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What were the names of the big department stores in the cities that you lived in or near, back in the pre-mall era?
Here are some I remember:
Milwaukee -- Gimbel's, Schuster's, Boston Store
St, Louis -- Famous Barr, Stix Baer & Fuller
Nashville -- Harveys, Cain-Sloan
New Orleans -- Maison Blanche
Montreal -- Eaton's, Ogilvy
(It would be nice is we could have a Nostalgia Subforum here.)
G Fox in Hartford CT was beautiful. It was a treat to go at Christmas and see the lights and decorations. At the top of the escalator I remember reading a bronze? plaque that told of the founding by the family and how many years it had been in business. Then it got eaten up by Macys.
In Orange County, California we had Buffums. The women wore gloves, it was very hushed in the store, they had a tea room.
Now people wear pjs to the mall ��
We had Dayton's - I miss it greatly. Lots of class and many good deals. The downtown store had a great display in their auditorium over Christmas - beautiful! Each year they had a Santa Bear (firefighter, airplane pilot etc...) that was a tradition for many. I still have all of them plus all my mother's. They will all be gone (except maybe 1) before I move.
It was family business that eventually was sold and is now Macy's - mediocre at best. A Dayton is now our governor - just raised taxes and added a bunch more - bah humbug to him.
I can still remember the Saturday trips to down to shop very weekend. the store competing for sales with their toylands at Christmas .I can just imagine our grand kids telling about when they were kids and stores actually sold Christmas gifts rather than ordered on line. I always get a smile from reading a post on now neat its was in "the day" when they name the 80's.
(1) Going to Old Orchard (Skokie, IL?) - there was Marshall Fields there. Beautiful. We used to play house in the furniture and parents were shopping. There were 4 of us.
(2) Florida - Going to downtown Fort Lauderdale Burdines and then Jordan Marsh on Sunrise Boulevard. Same deal as #1.
We never did it enough where it became routine but it was always a special night.
Just thought of something - we never thought of going to these stores as "shopping" but "we're going to play house with all the beautiful furniture." Today, it would be "Well, if I go with you, what are you going to buy me?"
G Fox in Hartford CT was beautiful. It was a treat to go at Christmas and see the lights and decorations. At the top of the escalator I remember reading a bronze? plaque that told of the founding by the family and how many years it had been in business. Then it got eaten up by Macys.
yep I still remember looking at old family photos and see one of me on santa's lap at age 8. One of my nieces asked"you told Santa what you wanted like Christmas Story then". She then paused as if to think and said "how neat."
The Dallas flagship Neiman Marcus is still going strong, 99 years at the same location.
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As a child....
