# Stores or restaurants you used to go to in your youth **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 19, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972 "2020-11-19T15:53:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/21 "2020-11-19T19:50:12Z")
Was your Korvette’s close to the Bronx/Yonker’s border? We might have gone to the same one. Ours was on White Plains Road I’m pretty sure. We used the A&P on Baychester Ave, I think fairly close to Seton Falls Park. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/22 "2020-11-19T20:00:44Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Was your Korvette’s close to the Bronx/Yonker’s border? We might have gone to the same one. Ours was on White Plains Road I’m pretty sure. White Plains and Bruckner Boulevard. Checking Google Maps, there’s still a shopping center there but the former Korvette’s is now a Kmart. Kmart was originally Kresge. There used to be a Kresge over on Castle Hill Avenue and Westchester Avenue. > [@What\_Exit](#): > > We used the A&P on Baychester Ave, I think fairly close to Seton Falls Park. We were much farther south, near Westchester Square. E. Tremont and Westchester Ave. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/23 "2020-11-19T20:10:24Z")
I have the vaguest memory of a place called **John’s Bargain Store** in NYC. Flipflops were like a quarter or something weird. I think it was the original Odd Lots/Job Lots type store. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/24 "2020-11-19T20:30:12Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I have the vaguest memory of a place called **John’s Bargain Store** in NYC. Flipflops were like a quarter or something weird. I think it was the original Odd Lots/Job Lots type store… Yeah, we had a John’s Bargain Store at Westchester Square too. It was the predecessor of the dollar stores, although prices varied. There was also [Jahn’s Ice Cream Parlors.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jahn%27s) In high school we used to hike by bus over to Fordam to order The Kitchen Sink Sundae. I’m surprised that one is still operating in Jackson Heights. A couple I used to go to that are still around are White Castle (decades before McDonald’s arrived in New York) and Carvel soft-serve ice cream. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/25 "2020-11-19T20:56:02Z")
We used to to frequently shop at [Roses Discount Store](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roses_(store)) when I was a kid in the 1980s. They were a chain of discount department stores in the Southeast. As I remember them they pretty similar to Wal-Mart and Kmart, or more precisely they were like what Wal-Mart was like in the 1980s, before they added the giant grocery sections and such. Then circa 1989 Wal-Mart opened a store in our town, and by the mid-1990s all the Roses stores in our area had gone out of business. Roses stores do still exist, but now they’ve reinvented themselves as more of a dollar store rather than a direct competitor to Wal-Mart. I have vague memories of going to a store called [Brendle’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendle%27s) as a kid. In my memory they were also a Wal-Mart/Kmart style store, but Wikipedia says they were a catalog showroom like Service Merchandise, so I might be conflating them with some other store. And yes, I also have vague memories of being dragged to Service Merchandise. Actually, going to Kmart felt like kind of a novelty when I was a kid, since the nearest one was down in Charlotte at the time, so we’d only ever go there if we had some other reason to be in Charlotte. I thought the flashing blue lights around the store were really cool. Belk’s department stores are still around, but the store we went to when I was a kid was actually located downtown, on Main Street. When was the last time you saw an actual department store on Main Street? This was an old school department store, I think built in the 1920s, with different departments on different floors. In the early 1990s they relocated to a shopping center out by the freeway and closed the downtown store. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/26 "2020-11-19T21:06:38Z")
Restaurants that aren’t around anymore: [![](https://jsfburgerchef.homestead.com/Burger_Chef_Exterior_1960s_725X529.jpg) ](https://jsfburgerchef.homestead.com/Burger_Chef_Exterior_1960s_725X529.jpg) [![](https://dallasnews.imgix.net/1564601579-NMC_31shakeys-exterior.jpg) ](https://dallasnews.imgix.net/1564601579-NMC_31shakeys-exterior.jpg) [![](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d1/51/4c/d1514cd03cbdc1b3bb93c8226cdf001e.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d1/51/4c/d1514cd03cbdc1b3bb93c8226cdf001e.jpg) Stores no longer there: [![](https://www.roadarch.com/11/4/brownkress.jpg) ](https://www.roadarch.com/11/4/brownkress.jpg) [![](https://townsquare.media/site/156/files/2016/05/Abandoned_Montgomery_Ward.jpg?w=980&q=75) ](https://townsquare.media/site/156/files/2016/05/Abandoned_Montgomery_Ward.jpg?w=980&q=75) [https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/mervyns-outside-0410-gkthe-exterior-of-mervyns-on-news-photo-569172555-1542323031.jpg?crop=1xw:0.91532xh;center,top&resize=980:](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/mervyns-outside-0410-gkthe-exterior-of-mervyns-on-news-photo-569172555-1542323031.jpg?crop=1xw:0.91532xh;center,top&resize=980:)\* [https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/radio-shack-sign-hangs-above-its-storefront-january-3-2002-news-photo-689689-1542311299.jpg?crop=0.94091xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/radio-shack-sign-hangs-above-its-storefront-january-3-2002-news-photo-689689-1542311299.jpg?crop=0.94091xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:)\* [https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/circut-city-store-1558985188.jpg?crop=1.00xw:0.906xh;0,0.0255xh&resize=980:](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/circut-city-store-1558985188.jpg?crop=1.00xw:0.906xh;0,0.0255xh&resize=980:)\* [https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/b-dalton-books-store-1559018373.jpg?crop=1.00xw:0.907xh;0,0.0617xh&resize=768:](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/b-dalton-books-store-1559018373.jpg?crop=1.00xw:0.907xh;0,0.0617xh&resize=768:)\* ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/27 "2020-11-19T21:17:37Z")
I used to shop at a lot of these, too. the Kresge people went on to be K-Mart, but we had an S.S. Kresge at the local mall before a K-mart opened up down Route 18. They’re both gone now. We had a Woolco, which was a Woolworth derivative. It was a huge store. > **[Woolco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolco)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Woolco was an American-based discount retail chain. It was founded in 1962 in Columbus, Ohio, by the F. W. Woolworth Company. It was a full-line discount department store unlike the five-and-dime Woolworth stores which operated at the time. At its peak, Woolco had hundreds of stores in the US, as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom. While the American stores were closed in 1983, the chain remained active in Canada until it was sold in 1994 to... One that I miss is Two Guys (properly Two Guys from Harrison). They had an enormous department store that sold everything, including groceries and liquor. They were a New Jersey chain, but I found them in upstate New York as well. They closed in 1982 > **[Two Guys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Guys)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Two Guys from Harrison (later shortened to Two Guys) is a former discount store chain founded in 1946 by brothers Herbert and Sidney Hubschman in Harrison, New Jersey, originally selling major appliances such as televisions. The chain acquired the manufacturers of the Vornado appliance brand in 1959, and spread beyond the New York City metropolitan area to more than 100 locations in upstate New York, eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut... we used to have an Acme market on Main Street in my hometown, as well as one in the closest shopping mall. They’re both long gone, although the chain is apparently still alive. When I was a kid, I wondered why I couldn’t get the neat stuff the Coyote got from them. > **[Acme Markets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acme_Markets)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Acme Markets Inc. is a supermarket chain operating 161 stores throughout Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, the Hudson Valley of New York, and Pennsylvania and, as of 1999, is a subsidiary of Albertsons, and part of its presence in the Northeast. It is headquartered in East Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania, near Malvern, a Philadelphia suburb. > Acme was established in 1891, when Irish immigrants Samuel Robinson and Robert Crawford ope... Another store we used to have on Main Street was the Ben Franklin five and ten store (I didn’t know that “Woolworth” was the “five and ten” to most people). They sold all the household goods you needed, stationery, candy, toys, and fabric (pretty impressive for a small shop). Then they went out of business in our town and the few other towns that I knew had them. They were apparently still going elsewhere until the 1990s, when it went bankrupt. Its name was bought by another company, so some stores are still around under different ownership. Their symbol was a key on a string (because of Ben Franklin’s kite experiment) > **[Ben Franklin (company)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin_(company))** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Ben Franklin is a chain of five and dime and arts and crafts stores found primarily in small towns throughout the United States, currently owned by Promotions Unlimited of Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. They are organized using a franchise system, with individual stores owned by independent proprietors. It was perhaps the first retail franchise, starting in 1927. They are named after Benjamin Franklin, taking a cue in their merchandise offerings from... ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/28 "2020-11-19T21:23:31Z")
Anybody remember LUMS? ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/29 "2020-11-19T21:29:17Z")
2 Restaurants come to mind. Ground Round happy hour, great for college kids, pay for one drink and eat unlimited apps, including wings. The staff got on to us and started to make their wings inferno style, which we just bring chap stick to shield our lips. Beafsteak Charlies, All you can eat salad bar with shrimp, free unlimited bear or wine. I was too young for the drinks, but it was a great deal. Their prices for a dinner out were very good to begin with. The shrimp & salad bar was a meal it itself and it was common to take the main meal home. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/30 "2020-11-19T21:31:19Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Beafsteak Charlies They had a Garlic New York Strip that was very inexpensive and my favorite meal on the rare times we ate out. That was a great chain. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/31 "2020-11-19T21:38:43Z")
Oh, and for restaurants I remember Quincy’s Steak House. They advertised on TV so I’m pretty sure they were a chain, though quite likely a regional one, but they don’t even seem to have a Wikipedia page. They were a low-end steak house similar to Sizzler. Their signature item was the “big fat yeast roll”, big warm yeasty dinner rolls that came with every meal and were featured prominently in their commercials. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/32 "2020-11-19T21:55:39Z")
When I was a pre-teen, all we had were mom & pop businesses: Leonard’s Variety Store, Rexall Drug, Percy’s Cafe & Variety, and Northern Commercial Company, which was like a local version of a Penney store. And we also used the Sears and Ward’s catalogs a lot. As a teen, Penney’s, Ben Franklin and Woolworth had moved into Anchorage. Within a few years of my leaving home, almost all mom & pop stores had been put out of business by national chains, including burger joints. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/33 "2020-11-19T22:16:21Z")
Yeah, Rose’s. There was one in my S. GA town for a while. Then it closed and a J.C. Penney moved in. Rose’s eventually came back, occupying the old K-mart building. Really, they now remind me of a store from my youth called Zayre. Zayre was sort of K-mart-ish, but without the auto center, big electronics, and garden center. Another chain like it was W.T. Grant. **E-DUB** - yes, I remember Lum’s! Hot dogs steamed in beer! Those dogs were huge. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/34 "2020-11-19T22:23:23Z")
Monkey Ward’s, Sears, J C Penney, Woolies. I think there were Zayre’s and S S Kresge, too, but I’m not sure. A&W still exists, but it’s been 30 years since I last saw one. We did have a Dog & Suds when I was in high school. Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor Restaurants. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/35 "2020-11-19T22:33:55Z")
Heh. Most of the places listed here I went to as an adult. There was a Korvette’s in Douglaston, Queens, off the Long Island Expressway near the Nassau County border. It was bicycling distance from my house, so my friends and I went there fairly often. My idea of what a shirt should cost is based on the prices for an EJ Job - $5 - $7 bucks. We went to a place called Great Eastern Mills in Nassau county, an early big box store. One side was a grocery, the other was a department store. In 1961 my mother took my brother and me there to buy games which would get packed in a trunk and sent to the Congo to meet us there. I went to a lot of candy stores when I was a kid, the place to buy comics, models and baseball cards. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/36 "2020-11-19T22:36:06Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > A&W still exists, but it’s been 30 years since I last saw one. We did have a Dog & Suds when I was in high school. I got there fairly often. The one in my town is joined with a KFC, but there was one right near Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, which I’d stop at when dropping off our guide dog when she went into “season” as they called it. Still love the root beer floats in a mug, but you can’t get them until indoor dining comes back. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/37 "2020-11-19T22:39:05Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Bradleys, Jamesway, Caldors Seconded. I also used to go to A&P, FoodTown, and Grand Union (which, come to think of it, is ‘Grand Union’ still around?) I used to work at [Friendly’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly%27s) too. I’m hoping one my my coworkers of those 5 years of late high school to early college, are Dopers, and will be able to identify me, when I quote myself in saying, “_Why do they call it ‘Friendly’s’ if we’re all so pissed off?_”. Tripler Good times, good times. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/38 "2020-11-19T22:39:36Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > There was also Zayre, Woolworth and/or Woolco and Alexander’s Department Stor I didn’t just go to Alexander’s, I worked there for a while. Flushing, NYC. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/39 "2020-11-19T22:42:42Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I’m surprised that one is still operating in Jackson Heights. Yep. And I must have been in the place about a zillion times, having grown up in the area, and attended St. Joan of Arc elementary school a couple of blocks away. Jahn’s was a fairly popular after-school meeting place for older kids. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/40 "2020-11-19T22:49:22Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > > [@kanicbird](#): > > > > Beafsteak Charlies > > They had a Garlic New York Strip that was very inexpensive and my favorite meal on the rare times we ate out. That was a great chain. When I was in high school the mecca was [Tad’s Steaks](https://nypost.com/2019/10/09/tads-steaks-finally-closing-its-last-nyc-outpost/) in Times Square. Looks like the last one in New York closed last year. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972.md?page=3)