What franchises or chains did you Home Town have

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

The town I grew up in has a population of around 2300 people. (We actually lived about a mile outside of town.)

There were no franchises or chains there when I grew up. They now have one; a Dollar General.

42
  • Rexall Drugs
  • Macleod’s Hardware
  • Esso
  • BA Gas (abbreviation for British American Oil; bought out by Gulf)
  • Royal Bank of Canada
  • Credit Union
  • Co-Op
43

We had to drive half an hour to get to a Kmart, which was still using leftover Kresge tags. I remember at least seeing these around there:

  • McDonald’s – Dad hated them, said they disagreed with his digestive system, so I didn’t get to go to one until we were traveling and didn’t really have a choice.
  • Burger Chef
  • Burger King
  • Dairy Queen – just one location, which happened to be on the main drag in & out of the city.
  • Montgomery Ward
  • Sears
  • Woolworth’s
  • A&P
  • National
  • IGA
  • Dunkin Donuts – one of my sisters worked here.
  • Stuckey’s – Sis also worked here, I think before Dunkin.
  • Carson Pirie Scott – another of my sisters worked here.
  • Ponderosa – yet another sister worked here.
44

I forgot Hot Shoppes, and there was (briefly) Hot Shoppes Jr. (an ill-fated attempt to compete with McDonald’s).

I worked at the local Hot Shoppes Jr. until one night when, tripping on LSD, I went in and demanded burgers for me and my friends.

45

I was born in 1966, and grew up in a small town in central Alabama (population ~5,000). We had a paper mill nearby, which provided the majority of the industrial jobs, and a small community college.

Chains I can remember (although I reserve the right to be wrong and / or update this as more come to mind):

  • Dairy Queen (was there as far back as I can remember)
  • Hardee’s (closed in the late 80s, I think)
  • A&P Grocery (which later became Piggly Wiggly)
  • Kentucky Fried Chicken (although I think they showed up in the early 80s)
  • Giant Foods (which might not have been a chain, now that I think about it)
  • Winn-Dixie (grocery store)
  • Rexall Drugs (although it wasn’t called that; it marketed itself by the initials of the owners, so it was called “J&J Drugs” or just “J&J”)
  • Burger King (which showed up at roughly the same time as KFC)
  • There was a five-and-dime store downtown, but I don’t remember the name of the company that ran it. Everyone just called it “the five-and-ten.”

Of those, I think the only ones remaining are the fast-food places. Winn-Dixie might still be there, too. And the number of fast-food places has grown; now there’s a McDonald’s, and a Taco Bell, and a Subway, along with a Domino’s (which has the only “walk-thru” window I’ve ever seen; the building is downtown, and there’s a drive-thru-style window on the side of the building, but it opens onto the sidewalk, so customers have to walk up to get their pizza).