What Years Was Service Merchandise In Lancaster Pa

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52 Iconic Stores You Grew up With That Are No Longer in Business

Those built-in in the '50s and '60s will feel like they're traveling dorsum in time.

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Blame it on businesses that couldn't adapt to irresolute tastes or the convenience of shopping in your PJs. But, sadly, many in one case-iconic retailers are now distant memories. While some merged with other companies, a handful take attempted to reinvent themselves in the era of online e-commerce. But many simply closed their doors forever and surrendered to the march of time.

Whether you grew upwardly shopping in the aisles of these establishments or just heard about them in stories from parents and grandparents, you lot can't help but get a nostalgic feeling when you see photos of these old stores, because cypher can ever supplant the feeling of going down the aisles at the old five-and-dime. (Then once more, there's also cipher similar the feeling of realizing at three a.yard. that you have to purchase a birthday present for someone three states abroad and have it arrive in that location, wrapped and gear up, in two days.) Are you ready to have your memory jogged with I-haven't-thought-near-that-in-forever names like Gimbels and Mervyn's? Practise you desire to lament that you can no longer flip through the pages of a book, killing a few hours at Borders or B. Dalton's? Take a trip downward the aisles of memory lane with these closed retail chains.

F. Due west. Woolworth Visitor

Founded in 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth, the company's commencement stores in Utica, New York, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania sold general trade and were called "v-and-dime's" because everything sold for 10 cents or less. The chain grew quickly, and by 1905, Woolworth invited rival retailer chains (two were endemic by his relatives!) to merge with him. By 1929, at that place were 2,250 stores. The visitor purchased other chains over the years, including Footlocker, though Woolworth variety stores closed in 1997.

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Mervyn's

Started by Mervin Yard. Morris in 1949 in San Lorenzo, California, the visitor grew to nigh 200 stores, mostly in the Due west. The mid-price chain boomed in the '70s, simply when it began expanding outside of California, it stumbled. Stores began closing across the country in the early 2000s. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2008, shuttering all of its stores.

Gimbel Brothers

Known as Gimbels, the first store was founded in 1842 by Adam Gimbel in Indiana. In time, the family unit opened stores in Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and New York City. Interestingly, they sponsored the 1920 Gimbels Thanksgiving Day parade in Philadelphia to spur vacation shopping. (Macy'due south copied the idea in 1924!). The store even played a role in the classic Christmas movie Miracle on 34th Street. Sadly, the company was eventually purchased (past the visitor that too owned Kohl's), and the doors airtight for practiced in 1986.

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A&P

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, started as a mail order business organisation around 1859. Past 1930, the visitor operated more than 15,000 grocery stores and was the largest chain in the U.S. The concatenation filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and 2015, with the last store closing in 2016. Its legacy: The chain created Woman'southward Day magazine in the '30s to showcase recipes and ingredients available in-store.

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Montgomery Ward & Company

Aaron Montgomery started his company in 1872 equally a mail service-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. Facing competition from new discount retailers in the 1990s, the shop filed for bankruptcy in 1997. The last store airtight in 2001 but relaunched equally an online company in 2004.

S. S. Kresge Company

Sebastian Spering Kresge and a partner founded the five-and-dime, Kresge's, in Detroit in 1897. He shortly became sole owner, and past 1935, Kresge'due south grew to 745 stores in the Midwest and East. In 1962, the company decided to venture into the discount market and opened the first Kmart outside Detroit. They expanded aggressively, and the corporate name was inverse to Kmart in 1977. The remaining Kresge stores were sold off by 1987.

Kinney Shoes

Founded by G.R. Kinney in 1894 in Waverly, New York, the company grew to more than than 300 stores by 1929. In 1963, the company was sold to Woolworth (we already know what happened to them). The company was obtained by Footlocker and closed about 500 Kinney Stores past 1998.

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Kaufmann's

Kaufmann'due south was founded in Pittsburgh in 1871 as a men's tailoring and set up-to-wear store by two brothers. Ii more brothers joined a few years later. The store grew into a chain of nearly 60 stores in the East. The visitor was acquired a few times earlier Macy's purchased and rebranded it in 2006. Sadly, many Macy's stores, including the original Kaufmann'due south flagship store, have since closed.

Hills Department Store

Founded by Herbert H. Goldberger in 1957 in Youngstown, Ohio, the chain pushed into many Midwestern and a scattering of Southern states. In 1987, the store went public and became the nation's eighth-largest discount retailer. By the 1990s, the stores were floundering and filed bankruptcy. Taken over past Ames in 1995, neither visitor had survived by 2002.

National Tape Mart

Founded in 1937 by Hyman Shapiro and his sons in Pittsburgh, the company specialized in used 78 RPM records from jukeboxes. Crazy, right? But information technology became the first music store chain in the U.S., and in 1964, the store helped bring the Beatles to boondocks for a concert. The company had more than 160 stores, as far away equally Hawaii and Guam, by 1998. But sales suffered in the '90s, and all stores closed past 2002.

Bonwit Teller

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 appurtenances and eventually opened in key locations such every bit Miami Beach and Boston. The company inverse hands several times in the '80s and eventually filed defalcation in 1989. But wait to classic films where the shop has had many roles: Katherine Hepburn mentions the store in Desk Set; it's seen in the opening of Breakfast at Tiffany's ; and Marcie from Oliver's Story is an heiress to the visitor fortune.

W. T. Grant 25 Cent Store

In 1906, Westward. 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 went bankrupt in 1974, making the collapse the and so-2d-biggest in U.S. history. Fortunately, the foundation he created in 1936 to benefit young people nevertheless exists today.

Sprouse-Reitz

Started by Robert Allen Sprouse and Fred Reitz as a v-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 stores were losing footing. The chain attempted to rebrand itself every bit Sprouse! in the late '80s. Just the company soon began selling off stores, closing the terminal of them in 1994.

Zayre

Brothers Max and Morris Feldberg founded a company in Boston in 1919 to supply undergarments to department stores. Merely inside a decade, they figured out a women'due south specialty store was the manner to get. Past the cease of Earth War II, their shops expanded into New England, growing steadily in the '50s and '60s. In the '70s, Zayre tried to buy Marshalls but failed. Their answer was to create a Marshalls clone, TJ Maxx, in 1977. Eventually, Zayre was sold off to Ames Department Store, but Zayre'southward old subsidiary TJX (which now owns TJMaxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods) is thriving.

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Jacobson'south

The first store was opened by Abram Jacobson in Reed City, Michigan in 1838. By the 1930s, the chain grew and expanded throughout the land and to neighboring states such equally Ohio and Indiana. The chain included just 25 stores at its top, just the fact that the company thrived for more than than a century and a one-half is impressive, by anyone's standards. Nonetheless by the '90s, the concatenation was suffering and filed for bankruptcy in 2002. All stores closed by 2011.

Robert Hall Wearing apparel

The family clothing warehouse store first opened in Connecticut in 1937. The store soon expanded across the state, establishing stores in 36 states, and remained prominent in the retail industry before filing for bankruptcy in 1977.

Thom McAn

Thom McAn was founded in New York in 1922 as a discount family shoe shop. After existence acquired by Melville Corporation in 1952, the visitor became ane of the largest footwear retailers in the country, operating a whopping ane,400 stores. In the mid-'80s, its parent company started phasing out its footware factories and the last Thom McAn closed in 1996.

Hecht's

After being a prominent section store across the mid-Atlantic and southern United States for 150 years, the store was acquired by Macy's, Inc. in 2005. Every bit a result, the name of the remaining stores were changed to Macy's.

Minnie Pearl's Fried Chicken

The fast food chain was congenital effectually comedian Minnie Pearl and was intended to be a competitor to Kentucky Fried Chicken in the '60s. The chain spread across the south with success, just a financial scandal brought the restaurant to a close in 1971.

Barneys New York

New York lost i of its finest Madison Avenue institutions in 2020, as Barneys New York shut its doors for the concluding time in February. The store closed after filing for defalcation and being bought by Authentic Brands Grouping in 2019.

Bon-Ton

Founded in 1898 as Grumbacher and Son in York, Pennsylvania, the shop kickoff sold hats and dry goods. The company expanded during Earth War I, and stores were later opened outside Pennsylvania. The company grew in successive decades, particularly in the '90s. Yet, subsequently numerous CEOs failed to rescue its languishing presence, the chain filed defalcation in 2018. All stores were liquidated, though the company still operates a website.

Fotomat

Back when people took real photos with actual cameras, y'all had to get them adult somewhere. Enter Fotomat, founded past businessman Preston Fleet in California in 1968. The company's gold-roofed kiosks soon popped up by the thousands in parking lots beyond America, and you could bulldoze upward and choice up your finished photos the next twenty-four hours. Nigh Fotomats shut down by the belatedly '90s when one-hour moving-picture show developing made the business obsolete.

RadioShack

RadioShack was founded in Boston in 1921 past the Deutschmann brothers to provide equipment for ham radio operators. The company was the place for electronics, once had 7,300 locations, and could claim to have a store within three miles of every American household. Now, not so much. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and in 2017. Although it's technically non gone (at that place are a few stores and a website remaining), it'southward no longer the major retail histrion information technology once was.

Blockbuster

Blockbuster, which was created in 1985, once had over 9,000 locations. It was a video rental store, where customers could rent videos and DVDs. In 2013, the chain announced it would begin closing all of its stores. Now, merely a single Blockbuster remains in Bend, Oregon.

Borders

Borders was founded in Michigan in 1971 and became one of the height booksellers of the early on 2000s. Merely when electronic volume readers came into play, the visitor had to shutter all 511 locations and filed for bankruptcy in 2011.

Circuit Metropolis

Circuit Urban center once had a whopping 567 stores at its peak, where y'all could buy anything from TVs and computers to sound equipment and car stereos. However, in 2008, after 59 years, the concatenation declared defalcation and began endmost all of its locations.

CompUSA

CompUSA was created in Addison, Texas in 1984 and was originally named Soft Warehouse. All the same, it was changed in in 1991 when the company went public. The store specialized in computer software and computer products. In 2007, the chain couldn't continue up with Circuit City and Best Buy, so 126 stores closed. Now, just a website remains.

Discovery Aqueduct Store

The Discovery Channel stores first opened in 1995 and featured educational games, gifts, videos, books, and more that reflected the message you could sentry on the aqueduct. Past 2007, the Discovery Aqueduct announced it would close all of its standalone stores — 103 of them, to exist exact – and focus on online retail just.

Arricca Elin SanSone Arricca SanSone writes for CountryLiving.com, WomansDay.com, Family Circle, MarthaStewart.com, Cooking Light, Parents.com, and many others.

Jackie Frere Jackie is a contributor for many Hearst Magazines websites.