10 Big Retail Stores That Went Out Of Business
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ค. 2024
- Stroll down the aisle through the golden era of shopping as we explore some of the most iconic and now defunct brick and mortar stores that once thrived in malls and cities across America. From the expansive aisles of Circuit City and A&P to the stacked shelves of Borders and Blockbuster, we delve into how these retail giants from Woolworths to Fry's Electronics and Toys "R" Us shaped buying habits and offered a vast array of brands before eventually going out of business. Discover what led to the downfall of these beloved department stores and shops like Sam Goody, Linens 'n Things, and Radio Shack, and how the retail landscape has changed in their absence.
#shopping #store #retail #mall #nostalgia
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What stores do you miss the most?
We still have a Borders where I live, attached is a Starbucks. I like going there because it is so relaxing and it smells of newly printed books. So Good!
I miss Circuit City, Radio Shack, Toy r Us which has so many beautiful memories. Block Buster has great family memories for me. My son misses it because he could rent a game to see how much he liked it, and if he did, then that would be the game he would liked to be gifted for birthday's and Christmas. Jeeze sounds like I'm all into electronics and fun. LOL
Definitely Borders.
Wow there is still a Borders? I went to original one in Ann Arbor. It was great!@@FOX007-um1wr
I don’t miss any of these stores.
Fry's Electronics.
Also I miss Sears and Roebuck store love their appliances
K mart too.
@@patrickquirk-qz8ri Sears and Roebuck and Kmart i'd like to come back.
Tower Records. Such a great company and so many memories!
Ah yes tower records!!! I loved that store!
There’s a great documentary about Russ Solomon, the founder who was a really cool guy. All Things Must Pass and it’s on a lot of streaming platforms including Amazon Freevee, Tubi, and Plex
I miss Service Merchandise.
I still owe Blockbuster a twenty dollar late fee from 2002.
Somehow I don’t think they will care anymore. 🤔 could be that it was your $20 late fee that made them shut down? 😂. But it could have been when they needed a paper clip and couldn’t find one? 🤷♂️
Maybe Radio Shack should offer free batteries for people who have electric vehicles. 😁
There is still one functional store open in Bend, Oregon...maybe you could go pay it there? I'd love to see what the cashiers would say when you tell them you came to pay your late fee!😂😂
My mother had a Wards card.
The day they went out of business was her last payment on it.
I still haven't returned one of the video games I rented from there
I worked at an A&P here in Ontario, Canada in the late 90s. It was a good place to work. Unionized employees, fair wages, experienced staff. I remember often seeing the general manager rolling up his sleeves and cleaning the floors himself when it was needed... Don't see many owners/managers like that anymore.
I worked at A&P in the south side of Chicago in the late 70's. I started as a bagger for $2.75 and hours during high school. I couldn't work more the 3 days a week and no more then 4 hours day during school months, but I could work 8 hours on Saturday and 6 on Sunday because the store was only opened till 5 pm on Sunday. We could not survive all the big box store invasion of the early 80's .they tried going 24/7 but got robbed more then we took in at the register.. Yep.. other than the holidays ..it was a pretty good high school job. Only market managers got 40 hours a week. My last year was stocking shelves at night in summer of 1981 . they locked us in and we'd work the load that came in at 10 pm and broke it down and stocked the shelves the rest of the night. I worked 3 other stores in the area just to get more hours because our stores hours got cut... I still had a few red aprons and my box cutter when I got married in 93...it's been 43 years....I like seeing the A&P signs the back ground in old movies....I think the east coast was the last stores to close.....
@@joeknowz48982 2 3
@@joeknowz4898 My belief was that A&P stood for "Atlantic and Pacific". I grew up on the west coast and never saw or heard of an A&P Market.
@@lancasterritzyescargotdine2602 Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. I like finding the logo in the background of old movies.. just like the gas prices back in the 70's and 80's....
@@joeknowz4898 How about those old b/w movies with gas station sandwich boards pricing gas at 23c a gallon?!
I really miss A&P. This brings back a lot of memories of grocery shopping with my mom on Saturday mornings. No self checkout and no UPC codes to scan. The meat Department would do specialty cuts on request. The quality was so much nicer. Good times
My mom mostly shopped at PathMark, but there was a little A&P store closer by that we would shop at for just a few things maybe to hold us over until the big shopping trip on pay day. I definitely liked that little store-- like you the memories of mom and for me my little brother too definitely add to the sweetness 😊
I remember A&P as well in the early 80's up here in Canada. My mom used to write personal checks to pay for our groceries.
A and P was a nice store also Dafeway was here in Canada I remember they would even put your groceries in your car for you. These service type things at stores are long gone Now we pay more. Self check out our grocery people remember and knew you. Now. Most staff at stores today. Don’t even acknowledge customers really today. I guess it depends on the location of stores. But most don’t seem to care about customers today
As a kid growing up in the 1960's and 1970's, we couldn't live without Radio Shack. First our area had free standing stores, but by the 1970's every mall that opened had one inside. Transistor radios...lights and electronics (I remember buying small sets of battery operated flashing lights that we used to make space ships and models)...and then tabletop and clock radios, and calculators. I think I bought my first cordless phone from them as well.
I still have a circuit tester that I assembled in 1972 from Radio Shack, still working.
The photos make me long for the days when we presented ourselves well. Suit and tie. Women in dresses or up scale pants.
A&P was a very good store that brings back great memories. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
I remember circuit city. I drive by my local former CC and can still see the familiar square shape.
I am from Brazil..I still remember the first time I visited USA, working for HEWLETT PACKARD, during the 80's...at that time Brazil was kind of closed for international business...so we did not have those chains (MacDonalds started its operations in 1979 and was a very small chain down here).
So its was wonderful to visit stores like BestBuy, Borders, Circuit City, Tower Records, BB&B, Crate &Barrel, Toy R Us, FAO Schwarz ( who remembers BIG??❤) , Discovery, Disney and so many others!
You know...the smell, right? OMG, how I miss those smells!
I miss Blockbuster so much. It was such an amazing part of my childhood. I'll never forget how magical Blockbuster Friday was. I continued to loyally patronize my local Blockbuster until 2010, when I went to return my movies and the place was closed for rental business. The only people in there were the store manager and the movers. I shockingly asked her if they were closing down, and I could tell that she was holding back tears when she said they were. They had no prior notice, the big wigs just showed up that day and said they were closing it. She handed me a couple sheets of paper that explained the movies by mail program that I was now a member of; as well as a flyer containing their rental kiosks. Those were like Redbox machines but there were way fewer of them, and they were a considerable distance away from each other. Their movies by mail was not as efficient as Netflix, and their kiosks were much harder to get to then a Redbox. After over 20 years of being a Blockbuster member, I cancelled my membership in 2011.
I miss the past , period
I miss the old A&P grocery stores
I miss it too, I still had some old spices in the tin cans, I found after she died.
Blockbuster video will not be missed.
to bad they're Metro's now, I remember the A&P in my town shutting down do to 9/11 and cut backs, funny how a Walmart now stands where it used to be
Me too. That's where I earned most of my college tuition.
A&P was up here in Canada too. They were changed over to Metro or Price Chopper in Ontario
Music World, Sunrise Records, Sam The Record Man and a couple others were also awesome stores.
Price Choppers became Fresh co.'s, like Valu-Marts became NoFrills but Valu-marts are still around
I miss the Radio Shack that was in Tishomingo Ok. I miss all the stores that were here back in the good old days! Really enjoyed your video and subscribed to your channel.
Radio Shack was awesome for sure!
Bring back the old memories of Toys r Us
Dont forget play world toys store
And now there's Walmart, Target and Costco. I miss ALL these closed businesses. Add to that Caldors, Bradlees, Ames, Grand Union, Pathmark, Jamesway, Two Guys, KB Toys, almost every bookstore outside of Barnes and Nobles, and so many more. Consumers today have no idea what variety available...and these were the ones that replaced the Mom & Pop stores on main street.
See that's the thing. The variety is still available, but pretty much all of it has to be bought online now. And of the stores that still remain...I don't recall there ever being horrible parking issues if you ever tried to get to any of the stores. It was always pretty easy to find spaces. Nowadays, going into all these big box places, parking is a nightmare because there really is nowhere else to go.
Online has ruined the beauty of visiting brick and mortar stores. I miss them too.
I liked blockbuster and a and p .miss them both
Everyone has Walmart, Target and Costco; but most areas usually have 1 or 2 regional chains who successfully compete head to head with the big 3. For example, in my area, your options are Walmart, Target, Costco and Meijer.
I can not say things better than volks comments about past stores lives when things were done not as fast paced as we now have I love you Al ll past present we had win lose or draw good bad and ugly we need the best of both slow down do it right so mucho right done not better ways what is everyone’s hurry to go where
What about SEARS?
It's still around
I miss Tower Records.
We have the Internet and Amazon to thank for the very limited shopping choices available these days.
It's always good for consumers to have a bunch of competitors. When I was younger, the town I lived in had five grocery stores. Eventually whittled down to two, Walmart and Kroger.
Yes, A&P was once for me.
I miss A&P grocery store 🏬 🏪.
Nobody beats the wiz
I really miss Borders. I loved being able to browse books, sit in comfy chairs, have access to a wonderful selection of books, music and videos.
The stores I miss the most are Goldblatts, wieboldt''s, Zayres, Ventures, three sisters clothing stores, bakers shoe store, Goodmans. Once located in the Chicago area.
A&P and Grand Union who are the best stores ever for groceries I wish they had the stores like that again❤❤😊
Circuit city was definetly the go to store for electronics back in the day and way better than best buy , Bought my first big sound system there with those big orange cerwin vega speakers in Jax florida 1985 !
I wonder if anyone misses Crazy Eddies...
Wowo, ypu and Crazy Eddies crazy commericals!
I miss Fry’s. There is no other store quite like it nowadays.
I’m from Michigan. The Borders in Ann Arbor was just the greatest book store. I went at least once a week.
I miss Bob's Big Boy. Great hamburgers!
The Border's Bookshop at the Dadeland Station (in the early 90's) was very popular in Miami. For books, coffee, and poetry nights, along with guest authors and speakers. It was very sad when they went under, because I bought books there, you could never find anywhere else. And my current library at home is FULL of first edition books that are no longer available anywhere in Print.
Linens 'N Things was one of the original stores in my mall. The mall opened in 1985 and is doing well today. I had shopped there. I miss Border's (not in the mall)
Video stores need to come back. It’s almost impossible to find older popular movies in Netflix or even to pay Ala carte somewhere. Scrolling endlessly through Netflix takes more time than a car ride to blockbuster and a quick walk and scan of their shelves.
Or a quick call to their store(s)
Most of these stores were put completely out of business or affected somehow by a Monopoly that should have been illegal, because of Jeff B's Jungle international warehouses . Borders was probably the worst because the Jungle started as a book store then Ebooks now it sells everything with microphones and cameras in or around almost every home in the world via phones doorbells cameras, TVs, smart speakers now cars have Jeff B built-in.
It's easy to focus on single stores like Blockbuster, but what gets me the most is how enjoyable a lot of stores used to be. Blockbuster is the one that most people seemed to have gotten attached to (and its demise STILL hurts), but really it happened with a lot of them. Fast forward to now... I find it really hard to imagine anyone ever actually enjoying going to the freaking Walmart or whatever. I also cant imagine anyone ever missing it, if it should ever get usurped by some other business. But a lot of the stores from the pre Walmart/Amazon era? Everyone has their favorites, it seems.
We had a small number of Downyflake donut stores in Australia which served donuts and coffee and was based on the American style coffee houses. Fond memories as a child…
I sure miss A&P Grocery stores. Their Jane Parker Chip Nick's were delicious a dehydrated potatoe chips item. Ann Page sweet goods and pastries were quite good too. That Cinnamon strudel was so good. A&P had great fried chicken and fried fish in their Delicatessens. Their Eight O'clock Coffee could be fresh ground in the store aisle by the customer. The aroma just lingered throughout the store and made customers thirsty and hungry too. It was so awesome to smell while shopping.
One department store that I miss here in Broken Hill is the former Big W store, you could get almost anything from there you wanted like shoes, toys, clothes, music, tools and accessories for the kitchen, garden, pets, house etc. Down in Mildura their Big W store is still open and even has an enormous party department store where you can even buy helium balloons, they’re many other department stores that were iconic to Broken Hill in town that went by the wayside like Griff’s, Dryen’s, Pellew and Moore’s, and many others I can’t remember names right now but will live on forever in my memory.
Remember Red and White grocery stores ? I remember Steinbergs ( Quebec )
I remember stores like Gimbles, Bradlees, Caldors, and K-mart.
Nice video and great photos. Thanks.
Farmer Jack was my favorite supermarket.
Well I definitely miss Fry's Electronics specially since I worked there for 5 years
I liked them too, but when they started charging 20% for returns it killed their most loyal customers. I had a small PC sales and repair business, and I would frequently buy parts for a repair(s), and ended up not needing a few. When you realize that you lose 20% on any returns, it forced me to find other sources for immediate needs.
I'm missing Frys very much!
Thanks for sharing.
A&P was such a good store. Their house brands were better than the national brands. They had butchers on duty who could help you out. The employees knew the store inside and out.
A&P was legendary it's been only 8 years since they closed.
I miss Woolworth and KB toys….so nostalgic ❤
I remember most of these stores. It's sad to see all of these stores closed for business due to becoming obsolete or a poor economy. I have very fond memories of shopping at these places from Brooklyn to Los Angeles starting from the early 1970s through the 2000s.
These stores played a huge part in American culture and lifestyle! It's very sad. I also wonder what happened to the employees.
I would say that I miss Circuit City the most because being a student of music, I still have a vintage rack system that I purchased from them dating back to the early '90s.
Fortunately, there's still a Borders at The Grove in Los Angeles near the historic Farmer's Market where I still purchase books and music.
I grew up around the corner from one of their stores. It was located in Los Angeles on La Cienega Boulevard. That location is now a Ross Dress for Less store.
Before Tower Records In Southern California there was Licorice Pizza record store. I worked there in the 70’s. The pizza were the records & at the front counter was free licorice.
Licorice Pizza was bought by Sam Goody in 1976. Things didn't work out for some reason.
I remember all these... nostalgic 😁, I'm going to cry 😭❤❤
I worked at some of these stores, as did some of my friends and family. Circuit City was where I got all my cool foreign import cds. I miss it.
I interviewed for a job at Borders Book in Ann Arbor Michigan. I ended up not getting the job. And a couple of years later they went out of business. So glad I didn't get hired.
I have great memories of A&P. I worked at A&P from my junior year of high school through college. That's where I earned 90 percent of my college tuition. A great place for students and house wives to work (part time).
Also got my first professional job at one of Sears' subsidiaries, Allstate Insurance Company, in Northbrook, Illinois. More great memories!
I remember standing in the checkout line with vidoes in hand at BlockBuster on Saturday nights. More good memories.
Actually Fry's was a supermarket chain first before switching gears to electronics! I thought it was pretty amusing that their logo changed from a happy little grocery bag to a happy little computer chip with the same sign fonts!
Along with Circuit City and Fry's, don't forget Silos, another big box electronics chain that couldn't compete with the internet. Also, my first real job was working at Montgomery Ward in the late 70's when they were the 3rd biggest department store in the country behind Sears and Kmart.
Here are two fun facts: A&P was in the 1980‘s the private label of German grocery store chain „Kaiser‘s“. It also featured the same logo. Kaiser‘s sold OEM (non-branded) products at discount prices under this label. But the products were not popular, because in the 80‘s everyone was obsessed with brands and OEM products were considered to be of inferior quality. Kaiser‘s went bankrupt approximately 10 years ago, because they couldn’t compete against larger grocery store chains. Woolworth is still operating stores for cheap non-food items in Germany. Most of the stuff they sell is junk. But if you’re looking for some cheap items to be used only once, it’s the place to go.
Lafayette electronics where I used to buy my stereo system and speakers in New York. . I miss A&P my first experience with people I used to 💼 their food and delivery back in the sixties.
They used to have an A&P store in Vernon, New Jersey for those who live or used to live in Vernon, New Jersey, they had the A&P and throughout the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s, it used to be a lot smaller.
In 2002, the A&P was renovated to make it a lot bigger and they even included a Starbucks later on. After it closed in 2015, it became Acme and it still is an Acme to this very day!
The only chain on this list that I strongly miss is Fry's. Even though I never lived near one, I would often visit one while on business trips, sometimes just to wander the aisles. I do have a Micro Center nearby, which does check many of the same boxes (and those of the new-defunct CompUSA chain), but I still miss Fry's.
2:20 The name "Woolworths" was legally taken to capitalize on the F.W. Woolworth name since they did not do business in Australia, and had not registered the trademark there, but is in no other way connected to the U.S. or U.K. Woolworths.
As a youth i remember Lionel play world, i think this was befor toys-R-us.
I watched this video on a TV that I bought at Fry's!
1:53 That’s one reason right there. Politics and business just alienates half of your customers, and those it might attract are never enough to make up the difference.
l got my first real job working for Sears at a distribution center in Philadelphia(l really enjoyed that job,l was a pt holiday employee,they even offered me a permanent position)later after a stint in the military,worked at Borders(that was also an enjoyable experience,esp the employee discount)later they really expanded went even more corporate and that was the end of that,sad… l really miss most of the stores in this video,it brought back some wonderful memories 😊
A lot of stores have come and gone in this country over the years. I live here in Southern California The only two stores that I would love to see return are Fry's electronics and souplantation restaurant. I heard a few months ago that soup plantation is coming back and they opened up with just one store so far. I hope Fry's comes back in a big way The store had everything in there from parts to appliances to everything you can imagine. My favorite electronic store of all time. I would go in there every other week and just to check out and see what they had even if I didn't need anything . 🤣
A mother with her son and the mother's friend were out one day .
The mother said to her friend, i need to stop at A & P .
The little boy said , and mommy i need to poop too !
It's very sad to see a store or stores close and never come back , you grew up with all you life. The Mall I grew up with looks like what was my purpose of being here in the first place it looks so in despair as if saying come back to day ,tomorrow anytime but is not happening it beyond crying out of being saved 😢😢😢😢😮
Except for Radio Shack and Blockbuster, all of these stores failed because of mismanagement and incompetence.
Miss the smell of the coffee being grinded
Zodys, woolworth i remember well going with my mom to five and dime store classic
Here in the uk it’s Woolworths we miss it so much !!!
My Grand Daddy use to take me to A & P when I was I think 13
Now I m 63 time goes by way to fast
“ I want to be a Toys “R” Us kiid
Yo extraño a Blockbuster, ibas para pasar un buen fin de semana, viendo películas
Lords Bakery with the picture they relocated I wish it didn't left ,it was Flatbush Ave attractons. ❤
Pictures Cakes I 🎉 my children birthday and holiday with the strawberry shortcake. It was excellent and they made the strawberry was fresh and nice
Fry's electronics is still in business. In fact the one you show in the picture in Phoenix is still operating to this day.
It's really sad that most of these vintage stores all went out of Business. Most of these were my childhood stores. Toys clothes Etc. I'm not to crazy for much of these new Stores. Call me old fashion 😊
Circuit City: we _finally_ got one only for it to close about a year later...
Borders: a good college buddy took their closing kinda hard
Bed Bath & Beyond about to go the way of Linens & Things he way they're going.
Radio Shack was where the nerds hung out in my teens. New management made us scram (and thus lost our sales cuz we did actually buy things there)
Kmart: we liked Kmart. Just down-to-earth (at least ours were) -- wasn't bougie like Target or messy like Walmart. But ours started falling downhill after around after 2000 (dirty, NO CASHIERS, etc)
Likewise with Sears. Sears was amazing in the 80s.
Others come to mind but were very likely local/regional:
Gibson's, Duckwall/Alco (them closing broke my mom's heart), Ame's, Pamida, Zayre
Well done
Media Play was another great book seller that went out of business a few years ago.
Gods do I miss video rental stores
I still recall so many great stores of my high school years that I wish would come back. If I needed a cassette tape, CD, book, or calendar, I would visit Tower Records which had all of that. If I needed clothes, I'd go to Mervyn's or even Sears. I remember my parents buying furniture from Levitz. And who could forget birthdays at Pizza Time Theater featuring Chuck E. Cheese? None of them exist any more.
Sounds like the same place where I live in San Jose, CA. I got my first credit card at Mervyn's. I went to Chuck E Cheese all of the time even though I was in college and not a kid anymore. I would go to Tower Records even though I had no money. I just went to browse for hours.
@pompasduris in fact, it is. I lived in Palo Alto, CA at the time and all those places were within easy biking distance of me. Except for Chuck E Cheese.
The worst thing you can ever hear about a business is that a private equity firm has bought it. I don't know how private equity forms are allowed to stay legal.
Radio Shack was a great store until they only wanted to get you to sign a cell phone contract. No matter what you went there to buy, it would take you five minutes of saying "No I don't want a new cell phone" before the salesperson would actually help you find something else.
When you needed something beyond the most mainstream of computer parts and didn’t want to wait for shipping, Fry’s always had it. Until they didn’t anymore. They may have closed in 2021 but I’m shocked they lasted that long- they died years before. Fortunately Microcenter has somewhat filled that niche.
Circuit City ,I Bought Acer Laptop over here , 👍👍👏👏2007
I miss Borders Books. I prefer to leaf thru a book before buying to determine if it is really what I want
I know they all look the same, but the store at 1:49 really looks like Valley St in Maplewood NJ. Not sure how many A&P were built right up to the sidewalk, on a corner. This was a very old store that somehow lasted a long time with a Pathmark behind it.
I miss borders toys r us and kaybee toy stores
I was in circuit city one time. It was one of the worst retail experiences of my life. never ever went back.
Woolworths (Woolies) lives on in the UK and South Africa
I miss Kmart , Adventure, American video.
This is a sad trend, what next ? Online shopping only ??
I miss the smell of fresh ground A&P coffee. I like small family owned businesses. They can no longer financiially compete. Amazon has become the 21st Century Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward.
John's the Bargain....H.L. Green's
Lil bow wow worked at foot locker in the movie 🎥 lottery ticket.
Do your homework dude. It was the buyout that killed Toy R Us. It was struggling to compete before the buyout but it was the buyout that left them with too much debt to even try.