Department store cafeterias hit different during those day long weekend shopping excursions
Posted by stamata_tomata@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 63 comments
mc1rmutant_@reddit
Back to school shopping. You were excited, but you have already gotten your cool shit like that transformers trapper keeper and now are just being dragged through the clothing department. The smell of popcorn wafts over and you see the icee sign and seats in the distance beckoning in the distance like a desert oasis… but first go in the dressing room and try on this mountain of clothes, you’re growing like a weed!
LonelyAsLostKeys@reddit
Great comment.
yinchanvo@reddit
Hot take: I was raised in Brooklyn and always believed the Rainman "KMart Sucks" line.
Woolworth was my jam. King's Plaza, strip malls, etc.
Terrapin3641@reddit
I worked in one and we had some Little Ceasars food. We used to get super baked and just throw down on crazy bread.
unclestink@reddit
I have so many fond memories of being a teenage stoner working at Little Caesar's in the 90s.
Terrapin3641@reddit
Pizza Pizza Dude 🍕 😋
SlapHappyDude@reddit
My older brother worked for a couple years at Target's food avenue. The soft pretzel and Ice combo was my thing well into college.
gummi-demilo@reddit
My brother and I would always get Icees and popcorn at Target in the 90s. Back in the mid 80s, Smitty’s (grocery chain in AZ) had them too as you walked into the store.
Geek_King@reddit
My first job at 16 was working a summer in a K-Mart eatery! It wasn't fun, in the fall when school started up I left and went to work at a video rental store, which was way more fun.
My most memorable time at the K-Mart eatery is, see how they had individual tables with one side is chairs the other side is one long bench? I had a customer's toddler run down the length while wetting themselves, spreading urine down the whole thing, which puddled where the back meets the seat like some kind of piss trough. Not a good day.
DetCityDaveST@reddit
I irrationally hate that you use “hits different” in the title.
magsli@reddit
I love this conversation because it's actually a business model that is coming back again!
Around the 1880s/early 1900s, most flagship department stores included full scale restaurants and fine dining. By the 30s-40s, it was literally a standard experience between the US and Europe. Then Malls popped around the 70s, and it shifted to food courts, but with some chains like KMart still attempting to incorporate them. The model died out in the 80s due to general cultural and societal shifts. Income the 90s with stores like Price Club, BJs, Sam's Club, etc, all embedding a low-tier food option in store.
However, in Europe, it is still a thing at high end department stores like Harrods and Selfridges in London, Le Bon Marché in Paris.
Guess what- it's slowly coming back to the US now. Printemps (French dept store) just opened a gorgeous location in Manhattan. And then in most cities, the model has circled back on a smaller scale. Boutiques and banks are starting to incorporate little coffee shops and cafes. Things are changing, and even though it is super capitalistic, I do think it's actually a great idea to get people to shop in person rather than online... anything to be with people again, even if it's a big box store.
IpeeInclosets@reddit
Why can I smell ketchup in this picture?
roomtempquiche@reddit
Was anyone else's called The Eatery?
All through the 80s, we had the full restaurant in the back of the store with rust/terra cotta colored awnings that said "The Eatery" on it.
(I'm 100% sure about this because we thought it was the funniest thing ever and prank called the workers constantly. All we ever did was ask what the prices of food items were, but I'm sure it was annoying af to them)
Anyway, I've never seen any old footage or flyers or whatever call it The Eatery, so I guess ours was the only one?
(Sometime in 90s, they moved it up front and changed it into the whole Little Caesar's thing)
Rhianna83@reddit
I remember my grandma always getting the senior citizen coffee here 😆
walkinghrviolation86@reddit
My Kmart had a full dinner in the back corner of the store. It was actually a great diner. It lasted till Walmart came into town in 2000.
LittlehouseonTHELAND@reddit
Mine had a diner too, it lasted until abut 1998 I think. My grandmother would take me and my mom for lunch there all the time when I was a kid. Good memories!
unclestink@reddit
Our mall had a Sears with a MacDonald’s inside it
olive_juse@reddit
The smell of popcorn walking into K-Mart.. 🤤🤤
PotentialPlum4945@reddit
I miss K Mart Pretzels. Still better than Auntie Anne's.
RelevantNothing4653@reddit
By the early 90s, most KMART cafés were mini Little Caesars locations
bahaki@reddit
Ours only had a place near the front for Icees and maybe popcorn. There was a Little Caesars a couple of doors down in the same shopping center though.
Here in Guam where I live now, our K-Mart has a massive (comparatively) Little Caesars.
Admirable-Pie3869@reddit
I worked at a Super Kmart in the mid/late 90's when i was in HS. Little Caesars for lunch was the best back then.
Bindlestiff34@reddit
Hell yes and it was the best LC has ever tasted.
JWF1@reddit
Elite pizza.
Plus-Pomegranate8045@reddit
Chocolate ravioli!
Least-Task276@reddit
Out K-mart had a Little Ceasars
Charrbard@reddit
Skycity had these amazing slaw dogs. 40 years later and I am still chasing one that can match the memory. Walmart had these ungodly blueberry muffins they would warm up.
And the prices in the photos hurt. That is how much food *should* cost in such a first world nation. Instead I have to drop $55+ taking my aunt out to lunch.
_MadGasser@reddit
Grandma was my sitter. She would take me to Kmart and before we headed home we would grab a bite to eat. I remember enjoying the food, but I'm sure it was mediocre. Being with Grandma made it taste great!
bitsy88@reddit
Lol I remember thinking it was so fancy because we almost never went out to eat anywhere but fast food. The lemon pepper chicken was divine in my 8-year-old brain but I'm sure, as you said, it was mediocre.
draculasbloodtype@reddit
What a nice memory!
_MadGasser@reddit
She's 90 years old now and has dementia. She did t even know who my son was the last time I saw her on Thanksgiving. ☹️
the-great-crocodile@reddit
What a bad memory!
_MadGasser@reddit
It is sad, but everyone gets old. You know it's funny, when I was a kid my grandparents were my age now and I thought they were so old. I feel older but don't think I act life they did at my age. Then again, I doubt I'll live to be 90.
Hell,I didn't think I'd live this long!
TehPaintbrushJester@reddit
I have such fond memories of eating at one of these with my great-grandma.
Texas_Kimchi@reddit
Target Pizza was my go to.
Just_Me_79@reddit
Popcorn & icees!
fromthedarqwaves@reddit
My Kmart was more of a restaurant. They had waitresses. Target at the time had more like a burger joint. You’d order at the counter and they had a huge actual cook top behind them. Pretty much just burgers and fries. This was early to mid 80s. Our target had an auto center too which was unusual. They ended up closing the auto center but you could still see the roll top doors for years until they did a major remodel.
heresmytwopence@reddit
My hometown was a Kmart town. My first time at a Target was in 2000 with my ex-wife and even Walmart didn't come around until the mid-90s.
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
Those meals are $5.50 in 2026 money. Now where in real life can you find a MEAL for $5.50?
I_like_flowers_@reddit
i don't recall our k-mart having a cafe. but i did get to go to the fancy nordstroms one once as a child and thought it was the most elegant place i had ever been.
Ultimatesims@reddit
I remember the Nordstrom’s cafe in the late 90’s. Thought I was hot stuff watching people shop while eating a decent meal.
ArchitectVandelay@reddit
Ok I’m either a bit young or wasn’t in the right place geographically but I’ve never seen prepared food at Kmart. Possibly Woolworth’s but I don’t think so. All I got is the Ground Round and Friendly’s.
doltfinger@reddit
I can smell this photo. My grandma worked there and sometimes she would babysit me while she was working. I’d sit in the cafe and color. The ladies who worked there would give me free food and take care of me. It’s a good memory
handsomeape95@reddit
Smells of hot pretzels and Icees and the hope of getting a new transformer.
RitchieViolence@reddit
I remember their popcorn being salty af. But not as salty as Target’s.
JLLIndy@reddit
The downtown Kmart in Battle Creek, MI had the old school cafeteria when I was a kid. But there was a little deli stand towards the front of the store that had THE BEST sub sandwiches.
red286@reddit
Never ate at one of these. Ate at a Sears restaurant once though, but it was a full-on restaurant, not a cafeteria. Struck me as weird though, sitting there eating, watching all these people shopping.
stamata_tomata@reddit (OP)
My Sears had a cafeteria tucked away in the basement level and it also had this odd hot cashew snack stand near the mens clothing department
hammalamma@reddit
Damn! I want a slurpee now.
RuDog79@reddit
I remember the smell of popcorn when you walked in. Always got a popcorn and an Icee
Plus-Pomegranate8045@reddit
I remember this and the Zayre cafe.
TrinityKilla82@reddit
Look at those prices. 😞
folksongcat@reddit
My mom would stop at Kmart after school sometimes just to get nachos and an icee. We’d also get popcorn and an icee when we were checking out at winn’s.
bowleggedgrump@reddit
Target had those - I remember when I was little thinking that and 80’s Target cafe burger and fries were WAY BETTER than everywhere else. Probably because I only got to have it once or twice.
Cisru711@reddit
I wouldn't know. We weren't ever allowed anything from them.
phishftw@reddit
The sleeves of ham sandwiches!
CalliopePenelope@reddit
Two thoughts:
Back in the early 1980s, the Kmart cafe where I lived was where old dudes sat and smoked for hours while their wives shopped.
The Kmart cafe at a different mall had THE BEST grilled cheese sandwiches.
cellrdoor2@reddit
In the early 90s the Kmart that my friend and I went to also had great grilled cheese sandwiches. We would sometimes splurge on a side of shoestring fries too.
someguyfromsk@reddit
I still randomly think about the hamburgers at the Coop cafeteria in the late 80's...
TheRoadkillRapunzel@reddit
Oh man, I remember getting an Icee, popcorn and something that was similar to an egg roll at our Kmart while grandma logged her layaway payments in her notebook.
throwawayhbgtop81@reddit
I don't remember our Kmart having a cafeteria.
Our Woolworths did though! I remember how great the soft pretzels were.
HarrietsDiary@reddit
Being with my grandmother and ordering a turkey dinner at Woolworths was a god tier experience.
maggie320@reddit
We had a local store Greens where I lived. They had a lunch counter there, but my mom refused to eat there. I never got why, but I think it was pretty nasty. The store was gross itself so I’m sure the lunch counter wasn’t much better.