What businesses that you loved as a child are no longer there?

[DisneyOma]

All the unique little stores in my old summer haunt as a kid. There was a great little toy store with the best unique toys, a gift shop that sold stuff my parents loved (so birthdays and Christmas were so easy!) a corner store that sold candy, etc. Now they are all real estate offices or generic tourist crap that's too expensive.

 

[amcnj]

I guess every store or place I recall using has some sort of substitute now. But I do miss the convenience of having local stores. It was nice to be able to walk to stores.

When I was young one store I enjoyed visiting was the local 5 and 10 cent store. The town I grew up in also had two hardware stores (now the only independent one around is several towns over) and two bakeries.

Oh and how could I forget the town Sweet Shop. I spent a lot of time in there. The owner had a soda fountain area too, and a fairly large list of all kinds of drinks made from various syrup combinations. The only name I recall is the Horse’s Neck, but have no recollection of what was in it, and don’t think I ever even had one.

 

[JaxDad]

When I was approximately 10-12 my family lived in a small town in Kansas. In addition to local stores (pets, books, etc), the chain stores my friends and I always visited included TG&Y and OTASCO. The former was a 5-and-dime, and the latter was primarily an automotive and hardware store, but they also had go-carts, bikes, toys, fishing gear, and other stuff kids loved looking at and wishing for. They were still there when we moved, but I’m sure they’re long gone now.

 

[Moliphino]

As to Friendly's, aren't there anymore Friendly's restaurants around? I used to work there when I was younger.Still love their ice cream, but it's not always found easily here in Western MD

They still exist around me, but I live near the original restaurant and their corporate office. They are still struggling and trying to rebrand the restaurants a bit again.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

The ACE HArdware store our town had. I have memories going there with my grandma every week to use the "special coupons". The store had everything: the toy aisle, the paint section, the tools and everyday useful things. IDK if all ACE"s had one but ours had a very large Home department where everyone registered for their wedding. Along with practical items there were also beautiful decorative things. The basement had a huge assortment of bathroom items and area rugs. I remember small pools set up in the spring. It was also one of the few stores that had Christmas trees set up in the big window.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

The Red Barn fast food restaurant. Burgers, fried chicken, watered down orange drinks, and commericals that featured a talking chicken leg:

My town still has the shell of The Red Barn. It's been a hundred different entities since those good old days

 

[MamaMermaid]

Borders is my #1 forever and ever.
Blockbuster
Limited Too - still love their clothes, lol.
Delias - again, love their clothes/aesthetic
Picadilly's (I think that was the name - it was a cafeteria styled restaurant)
FAO Schwartz -- we had a great, massive one near us

 

[bcla]

Obviously there are way too many chain stores to count. We've talked about the demise of Kmart. But also various department stores that eventually folded into Macy's. We had a small chain of department stores called Capwell's which was part of the Broadway Stores group of department stores (The Broadway, Capwell's, Emporium, and Weinstock's). It slowly changed. Even though they could have theoretically operated under their original names, they turned it into Emporium-Capwell and then just Emporium before Federated (parent of Macy's) killed off those brands after a takeover. Obviously Montgomery Wards.

And then there were all the small restaurant chains of my youth, including Sambo's, and regional pizza/steak chains.

Toys R Us was mentioned. There wasn't any one all that close to us when I was a kid, and it was a special trip. Same with Consumers Distributing, a Canadian based catalog store that was similar in format to Best and Service Merchandise. I loved looking through the Consumers Distributing catalog, and for a year or two their catalogs said that there was going to be a store in my town although that never materialized. They did open a store in Berkeley when I was in high school, so it was no longer a 25 mile trip. I remember buying a scientific calculator there.

 

[aprilgail]

Friendly’s! Loved their sundaes.

We have a bunch of those near me still.

 

[aprilgail]

Roll N Ice- it was a big 2 story building and the bottom was an ice rink and the top was a roller skating rink.

 

[kanerf]

Friendly’s! Loved their sundaes.

Still around in this area.

 

[bcla]

Roll N Ice- it was a big 2 story building and the bottom was an ice rink and the top was a roller skating rink.

Come to think of it, pretty much any bowling alley in my area from my youth is gone now.

 

[hhisc16]

Disney store!

 

[Tess]

As a child:

Murphy's 5&10 (candy counter)
McGreevy's Drug Store (soda fountain and all)
The Salem Mall and later, Dayton Mall--loved spending the day shopping with my grands and aunt
The Colony (QS food and local hang out for fries, cokes and juke box)
the majestic and grand movie theaters with huge balconies and gargantuan screens
Snell's (a local diner with the best soda fountain drinks--phosphates, floats, etc.)
The Hamburger Shop (another local--name speaks for itself, but the best burgers and frosty's before Wendy's existed)
Drive-in movies
Stuckey's (we used to hit these up all the time when traveling).

As a teen:

All of the above and
Dingleberries (record store) and record stores in general.

 

[Walt's Dream]

Woolworth's
Bob's Big Boy
Sambo's
Farrell's - Tin Roof Sundae!
Swenson's
Grandy's
Waldenbooks
Dalton's
Sizzler
Newberry's

 

[fly girl]

Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips and Putt Putt Golf Course

We still have a Putt Putt near us!

Bob's Big Boy

Ours is Frisch's Big Boy. We have at least 20 of them around the tri-state area.

I loved Phar-Mor…that is where we always rented movies and it was so much fun to walk up and down the aisles picking what I was going to watch that weekend! I just loved that whole store in general, I was sad when they closed it.

I was a cashier at Phar-Mor when I was in high school. It was before scanners and you needed price tags. I still remember the prices of certain items. $3.78 for Finesse Shampoo.

You can blame the CEO for imbezzeling money that led to Phar-Mor's demise. I miss that store too. I enjoyed working there.

 

[DVCjj]

Zayre, Turnstyle, Carson Pirie Scott, Stevens, Goldblatt’s, Montgomery Wards,
Marshall Fields. (Macy’s not the same).

Many eating places but our favorite was Lum’s for Kraut and Cheese hotdogs. Oh my.
Magic Pan for crepes (heard there’s one somewhere else)
Olga’s (different type gyros with sweet dough. Fantastic.
Ponderosa
Sizzler

Such nice nostalgia.

 

[DVCjj]

KB, Toys R Us, Zayre, Hills, Kaufmann's, Blockbuster...

Waldenbooks...

Chicago, eh? (Kaufmann’s).

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Oh I remember KB Toys! I loved that place.

I wasn't a kid but I kind of miss the excitement of going to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video to go look for something. I know Family Video hung in there for a while, but after streaming and stuff I guess there just wasn't much reason for video stores to remain. I know I had not been in many years.

I also remember Phar Mor, that was a really cool store!

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Barrel Grocer. They had, well, barrels. Filled with candy and chocolate and flavored popcorn and nuts. You could fill up bags for so much a pound. I know stores like this still exist, but the one in my neighborhood closed soon after I started working, so I guess it was around 1985 or 86.

I second Woolworth's. There was one on Broad Street in Philly that my grandmother used to take me to on Saturdays. We'd browse through all the wonderful things for sale, check out the bargain basement, and then she'd take me to the lunch counter for a patty melt and a chocolate milkshake.