Defunct Discount Department Stores

[Pea-n-Me]

If you're from Massachusetts, you might be familiar with Spag's in Shrewsbury. Got bought out by a discount chain years ago, and then had closed for a few years, but is in the news again as it's finally being torn down. When I was a kid in the 80s we would drive here (35 minutes away) for everything. Hardware, housewares, sporting goods. Since then, of course, many big box stores opened a fraction of the distance away.

Coincidentally, look what I saw on boston.com today

http://www.boston.com/news/2016/01/...DTnL1BveixdJ/story.html?p1=feature_stack_7_hp

 

[Atlas722]

Hills, and its successor Ames.

 

[Angelrose]

During the 1950's we had Woolworth, Newburys and Silvers 5 and dime stores. Later we had Two Guys and Bradlees. There was also Mortons and Best I think it was called.

 

[ibob52]

SOCAL / San Diego ..

Some of these stores occupied the same location/building .. at different times.

Walker Scott's ~ Buffum's ~ May Company ~ Robinson May ~ Bullock's ~ The Broadway

Also ~ Discount Stores .. Fed Mart ~ White Front ~ Gemco ~ Price Club [membership] pre COSTCO

* I'm surprised Penney's has been able to hang on for the past 5 years.

* I have a feeling SEARS might tap out sometime in the not so near future.

* AOL NEWS mentioned today .. KOLH's is struggling.

 

[tvguy]

Yes things do change. 30 years from now WalMart and Target could very well be out of business and Amazon will by breathing its last breath.

Probably some system will be in place that we can't imagine today to fill our consumer needs.
Maybe a 3D like printer in every home. Need pants? Tell the system what color and size, transfer electronic money to Levi's, and 5 minutes later your pants will be coming out of that printer like device. Need new dishes, tell the system what you want, transfer electronic money to Target, 10 or 15 minutes later your plates are coming out of that printer like device.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

ibob52, I remember Bullocks and Broadway! Broadway was what I was trying to remember the other day when I spoke of May Company. I think Broadway was similar and Bullocks was fancier more in keeping with Robinsons May of later years.

I've enjoyed reading through this thread and the different store names, some of them are quite funny. Love the name Spag-tacular!

Tvguy, that reminds me of The Jetsons.

 

[low-key]

Miracle Mart , they must of just been a regional chain, low cut as you could get but still my buddys and I were thrown out of one

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Other types of retail businesses that closed.

Supermarkets:
A&P, and its subsidiaries Pathmark, SuperFresh, Waldbaums, and a few others.
Clemens
Genuardi's
Food Fair
Pantry Pride
Penn Fruit

Drug Stores:
Thrift Drug
Eckerd
Drug Emporium-big box drug store, usually opened in a closed 1960s era supermarket
RxPlace (Pharmor)-similar big box

Records and Tapes:
Camelot Music
Sound Odyssey
Wall to Wall Sound
Listening Booth
Wee Three Records
Tower Records
Sam Goody

 

[RangerPooh]

Grew up in the SF Bay Area in CA, so here's my list:

Service Merchandise
Montgomery Ward
Emporium
Best
Gemco
Ben Franklin
Mervyns
TG&Y
Newberrys
Pac and Save (bought by Safeway)
Gottchalks
Warehouse Music
P&W markets (grocery store chain...didn't they all close?)
Luckys (grocery store chain...didn't they all close?)
House of Fabrics (bought by JoAnns)
Millers Outpost



Before my time was WT Grant. My mom worked there when my parents first met.

 

[Cadiewampus]

Wasn't Parisians based in Alabama? I think it was still around when we lived in Birmingham in the early 90s.

Yes it was based in Birmingham. It was owned by the Hess family. Guess they just got tired of the business

 

[RedAngie]

Miracle Mart , they must of just been a regional chain, low cut as you could get but still my buddys and I were thrown out of one

It seem you just can't stay out of trouble, can you?

 

[dvcfamily41801]

Before Walmart and Target went nationwide, there were plenty of other similar stores in my area. Some held on until the Walmart era, others went out of business a long time before.

Walmart came to my area about 1994; Target about 1999.

There was

E.J. Korvettes (they had a great record album department)
Two Guys ("Two Guys, Naturally" in their TV commercials. During the scene in Rocky Horror Picture Show where Brad and Frank'n'Furter were in bed together, people would yell out the slogan)
Bradlees
Caldor
Jefferson Ward (I think it was associated with Montgomery Ward)
Woolco (sort of a super Woolworth's)
J.M Field's
several others

but my favorites was a Philly metro chain called Clover, the discount division of the Strawbridge & Clothier full line department store. They held on until about 1996, when they could no longer compete.




I'm sure other areas of the country had their own regional or local chains that went defunct.

When I read this list, I knew you had to be from Philly area!!! I

We had Bambergers which became Macy's
Gimbles
Pantry Pride (grocery store)

We moved up to Philly from Maryland when I was 5 and we used to drive down almost every weekend. Our first stop would be to Montgomery Ward to see my grandmother who worked in the linen department. I remember hiding behind the curtain display and she had to find me. She could fold a towel like no other.

How about when department stores had restaurants in them. That was like the big treat - going to the mall and eating at JC Penney. Or Harvest House which was inside/next to Woolworths.

 

[RedAngie]

When I read this list, I knew you had to be from Philly area!!! I

We had Bambergers which became Macy's
Gimbles
Pantry Pride (grocery store)

We moved up to Philly from Maryland when I was 5 and we used to drive down almost every weekend. Our first stop would be to Montgomery Ward to see my grandmother who worked in the linen department. I remember hiding behind the curtain display and she had to find me. She could fold a towel like no other.

How about when department stores had restaurants in them. That was like the big treat - going to the mall and eating at JC Penney. Or Harvest House which was inside/next to Woolworths.

Almost every department store had a restaurant back then. Bamberger's had very good ones. We used to eat dinner out almost every Sunday, and would sometimes go a mall that had a Harvest House next to Woolworths. Even though the mall was closed on Sundays then, there was an entrance open to access the movie theatre and Harvest House. Some Harvest Houses had a small fenced off area with about 8 tables that extended into the mall itself. I used to think that those tables were reserved for the rich people. I don't think the mall department store restaurants were open on Sundays though.

The downtown department stores had fancy restaurants on one of the upper levels, and also coffee shop type places or snack bars in the basement Bargain Stores. Usually once or maybe twice a year I was treated to the Crystal Tea Room at Wanamaker's or the Corinthian Room at Strawbridge's. I had to get all dressed up, wearing a nice dress and a hat, and maybe even gloves.

Wanamaker's had practically everything: a big book department, pet shop, stamp and coin collections, records, pianos and other musical instruments, several floors of furniture, and all kinds of services on the mezzanine: post office, dry cleaner, shoe and clothing repair/alteration, travel agent, a doctor's office, hair salon, etc. But for a kid, the best part was the toy department, complete with a monorail and carousel!!

And at Christmas time, the holiday light show and Dickens Village walk-thru exhibit. Wanamaker's is now Macy's, and DH and I saw the light show/DV for the first time in about 15 years the day after Christmas. The store is drastically smaller than it used to be, only three floors are used. The upper floors were converted to offices years ago.

 

[ahutton]

I saw some favorites from my growing up years in the list. I loved Spiegel - mostly catalog but they had a couple stores that were Service Merchandise-like. I also loved Joskes, which got bought by Dillards. Venture was awesome when we moved to Chicago and they didn't have Target yet. Gemco became Target in Phoenix.

 

[powellrj]

When I read this list, I knew you had to be from Philly area!!! I

We had Bambergers which became Macy's
Gimbles
Pantry Pride (grocery store)

We moved up to Philly from Maryland when I was 5 and we used to drive down almost every weekend. Our first stop would be to Montgomery Ward to see my grandmother who worked in the linen department. I remember hiding behind the curtain display and she had to find me. She could fold a towel like no other.

How about when department stores had restaurants in them. That was like the big treat - going to the mall and eating at JC Penney. Or Harvest House which was inside/next to Woolworths.

I had forgotten all about harvest house. Way back when, if we went to the mall in Indy, we could eat at Harvest House, Long John Silvers or Lazerus. Now they have every casual dining/fast food restaurant you can think of to eat at. I had a friend who worked at the restaurant in Lazerus and said it was great because you made minimum wage plus tips.

 

[leebee]

I remember Gilchrist's and Lechmere Sales, too. I did a little reading... McCrory's was quite the conglomerate, as they were McCrory, McClellan, and Newberry's at one point, which I remember from when I was little. At its height, McCrory's operated 1,300 stores under its own name as well as TG&Y, McLellan, H.L. Green, Silvers, G.C. Murphy, J.J. Newberry and Otasco. McCrory's parent Rapid-American also owned Lerner Stores and National Shirt.

Kresge became Kmart.

 

[cybrkitn]

Other types of retail businesses that closed.

Supermarkets:
A&P, and its subsidiaries Pathmark, SuperFresh, Waldbaums, and a few others.
Clemens
Genuardi's
Food Fair
Pantry Pride
Penn Fruit

Drug Stores:
Thrift Drug
Eckerd
Drug Emporium-big box drug store, usually opened in a closed 1960s era supermarket
RxPlace (Pharmor)-similar big box

Records and Tapes:
Camelot Music
Sound Odyssey
Wall to Wall Sound
Listening Booth
Wee Three Records
Tower Records
Sam Goody

Ah, yes. Waldbaums. We've had two near me close over the years. The one that was about a mile down the road is now a Best Yet Market. The other one just recently closed with the rest of the chain and is now a King Kullen. Funny thing about that. King Kullen had to close the location I was going to due to high rent. Now a few years later, they open up in the same town, but different shopping center.

Two things I have to add to your list:
1. Genovese Drug Store (if you are native to Long Island, NY)
2. The Wiz ("Nobody Beats the Wiz!") which was sorta like PC Richards and Sons

 

[clori]

There used to be a chain in the Boston area named Lechmere. The closest equivalent today would be Best Buy. I still think of them when taking the Green Line to the Museum of Science, as the next and last stop on the line is still called the Lechmere station.

I used to live near Boston so Lechmere was one of the stores we went to. I wonder why they haven't renamed Lechmere T to the Cambridgeside stop. I remember Woolworths but honestly don't recall a lunch counter so probably never ate there (and I was 5 when we moved but spent many many weekends visiting until I was 14). I also remember Caldor's, Zayres and Bradlees. I also remember something like Ann & Hope. We still had Bradlees after I had my dd15 and remember my sis in laws mom buying diapers for me so I could get a senior discount on top of sales/coupons.

In NH where I moved I remember having a Woolworth's, Ben Franklin, Service Merchandise (won a college scholarship by filling out a short form), Ames and a local department store Rich's which may have been a single or very small chain store. We also had a mall with a Montgomery Wards. Now I'm back near Boston and I think our Burlington Coat Factory's name was just recently changed to just Burlington.

 

[shoney]

When I read this list, I knew you had to be from Philly area!!! I

We had Bambergers which became Macy's
Gimbles
Pantry Pride (grocery store)

We moved up to Philly from Maryland when I was 5 and we used to drive down almost every weekend. Our first stop would be to Montgomery Ward to see my grandmother who worked in the linen department. I remember hiding behind the curtain display and she had to find me. She could fold a towel like no other.

How about when department stores had restaurants in them. That was like the big treat - going to the mall and eating at JC Penney. Or Harvest House which was inside/next to Woolworths.

My ds14 and his friends love to eat at Bloomingdale's when they go to the mall.

When I was kid we used to have lunch inside Alexander's dept. store. I remember they had colorful apple shaped lights hanging over the table.

 

[bcla]

I mentioned a place in Southern California that was similar to Kmart. I looked at some names, and the one that seemed like the most likely was Zody's.