Shops from bygone days for average folks

OP: I didn't even know that shop existed until I looked it up to make sense of a Blondie song a few years ago.

Jingles: "School bells ring and children sing, It's back to Robert Hall again. Mother knows for better clothes, it's back to Robert Hall again, you'll save more on clothes for school, shop at Robert Hall."" and "We're doing our Christmas shopping at Robert Hall this year."

Robert Hall was on the coasts, came out of CT. My father wouldn't shop there because he had to go there when he was growing up working class. It was a no frills kind of place.

R3 Oh, hence the dis in saying the woman Debra Harry is going to tear apart was wearing a Robert Hall sweater.

Thom McAn shoes. They were awful. Presumably they're more awful now because they're a Sears exclusive brand that's also sold at K-Mart.

Chess King - from the Melville Corp.

There was one in a strip mall plaza in my town, before the indoor malls were built. I bought a qiana shirt there in Jr. High when my guido friends were briefly into glitter rock.

Arlan's...when the one my family shopped at closed, it was replaced by a K-mart. It had a big playroom where parents could leave their kids.

When I was in grade school, I was THRILLED to eat at the Woolworth's lunch counter!

Of course their sandwich was nothing more than one slice of processed meat in Wonder bread, with limp lettuce and slimy Miracle Whip. And the soda was served in a cone in a holder, which held approximately 1/3 of a can of soda and which went limp and began dripping onto the counter if you lingered over your meal. But I felt so ridiculously sophisticated, just because I was eating lunch at a restaurant like a civilized person, and wasn't at home with everyone screaming at each other and the dishwashing to look forward to.

Kohls started in the early 60s as a grocery store and then branched into department store goods.

Caldor: The "Discount Bloomingdales"

King's

"Arlan's..."

There was an Arlan's on the corner of Hampton Avenue and Chippewa Street in St. Louis. It was the filthiest place on earth this side of Mumbai. I don't know why it was such a shithole cause it was in a nice neighborhood and other Arlan's stores in STL were pretty clean.

Damn,OP, I haven't thought of Robert Hall in ages. I grew up in Boston, and Robert hall was across the Charles River on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. Wow, that was a long time ago.

My mother and my aunt took my grandmother to Caldor every Wednesday to utilize her senior citizen discount.

We had small chain called Joy Discount Department Store in upstate NY in addition to Caldor (which I think was based in Connecticut, as I had a cousin that worked in Finance for them.) Joy was below Kmart on the retail food chain. They even opened up a separate toy store, Toys R Joy. After a tap on the shoulder from Geoffrey and his lawyers, they changed the name of the store to Toys For Joy.

The owner of Kings' , Ollie Cohen, was a neighbor of ours on Cape Cod.

He was the first person I knew that had a Rolls Royce.

My Dad would always say "there's a lot of money in crap."

Sanger Harris - it was not fancy, but I sure thought it was!

Robert Hall Clothes

Bradlees- and their "mascot", Mrs. B.

Paperback Booksmith “Dedicated to the fine art of browsing.”

Now called Brookline Booksmith, located just outside of Boston in Coolidge Corner, originally opened in 1961 as Paperback Booksmith with the slogan “Dedicated to the fine art of browsing.”

The store was one of the first bookstores on the East Coast to recognize that “serious” paperback books—a publishing phenomenon of the late 1950s—opened up the world of great literature to a mass audience. Prior to that, paperbacks mostly featured westerns and nurse stories and “serious” literature was only available in hardcover.

50s haberdashery ambiance

Pickwick Books, particularly the flagship store on Hollywood Blvd. Four stories! It seemed like acres and acres of books. B.Dalton bought them and did away with the name altogether in 1979. Still miss them....

Not sure if it was exclusive to Long Island.

Mays

There were 3 shitdump "department stores" in my area growing up-

Bradlees

Rich's (NOT the midscale/higher end chain from the south)

and Ames!!!

Rich's was BY FAR the most disgusting and depressing.

Bradlees was probably the nicer of the 3.

KESSLERS

Go to 2:00 for the Robert Hall commercial I remember best:

"Where the values go up, up ,up

And the prices go down, down, down

Robert Hall will show you

The reason they give you

High quality, economy!"

They had a really cheap cologne called "Eau de Rt. 22."

L. S. Ayres

Bradlees was CHEAP but not a dump when I was a boy. They even had a fairly attractive restaurant in a big windowed atrium. The clothes and electronics were awful but the toys were standard.

Mervyn's - This was a California chain that Dayton-Hudson bought. It was a step up from its Target chain and many steps down from Marshall Field's. I found it inexpensive, but not depressing.

Times Square Stores

As late as the 1980s one could go to a black neighbourhood in most big cities and find a mens boutique filled with surprising treasures.

Sparks and Mal's Norwood, MA. And Spag's of Shrewsbury!

And I forgot the link for Mervyn's. When it came to Texas in the 90s, I found the clothing to be kinda like Target's clothes had once been: plain, utilitarian, but a good value on all-cotton clothes.

W.T. Grants and F.W. Woolworth's 5 and 10 cent store Anne and Hope - Rhode Island

Bradlees

Caldor

Barkers (became Ames)

Alexander’s

King’s

Franklin and Simon

Consumers distributing

I grew up in fairfield county CT and we never saw a Walmart until mid-late 90s. Caldor and Bradlees were the lead stores.

Wow I don't think I've heard of any of these! But I will keep watching the thread....

When we were done at the shopping plaza, we could stop at Carrols or Friendlys - there was usually one a couple hundred yards from any plaza.

I don't remember if it was just one store or a chain in Manhattan. When I was a kid there was a place called John's Bargain Store on 14th St. I think between Ave. A and B. They had great very cheap toys and school supplies. Maybe other things but I only remember the toys and school supplies.

Wait...I do remember Mervyn's. Decent place for inexpensive, average quality basic clothes. I would shop there if it were still around.

I never knew if this was an offshoot of Woolworth and right now I’m too lazy to look it up.

Bargain Town U.S.A., a shitty discount chain in Alabama

And hamburgers were simply "hamburgs".

This store was run in a pre-Amazon.com style. You went through the catalog, placed your order and waited for it to come down the conveyer belt.

And how could I forget Weiner's? This was the low-budget clothing store chain in Houston. I would buy my Levi's here when they went on sale.

Zayre!

When I was a kid, I threw up in this parking lot. We were shopping at Zayre after a stressful dinner, and I had to puke. So we went outside, I looked around and asked my mom where I should puke. My mother took my winter knit hat off my head and said "here, use this."

Zayre's

TG&Y

People's Place - the jeans shop. Tommy Hilfigers first success.

I’m sorry, r47, but I laughed (HARD) at your story.

Christina, get me the axe!!

My mother was very working class, but she made it clear none of us were going to buy clothes at Robert Hall. Wieboldt's, Carson Pirie, and Marshall Field--maybe Sears for play clothes (we lived in Chicago suburb).

Ben Franklin’s

Mervyn's was very similar to Kohl's, which took over a lot of their locations.

There used to be a lot of regional/local clothing stores --mostly menswear. I grew up in the Bay Area, where we had Grodin's, Roos-Atkins (formerly two chains: Roos Bros. and Atkins), and Hastings. All long gone now. In the DC area (where I lived in the late '70's-early '80s) we had Raleigh's and Britches. Gone. In SoCal, where I am now, there was Silverwood's, Desmond's, Harris and Frank. Gone.

Venture.

A Target wannabe that ended up being sub-Kmart.

Vintage Walmarts had a Wild West–looking logo.

Lerner for the lower-middle-class ladies...

John's Bargain Store Two Guys Jamesway Kresge's Newberry's

J.J. Newberry or Newberry in some locations. This is the one that we used to go to on 3rd Street in Santa Monica, where the 3rd Street Promenade is now located. The original building is still there and houses the AMC theatre complex.

anyone remember Big Wheel?

Gold Circle in Columbus Ohio

We always did our back to school shopping at the Boscov's in the Christiana Mall in Delaware.

Lerner is still around. They were re-branded New York and Co. Just like how Pik-N-Save became Big Lots

I loved Zayre's as a kid.

GEMCO .. As I recall, it was a membership thing like today's COSTCO.

There was a John's Bargain Store in my town in NJ in the 1960s, r39.

OP, Robert Hall stores seemed to be everywhere. If you drive through certain cities you can still spot their blond brick buildings even today.

W. T. Grant

Spag’s in Worcester, Mass.

[quote]In the DC area (where I lived in the late '70's-early '80s) we had Raleigh's and Britches. Gone.

I bought lots of stuff at Britches. Raleigh's was too "old man."

R52's mom gives ME LIFE!!!!!! Yaaas bitch!!!!! Love that!

Some of your stores listed, were NOT that bad-

Boscov's, LS Ayers??

If you had ever been to a Rich's in New England, you would know REAL dreariness!!!!

Sweatshirts with kittens on them, bright flourescent lighting with these bulbs strewn across the ceiling, THAT SMELL of fake leather shoes!!!

Our Ames was actually a Zayre before that. I remember them having the best toy department of those 3 hovels.

I was dreaming of Neiman Marcus and FAO Schwartz. Our Jordan Marsh was wonderful compared to those holes!

I love this thread!

Back in my NY youth:

Alexander’s

Lerners

Korvettes

Kreskies (sp)

I did my first shoplifting at a Ben Franklin's.

Shoppers World

Community

Maxwell Street

Kresge - S S Kresge - was one of the largest five and dimes in the USA. We often added an s to say Kresges

We also had this huge hell pit called "Building 19"-

I don't even know WHAT the fuck that place was, but I enjoyed it because it was CRAZY! It was like a place where anything that fell off the back of a truck was taken-

It was like this large concrete building inside and out.

I think it was in Manchester NH? My neighbors shopped there and would take me

I remember cursing god for my sorry lot in life and hoping for a brighter tomorrow and wealthier neighbors..

My mother thought there was nothing wrong with Bradlees. Even she knew that Rich's was a straight up crack house!

In SoCA:

Fedco

Gemco

Service Merchandise (thanks R44)

Another store called Best (not Best Buy, just Best) - identical to Service Merchandise; I think SM bought the "Best" location near me

Adray's

Skagg's (a drugstore, similar to CVS, RiteAid, Walgreens)

Zody's (sort of like Kmart)

Alexander's treats me like my dad owns the store... How lucky can you get?

Gimbel's is getting better every day.

When the things that you need cost more than your salary pays, more than you save these days, remember this little phrase... Everyday's a sales day at May's

E J Korvettes... Us little guys fight back!

S Klien, On The Square

Nobody Beats The Wiz

When you think you're ready, come down to Crazy Eddie; the man who's got most everything in stereo sound. His audio selection will meet with your affection, he's the man who's got the best prices in town!

R78! Service Merchandise to me was the GATEWAY to HIGH END!!!!!

I thought it was the cat's ass!!

"I found out about Joan." - Orbach's

"Ross for Less."

She was.

Building 19 stuck around until 2013!

Jamesway-- it was like a KMart

Everyday's a SHIT day at Mays!

Oh! Look at Orbach's. Orbach's has fashion!

There must be a lot of Bostonians or New Englanders on here, because of all the posts of NE area stores. I remember almost all of them. Does anyone else remember Sandy's? It was on then VFW Parkway in West Roxbury. I used to love going there because they had a popcorn machine as you entered, and my mom would always buy us a bag.

r63,, Boscov's is still around. I know there's at least 2 of them in the Albany, NY area.

Holy FUCK!!! Its Building 19 that Burt Reynolds comes out with all that shit in Starting Over!!!?? Thanks for that Building 19 link!!!!

I love how some the "merchandise" was from FIRES and CUSTOM SEIZURES!!! Hot!

And yes, the other department store in that awesome film Starting Over is the Bloomingdales in Newton "Chesnut Hill" Mass! A beautiful store.

"Mays" was budget Macy's based in Brooklyn that expanded. A Mays anchored a mall that opened on l84 at Fishkill NY. Everyone could see it was a complete shit store from opening day. It was a ghost town for 10 years until the entire mall died, and this was way before malls died. I remember the one on 14th Street at Union Square. It was spooky and sad whereas the smaller CRAP stores on 14th Street had a slumming garish appeal to them.

Service Merchandise was the worst. They had ONE of each item on display, with a tag that showed the price and the stock number. When you decided what you wanted to buy, you had to write the stock number on a little paper form, then take it to a counter in the back, where you’d stand in line to hand it to a clerk, who’d send it off behind the scenes. Then you’d wait and wait (and wait), until finally your item would come rolling out on a big conveyor belt. The clerk would hand you your item, then you had to go stand in another line line to pay for it. It was like shopping in the Soviet Union.

AM&A's in Buffalo, New York, with its groovy '70s logo.

I was getting this HELLDUMP May's confused with the west coast's May Company..

The outdoor picture above of "May's" makes it look somewhat nice!

We had a Grants on Main Street in Hyannis. They had a pet department and the parakeets would always get loose. Those poor birds used to end up at the big puddle in front of our house.

Building 19 was at the Quincy shipyard. There were several locations. Even as a kid I knew it was dirty. It was the go to though for cheap rugs and dented appliances. The one in Lynn was particularly vile.

Does anybody remember Mamoth Mart or Ann and Hope?

Anyone remember Modell's on Long Island? Late 80's?

A lower middle class store, but they actually had cool clothes for this 9 year old, AND NAME BRAND SNEAKERS!!!!

There was this store in central NJ I remember during the 80s called BEST and the sign on the store had "BEST" written out with each subsequent letter bigger than the last. This really happened, right?

BEST was a competitor to Service Merchandise.

For a while, they were into quirky storefronts, with deconstructed walls, tilted facades and such. One even had a rainforest.

Modell's had jingles on AM Radio if I remember correctly.

Modell's was the Caldor alternative, but hipper and younger. It was almost like Dick's Sporting Goods in a way?

Modell's Sporting Goods is still very much around.

There was a "Hit or Miss" clothing store, which was bought by Zayre's.

Craig's was a Houston dress store chain. It wasn't really low budget, just sort of old fashioned. It's where my niece's recital dresses came from. I can't find a link for it or history, because every search is flooded with Craigslist entries. I [italic]did[/italic] find a Houston Chronicle article with photos from Northline Mall, Westbury Square, Meyerland, Palms Center and the Galleria, if anyone from Houston wants a refresher on old stores here.

I used to take European friends to Modells and they just went wild at the prices as all these brands were sold in Europe for 5x the price. Nowadays, this is diminishing as everyone caught on to the price of things via the Internet. Not that long ago, Carhartt and Wolverine were sold in Geneva and Zurich like they were luxury fashion brands from Milan.

R23 - A song by The B-52's references that chain:

Walking out of Korvettes / Package in her hand / Motions to all the seabirds / Throws divinity on the sand

Anyway, I remember Alexander's in Paramus, NJ - but not because of anything in the store, but because of that bizarre mural on one side of the building . . .

Ayr*Way

Hill's

Clark's

Rink's

Orbitz in Dorchester (Boston) First place I shoplifted

Buffums' in Long Beach (Southern California) Used to be classy but by the end ('80's-'90's)it was dreck

The Male Box. Men's clothing - 70's/80's - all of it awful looking now. Not good decades for fashion. (MA malls, mostly)

Syms: "An educated consumer is our best customer" (NYC, LI, Greater Boston)

I LOVED May's on 24th Street. Totally, a working class department store. It was clean, even if the decor was entirely outmoded. Ladies Wear (polyester house coats, fuzzy house slippers.) Men's Wear (polyester leisure suits and work shoes.) Boys. Girls. Linens and bedding (polyester sheets, towels.) Housewares (Corelle!!!)

May's singlehandedly supported the NY Daily News. It seemed always to have 6 to 8 full pages of May's ads. It was a fine place to watch people and buy an iron.

I'm trying to remember shopping at Alexander's on Lexington and I can't. In suburbs yes.

[quote]I used to take European friends to Modells and they just went wild at the prices as all these brands were sold in Europe for 5x the price.

You were sort of like Rula Lenska, who used to show friends from America around England.

Of course, May's was on 14th Street not on 24th Street.

But we can't edit a post here.

You can see the weird ceramic "eyeball" sculpture over the corner entrance to the Manhattan Alexander's in R109. The chain seemed to have a thing for bad modern art. Now the site of the bland Bloomberg HQ tower.

Zayres

Filene's Basement in Boston's Downtown Crossing, then known as Washington Street. Separate from the fancy Filene's department store upstairs, the Basement sold everything on an automatic markdown basis: if it didn't sell in a week, it was 25% off the already discounted price. Two weeks: 50% off. Three weeks $75 off (by then it was either pretty well-picked over or else a size 48 suit with 32" pants) and after a month they gave it to charity. And it was great stuff - what fancy retailers didn't sell wound up in the basement. Even into the 80's, when I still had to wear a suit and tie to work it was still great. I had a promo coupon where everything was discounted by an extra 20% one Christmas season when that was a big deal. I brought a couple of friends and we spent about $4000 for $5000 of stuff that originaly sold for more than $10,000. Italian men's suits that sold for $1500 back then sold there for $200. Brooks Brothers cashmere and camels hair coats for $150. Stuff from Neiman Marcus and Saks and all hugely discounted. Everyone from the poors to the rich shopped there originally when it was just in downtown Boston. I remember looking at a suit and looking across the rack to see Mayor Menino looking for one, too. Then they turned it into a chain and it went to hell.

R114- Awesome description. I can still see Filene's basement in my memory! And Filene's- that wonderful old store.

Apparently Alexanders is still a big real estate company and I think it owns so called Bloomberg Tower.

R73, I loved Alexander's. It was decent merchandise at a decent price, unlike May's were everything was crap. When I was very young I loved S. Klein's. They had a wonderful toy department and I remember my dad getting some good looking suits there. They actually had a guy tailor them like the more expensive stores.

Gimbels had some quality things like Macy's and they had a basement with the cheaper or marked down stuff.

A&S in Brooklyn and Long Island was a great store. The one in Brooklyn was pure class. When I was young they had elevator operators with the white gloves. They had a tea room like B. Altman's with excellent food and in the basement cheaper stuff and a hot dog and ice cream stand. Something for everyone and the Brooklyn store had a separate store across the street from the main store that sold major appliances and an indoor parking garage. I remember our first color TV came from there. It was one of those huge things with a stereo on one side, an AM/FM radio on the other and a "huge" 25 inch color TV in the middle. I think it was Magnavox brand. It was great with perfect sound and picture.

Zody's, where, as a kid, I used to shoplift.

Tati was so fabulously craptastic, Alaïa did an homage collection in 1991.

Something I'm not sure ever existed in the USA. In Switzerland, "popular" department stores hire professional, talented barkers during the sales weeks. They get on the PA system and bark through one flash sale after another, all day long. 50% off the sale price of sheets for the next 15 minutes. All the fraus get worked up over this sort of thing and run over and buy buy buy.

for all in the western ranch states every town had western wear shops usually locally owned ...

R120 My late local "nice" department store, J.B. White's did that during their legendary annual Moonlight Madness Sale. It seemed as though everyone in town would go to that sale. The crowds were worse than Black Friday.

I happened to be working in German for a few months when the Wall fell. The East Germans headed to the west to shop, and I headed to the former east to shop. The shops didn't close instantly, nor were they instantly stocked with Western goods. It was surreal.

The barkers really know how to work the shoppers up. Its very corny what they say, how they say it, but it's effective and artful.

Filene's Basement was the absolute best! The men's department was somewhat orderly, but the women's department was INSANE! The sales clerks would bring out fresh inventory, and women would grab at it like they were starving vultures, and, because there were no dressing rooms, they would try the clothes on in the aisles We would always bring out of towners there because it was like nothing else. There would be a full page ad in the Globe every Sunday, listing what designer or store would be featured starting Monday. They often had to hide the name or store, but they gave you enough clues to figure out who it was. (For instance, for Louis of Boston, they would say something like "upscale men's store with a branch on Boylston Street and The Mall at Chestnut Hill...) My sister bought a Halston couture dress from the basement, back when Halston was still a thing. The chain of Basement store, by the way, had nothing to do with the original on on Washington Street; they just licensed the name.

[quote]Zayres

Zayre's made K-Mart look like Neiman Marcus.

In the midwest we also had Gambles - part of the Gamble-Skogmo retail empire (which included drug stores, low rent grocery stores and one of the early specialty store chains devoted to the plus sized gals (called Woman's World). It was undone, like many of these chains by n unfortunate leveraged buyout in the 80's.

Zayre. Ugh. That's where you shopped when you couldn't afford K-Mart.

If anything, Shoppers Fair was worse than Zayre.

It was so very difficult as a five year old incipient gay being dragged to places like Zayre and Shoppers Fair. Everything was utterly common and devoid of style. Those stores always wounded my spirit. But what doesn't kill you makes you strong, no?

VEDA WAS RIGHT!

I can tell already that Shoppers Fair was like Rich's in New England.

NO ONE should have their spirit gutted in a place like that!

K-Mart's in New England were pretty DANK!!! I recall Zayre being nicer??

Heck's

Robert Hall—a store where no one wanted to be seen shopping. That’s why the windows were translucent. Even worse was Lynn’s which sold dollar shirts and, worse, dollar dresses. The absolute dregs. We never went to either one.Pic-Way shoe mart was another—the poor kids in my school wore their shoes which looked like they were made of plastic.

Zayre really sucked. Always out of their advertised specials even on the day the ad came out. Spartan-Atlantic was even worse.

W.T. Grant

A store I liked as a kid (New England) was a lower level upper class store called Steinbach. Very nice- good sales, good prices. But elegant.

It was a step between Jc Penney and Jordan Maaaaaash and Fa-lenes.

This Robert Hall sounds like a little sliver of HELL!!!

S Klein in New York was owned by the family that were formerly partners with Alexanders. George Farkas bought them out in 1946, and they bought into the company that owned S Klein. That family sold the store operations to Pia Zadora's husband in 1966 but kept the buildings and shopping centers which made them Billionaires. They are pretty low key today. The Farkas family are also very rich today from their real estate.

Zayres brings back memories

I used to work at Ben Franklin! I think it was referred to as a five and dime.

Did someone say Farkas?

R134: Robert Hall was hell with pipe racks

Somersault Farkas seems to have a gotten a cross between the “always looking surprised” facelift and the blank face facelift.

[quote]Gold Circle in Columbus Ohio

Yes, I remember them, they were part of Federated Department Stores. I saw this on Wiki: ~In 1984, Gold Circle was notable as the first major discounter to implement chain wide UPC barcode scanning in an effort to reduce checkout time for shoppers and improve inventory accuracy and speed store merchandise replenishment.~

[quote]We always did our back to school shopping at the Boscov's in the Christiana Mall in Delaware.

I still do my shopping there. It does have an old-fashion feeling with the candy counter. It makes its own fudge.

Building 19 in New England! I loved that place as a kid! They had the best fliers: hand drawn cartoons and handwritten descriptions all in a newsprint booklet.

I hated Building 19 1/2 (in Burlington, Mass) as a kid. Their fire sale merchandise had visible burn marks, reeked of smoke, and was still soaking wet from the fire hoses. Not a fan of Zayre’s either. The entire store and everything in it smelled of stale popcorn. On the other hand, Spagg’s was lots of fun, and the old Filene’s Basement was pure magic. There was always the promise of a great find, or the drama of a dispute over a great find between two matrons stripped down to their girdles and playtex bras.

R44 We had two stores like that, Service Merchandise and David Weis.

I remember when I could get PHAR-MOR for far less!

I remember

Murphy's Mart (a Kmart equivalent to the old Murphy's dime store)

Gee Bee (also competing with Kmart, an offshoot of PA department store Glosser Brothers)

Hills

Value City (RIP, Vee Cee Boutique!)

The mother load!

We had a jeans store called The Bottom Half. It featured a wall of jeans. There was also a trendy/crappy store called The Merry go Round. Good place for pre-gay boys still in the closet to shop. Seems like they were next store to Twin Fair.

Where would you find Queen Helene?

Zayre

Discount department store in Massachuestts (the Boston area and maybe other locations). My mother used to drag me there when I was a kid. Such a big place; she would never leave. We walked around that store forever.

JM Fields in Tallahassee. What a dump!

Nine five-and-dime stores, four of which were in New England: Woolworth's, J.J. Newberry, McCrory's and Grant.

Back in the day, a dollar could go a long way.

Pennsylvania in the 80s was ground zero for low budget chain stores. I remember Ames, Jamesway, Bradlees, Jefferson Ward, Zayre. Hills, Clover (owned by Philly’s Strawbridge & Clothier department store), Murphy Mart, Fisher’s Big Wheel, Laneco. Gee Bee and others I’ve forgotten being in operation at about the same time in various towns around the state.

The family that owned Gee Bee (Glosser Brothers) spawned current White House Nazi Steven Miller which afforded him a privileged Santa Monica upbringing. To his credit Steven’s uncle has apologized profusely for how he turned out.

Another 5-and-10 cent store in Massachusetts: Kresge...also called S.S. Kresge, which eventually became today's KMart.

[quote]Pennsylvania in the 80s was ground zero for low budget chain stores.

R151. Same thing for Massachusetts in the 1960s.

[quote]Zayre

We had them in Minnesota too r148, but with Target taking hold here in the mid-sixties the other discount chains never really had a chance. K-Mart came late to the party, and for a fly-over metro of almost 4 million Walmart really doesn't have much presence in the Twin Cities even today. Most of them are in the trashier outer ring suburbs and the smaller cities dotting the state. The last of the also rans was a Shopko that seemed to defy all the odds and remain open in Rochester until a few years ago.

Specializing in sophisticated children's clothes: Best & Co., located in New York and Boston. My mother would take us to the store in Brookline. Mass, near Washington Square.

When kids dressed up and put on their Sunday clothes for Sunday dinner, visiting, church, going in town Boston, the theatre, Boston Pops, etc. Those were the days.

This is a merchandise site for the Instagram account, valleyrelicmuseum. They sell T-shirts and other memorabilia with the logos of old businesses from the San Fernando Valley (in LA).

The Valley Relic Museum is a real museum. They collect signage from old closed businesses in the Valley as well as photos and memorabilia. Check it out.

Gibson's

I worked at Robert Hall.

The Detroit Area pecking order: Upper Upper: Bonwit Teller Upper: Saks Lower Upper: Hudson’s, Jacobsen’s Upper Middle: Crowley’s Middle: JC Penney, Sears Lower Middle: Montgomery Ward Lower: Grant’s, Korvette’s

Mr. Wigg’s was a discount department store I remember from my grandma’s city Lexington, KY. I don’t know if it was anywhere else.

My hunting grounds growing up were 5 and 10's: Danner's, Murphy's and Ben Franklin. Each was in a different nearby town (I grew up on a farm). We had to drive a long way to get to a bigger chain store like K-Mart, which we might do around Christmas every year.

Mr. Wigg's was also in Fort Wayne, Indiana. My sister, who lived there, used to talk about all of the great bargains she bought at that store.

Is TJ Max still around?

We called it “Tacky Max”

We had a Mammoth Mart, too, r95.

Senter Crane, a local department store in Rockland, Maine. Loved the fabric section upstairs, especially playing with with all the tassels and trim.

Kinney Shoes. I remember one in Pleasantville, NJ, that was almost directly across a highway from a Robert Hall. One-stop shopping.

Bonwit Telller Boston

Gorgeous building in Back Bay. Click on the photo; it's stunning

It later became LouisBoston, and then Louis moved to the waterfront. And then Louis closed. I think it's a Restoration Hardware now.

When shopping was an experience.

R26 Joe Weinstein named the store in honor of his mother, May. Main location on Fulton Street in Brooklyn.

Does anyone remember Railroad Salvage? Cheap crap at a discount. Ruby Vine would do the commercials while his wife Choo-Choo would stand near him like a mannequin. They were in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

R165 - reading skills?

In Duluth, we had Goldfines. It was a family-owned, poor man's version of Target.

Barney's in NYC before it went upscale, I bought my first suit there without my mother at the store.

Richway, a discount department store run by Rich's of Atlanta.

First opened in 1970, they had stores primarily in Georgia. After Federated bought Rich's, they eventually merged Richway with their Gold Circle discount chain.

[quote]As late as the 1980s one could go to a black neighbourhood in most big cities and find a mens boutique filled with surprising treasures.

This sounds like a dirty sex thing.

Grants Department Store - On the ground level they had torso mannequins wearing women's giant white cotton underpants. Down in the basement you could buy fabric and parakeets. The whole place smelled like thread and the shiny brown linoleum floor crackled when you walked through the store. I went there a lot with my babysitter.

Thanks! Some of you web sleuths found some great resources!

I remember my beloved working class father describing going to robert hall and being told by a salesman that he had very broad shoulders. My dad was rather surprised by another man so openly describing him that way.

Two Guys Dept. Store.

Does anyone remember Judy's?

As a youth growing up in Dallas I remember them from 80's mall culture. They sold trendy, hip young women's wear... but also had a sizable men's section. The inventory was a bit wilder than Chess King or Contempo Casuals. It was the only place a young kid on his bike in the suburbs could buy punk and new wave clothes! They sold leather studded wrist bands and belts, new wave sunglasses, "razor blade" earrings (sold separately, for men with one pierced ear), PVC pants, parachute pants (you could definitely get those at Chess King), T-shirts with leopard prints or target designs, kerchiefs with skulls or daggers on them, and checkered Vans. At one point there was nowhere else to find these things out in the urban sprawl. I think the clothing came from makers in Los Angeles, which makes sense because I think that's where the chain originated. They might have stocked Trash & Vaudeville from NYC too.

The store had a fabulous design and color scheme, and I always loved the logo. The staff always dressed hip. I'm amazed there's very little info on the internet about it. There's a shot one of the shops exteriors in one seasons' opening credits of The Mary Tyler Moore Show (and it's also featured in an episode when they film an outdoor sequence in a shopping plaza), which means there was one in Minneapolis. But I think they were everywhere at one point in the 70's/80's.

Miss it!

Judy's! Yes!

There was a store near us called Jenungues (SIC) that was bought out by Steinbach.

Hills Ames Zayre Bradlees (always mortifying if someone you knew spotted you shopping there) Best K-Mart Woolworth Montgomery Ward Value City (I, too, miss the Vee Cee Boutique) Rose's (There is still a Rose's near my mom, and people give me a ration of shit for patronizing it, but I love it) And I always loved the S&H Greenstamp Store

R1 That picture of Robert Hall looks exactly like the one that was on Harlem Avenue, just south of Diversey, in Elmwood Park, IL. Now, it's an ACE Hardware.

Further up Harlem Ave we had C M A - Consumer Mart of America. It was a precursor of a club store. You had to be a member to shop there. Later, it was taken over by Community Discount Stores. The grocery department became a Kohl's supermarket..same people with the department store now, but a grocery store then.

We had multiple catalogue houses, I remember Majestic Distributors, McCabe, and Steinberg Baum Company. Steinburg Baum was involved in a "blowout" where new owners took over and sold off all kinds of merchandise at low prices, and then filed bankruptcy before paying their suppliers.

There was a wonderful, wonderful giant 5 and 10 cent store up on Central Avenue just south of Montrose in Chicago called Kars. Literally had everything You could wander in there for hours. Wonderful art deco exterior. Had to be closed down and torn down for yet another worthless Walgreens, which firm had destroyed so much in the Chicago area in pursuit of a dollar.

In the DC are there was Dart Drug, a larger than average drug store that sold all kinds of things, such as bicycles. It was part of the Haft empire which also owned Trak Auto, Crown Books, and Shoppers Food Warehouse. The Haft son had a feud over the company when old man Herbert was retiring and Dart went out of business around 1990. Crown Books continued though for several years. I think their gimmick was every books was 10 percent off cover price. There was one right on DuPont Circle which I would kill time at looking at their large section of remaindered books.

Back in the 80s, there was a Dart Rexall Drugstore across from the Beverly Center. I think one of their employees sold gossip to the tabloids.

[quote]Two Guys Dept. Store.

I remember the one in Kearny because the front part of the building was glass, and at night the escalators had an almost surreal look about them.

There was a Robert Hall in the Rockford, Il. area when I was growing up. Seasonal sojourns there from where I lived in semi-rural Wisconsin. It seemed like a wonderland of stylish and more colorful stuff than we could get anywhere near us. Always exciting! AND, it was probably the first place that I realized (for real!) that the world was full of people who didn't all look like us -- European immigrants. The trips there were always an adventure and I remember coming back with LOTS of stuff every time.

G.E.M. department stores.

The capitalist version of GUM stores in the USSR.

The old Bohack.

Yes, r162, they’re still around.

I miss Chalmer's Big and Tall men's shop.

It was a seven outlet chain in the pacific northwest. Great stuff.

@ r181, Continuing north on Harlem you would eventually get to Wiebolts, Goldblats and Turn-Style, not to mention a huge Tom McCann store

Sage Stores - This was a Houston chain sort of like today's Target. This was back when blue laws were in effect in Texas. Certain items could not be sold seven days a week in a store, e.g., clothing, cooking utensils. Most stores complied by not selling these things on Sunday. Sage chose another day of the week. So, if you needed to buy a pair of sandals or a can opener on Sunday, it was off to Sage.

In Morris County, NJ, we had a Two Guys store. Next to the long entrance to get in, there was a restaurant called Three Sisters. We used to make jokes about both stores.

Gimbels

A&S

Steinbach

Mays

I miss Bamberger's! They had a restaurant that made the most amazing Caesar Salad. The dressing had anchovies (first place I learned that anchovies was an ingredient in the dressing). They used to serve martinis in the small-vase looking container so you could pour it yourself. Once Macy's bought Bamberger's, the fun was over.

Marge Davis Interiors "Today's Funiture -- at Yesterday's Prices!"

"March is Marge's Merry Month of Mediterranean Motif Madness!"

"Waikiki? When you can come to me -- for that much-sought-after Polynesian living room!"

[quote] Pennsylvania in the 80s was ground zero for low budget chain stores.

PA in general was the birthplace for a lot of stores. G.C. Murphy's, McCrory's, and Woolworth's were three of the earliest stores.

There is a BOOK (!!) about Murphy's.

La Brea Circus. A precursor to the 99¢ Stores (one of which now occupies its former location.)

Dark and dirty, but exciting to a kid.

Not super "bygone," but Payless Shoe Source has hit the skids.

Just about everything we bought when I was growing up came from the GEM store in St. Louis, off page Road. My dad worked for a government contractor so we were able to get in.

My dad's favorite store for men's clothes was Boyd's, which was a small local chain. He would always go for the sales. Of course, back in those days, even cheap clothes were of a much higher quality than the crap that gets produced today.

Kress stores.

[quote]Once Macy's bought Bamberger's, the fun was over.

Macy's bought Bamberger's in 1929. How old ARE you?

I grew up in California in the '50s and '60s and have never seen a Robert Hall store. How far west did they get?

It is sobering to think that all of these bygone stores had the same landscape and opportunity as the stores that now thrive. Bradlees could have become Target. Filenes Basement could have become TJ Maxx, etc. Some of the stores had forward-thinking management that were better-able to adapt to the times, and prosper, and some were content to maintain the status quo, which led to their demise.

I love this random customer footage of a Fedco from back in 1984:

I worked at a Ben Franklin Store, too.....it was fun.

And I remember a poem that a local late night tv movie hostess recited once:

"I thought that you were no one, but you're somebody after all.

I read the label in your coat, your name is Robert Hall."

What about Bond's, with the huge neon sign in Times Square?

Hills. They had a great toy section, so I loved shopping there as a kid.

This thread is fun but also sad.

We used to make things in this country and now we don't.

We had hundreds, if not thousands of choices for stores, and now we have the same choices in Anytown, U.S.A. with few variations.

Apologies, R200. The Bamberger's near me retained its name until the 80s. I mistakenly assumed the purchase was made around that time.

Radio Shack was my go to store for cheap electronic parts, I always called it Radio Schlock.

Building 19 in New England. Their slogan was "Good stuff cheap". At least the cheap part was true! I don't think they ever cleaned the store in my town. There was a life saver on the floor in a corner. It was fun to stop by just to see if it was still there. This went on for 4 years. Good times.

R208, it was funnier the other way, regardless if it was technically correct.

One of the places still open is Gabriel Brothers aka Gabe's.

They're more of a Burlington/Marshalls clone now but a few years ago they were really truly a discount, last-pass store and bargains could always be had there.

I too have fond memories of Sandy's on the West Roxbury Parkway. The popcorn was divine. We also did King's and WTGrant but never Robert Hall. I didn't know why my mother hated RH, now I know.

We did a once a year pilgrimage to Spags.

Then at Christmas time, my mother would take each one of us individually to downtown Boston where we made the rounds of the windows at Filenes and JM, the Woolworth's and their four floors of stuff, then lunch at the counter, back to Filenes for the basement and finished off at Bailey's for a sundae. By that time it was dark and we viewed the light's on the Common. Hit Park Street and road the Rattler home.

On Saturday my Dad would take us to Moe Black's. Or my Mom would take us to the Carters outlet in Needham.

[quote] Continuing north on Harlem you would eventually get to Wiebolts, Goldblats and Turn-Style, not to mention a huge Tom McCann store

Wasn't there a Maurice Lenell outlet store in that neck of the woods?

^^Yes! and I went to high school with Steve Lenell his son. Always had good cookies at the Lenells :)

R165 It is a Restoration Hardware now, but it goes back a lot further to when MIT was in Boston and known as "Boston Tech."

Before MIT moved to its present campus in Cambridge, it also served as Boston's Natural History Museum.

R208 — that confused me growing up / tv and radio ad were tagged “Available at Macy’s and Bamburger’s.” I once asked my mom what’s Bamburger’s - Macy’s in New Jersey she replied. It’s interesting how back then the retail philosophy was so focused on maintaining a local identity even if one chain bought up a nearby rival. Now it’s Macy’s from sea to shining sea.

I remember when A&S opened in the Manhattan Mall (the old Gimbel’s flagship on Herald Square) my Brooklyn grandma couldn’t wrap her mind around an A&S in Manhattan! Laws of physics were broken and cats were laying down with dogs.

[quote] As late as the 1980s one could go to a black neighbourhood in most big cities and find a mens boutique filled with surprising treasures.

What sort of treasures, R32? Men?

R23, Korvettes was in Brooklyn, too. E. J. Korvettes...Eight Jewish Korean War Veterans.

R117, A&S in Dowtown Brooklyn was a lovely department store. Behind it was another...Martin's.

In keeping with the spirit of this thread:

Lloyds...north of New York City:

From Boston suburbs Lechmere Sales Kresge's Robert Hall (my mom took me there for school clothes - sometimes to The Andover Shop when feeling preppy) My mom's haunts were Bradlees and Zayres. Great place to get those small items like Scotch tape, wrapping paper, cuticle pushers, whatever. We had a Woolworth's in my hometown (with a lunch counter), also a Grant's, and a Gilchrist's. Aubuchon Hardware Lerner Shops (at least the one in Medford Square) looked a lot nicer than the one posted above.

R162 I know TJ Maxx and sister-company Marshall's still exist in California. They tried to get me to sign up for their discount card the last time I went to Home Goods, which is also related. Geez, that place is Frau Central.

THey exist in Mass too

I wrote post 219, I know how to punctuate - I had those things listed one on top of the other, but the forum runs them all together when you post.

I was thinking the same thing, r207. I used to cry at this commercial.

Yes, Mary Mary Mary!

I grew up in St. Louis, and Robert Hall had stores there. We also had GEM, Target, Venture, KMart, Arlans, Spartan-Atlantic, Zayre, Shopper's Fair, J.J. Newberry/Britts, Woolworths, S.S. Kresge, P.N. Hirsch, W. T. Grant, Katz Drug and Goldie's. In addition, there were neighborhood department stores, located in suburban towns that had an actual "downtown" like Fischer's of Florissant, Poslosky's in Lemay and Benson's in Kirkwood.

R224- Was Famous-Barr a nice store??

I'm getting sick of reading about these stores for the working poor. Its giving me anxiety!!

Thanks, r218.

And I had no idea that’s how it got its name.

TJMaxx-Marshall's-HomeGoods are all part of the same company and they're everywhere. What is it with people thinking they're gone or just regional? They even have them in other countries. (TKMaxx in the UK, to avoid confusion with another chain.)

R226/R23

Except it’s not how it got it’s name. The company was founded in 1948 when there wasn’t even ONE Korean War vet let alone eight because the Korean War hadn’t happened yet. It started two years later.

Yes, R225. Famous was a very nice store. Before big box/category killer retailers came on the scene, Famous carried every thing you needed: not only clothes and shoes, but furniture, major appliances, tires, toys, records, "notions," toiletries and perfumes, candy/pastries, office supplies and typewriters, televisions and radio, carpeting and flooring, you name it, they had it. In addition, each store had a sit down restaurant and a coffee shop in addition to a snack bar. And they gave Eagle Stamps with each and every purchase. Tuesday was double Eagle Stamp day, so if you had a major purchase to make, i.e. TV, washer/dryer, etc, you tried to wait to Tuesday to purchase it to get double the stamps. To this day, locals and ex-locals seek the recipes for Famous' famous French onion soup and chiffon like cheese cake.

Even when Famous started opening branch stores in 1948, the first ones in Clayton, Southtown and Northland had at least 250K square footage, had 300/400 employees each, and an employee cafeteria and employee hospital with a full time nurse.

In downtown Boston:

Jordan Marsh (featuring The Enchanted Village at Christmastime). It's now Macy's.

Filene's

Kennedy's

Raymond's

Gilchrist

R.H. Stearns

Robert Hall on Broadway in Hicksville NY was the go to place for all our boys special Bar Mitzvah day suits.

Boston: Filene's: Great department store upstairs. I think it was six or eight floors.

To the mother of them all:

Filene's Basement: The best bargains in the country. Bostonians of all walks shopped in "The Basement," from the Beacon Hill and Back Bay ladies to men in the financial district (great suit department with the top-notch tailors in the city) to mothers, kids and families from all over. The dressing rooms were just a couple of big rooms and benches to sit on with no partitions. You saw every guy in the city in his underwear trying on slacks and suits. Sometimes people just changed in the aisles. The place was massive and always busy

Kennedy's Butter & Eggs Stores?

There was a Filene's branch store in Winchester square - used to go there with mom - it had one of those curving, Beverly Hillbillies style staircases that led to the mezzanine.

Something I remember about either Jordan Marsh (where I actually worked, one summer) or Filene's - there was a sort of glass brick sidewalk outside the front entrance and so many women walked on it in spiky high heels, it had thousands of little indentations in it from the pressure of the heels.

Thank you, r228. More fascinating tidbits. I love it.

Zayre

Ben Franklin.

Also, does anyone from the Boston area remember Tello's? I guess it still exists (in a different form) but I mean the place where all the city and suburban kids used to go for those 80's style club/disco clothes? My mom hated when I'd buy school clothes there.

Mangel's was a low-end women's apparel store (think Lerner) that used to be a staple in downtowns across the country.

I guess all the 5 & 10 cents stores are gone?

I think so.

r238, with National Record Mart, that could be Pittsburgh.

^ It's Charleston, WV

Close enough, r242.

Back in the 80s, Zayre Corp, the parent company of the Zayre stores, tried to buy Marshall's but was rebuffed, so they created TJ Maxx. Soon after, they sold the Zayre stores and name to Ames, and renamed themselves TJX. Later they added HomeGoods, and eventually they bought Marshall's.

The five-and-dimes in my area (SF suburbs) growing up were Woolworth's, TG&Y, Sprouse-Reitz, and Kress.

I'm surprised no one's' mentioned White Front, which was a major discounter in northern and southern California in the pre-Kmart/Walmart era. We also had a discounter called Baza'r, and briefly, JCPenney's discounter, The Treasury.

Rice Village had a 5 and dime store that held out until 2010. It was a great place to shop, stuffed with all sorts of cheap, fun stuff you discovered you needed. Last time I went to Rice Village, it was overrun with big, national chain stores. I'm sure it's more profitable, but I miss the quirky little stores tucked into corners.

Places like Dollar Tree and the 99 Cents Only Store are sort of the modern-day equivalent of the five-and-dime.

Thank you, R228. I had always heard that they were 8 friends from the Korean War who started it. I can still hear in my memory people pronounce it "Kavetz" in their Brooklyn accents.

How did a thread about defunct retailers get over 200 posts in just 24 hours? What makes this thread the happening place to be?

Robert Hall this season

Will show you the reason:

Low Overhead!

Low Overhead!

Gilchrist had the macaroons.

Jordans' had the blueberry muffins. Jordans' Furniture (no relation) has the Enchanted Village now in Avon.

It's kinda creaky and sad. They also make the muffins. They're not the same.

I worked at Filenes'. I was the cologne guy. Now that was fun.

I remembered "Rainbow Shops" from my neighborhood 55 years ago, looked them up, and was shocked to see that they are still in business - if not thriving. It was just a small shop in a small shopping center on the south shore of Long Island, NY.

R207. I created this thread. I'm the one with the father who snubbed Robert Hall because he had been poor as a kid.

My dad grew up to be an engineer so I grew up middle class. So, my dad could indulge in his bizarre boycotts of things both scrappy and luxurious. He didn't like commodities and lifestyle stuff linked with either poor folks or rich folks! For example he wasn't necessarily proud when I became Ivy educated and lived and looked really swanky. Made him uncomfortable.

Anyway, by the 90s he got really political about the off-shoring and homogenisation and in particular he hated WalMart. I was an adult by then. He made the entire family pledge to never set foot in a WalMart for the rest of our lives! To him, it was everything wrong with America and it's direction.

R249 it’s popular because it reminds us of simpler times, long before the current Trumpian dystopia.

R214 R181 Going over by Grand and Harlem, you had Neisner's 5 and 10, across the street from Sabath's Department Store, a good old creaky floor department store. In reference to going north on Harlem not only would you have Harlem Irving Plaza, but Stark's Discount across the street, a wonderful jumble of army surplus, as well as a Venture store, which became a KMart that recently closed. The aforementioned Maurice Lenell outlet was actually the factory. You could watch cookies being made from a picture window in the store, and could buy bags of broken cookies for cheap. Maurice Lenell was a victim of Bank of American taking over the local LaSalle Bank. Lenell had been operating on a line of credit from LaSalle for years, and BofA cut them off, causing them to cease operation. Thanks again, BofA. If I never see one of your branches ever again it will be too soon. And you can stop sending me your credit card offers, too. Just a side note, the last of the old Harlem Avenue fixtures just closed. Makray Plastic Molding, the company that made all of that metallic plastic tile that was used in bathrooms back in the fifties, ceased operations at the beginning of the year.I wonder what big box store or fast food outlet will take over that space. The old Wieboldt's at Harlem Irving has been vacant since Carson Pirie Scott closed several years ago.

[quote] I worked at Filenes'. I was the cologne guy. Now that was fun.

That was you? ;)

Yes, Jordan's was famous for blueberry muffins. This was when department stores were truly that, and had a record department, book department, toy department, clothing, etc.

I worked in 'kitchenwares' in Jordan's, but one Christmas I was a package wrapper at Filene's (I think it was Filene's).

Iearned about income disparity as a teen/20something in Jordan's. The rich white folks bought Cuisinarts for mom/wife/grandma for Christmas. The poorer folks (white and black) bought blenders.

Boston also had R. H. Sterns, if anyone remembers that. I also worked in a place called The Garage, in Harvard Square, that I mentioned in another thread (gay missed opportunities, or something).

Jord

R255 I hated BoA. I went into LaSalle to start an account when BoA was taking them over, and they wouldn't give checking accounts to any one with a credit score under 750!

WTF they ever needed a credit score for to open a checking account, I'll never know. Mine wasn't even that bad but it wasn't a 750 then (it is now).

Rich or working class, you'd have to be a clod to offer a women kitchen appliances for Christmas?

I really miss Kaufmann's, a victim of Macy's turning everything to shit.

I realize that it was not quite as budget priced as other stores, but with coupons and sales they had a lot of affordable things, especially in mens' clothing.

In Chicago we had:

Goldblats ( the bargain basement was a living hell)

Hellman’s (a grocery store attached to a Goldblats)

Weibolts (they accepted S&H green stamps)

Community (total trash)

Service Merchandise and it’s competitor First

Ben Franklin

Zayre

Venture

Kressge

Builders Supply Outlet (even junkier than Menards)

Bargain Town which eventually became Toys R Us

Merry Go Round

Chess King

Madigans (all the guys there were gay)

Just Jeans

Ames

We were a Sears/Montgomery Ward family in the 70s with a rare foray to Marshall Fields.

R238 Thank You, I've always wondered about Mangels. My mother has talked about buying clothes there and at another dress shop that was located in our town, and I wrongly assumed, as did she, that Mangels was a local store, like the other one. She did say that Mangels was the lower end of the two, but still nicer than many of the lower end stores of today, with real customer service.

R258 If a person, male or female, is into cooking what is wrong with giving them kitchen appliances for Christmas? I would love to receive kitchen gadgets for any birthday or holiday.

In the late 80s three French hyper market chains made a run at the US market. Carrefour built a massive store next to Franklin Mills outlet mall in Philly. The place was so big that they had girls on roller skates to get from one area of the store to another. I visited once or twice and bought Brie and croissants thinking they’d be better from an actual French store. The E.Leclerc chain opened a similar (but less dazzling- I visited both) store called Leedmark outside of Baltimore. Auchan had a store in Houston. They only lasted a couple of years (Auchan May have gone longer down in Texas). This was before Walmart built their super centers which, sadly, are the American equivalent of hypermarkets.

[quote] Merry Go Round

[quote] Chess King

I never thought of these as true discount stores but I guess they were inexpensive to a point. When I was a teenager our mall had these, as standard issue mall stores with stuff for young men, kind of like Old Navy. I guess they had to keep it cheap enough so Biff and Burke could come in from their jobs at the Dairy Queen and score some pants on a Friday night.

Several people have mentioned catalog showrooms like Service Merchandise and Best Products. The DC area seemed to have an inordinate number of them: W. Bell, Evans Products, and the two previously mentioned.

R8 - you reminded me of Rexall Drug Store - the lunch counter. Soda = 10 cents, fried = 15 cents. Bus ride to the center of town 10 cents. My allowance then was $1.00 a week. 1969 - I was 11 years old. Good times.

R263, yes you’re right, they weren’t discount stores per se, but the quality of the clothing revealed discount quality. To think I thought those stores had great clothing.

Your dad sounds like a great person OP, someone to be admired. My dad was like that about stores that were anti union. The worst thing I could ever do in my dad's eyes was cross a picket line. I promised him I never would, not even to get into an emergency room, like if nurses were picketing.

Buster Brown Shoes

R16 - was that in Hyannisport? We vacationed in Centerville and would go to King's - but I actually preferred Zayres. Parked on the street across from the mini-golf place on Main St and what the "hippies".

R95 - I remember Ann and Hope - the one we went to was in Rhode Island. My link may be of interest.

[quote] Rich or working class, you'd have to be a clod to offer a women kitchen appliances for Christmas?

I dunno, in the 80 when I had this job, women liked to cook and make meals? And literally a lot more moms and grandmas didn't work outside the home, and were housewives? And these appliances made cooking and preparing food easier? Like, instead of chopping everything by hand...

R260 It was Hillman's, not Hellman's, and the grocery store was in the basement of the Sears on State St., not Goldblatt's. There also was a Hillman's in the basement of the Sears at Six Corners, Milwaukee, Irving Park, and Cicero Avenues until about the mid-1960's. Goldblatt's basement was indeed a zoo, and I remember one day when my boss, who checked the place out daily, came back from lunch carrying a toilet. He took it home on the IC Metra train, probably plopped in down in the middle of the aisle and used it as a seat!

Schottenstein’s

We went there a few times on a Sunday (closed Saturdays) so my dad could get a new suit. He always looked crisp, but was a frugal Depression era kid, so I assume it was good value for money.

I can’t find a picture of it online, but some info at the link. Unsurprising that the tradition continues, in a way.

Camelot Music

I spent more time in there than any other store when I was a kid/teen

TG&Y

I bought my third record album there - the soundtrack to one of the Pink Panther movies

Gold Circle

They sold ICEE drinks that I was never allowed to have.

Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips

I remember this as a kid in Cleveland

R245 I remember the White Front in Oakland, CA. My sister bought a groovy black and white TV from them when she was a teen. I vaguely remember Gemco.

In Los Angeles in the 70s, there was a discount store called Pickadilly. I still have Christmas ornaments that I bought for 50 cents each from them.

Not a shop, but the very first pizza parlor I remember in the East Bay Area (across from SF) was Round Table Pizza.

[quote]Kennedy's Butter & Eggs Stores?

We had one in my town north of Boston years ago.

The blueberry muffins sold at Jordan Marsh in Boston were very popular.

[quote]Kennedy's Butter & Eggs Stores?

We had one in my town north of Boston years ago.

The blueberry muffins sold at Jordan Marsh in Boston were very popular.

@ r255, thanks for the update on Maurice Lenell I had lost track of the family after high school

[quote] We had one in my town north of Boston years ago.

The blueberry muffins sold at Jordan Marsh in Boston were very popular.

If it was in Redstone shopping center we 're from the same town.

This is a great thread. Thanks OP. I'm SHOCKED that someone else here also went to Sandy's in West Roxbury. I grew up not too far from there. I went to Xaverian. Some of my family is still there; my sister has a house on West Roxbury Parkway. I've been feeling a little nostalgic lately, and wanting to visit places I used to live -- NYC, Chicago, Nantucket, Hanover NH -- and this thread is hitting me right in the heart.

It was Jordan's that had the glass bricks, and I had forgotten all about it until the poster upthread mentioned it. And JM had the BEST muffins. We would get them whenever we went to downtown Boston, which was probably about once a month. I remember for a short period that the bakery was located in a back building across the alley from the main building. It felt so in the know to go there. And no one's muffins have ever come close to theirs, but I don't know if they just taste better because they had that glow of youth and nostalgia, or if they really were the best. I would bet on the latter.

[quote]If it was in Redstone shopping center we 're from the same town.

Nope, R284. Our Kennedy's butter and egg store was downtown, where we also seemed to have every five-and-dime store then in existence: Woolworth's, Grant's, J.J. Newberry and Grand.

Growing up in Rockford, Illinois, we had many of the finer shops. Kress, Kresge, W.T. Grant, Woolworths, Montgomery Wards. But for the serious bargain shopper we also had Insurance Liquidators (never sure what that meant. Merchandise from fire sales?) and Union Hall (which I don't believe had anything to do with the union movement).

R287 We actually had a second Kennedy's downtown. lol But anyway, different town.

Hackensack, NJ had W.T. Grant's, Woolworth's, Krieger's, Packard/Bamberger's, John's Bargain Store, Robert Hall, Buster Brown Shoes, David Burr, Tfanks,and Thom McCann.

Hackensack also had a J.J. Newberry that was still open in 1990.

[quote]I grew up in California in the '50s and '60s and have never seen a Robert Hall store. How far west did they get?

While I don't remember ever seeing a Robert Hall in person (I was a little kid at the time), I know they had them in SoCal in the '50s and '60s because of their incessant LA radio and TV commercials—"Oh, the values go up, up, up, and the prices go down, down, down…"

SoCal also had DiscoFair, which was either absorbed by, or put out of business by, Two Guys. ("Two Guys is worth going out of your way for, to get more than you bargain for.")

Does anyone remember H. Salt Fish & Chips? I fooking hate fish, but I loved H. Salt.

The Kress store in downtown Santa Barbara always reeked of the popcorn they sold on the first floor, causing us locals to affectionately dub it "smelly Kress's."

We also had Sir George's Smorgasbord, which I think was a chain. It was the precursor to the Golden Corral and other feeding troughs.

OP -- Robert Hall! There was one near me that looked exactly like that picture. It was a dreary looking stand-alone building. But had great cheap clothes.

R251. Omg, I remember the blueberry muffins at Jordan's. I was very young, but my mother scoped out every bakery in the city of Boston especially after a full day of shopping at Jordan's and Filene's Basement. I don't remember macaroons at Gilchrist.

Lechmere Sales in Cambridge, mA...department store but specialized in electronics, e.g., televisions, stereos.

Ann & Hope...discount clothes for women. I think it was primarily located on the South Shore.

Bailey's Ice Cream Shop on Temple Place in downtown Boston. The best place for an ice cream sundae after a day of shopping. And the best hot fudge sauce ever. Bailey's was a classy place and served your sundae in a fancy silver ice cream dish with an additional flat silver dish to catch all the ice cream and hot fudge sauce that drip over the edges. You could also get a sandwich and all kinds of sweets.

Brigham's was the other popular ice cream shop (also sadly gone) in Boston, and it was good, but Bailey's was a classy, sophisticated experience, kind of like Rumpelmayer's in the Hotel St. Moritz on Central Park South, NYC.

Spencer

Radio Shack

R297, Spencer's is still around. They're in malls all over the country.

Jordan Marsh's muffin recipe

The cranberry muffins from Jordan Marsh were better, IMH 7 year old O. I was never a blueberry fan, preferring the local product. The macaroons from Gilchrist’s were locally famous for having gone to the South Pole with Admiral Byrd’s 1938 Antarctic expedition.

South of Boston we had Remick’s on Hancock Street in Quincy. It was run by actress Lee Remick’s father and, for Quincy anyway, it was pretty classy. The store, like most of Quincy, went under in the late 70’s and early 80’s when the local economy tanked.

The lower end of the retail spectrum in Quincy was a place called The Bargain Center - all cheap stuff. When LSD and streaking was a thing, a kid in my high school class was arrested for running through the Bargain Center naked. It was probably the most exciting thing that ever happened in that store.

Sam Goody!!

Can’t believe I just thought of them.

R165 Bonwit-Teller? I'd like to be your "average folks."

R297 R299 The Spencer's around now are nothing compared to what Spencer's was in the 70's and very early 80's. Back then, the store was a whole "vibe."

The front entrances were often brick or dark wood, sometimes with a doorway that had a 45 degree slant on one side and the name of the store in lit-up letters along that edge. The inside was like a long hallway, darker and carpeted. Like a tunnel. The was an "adult" section with x-rated board games and things like coffee mugs shaped like boobs, and a sign, "You must be 18 to be in this section." The whole place smelled like incense, which they sold, along with other stuff that made it seem almost like a head shop.

The whole point was to lead you to the back, which was like a weird spaced-out disco. Often through a giant beaded curtain wall, all the walls were painted black and lit in black light. The sold lava lamps, those tilting ocean wave blue water and oil things, fiber wire light sculpture things, every kind of trippy home disco light thing imaginable, infinity mirrors and stuff like that. A LOT of it, so the whole back section was something like Logan's Run. And that's where they had the posters of course, many which were black light velvet posters that glowed as you shifted through them on the rack. Along with R-rated posters of Farrah Fawcett, Lynda Carter and people like that.

The stores now re in the same mode but the era of luring teens in with stuff that seems forbidden in that way has passed. It's very "meh." Plus the stores are just tile-floored spaces with wire racks and stuff on wall hooks. Like you're in a loud, cheap Halloween warehouse store.

R304 I can't find any photos online of the old-style Spencer's. But I remember this well.

I used to go to Spencer's as a young teen to peruse the posters of bare-chested TV idols. When I saw the one of Jon-Erik Hexum exposing his armpits I thought i would spontaneously explode.

There were Crazy Eddie electronics/music stores in the NYC-Long Island area back in the late 70's-80's. The commercials alone were crazy. I wasn't from there but went to school there for a while.

I went to the Bailey's in Harvard Square sometimes, you could get a frappe with an egg in it. It wasn't my favorite place but the drug store on the corner of Tremont and Boylston was. Not far from all those stores we've been talking about, Filene's, Jordan Marsh, etc. Near the Colonial Theater. My grandfather took me there for vanilla frappes. (Milk shakes.)

Also in that same area that's now called Downtown Crossing there were a lot of the big movie theaters. The Music Hall (now the Wang Center) and the Paramount.

I think I went there for milk shakes, r307, that drug store @ Tremont and Boylston, while visiting a friend who went to Emerson in 1973.

Just think about how people will reminisce about shopping on line at Amazon in 40-50 years. Or fondly remember sorting through disposable clothing made by child labor at the local Walmart.

The Robert Hall store near me (I think it was in Medford or Malden, MA) wasn't dreary. That one in the original picture sure does look dreary. I remember, though, my mom taking me there for Easter clothes (this dates me. Every kid got a new outfit for Easter, if it was affordable). I wanted some mod clothes - which they had - I remember the Nehru jacket on the headless mannequin. Yup, I wanted that tacky Nehru jacket and beads so much, with a turtleneck. But I got a brown wool sportcoat, cream-colored, button-down-collar shirt, dark brown tie and chinos. Mom had good taste - but I didn't want to have good taste.

R212 I have only shopped at one particular Gabe's during college and oh my god the smell of that store still haunts my dreams. Do all Gabe's stink to high heaven?

Surprised no one from/in NYC mentioned Tower Records. I live in New Jersey. There were Saturdays that I would take the bus or train to the Port Authority and then the train downtown to get there. My sister or friends and I would plan to have lunch somewhere first, just to heighten the excitement of walking through the doors!

Tower Records wasn't a bargain store like the rest mentioned in this thread, r312. They had sales, sure, but it wasn't the record / tape / CD version of Zayre's or K-Mart. They were a music specialty store.

In New Jersey, keeping with the theme of this thread, places like Great Eastern Mills, Two Guys, or Korvettes were where you'd do your record shopping. Tower, in spite of their annoying clerks and the sound bleed between departments, was something of a much higher order.

Railroad Salvage, which was in CT and MA. It was kind of like the original Ocean State Job Lots.

R311 No, they weren't the shiniest places but I don't remember them being stinky. Maybe that was just that location!

r78, I vaguely remember a store called Best in Northridge (SFV) and I think coincidentally there's a Best Buy there now where it used to be so I just assumed it was the same store just with a different name, but thanks for making the distinction.

Another SFV memory is L.A. Tronics in Tarzana, which was kind of like a higher end Radio Shack or early Best Buy.

Were The Wherehouse music stores west coast regional or were they nationwide?

[quote] Does anyone remember H. Salt Fish & Chips? I fooking hate fish, but I loved H. Salt.

There are still a dozen or so of them in LA. (But like most childhood memories, they have not aged well).

Since there are so many Bostonians here, does anyone remember the name of a shop on Winter Street? It was located below Chock Full of Nuts and it sold posters and beads and incense. Might have been a head shop as well.

R264, I had no idea there was term for them as "catalog showrooms", but I recall my folks taking me to one called Jewel Mart in the early 80's. It was so bizarre to me at the time because you had to walk around with a clip board and write down the items you wanted, then the back room staff would complete your order.

Did anyone else have Value House? It was a chain of catalog stores in Maine in the 60s and early 70s, later taken over by Service Merchandise. We also had Hit or Miss, a women’s clothing outlet owned by Zayre, that was frau central.

Hit or Miss was Zayre's first upscale discount chain pre-TJMaxx.

[quote]Ann & Hope...discount clothes for women. I think it was primarily located on the South Shore.

They were on the North Shore of Massachusetts also. I remember going to one in Danvers. They also sold the same general merchandise (household items, appliances, furniture) the other discount department stores offered.

[quote]Railroad Salvage, which was in CT and MA. It was kind of like the original Ocean State Job Lots.

I remember seeing Railroad Savage's delightfully cheap and amateurish local TV commercials when I was going to school in western Massachusetts, featuring "Choo-Choo" Vine, who I think was the wife of the owner. Choo-Choo looked like what my mother would have called a "hard ticket."

Everybody who was around back then can remember Ruby Vine (wearing the world's worst toupee) and Choo-choo, those commercials were always on. Railroad Salvage was very low-rent, the kind of place you shopped at in secret and you would pretend you had never set foot in one.

Goodwill Industries. The Calvary Mission Thrift Shop.

We wuz poor.

Here are Ruby and Choo-Choo! In this commercial, Choo-Choo is being played by a mannequin. It took me a while to notice, given Choo-Choo's usual wooden performances.

Loehmann's was the grande dame of designer discount stores. They folded in 2014, and their attempt at online retailing shut down two years ago.

It's just like a mini mall!

Moo & Oink

Loved Loemanns. That last store in NYC had been the last store for a long time. In the 90s they were all over Texas. They had the back room with the designer clothes. First place I went where there were no individual changing rooms, just one big room. Thanks to whoever posted Gibson's. I'm originally from San Antonio and for years was trying to remember the name of that place. We only went there when my dad needed something for the car or maybe the house. Handyman type stuff. It was pretty bad. Way below Kmart and Walmart.

The Loheman’s pictured in R327 was part of the expansion of the original Barney’s when it got all fancy in the late 80s. B’s originally started in the building next door, in the late 20s, and still had a boys dept back in the 70s when my mom world bring me there. When Barney’s hit the skids that whole original store close & part of it became Loheman’s. Then a few years ago Barney’s moved back into that part of space, but not the original corner building - doing a multi million all white marble renovation. The store is currently hosting Barney’s going out of business sale.

In CT we didn't get Wal Mart or Target until the late 90s. Once they arrived Caldor, Bradlees, Zayer, and Ames all went out of business. KMart held on for awhile, but nearly all the KMarts have closed.

The big department store was G. Fox in downtown Hartford, which was fabulous. It was comparable to Bloomingdale's. Eleven floors. Everything you ever wanted, and if they didn't have it they would order it for you. They went out of business in the late 80s when the malls in the suburbs took over.

R328 bravo love the Montgomery Mini Mall

The Windsor Button Shop in downtown Boston; I think it was located near Washington and Franklin Streets, around the corner from Filene’s.

You have never seen so many different types and styles of buttons in your life—millions. It was jaw-dropping. My mother, grandmother and aunts used to go there because they had custom-made spring coats, and you could buy specific buttons to go with your coat. Yes, no off-the-rack coats for these dames. They has coats made, often for Easter but for everyday wear as well. But people dressed up more often in the 1960s.

R334 We had the same childhood shopping experience at the Windsor Button Shop in the shadow of Jordan Marsh. Yes: giant buttons, tiny buttons, buttons with rhinestones, metal buttons, plastic buttons. For the dressmaker - more talented but not haute couture - or the seamstress who was a neighborhood woman who did alterations, making or altering my mother and grandmother's clothes.

Did you drive downtown or take the MTA? My Mom drove in to Boston and always parked in the Bedford Street Mechanical Garage around the corner. They took the car up on an elevator to park it and it always came slamming down when you went to pick it up. Anyone who ever worked there must be deaf. Any trip downtown was an excuse to eat at Warmuth's on Devonshire Street. They had a four page menu for lunch. I always had the mackerel or the filet of sole. Three people could have lunch for $5.00.

The wine list for Warmuth's: Courvoisier was 75 cents

My first job in high school was in the record department of Lechmere, in Dedham. I owe a lot of my music education to working in a record department, and, sinceI was one of the few employees there who was obsessed with music, the record jobbers used to give me tickets to a lot of the concerts coming to town. I saw everyone back then. In the store, we had to wear these awful orange smocks, and, at the time, the only credit card they accepted was a Lechmere card; no MC or Amex! The store had everything, though. It was definitely a precursor to stores like Target. It is a shame they did not survive. But, ah, good times.

R334. I lived in the city so we took the MTA/Green Line. Although Boston is a very cosmopolitan city, it's not that big, sort of the size of San Francisco. Although for a city of its size, there were so many major department stores and landmarks. Of course it has grown tremendously over the generations, and many of the downtown department stores have been replaced with other businesses, but wow, those were the days.

I remember when I was 15 in the early '70s and going in town with friends, my father would not let me leave the house wearing jeans. He insisted that I had to wear a pair of slacks and a jacket. It just reminds me that there was a time when you got dressed and looked presentable to go "in town."

[quote]There was a time when you got dressed and looked presentable to go "in town."

My grandma used to tell us she wouldn't have been caught dead without a hat and gloves when she went shopping downtown in the '40s and '50s.

R285 my brother went to Xavarian

R339 although we grew up in a blue collar household we weren't raised blue collar. My mother always put on a dress and did her hair before going grocery shopping. Wouldn't dream of wearing curlers and a scarf to the A&P!

Now people think they're dressing up when they change their underwear once every two weeks.

R282 and R284 and others from the Boston area - does anyone remember going to Boston at Christmas to see the lights on the Common and the nativity scene on top of Jordan Marsh? I am so happy I had these experiences as a kid.

Again from the Boston area - Cape Cod every summer and some special long weekends back in the day. One Columbus Day weekend in the 1970's went to Mildred's Clam House in Hyannis - jacket, tie, dress shoes. I was 13. About 20 years ago, I stopped there with my family - dressed casually of course - I recognize times have changed - but I was still horrified to see people in bathing suits and wife-beaters! Now, regrettably I wouldn't look twice. We keep getting more casual. No place to go from here but up I guess.

R343: The Enchanted Village upstairs (pictures with Santa) and Toyland and the Nativity scene on the roof at Jordan's, then the lights on the Common, then usually dinner in the dining room of the Parker House. I remember getting a tuna sandwich there when I was about 7 years old that came on a silver tray - the sandwich sat in the middle and it was surrounded by a sea of potato chips and pickles and olives.

My grandmother lived in Brookline, so we'd get groceries at S.S. Pierce in Coolidge Corner. It's a CVS now, I think. They would deliver stuff to your house if you didn't want to carry it home. And have lunch at either Jack and Marion's or a Chinese restaurant (can't remember the name) in Coolidge Corner, too. I wished I was Jewish when I was a kid because the food was so much better.

People elsewhere probably feel the same way about where they grew up, but Greater Boston in 50's and 60's was a great place to be a kid.

I rode in from Newton Center on the D Green Line. My mother wanted us to be exposed to the city so she took us downtown often. My father who had grown up in Charlestown did the opposite, he took us to the country.

I was the only one of 4 who took to the city.

I am also the only city mouse in my family, r346

Omg, I am feeling so nostalgic for Boston in the 60s. You guys are brinign back so many memories: The windows at Christmas at Jordan Marsh and Filene's, The Enchanted Village on the eighth floor at Jordan's, Filene's Basement, lights on the Common and the Nativity scene leading up to the State House, skating on the Frog Pond, which is very popular once again, The Parker House, Bailey's, The Music Hall, still one of the most beautiful theatres in the entire country (now called the awful name The Wang Center). I would meet my mother at the "glove counter" at R.H. Stearns on Tremont Street. Remember tree mad out of blue lights at Christmas that went up the entire height of the building. And then if you were really fancy, you went to Copley Square for a visit to Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor. Walked through the beautiful lobby of the Coply Plaza. Went across Boylston Street to eat at Ken's Deli--especially after a night at the bars.

Ever go to Louisburg Square and see how Proper Bostonians on Beacon Hill decorated for Christmas?...pure and elegantly New England.

I loved Jack & Marion's, S.S. Pierce and Paperback Booksmith in Coolidge Corner. I used to go to movies at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. It's still there. Saw Funny Girl there in 1968. I knew then!

West Hyannisport r269.

Nothing to do with shopping, but I got my first blowjob at the Paramount Theater on Washington Street when I was 14 on a day I skipped school.

Syms Stores

I vaguely remember Syms. It was high end stuff but stuff that was always at least 3 to 4 seasons old.

Syms was in both New York and Chicago. Shopped at both of them.

[quote]Syms was in both New York and Chicago.

And the DC suburbs, in the 1980s.

[quote]One Columbus Day weekend in the 1970's went to Mildred's Clam House in Hyannis - jacket, tie, dress shoes.

Damn right!

R343 Yup and I still have the pictures with Santa. There was no mall to go to you went in to Jordan Marsh to talk to Santa and have your picture taken. Also Jordan's had some kind of little Christmas village, right?

There was also a Jordan Marsh in Malden Square btw

[quote] I had no idea there was term for them as "catalog showrooms", but I recall my folks taking me to one called Jewel Mart in the early 80's.

We had one called LaBelle's in the Twin Cities. The stores themselves were nothing but samples of silver-plate and cheap audio equipment. The Catalog, however, was dominated by page after page of mall quality jewelry. Pages of low grade diamonds, synthetic colored stones and lots of 10k and plated crap.

Murphy's Mart

The mother of them all...

The Pilgrim Theatre in the Combat Zone in Boston. A big huge grand movie palace of days gone by. It was Sex Central. Nothing else compared. Times Square and 42nd Street didn't even come close to the wild times inside the Pilgrim...frequented by everyone from the Boston Brahmin of Beacon Hill to execs from the Financial District to gays, straights, guidos from the North End, students, suburban dads, city office workers, students, young, old, bikers, drag queens, leather men, preppy boys, jocks, nerds and everyone in between played at the Pilgrim. Sadly, the Combat Zone isn't called that any longer. The Pilgrim and all the dirty movies and book stores are gone. When it all went away, it was the sad passing of a helluva fun era.

[quote] One Columbus Day weekend in the 1970's went to Mildred's Clam House

So I take it you’re not a Gold Star Gay?

Well that’s alright. Some of us had to try the other side.

Fun thread

The Pilgrim Theatre qualifies for this thread because it was a sex supermarket?

The best kind of supermarket!

One stop shopping! Great variety!

R362. The Pilgrim Theatre belongs in the Hall of Fame. In fact, the Hall of Fame should be named after the Pilgrim. I'm not sure it's what the people had in mind who came over on the Mayflower, but it's as much of a landmark in American history. A trip to the Pilgrim was like going to Mecca, but a whole lot more fun.

If that is where this thread is heading, then let me add the Adonis. I was never in the Pilgrim, but no one ever had more fun in a theater than I did in the Adonis.

R366. Was your photo of the Adonis in Boston because there was an Adonis in Boston? I went to high school in town a few blocks away. The Adonis was sort of Combat Zone/on the fringe of Chinatown.

The Adonis in my post was on Eighth Avenue, between 50th and 51st Streets.

Friendly Frost

Swezey’s

Oldie.....

Rollick’s, a chain clothing store for children’s clothes owned by Murder, Inc.

Is Friendly's Ice Cream shops still around. It was in New England.

Howard Johnson's is now gone.

Peaches Records and Tapes.

How handy that the Adonis at R366 was located right next to the Family Discount Center.

Friendly's is still around, at least in New England, R372. I remember also seeing them in New Jersey when I lived there for a while back in the '90s.

Friendly's still has the best burgers and ice cream.

Nothing beat a patty melt at the Woolworth's diner counter. Sadly, long gone.

Fiorucci

Charrivarri

Pat Field’s

Fiorucci

Charrivarri

Pat Field’s

In 1980, NYC had branches of the "69 Cent Store" everywhere. Then it became the "79 Cent Store." Then it was the "99 Cent Store."

And then it died.

What was the crap store in Manhattan in the early 90s. Weber's? Something like that.

Weber's was all over. In the 1980s, it was great. By the 90s, it was piles of trash on great big tables.

Also, in the 1980s, Odd Job Trading. They had great close-outs there. Great.

[quote] Friendly's is still around, at least in New England,

In New York also.

Anyone remember a Japanese store in NYC that sold things like soap, incense, kimonos and figurines? It was on 5th Avenue around the mid to upper 30s in the 70s and 80s. I'd make my father take me there as a kid because I thought it was exotic and high class and where rich people shopped. I insisted he buy me what I now consider a tacky tea set, but at the time I thought it was glamorous. I'd live to know the name.

Another remainders shop in Manhattan was Daffy's.

And Le mouton à cinq pattes in Paris, which we all thrilled to in the 80s.

Also for thrift - Domsey's in Brooklyn before it was hipster paradise. And Canal Jean when it was on Canal had vintage. Am I remember that correctly? Because I seem to remember buying shark skin suits there to go to Peppermint Lounge, and this was when Peppermint Lounge was in Times Square.

Also during the worst of the AIDS years, there was a bittersweet thing - one could go to the AIDS charity shops and find entire very high quality wardrobes of young professional men who died. The clothes were not old. Not vintage. Just no longer had an owner.

R31 At Times Square Stores each department was a concession who rented the space.

R384 are you thinking of Takashimaya?

R382, Weber's from 31st to 32nd, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, is now an eatery billing itself as "New York's Largest Buffet."

I always loved Newberry's in downtown Cincinnati. You could get an amazing range of stuff.

Heart wrenching, r387. Truly.

R170, even before the days of Political Correctness, Barney's called the section for Fat Boys, the "Husky" department.

You bet it was, R392. You bet it was.

R393, what did you expect them to call it, Fat Fuck Fauntleroy’s?

R372, the last Howard Johnson in NYC at Broadway and 46th, closed in July 2005. 49th and Broadway, where Lily Tomlin and Jack Klugman were servers closed a decade earlier.

Not just Barney's. "Husky" was a commonly used size designation back then.

Going Out of Business was a franchise store in N.Y.C to bring in tourists.

The Bazaar stores. First Avenue Bazaar, Second Avenue Bazaar, etc.

Azuma’s.

Going Out of Business was a franchise store in N.Y.C to bring in tourists.

The Bazaar stores. First Avenue Bazaar, Second Avenue Bazaar, etc.

Azuma’s.

The last Howard Johnson's restaurant in New England was in Bangor, Maine. It closed in September 2016.

The closing of the Bangor HoJo's left one in Lake George, N.Y., as the lone survivor. It's apparently still in operation, complete with orange roof, but it closes in the winter because of a lack of customers.

No, r389, Takashimaya was in the 50s would have been way more upscale than this store. The one I'm talking about was closer to Lord and Taylor.

OMG I think Azuma is the Japanese store from my childhood! I love you r398!

The bazaar stores always had plenty of Japanese dishware as well. Dishes, cups, condiment containers, small trays, chopsticks, bamboo.

Lots of candles, candle holders, soaps, greeting cards, drink ware for cocktails, stirrers, little paper umbrellas, paper hand fans, bamboo wall fans. Little folding tables for one. It was little stuff for young people trying to furnish their tiny apartments.

Azuma.

Thank you, r405. Yes, that's my store and looking at the photo in your link makes me miss my father. I still have the tea set too.

I have a small blue tea pot I bought from Azuma, I used to have 6 mugs each in a different color but they were broken.

from 31st to 32nd, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

This address is physically impossible.

My is blue too, r407. It is a vivid blue with tiny bright pink flowers and matching cups.

Cherry, Webb and Touraine.

R409 mine is vivid blue too but plain, no flowers and it has straight sides.

Post pics r409 and r411

[quote]Weber's from 31st to 32nd, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, is now an eatery billing itself as "New York's Largest Buffet."

Do they take reservations?

r401 I think there are still some in other countries. I recently saw a HoJo's in South America.

R412 here it is, its nothing special but it's a reminder of a wonderful time in my life when I moved to NYC.

Love it r411

What poor people shopped at Fiorucci's?

Aw, that's pretty, r415. I wish I were home so I could take a photo of mine to share.

No, R408.

First of all, it's not an address. It is a description of the store. An accurate description.

The space is mid-block between 6th and 7th Avenues and it goes straight through from 31st Street to 32nd Street.

[quote]What poor people shopped at Fiorucci's?

I recall that Olivia Newton-John was taken shopping there in "Xanadu," in which it was described as a "glitz emporium."

R408 - you are probably unfamiliar with how New Yorkers give directions in Manhattan. Addresses on streets follow a regular pattern (for the most part) but addresses on avenues are useless - every avenue has a different numbering scheme — so “west side of 8th between 44 / 45th” is much more useful Information, especially for a storefront - you can see the whole block from across the avenue and easily find what you’re looking for without an actual address.

Atlantic Mills and Moreway -- We had a couple of them in Milwaukee. Very low end but, hey, it's all we could afford at the time. I have nothing to compare it to now. (Oh excuse my English: I have nothing which to compare it with...is that better?)

R408, the store (like Jack's on the same block) is long. You can enter on 31st or 32nd.

R408, you can tell the cross avenues from an address. If you're at Fifth Avenue and heading West

1-99 Fifth to Sixth

100-199 Sixth to Seventh

200-299 Seventh to Eighth

300-399 Eighth to Ninth etc etc

Same "hundred Block" system heading East.

I’m not into all the froo froo shit, but I love the teapot r411 posted. The color and look is beautiful I have to admit.

OK I remember those tunnel like crap stores. Thank you.

yes, the first description didn't gel with how an address is usually given. It sounded like the store spanned sidewalks and the vehicular street!

Thank You R416, R418 & R425 I love using it and have not gotten tired of the design.

Wasn’t Daffys originally called Daffy Dan’s, “clothing bargain’s for millionaires” or something like that? I went there once. It was at the end of its reign, so pretty crappy.

There were women’s clothing shops with double women’s names. One I remember was Joyce Leslie, but there were more. So many clothing stores back then when we had laws against monopolies & labor laws that were obeyed. Now the middle class are wage slaves who can only shop at Walmart.

There was a clothing chain called Jeffrey’s on LI. I don’t know if it was local or nation wide.

[quote] Wasn’t Daffys originally called Daffy Dan’s, “clothing bargain’s for millionaires”

If it was, it’d be wrong.

Oh, dear!

Sports Authority. Who knew? I just drove by the store at Balboa & 805 in San Diego yesterday, and it was gone. It's probably been gone for a while; I just didn't know. It was a good fitness wear and sports equipment huge store.

Its funny, as much as I hated Bradlees and Ames and Zayres, I would go back there in a heartbeat if given the opportunity to know everything I know NOW, to have to go back to that time.

Oh it all seems so simpler back them. Under those cheap fluorescent lights and smell of fake leather shoes!!

Jamesway, founded in Jamestown had stores in New York and Pennsylvania. Gone but not forgotten.

Conways near Macy’s. It was kind of ghetto but I was broke & bought dish towels, wash clothes & hand towels there.

I shopped at Fashion Lane! They sold stretch fabric Lee bend over jeans!

I remember getting suits down at a place called the Garage in Brooklyn. They were Romanian suits, actually pretty well made can cut, and they were dirt cheap. If I remember right, it was somewhere down near Coney Island, and was actually in a garage. I also remember a menswear store on 18th Avenue, called I believe Jack's. It was right out of Saturday Night Fever.

Wm. A. Lewis - "Where the Models Buy Their Clothes"

The slogan made it extra hilarious and memorable because these shops tended to be located at down-to-mid-market strip malls. It was kind of like posh for the blue collar crowd. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

There were so many commercials for so many stores years ago. But Ignoring the monopoly laws & red state politicians who were bribed let Walmart crush all stores out if existence. Small town locally owned pet stores. Auto supply stores. Tons of clothing stores. Jewelry shops. Toy stores. Drug stores.

TV commercials used to be funny, annoying, crazy & memorable. I loved Christmas commercials, especially the ones for liquor & jewelry stores because they made adulthood look so understatedly sexy, fun & wealthy. Being poor, they really appealed to me during the season of soft snow, bright lights & wishes.

Life seemed busy in a fun way.

Now commercials are for cars & insurance. They’re not fun or funny.

I miss hardware stores & book shops & florists, toy stores, pharmacies owned by pharmacists, card & gift shops, shops that smelled good & powdery when you walked in. We’ll never see, or smell, or experience anything like it again.

[quote] they really appealed to me during the season of soft snow, bright lights & wishes.

[quote] shops that smelled good & powdery when you walked in. We’ll never see, or smell, or experience anything like it again.

MARY!!

Oh Mary you r439! You know r438 is right, it won’t ever be that way again. Even that commercial for the Hershey’s Kisses was gone this past Christmas. Drug stores don’t smell like Long’s anymore and here in the Bay Area, Safeway had nicest displays I saw all season...and those were the Seagrams displays. Stores don’t give a fuck anymore.

People yse$ to wait fir stores to put out their Christmas displays. The Christmas sections at Macy’s Fortunoff’s Lord & Taylor were great. Now it’s just scraggly Christmas trees for sale in Target & Walmart and boxes of lights.

Before there was Bradlee's there was Memco.

Times sure have changed. Grandma now flicks her bean to hardcore fetish porn in the nursing home.

Has no one mentioned Weiner's in Houston??

r41, Woolco was an offshoot of Woolworth.

Gosh I miss Daffy’s!

Woolco was Woolworth's attempt at expanding from a five-and-dime to a full-size discount department store, just as Kresge's became Kmart.

Still going strong in the Midwest ... Meijer.

R405 Azuma in the photo was on Sixth Avenue between Waverly Place and Greenwich Avenue.

Wasn't Mrs. B (Bradlees), Paul's mother on Mad About You?

Also Newmark and Lewis.

r442 No. Bradlee's was around long before. They just took over the Memco stores in the DC area when that chain went under. Memco was the east coast version of Gemco.

[quote]Now commercials are for cars & insurance. They’re not fun or funny.

Don't forget prescription drugs, ambulance-chasing lawyers, and unproven supplements.

[quote]Wasn't Mrs. B (Bradlees), Paul's mother on Mad About You?

Yes, R450. It was actress Cynthia Harris who played both roles. I recall reading that she was going to reprise her role as Paul's mother for the series reboot.

I mentioned Weiner's at r45, r444, but I'm glad someone else from Houston piped up.

I knew a doctor who was a nephew of Mr. Weiner. He (the doctor) said another aunt and uncle had stores specializing in stripper heels. One of their stores was in the strip center at the corner of Greenbriar and Holcombe in the 80s. I think a medical supply store holds that space now.

[quote] Still going strong in the Midwest ... Meijer.

Ah, then it’s perfect for this thread!

Lechters Housewares stores were all over NYC in the 1990s. I loved them. They were my 'go to' stores for kitchen and house wares.

Maybe they were too "all over" NYC because the chain is long gone now. Wiped out in bankruptcy.

R456 By the end they were all over America. We had one in our local mall.

My former neighbor worked for Fortunoff’s in Westbury for years. It started out as a jewelry store & expanded into housewares, linens, small appliances, patio furniture, Christmas goods, etc. It was very successful & expanded into NJ.

My neighbor told me Old Mrs Fortunoff ran the place. She ordered every piece of inventory the store had. She had manufacturer catalogs & met with the manufacturer’s salesmen. If you wanted your dining room furniture sold at Fortunoff’s or your lamps or dinner napkins, you met Mrs Fortunoff and haggled til you agreed on a price.

He said when she died, the store went downhill. The sons were jokes when it came to business & everyone was fighting about what to do with the money. There was a disastrous mall built around the Westbury store just at the wrong time. Mrs Fortunoff always ran the business based on “what does a female homeowner want to buy.” Nothing else. I bought a shaker dining room set from Fortunoffs that was right next to a faux deco mica dining set. Old Lady Fortunoff realized people had different taste ...cater to them. Offer traditional & modern, offer it within a certain price range. Sell higher priced wicker patio furniture, middle priced metal furniture and discount it twice a year.

My former neighbor worked for Fortunoff’s in Westbury for years. It started out as a jewelry store & expanded into housewares, linens, small appliances, patio furniture, Christmas goods, etc. It was very successful & expanded into NJ.

My neighbor told me Old Mrs Fortunoff ran the place. She ordered every piece of inventory the store had. She had manufacturer catalogs & met with the manufacturer’s salesmen. If you wanted your dining room furniture sold at Fortunoff’s or your lamps or dinner napkins, you met Mrs Fortunoff and haggled til you agreed on a price.

He said when she died, the store went downhill. The sons were jokes when it came to business & everyone was fighting about what to do with the money. There was a disastrous mall built around the Westbury store just at the wrong time. Mrs Fortunoff always ran the business based on “what does a female homeowner want to buy.” Nothing else. I bought a shaker dining room set from Fortunoffs that was right next to a faux deco mica dining set. Old Lady Fortunoff realized people had different taste ...cater to them. Offer traditional & modern, offer it within a certain price range. Sell higher priced wicker patio furniture, middle priced metal furniture and discount it twice a year.

Whoops no, I think Fortunoff’s began as housewares store in Brooklyn

That’s not the first time I’ve heard that story, or similar, regarding Mrs. Fortunoff.

I was surprised to find that my hometown still has a tacky-furniture store catering to people with Trumpian tastes—the kind of stuff that fairly cries out to be covered with plastic.

[quote]—the kind of stuff that fairly cries out to be covered with plastic.

A canvas tarp would be preferable.

They said I'd love it at Levitz. But gah! That shit was horrible.

Woolco was an American-based discount retail chain. It was founded in 1962 in the city of Columbus, Ohio, by the F. W. Woolworth Company. It was a full-line discount department store unlike the five-and-dime Woolworth stores which operated at the time. At its peak, Woolco had hundreds of stores in the US, as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom. While the American stores were closed in 1983, the chain remained active in Canada until it was sold in 1994 to rival Walmart, which was looking to enter the Canadian market. All of the former UK Woolco stores were sold by Kingfisher, who had bought the UK Woolworth business, to Gateway who subsequently sold them to Asda.

R449, there were several Azumas around the city and they all had the same store front.

r466, are you passive-aggressively challenging the location of the Azuma store, as stated by R449?

It certainly seems so.

I used to go to the Friendlys' that were in Long Island. I loved the burger and the Asian chicken salad and some kind of other chicken dish. The ice cream was wonderful too, but they all closed. It seems all the places, including many diners in Long Island, and almost every diner in Brooklyn has closed. If a place had good food, at least in NYS and NYC it's gone belly up.

There's a new Burlington store that opened in the same complex with my Trader Joe's, so I wandered in there last week. What a load of crap! Cheap stuff, horrible selection, few name brands. Don't know why anyone would shop there.

[quote] I used to go to the Friendlys' that were in Long Island.

[quote] including many diners in Long Island

You mean on Long Island.

R470 - the “in” when it should be “on” drives me crazy too. Reference the island - you live on it / specify the town you live in it - unless “Island” is also part of the towns name - then it’s still “on.”

Not really, r471. I’ve never heard anyone say they live “on Island Park” (a hamlet on Long Island). And nobody says they live on Coney Island.

It’s just something about Long Island.

The first I noticed it was when Ray Romano‘s sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond premiered. In the intro he says, “I live in Long Island with my family...” and Long Islanders went figuratively crazy. They wrote in to the papers and everything. They eventually reshot that opening with him saying “...ON Long Island.”

It was only then that I said it out loud and said ‘oh shit, they’re right. I say I live ON Long Island.’ Before that I had never even thought of it.

R660 Max Fortunoff's first store was on Livonia Avenue, he lived around the corner.

Golsblat’s

Now they know how many clothes it takes to fill the Robert Hall. Sorry. I'll go away now.

It's a little much to have chain that caters exclusively to bisexuals.

Long Islanders stand ON line, not IN line.

R476 Is it a place one goes to to find other bisexuals? Asking for a friend...

R472 - and people vacation on Martha's Vineyard, spend summers on Cape Cod, or on Fire Island, and those Jersey Shore guidos really lived on Staten Island. It's may be an northeast coast thing - but it's more than just a Long Island quirk.

There was a men's store called Fine's Men's Store in lots of malls in the Southeast in the 1970s and 1980s. Good quality stuff at prices a little lower than midline department stores of that era. Seems to have vanished now, so much have gone out of business.

On Fire Island you refer to Long Island as “the mainland.”

On Sanibel Island you refer to Fort Myers as "Overseas."

R479, I don't think it's a Northeast thing. I think it's an English language thing. You generally live ON islands and IN cities, towns or other land divisions. You live IN Avalon ON Santa Catalina Island. There are exceptions when the island is also a large political or historical entity. People live IN Sicily and IN Hawaii (but ON Oahu).

Thank you, r483.

[quote] You live IN Avalon ON Santa Catalina Island.

If only!

*dreaming*

R483 - Exactly - there’s another tread about Annoying Mispronunciations, but honestly this particular mistake drives me much crazier

Yes, let’s make sure the accounts spouting US politics as “we” and “us” Muriel has identified as being from Brazil & Macedonia get their English language skills ESL’d by the ever helpful Dataloungers.

^^Cuckoo.

Speaking of accents...I grew up in Boston calling it "FUH-leens," and recoiled a little whenever I heard someone call it FIE-leens. Does anyone know how it was supposed to have been pronounced?

FY-LEENS, you fucking Boston dipshit R488!!

It really was FY-LEENS.

But somehow, I love you even more for pronouncing it wrong...

My entire family pronounced it wrong, then, R488. and we were all from Boston Proper.

Relax R490 - at least you don’t say “FY-LATIO.”

My gradmother, mother and I have always said Fuh-leens.

And good point r491. It's like scallops. ScAH-lops vs. Scoh-lops.

Scoh-lops

No.

[quote]Scoh-lops. No.

It's an accepted pronunciation in New England. A regional variation. Deal with it.

Absolutely UN-ACCEPTABLE R494 - everyone MUST speak EXACTLY like ME!

—I’m a little priss-pot, short and stout

I am Boston born and bred from a family of generation of Bostonians.

I have heard Filene’s pronounced FUL- by some. However, the company founder born in the 1800 was William Filiene, pronounced FY-lene, and most people pronounced it this way including William Filene himself. FULene’s is just a Bostonian idiosyncrasy used by a minority of grandmothers.

The owner of the Azuma chain was a man named Naboro Sato. He bought the brownstone I lived in in the early 80's. He was the worst landlord you could never wish on someone. The building was overrun by mice and roaches, he refused to hire exterminators, the super was about 90 years old, and heat was out most of the winter. Even his gay son and his bf moved in across the hall from me, and moved out in under a year. Then his stores started closing one by one. Terrible person, awful businessman.

Thanks R496. I suppose my pronouncing it FUH-Leens is just an odd idiosyncratic tic I picked up from my mom and her mother.

Speaking of the old shops, and pronunciation... Growing up, there were 3 pronunciations of coupon. My parents: koo-pon. Others: kyoo-pon or koo-pun.

R496, you may remember S.S. Pierce. A friend of my mother said "purse."

R494, SCAL-ops sounds like your from Brooklyn. SKAH-lops is preferred by chefs in upscale establishments.

Well lah-di-dah, R501.

R477, standing "on line," heard in Metro New York was attributed to Ellis Island, where colored lines were painted on the floor. Immigrants who spoke no English, we told by the guards "stand on line." In correct English, we stand "in line," one-behind-the-other. Think of wheels on skates.

R497, if you lived at 230 East 75th, he still owns the building.

Scoh-lops is hard no.

R505 has stated her boundaries.

[quote] In correct English...

Bugger off, R503. You do not own the copyright on the English language.

I see Hickory Farms is not getting any love at DL these days. It used to be quite the favorite around here.

Cheese ball, anyone?

I think a lot of that has to do with Hickory Farms still being around, r508.

Not much, R509. If at all. Maybe some holiday pop-up kiosks and online business.

According the Store Locator on the Hickory Farms website, there is no store within 300 miles of the Times Square post office. That's roughly from Portland, Maine, to Rochester, New York, to Washington, D.C.

Hickory Farms was once in almost every mall in America. It definitely qualifies for this thread.

Circus of Books

Please don’t misunderstand me, r510, I’m not implying in the least it doesn’t belong in this thread. Quite the contrary. I just thought that with the holidays having recently passed and Hickory setting up kiosks in the malls, people wouldn’t thing of them as ‘bygone.’

No offense intended.

Christmas gifts for the working class were pretty basic.,what do you get your in-laws? Do they drink? A bottle of booze or a version of a “basket of cheer.” If they didn’t drink, Hickory Farms. People didn’t eat cheese balls during the rest of the year, so it was a Christmas-New Year’s treat. Someone always gave a paper plate with home baked Christmas cookies wrapped in cellophane & tied with ribbon into a bow. So you have savory & sweet. My family was so poor we didn't have Christmas cookies until one of my uncles married a woman from a middle class home who had a German mother & had grown up making Christmas cookies.

We never bough hickory Farms because my mother did the Christmas shopping & everything she ever bought was a knockoff. So whatever sold for half the price if Hickory Farms would be what she wanted. One year I wanted a boom box, when boom boxes first came out & were all metal. 5here weren’t any knockoffs, so I had to pay for half of it. Took me all year to make up half the price picking up day jobs here & there.

Korvette's.

Sears.

Grant's, Woolworths, McCrory's.

Thanks for your contribution, r514.

We haven’t discussed those stores yet.

At all.

Here’s something about those older stores— research was done to find what kind of lighting, what width of aisles, the amount of spacing between racks & displays and the amount of time spent waiting in line & being rung up were most comfortable for shoppers. It was all researched to be a pleasant shopping experience for customers.

Starting in the 1980s, that changed. Instead of research being done to make customers happy, research started being directed towards bottom line money making. Aisles became narrower, display shelves appeared that were 6.5 ft high, lighting was cut in half, inventory cash registers appeared (this was before computer cash registers & they took a long time to print), cashier stations were left empty. People had to wander around department stores to find an open register when there had been 5 - 6 manned cash registers per floor in mall department stores in the 60s, 70s & early 80s. Supermarkets & discount stores like TSS used to have all of their registers manned. None were shut down during business hours.

There was a Walmart a few towns over that opened in an old Caldor. Wide aisles, bright lighting, plenty of room between displays, lots of good stuff in the discount aisle like summer discounts going into early autumn (half priced miracle Gro, half priced pool noodles). Walmart talked the town into letting them shut that store & build a “Super” Walmart a …mile and a half away, across from an outlet mall being built.

That Walmart is torturous to shop in. And the discount aisle is filled with crap. The miracle Gro & pool noodles get loaded onto a truck & taken back to a warehouse to be sold at twice the original price online. I’m not kidding. I bought Halloween lights in their store & a light set got damaged. The day after Halloween they were gone from the store (Christmas displays had taken the place), so I went to Walmart.com to buy the same ones for next years display & they were 3x the price I’d paid...plus delivery.

There’s a certain cat treat I buy for $1.89 online at Target...it’s $4.98 at Walmart.com. Walmart obviously wants you in their stores, angry, unable to navigate the aisles properly, forcing you to spend more time in their store, and making you stand in the two manned checkout lines or the self serve line that is snaking around the entire interior of the store.

They don’t want you shopping from the comfort of your home.

The McCrory’s in the original 1970s local shopping mall had a shortcut where you could cut through and come out on front of Macy’s instead of having to walk through the entire mall. Other shops in the mall complained they would pull their businesses out of the mall unless McCrory’s closed off the short cut. McCrory’s did - and went out of business shortly after that. McCrorys was a large store, sq ft wise. The reason people went in there was to cut through to Macy’s — but they’d see curtains or bed sheets on sale with a sign pointing to “pajama sale this way —>“ and end up buying stuff there. Once mall goers couldn’t get to Macy’s, nobody went in there anymore.

Here’s something about those older stores— research was done to find what kind of lighting, what width of aisles, the amount of spacing between racks & displays and the amount of time spent waiting in line & being rung up were most comfortable for shoppers. It was all researched to be a pleasant shopping experience for customers.

Starting in the 1980s, that changed. Instead of research being done to make customers happy, research started being directed towards bottom line money making. Aisles became narrower, display shelves appeared that were 6.5 ft high, lighting was cut in half, inventory cash registers appeared (this was before computer cash registers & they took a long time to print), cashier stations were left empty. People had to wander around department stores to find an open register when there had been 5 - 6 manned cash registers per floor in mall department stores in the 60s, 70s & early 80s. Supermarkets & discount stores like TSS used to have all of their registers manned. None were shut down during business hours.

There was a Walmart a few towns over that opened in an old Caldor. Wide aisles, bright lighting, plenty of room between displays, lots of good stuff in the discount aisle like summer discounts going into early autumn (half priced miracle Gro, half priced pool noodles). Walmart talked the town into letting them shut that store & build a “Super” Walmart a …mile and a half away, across from an outlet mall being built.

That Walmart is torturous to shop in. And the discount aisle is filled with crap. The miracle Gro & pool noodles get loaded onto a truck & taken back to a warehouse to be sold at twice the original price online. I’m not kidding. I bought Halloween lights in their store & a light set got damaged. The day after Halloween they were gone from the store (Christmas displays had taken the place), so I went to Walmart.com to buy the same ones for next years display & they were 3x the price I’d paid...plus delivery.

There’s a certain cat treat I buy for $1.89 online at Target...it’s $4.98 at Walmart.com. Walmart obviously wants you in their stores, angry, unable to navigate the aisles properly, forcing you to spend more time in their store, and making you stand in the two manned checkout lines or the self serve line that is snaking around the entire interior of the store.

They don’t want you shopping from the comfort of your home.

The McCrory’s in the original 1970s local shopping mall had a shortcut where you could cut through and come out on front of Macy’s instead of having to walk through the entire mall. Other shops in the mall complained they would pull their businesses out of the mall unless McCrory’s closed off the short cut. McCrory’s did - and went out of business shortly after that. McCrorys was a large store, sq ft wise. The reason people went in there was to cut through to Macy’s — but they’d see curtains or bed sheets on sale with a sign pointing to “pajama sale this way —>“ and end up buying stuff there. Once mall goers couldn’t get to Macy’s, nobody went in there anymore.

I remember the fancy food shop, S.S. Pierce on Tremont Street in Boston. It was a few doors down from R.H. Stearns with the blue lights that formed the shape of a giant tree and illuminated the entire front of the building during Christmas.

A friend of mine once told me that when he was young coming home from school and he was meeting his mother in town to go shopping, she would always tell him to meet her at the glove counter at Stearns. So elegant. So gay. Yes, in Boston we always went "in town," not "downtown."

Very well played r515.

Well, smart-ass r515 and your enabler r519, I listed only local ones familiar to me. Sorry I didn't read the entire thread before posting, but by then it would have been closed.

All in the spirit of pointless bitchery, r520.

Having some fun with ya is all.

Is Swiss Colony still around? I haven't seen them in a mall in decades.

R521, Make-up smooches to you!

Easy, r523, I wasn’t expecting tongue.

But now that I got it, ummmmmmm.

I remember the first 99 cent store that opened up in our local mall back in the late 80's. I loved going over to the CD section and browsing through all these obscure musicians/singers/groups that never made it big. I would occasionally pick up a few just for laughs, to listen to how bad they were.

I remember the first 99 cent store that opened up in our local mall back in the late 80's. I loved going over to the CD section and browsing through all these obscure musicians/singers/groups that never made it big. I would occasionally pick up a few just for laughs, to listen to how bad they were.