Odd-Tell-5702@reddit

Kmart

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chriswaco@reddit

I think they finally knocked down the Kmart headquarters in Troy, Michigan. Been sitting empty for a long time.

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SalesTaxBlackCat@reddit

Tower Records

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igottathinkofaname@reddit

Sam Goody

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PaRuSkLu@reddit

Musicland!

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MoronLaoShi@reddit

The feels. RIP

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Upstairs-Storm1006@reddit

Harmony House too

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devnullopinions@reddit

Boeing pre-McDonnell Douglas merger when the c-suite was still in Washington state. This was back when engineers were values and actually mattered at the company.

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Jsmith2127@reddit

Kmart, Sears, Shopko, Montgomery Wards

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sheeprancher594@reddit

Richman Gordmans went to just Gordmans and is now owned by Brand X, last I heard.

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Prinessbeca@reddit

RIP Zooland

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RIPdon_sutton@reddit

Service Merchandise

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OverSearch@reddit

Damn, I loved Service Merchandise back in the day. There's nothing out there that really fills that spot anymore, although Circuit City (RIP) kinda sorta came close.

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Pinkgabezo@reddit

We drove for an hour get to a Service Merchadise, but it was worth it. We live out here in the middle of nowhere so now we order a lot online. I miss all those stores we used to visit. 😔

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akgt94@reddit

My wedding ring is from Service Merchandise

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Nars-Glinley@reddit

I got my wife’s ring there.

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Csimiami@reddit

BEST

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit

I liked their funky individualized facades.

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PAXICHEN@reddit

There was one in NJ next to The Quaker Bridge Mall. That’s the only one I remember.

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WiseConfidence8818@reddit

This was the first store I thought of.

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ConstantinopleSpolia@reddit

Farmer Jack was a very popular grocery chain in Metro Detroit. They were acquired by A&P in I would think the late 80s or so. Hudson’s was a popular department store, - Crowley’s and Jacobson’s, too.

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A-trusty-pinecone@reddit

No mention of Blockbuster? Every Friday I got to pick out a game and a movie to rent for the weekend.

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Jurneeka@reddit

True but by the time they died (except for that one in Washington State or wherever it is) very few people went there anymore because Netflix and so on. I know a lot of folks really enjoyed browsing through videos to find something to watch but usually I would go there looking for one specific movie and of course it would be completely sold out. I jumped on Netflix right after I found out about it!

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Jurneeka@reddit

So many, but I'm in my 60's, so...

ones that come to mind other than the obvious (Sears, Tower Records, etc):

Emporium-Capwell's (a San Francisco based department store)

The two Magnins: I. Magnin and Joseph Magnin

Woolworth's, JJ Newberry, and Ben Franklin (Five and Dimes usually with a lunch counter)

Back when I was younger, a "department store" really WAS a department store. There's still a Macy's in our local mall (for now - been there since the early 1950s and its going to be sad to see it go which is inevitable) but it used to really have *departments* in separate walled sections. One was books and records, another for office supplies, another for seasonal stuff etc. A lot of people had Macy's accounts and they would just go there and do most of their holiday shopping. You could go to the different departments, buy your gifts, and then they'd be sent to the gift wrapping department and you could get lunch at the restaurant inside the store (our Macy's initially had a Lyon's Restaurant but later a restaurant called Mama's) while your gifts were being wrapped.

These days I hardly ever buy gifts except for Secret Santa in my family. I was trying to find a place where I could have it wrapped because I didn't want to buy a ton of wrapping shit or one of those gift bags with tissue. The mall used to have a wrapping popup but apparently not anymore. Ended up buying gift wrapping and I have to say I did a pretty lousy job of it.

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4Q69freak@reddit

Carson, Pirie, Scott in IL, most became Von Maur’s. Don’t know if that’s who bought them or if it’s a coincidence.

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Judgy-Introvert@reddit

It’s been years, but I still miss Newberry’s.

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NoSpaghettiForYouu@reddit

I wanna say…Filenes? I have a vague memory of hearing my mom and aunts talk about a store called Filenes or something similar

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WaldoJeffers65@reddit

Borders Books. It's probably the chain I miss the mist.

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gonyere@reddit

Ames

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meowmix778@reddit

Came for this. And Bradleys

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snarkwithfae@reddit

Adding Caldor into the mix!

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ritesideuppineapple@reddit

Don't forget Clover

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DragonScrivner@reddit

Strawberries. It was a music store in New England

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matthewsmugmanager@reddit

Yes!

And Tweeter, Etc.

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snarkwithfae@reddit

I LOVED STRAWBERRIES.

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DragonScrivner@reddit

That red, loopy font in their logo was next level

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msabeln@reddit

Peaches Records.

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DragonScrivner@reddit

There appears to be one left in New Orleans — that’d be a fun “just because“ trip

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StutzBob@reddit

In the Pacific Northwest we had a big box sporting goods store called GI Joe's that went bankrupt in 2009. I still miss them. Kind of like Dick's crossed with Bass Pro but with an auto parts department too. It was where you went when you needed, say, a life jacket or a baseball bat. They had parking lot sales in the summer with good deals on clothes.

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PandaBear6113@reddit

Joann Fabrics

Payless shoes. It’s so hard to find wide width women’s size 7, and they seemed to have a great selection of wide width shoes.

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majortomandjerry@reddit

Fry's Electronics used to be the go to computer store for Silicon Valley

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mr-singularity@reddit

Yeah Fry's Electronics and Circuit City were basically the only national level electronic superstores. Best Buy was never really on the same level and in the modern day is much more appliance, home theater, and phone focused.

Microcenter is really the only one fitting that niche now. But they are much newer and expanding slowly, which means that most people have to turn to online stores at the moment.

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TheDreadPirateJeff@reddit

I had hopes at one time for Tiger Direct stores. We had one in the area and it was as close as I could get to a Fry’s. Well, we also had a CompUSA too. Both are long gone.

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IrishSetterPuppy@reddit

When I was first dating my wife we went into the Palo Alto one and built her a gaming PC, 4790K, 770, 16gb, 1tb hdd. Was a blast and she really enjoyed picking out stuff based on vibes. That place was great.

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igottathinkofaname@reddit

Was just talking about this with my brother. Apparently the OG Fry’s on Hamilton (the pyramid one) is currently a Spirit Halloween Store.

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the_short_viking@reddit

Same in Austin.

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SnooGadgets5744@reddit

I loved the LA one! When I moved back to Indiana I found out that there was a Fry's in Indianapolis but when I went there, it was just a boring old electronics store. No aliens. 👽😞

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TheDreadPirateJeff@reddit

Toys-R-Us.

Best

Brendles.

Hills.

K-Mart

Circuit City.

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Maxpowr9@reddit

The only remnants of Lechmere, is the Green Line T stop which is slightly younger than the company's namesake.

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Ok-Entertainment5045@reddit

Rite aid

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Q8DD33C7J8@reddit

Spirit Halloween. It was always a big deal to go there for Halloween. It was like part of Halloween to us. And this year they just never came. Said they wouldn't have the time to hire people? Like wtf?

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wieldymouse@reddit

Zayre

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Hot-Fact-3250@reddit

Maison Blanche

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adambuck66@reddit

Coast 2 Coast

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True-Blackberry-3080@reddit

wet n wild

Water mania

Literally anything in Kissimmee built after Disney was built but before I-4 that was on the main road to magic kingdom.

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CautiousString@reddit

I’ll add Boardwalk n Baseball

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marchviolet@reddit

I miss Wet n Wild

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gmwdim@reddit

Border Books was started here in Ann Arbor.

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foragingfish@reddit

Does anyone remember Steve and Barry's? Super cheap clothes. Everything in the store was the same price. Like $6 or $7.

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MotherOf4Jedi1Sith@reddit

Blockbuster! Of all the stores that have closed over the years, I miss Blockbuster the most!

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Bluestarkittycat@reddit

Schnucks. I miss it so much.

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MattinglyDineen@reddit

Caldor and Bradlees

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Icy-Whale-2253@reddit

Modell’s 😔

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honorthecrones@reddit

Woolworth’s I loved their lunch counter

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iamjacksreply@reddit

Woolworths, although I did see one during a cruise to Mexico.

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capsrock02@reddit

Blockbuster

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Tape_Face42@reddit

Frys

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tcrhs@reddit

Orange Julius

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mrbeige3@reddit

Mervyn’s.

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Slight_Literature_67@reddit

Coconuts Records, Builder's Square, Frank's Nursery and Crafts... stores of my youth.

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kitchengardengal@reddit

Frank's was such a fun store!

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Slight_Literature_67@reddit

It was the best! I remember all the ceramic ornaments at Christmas. It was tradition to buy those, and my sisters and I would paint them for the tree. I still have rose bushes in my yard from Frank's that are thriving.

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originallyfromtexas@reddit

Loehmanns

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Neuvirths_Glove@reddit

KMart.

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JohnMarstonSucks@reddit

Something specific to the state or just in general? Toys R Us, RadioShack, and K-Mart were incredibly popular everywhere I've lived.

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Bamboozle_@reddit

My old Toys R Us is now becoming a Trader Joes, so it was my toy story as a kid and now a sort of toy store as an adult.

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MoronLaoShi@reddit

There’s a Toys R Us in every Chinese mall

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Chaos__Insurgency@reddit

Circuit City

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justattodayyesterday@reddit

Fry’s electronics

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msabeln@reddit

CompUSA

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degobrah@reddit

Something specific to my area?

Weiner's

Foley's

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Living_Road_269@reddit

Peaches

A record (vinyl) store 🎶

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Heavy_Calligrapher71@reddit

My partner has a vintage Peaches tshirt we found in their mom’s storage!

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Inside-Run785@reddit

Kohl’s Grocery Store and Cub Foods. Funny thing is, Kohl’s buildings had a unique look, so you will see the buildings around once in a while and can absolutely tell what it was.

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JosephBlowsephThe3rd@reddit

Ukrops grocery stores

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UnRealisticDepths@reddit

Woolworths, Strawbridge & Clothier, Wanamaker's, Tower Records, Sears, Gimbels, Mervyns, Walden Books, Crown Books, Borders Books and the list goes on and on......

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arickp@reddit

We used to have the French hypermarket chain Auchan in Houston. I would buy CDs there. They had lots of fancy cheeses since it was French, you also had to put in a quarter to get a cart out

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Both-Structure-6786@reddit

Shopko

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Bacontoad@reddit

Midwest Mountaineering. :(

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IowaAJS@reddit

Kmart

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Birdywoman4@reddit

Service Merchandise in my city was one the most profitable of all their stores yet they chose to close it down. I never understood that. If I had a gift to buy for a wedding I would always head that way to get it or buy other things for our house because they sold well made things.

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Key_Assistance_2125@reddit

Blockbuster until I was around 7, Boarders until around 10, at least the one in my town

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Sanjomo@reddit

Britches Great Outdoors

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jptsr1@reddit

Circuit City.

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dwhite21787@reddit

Buster Brown shoes

Shakey’s pizza

HoJo’s

A&P

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wwhsd@reddit

Rubios fish tacos were all over the place in San Diego, then they tried to expand and really changed up their menu and now they have almost all closed.

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SuperPomegranate7933@reddit

Probably dating myself here (they closed when I was a kid) but Caldor & Bradley's

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g-burn@reddit

Media Play. That place had it all

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bunrakoo@reddit

Oh so many: Strawbridge & Clothier, Wanamakers, Gimbels, Borders Books, Woolworths, Bonwit Teller, Sam Goody Records, Lits...

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CounterAgentVT@reddit

Does The Nature Company count as popular?

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Cheap_Coffee@reddit

For folks in eastern Massachusetts: Spag's

Also: Building 19

The theme here is "good stuff cheap."

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TheLightingGuy@reddit

Lucky's market. They had a few stores, then Kroger got involved and gave them a shitload of money to expand, then Kroger pulled out and they ended up going bankrupt.

Actually I take this back. the OG store in Boulder is still around.

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kippersforbreakfast@reddit

We had one in Columbia, MO. It was great.

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SalesTaxBlackCat@reddit

There’s one in my old neighborhood, the Oakland Hills

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mrtsapostle@reddit

Lucky exists throughout the bay area

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TheLightingGuy@reddit

I looked that one up, Looks like a different one. Lucky's Market here was a smaller competitor to Sprouts and Natural Grocers.

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about_yonder@reddit

The Bon Marche. It was similar to Macy’s (which did buy it).

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SippinOnnaBlunt@reddit

RadioShack used to be everywhere.

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stabbingrabbit@reddit

Mar-Beck. Appliance parts store. Miss that place. Always had the part or filter you needed.

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ButtSluts9@reddit

Hollywood Video.

Think Blockbuster, but better.

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JLR-@reddit

Mervyns

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distrucktocon@reddit

Kid zone…. Those roller slides in the 90’s were something else.

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stabbingrabbit@reddit

Venture stores. They were like Kmart

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shutupimrosiev@reddit

Circuit City seemed cool when I was a kid. Never got to visit, though- I was the only one in the family interested in their wares, and then they went　 bankrupt.

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kitchengardengal@reddit

Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. It was a true old fashioned department store in the Chicago area.

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TheTooz72@reddit

Licorice Pizza

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racedownhill@reddit

Utah had ZCMI (America’s first department stores) up until the early 2000s. The ones that remain are Dillard’s or Macy’s now.

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straycatwrangler@reddit

Kmart. JCPenney. Sears. Radioshack. Toys R Us. The Toys R Us building was turned into a Big Lots store, which closed down recently and is now a furniture store. So, no more Big Lots either.

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Delicious-Ad5856@reddit

Borders JC Penney Strawbridges Wannamaker Ginauardis KMart Blockbuster

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Common_Cut_1491@reddit

Burdines

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Miquiztli@reddit

KB Toys

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husky_whisperer@reddit

Radio Shack

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Yeegis@reddit

I’m pretty sure every single American born before the rise of Amazon greatly misses Sears

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Olderbutnotdead619@reddit

Miller's Outpost - where teens - adult bought very decent cool clothes that lasted

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IHaveBoxerDogs@reddit

Wow, blast from the past!

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Olderbutnotdead619@reddit

👍🏻

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Imaginary_Ladder_917@reddit

I was picturing this store but couldn’t remember the name

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Get_schwifty333@reddit

Woolworths. We had them all across the nation at one point but they started closing in the 90s I believe. The only one left now is the one here in my hometown although its only the lunch counter thats open. They just opened it this year again after restoring it since 2022.

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sillywillyfry@reddit

dominicks

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redfoxblueflower@reddit

Circuit City. Blockbuster. K-Mart. Sears. Mervyn's. The Limited. Borders. Hm...that's all I can come up with for now. Loved growing up when I did. Oh...Waldenbooks, too.

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Prairie_Crab@reddit

Famous-Barr, Macy’s, Bergner’s, Montgomery-Ward, and Sears, all department stores. The rise of Amazon during the Covid shutdown killed them all.

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Curmudgy@reddit

Macy’s is still around. They have about a dozen stores in MA alone. And, of course, their flagship store at Herald Square. I’d cry if they ever lose their wooden escalators.

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Predictor92@reddit

The irony of Sears shutting down their mailing catalog in the 1980’s right when if they had kept it open for another few years, I think they would be in an amazing position today

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Particular-Coat-5892@reddit

I miss Miller's Outpost. I could always find jeans on clearance and they had the best graphic tees!

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FishermanNatural3986@reddit

Caldor or Lechmere.

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Curmudgy@reddit

I miss Lechmere. Best Buy is in the same ballpark, sort of, but not nearly as good or as large a variety.

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PAXICHEN@reddit

Lechmere was awesome. Bought my 27” Trinitron at the one at Cambridgside Galleria.

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BusinessWarthog6@reddit

Is K&W still around?

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Cromasters@reddit

Quiznos

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dshgr@reddit

Hochschild Kohn, Hutzlers and the Hecht Co.

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TheArgonianBoi77@reddit

Tia’s Tex mex

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Visible-Disaster@reddit

So many of my teen years spent in Musicland, Sam Goody, Orange Julius, Borders, Electronics Boutique, Circuit City, Waldenbooks, Sears and RadioShack. All gone from my town.

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embarrassedalien@reddit

Ain’t got Whole Foods anymore. Sucks ‘cause they ran out the smaller “healthy” food store when they moved in across the street.

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Fire_Mission@reddit

TG&Y

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HotButteredPoptart@reddit

Ames

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Rustymarble@reddit

Iron Hill Brewery

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BearsLoveToulouse@reddit

The wound is still too fresh

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Equivalent-Speed-631@reddit

Sears Montgomery Wards Circuit City Toys R Us Ben Franklin Service Merchandise Kmart Ames Christopher & Banks County Seat Fashion Bug Brooks Zayre Two Guys Dart Drug Peoples Drug Revco Rite Aid Radio Shack McCroy’s Eyerly’s Department Store Schindel's Pharmacy Nichols Newberry’s

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shotputlover@reddit

Quiznos was so good, when I’m in the Pacific Northwest I love getting some

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mooncr142@reddit

The Emporium. Clothing store in Oregon, Idaho and a few other states. Great clothing selection.

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MulayamChaddi@reddit

Woolworth’s

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GossipBottom@reddit (OP)

We still have Woolworth in Mexico!

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Cinisajoy2@reddit

Sears, Montgomery Wards, Kmart.

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eyetracker@reddit

Egghead Software. And Fry's Electronics though that was never conveniently located to visit, especially before I could drive.

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PAXICHEN@reddit

Forgot about Eggghead.

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Sparky-Malarky@reddit

Marsh supermarkets were a thriving brand in central Indiana. They were everywhere. Then suddenly they were gone.

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Key_Question9699@reddit

Used to have Kmart and Albertsons

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DropTopEWop@reddit

Radioshack was huge

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misterlakatos@reddit

Radio Shack and Color Tile were always in the same strip malls.

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misterlakatos@reddit

I am showing my age but years ago in the Midwest there was a department store chain (kind of a poor man's Target with a touch of TJ Maxx) called Venture. It had zebra stripes as part of its branding. I think they went bankrupt 30 years ago.

There were too many options and places like that became redundant. If my memory serves me correctly they may have had a food court as well.

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RobotShlomo@reddit

Bradlees.

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sheeprancher594@reddit

Holy smokes. Forgot about Bradlees.

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RobotShlomo@reddit

I have very fond memories of Bradlees at Christmas time when they would fly Santa into the parking lot by helicopter.

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PAXICHEN@reddit

Sam Goody

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MasterOfPuppetsMetal@reddit

We've had quite a few close down over the years.

In our town, we had a Sears, Kmart, Blockbuster, Toys R Us, and Holywood Video.

Holywood Video went out of business in late 2010 Blockbuster closed down in 2013 Kmart went out of business in our area in late 2014 Toys R Us shutdown in 2018 Sears closed down in mid-2020 JoaAnn Fabrics closed down about a month or 2 ago.

There was also Fry's Electronics. We didn't have one in our town, but we had 2 within a 40 mile radius. I really miss that store since I love working on computers. My dad would sometimes take me there on the weekends and we would browse the store. Most of the time, we never bought anything, but it was still pretty fun. I bought about half of the parts for my first PC build back in 2014 from Fry's. I helped my cousin buy parts for his brother's birthday in 2017. They closed down in early 2021.

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Immediate-Earth6603@reddit

Family Video

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SKULLDIVERGURL@reddit

Service Merchandise, Lurias, Sears, Burdines…..

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dmbgreen@reddit

Sears

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yours_truly_1976@reddit

SEARS and Benjamin Franklin. I miss those stores.

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SaucyFingers@reddit

Caldor. Their cassette/CD prices were always a few dollars less than record stores.

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Taleigh@reddit

Oregon: Meier and Frank

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the_owl_syndicate@reddit

There used to be a chain of gas stations called Town and Country that were a small, more reasonably sized version of Buc'cees and were my go-to stop for clean bathrooms while traveling, especially in mid and west Texas. I would go out of my way to go to a T&C because they were clean and well lit, as well as affordable and well-maintained.

Then they were called Stripes and the cleanliness started to decline, as did the general upkeep and maintenence. Now they are owned by 7-11 and I tend to avoid them unless I have no other choice.

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Ames
Golden Circle
Higbee’s (bought by Dillards)
Kaufmann’s (bought by Macy’s)
Builder’s Square

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