Changing Retail Trends and Stores Where You Used to Shop, But You Just Don't Anymore (shopper)
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Are there any stores where you used to shop, where you just don't anymore??
On the radio I heard a store name I haven't heard in ages -- The Container Store. I used to be such a fan. I used to love Bed Bath, & Beyond, too. But now I guess for me I see it as "wising up" about how much I do NOT need to spend on things. I'm just more frugal. And there's not too much that Walmart or Target or Ikea don't have that I need to go to The Container Store or BBB to find.
When I think back on how I spend $25 on a tiny bathroom trash can at BBB. And now I'm perfectly happy to find something I like well enough at Walmart.
And also I'm at an age where I've already set up my household -- and I'm trying get rid of stuff and downsize, not buy more.
Pretty much, except that I'm not downsizing. There was a Container Store ages ago in a not-so-nearby mall, and all I did when I first went there was go 'Ooooo, shiiinyyyyy!'
I still visit BBB now and then to look at their 'toy' section: kitchen gadgets.
A lot of the big dept stores like Sears, Burlington, JCP, TJ Max, Ross, etc. I used to get more things at Walmart, but now I go to a grocery store for food after several of the walmarts in my area haven't had the best food. The only big box stores that I use are Kohls (on occasion, it's only 4 minutes away), Target (there's just a certain "feeling" I get in Target that other stores don't have), and Costco. I also stop by Ikea probably 6-7 times a year.
Somewhere I read an article where big box stores and going away in favor of more specialty stores. After going in several of the big box stores listed, it's easy to see how they are not enjoyable to go in.
Since I have pet rats I used to do a lot of shopping for them at Petco and PetSmart. Unfortunately due to a child in California dying from a rat bite , a rat that was purchased at a Petco both stores in my area have pretty much gave up on rats including selling food for them. A clerk at a Petco told me that they were under pressure from both Peta and radio talk show host Joe Pags to stop selling anything related to rats. Peta I can see somewhat but Joe Pags ?? Joe Pags ?? I had to google his name just to see who he was. Today I pretty much get their stuff from Walmart or Kroger.
If they keep it up, FYE will soon be a store I used to shop at.
They used to have a massive store at a nearby mall. They downsized to a much smaller one in 2013, barely a tenth of what it used to be. It was still a great place though. Between then and now, about 2/3 of the media section has disappeared. It's quickly becoming a store full of cheap junk related to movies and hit TV shows. I can't stand it! The CD/DVD selection is getting to be no better than that of a super Walmart. Just three years ago, the majority of their merchandise was movies, music, or video games, with a few related things thrown in, and the electronics to go with them. Now, the media section is almost tucked into a corner.
The independent music stores around here are so much better.
In large part because I stopped playing video games on consoles (the most recent consoles I own are Generation 6 consoles - Sony Playstation 2, Microsoft XBox, and Nintendo GameCube), I haven't gone to a Toys 'R Us in probably at least five years and go to Best Buy a lot less frequently than I used to (though in the latter case I go there sometimes to check out laptops, especially new chromebook models).
I still go to Kmart occasionally, but not nearly as often as I did when I was younger (i.e. 1980s and 1990s, though to some degree that's true even relative to the 2000s). Some of that is due to Walmart and Target becoming dominant in the eastern U.S.*, but not really; I only go to Walmart somewhat more frequently than Kmart and go to Target even less often than Kmart. Kmart has fallen a long way from its heyday in the 1980s, but all of its Northeast/Mid-Atlantic discount department store competitors from my youth and young adult days - Ames, Bradlees, Caldor, Jamesway, Woolworth, Hills, Clover, and Laneco - all went out of business between the mid-1990s and early 2000s.
*In the area where I grew up in eastern Pennsylvania, the first Walmart stores didn't come in until about 1993 and the first Target stores didn't come in until about 2000.
Best Buy - used to buy a lot of CDs and DVDs there, but they might as well NOT have a CD section at all anymore, and for movies, it's all about Blue-ray discs. (don't have a Blue-Ray player)
For changing retail trends, Hot Topic would be one store which that phrase brings to mind, at least for me. I want to say that we first started getting their stores in my area in the late 1990s, and their merchandise had a gothic/punk vibe going on. Now it seems to be WAY more of a pop culture thing......which isn't bad in itself, just different.
Ames, Bradlees, Caldor, Jamesway, Woolworth, Hills, Clover, and Laneco
And in the Philly suburbs we also had Korvettes, Two Guys, Kresge, and G.C. Murphy. I saw and heard of Ben Franklin Stores and Montgomery Ward but there were none in my immediate area.
Philly was also a mecca of departments stores (versus discount stores), OMG, we had:
-- Gimbels, Lit Brothers, Strawbridge & Clothier, Wanamakers, Sax 5th Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Bambergers (in Jersey) and Boscovs (Delaware), Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus (ritzy suburbs)
..and Grant's, BEST…. and….ANY ONE REMEMBER GREEN STAMPS??...?and going to trade those in??
My goodness, the memories of childhood…..
(My cousins in the south would always mention Roses, Belk, and Dillards…stores I never heard of)
I stopped shopping at 'regular' grocery stores (Vons, Ralphs, etc) years ago due to their high prices. Shifted to Costco and Trader Joe's. Love TJs but it's no bargain so I no longer shop there.
Now that I'm retired and penny-pinching I get my fruit, veggies and chicken at a local Mexican supermarket on weekly sale days. Costco for some bulk items like TP, occasional clothing.
Haven't been to the mall this year and it is only 10 minutes away. That is where most dept stores are and a number of smaller stores. Sears closed their auto shop.
I haven't been to the mall in years. I absolutely hate shopping for clothes, and do it all online. My go-to was always Eddie Bauer, because I also wear tall sizes. I still order from them, but it seems I send back more than I keep. The quality is down, the prices are up and the sizing is inconsistent.
I like browsing at Home Goods and DSW a couple of times a year, fortunately they are next to each other and not attached to the mall.
Costco has a lousy selection for women. But their Kirkland t-shirts and jeans for men are favorites of my husband.
The grocery store is the only retail shopping I do these days.
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