And after looking at SirRay’s list how could I forget Higbee’s and May Company?
Just found out KB Toys went out of business
I was going to post Venture as well. I remember it most for that awful black- & white-striped color scheme they had. (See the photo at the bottom of interface2x’s link.)
I also would like to add Pic ‘n’ Save. I knew that they were all gone, so I was surprised to see a grocery store named Pic ‘n’ Save in Milwaukee a couple months ago. It turned out that the grocery store was actually named Pick 'n Save. (Note the K and the difference in apostrophes.)
Two Guys (from Harrison)
Channel Lumber
Rickel
Hahne’s
Kresge’s
McCrory’s
Klein’s (S. Klein on the Square)
Valley Fair
John’s Bargain Stores
Rainbow Shops
Loft’s (chocolate)
Fanny Farmer (chocolate)
Fortunoff
Best & Co.
Edwards (supermarket)
Roy Rogers
Jack in the Box
Linens 'n Things
May’s
Expo Design Center (division of Home Depot)
Guess that’s about it. 
I believe it was limited to Pennsylvania, but Gee Bee is long deceased.
You left out The Emporium stores. and I agree with the F— Macy’s.
Escalators are dangerous and it is unbelievable what parents will allow kids to do on them or what they will do with kids.
Pic’n’Save became Big Lots, at least in SoCal.
I remember Montgomery Ward, and also FedMart, which didn’t survive the 80s.
I think most of these were local to the Washington, DC area/Northern Virginia…
Woodward & Lothrop (department store)
Hechinger (home improvement)
There was a Rhodes store near where I grew up, and the only reason I remember it is because my mother kept calling it Rhodes for a couple years after the name was changed to Liberty House. Liberty House has also gone the way of all things. And the shopping center it was in has been torn down, rebuilt, torn down, and rebuilt again.
Me, too, and I only lived in Pittsburgh for three years. In addition to being a darn nice store, they had the perfect name! (Well, for us language geeks, anyway.)
My home town had Watt & Shand, which only had two stores - one downtown, one in the local shopping mall - so barely counts as a chain. The Park City store is now The Bon-Ton; the downtown store was stripped to its facade, which is now the front of the Lancaster County Convention Center.
At least Park City still has its four anchor stores: Sears and JCPenney have been there since the mall opened; Gimbels became Boscov’s and Watt & Shand became The Bon-Ton. An addition added what you might call a fifth anchor store, which was originally Strawbridge & Clothier’s discount chain, Clover. Then S&C was eaten by Macy’s, which wasn’t interested in the discount chain; the location is now a Kohl’s. Clover was better.
Service Merchandise.
W.T. Grants (where I bought my first album - the Rolling Stones).
Shopper’s Fair. (sort of like K-Mart)
Murphy’s. (sort of like Woolworths)
Caldor’s. (which I knew, the minute I walked in the door, was never going to last even a year, and I was right)
Bonwit Tellers (THE most gorgeous boutique-y, ladies wear store - every item for sale looked like it came out of the Metropolitan Museum. There were Italianate murals on the walls and gold leaf and marble and chandeliers — it was replaced by an H&M and all that was torn out, painted over, flat screen TVs nailed up playing rap videos.
Silk scarves and cashmere sweaters replaced by ugly wrinkly sweat-shop made rags.)
Big Lots and Family Dollar seem to have replaced Murphy’s and Woolworths.
I had no idea you were originally from Lancaster.
Uncle Bill’s
Gold Circle
Hill’s
Higbee’s
Halle’s
May Co.
Zayre
Fisher’s Big Wheel
Kresgee’s
Ooh…from when I lived outside of Ohio…is Parisian still around?
It wasn’t totally limited to PA, there was one in Frederick, Maryland. I worked at it for a bit. They then changed over to a Value City, which is now also gone.
The first discount department store in my hometown was a Mammoth Mart, built in 1968.
Wow…no Canadians have chimed in yet. We’ve had our share of department store chains that went defunct. Some were so prevalent that Americans and others who visited Canada would undoubtedly recognize them:
Eaton’s. The biggest, oldest, and best-known nationwide department store in Canada just died some years ago. Nothing, apparently, could save it. Sears bought some Eaton’s stores and ran them as “eaton’s” (complete with lower-case “e”) for a while before getting rid of them.
Simpson’s. Another nationwide chain. Bought by the Bay (another department store).
Woodward’s. Based in western Canada, it was also bought by the Bay.
Towers. Discount department store. Older Ontarians would remember this one because of its jingle: “At Towers everything connects–the last day of one sale is the first day of the next.” Bought by Zellers (the Bay’s discount department store).
Just curiosity…is the Bay a direct descendant of the Hudson’s Bay Company or is the name unrelated?
It’s the same company. “The Bay” is what the signs on the stores say, and it’s how the store is often referred to by ordinary people (“There’s a sale on ____ at the Bay”), but as I understand things, the official company name is still “The Hudson’s Bay Company.” While they have diversified in various ways over the years (fur trading, distilleries, mortgages), they have always taken pride in tracing their roots back to 1670, when they were originally founded. So while it is the same company, “direct descendant” is probably the best answer to your question.
In my area of western Washington state, I remember:
Wig-Wam
Gov-Mart
Silo’s
People’s
Frederick & Nelson’s
It seems like it would be kind of cool to shop at a place that’s been around for 330 years. Okay, not the actual building itself, but still…