Hhgregg was an appliances and electronics store that was founded in 1955 in Princeton, Indiana, and, at one point, expanded into 20 states. But in 2017 the store closed over 130 stores and laid off more than 5,000 people. A…
Category: Forgotten Retail
Gadzooks was a T-shirt retailer that originated in Mesquite, Texas, and was founded in 1983. The chain grew exponentially to 422 stores and chose to focus more on teenage clothing. Yet, Gadzooks was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2004….
The Discovery Channel stores first opened in 1995 and featured educational games, gifts, videos, books, and more that reflected the message you could watch on the channel. By 2007, Discovery Channel announced it would close all of its standalone stores…
CompUSA was created in Addison, Texas in 1984 and was originally named Soft Warehouse. However, it was changed in 1991 when the company went public. The store specialized in computer software and computer products. In 2007, the chain couldn’t keep…
Circuit City once had a whopping 567 stores at its peak, where you could buy anything from TVs and computers to audio equipment and car stereos. However, in 2008, after 59 years, the chain declared bankruptcy and began closing all…
Back when people took real photos with actual cameras, you had to get them developed somewhere. Enter Fotomat, founded by businessman Preston Fleet in California in 1968. The company’s gold-roofed kiosks soon popped up by the thousands in parking lots…
Do you remember Bon-Ton Stores? Founded in 1898 as Grumbacher and Son in York, Pennsylvania, the store first sold hats and dry goods. The company expanded during World War I, and stores were later opened outside Pennsylvania. The company grew…
New York lost one of its finest Madison Avenue institutions in 2020, as Barneys New York shut its doors for the final time in February. The store closed after filing for bankruptcy and being bought by Authentic Brands Group in 2019.
After being a prominent department store across the mid-Atlantic and southern United States for 150 years, the store was acquired by Macy’s, Inc. in 2005. As a result, the name of the remaining stores was changed to Macy’s.
Thom McAn was founded in New York in 1922 as a discount family shoe store. After being acquired by Melville Corporation in 1952, the company became one of the largest footwear retailers in the country, operating a whopping 1,400 stores. In…
The family clothing warehouse store first opened in Connecticut in 1937. The store soon expanded across the country, establishing stores in 36 states, and remained prominent in the retail industry before filing for bankruptcy in 1977.
The first store was opened by Abram Jacobson in Reed City, Michigan in 1838. By the 1930s, the chain grew and expanded throughout the state and to neighboring states such as Ohio and Indiana. The chain included only 25 stores at its…
Brothers Max and Morris Feldberg founded a company in Boston in 1919 to supply undergarments to department stores. But within a decade, they figured out a women’s specialty store was the way to go. By the end of World War…
Started by Robert Allen Sprouse and Fred Reitz as a five-and-dime in 1909 in Tacoma, the headquarters moved to Portland in 1919. In its heyday, the store had almost 400 stores in 11 western states. But by the 1980s, variety…
In 1906, W. T. Grant opened the W.T. Grant Co. 25 Cent Store in Lynn, Massachusetts with $1,000 he had saved from his work as a salesman. The company grew quickly nationwide with 1,200 stores by 1972. Unfortunately, the chain…
Paul Bonwit founded a luxury department store in New York City in 1895, partnering with Edmund D. Teller in 1897. The store became known for its upscale goods and eventually opened in key locations such as Miami Beach and Boston….
Founded in 1937 by Hyman Shapiro and his sons in Pittsburgh, the company specialized in using 78 RPM records from jukeboxes. Crazy, right? But it became the first music store chain in the U.S., and in 1964, the store helped bring…
Founded by Herbert H. Goldberger in 1957 in Youngstown, Ohio, the chain pushed into many Midwestern and a handful of Southern states. In 1987, the store went public and became the nation’s eighth-largest discount retailer. By the 1990s, the stores…
Kaufmann’s was founded in Pittsburgh in 1871 as a men’s tailoring and ready-to-wear store by two brothers. Two more brothers joined a few years later. The store grew into a chain of nearly 60 stores in the East. The company was…
Sebastian Spering Kresge and a partner founded the five-and-dime, Kresge’s, in Detroit in 1897. He soon became the sole owner, and by 1935, Kresge’s grew to 745 stores in the Midwest and East. In 1962, the company decided to venture…
Aaron Montgomery started his company in 1872 as a mail-order business selling to farmers in rural areas near Chicago. The first retail stores opened in 1926, growing to more than 500 in five years. In 1985, the company ended its catalog business….
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, started as a mail-order business around 1859. By 1930, the company operated more than 15,000 grocery stores and was the largest chain in the U.S. The chain filed for…
Known as Gimbels, the first store was founded in 1842 by Adam Gimbel in Indiana. In time, the family opened stores in Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and New York City. Interestingly, they sponsored the 1920 Gimbels Thanksgiving Day parade in Philadelphia to…
Started by Mervin G. Morris in 1949 in San Lorenzo, California, the company grew to almost 200 stores, mostly in the West. The mid-price chain boomed in the ’70s, but when it began expanding outside of California, it stumbled. Stores began…
The original store was opened by Potter Palmer in Chicago in 1852 and grew into a chain centered in the Midwest. At one point, the flagship store with its gorgeous clocks, Tiffany ceiling, and iconic bronze placards was the largest in the world with…
Founded in 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth, the company’s first stores in Utica, New York, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania sold general merchandise and were called “five-and-dime’s” because everything sold for 10 cents or less. The chain grew quickly, and by 1905, Woolworth…
Blockbuster, officially Blockbuster LLC and formerly known as Blockbuster Video, was an American-based provider of home movie and video game rental services. Services were offered primarily at video rental shops, but later alternatives included DVD-by-mail, streaming, video on demand, and…
Borders Group, Inc. (former NYSE ticker symbol BGP) was an American multinational book and music retailer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. In its final year, the company employed about 19,500 people throughout the U.S., primarily in its Borders…
Pier 1 Imports, Inc. is an online retailer and former Fort Worth, Texas-based retail chain specializing in imported home furnishings and decor, particularly furniture, table-top items, decorative accessories, and seasonal decor. It was publicly traded on the New York Stock…
RadioShack, formerly RadioShack Corporation, is an American retailer founded in 1921. At its peak in 1999, RadioShack operated over 8,000 worldwide stores named RadioShack or Tandy Electronics in the United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. Do you remember…
Do you remember Service Merchandise? Previous Next Service Merchandise was a retail chain of catalog showrooms carrying jewelry, toys, sporting goods, and electronics. The company, which first began in 1934 as a five-and-dime store, was in existence for 68 years…
Do you remember Sun Television and Appliances? Previous Next Sun Television and Appliances was a specialty retailer of consumer electronics, home appliances, and office equipment founded in 1949 by brothers Macy and Herbie Block. The company had stores in cities throughout the Midwest, and…
