Proud to have been a part of the Bradlees, Caldor, Ames generation. That's where all my matchbox/ hotwheels and other toys and clothes came from as a kid...
I miss those days! I worked at Bradlees in Lewiston, Maine for nearly 15 years and was working the day we closed the doors in June of 1996. It was surreal after all that time to punch the time clock, say goodbye as you walk through so much empty space that used to be merchandise laden aisles, knowing you wouldn't ever walk back through those doors again... I remember when us employees started getting the distinct feeling that things weren't moving in the right direction. Management announced they were no longer having 2 senior citizens discount days (A big draw for us), they opened a Bradlees in Manhattan -- of ALL places! Bradlees didn't belong in Manhattan among the likes of Saks, Nordstrom etc. WE knew that, why didn't they? Were they THAT desperate? It turns out, yes, they were! Then they added some convenience grocery items... tuna fish, boxed mac n cheese etc. Layaway fees were raised and our customers were NOT impressed. Warehouse deliveries were fewer. Rumors of possible closing surfaced which management steadily denied. It was discussed among employees in the break room. Someone apparently reported my opinion to a dept management who had power issues anyway and he called me in,his office, denied any evidence of possible closing and threatened to write me up if I talked about it again. I said "If that happens, you will need to be prepared to write the whole store up including management because I know for a fact I'm not the ONLY one concerned and talking privately about this! We never discuss these things with customers but when I'm off the sales floor on my own time, I like everyone else uses that time as my own. Are we done here?" He asked if I would sign that I was warned. I said "That will not happen." End of that meeting. And my union rep backed me when I told her about it! Anyway, the majority of my Bradlees memories are good ones!
I feel as if I put something on layaway one time. I don't know what store it was. One of those Bradlee's Kmart or something else. With the extra fees, I might as well have put it on a credit card. I never did it again. After that I used a credit card.
My mother used to shop all the time at Bradlees. The think I loved about the store - at leas the one we went to - was that the toy section was it's own area on the other side of an archway. My mom used to drop my sister and I off there to look around while she shopped.
The Bradlees in the thumbnail was my Bradlees in Foxboro, MA. I worked there in the late 80's but left after I was moved from the Sight & Sound department to Toys.
Miss Bradlees as well. Met my wife there in 1988. She started there in high school. She was in management and stayed there until the "bitter end". Location is now a Target. To this day, my wife can't go into said Target because it brings back old memories of the Bradlees she loved.
I really miss Christmas time in the 90s when I was a kid. I loved the variety of stores that’s totally gone these days. I miss the Christmas displays at some stores. There was a store near us called GBoys in new jersey that had this whole Christmas walkthrough that was awesome.
I loved Bradlee's. Over the years I went to many stores in many places. Starting with Dedham, Watertown, I'm guessing there was one in Burlington. Danvers... Swampscott. I I went to stop & shop a lot as well. But then when I was married and we went grocery shopping, we would hit as many as five different supermarkets in one night. One of those nights being the night of the perfect storm. The one in the movie. We didn't know it was anything special. We just knew we were getting really wet. Back to Bradlee's. I'm not sure which store it was but I know it was over my budget. But the store was closing and I wasn't going to be back and I bought these cardboard boxes with flowers on the outside one of which I can still see at the other side of my room. In fact, even though I have a bunch of clothing that I have no idea where I got it, if I look around my room I can still see a pair of pants I got at Caldor, some jeans from Ann & Hope., a bunch of tops from Kmart, a running bra from Target - probably lots of stuff from Target and a bunch of stuff from Amazon. I figured they were out of business in the '90s. But sometime after 95. I think the shirt on the back of my door with the tiny flowers is from Sears. I don't think that in the Northeast we ever had Montgomery Ward JCPenney what's that other one I'm thinking of. Oh right Walmart. It started showing up in the '90s. I still have the jacket I bought in 1999 for $20 from Walmart. It was raining that day and I really needed to be dry. It has a rip on the inside from where I ran my suitcase over it at LAX. I don't know which time at LAX. I still have a few dresses from the '90s that will never ever fit again no matter how much weight I lose because contents may have shifted during flight. They all have tight bodices. That was big in the '90s. And I liked it. The only one that ever fit again after I lost weight was the one that was size 9. We had to buy it off the mannequin. I got the size 9 so it would hide my pot belly. I'm sure it doesn't fit anymore either. But I haven't been wearing a lot of dresses. I really did love Bradlee's though. I don't remember any snack bars. Oh that size 9 - That was Ann & Hope.
JM Fields also helped pioneer the durable goods/grocery combo setup with Pantry Pride. The two stores were attached and shoppers could enter one from the other without having to go outside.
So I did live in Groveville NJ in bordentown NJ there was a Bradlees the store has been empty from back then to now still empty. This is next to Bordentown shoprite off Rt 206
Worked at the Bradlees location in (now gone) Riverside Mall in North Utica, NY from 1989-1991 while in high school. I was in the "Sight and Sound" electronics department. A couple big memories... 1) Got put as the ONLY person in the electronics dept on Black Friday morning 1989 until like 1pm... To say I was SWAMPED is putting it mildly (Sight and Sound had its own cash register, so not only did I have to help customer, pull big items like TVs out of the back stock room, but also cash people out.) The next morning I was again on the schedule and was restocking shelves before open when the manager came on the PA and announced that I had single handedly sold a record amount of product the day before (something like $17K worth!) 2) The summer of 91, I got stuck on the schedule to work July 4. I frankly was pretty pissed off because being the youngest in the dept, I ALWAYS got screwed having to work holidays, and I had asked for that day off as I had made plans with friends. So I decided to call in and not show. The next day the store manager called me into his office to give me a "stern talking to" and tell me how "this would go in my permanent record".... To which I laughed at him and responded "You realize I'm leaving for college in 6 weeks, and 4 years from now I'll be making more than you do. Do you REALLY think I care?" And true to my word, I graduated from Georgia Tech with a BS in Comp Sci and got my first job making $35K and within a year after that it was $50K which was more than he made (and they closed that store by then, so really I was making a LOT more than him!) 3) I HATED the time after Christmas every year. From Christmas until around May we wouldn't get ANY new stock in... Oh they'd run sales every week, but we would have none of it in the store, so it would be week after week of writing rain checks for customers who would be pissed off that they made the trip from 30+ miles away to buy something that we didn't have in the store. We could have sold SOOO much more if they had ever gotten stock in. 4) One time we had a kind of shady seeming couple come in and try to buy 5 of the largest (27" tube!) TVs we had (god those things used to break my back trying to lift them down from the storeroom in the back!). They wanted to pay by check... I couldn't authorize a check that big so I got the assistant manager to come down and deal with them. It was also the company policy that we had to record the serial number of every TV sold and have the customer print and sign their name in the record book. These folks didn't want to do it. I insisted I couldn't sell them the TVs if they didn't. The manager overrode me and let them have the TV's without signing the book, and he approved the check... 2 days later I'm having to give a description of the couple to the Police who were investigating the fraudulent check they used... I KNEW something was off with them!!! Don't think they ever caught the scammers. I enjoyed my time working there, it was generally low stress and gave me money for a car and some extra spending money my first year of college, but I NEVER EVER EVER will work retail again after my experiences dealing with the public there!
The Bradlees in my home town of East Haven CT. was literally built over a swamp and had foundation issues. People used to say it was sinking😂 it closed in the late 90s I believe.
Used to be a Caldor up here in Northern NJ. I believe it was in Totowa. The Bradlees was further down the highway - same town. The Caldor location I wanna say shut down mid to late 90s(?) Bradlees was late 90s-early 2000s...
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I worked at the Bradlees in Medford, Ma in high school it's now a Kohls as is the one that was in Woburn, Ma. The one in Somerville, Ma is now a Target
I still have my BRADLEES store credit card locked up in my chest and still owed them money but I don't know what max credit they approved me for back in the 90's I know I got a camcorder with it don't remember the price of it though.
If you have time, it would be nice to have a video about the company Northern Reflections. They are a clothing store that used to have stores in the US, but now they are only in Canada.. I am curious about why the company pulled out of the USA.. Thank you
Proud to have been a part of the Bradlees, Caldor, Ames generation. That's where all my matchbox/ hotwheels and other toys and clothes came from as a kid...
I miss those days! I worked at Bradlees in Lewiston, Maine for nearly 15 years and was working the day we closed the doors in June of 1996. It was surreal after all that time to punch the time clock, say goodbye as you walk through so much empty space that used to be merchandise laden aisles, knowing you wouldn't ever walk back through those doors again... I remember when us employees started getting the distinct feeling that things weren't moving in the right direction. Management announced they were no longer having 2 senior citizens discount days (A big draw for us), they opened a Bradlees in Manhattan -- of ALL places! Bradlees didn't belong in Manhattan among the likes of Saks, Nordstrom etc. WE knew that, why didn't they? Were they THAT desperate? It turns out, yes, they were!
Then they added some convenience grocery items... tuna fish, boxed mac n cheese etc. Layaway fees were raised and our customers were NOT impressed. Warehouse deliveries were fewer. Rumors of possible closing surfaced which management steadily denied. It was discussed among employees in the break room. Someone apparently reported my opinion to a dept management who had power issues anyway and he called me in,his office, denied any evidence of possible closing and threatened to write me up if I talked about it again. I said "If that happens, you will need to be prepared to write the whole store up including management because I know for a fact I'm not the ONLY one concerned and talking privately about this! We never discuss these things with customers but when I'm off the sales floor on my own time, I like everyone else uses that time as my own. Are we done here?" He asked if I would sign that I was warned. I said "That will not happen." End of that meeting. And my union rep backed me when I told her about it! Anyway, the majority of my Bradlees memories are good ones!
I feel as if I put something on layaway one time. I don't know what store it was. One of those Bradlee's Kmart or something else. With the extra fees, I might as well have put it on a credit card. I never did it again. After that I used a credit card.
My mother used to shop all the time at Bradlees. The think I loved about the store - at leas the one we went to - was that the toy section was it's own area on the other side of an archway. My mom used to drop my sister and I off there to look around while she shopped.
I use to work at Bradlees in New City, New York in the 1980s. I met my wife at the bus stop there in the early 2000s.
The Bradlees in the thumbnail was my Bradlees in Foxboro, MA. I worked there in the late 80's but left after I was moved from the Sight & Sound department to Toys.
Miss Bradlees as well. Met my wife there in 1988. She started there in high school. She was in management and stayed there until the "bitter end". Location is now a Target. To this day, my wife can't go into said Target because it brings back old memories of the Bradlees she loved.
I grew up going to the first ever Bradlees in New London, CT.
Robloxian
I miss Bradlees to this day!
I really miss Christmas time in the 90s when I was a kid. I loved the variety of stores that’s totally gone these days. I miss the Christmas displays at some stores. There was a store near us called GBoys in new jersey that had this whole Christmas walkthrough that was awesome.
My dad worked at the corporate headquarters in Braintree, MA in the 70's.
Woodbridge, NJ Bradlees. My first video game. SNES.
Worked at Bradlees on Arnot Mall Big Flats, NY in the early 1990s. It seemed like Bradlees was unstoppable.
I loved Bradlee's. Over the years I went to many stores in many places. Starting with Dedham, Watertown, I'm guessing there was one in Burlington. Danvers... Swampscott. I I went to stop & shop a lot as well. But then when I was married and we went grocery shopping, we would hit as many as five different supermarkets in one night. One of those nights being the night of the perfect storm. The one in the movie. We didn't know it was anything special. We just knew we were getting really wet. Back to Bradlee's. I'm not sure which store it was but I know it was over my budget. But the store was closing and I wasn't going to be back and I bought these cardboard boxes with flowers on the outside one of which I can still see at the other side of my room. In fact, even though I have a bunch of clothing that I have no idea where I got it, if I look around my room I can still see a pair of pants I got at Caldor, some jeans from Ann & Hope., a bunch of tops from Kmart, a running bra from Target - probably lots of stuff from Target and a bunch of stuff from Amazon. I figured they were out of business in the '90s. But sometime after 95. I think the shirt on the back of my door with the tiny flowers is from Sears. I don't think that in the Northeast we ever had Montgomery Ward JCPenney what's that other one I'm thinking of. Oh right Walmart. It started showing up in the '90s. I still have the jacket I bought in 1999 for $20 from Walmart. It was raining that day and I really needed to be dry. It has a rip on the inside from where I ran my suitcase over it at LAX. I don't know which time at LAX. I still have a few dresses from the '90s that will never ever fit again no matter how much weight I lose because contents may have shifted during flight. They all have tight bodices. That was big in the '90s. And I liked it. The only one that ever fit again after I lost weight was the one that was size 9. We had to buy it off the mannequin. I got the size 9 so it would hide my pot belly. I'm sure it doesn't fit anymore either. But I haven't been wearing a lot of dresses.
I really did love Bradlee's though. I don't remember any snack bars. Oh that size 9 - That was Ann & Hope.
Bordentown NJ is still vacant
JM Fields also helped pioneer the durable goods/grocery combo setup with Pantry Pride. The two stores were attached and shoppers could enter one from the other without having to go outside.
Good summary of their history/downfall of Bradlees. Thanks. Bradless, KMart, Caldor, Ames, Jamesway, and then Walmart.
Walmart sucks bro as does target
So I did live in Groveville NJ in bordentown NJ there was a Bradlees the store has been empty from back then to now still empty. This is next to Bordentown shoprite off Rt 206
Worked at the Bradlees location in (now gone) Riverside Mall in North Utica, NY from 1989-1991 while in high school. I was in the "Sight and Sound" electronics department.
A couple big memories...
1) Got put as the ONLY person in the electronics dept on Black Friday morning 1989 until like 1pm... To say I was SWAMPED is putting it mildly (Sight and Sound had its own cash register, so not only did I have to help customer, pull big items like TVs out of the back stock room, but also cash people out.) The next morning I was again on the schedule and was restocking shelves before open when the manager came on the PA and announced that I had single handedly sold a record amount of product the day before (something like $17K worth!)
2) The summer of 91, I got stuck on the schedule to work July 4. I frankly was pretty pissed off because being the youngest in the dept, I ALWAYS got screwed having to work holidays, and I had asked for that day off as I had made plans with friends. So I decided to call in and not show. The next day the store manager called me into his office to give me a "stern talking to" and tell me how "this would go in my permanent record".... To which I laughed at him and responded "You realize I'm leaving for college in 6 weeks, and 4 years from now I'll be making more than you do. Do you REALLY think I care?" And true to my word, I graduated from Georgia Tech with a BS in Comp Sci and got my first job making $35K and within a year after that it was $50K which was more than he made (and they closed that store by then, so really I was making a LOT more than him!)
3) I HATED the time after Christmas every year. From Christmas until around May we wouldn't get ANY new stock in... Oh they'd run sales every week, but we would have none of it in the store, so it would be week after week of writing rain checks for customers who would be pissed off that they made the trip from 30+ miles away to buy something that we didn't have in the store. We could have sold SOOO much more if they had ever gotten stock in.
4) One time we had a kind of shady seeming couple come in and try to buy 5 of the largest (27" tube!) TVs we had (god those things used to break my back trying to lift them down from the storeroom in the back!). They wanted to pay by check... I couldn't authorize a check that big so I got the assistant manager to come down and deal with them. It was also the company policy that we had to record the serial number of every TV sold and have the customer print and sign their name in the record book. These folks didn't want to do it. I insisted I couldn't sell them the TVs if they didn't. The manager overrode me and let them have the TV's without signing the book, and he approved the check... 2 days later I'm having to give a description of the couple to the Police who were investigating the fraudulent check they used... I KNEW something was off with them!!! Don't think they ever caught the scammers.
I enjoyed my time working there, it was generally low stress and gave me money for a car and some extra spending money my first year of college, but I NEVER EVER EVER will work retail again after my experiences dealing with the public there!
CLARK NJ GRANTS BECAME BRADLEES WHICH BECAME TARGET. STOP & SHOP IS STILL IN NJ
Bradlees on Cummins Highway in Boston....sad die when it died. First it was Thom McKann and then Bradlees.
The Bradlees in my home town of East Haven CT. was literally built over a swamp and had foundation issues. People used to say it was sinking😂 it closed in the late 90s I believe.
caldor would be a good one. New Jersey has 3 vacation locations, one is in Keyport i believe
Yea I didn't realize that they had that many stores until I researched them for this video. Cool I will have to check them out
Used to be a Caldor up here in Northern NJ. I believe it was in Totowa. The Bradlees was further down the highway - same town. The Caldor location I wanna say shut down mid to late 90s(?) Bradlees was late 90s-early 2000s...
This was an interesting story. ty for posting..
I remember it, but did not have one on Long Island where I grew up.
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I worked at the Bradlees in Medford, Ma in high school it's now a Kohls as is the one that was in Woburn, Ma. The one in Somerville, Ma is now a Target
My dad was from Woburn
I remember Bradlees. Only time I ever went in one was during the liquidation sale.
keep up the good work great video!
Thanks I appreciate that!
I still have my BRADLEES store credit card locked up in my chest and still owed them money but I don't know what max credit they approved me for back in the 90's I know I got a camcorder with it don't remember the price of it though.
1:54 oh sh*t I recognize that location! 😮
Near me Tow Guys became Bradley’s than Bradley’s became Calder then Calder became Kohls
That department store is coming back from what I hear ... I've never heard of them until maybe 2 days ago
📺
Great memories ❤
🧸 🧸
We need a video about Gabes!
Awesome sauce can you do a video on Gander Mountain
I have it added to the list! I was thinking about that too I saw an abandoned Gander Mountain in PA last week.
If you have time, it would be nice to have a video about the company Northern Reflections. They are a clothing store that used to have stores in the US, but now they are only in Canada.. I am curious about why the company pulled out of the USA.. Thank you
I'll have to look them up! Thanks for checking out my video!
Can you do Montgomery Ward next please 😇👍📲
It is on the list it might be a few weeks yet!
I know the initial family very well
The Beadless stores in myarea all became Kohls