I remember visiting my first Waldenbooks circa 1970. It was a revelation. Prior to that, I had to buy my books at department stores (Woolco, Newberry’s, or Two Guys) or newsstands, or even hardware stores (there were two with book sections that I can recall). The nearby college bookstore was pathetic. There were a very few actual bookstores, but they were far away and invariably crowded little stores with very narrow aisles.
Waldenbooks was a wide-open store that had not a dozen or so wire racks of books, but shelves that filled a store with wide aisles. There were not a few paltry titles in each section, but entire sections devoted to each topic. It was in a large indoor mall a long drive from my house, but within a couple of years they opened a new mall with one within cycling distance. It was the first bookstore chain that was well-stocked and easily accessible. Within a few years it was joined by B. Dalton’s and other bookstore chains. The big mall where I first saw the Waldenbooks eventually had four bookstores. Even our local mall eventually had two. Then the Barnes and Nobles and Borders bookstores came in, enormous stores that could have contained several of those Waldenbooks. One opened up within walking distance of my parents’ house (although I had, by that time, moved away). The pinnacle of accessible bookstores was, for me, when the UK chain Waterstone’s opened an enormous three and a half story bookstore in the old Exeter Street Theater in Back Bay Boston. Book heaven (and there was another bookstore right across the street, and several others within a couple of blocks).
And then, with the advent of the internet, it almost all vanished, circa 2000. First the used bookstores – of which there were a great many – disappeared from Boston, Cambridge, Salem, and Portsmouth. Then the smaller chains – Lauriat, B. Dalton, even Waldenbooks. Later Borders. The extensive bookstores that used to be in museums mostly disappeared – the Smithsonian in Washington used to have a cavernous one, extending through multiple rooms. The Museum of Science in Boston’s gift store used to have a huge book section. Now only art museums and the American Museum of Natural History in New York seem to have large bookstores. The other museums have a few books in the corner of the gift shop.
Now we have Barnes and Noble and a few Books a Million (BAM) and few indy bookstores barely hanging on. Oh, yeah – the only new bookstore I’ve seen in a new “Lifestyle Center” mall is an Amazon Books in the new one near me. But they don’t have the same books that the older ones dis. And they don’t have a “local” section (although they did when they opened).
Fatigatti’s “The White Front” restaurant had great homemade pasta dishes and decent seafood. They were family owned and operated, but after a few decades, they shut down as they ran out of family that wanted to operate it. I miss their spaghetti, with the garlicy, not-sweet meat sauce. I miss that sauce.
The day Eide’s records and comics goes out of business will be a very sad day.
At our neighborhood mall, Mom would grocery shop at the A&P (if I had an extra quarter, I’d scarf a dill from the big-ass red barrel o’ pickles) and I would invade:
*GC Murphy’s (dime store),
*Topps (department store),
*Radio Shack (free battery-a-month card),
*the pet store,
*Monkey Wards,
*Two – count 'em, TWO – Mom & Pop record stores (all the department stores had records, too).
There were other stores I’d hit, but memory fails me at the moment.
There was a pre-multiplex (read: HUGE!) movie theater and a diner in the middle of the mall; the diner was actually sunk a couple feet into the floor – the waitresses were practically eye-level with your chest.
Heh. The poster @ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness reminded me of one. Chock Full of Nuts, besides being a coffee, was also a coffee shop/lunch counter in New York I used to go to when I worked in New York - during college, so not that young, but still. Also in New York there was Schraft’s ice cream, which my mother enjoyed for some reason.
Winky’s manes you happy to be hungry. . .unless you’re in Wilmerding.
Never went to Tambellini’s, don’t know how I avoided that. Probably because of Fatigatti’s.
I don’t know how I forget to mention Tom’s Diner in Dormont! Tomaine Tom’s! Open 24 hours, it was the default when we needed food and we just didn’t feel like cooking a meal at 2AM. Oh good lord though, I got sick off one of their hamburgers! Stayed in/near the bathroom for 3 days. I was back there less than a month later though. What could I do? I needed real food at 2AM. I didn’t buy a hamburger from them ever again though.
I used to go to into North Dallas pretty regularly and my mom always let me roam around the Galleria, which seemed like one of the wonders of the world at the time. Was a regular at Bennigans and El Fenix. Too chickenshit to go ice skating though.
So many:
LaBelle’s (aka BEST aka Service Merchandise). The one near our house was luxe- thick blue carpeting, floor to ceiling blue curtains between display cases, all the salespeople dressed up. I always felt fancy going there, versus going to the KMart down the street. Although, at KMart I could get an honest-to-goodness ICEE, so that was cool.
Woolworths. My sister would drag me there to be her makeup ‘tester’. I didn’t mind, I was spending time with my cool sister. If I didn’t whine, she’d buy candy or even a record.
Thriftway grocery. We didn’t go there often, as it was more a prepping for holidays store. They were the only grocer that sold fresh turkey gizzards, required for mom’s stuffing. It was so different than the small store we normally went to - massive, white floors, everything sparkling clean, so many choices. When my kid was little, I started shopping there again, but by then there were a half dozen super grocers in a five mile radius and they ended up closing in 2011.
There was a restaurant that we went to once a month after church on Sunday. For the life of me, I cannot remember the name. It had dark paneled walls, pushed the idea of being in a mine, as you walked in. Wishing well with toys in the entry. Known for their silver dollar pancakes. I know it was not a Denny’s and it ended up being replaced with a Perkins, so not them, either.
Ponderosa Steak House and Bridgeman’s Ice Cream Parlor. They were the birthday dinner / proud of you places. The buildings are still there- Ponderosa has had at least two dozen different, all failed, restaurants replace it. It currently has a sign up indicating it will eventually be a seafood/ boil restaurant. I think it’ll be the third one of those. Bridgeman’s became a low quality Asian market and bazaar.
Maybe a Barnaby’s? We went to one a few times when I was a little kid, and the only things I remember about it was (a) it was dark inside, and (b) getting toys there.
I recall those as well. I didn’t go to Schrafft’s very often, but their ice cream was good.
One (mostly) defunct restaurant chain that hasn’t been mentioned except in passing is Howard Johnson’s. The hotel chain still exists but it seems all the restaurants are gone except one. They were known for having 28 flavors of ice cream, maybe the first widespread chain to have such a huge selection. They were mostly near highways. The only one near my neighborhood in the Bronx was up by the exits off the Bruckner Expressway. We used to hike up there to get ice cream or occasionally a fried clam sandwich.
Ah, yes. Howard Johnson’s used to have the contract at service areas along many of the interstates. We stopped at HJs all the time when I was a kid.
They had kid’s menus in the shape of hats (they were spiral cut so you could extend out the center and wear it on your head,
and in the form of placemats you could color, and in one case it was a comic book (featuring their mascots, Simple Simon and the Pieman, going by rocket to the moon. It was written and drawn my Marvel comics artists
The last remaining Howard Johnsons is at Lake George New York. I made a point of eating there the summer before last. (My wife refused to go, but the food was extremely good. Better than standard HoJo fare in its heyday). It appears that they’re still going.
I’m amazed at how quickly and completely the chain disappeared. Say what you will, they provided a better and more diverse menu than the McDonald’s and Burger Kings that, for a long time, took over the rest stops. Years later, they provided the only 24 hour restaurant near where I was working, so if you got out at 2 AM after a grueling session in the lab or with a customer, you had someplace to eat. Buyt they’re all gone now, save the one.
My father liked pistachio ice cream so we’d go to the local one and get a hand-packed quart. (Meaning a store employee would fill a quart carton from the five gallon container in the display case.) And BTW, in the 1960s, Howard Johnson hired Jacques Pépin and Pierre Franey to develop recipes for the restaurants. That was before my time, so I have no idea if that translated to really good food in the average HoJos.
I grew up in a small city. The only thing close to a department store we had for a long time was Shopko.
In the 60’s we’d drive all the way to Milwaukee area to go to Arlans. Anyone remember them? How about Rexall Drugs with their excellent lunch counter?
In town we had Snyder Drug and Red Owl grocery stores. We also had Kohls Foods with their unusual curved/domed building.
We had a Sambos restaurant in town. Not only was its name and mascot controversial, the food was hideous.
We had a Tastee Freeze which I believe was a chain. It kept going in and out of business. Nobody ever could make it work.
Somebody on a Facebook group I am a member of recently posted something about the Schultz Brothers dime store we had in town. It was truly awesome. Had a bit of everything. Best candy aisle EVER. Great toy section.
