Remember: Korvettes, Two Guys, Topps, Ames, Bradlees Value City, Caldor? others to add (credit card, collection)
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If you didn't have any of these in your area. What stores did you have?
ALL kinds of stores even grocers, or pharmacies, or any other kinds of retail you can think of.
I'm from the northeast so we had ALL of these and more.....One discount store location was at one time or another a Korvettes, Two Guys, and a Bradlees.
Plus there was discounters Kresges, and Woolworths. There were no Ben Franklin Stores or Montgomery Wards in our immediate area but I knew they were around. I'd hear about them, and wonder where is on of THOSE?
For full department stores we had: Lit Brothers, Gimbels, Bambergers, John Wanamakers which were full department stores.
In the south I'd always hear about "Roses" which I guess is like a "Kohls" would be. A smaller footprint and square footage department store.
For grocers we had: Shop-n-Bag, A & P, SuperFresh (which is still around but VERY limited in number)
Others that go way back but are also still around include: Lord and Taylor, Pathmark.
Rite Aid was the first chain drug store in our area. We also had Drug Emporium and a few Eckerd's
We used to have a K-Mart, Ben Franklin, and a JC Penny in our town of about 10,000 people. K-Mart closed last year, and the others are long gone. We used to have a Piggly Wiggly, but they closed some time ago due to competition from Pick & Save...still around, but in smaller numbers.
My favorite defunct business is Boston Chicken. It was a story stock and the story was easy to buy.
In 1993 the stock was introduced and took off. In at 10$ and up to 23$ the first day! Then up to 41$!
Five years later it was at 50 cents and dying. Good product; flawed business plan. But you had to read the 10K carefully to see it, and that was back before I started reading such things.
And of course there are things like WoldCom and Enron. And others.
Some of you will remember Woolworth's and S&H Green Stamps. Long Island had Times Square Stores which advertised a lot but I never actually saw one. Robert Hall was a big clothing retailer ('there's a wider selection, feed your collection, where America goes, for quality clothes, it's Robert Hall this year') but they went out of business and I heard their clothes were not high quality.
Sky City ( department store )
Big Star ( grocery )
A & P ( grocery )
Grant's ( department store )
Community Cash ( regional grocery )
Ben Franklin ( variety )
Meyers Arnold ( department store )
If you didn't have any of these in your area. What stores did you have?
ALL kinds of stores even grocers, or pharmacies, or any other kinds of retail you can think of.
I'm from the northeast so we had ALL of these and more.....One discount store location was at one time or another a Korvettes, Two Guys, and a Bradlees.
Plus there was discounters Kresges, and Woolworths. There were no Ben Franklin Stores or Montgomery Wards in our immediate area but I knew they were around. I'd hear about them, and wonder where is on of THOSE?
For full department stores we had: Lit Brothers, Gimbels, Bambergers, John Wanamakers which were full department stores.
In the south I'd always hear about "Roses" which I guess is like a "Kohls" would be. A smaller footprint and square footage department store.
For grocers we had: Shop-n-Bag, A & P, SuperFresh (which is still around but VERY limited in number)
Others that go way back but are also still around include: Lord and Taylor, Pathmark.
Rite Aid was the first chain drug store in our area. We also had Drug Emporium and a few Eckerd's
I have been to a few Roses stores in the past. Actually they were more like K-mart or even Woolworths rather than Kohls. Kohls is pretty much in the same ballpark as JC Penney currently is.
My hometown ( Winchester, VA ) had a Montgomery Wards for decades actually all the way until the end of that chain in 2001 and they were quite popular for the longest time that was until 1995 when Wards tried to sue a local mentally disabled young man over his deceased mother's credit card bill even though his name was not on the account. Even though Wards had dropped the suit and apologized to the young man I still can remember many families in my hometown had still continued to boycott Wards as a result.
Back in the 70s & 80s I can remember my hometown having..
Nichols Discount City, Ames, Zayre, Town & Country, Kenny Shoes, Singer Sewing machine stores, Diana Shops, White Cross Drugs, Medco Drugs, Drug Fair/Fashion Fair, Fashion Bug, Leggetts Department Store ( now Belk ), Revco Drugs, Record Town, Jamesway, Mccroys & Newberries and Kresges.
Supermarkets back then meant Safeway, A&P-Super Fresh, Grand Union and Acme all union stores however by the mid 80s we received our first Food Lion and Martins Food both non-union chains ( actually Food Lion was/still is very anti-union ) and once those two started to open multiple locations around the area that was pretty much it as far as the old union supermarkets were concerned.
Rdflk, I very much miss all the retailers you describe. Where did you grow up?
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