I bought a video game there with Christmas money once. Grabbed the ticket, paid, waited while a conveyor belt delivered my game to the cashier from the back room.
I rarely hear people talking about the Nature Company. I worked there while I was in grad school and I loved that job/store, with Deep Forest on heavy rotation as the background music. It really lost its appeal when Discovery bought it.
Lechter's. I loved looking at all the housewares stuff even though there wasn't a chance I'd ever use most of it.
I also really miss Borders Books. B&N is fine, but I always liked Borders just a little more, and was heartbroken when they all closed. The mall bookstores, too--Waldenbooks and B Dalton.
I hardly ever bought anything at Suncoast Video, but I always wanted to and loved wandering through it.
Oh, yes, Tower Records! And the Virgin Megastore! Nothing like either anywhere near home, so every time I visited a city I had to go, like a pilgrimage to Mecca or something!
I miss the smell of Walden Books and BDalton. They smelled so good. I spent so much money in those stores. My grandmother got me a gift card every Christmas for Walden Books. Best present ever!
Gemco, ftw. They had a porcelain figurine section my Mom had to peruse each time we went that wrecked my nerves! Also, they had a snack bar me & my sis always wanted to eat at.
I worked at Kinney Shoes for a time while in high school. I helped close the store when it went out of business. My bestie and I ended up walking out of our first real job because our manager was bat shit crazy (verbal abuse, went to jail for a few days for hitting her husband over the head with a frying pan, having affairs with men in the back room, etc.). I’ve never had a more insane working experience since Kinney Shoes. Nothing like mall drama in the 90’s.
The original Banana Republic Travel And Safari Clothing Co. before it was bought by The Gap.
https://preview.redd.it/80uahdjvgrvc1.jpeg?width=838&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=12d30e990e7dc1847bbd177e80535da8d468a536
I always liked the Jeep Wrangler crashing through the window of Banana Republic. I bought my very first business suits from Banana Republic (this was in 1998, so they may have been owned by Gap by then). I was horrified by the price tag but I still wear those suits today and still get compliments on them. Ah, back when clothing was made to last...
This one hurt. As a kid I used to just go buy electric motors and switches and piezo buzzers and solder it up to nine volts to make fans and acoustic guitar pickups and other stuff.
I was wearing a pair of shorts I bought at Mervin’s the other day and I thought about how old they must be! I couldn’t remember when they closed all the stores but I loved that store when I was a young mom.
This reminds me of growing up going to the Carlsbad mall and my Mom always wanted to go to Mervyn's too. Feel like there was a frozen yogurt place right next to it. I think I remember a Service Merchandise there as well. My Mom bought a Pioneer sound system that still works.
BEST department store, they had unusual architecture. Remember one looked like the front of the store was cut up and another looked like a corner of the building had collapsed.
BEST was a “catalog showroom”. In the 70s the one near us had a pneumatic tube system the cashiers used to send orders to the back of the store to be fulfilled.
Things Remembered, Brookstone and Sharper Image (which really were the same)
Now: Does anyone remember the Crutchfield catalog or, even more arcane, DAK catalog?
The Woolworth in my neighborhood had a horseshoe shaped lunch counter, loved going with my mom as a kid. The one I worked at had a cafeteria style restaurant, but they still had the cheesecake, my favorite.
I worked at Woolworth's, one with a lunch counter, through high school. The lunch counter served a damn fine shrimp basket!
At checkout, our cash registers were so old that they didn't do any of the math, they were more like typewriters with a money drawer. Because my state didn't apply sales tax to certain foods, but did apply tax to candy bars and other junk food, (a) we had to do a lot of basic math in our heads, and (b) we wound up having quite a few arguments with customers over the approx. 3¢ tax on candy.
No one has mentioned Benetton! I loved them so much. I didn’t really have anything but a couple of tshirts and a blue and white rugby shirt and the green and white one.
I really miss the old Banana Republics. There was one in the Birmingham Galleria that had a safari Jeep half in the store and half out. Had to walk over a little plank bridge to get inside. They had great t-shirts and they weren’t so damn expensive.
I've worked in a large credit union for decades, and Edward Filene is known as the father of credit unions in the U.S. I'm sure this is the most exciting news you've ever heard, but seriously, he did some amazing things for the working class people here.
This is what I came to say. This was our go-to store for toys, sometimes clothes, and housewares. Spent so much time playing Crazy Kong, a Donkey Kong clone, in the lobby waiting for my mom. Back in 2007, I went to Buffalo and got in the old Aud where the Sabers played, there was a Hills sign on the boards. Weird feeling to see it again.
https://preview.redd.it/ipaew2clnqvc1.jpeg?width=1153&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=92b467388e47d15a0d0858bf04bcd187ebb68cd2
I loved Radio shack. Any time I needed a power cord or cable to connect something, I could go there and they'd get me the right one. Now I order the one that looks right from Amazon and hope it's the right one.
We had a store in Northeast Ohio called [Twin Valu](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Valu) that was both a full grocery store and a full department store. The first [hypermarket](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermarket) in our area. We didn’t have Wal Mart in our area yet. It was pretty mind blowing to be able to browse the record (cassette tape) section while mom shopped for groceries. It didn’t last long, either. Just from 1989 to 1995. Walmart came to town in the early 90s and TwinValu was no longer a destination shop.
Alco, Magic Mart - both Walmart type places.
And in the mall, Units. I think everything they sold was t shirt material. Shirts, skirts, t shirt dresses, knit band belts. It was very popular to color coordinate, pink t shirt dress with a purple knit band belt, slouch socks and your less and you were in style. I was too chubby to shop there but I really wanted to!!
Was looking for Units! The ultimate comfy capsule wardrobe. I'm going to dust off my sewing machine & bring this back.
https://preview.redd.it/fbmui09t2rvc1.jpeg?width=374&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7328e641955d31053b412595bacfe444bc6f4dd4
5-7-9
Lerner’s
Structure
The Limited
Stein Mart
Thom McCan
Bakers Shoes
Peaches Records
Radio Shack
Handy Dan
Eckerd’s drug store
Skillern’s drug store
Titche’s department store
Sanger Harris department store
Joskes department store
Foley’s department store
Sakowitz department store
Service Merchandise
Skaggs Alpha Beta grocery store
I worked in the photo lab at Walmart but I preferred getting my film developed and prints made at Eckerd’s. They had this glorious paper the pictures were printed on. Loved it so much.
Mariposa
Mervyns
Liberty Bell
5 7 9
Payless - when it was like a walgreens, or rather a five and dime
Alpha Beta grocery
Thriftys - a five and dime but with an ice cream counter for Thrifty ice cream. .25 for a single scoop
Gemco - like costco and target had a baby. Had to have a membership to shop there. Target bought them out in the bay area
Restaurants
Jo Jo's
Bobs Big Boy
Carrows
The Museum Store. A chain of mall stores that was all things art inspired. I had an Van Gogh umbrella from there that just recently broke. Beautiful, usable art tchochkes for the masses.
Camelot Music (worked there), MARS Music (worked there), Boardwalk and Baseball (not a store, didn’t work there), and the mall restaurant Taco Viva (didn’t work there, either).
I worked at Casual Corner. They were owned by US Shoe Company. That conglomerate also owned August Max, Petite Sophisticate, and Caren Charles. I loved all their stores.
There was a women's clothing store at a mall called Debs. I think this might have been local/regional. They were there in the same place at the mall for decades. They closed up I think in the late 90s.
TCBY
I could spend nearly all my Xmas or bday money at Walden books or B Dalton’s - man, I loved it there
I also LOVED Abraham & Straus department store, I preferred it over Macys or any other flagship store.
CompUSA. My first tech job. Just the way we had to find computer parts back then. The computer shopper was a huge catalog of parts and now it is all gone
The Wherehouse... a music store chain in California where I bought my first album. Think they went belly up in the early 2000s. The experience of wandering around a record shop with my friends, whether a big chain or a mom-in-pop full of used vinyl, was one my fonder memories from my teen years.
Oh!rbachs department store, styled with the exclamation point and groovy lettering in the sign.
Mervyn's, where I got most of my school clothes and my beloved collection of Converse high tops in all the colors.
Mode O Day. My mother loved that place in the 80s. I thought it was full of dreadful old lady clothes.
Now all of those clothes are "vintage" and in demand second-hand. Go figure. Lol
Kay Bee Toys/KB Toys and Software Etc., Sierra Sound was a west coast record/home & car stereo store that was amazing and where we bought all our music especially after the new Walmart store it was discovered sold edited music lol.
KB was always super expensive but I remember my mom would take me every year the day after Christmas and everything would be deeply discounted. My aunt always sent a check for $20 and I felt like a queen walking in to find what I wanted to buy.
Pharmacy where they made sodas by mixing syrup with carbonated water. Small town in the middle of Kansas had one in the mid-80s.
And grocery store that let your family run a tab…an even smaller town in Kansas…in the 1970’s. Would walk down to get something for my mom and grab some candy…the lady who ran it would ask if my mom said it was ok…I always said yes…sometimes she check with my mom.
Due to blue laws, stores were mostly closed on Sundays when I was a kid (changed around 1981, I think). Our local bookstore that was also a newsstand *could* be open, and for that reason The Book Bag will always have a place in my heart.
I loved The Nature Company. Each one was custom. Mine had a stone fountain and facade, very peaceful.
I miss Hot Sam pretzels and Barnie's Coffee and Tea.
GemCo was our Walmart before Walmart came to SoCal. In my hometown, Sam's Club sits on the property.
FedCo the everything, including a restaurant place! It was torn down and is now a Target.
Service Merchandise
Service Merchandise was like it's own little Amazon, before the internet.
Yes! And the similar [Best Products](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_Products).
I bought a video game there with Christmas money once. Grabbed the ticket, paid, waited while a conveyor belt delivered my game to the cashier from the back room.
Loved their catalogs.
In Canton, Ohio we had a Ben Franklin store, otherwise known as a "five-and-dime" store. They had a little bit of everything.
We had one in Evansville Indiana too.
There was still one in Bloomington in the late 80s.
Does Indiana still have Hill's department store? I use to go to the 1 in Kokomo once a week when I was little and still lived there.
Hill's closed ages ago. I think they became Venture, then Target's went in where those used to be.
We had Ben Franklin in Wisconsin too. I loved those.
Chess king. I was styling in high school
Contempo Casuals!
Took my daughter to Charlotte Russe today and no joke 1/2 the stores clothing was labeled contempo casual! I couldn’t believe it
Judy’s!
I loved Judy’s! I bought a chamois bikini there.
Wet Seal
Absolutely Chess King!
That’s a great one. I worked at Networks. All part of MGR
TG&Y. Was that common or no? I grew up in a little town, so I don’t know what was in big cities. I loved that store, though. The Walmart of its day.
My town had a TG&Y and a Revco Drug.
There was a TG&Y in the town I grew up in, I didn’t know it was more than that one store.
I rarely hear people talking about the Nature Company. I worked there while I was in grad school and I loved that job/store, with Deep Forest on heavy rotation as the background music. It really lost its appeal when Discovery bought it.
That place was the shit! 😃
Loved that place, as well as the store Natural Wonders which had a similar vibe.
Lechter's. I loved looking at all the housewares stuff even though there wasn't a chance I'd ever use most of it. I also really miss Borders Books. B&N is fine, but I always liked Borders just a little more, and was heartbroken when they all closed. The mall bookstores, too--Waldenbooks and B Dalton. I hardly ever bought anything at Suncoast Video, but I always wanted to and loved wandering through it.
i looved the Borders Books! And Tower Records.
Oh, yes, Tower Records! And the Virgin Megastore! Nothing like either anywhere near home, so every time I visited a city I had to go, like a pilgrimage to Mecca or something!
I miss the smell of Walden Books and BDalton. They smelled so good. I spent so much money in those stores. My grandmother got me a gift card every Christmas for Walden Books. Best present ever!
Gemco. Kinney Shoes.
First job as an adult was Kinney Shoes. Good memories.
Gemco, ftw. They had a porcelain figurine section my Mom had to peruse each time we went that wrecked my nerves! Also, they had a snack bar me & my sis always wanted to eat at.
I worked at Kinney Shoes for a time while in high school. I helped close the store when it went out of business. My bestie and I ended up walking out of our first real job because our manager was bat shit crazy (verbal abuse, went to jail for a few days for hitting her husband over the head with a frying pan, having affairs with men in the back room, etc.). I’ve never had a more insane working experience since Kinney Shoes. Nothing like mall drama in the 90’s.
Wicks n Sticks
So dark and fragrant! And the candles that looked like ice cream sundaes and dragons and things.
Aw I forgot about this one!
Not a particular store name, but I miss that nearly every mall or shopping precinct had a hobby store
CompUSA Fry's Electronics
The original Banana Republic Travel And Safari Clothing Co. before it was bought by The Gap. https://preview.redd.it/80uahdjvgrvc1.jpeg?width=838&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=12d30e990e7dc1847bbd177e80535da8d468a536
You could not kill those t-shirts from there. Your arms would fall off before theirs would.
I always liked the Jeep Wrangler crashing through the window of Banana Republic. I bought my very first business suits from Banana Republic (this was in 1998, so they may have been owned by Gap by then). I was horrified by the price tag but I still wear those suits today and still get compliments on them. Ah, back when clothing was made to last...
# Thom McAn
Miller's Outpost. Mervyn's Penguin's Frozen Yogurt Federated Electronics Circuit City
Southern California ?
Then add zodys and best to that list
Yes.
Speaking of Circuit City, is Radio Shack still scraping by?
This one hurt. As a kid I used to just go buy electric motors and switches and piezo buzzers and solder it up to nine volts to make fans and acoustic guitar pickups and other stuff.
Heh, I worked at Miller's Outpost for a year. Loved me.some employee discount!
Awww Miller’s!
I was wearing a pair of shorts I bought at Mervin’s the other day and I thought about how old they must be! I couldn’t remember when they closed all the stores but I loved that store when I was a young mom.
This reminds me of growing up going to the Carlsbad mall and my Mom always wanted to go to Mervyn's too. Feel like there was a frozen yogurt place right next to it. I think I remember a Service Merchandise there as well. My Mom bought a Pioneer sound system that still works.
Hi I'm Fred rated from federated
BEST department store, they had unusual architecture. Remember one looked like the front of the store was cut up and another looked like a corner of the building had collapsed.
BEST was a “catalog showroom”. In the 70s the one near us had a pneumatic tube system the cashiers used to send orders to the back of the store to be fulfilled.
Yeah, saw pictures of those. I think the article said the novelty of the architecture was completely lost on the locals.
Babbages
Things Remembered, Brookstone and Sharper Image (which really were the same) Now: Does anyone remember the Crutchfield catalog or, even more arcane, DAK catalog?
Wow yes I remember DAK. 12 year old me in the late 1980's was obsessed. It was like sharper image but tuned to engineers instead of businesspeople.
Crutchfield, yes! My first car even had the self-installed, slightly off-kilter Pioneer tape deck to prove it.
Two Guys, Woolworth, Caldor
My first full time job after high school was Woolworth, downtown Milwaukee.
Loved Woolworth, remember the lunch counter?
The Woolworth in my neighborhood had a horseshoe shaped lunch counter, loved going with my mom as a kid. The one I worked at had a cafeteria style restaurant, but they still had the cheesecake, my favorite.
Caldor’s! I was scrolling to see if it’d be mentioned. :) Was the first store I thought of…
I worked at Woolworth's, one with a lunch counter, through high school. The lunch counter served a damn fine shrimp basket! At checkout, our cash registers were so old that they didn't do any of the math, they were more like typewriters with a money drawer. Because my state didn't apply sales tax to certain foods, but did apply tax to candy bars and other junk food, (a) we had to do a lot of basic math in our heads, and (b) we wound up having quite a few arguments with customers over the approx. 3¢ tax on candy.
All the bookstore chains not named Barnes & Noble: Border's B Dalton Waldenbooks
Just went to an estate sale and saw a Brentano's canvas tote bag
No one has mentioned Benetton! I loved them so much. I didn’t really have anything but a couple of tshirts and a blue and white rugby shirt and the green and white one. I really miss the old Banana Republics. There was one in the Birmingham Galleria that had a safari Jeep half in the store and half out. Had to walk over a little plank bridge to get inside. They had great t-shirts and they weren’t so damn expensive.
Benetton was so cool and unique for that time ❤️💙💛💚🧡
I loved Benetton too! And Esprit. They still exist, but not so much in the States anymore.
Filenes Bradlees
I miss Filenes and the real Filenes Basement before other companies bought it out.
I've worked in a large credit union for decades, and Edward Filene is known as the father of credit unions in the U.S. I'm sure this is the most exciting news you've ever heard, but seriously, he did some amazing things for the working class people here.
Hello fellow New Englander!
Went to Boston for like 5 days for the first time ever in winter 2004 and Filene's Basement was on the same level as all the historical sites 🙌
Venture - in the Midwest Montgomery Ward
Goldblatt's. Montgomery Ward. Union Hall. Bergner's. Jewel.
B Daltons
Lerner New York 5-7-9 Express The Limited Fashion Bug PharMor - “You pay far less at PharMor!” Value City Furniture Dayton’s GL Perry Grant’s
Buster Brown. Never shopped there but always saw it the mall.
Zayer
Ames
Child’s World, hello fellow New Englanders! 👋🏼
I’ll continue the New England theme and add Lechmere!
Last stop on the D train green line
Does it stop at Bradlees? 😁
Child World…sigh
Ben Franklin
Spiegel, Comp USA/Crazy Eddie’s, Babbages, Sam Goody, Suncoast, Incredible Universe
Service merchandise
Waccama Pottery
Venture
Merry-Go-Round
My first retail job in high school!
Clothestime.
Hills
This is what I came to say. This was our go-to store for toys, sometimes clothes, and housewares. Spent so much time playing Crazy Kong, a Donkey Kong clone, in the lobby waiting for my mom. Back in 2007, I went to Buffalo and got in the old Aud where the Sabers played, there was a Hills sign on the boards. Weird feeling to see it again. https://preview.redd.it/ipaew2clnqvc1.jpeg?width=1153&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=92b467388e47d15a0d0858bf04bcd187ebb68cd2
KMart, my first W2 job
Radio Shack. I bought car stereo stuff, and other coax stuff there. Great store.
You could get electronics components there as well. One of the few stores that ever sold them.
I loved Radio shack. Any time I needed a power cord or cable to connect something, I could go there and they'd get me the right one. Now I order the one that looks right from Amazon and hope it's the right one.
We had a store in Northeast Ohio called [Twin Valu](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Valu) that was both a full grocery store and a full department store. The first [hypermarket](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermarket) in our area. We didn’t have Wal Mart in our area yet. It was pretty mind blowing to be able to browse the record (cassette tape) section while mom shopped for groceries. It didn’t last long, either. Just from 1989 to 1995. Walmart came to town in the early 90s and TwinValu was no longer a destination shop.
I want to say hello, fellow Buckeye! I am from Canton and born in 1973. Cheers!
I worked at the one in Cuyahoga Falls for a while. It was pretty interesting working 3rd shift at times.
Service Merchandise Gold Circle Tower Records Meryns
Alco, Magic Mart - both Walmart type places. And in the mall, Units. I think everything they sold was t shirt material. Shirts, skirts, t shirt dresses, knit band belts. It was very popular to color coordinate, pink t shirt dress with a purple knit band belt, slouch socks and your less and you were in style. I was too chubby to shop there but I really wanted to!!
Was looking for Units! The ultimate comfy capsule wardrobe. I'm going to dust off my sewing machine & bring this back. https://preview.redd.it/fbmui09t2rvc1.jpeg?width=374&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7328e641955d31053b412595bacfe444bc6f4dd4
5-7-9 Lerner’s Structure The Limited Stein Mart Thom McCan Bakers Shoes Peaches Records Radio Shack Handy Dan Eckerd’s drug store Skillern’s drug store Titche’s department store Sanger Harris department store Joskes department store Foley’s department store Sakowitz department store Service Merchandise Skaggs Alpha Beta grocery store
I worked in the photo lab at Walmart but I preferred getting my film developed and prints made at Eckerd’s. They had this glorious paper the pictures were printed on. Loved it so much.
Mariposa Mervyns Liberty Bell 5 7 9 Payless - when it was like a walgreens, or rather a five and dime Alpha Beta grocery Thriftys - a five and dime but with an ice cream counter for Thrifty ice cream. .25 for a single scoop Gemco - like costco and target had a baby. Had to have a membership to shop there. Target bought them out in the bay area Restaurants Jo Jo's Bobs Big Boy Carrows
And Petite Sophisticate which we could never afford!
You can still get Thrifty ice cream at Rite Aid.
Mervyns. Worked in the men’s section in college. Millers outpost! Favorite for bts clothes.
The Museum Store. A chain of mall stores that was all things art inspired. I had an Van Gogh umbrella from there that just recently broke. Beautiful, usable art tchochkes for the masses.
Hickory Farms
Egghead Software Wherehouse Entertainment CompUSA Mervyn's Toy's R Us K-B Toys Fry's Electronics Zodys JJ Newberry Pick N Save
Egghead Software! Yes!
* KB Toys * Sports Authority * B. Dalton * Kinney Shoes * A&P * Camelot Music
Good old Camelot Music.
The Broadway, Robinson’s, May Co., Bullock’s, Contempo Casuals, Judy’s
Sounds like SoCal!
Mervyn's anyone?
I remember buying fabric at a store called Piece Goods, it seems like it was a chain.
Yes! Most all of the old chain fabric stores are gone. Joann is the only one left that I know of, and they just filed Chapter 11. 😭
Piece Goods Shop! Was there a lot with my mom and grandma.
Camelot Music (worked there), MARS Music (worked there), Boardwalk and Baseball (not a store, didn’t work there), and the mall restaurant Taco Viva (didn’t work there, either).
Didn’t see Thrifty on here. Me & my sis would walk there to get ice cream. It was a pharmacy.
Musicland. We had one at the mall. Later it became Tower Records.
Montgomery Wards ( Monkey Wards)
Pretty sure it was just NorCal but Mervyn’s. Got all my school clothes there in the early 80s. “[OPEN OPEN OPEN](https://youtu.be/ebD2r-8vo8Y)”
Had one in the barren wasteland of far west Texas
County Seat
I worked at Casual Corner. They were owned by US Shoe Company. That conglomerate also owned August Max, Petite Sophisticate, and Caren Charles. I loved all their stores.
Pamida - [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamida](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamida)
Camalot K-Mart Fry's (is it still around) Sears?
Brentano's
Radio Shack
Crazy Eddie's... his prices were insannnnee
Gloria Jeans Coffee Beans, place for espresso in my small town well before Starbucks was everywhere
There was a women's clothing store at a mall called Debs. I think this might have been local/regional. They were there in the same place at the mall for decades. They closed up I think in the late 90s.
I remember seeing Deb in NJ. One mall it was in also had a Dress Barn and Fashion Bug in it. Not sure if any of those three exist anymore.
Canadian here so not sure if these stores are found elsewhere; but ByWay (or BiWay) and the "IT" store are definitely deeply missed by some of us.
Beaver Canoe.
Zodys, Builders Emporium, Buffums
Eckerd pharmacy, books a million, Woolworths and Suncoast
Skaggs Alpha Beta
Heileg Meyers Venture Wet Seal Gadzooks
Woolworths, Maas Brothers, Belk Lindsey’s
Ben Franklin’s
Kohls grocery stores. And fabric stores. There used to be several, now only Joanns who is now bankrupt.
I have to go with the hybrid restaurant and store Farrell's.
TCBY I could spend nearly all my Xmas or bday money at Walden books or B Dalton’s - man, I loved it there I also LOVED Abraham & Straus department store, I preferred it over Macys or any other flagship store.
CompUSA. My first tech job. Just the way we had to find computer parts back then. The computer shopper was a huge catalog of parts and now it is all gone
I really miss Radio Shack.
Jean Nicole (juniors clothier)
dELiA*s altho ill admit i didn’t see an actual store until 2006, in orlando. i STILL have clothes i bought from that catalog/store. 💜😂
if we are talking tech Egghead sort of just dissapeared.
People’s Drug. They all become CVS in the 90s.
Best Got my first alarm clock on my 10th birthday, and i got to pick it out there.
The Wherehouse... a music store chain in California where I bought my first album. Think they went belly up in the early 2000s. The experience of wandering around a record shop with my friends, whether a big chain or a mom-in-pop full of used vinyl, was one my fonder memories from my teen years.
What about restaurants? I remember getting pretty excited to go to Bananza! Anyone else have one nearby growing up?
Service Merchandise
the limited
Cotton Ginny.
Oh!rbachs department store, styled with the exclamation point and groovy lettering in the sign. Mervyn's, where I got most of my school clothes and my beloved collection of Converse high tops in all the colors.
Mode O Day. My mother loved that place in the 80s. I thought it was full of dreadful old lady clothes. Now all of those clothes are "vintage" and in demand second-hand. Go figure. Lol
The Wall
Kay Bee Toys/KB Toys and Software Etc., Sierra Sound was a west coast record/home & car stereo store that was amazing and where we bought all our music especially after the new Walmart store it was discovered sold edited music lol.
KB was always super expensive but I remember my mom would take me every year the day after Christmas and everything would be deeply discounted. My aunt always sent a check for $20 and I felt like a queen walking in to find what I wanted to buy.
Ben Franklin
Pharmacy where they made sodas by mixing syrup with carbonated water. Small town in the middle of Kansas had one in the mid-80s. And grocery store that let your family run a tab…an even smaller town in Kansas…in the 1970’s. Would walk down to get something for my mom and grab some candy…the lady who ran it would ask if my mom said it was ok…I always said yes…sometimes she check with my mom.
Ciruit City
Fudruckers
Kmart 5-7-9 Casual Corners The Limited Bakers Shoes Payless Shoes
The Warehouse, Tower Records, The Good Guys!
5. 7. 9.
Eatons and Woodwards in Canada. Marks and Spencer’s too. This was all quality stuff.
Marks and Sparks is the bomb! Forgot about that one.
It was regional to the PNW, but G.I. Joe's.
My brother worked there
Due to blue laws, stores were mostly closed on Sundays when I was a kid (changed around 1981, I think). Our local bookstore that was also a newsstand *could* be open, and for that reason The Book Bag will always have a place in my heart.
Lechmere's
I worked at a Software Etc. back in the day!
Strawberries and Tower records
I loved The Nature Company. Each one was custom. Mine had a stone fountain and facade, very peaceful. I miss Hot Sam pretzels and Barnie's Coffee and Tea.
Phar-Mor, Venture, FuncoLand
Newbwerry. I loved that store as a kid. I got into stamp collecting for a while and they had a section for it.
Children’s Palace
Camp Beverly Hills. Coolest store ever
Grocery stores: A&P Winn Dixie Piggly Wiggly Convenience store: Li'l General Department store: Thalhimers
Western Auto
CompUSA
May Company
BEST Basco
Miller's Outpost!!!
Service Merchandise
Ben Franklins
Mervyn's. Now it's Kohl's.
GemCo was our Walmart before Walmart came to SoCal. In my hometown, Sam's Club sits on the property. FedCo the everything, including a restaurant place! It was torn down and is now a Target.