Nostalgic Memories of Long Gone Retailers

[Benny Holiday]

Lots to remember. Gowings menswear in the city, sadly missed. Knock and Kirby's hardware are long gone. Waltons department stores, Keith Lord furniture and also Joyce Mayne furniture. There were grocery stores like Safeway (Red S) that might still be around in other states but gone from NSW. And whilst Coles are still one of the big two supermarkets here, up to about 30 years ago they used to have a lunch counter with the best chips and gravy going.

 

[Rmccamey]

Similar for me. Radio Shack had a lot of the radio gear every ham operator needed; coax, wire, connectors, breadboard, switches, meters, antennas...you name it.

Radio Shack was a real loss in my line of work. There are many times when we're setting up for a show and end up needing a very specific type of cable or adapter for some kind of gear being brought in, and you knew RS would have it. And when the show goes on in an hour, Amazon Prime doesn't cut it at all.

 

[Zombie_61]

...I still shop at Penney’s every now and then, at their store at a nearby suburban mall. I get in and get out, though. I go in search of a new shirt or three and maybe a couple pairs of pants. The mall itself has proven itself less than hospitable to many folks, though, as evidenced by the diminished traffic through its doors. It’s become a hangout for often ill-behaved youngsters. One dustup there not long ago resulted in the murder of a 15-year-old boy. It would come as no surprise if the entire thing failed before long.

When I was very young we had two malls within a reasonable driving distance of home, and by the time I was in my mid-teens shopping malls were popping up almost everywhere. I tended to avoid them unless I had no choice, simply because I hated going to them and being in them. If any of my friends ever suggested, "Hey, let's go hang out at the mall..." my first response was to want to punch them in the face. These days I've somewhat gotten used to having to go to a mall if I need something, but for me those are usually like a military strike. "Okay, I've got to get in, get what I need, and get out before the enemy realizes I've infiltrated their space."

 

[Rmccamey]

Fort Worth, TX

 

[tonyb]

Late 1960s, about the time I moved to Seattle.

White Front filled that niche between the five-and-dimes and “regular” department stores. Wigwam was a similar local chain out that way.

 

[Jon Crow]

Gold top leathers UK I had my first motorcycle boots from them, and what about Lewis leathers

 

[Rmccamey]

 

[Rmccamey]

 

[tonyb]

Just came across this photo of the main Seattle Sears store when it was new. The structure still stands. It is now Starbucks headquarters.

 

[Fifty150]

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[Fifty150]

 

[Bushman]

K-mart.... I thought these guys were gone from the US (maybe one store-front remaining). My wife and I were lamenting the loss and really enjoyed shopping there back in the day. Then, I made the trip to New Zealand and stumbled on a K-mart in almost every mall (anchor stores, not free-standing). The vibe was the same,; crowded aisles, inexpensive household items, etc. It was a great opportunity to score some stocking stuffers.

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K-Mart, KB toys, and Walden Books... i have fond memories of all. Funny, I was just on Facebook for a quick check up and saw some photos of K-Mart's Halloween selection from the early 2000s. I remember putting so many home made costumes together from those aisles as a kid, including a Darth Vader costume using a cheap plastic mask, a simple black cape, and a mislabeled "Power Rangers" suit.

 

[Fifty150]

I go back to when kids in school wore shirts with little animals on the chest. Depending on which animal, it determined your social economic status. A little man riding a horse, an alligator, a tiger, a penguin, a monkey...... My shirts had a little man in a boat.

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I went to Mervyn's today. The physical location of where it was. It's now a grocery store. The kind of store which is overcrowded, overpriced, and security is there to keep the lines orderly. Yes. Lines of people waiting to get into the store. Who lines up, to get overcharged for groceries?​

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[Fifty150]

K-Mart

The last K-Mart in my area closed down about 5 years ago. 2020. Door to door, depending on the time of day and traffic, it was an hour away. Sometimes longer. I had zero reason to drive to a store next to a jail.​

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I hated making the drive. When you're young, and foolish, you do things like that. I was hooking up with a girl who worked there. She worked there to the very end. Covid didn't close the store. For the last decade, the store was struggling. Towards the end, it was like the clearance rack for what Sears couldn't sell. Towards the end, there wasn't even corporate loss prevention. You can only imagine the shenanigans that employees got away with. Employees who knew that the store was closing, and that their days of collecting a paycheck were numbered.





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[Zombie_61]

Any K-Mart store within a reasonable drive from the house I grew up in has been gone for at least 15-20 years now; I rarely shopped there, so I didn't really pay attention as the stores closed and disappeared. Sears started closing stores in this part of southern California during that same time frame, or maybe a bit less, but they're almost all closed and empty now. So many people are shopping and buying online that it's almost impossible these days for the "brick and mortar" stores to keep their lights on, doors open, and employees paid. Our current President is doing everything he can, deliberately or not, to make sure America becomes a third-world country, and no one seems to be in a position, or has the desire, to keep him in-check and put a stop to it. I'm approaching my 64th birthday, and all I can say is that I hope all of the stupidity occurring on this planet now will somehow reverse itself soon.