Aw, you’re no fun. 
Another vote for Radio Shack. Whenever I needed a certain type of connector cable or random electronic part, the Shack always seemed to have it.
I’ll miss electronics stores in general when they’re all gone. Best Buy still exists, but most stores in my area closed down. When my wireless router died a few years ago, I didn’t want to wait even for overnight shipping, and I couldn’t access Amazon to order a new one anyway. I drove right to Best Buy, got a new router and I was back in business in mere hours. Now the only BB left in my area is a long drive away.
Many years ago I actually bought from a mall Sharper Image store a boombox-style stereo with a 50 CD carousel. In the primitive days before Spotify and Pandora, it was fun to load up my 50 favorite CDs and set it to all-CD shuffle while playing pool in my basement. I still have it, and it still works.
Sears. I bought a lot of stuff there.
Crown Books. I have fond memories of taking home doorstop omnibuses of old Science Fiction, Mark Twain, Sherlock Holmes, HG Wells, etc. for something like $5 a pop. A kid could fill up his book shelves fast with those thick editions.
J.C. Penney’s, as it used to be up until about ~15 years ago, when they decided they needed to become ‘hip’ and go after the twentysomethings. I had no trouble going in there and buying whatever sorts of clothes I needed.
No doubt their customer base was aging, and therefore gradually shrinking, but they could have catered to us profitably for a good long while, but of course not as much profit as there used to be. But you’d think there’d still be a place for businesses that are actually making money, even if not as much as they used to.
I also second both Sears and Toys R Us.
Thank you for the reminder! They were awesome for fandom-related merchandise, and silly, fun things. Then, GameStop bought them, and effectively shut them down.
You’re not the only one.
I worked at a Waldenbooks back in High School, and loved that job and spent most of my paycheck on books. And even though B. Dalton was the competitor, I loved browsing there too. In fact my home library has a rolling ladder in it of the very same type used at B. Dalton stores.
I don’t think I was ever in a B&M version, but I used to love reading the Brookstone catalog. Haven’t seen one in quite a long while. – the company apparently still exists, though Wikipedia says they’re now owned by some company structure in China. I don’t know whether there’s still a paper catalog; I don’t much like browsing catalogs online.
There definitely is a Fedco; but it’s definitely not the same one. Though it is also a cooperative.
Borders Books.
Waldenbooks. Was my major bookstore (other than Scholastic) as a kid.
Ground Round
Caldors
Toys’R’Us still exists on Canada and in the past year or so they have brought back the HMV record store brand, placing it in one corner of their stores.
I occasionally wander through and flip through CDs but their selection isn’t great (46872 copies of Fleetwood Mac albums) and I’ve yet to find anything I want or don’t already own. Still, the nostalgia factor is pretty nice.
I tried to order a CD online through them, that was showing as available, but the order was cancelled so I guess it wasn’t. Thing is, the labels aren’t producing CDs, so it’s literally impossible to buy certain albums anymore. I WANT TO GIVE THEM MONEY but they won’t actually sell their product. It sucks. No wonder these businesses went under in the first place. I don’t expect the Toys’R’Us HMV stores to last.
Edit: these albums I want are also not available for digital purchase either, like bandcamp. Some may be on streaming services, I don’t know as I prefer not to use them.
Speaking of booksellers— one company I miss is Loompanics Unlimited. They never had an actual store but their catalogs had a collection of weird and bizarre books that were always entertaining.
I learned from Wikipedia that Fedco bought watches from wholesalers whose attorney was Sol Price. Based on a visit to a Fedco store, he started FedMart and then, later Price Club, which merged with Costco in 1993.
There was a Peaches store in the suburban Connecticut town in which I grew up, on the Boston Post Road.
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
They are not dead, just mostly dead.
At last count there are still 11 Sears stores in the US and Puerto Rico.
There were about 400 Radio Shacks open in 2022. These are independent dealers who long ago licensed a franchise. Can’t find out how many are still open. Note that finding actual Tandy Co. parts might be a problem. In addition, the RS website is a joke so getting info is a problem.
Something by that name does still exist, but oddly not in my good-size state-capital city. I can get pizza by that brand at a Love’s truck stop within 25 miles of me, though.
Two former national chains immediately come to mind. They’re Canadian chains but USAians will immediately recognize their American equivalents.
The first is the venerable Eaton’s department store, historically famous for their massive catalogs and mail-order sales that were a boon to rural communities, but they also had big stores in major Canadian cities. I have fond memories, as a small child, of going downtown with my Mom and spending a lot of time at Eaton’s. This was before the era of malls, when “going shopping” in any serious sense always meant going downtown. Eaton’s was always fascinating to a very young me, and needless to say, it was absolute paradise at Christmas time! I guess it would be comparable to Macy’s in the US, and in fact, just like Macy’s, Eaton’s sponsored a Santa Claus parade every year.
Eaton’s managed to survive well into my adulthood, though with financial troubles and a diminishing number of stores. Today they’re just a fond memory.
The other one that I mentioned in some other thread is The Bay, aka “The Hudson’s Bay Company”. They continued to survive after other department stores had failed by establishing a niche market as an upscale luxury department store. The ambiance in their stores matched the quality of the goods they were selling (think marble floors, elegant lighting, and helpful staff that were always there). I guess in American terms it was sort of like Saks Fifth Avenue, but with a wider array of merchandise.
They recently filed for bankruptcy protection, which I initially though was just some financial wizardry to discharge some debts, but sadly, they are in fact closing most of their stores, keeping just a few still open. The Bay doesn’t hold the same kind of nostalgia for me as Eaton’s, but it was a beautiful place to shop.
Micro Center as in the still functioning store? There was a Tiger Direct warehouse store in Naperville/Aurora sort of behind the old CompUSA location (speaking of defunct chains to bring back…). I used to like that Tiger Direct store and it was a legit warehouse store with stuff out on metal racks or pallets but a great place to pop in and buy some computer components for pretty cheap. Technically a chain since they had at least a couple other warehouse store locations in Florida, California and I think a few other states.
In terms of catalogs, the mention of Sharper Image reminds me of teenage years flipping through the EdgeCo catalog. Page after page of switchblades, hunting knifes, replica cavalry swords, ninja blades, etc with breathless descriptions and lightning bolt backgrounds so you knew how good it all was. I actually had a gravity knife from them that I used for years until I lost it and a few other blades but it was 95% junk especially when you got into the swords and other long blades. Was great fun flipping and reading though!
Speaking of catalogs, what teen-ish boy (or especially geeky girl) didn’t love the Edmunds Scientific catalog? Such a treasure trove of weird stuff.
It seems the firm may have survived in the form of Imaging Lens & Laser Optics Manufacturer | Edmund Optics, but it looks like all their gear is seriously pro-expensive now, not hobbyist-tinkerer cheap.
I think I mentioned elsewhere that as a kid, I made a home-built telescope that (perhaps against all odds) was actually pretty decent, letting me see the rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter, among other things. My budget being extremely limited (as a child, my “budget” was basically $0) I repurposed anything I could get hold of to make the needed parts.
In the end, there were only two things I absolutely had to buy – the telescope mirror itself, and the 45-degree prism. And of course, they came from Edmunds!
(For those wondering what the hell I used for the telescope mount, I built a tripod out of three wood 1x1s, and for the actual moving mount, I rather cleverly – if I do say so myself – repurposed the parts of a heavy commercial gyroscope that my older brother had given me to play with. I had to content myself with an altazimuth mount, not equatorial, but it still worked fine!)