What about Bugle Boy? Is that still around? I remember I was watching star search and one of the bands had the same shirt and pants outfit that i had just bought a week before.
Lionel's Playworld (one of Toys R Us last competitors in the toy market) Zayers Richway Video Game Exchange (They might still be in business, but I don't think they have chains anymore. I don't miss overpriced and failing Circuit City and Media Play.
I remember Wackers... How about Jitney Jungle (like Piggly Wiggly), or was that only in the Southeastern U.S. (I spent a lot of summers in Florida with family)? Hmmm... remember AppleTree? Not as old, but it was bought up or merged into something like Safeway or Randall's. Oshman's Gulf gas stations Whoever mentioned Bud's, I think it morphed into Big Lots...
Was / is Target. Same company. They were stupid to try and over saturate themselves with competition in the same genre.
I didn't note AppleTree on purpose. My dad was a VP for them and lost his life savings trying to save the company. When Safeway decided to exit the Texas market, a group of high level local employees pooled their money together and bought most of the Safeway stores in the area. Ultimately, they couldn't keep up with Randalls and they went bankrupt. When I was a teen, I worked at the AppleTree on Cypress N. Houston, among others.
I remember buying toys at Winns and Gemco way back in the day. Oh, and TG&Y also. I used to work at Weiners in the mid 90s. Never saw so many people buy an outfit one day, and bring it back for refund 2 days later with the price tags(though not attached to the garments). Our official policy was store exchange with no receipt and the tags had to still be attached. But most of the time my manager would say "just give it to them." Thats when I knew something was wrong with the retail business.
Palm Center (the original mall on South Park/MLK) Montgomery Ward (across the street) TG & Y next to the Weingartens on Bellfort Ralston Liquor Store (on South Park/MLK) I obviously grew up in a different part of town than most of you guys.
Does Gerland's still exist? We had one (next to the old "Wacker's) needless to say, it's gone now (so is Eckerd's, but I think those still exist somewhere). How about Stott's? It was like the poor man's "Spencer's." Those Fred Rated commercials were hilarious. Niiiiiiine bucks OOOh! If you want a good list of local stores that have gone out of business over the years, ask someone from a WalMart in the area. I'm sure they know.
Mervyn's did finally shut down completely. They had originally retrenched just to the West Coast, but they gave up completely soon after. I remember TG&Y very vaguely, but Best lasted until my adulthood. My first wife worked at one when we first married. When I was a little kid, I remember buying Star Wars figures there. When I was a kid, the Albertson's in our town were called Skaggs-Albertson's. There's currently a Piggly-Wiggly in the Arkansas town where my mother lives. I also remember Computer City. I bought a Mac Classic II at the Computer City in Arlington (I-20 and Cooper).
lol, Auchan was great. Does anyone remember that mammoth sized electronic store, Incredible Universe? Now its a local HCC campus.
