In California, our defunct chippy chain was H Salt which KFC overpaid for in the 1980s and then drove into the ground qualitatively and financially. A few of the former franchisees kept the name as independents after they were liberated from KFC but the few I have tried don’t live up to the original.
Where we used to live, all the A&Ws were shared stores (e.g., with KFC) but were still serving edible food. Then all in the region went away.
On a trip west we stopped at a real one. The kids went nuts when they saw it was a traditional drive-in one. They had never seen one before.
The last time we went to one was on a trip ~6 years ago. Another shared one. It was awful. They way corp. parents kill chains but making them worse and worse is amazing.
I loved mama burgers. Just the right size for me.
Fry’s is mentioned, and Radio Shack is mentioned…but what about that offshoot of Radio Shack that was incredibly big for a short while, then went bankrupt and (mostly) got bought out by Fry’s-Incredible Universe?
Damn place was almost a theme park, and they sold everything electronic.
The Teen Burger was a big hit when I grew up.
All the national brands that I would bring back have been mentioned (Borders, the Frys that was, a few others).
For local, as a kid in Montana, there was a place called Zandy’s. It was …different.
It was a burger and fries joint, that was literally all they had on the menu. Fountain drinks and milkshakes too, but (as far as I can recall) they had hamburger, cheeseburger, and fries.
In the mid-to-late 80’s this was. And the burger was 25 cents. The burger was also about half the size (if that) of a normal fast food. So small, the pickle would almost cover it, in some cases. The cheeseburger was I think 31 cents, or something along those lines.
But the bun was toasted, and the fries were pretty good. For a family that was poor af, it was a nice surprise when we could go “out” and pick up some Zandy’s. It was also a great way to feed a lot of folks cheap, for example, when you had a bunch of friends helping you with yardwork, and you could go buy $10 worth of burgers and feed the lot of them. It was only in Great Falls, as far as I know. It’s long gone now.
Their Sacramento location was one that turned into a Fry’s. Not bad, but they didn’t have the depth of electronic stuff that Fry’s did, like bare components and specialized equipment. Basically pure consumer focus. I think they wanted it to be family-friendly enough that it would justify a long trip. They didn’t last long, at any rate. At least Fry’s got some cheap locations out of it.
Yeah, the one here in Wilsonville took the same route.
My sister and I would pour over those phone-book-size catalogs. "Look, here’s a robot! It follows your commands… I bet if we told it to fly we could hang onto its legs!’
And we’d pester my dad with questions: one was "How much do you and mom spend on Christmas presents for us?’ Once he said “$22” just to get us out of his hair…
…Boy, did THAT ever work! We were upstairs in a flash, lying in our bedroom, totaling up $22 worth of the coolest presents we’d ever seen!
~ ~ ~
A while ago I found scans of the 1962 catalog online, and there was that robot I wanted…
“At Shakey’s we sell fun, also pizza.”
McDonald’s aped a couple of Burger Chef items. The Big Mac was a copy of the Big Shef and Burger Chef had the Funmeal well before McDonald’s copied them with the Happy Meal. Of course, both the Big Shef and the Big Mac are copies of the original Big Boy.
Ours closed a few years ago, but is now coming back.
For mail order it was hard to beat Johnson Smith.
I can at the back of my mind barely recall the taste-a bit more onion-y than McD’s stuff. 52 years later…
This website, which unfortunately hasn’t been updated since December 2021, has lots of interesting blog entries of the bygone days of American chain and other retailers.
There’s a very enjoyable documentary about this titled (appropriately enough) The Automat.
It can be streamed on Max, Hulu Premium, or YouTube Premium.
Loved the documentary! And if you haven’t already, I can’t recommend The Automat book enough—it pairs beautifully with the film.
Horn & Hardart was more than just a place to grab a bite. It had that timeless Art Deco charm, served meals that were easy on the wallet, and created an atmosphere that welcomed everyone, whether behind the counter or on the customer side (super-inclusive). They often allowed the homeless to shelter in their stores for long periods and slipped them free food when they could. It was “delicious democracy” in action—good food, served fast, made and served with heart. The founders, Horn (from Philly) and Hardard (from NYC), were good people.
Watching legends like Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner reminisce so fondly about their Automat memories was touching. You could feel the affection in their voices—it was clear this place meant something. This wasn’t fast food as we know it today—it was real food, thoughtfully prepared, served in a way that made you feel like you mattered. No surprise that their cookbooks flew off the shelves back in the day.
One fact that amazed me from the documentary? In the 1940s, H&H was feeding 10% of Greater Philadelphia’s population on a regular basis. That’s not just running a restaurant—tit’s feeding the spirit of a city. And New York felt that same warmth too. They also supplied a massive amount of food to soldiers on troop ships during WWII.
Things started to shift in the ’50s. With rising competition, H&H made the classic mistake: expanding too fast while sales were sliding. The nail in the coffin? That massive commissary they built out in the New Jersey suburbs to supply their city locations. From there, the downfall picked up speed.
Call me an optimist, but I still think there’s a world where Horn & Hardart could rise again like a phoenix from the ashes. With smart leadership, good marketing, cozy seating, fair pricing, a familiar menu, and the right urban spots—places where people aren’t glued to drive-thrus—I believe it could thrive again. I’m pulling for the entrepreneur I mentioned earlier to make it happen.
I remember those. Consumers Distributing certainly, as they advertised that the savings they enjoyed on not having a showroom were passed on to you.
You would no doubt recall Eaton’s and Simpson’s, and if you could not find it in either, well, you didn’t need it. Mens’ and women’s clothing and shoes for sure, but also toys, hardware, furniture, jewellery, TVs and electronics, pet supplies, appliances, lawn tractors and lawnmowers, outboard motors, weird gifts (*), books, records, hats, wigs, sporting goods, pipes and tobacco (at Simpson’s, but never at Eaton’s, because Eaton’s hated tobacco) and so much more.
Although Walmart is technically a department store, it just isn’t the same as Eaton’s or Simpson’s. I guess we all have to make do somehow. But still, to answer the OP, I’d bring back Eaton’s or Simpson’s.
(*) Just for fun, one time, my Mom bought a “gahooga” horn from Eaton’s Yorkdale gift shop. She insisted on walking the mall, with the horn in its Eaton’s bag, honking every so often. My sister and I, both kids at the time, were splitting ourselves; my Dad was not happy. Never mind, we got home, and that horn remained with us, and today, fifty-plus years later, I can still honk it. In other words, yes, I kept it.
What era and/or region was this? I have never heard of The Incrdible Universe.
There weren’t many of them ( only one store in the entire NYC area ) and the chain was only around for five years or so in the early 90s.
There were 17 of them total. Incredible Universe - Wikipedia