# What Department Stores Do You Miss? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 15, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348 "2010-06-15T20:24:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/61 "2010-06-16T15:29:27Z")
Burdine’s. Dillard’s and Macy’s just doesn’t cut it. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/62 "2010-06-16T15:39:31Z")
> [@DChord568](#): > > I’m from Youngstown, but came to Cleveland periodically with my grandparents as a young lad. > > Which of these two had the wooden escalators? Having only seen the metal variety, these fascinated me. I also recall eating in the massive restaurant on the upper floor of one of them…I think that was Higbees, and the special youth meal they served that was brought in some kind of a weird little chest of drawers (seriously, I’m not making this up!). I can’t answer about the wooden escalators; maybe more than one had them. I remember O’Neil’s in downtown Akron had regular metal escalators on the main floors but wooden escalators that went down to the “bargain basement,” and they were very narrow. And that wasn’t a chest of drawers, it was a cardboard stove. You always wanted to have lunch at Higbee’s Silver Grille, because it came in the little stove with the side dishes on the top, and you’d open up the stove and your plate with the main course is inside. I liked the chicken pot pie myself. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/63 "2010-06-16T15:46:52Z")
Dayton’s Not so much for the normal shopping–we’d often browse Dayton’s at the mall but more usually bought at Sears or JC Penny’s, but I loved the big Christmas Display downtown. I grew up in a suburb of Minneappolis/St. Paul, and I left long enough ago that to me Dayton’s is a place I miss because it’s a regional store not in my present location and not because it has gone defunct (although finding it on the defunct list was not exactly a surprise). ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/64 "2010-06-16T16:41:30Z")
Wow, I had forgotten about Jenss in Niagara Falls (and Buffalo) Joske’s in San Antonio- worked there in high school, four stories, AND a bargain basement. Fabulous Toyland at Christmas with animated puppets, and great window displays. Winn’s was a locally owned chain of dime stores in San Antonio. They had EVERYTHING and cheap. All the stores had wooden floors and a certain woody, cleaning fluid-y, popcorn-y smell. I invented a saying about Winn’s. When I was a kid I wanted the Real Brand Name Barbie. But that was out of reach. So I got the cheap knock-off from Winns. To this day, settling for less to me is “Oh, I got the Barbie from Winn’s.” It applies to everything from “that job is the Barbie from Winn’s” to that guy is “the Barbie from Winn’s,” i.e., less than the Real Thing. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/65 "2010-06-16T16:47:10Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Toys R Us was originally called Bargain Town 'round these parts. I remember that. The store was called “Bargain Town,” and they used to use the slogan “Toys Я Us” Then one day I noticed the Bargain Town sign came down and up went the Toys Я Us and the commercials started with Bargain Town is now Toys Я Us. I can’t believe how many of these department stores I never heard of. I knew each major town had it’s own department store back in the day, but I didn’t realize how many more there were ---
**Author:** ![Rib\_Eye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@Rib\_Eye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rib_Eye)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/66 "2010-06-16T16:48:37Z")
Two Guys! ---
**Author:** ![Khendrask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@Khendrask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khendrask)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/67 "2010-06-16T17:32:20Z")
> [@Rib\_Eye](#): > > Two Guys! I remember them from WayBack, they were right next door to an S. Kleins, and just down the street from a Service Merchandise where I grew up. I would say I miss Bradlees, but the concept has been taken over by WalMart and KMart for the most part, right down to having 397 registers, but only one or two open at a time. The one I really REALLY miss has got to be Fortunoff. They had a decent mix of mid to upper end everything at decent prices. I spent a LOT of money there just before I moved down to SC, as I knew I’d have trouble finding many of the things down here locally. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/68 "2010-06-16T17:48:16Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > BTW, I mentioned Service Merchandise upthread and described it as a catalog showroom, but it occurred to me that some people here may not be familiar with those types of stores… We had the same kinf od thing in Southern Ontario; it was called [Consumers Distributing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumers_Distributing). I remember going there as a teenager. I think I bought my first watch there with the money from my first job. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/69 "2010-06-16T17:48:27Z")
Montgomery Ward. I have some short sets I bought there in the early nineties, and that are still in wearable condition now. I wore the shirt from one of them recently, and spilled tomato sauce on it, and the stain faded almost to nothing over time with no washing or anything. I wish all my clothes were made of whatever that shirt is. The tag is faded to unreadability from nearly 20 years of washing, so I don’t know what it is. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/70 "2010-06-16T18:08:38Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Ben Franklin’s, amazingly, isn’t defunct. It still exists. > > [http://www.benfranklin.com/default.aspx](http://www.benfranklin.com/default.aspx) > [Ben Franklin (company) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin_Stores) > > Although, sadly, the one on Main Street in my home town has been closed for a few years now. As has every other one of their stores in New Jersey They are no longer 5 and dime stores, they are craft stores now. I miss [Frederick and Nelson](http://www.pdxhistory.com/html/frederick___nelson.html) They had the best Santa ever. Every year I got dressed up and had breakfast with Santa and a whole lot of other kids. They had a doorman that would carry packages to your car. It smelled so good. They invented Frangos and had lots of, now gone Frangos products like Frangos fruitcake which wasn’t like any fruitcake you’ve ever had. Also gone, [The Bon Marche](http://pdxhistory.com/html/the_bon_marche.html). It was bought by Marshall Fields then Macy’s, ick. It’s still the same building, but not the same. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/71 "2010-06-16T18:16:07Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Wow, I had forgotten about Jenss in Niagara Falls (and Buffalo) Actually, Jenss lives on as a jewelry store. After they merged with Reed’s Jewelers some time ago all of the stores both chains owned rebranded as Reed’s/Jenss. I think there are about four or five still in the Buffalo area. My favorite department store growing up, Hills, passed away some time ago. I still remember that you could buy a big bag of popcorn in their lobby for 25 cents. They were also the only department store that had coin-op video games in their lobby. > [@DeweyFinn](#): > > According to Wikipedia, one advantage of this business model (Service Merchandise) was the lower amount of shoplifting, since the merchandise was unavailable until it was paid for. There are a lot of department stores (Argos is the one that immediately comes to mind) with this business model in the UK. And prevention of shoplifting is certainly the motivation there. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/72 "2010-06-16T18:23:45Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > My favorite department store growing up, Hills, passed away some time ago. I still remember that you could buy a big bag of popcorn in their lobby for 25 cents. They were also the only department store that had coin-op video games in their lobby. Ames, Zayre, and sometimes K-Mart also had coin-op video games in the early 80s (Fredonia-Jamestown area.) But what was impressive about the Hills in Fredonia was that it had a section where they were selling video games – that you could test out for free! So a lot of parents including mine dropped us off there and picked us up when they got done. ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/73 "2010-06-16T18:38:26Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > I can’t answer about the wooden escalators; maybe more than one had them. I remember O’Neil’s in downtown Akron had regular metal escalators on the main floors but wooden escalators that went down to the “bargain basement,” and they were very narrow. > > And that wasn’t a chest of drawers, it was a cardboard stove. You always wanted to have lunch at Higbee’s Silver Grille, because it came in the little stove with the side dishes on the top, and you’d open up the stove and your plate with the main course is inside. I liked the chicken pot pie myself. Thanks for this. I’m glad to know that my memory was just fuzzy, not totally deranged! ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/74 "2010-06-16T18:52:14Z")
Being Long Island centric, I see most stores I was familiar with have been mentioned, except Mays (that was a schlep to Inwood for us), and Steinbecks (erstwhile Orbachs, I believe) - oh, and Fortunoffs joined the dead a year or two back, so the death-spiral continues even now (quick, which new department/discount/outlet chains have arisen in the past few years). We often would shop at Green Acres mall (Valley Stream), which had an Alexander’s adjacent to it (but not connected - for years there was a chain-link fence blocking movement between the Alexander’s and the mall itself, and it was a big day when they finally relented and put gates allowing access between the mall and the store). Anyway, this Alexander’s was known around the island for the huge pop-art murals it had on it’s exterior walls, most of which looked like microscope views of ameobas and bacteria. This store was eventually torn down for a Caldor’s, which in turn became a Target. Inside Green Acres itself, the Newberry’s (across from JC Penny’s I believe, so this is where the extension leading to Sears and the food court is now), had in the 1970s (when I was a kid) these cool arcade games which used actually models, whether for driving or digging or flying or whatever (there’s a web-page on them somewhere), no video graphics, just models, gears, levers, and moving belts. Also an air-hocky table, enclosed in a plastic dome so the puck wouldn’t disappear, but that was always busy with the ‘big’ kids. This was long enough ago that the mall’s Woolworths had not only turnstiles to get in/out, but a freaking electronic tube tester too! I fear that we will eventually end up with one crap-tastic brick and mortar store (no names, please) and 100’s of thousands of dinky little on-line sellers ripping you off on shipping and handling… ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/75 "2010-06-16T21:49:39Z")
Definitely Woolworths. It’s not nostalgia - on a weekly basis I need to buy something that would have been easier and cheaper to get from Woolworth’s. Grr. My Grandad had his first wedding reception in a Woolworth’s cafe in Glasgow in the 1940s, he and my Grandmother (that he’d met only days before) in their Royal Engineers and WAAF uniforms respectively. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/76 "2010-06-16T22:39:45Z")
[Adam Meldrum and Anderson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM%26A%27s), or, according to locals, “da Eh Em en A’ses”, a mid-end department store chain in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area. Most of the stores had a 1950s retro appearance, with some having call bells into the late 1980s. AM&A’s was folded into Bon-Ton in the mid-1990s, after which they closed the massive downtown Buffalo store. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/77 "2010-06-17T00:17:59Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > [Adam Meldrum and Anderson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM%26A%27s), or, according to locals, “da Eh Em en A’ses”, a mid-end department store chain in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area. Most of the stores had a 1950s retro appearance, with some having call bells into the late 1980s. AM&A’s was folded into Bon-Ton in the mid-1990s, after which they closed the massive downtown Buffalo store. AM&As! Yes! I used to love that store. I think my sister had her first job there. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/78 "2010-06-17T00:22:10Z")
“The Famous” as Misco’s was know. Misco and their Misco money are burned in my brain from the Christmas visits we made to see mothers family. I miss it and the times quite a bit these days. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/79 "2010-06-17T01:00:05Z")
Does anyone remember Margo’s La Mode? (We called it Margo’s Commode.) I loved the pneumatic tubes that sent stuff up to a mysterious place in the ceiling. By the time I got old enough to work there, they didn’t have them any more. Hmmm… by the time I got old enough to be a Mouseketeer, they didn’t have them anymore either. A pattern emerges. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348/80 "2010-06-17T01:15:23Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Robert Hall for clothes, and it was always right next door to a Kinney’s shoe store. Old-school men’s store chains seem like a thing of the past - Robert Hall, Seeberg, Bond, and so on. Many cities used to have their own local men’s store chains, often with a large department store-sized multi-story flagship downtown. In Buffalo, it was Kleinhans. Small high-end preppy-oriented men’s stores are also mostly gone, but there’s still one in Buffalo - O’Connell Lucas Chelf. Practically the entire inventory of the three-story store consists of made-in-the-USA trad-style men’s clothing. There was a Two Guys near me when I was growing up. IIRC, the store had miniature bowling alleys in the back. Hens and Kelly was a more blue collar-oriented full-service department store chain in the Buffalo area that gave out S&H Green Stamps until the last day of operation in the late 1980s. I’m not that old, but I remember full-service department stores that had their flagships not in a downtown, but an outlying city neighborhood. There was Sattler’s on the East Side (just say the word “Sattler’s” to an old-timer, and they’ll start weeping; locals are extremely nostalgic for it) and The Sample in North Buffalo. Not department stores per se, but my inner geek is nostalgic for Olson Electronics and Lafayette Radio. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-department-stores-do-you-miss/543348.md?page=5)