Stores from the past...which ones do you miss?
 

The toy store thread in the Delta Sigma Theta forum got me thinking. What were your favorite stores that no longer exist?

I loved going to Venture when I was younger. It was THE place to buy makeup and other little necessities. The clothes weren't bad either. The stores went way downhill in the 90s, though, and they all closed around 1998 or so.

Crown Books and Kroch and Brentano's were two bookstore chains I loved. (Especially since everything was sold at a discount at Crown!)

We had a Crawford's Department Store in town that we shopped at a lot for school clothes. We had a ton of plastic Crawford's mugs, too.

I almost forgot. The Swiss Colony (of Christmas food catalog fame) used to have large, year-round stores. I remember there was one at Oakbrook Center for a while. I think they have kiosks around Christmas in some places.

And Woolworths too! When I interned in NYC, I was right down the street from a giant Woolworths. I always stopped in to get candy for my candy dish. :)

Jamesway
Newberry's
Health Mart
Kinney's
Horne's
Reunion
Brooks/Brooks Atelier (the clothing store, not the drugstore)
Susie's Casuals
Hess's

Edit because I can't believe I forgot Phar-Mor. I think I am just in a state of denial that it's closed.

i miss...


Contempo Casuals

Phar Mor (it was this big drug store chain)

Woolworths brings back memories

i cannot think of anything else right now. i have more pressing things on my mind.

I miss Wonder World.

I vaguely remember it b/c I was really young, so I don't remember what *type* of store it was, but I remember they had a huge toy dept. that had all the Care Bears collectibles

I miss Woolworths.

I also miss A&S, although near the end they were pretty much indistinguishable from Macy's anyway. I used to do some of my clothes shopping there when I was little. For a couple of years, they sold a stuffed bear and mouse called "Abearham and Strauss" at Christmas. :)

One store I do NOT miss is Lechmere. They had the world's rudest customer "service". If you didn't look like you were made of money, they would walk right past you to wait on someone else. :rolleyes: They refused to exchange a broken answering machine they'd sold me, even though it was still under warranty. :mad: They had a 30-day no-questions-asked return policy... to "Lechmere" meant to buy something you had no intention of keeping for more than a few days, then return it. People would buy big-screen TVs two days before the Super Bowl and then return them the day after the game. Apparently they lost so much money from doing this, that they went out of business. Serves 'em right :D

TG&Y -- just because it's what came before Wal-Mart.

Hardeez
Bonanza

R.I.P Woolworth's
 

Sister Havana, you brought back a ghost! I miss the old five-and-dime store we had in Burlington, NJ.

I also miss:

Caldor (Wal-Mart's cheesy long-lost cousin/only place where you could hear the Muzak version of "Everybody Hurts")

Clover (Before Big Lots/Odd Lots went national, this was a great closeout price store)

Gimbel's (perfect Father's Day Store)

Passport

Wick's N Sticks (this might actually still be around; I remember the one in Cherry Hill Mall)

More to come as soon as my brain becomes unclogged.....

I miss Woolworth too. The cherry cokes they served at the lunch counter were the best!

Hills

Rax Restaurants

I was just thinking about this today.

I miss County Seat. In junior high, that was THE place to shop. All of my friends and I bought our Levis there. And did anyone else own like all of their "santa fe" style clothing? My favorite outfit in 8th grade was a pink v-neck sweater with a southwestern style design, a turtleneck with the same design embroidered around the neck, socks that matched, with jeans and Eastlands. *sigh*

I also miss Gold Circle. I used to love that place when I was a kid. And Burger Chef.

FAO Schwartz.

When it was on the news that Woolworth's was closing, I went there for a malted at the lunch counter. My mom took me there when I was little because her parents took her there. It was one of the few places that made an actual malted.

I miss Alexanders in Manhattan. You could get really inexpensive stuff there. It was across the street from Bloomingdale's. If you had money, you went to Bloomie's. If not, you went to Alexander's. Construction is almost completed the new Bloomberg building on the former site of Alexander's. It will be 54 stories and over 800 feet. It's huge.

Mmm.. for me that would be that would be Cunningham's Pharmacy- little local owned pharmacy in one of the towns I went to high school in. They had a little malt shop. But then when I came to college the company I work for bought it out as the owners wanted to retire. :D

I loved Merry-Go-Round. Anyone ever heard of it? One of my sisters worked there so I was able to buy all my sleazy, spandex, tankdresses and other club clothes for, I think, 50% off.

It's gone now, though, and I guess that's okay since I no longer look so good in spandex :D

The stores in the Edison Bros. chain:

Leeds
3*5*7
Coda
JW

I especially miss 3*5*7 and Leeds because of their inexpensive clothes and shoes. :(

We still have a Contempo Casuals here...didn't they get bought out by Wet Seal?

Hawaii also no longer has a JCPenney. They left last year.

Woolworth's was a favorite childhood store of mine. They always had the cheapest cassette tapes and Atari/Nintendo games!

Yes! That was the place to shop in my late elementry and early junior high years! Everyone wanted to wear IOU, but it was kind of expensive, if I remember it correctly.

I immediately knew you were from Ohio. There was a Gold Circle out in Bedford where the TJ Maxx sits across from a Target. They tried to replace Gold Circle with Ames but that is now closed.

I miss Petrie's. They had other names like Marianne too but the one I shopped at was named Petries.

I miss BEST too.

I don't know if it was a national chain, but I miss the Ganto's in Woodfield as it was when I was in high school. It was the best place to get a homecoming dress! Towards the end, they started specializing in mafia wife clothes, and that's when I stopped shopping there.

Remember Barbara Moss ladies? I still have an awesome tank top from there that I got in the 8th grade. It has a stain on it though so I never wear it.

The Nature Company

Crown Books (If you paid full price, you didn't buy it at Crown Books!)

Well Read Books (An independent, used book store in Takoma Park, MD)

i miss pic n save, newberrys lunch and soda counter, TG&Y, i truly miss a wal mart super center living back home in so cal,

Stores I miss from the days I was knee high to a toadstool, and dinosaurs once roamed the earth... :D

NEW YORK

Alexander's
Gimbel's
Woolworth's
Gertz
McCrory


FLORIDA

Jordan Marsh
Woolco (Woolworth's answer to K-Mart; to this day I can't get that silly-assed earworm known as the Woolco jingle outta the back of my mind!)
Jefferson (later Jefferson-Ward) (former employee)

NATIONWIDE

Montgomery Ward (former employee)

I miss McCrory, too. :(

Our Jordan Marsh has been Macy's forever now, but we can't stop calling it Jordan Marsh. :)

When I lived in Atlanta I loved, loved, loved Drug Emporium. Great store with terrific deals! One opened here, but closed within a year and I was heartbroken. I've heard that the Atlanta stores were bought out by Eckerd's.

To whoever mentioned the Hardees... there are still Hardees in the South. They are now Carl's Jr. in a lot of places, but we still have plenty of Hardees here.

RedRoseSAI, I think Ganto's WAS a national chain. I also remember finding formal dresses there, but it also had a lot of clothing that I would not have worn.

Oh, I loved Ups N Downs. That was the hot place to go for clothes back in the day. :)

pizza inn....real good pizza, gone now

woolworth...i remember going there for ice cream as a girl.

Arthur Treachers. I'm not a fish eater, but their chicken and chips rocked. There was one in the Manhattan Mall for a while. Yes, it's cobranded with Nathan's now but the fries are just regular fries now, and the chicken is different.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mmcat
[B]pizza inn....real good pizza, gone now

Maybe in your area, but here in N.C., Pizza Inn is allive and well, they have like 30 locations within a 15 mile area here.

Haha, I remember D & L...I used to get dragged there as a little kid.

Was it only a CT store...I had forgotten about it (I grew up in Bristol).

Crown books closed?! I used to love them when I lived in Northern VA! When did they close?

I miss Boston Market (there are none in the Pac NW)

more i miss:

I miss Pup n taco out here in so cal ( back in the 70s)
I also miss:

Shakeys pizza ( very few around here)
Farrells ice cream parlor
oh my arthur treachers...i remember that place


Millers outpost
Waldens books
montgomery wards
Thirftys ....their ice cream is stillll the best

Boston Market...eh, I wouldn't miss it too much. I'm definitely not a fan.

When it used to be Boston Chicken it was pretty good...and even after that it was a decent place to pick up a quick meal. The last couple of times I got it though it was terrible.

Since then I've stayed away.

My fellow Canucks will be familiar with these stores:

Simpson's and Eaton's--both department stores no longer exist :(

The Simpson's (now a Sears store) at Fairview Mall used to have a horsey ride that only cost a dime. Other rides at the mall cost 25 cents. I was 11 1/2-12 when the last Simpson's store closed so I don't really remember too much about it, other than kid-related things. However, my mother said that the larger stores sold great stuff that might not be found in other department stores. Luckily, The Bay at the Eaton Centre (which took over the old Simpson's spot) sells most of what Simpson's used to sell.

Side note: Hudson's Bay Company is being sold to Target, and apparently, some of its Zeller's stores will be converted to Target as well as some of its smaller Bay stores (apparently, anyway). Luckily, not all of them are being converted, or else my mom will once again be talking about the downgrading of mid-range Canadian shopping (Larger Simpson's (and Eaton's too) stores were slightly higher-end than Sears, according to my mom)

Eaton's--> Closed a couple of years ago, also converting to Sears (malls that formerly had both Eaton's and Sears converted one of the stores to smaller stores or perhaps big box stores, depending on the local clientele). The Eaton Centre is still calls itself "The Eaton Centre", despite the fact that the store isn't there anymore :(

Other stores I miss: KMart pulled out of Canada in the late 90s. Woolco (a division of Woolworth's) closed in the mid 90s too.

You're mom would be right. A nice Eaton's store wasn't Macy's but would pretend to be.

I have mixed feelings about the Bay/Zellars/Target thing. I love the Bay, and from what I've seen of Target (and Super Target - I went to one in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) it's not the same level. But I like Target. It's better than Walmart, but won't have the charm Zellars. Why couldn't they have bought out Giant Tiger? I hate that store.

I liked Eaton's! I loved the one in downtown Toronto.

Hmm Tar-zhay coming to Canada? Cool!

Oh, wow, the memories y'all have brought back!!!

I miss:

Ames
Hills
Phar Mor
Crown Books
The Warner Bros Store (I need my Pepe Le Pew fix!)
Woolworth's
McCrory's
Murphy's
any store resembling a five & dime!
Gimbel's
Roy Roger's
Arthur Treacher's
and lots more that I can't remember right now.

When mr. honeychile & I were first dating, we were at a convention in another city. We were supposed to meet a few people for dinner, but he called me & whispered, "There's an Arthur Treacher's about a mile away!" so his roommate wouldn't hear. Needless to say, we blew off the others & went to Arthur Treacher's!