Radio Shack was awesome. Back in '09, I read of a way to activate the factory cruise control in my '08 Yaris. It required two momentary push button switches, resistors of particular values, a reed switch, and wire. One trip to the Shack and the parts were acquired. Another hour later, the car had cruise control. There is simply no place left to go buy parts like that. Radio Shack also helped me build some nice car stereo speaker setups. Their car stereo stuff was overpriced, but good. Fortunately the stuff went on sale at least yearly for half price which made it a great deal.
Back when I was in high school and college, Kmart couldn’t be beaten for price on certain things. Their auto department was awesome for oil, filters, tune-up kits (points, rotor, condenser… yeah, I’m that old), brake shoes, etc. Before my car years, Kmart was the place for bike accessories, tires, and inner tubes.
Omg, so this! Sweet Tomatoes was the other name for it. We’d look for them any time we’d travel. Such a good deal. Probably the reason they no longer exist…
We have a Woolworth nearby. Not Woolworth’s. I wonder what the relationship is, if any.
Edit to add: answered my own question. The Euro Woolworth stores are indeed a vestigial remnant of the original company — sold off, but using the same name.
Do mail order catalogs count? Sears started as a mail order catalog… Anyway, i really miss ThinkGeek. Ooh, Wikipedia tells me they had a few physical stores, too. They used to have such a great catalog. We did half our Christmas shopping there. We still have an awesome cake pan shaped like a sleeping dragon we got there that we use every year.
Sears was the Amazon of its time. They sold everything. My cousin lives in a house sold by Sears.
I would like to see a Woolworths or a Radio Shack, too.
B Dalton (am I the only one who misses them?) or Waldenbooks/Borders. We have a BAM a couple towns over, but I don’t like them as well.
And in the food category, Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour Restaurants. Not quite a dinner-and-a-show place, but good food, and the waiters were fun to watch.
That’s where my friend Denise and I would go and get Cokes and a big order of fries with ketchup. We had to be in our early teens at the time.
I never was much for shopping, tho early in our marriage, my husband and I would do a lot of mall-walking as cheap entertainment. We’d window shop, dream, and end the evening with a cookie in the food court. Honestly, I can’t think of any chains that I’d want to bring back.
Oddly, a small local store near where I grew up - Baynesville Electronics - closed its doors fairly recently and that hit me a bit. I remember going in there with my dad to test vacuum tubes from our TV. It’s one of those places that was always there. Now it’s not. And even tho I left that neighborhood in 1973 and my folks bought another house and moved in 1979, it feels weird that Baynesville Electronics is gone.
Oh, yeah, and shoes! They had cheap shoes, and actually carried something that approximated my size (neither of which is something you can get, any more). If I couldn’t get K-Mart back, I’d at least like Pay-Less Shoes, but K-Mart had a bunch of other stuff besides.
As others have already mentioned: Sears, Borders, Radio Shack.
For restaurants, I wish we still had Godfather’s Pizza.
Regionally, there was a chain of record stores, Streetside/Penny Lane. Streetside started in St Louis and Penny Lane was in KC but IIRC they merged at some point in the 80s. I miss flipping through racks of vinyl LPs.
For retail , it would have to be Toys R US - they naturally had a larger selection of toys than any other retailer and I could walk through and find toys I didn’t know existed.
For restaurants ,it’s not exactly a certain chain - it’s a certain type. I miss the Sizzler/Ponderosa/Bonanza sort of restaurant. They were better than fast-food but cheap enough for some of my friends. I suppose these restaurants might still exist somewhere, but I only know of one company that operates in a fairly limited area.
Does anyone else remember Peaches Records & Tapes? I thought it might be a local chain but The Google tells me that there were 45 stores at its peak, nationwide.
The store was known for its supermarket-level size, its deep inventory, and its knowledgeable staff. Oh, and the wooden “Peaches” record crates. I’ve spent many happy hours there.
Also a mild mention to Circuit City.
And Borders was my first thought, but I see it has been well-covered in this thread.
