Defunct Discount Department Stores

[Diznotyzed]

Here in Portland we've had Fred Meyer since 1922, long before Walmart and Target, though now they're owned by Kroger. They're a large chain in parts of the west and still going strong. Target has done well here, but we have very few Walmarts. We used to have a discount chain I loved as a kid, The 88cent Store, now long gone. Our long time local department store was Meier & Frank (later part of May Co), which is now Macy's. Not much difference between the two, but it's just not the same.

 

[shoney]

When I was kid we had Two Guys and Times Square. Then, we got a Caldor.
I also remember Consumers and Service Merchandise...both catalog type places.

Targets came around in the late 90's and Walmart's in the early 2000's.

In the 80's we had the big indoor flea markets...like Tri-county and busy bee. How else would I have gotten ridiculously large costume earring to go with my big hair?

 

[tvguy]

We were among the last regions of the nation to get Walmart and that was in 1991. Our independent discount department stores had all pretty much gone belly up in the 1980's. But they were really kind of a joke, they had discount in their name, but not in their prices. And unlike Walmart, they all paid minimum wage to boot.

 

[mom2rtk]

Wiebolts, Morrie Mages, Goldlatts, Silo, Polk Bros, Kresges, Topps, Robert Hall, Community Discount, Shoppers World, Memco, Treasury, and many of those alreay mentioned.

Wiebolts. There's a blast from the past! A while back I was trying to remember the name of that store. I used to go every now and then in college. Was that just a Chicago thing?

 

[mom2rtk]

Has anyone mentioned Venture?

Walmart and Target fight it out now but back in the day it was Kmart and Venture.

 

[willowsnn3]

I remember McCrory's started out as McCrorys, McLellen & Green then shortened to just McCrorys.
W T Grant became Grant City for awhile.
We still have Roses & Shoppers World here.
Zayre's
Treasure Island
Richway (spinoff discount of Rich's Dept Store)
Bill's Dollar Store

 

[diznygirl]

Mervyn's. They were bought out by Dayton Hudson, but kept their name. They were kind of a mid-priced department store chain.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mervyns

I'm glad someone finally mentioned Mervyn's. I loved that store. And Broadway.

 

[JoeA]

We had Woolco and TG&Y dime stores. Our predecessor to Target/Walmart was probably Gold Circle though. I think it was an Ohio based company... and they all closed in the late 1980s.

I grew up in Columbus and we always went to Gold Circle!

 

[superme80]

Gemco! I loved that store as a kid. I was so mad when they closed and Target came in
Mervyn's! I worked there for 2 years. I loved that store. I really miss it. My MIL and I were just complaining about how much we miss Mervyn's.

 

[AppleDumpling]

Mays and Alexander's. Both were lower end department stores in the NY area that sold mostly clothing. Not really comparable to Walmart, more like JC Penney or Sears.

There was a huge Alexander's in Manhattan on the ground floor of the World Trade Center from the time the twin towers first opened.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

West Coast...
White Front
Gemco

I was going to say Gemco too! I grew up in Southern California.

I also remember Mervyns. It seemed like Mervyns just morphed into Kohls...they are very similar store to me.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Wiebolts. There's a blast from the past! A while back I was trying to remember the name of that store. I used to go every now and then in college. Was that just a Chicago thing?

Yes. And they were a big S&H Green Stamp store.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Brendle's and Best were two that we had that I haven't seen mentioned. Brendle's was sort of like Sears and sold a bit of everything. My first job was there.

Best was sort of like Service Merchandise as you filled out a ticket for what you wanted and they got it from the back. But they had one of the greatest catalogs and I loved using it for making my Christmas list as a kid (along with the Sears WishBook).

I moved to Virginia in mid high school. I worked in the jewelry department at Best.

 

[bcla]

I'm glad someone finally mentioned Mervyn's. I loved that store. And Broadway.

The Broadway was kind of an outlier. It was strictly a regional brand and a company that started buying out other regional brands like Emporium and Capwell's in Northern California as well as other chains. I remember my uncle came around here and pulled out his The Broadway credit card to buy something at a local Capwell's.

I think this was a later version of the card.

As for Melvyn's - I'd say the feel of the place was more like Kohl's looks now. Not upscale, but not a discount store like Target.

 

[blana]

Jamesway and Roses were a couple I didn't notice mentioned that we had here.

On another note I'm surprised that Big Lots is surviving.

I was wondering if anyone was from Roses territory. There's still one a few miles from me, but I don't think it's as nice as I remember when I was a kid.

 

[usnuzuloose]

We had these places..

Zody's

White Front

Two Guys

Food Giant

Fed Mart

Gemco ( really loved them )

Good Guy's

Fedco

Pup and Taco

Naugles ( knew the owners daughter )

 

[RedAngie]

I'm drawing a distinction between discount stores, department stores, and dimes stores (now extinct.) I feel like RedAngie was asking about the forerunners to Walmart and K-Mart. In that category, I would include Service Merchandise, Atlantic Mills, Ardan's, Zayre's, there was one called Giant that required an annual membership--sort of like a low budget Costco.

Montgomery Ward was a department store like Sears, Macy's, J.C. Penney. At one time my dad sold men's suits at Montgomery Ward.

Woolworth's was a dime store. They don't exist any more, but I suppose it wasn't too far off from a Dollar Store, but not everything was super cheap. I used to love my local dime store to shop for toys as a kid, and they had many of the most popular items there.

Yes, I was referring to Walmart/KMart type stores, but all replies are welcome. I like seeing the names of old stores in various parts of the country, and I recognized a few.

For Canada, I remember going into a Zellers. Also remember Eaton's. I trust that The Bay/La Baie is still in business.

Mervyn's. They were bought out by Dayton Hudson, but kept their name. They were kind of a mid-priced department store chain.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mervyns

I went to Mervyn's occasionally when I lived in LA. Yes, they were more of a department store rather than a KMart. I don't remember any regional discount chains there, however. Target and Walmart had already invaded by the time I lived there.


For the Woolworth's level of stores, yes, W.T. Grant, J.J. Newberry, McCrory's, and probably a few others I can't recall. Woolworth's had a large three level store in downtown Philly and they were in malls, but mostly I remember stores of this type being the Big Store in smaller towns or in neighborhood shopping districts of large cities. In my neighborhood we had a Woolworth's, and a few blocks away on the same street was a McCrory's. I remember my mother bought me a Halloween trick-or-treat bag for 15 cents at McCrory's, then got upset when she discovered the exact same bag for 10 cents at Woolworth's.

There was a large W.T. Grant's called Grant City somewhere in South Jersey. At their going out of business sale I bought Play-Doh. Don't really remember why, probably because of the aroma. It was a safer high for a young teen than airplane glue or nail polish remover, I suppose.

Burlington Coat Factory, there actually really was an original coat factory in Burlington, NJ. I think they made coats for various retailers, but also sold excess, overruns, and imperfects in the same building. I'm not sure if that is still open; I doubt it.

As for full fledged department stores, there was Strawbridge & Clothier, Gimbels, Lit Brothers, and the holy grail, John Wanamaker. All long gone. A regional chain that still exists and even thrives is Boscov's, although they closed about a half dozen underperforming stores 5 or 6 years ago.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Yes, I was referring to Walmart/KMart type stores, but all replies are welcome. I like seeing the names of old stores in various parts of the country, and I recognized a few.

For Canada, I remember going into a Zellers. Also remember Eaton's. I trust that The Bay/La Baie is still in business.



I went to Mervyn's occasionally when I lived in LA. Yes, they were more of a department store rather than a KMart. I don't remember any regional discount chains there, however. Target and Walmart had already invaded by the time I lived there.


For the Woolworth's level of stores, yes, W.T. Grant, J.J. Newberry, McCrory's, and probably a few others I can't recall. Woolworth's had a large three level store in downtown Philly and they were in malls, but mostly I remember stores of this type being the Big Store in smaller towns or in neighborhood shopping districts of large cities. In my neighborhood we had a Woolworth's, and a few blocks away on the same street was a McCrory's. I remember my mother bought me a Halloween trick-or-treat bag for 15 cents at McCrory's, then got upset when she discovered the exact same bag for 10 cents at Woolworth's.

There was a large W.T. Grant's called Grant City somewhere in South Jersey. At their going out of business sale I bought Play-Doh. Don't really remember why, probably because of the aroma. It was a safer high for a young teen than airplane glue or nail polish remover, I suppose.

Burlington Coat Factory, there actually really was an original coat factory in Burlington, NJ. I think they made coats for various retailers, but also sold excess, overruns, and imperfects in the same building. I'm not sure if that is still open; I doubt it.

As for full fledged department stores, there was Strawbridge & Clothier, Gimbels, Lit Brothers, and the holy grail, John Wanamaker. All long gone. A regional chain that still exists and even thrives is Boscov's, although they closed about a half dozen underperforming stores 5 or 6 years ago.

Yep, we still have a Burlington Coat Factory open about 5 miles from my house.

 

[bcwife76]

Up here in Canada...

I recall when Woolco became Wal-Mart.

K-Mart is a thing of the past up here, although I've seen them in Florida. I think I did a double take the first time and actually went back to make sure!

Only a few years ago Target bought out our Canadian chain, Zellers, and either shut down or rebranded every single Zellers store (but interestingly let the previous company keep the name). Target did poorly in Canada, and closed down. So no more Zellers, no more Target. Nothing to compete with Wal-Mart.

I remember when Radio Shack became The Source by Circuit City, and then later simply The Source. I understand that the owners of Radio Shack kept their name and used the money from the sale to open new Radio Shack stores in the United States, but in Canada Radio Shack is completely gone, and it's simply The Source. Although most people my age or older still call it Radio Shack.

Yep I'm in BC and grew up in the 80's with Woolco, Woolworths and Zellers. Could Woodwards be considered a discount department store or were they more like Sears/The Bay?

Sad to see my local Zellers/Target still sitting empty. Nothing has been done with our local store yet and my oldest keeps asking me why can't they just open up another Target lol

 

[bcla]

Well, I'd visited Southern California in my youth, and I'd been to Fedco. There was also Gemco, which was a pioneer in membership department stores. Then catalog retailers like Consumers a Distributing and Best Stores, as well as Service Merchandise.

I remember some discount store chain in Southern California that seemed almost like KMart, but can't recall the name.