Another vote for Borders. Not quite so necessary in that I can get anything I want from Amazon, but you can’t browse in Amazon.
Sears. They were more than a department store with Kenmore appliances and Craftsman Tools as well as Auto tires and service. Had a lot going for them until Management ruined it all by focusing on perfumes, etc which made them an ordinary player in a competitive field. Too bad.
I could say Borders, which is true. I could also say, with equal honesty, Media Play. They had a much smaller book selection, but plenty of scifi and fantasy, my preference. They also had CDs and DVDs, and it was fun to browse through, looking for stuff I was missing. Not to mention just metric tons of pop-culture stuff everywhere. Sure I didn’t buy something every time I visited, but it was fun. Borders probably wins, by hours spent, the ability to get coffee at the cafe, and the pervasive smell of books which I miss - but at least there are still a few big (chain and otherwise) bookstores I can find. Nothing quite like Media Play anymore.
An honorable mention for the not-quite-dead coffee chain Barnies, now reduced to a small regional chain in the southeast. I used to go there a LOT in the 90s, because they were a presence before Starbucks went everywhere, sold real licensed Jamacian Blue Mountain coffee, and had blends and flavored coffees in such numbers that shame modern options.
GEMCO. The quality of (60s-70s) Sears with the prices of KMart but without the shame, combined with a quality grocery store.
These.
Sears used to have everything; and it was all decent quality.
The Radio Shack around here was very gentle with and useful to the non-techie person who needed techie stuff.
The Woolworth’s is probably mostly nostalgia; some of it for the cafeteria.
And I will add that I miss department stores in general. The sort that had several stories, with a choice of stairs, escalator, or elevator for moving between them, and good lighting with tall windows all over the place. My mother could look at hats to her heart’s content, and I could go to the toy department or the bookstore section.
There’s no question—I’d bring back the Horn & Hardart Automat in a heartbeat. It wasn’t a coast-to-coast chain, but certainly an East Coast institution in NYC and Philly. There was something magical about slipping a coin into a little window and retrieving a fresh slice of pie or a steamy bowl of mac and cheese. Sure, it wasn’t high-end cuisine, but it was cheap, quick, and tasty, with coffee that could wake the dead. Of course, they’d have to upgrade the nickel-throwers to dollar-throwers—small price to pay for a blast from the past.
In a sense, Horn & Hardart was arguably the world’s first fast-food chain—if you define “fast food” as standardized, speedy service offered in multiple locations. Otherwise, White Castle and A&W might beat it on the technicalities. I only caught the tail end of the Philly Automats, but my parents and grandparents told so many stories of its golden age that I can’t help feeling nostalgic.
…Turns out someone else has the same vision, planning to resurrect the Automat in NYC (see link below!). Fingers crossed he pulls it off—because nothing beats that old-school thrill of dropping in some change and seeing your lunch slide right out of the wall.
Another vote for Sears, Radio Shack, and Waldenbooks (which I liked better than Borders). I only visited Tower Records a few times (they weren’t much of a presence in the Midwest), but they were awesome record stores back in the '80s and '90s.
It’d certainly be cool to walk through a 1980’s-vintage shopping mall again, but that may be outside the bounds of the thread.
Several have mentioned K-Mart. I can second that, if we mean K-Mart as it was when it was thriving. But the last few times I was in a K-Mart, not too long before they closed, they were kind of sad and pointless.
But my choice might be PHA℞-MOR. They weren’t around for all that long, but it was nice while it lasted.
Crazy Eddie. Because his prices are insane. But this time with less fraud and money laundering.
Back in the mid-80s DesertWife’s daughter got a Tower Records giftcard when we were in Phoenix-metro for the holidays. She wanted to cash it right away so I took her to the store in Tempe and when we were leaving she commented, “That settles it – there are no freaky people in Tempe 'cause if they aren’t at Tower they aren’t anywhere.” She was right, all the staff in the store were clean-cut Mormon kids.
Another vote for Sears and Radio Shack.
Their slogan was “Sears has everything,” and they meant it. Whatever you needed, you could find it at Sears.
Radio Shack was a paradise for electronics geeks like me. You could walk in and ask for some obscure electronic item and they either had it or could order it from their massive catalog and you would have it within a day or two.
I still have a Radio Shack “Realistic” portable shortwave radio. Nowadays it’s useless due to excessive man-made electronic interference in the air and hardly any countries are still broadcasting on shortwave, but I can’t bring myself to junk such a relic of a golden age. 30 years ago I would get up in the morning, brew a pot of coffee and catch the news on the BBC World Service, which had a relay in Canada and came in like a local. I miss those days. Now I can listen on-line of course but it’s just not the same as picking it out of the ether.
Marshall Field’s. A Chicago high-end department store. They mostly sold higher-end products. It was a very popular place for brides to register a gift list for their wedding.
It was bought by Macy’s and has been blah ever since (although Macy’s has revived some things from the old days like breakfast under the Christmas tree in winter and they still make Frango mints).
That was, in fact, one of the Towers that I was able to visit, while on a business trip to Phoenix in '91.
If a chain that was only in four states counts as “national”, Pat Catan’s. They got bought out by Michael’s, who promptly went so evil with their new acquisition that I refuse to ever shop there. I’m not even sure where to buy craft supplies any more.
The title says “national”, but the post says “regional or national chain”. So that counts.
I wish Radio Shack would come back so I could watch it die a miserable death a second time.
Marbles The Brain Store
Always had unique puzzles, games, toys. Still have the Sherlock wooden box puzzle we got there.
Moderating:
This sentiment, while not quite rising to the level of a thread shit, does seem contrary to the spirit of the thread as outlined by the OP. Share about companies that you appreciated for one thing or another, not the ones that pissed you off.
Sorry. Won’t do it again.
Much more on the nostalgia side: The Sharper Image.
Yeah, I know, all they ever sold were massagers and humidifiers and a bunch of other crap. But 12-year-old me didn’t recognize that. I saw a cool looking store with a bunch of futuristic looking things. The fact that (in retrospect) my parents also saw it as useless, overpriced junk, and therefore rarely let me go there only reinforced the allure.
It looks like they still have a website selling the same stuff, like fake ionic air purifiers and UV wands and executive toys. What I want is the version of the store that existed in my head. Whatever that actually means.