Spinoff: Defunct Stores

[jimmalru80]

Caldor
Bradlees
Two Guys
Great Eastern
Korvettes
Klein's

 

[bcla]

I still see remnants of old chains/brands. How many stores still keep around a Rexall sign? There’s one building around here that kept the S.H. Kress name on the building.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Good Morning Everyone

Lots of memories in this nostalgic thread!

Daisy Duck, I (think) I remember wafers being included at Swensen's-yum! BCLA, I definitely remember The Werehouse as we had one night far from me.

Dodger and others I also remember Payless Shoes and Drugstores. When I lived in a small town in Northern, CA for college, we had a Payless Drugstore. It soon became a Longs and possibly even went onto become a Sav On or Vice Versa. Here in LA, that chain started out as Sav On then became Longs followed by CVS. I always liked the catchier Sav On name.

 

[fly girl]

That’s strange I’ve never heard of phar-mor and we come from the same general area.

I moved to our area in 1997 after I graduated college.

I was in Scottsdale, AZ before moving here. That is where Phar-Mor was. (to all the Phoenix area people, you know Scottsdale Pavilions, that was where it was. Pavilions was brand new then!)

 

[fly girl]

I think ours did have scanners - it may have come in late in the game. Actually, if I remember, Zayre was the first place I ever saw scanners - the reader pad even ahd their logo shape in the glass.

I think we were one of the last places to NOT have the scanners for a new store. I know they had them at most grocery stores in 1990, but for some reason we didn't. I even remember a training video we watched and it had scanners. All of us cashiers were jealous.

The only thing our Phar-Mor couldn't sell was liquor because we were technically on an Indian reservation (brand new outdoor shopping area). Had my share of angry customers because they weren't taken out of the weekly newspaper ads and would come to the store looking for the deal and we didn't have it.

 

[disneyseniors]

Someone mentioned Zellers in the Target thread.

What other defunct stores did you like shopping at? I’m thinking defunct Walmart type discount stores but all types welcome.

As a kid and young adult, in my area we had

Two Guys
E.J. Korvettes (the world’s best record/album department)
W.T. Grant
Jamesway

But my favorite was Clover, the discount division of Philly’s Strawbridge & Clothier.

View attachment 756117

OH, I remember Grant's too. It carried a lot of clothing.
I miss our Herbergers dept store, which was called Carson-Prairie and another name in the South.
Woolworths
Ben Franklins. I really miss this one. It was so easy to go in and get what you needed quickly instead of roaming around a big box store trying to find it.
Lazarus In Columbus, Ohio - a terrific department store.

 

[BrianL]

I think we were one of the last places to NOT have the scanners for a new store. I know they had them at most grocery stores in 1990, but for some reason we didn't. I even remember a training video we watched and it had scanners. All of us cashiers were jealous.

The only thing our Phar-Mor couldn't sell was liquor because we were technically on an Indian reservation (brand new outdoor shopping area). Had my share of angry customers because they weren't taken out of the weekly newspaper ads and would come to the store looking for the deal and we didn't have it.

Oh yeah, by 1990, most stores around here had scanners. The Phar-Mor wasn't open here until the early 90's for sure.

 

[Pooh2]

I worked at Caldor for 2 years.

I started at $3/hour and worked my way up to $3.25/hour in that two year period.

 

[bcla]

Well - Bed Bath & Beyond is now liquidating. So there's that with their "never expiring" coupons.

I remember a regional(?) chain that was similar called Home Express. They went defunct in 1997.

https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Home-Express-Throws-in-The-Towel-Troubled-2809773.php

 

[RedAngie]

Supermarkets:

A&P
Pathmark
Super G (the parent company Giant remains)
Waldbaum’s
Thriftway
Shop ‘n Bag

 

[Moliphino]

I lived near the original Filene's basement. There was nothing like it. The high end clothing was priced incredibly low. The store would have these markdown sales and you could spend the day in there going through all the discounted items. Once a year they would have their bridal sale and my grandmother would take me in on the streetcar to watch the brides line up. It wasn't like the TV shows. No appointments. Everyone just rushed in and the photos would always make the front page of the Boston Globe the next day.

All the Filene's Basement stores that came after the original were a poor copy and not worth going to in my opinion.

My sister bought her wedding dress at the running of the brides. I think they stopped doing it not long after.

 

[Oldie13]

Oh! To anyone that ever was in Kmart—did yours ever have a random announcement come on that was a high pitched voice that sounded like it was saying “bung hole! Bung hole!” My mom and I would purposely walk around waiting to hear it at least once!

 

[DodgerGirl]

Good Morning Everyone

Lots of memories in this nostalgic thread!

Daisy Duck, I (think) I remember wafers being included at Swensen's-yum! BCLA, I definitely remember The Werehouse as we had one night far from me.

Dodger and others I also remember Payless Shoes and Drugstores. When I lived in a small town in Northern, CA for college, we had a Payless Drugstore. It soon became a Longs and possibly even went onto become a Sav On or Vice Versa. Here in LA, that chain started out as Sav On then became Longs followed by CVS. I always liked the catchier Sav On name.

I do remember Longs Drugs very much because that's where my mom and dad would rent movies on weekends and they actually had great movies to rent and we would spend every weekend renting movies from there and my Longs Drugs actually had a wonderful magazine and book section complete with a reading area and I would get books from there as well. The Wherehouse I really LOVED to shop at because I loved getting new music albums but my mother disliked it because we had one in our mall and my mom would've perferred me to go to Circuit City to get my music because Circuit City was in the next city over and their music selection was better too but like Longs Drugs you could also rent movies from The Wherehouse too and we also rented movies from there too as well. Last I do remember Swensen's Ice Cream Parlors and when my dad would go to work Dad would drop my mother and me off at the mall and we would have ice cream at Swensen's before we shopped and it was great ice cream and Swensen's was so cool

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Does Pamida still exist? I remember they used to have one in Loogootee, and I also remember seeing a couple of them in some other small towns. It has been forever since I have seen one. I never was overly impressed by them anyway.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Not a discount store, but mcalpins was the best department store ever. Nothing has come close.

I loved McAlpins too - it was McAlpins if I was shopping in Lexington or the same parent company, therefore almost exactly the same store - it was Bacon's if I was shopping in Louisville.

I also really loved shopping at Lazarus.

 

[kymom99]

I loved McAlpins too - it was McAlpins if I was shopping in Lexington or the same parent company, therefore almost exactly the same store - it was Bacon's if I was shopping in Louisville.

I also really loved shopping at Lazarus.

We had some great stores around NKY. We took a TANK bus over to Cincinnati when I was a kid to shop because mom didn’t drive. There was McAlpins, Pogues, and Shillitos. Also some smaller stores like Lerners. Eventually McAlpins came across the River. When I was a teen, I could drive myself to McAlpins.

 

[mylilnikita]

Radio Shack
Mothers(records and tapes)
Tracks

 

[Nayan]

Montgomery Ward
McCrorys
TG&Y
Eckerd Drugs
Phar-Mor
Service Merchandise
Kash and Karry
Super X

 

[Jml813]

Burdines before it got bought out by Macy's. Was my go-to lunch stop when I worked in a mall. They had the best little cafe.

Circuit City
Fry's Electronics although the last 2 years that they were open it was a joke. There was nothing in there but outdated stuff and things from as seen on TV.
Zayre
Ames
Woolworth's
Service Merchandise
Montgomery Wards
Radio Shack
Gayfers was another good one,

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Let's see
Montgomery Ward
K Mart
Weinstocks
Mervyns
Gottschalks
Liberty House.
Emporium
Thrifty
Woolworth
Longs
Payless.
Bullock's
Capwell's
Castner Knott
Proffit's
Hecht's.

Lots of em are no more.