[nep321]

For some reason I am fascinated by stores that went out of business. It's amazing how nowadays everything is dominated by Walmart and Target. Then of course, you have Kmart and Ocean State Job Lot, which play second fiddle. How many of these stores do you remember seeing in CT? Actually, there is still an abandoned Bradlees in Manchester. I drove by it last summer.



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7b/Caldor_logo.png (broken link)



http://wpcontent.answcdn.com/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ac/Lcechmaere.PNG/200px-Lcechmaere.PNG (broken link)







http://www.decal-orations.com/images/graphics/f/fi/finast.png (broken link)




















There are other stores, for which I could not find the logo or any pictures. These include Purity Surpreme, Heartland, Edwards and Colonial Market.

[mlassoff]

Nice trip down memory lane...

My favorite of those was Ground Round. Along with Beefsteak Charlie's those were my favorite restaurants when i was about 8... I was a meat-eating kid.

[Slipperman]

there were local stores in the New London area called Grant's and Kresge's when i was a kid. not sure if they were chains.

as far as the list, i included only those that i visited/knew of..

Bradlees - formerly Two Guys of the old New London mall (wow, that was a long time ago)
Caldor's - Norwich, Groton and Branford and probably every other town in CT
Lechmere - first saw them up in Natick Mass. in CT, Universal Dr in North Haven
Ames - Norwich
Bernie's - Waterford
Finast - New London (in plaza where Burlington Coat Factory is now)
AP - Waterford
Shaw's - Newington. now a Stop & Shop
Roy Rogers - Vernon. the one time I went there, didn't like it
Ground Round - Branford and Groton

[KH02]

There was a Caldor's in Enfield years ago, the sign had a rainbow behind the name Caldor's but it was only made out of brown, orange and yellow or something. Ugliest logo I had ever seen. Cheap prices in the store though.

Ground Round was a favorite of mine as well, I loved one of the wraps they served at lunchtime...YUM.

G Fox used to have a big building in downtown Hartford, I remember because years ago the building was used for a really fun haunted house type thing for Halloween call "Haunted Happenings" anyone remember that? My sister was actually a performer in it the year we went. Well worth the 45 minute wait we had to get in.

[nep321]

Originally Posted by KH02

There was a Caldor's in Enfield years ago, the sign had a rainbow behind the name Caldor's but it was only made out of brown, orange and yellow or something. Ugliest logo I had ever seen. Cheap prices in the store though.

Ground Round was a favorite of mine as well, I loved one of the wraps they served at lunchtime...YUM.

G Fox used to have a big building in downtown Hartford, I remember because years ago the building was used for a really fun haunted house type thing for Halloween call "Haunted Happenings" anyone remember that? My sister was actually a performer in it the year we went. Well worth the 45 minute wait we had to get in.

I remember haunted happenings. The wait was over 2 hours when I went, and it was just okay.

[Kristin85]

I remember most of these stores from when I was little-the places I remember most clearly are Bradlees, Caldor, the Wiz, Bernie's, and Finast. I was so angry when the Finast near my house in Bridgeport closed and was replaced by Stop & Shop because we had to drive across town for groceries. As a kid with little patience, I hated Stop & Shop for making my mom drive 10 min. to get groceries while they remodeled. Regarding G. Fox, my parents called Lord & Taylor the wrong name for years after G. Fox went out of business.

Lots of A&Ps did go out of business, but there is a somewhat newly remodeled A&P Fresh on W. Putnam Ave. in Greenwich.

[Stylo]

Yup, I remember a lot of them from when I was a kid.

Does anyone know what was in the building where Bob's Stores currently is in Danbury? I used to go there as a kid with my mom. There was also a restaurant in it, which was kind of unique for a typical department store.

Ground Round was where Outback now is in Danbury.

I also remember going into a few older dept and furniture stores in Danbury near Main Street that went out of business. Anyone remember the names of those?

Lastly, does anyone remember Incredible Stores? I think that was the name - they were in the A&P shopping center when Burlington Coat Factories is now in Danbury. It was just a big bargain store that sold everything.

[Stratford, Ct. Resident]

Shaw's is still operating, just not in CT. A&P is still here, and there may be a Roy Rogers on the RI border(?). I miss their fried chicken.

Good riddance to Bradlees and Caldor. The dumpy KMart's of today aren't any worse than Bradlees/Caldor were at their "best". On a side note, i wonder how many people actually called it "Caldor"? It seemed that 9 out of 10 would call it "Caldors".

You've just reminded me of a couple of gas stations that used to operate in CT:
http://cjroy.net/images/Chevron.jpg (broken link)

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by Slipperman

there were local stores in the New London area called Grant's and Kresge's when i was a kid. not sure if they were chains.

as far as the list, i included only those that i visited/knew of..

Bradlees - formerly Two Guys of the old New London mall (wow, that was a long time ago)
Caldor's - Norwich, Groton and Branford and probably every other town in CT
Lechmere - first saw them up in Natick Mass. in CT, Universal Dr in North Haven
Ames - Norwich
Bernie's - Waterford
Finast - New London (in plaza where Burlington Coat Factory is now)
AP - Waterford
Shaw's - Newington. now a Stop & Shop
Roy Rogers - Vernon. the one time I went there, didn't like it
Ground Round - Branford and Groton

Grant's and Kresge's were very large national chains. Grants was one of the largest retailers in the country at one time and Kresges was the predecsor of Kmart. Lechmere had a store on the Berlin turnpike in Newington. The last Roy Rogers I knew about was also on the Berlin Turnpike and switched to being an Arby's only a few years ago. I did like their roast beef sandwiches. I will also add Woolworths to the list. Jay

[Slipperman]

"Grant's and Kresge's were very large national chains."

how about Outlet stores?
speaking of the old New London mall, one of the original stores besides Two Guys was Outlet Stores. not sure if they were a chain but they were eventually replaced by Marshall's which i'm not sure is still there after the renovation.