Spinoff: Defunct Stores

[Jml813]

I do remember Fry's Electronics a lot because when my father would do business he knew I had to visit Fry's Electronics. And the Fry's Electronics stores always looked weird to me because the Fry's Electronics store that I liked to visit looked like something out of Legends Of The Hidden Temple or Indiana Jones movies but I would spend hours and hours buying music there and the music section was so long it had every singer's albums you could name. And my parents even bought a microwave there too. But why Fry's Electronics was decorated like a Mayan temple I never figured out. Was any of your Fry's Electronics stores decorated like a temple?

No, each one was decorated differently which made it kind of interesting. The two by me were pretty sparsely decorated. They were decorated more to fit the area with pictures of sites around town.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I agree completely about Lazaarus. I;m only aware of the one in downtown Columbus

I'm in Kentucky - we had a Lazarus in Lexington and one in Louisville. I LOVED Lazarus and bought so much there in my high school/college years.

 

[Tinkerbell58]

I remember S & H Green Stamps. You could trade them for merchandise at their redemption centers.

Robert Hall (a clothing store)

 

[bcla]

No, each one was decorated differently which made it kind of interesting. The two by me were pretty sparsely decorated. They were decorated more to fit the area with pictures of sites around town.

There were a few that had no theme. The closest to where I live is Concord, California and that was just in a generic warehouse style building.

A previous store in Sunnyvale, California had a computer theme, and their door had two large mock keys labeled "Enter" and "Esc".

I remember the first store in Fremont, California, which was built into the ground floor of an office building and had low ceilings. But that was replaced by a larger one a few miles away with a Chicago World's Fair theme (which was about electricity). Periodically there would be this sounds coming out, which was a big Tesla coil in a Faraday cage.

They also sponsored a PGA Tour golf event for a few years.

 

[tcufrog]

Tuesday Morning because I found some amazing deals there and Pier 1 Imports.

 

[DodgerGirl]

No, each one was decorated differently which made it kind of interesting. The two by me were pretty sparsely decorated. They were decorated more to fit the area with pictures of sites around town.

I also remember Fry's Electronics also had a mascot called Charlie Chip who was a computer chip and you could even buy Charlie Chip plushies at Fry's Electronics as souvenirs too. Nowadays you don't see good electronics stores these days like Circuit City and The Good Guys because I think Best Buy has now become the king of electronics stores today

 

[BrianL]

I also remember Fry's Electronics also had a mascot called Charlie Chip who was a computer chip and you could even buy Charlie Chip plushies at Fry's Electronics as souvenirs too. Nowadays you don't see good electronics stores these days like Circuit City and The Good Guys because I think Best Buy has now become the king of electronics stores today

Yeah, and Best Buy has gotten pretty sad these days.

 

[I am Grumpy]

We had Zayre's about a block from my house. I loved that store!

Worked at one in the late 70"s

 

[DodgerGirl]

Was Phar-Mor that drug store that was actually supposed to be a drug store but it was more like Kmart than a drug store? I had never been in a Phar-Mor store but I have seen old commercials for it and their slogan used to be "Power Buy and Save At Phar-Mor". I think Phar-Mor was the beginning of drugstores becoming discount stores too because Thrifty Drug Stores also became discount stores too and the traditional drug stores were no longer seen. I think due to popularity of stores like Kmart and Walmart and Target this style of store was a new image for drug stores. Another store that was popular and I can't figure out why Big Lots bought them was Pic-N-Save and my aunt was a Pic-N-Save shopper and even when MacFrugal's became it's name she still shopped at it and we shopped at ours but I disliked it because it was in the crime area and I don't know they put it there. But when it became Big Lots it started to go downhill today

 

[Lord Manhammer]

I used to buy furniture at The Bombay Company. Really cool place.

 

[firefly_ris]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutzler's

I was just reminiscing recently about Hutzler's -- which closed when I was a kid but I used to regularly visit the Eastpoint Mall location in Dundalk MD with my grandmother. At Christmastime they had Beau and Tinsel, which were two Reindeer figures sitting in a little cottage setup. When you approached them they would speak with you. There were people hidden nearby (I assume inside the cottage) that were mic'ed up and talked with you. Since I was terrified of everything as a child I distinctly remember them and being terrified of them, ha.

Apparently a few years ago Beau and Tinsel are back, even though Hutzler's has been long gone.

https://www.facebook.com/BEAUandTINSEL

 

[Jml813]

I used to buy furniture at The Bombay Company. Really cool place.

I loved Bombay bicycle company. I still have a few of their pieces in my home.

 

[barkley]

I remember S & H Green Stamps. You could trade them for merchandise at their redemption centers.

every home in my neighborhood growing up had wall art that was 'exclusive' to s&h green stamps, or a cookie jar or a bedspread that was made to look like a patchwork quilt my mom and her friends reviewed the weekly grocery ads religiously to see which stores w/comparable food prices were beating each other out with double and triple stamp offers (if gas was the same price at multiple stations then their stamp offerings drove which we filled up at).

 

[DodgerGirl]

Do you remember Lerner New York? That was my mother's favorite clothing store when she was a teen and she would buy some of her clothes there but then she discovered Lane Bryant and liked the clothing there too. I used to have a Lerner New York store in my mall and my mom took me to it to show me where she would shop for clothing as a teen and it was fantastic. In shoe stores my mom liked Payless Shoesource because she liked the shoes they had and another shoe store that was great was Bakers and my mom and aunt would go shop for shoes there. Do you remember Bakers Shoes?

 

[HappyGal]

Uptons
Parisian’s
Drug Emporium
Treasury Drug
Turtles Records

 

[Moliphino]

Do you remember Lerner New York? That was my mother's favorite clothing store when she was a teen and she would buy some of her clothes there but then she discovered Lane Bryant and liked the clothing there too. I used to have a Lerner New York store in my mall and my mom took me to it to show me where she would shop for clothing as a teen and it was fantastic. In shoe stores my mom liked Payless Shoesource because she liked the shoes they had and another shoe store that was great was Bakers and my mom and aunt would go shop for shoes there. Do you remember Bakers Shoes?

It still exists as New York and Company, though it has recently gone completely online and the physical stores have closed.

 

[DodgerGirl]

Do you also remember the ladies shoe stores Leeds Cobbie Shop and Connie? My mother used to go shopping at Leeds also to buy shoes and Leeds used to have great shoes too. Another clothing store my mother shopped at was Casual Corner and she liked the clothing there too and it was better than Lane Bryant. But where I would buy most of my clothing when I was a teenager was at Anchor Blue "Miller's Outpost and a store named Rave which sold amazing clothing and purses too. But my mom and I liked Fashion Bug a lot too and we would go there to see their sales when Dad would be shopping at Officemax because Officemax was next door to Fashion Bug

 

[Lord Manhammer]

Dad would be shopping at Officemax because Officemax was next door to Fashion Bug

Your dad is my kind of guy. I love shopping at OfficeMax (and Staples).

 

[DodgerGirl]

My mom also liked Pier 1 Imports and sometimes when my family would go shopping at Safeway Mom and I sometimes went into Pier 1 Imports because their merchandise was really amazing and my mother would buy fancy soaps and we even bought a fancy wicker garbage can for our bathroom which Mom got rid of because it fell apart from Pier 1 Imports once. I always have liked unique stores and world products because I think they look pretty and I always wanted my bedroom to look unique with products from stores like Pier 1 Imports. Now my aunt was obsessed with The Bombay Company for some reason because she would give my mom gift certificates for The Bombay Company for Christmas every year but my mom and I never spent them but my aunt would buy fancy pillows for her couch and end tables and all other stuff from The Bombay Company. My mom and I finally went to The Bombay Company once and we weren't impressed by what we saw but it was fancy stuff. I like Cost Plus World Market and it is so much better than Pier 1 Imports and I can see why Pier 1 Imports closed because I think they were too pricey and since a lot of people want to decorate their rooms in their houses with stuff and furniture from around the world stores like Pier 1 Imports and Cost Plus World Market give them that chance. But I can never figure out why Ethan Allen became popular because that's another furniture store that went broke but I guess why Ethan Allen went broke was because it was also pricey furniture. But how Crate And Barrel survives is a mystery to me

 

[DodgerGirl]

Do you remember Levitz Furniture stores? My mom and I used to see their commercials on TV and I thought they were an excellent store and some of the commercials used to have Marvel sounding music when they would promote big sales and I thought it was weird because the music sounded like something out of a superhero cartoon but Levitz was very popular and had a logo with a heart coming out of it and the slogan "You'll Love It At Levitz". But I cannot figure out why Ethan Allen went broke because as I mentioned in my previous post Ethan Allen was the biggest furniture store in America and they seemed to have great stuff but it was too pricey in my eyes. Another furniture store that my mom liked was Helig-Meyers and it had great furniture too and we bought a recliner there once and Helig-Meyers was huge for a time but went broke. I think if you look at the main reason why furniture stores went broke was when you look at the general picture Ashley Furniture Homestores are becoming huge and Ashley Furniture is becoming the king of furniture companies now and there really isn't any stores that can compete with Ashley Furniture Homestores today