restaurants, shoe store departments, etc. you grew up with that are no longer there?

[SpeedoMike]

Every music chain that closed. I used to wander Tower Records for hours.

me too. my best visit was 13 (vinyl) albums one Saturday night. what an amazing clientele; good place to people watch.

 

[B_Hickboy]

Millennium Records at the corner of King and Calhoun
Novit Seigel's in Walterboro

 

[accemb]

Mexican............................................................

Chi Chi's mexican has many locations here in NJ

 

[Gillette]

Eaton's - another department store
Mark's and Spencer's - British department store in Canada for a short time

Towers & The Met (the Zellers & Walmart of their time)
K mart (ditto)
Sam the Record Man
No Frills (Grocery. Everything was in no name yellow and black packaging. They also had a huge round lazy-susan at checkout where everywhere else has a conveyor belt.)
Swenson's Ice Cream (and sinfully tasty pastry)
Bata (shoes)
Pino's Pizza (They put cheddar in the dough mix for a tastier pizza pie)
Ponderosa Steakhouse (cheap steaks, excellent burgers and all you can eat salad bar)
Paramount & Famous Players (Theatres. Empire has a near monopoly now)
Ikea (I still remember assembling my bedroom furniture at age ten because my mother couldn't figure out the instructions. :smile: We had a plant & store when I was younger then they pulled out. Now they won't put a store back because, despite our population doubling, we don't have the population density.)

Our drive-in theatre became a grocery store and it's lot.
Our harness racing track became a Walmart and strip mall parking lot. As a kid we used to wander the stables all day talking to and brushing the horses.

 

[Mickactual]

I still remember the wild and well known men's changing rooms at both stores, Was it the same in New Jersey?

Never noticed. I was young and very closeted when Alexanders was still in Paramus, and I probably just never paid attention.
One thing I do remember was the Alexanders TV commercials in the 70's. Can't forget 'em cos they used that "How Lucky Can You Get" song Streisand sang in "Funny Lady".

 

[MC1000]

Chi Chi's mexican has many locations here in NJ

Really? I thought all their US resturants were sold off about 5-6 years ago when they were forced into bankruptcy after a Salmonella outbreak in a Penn. store.

 

[MASSIVEPKGO_CHUCK]

Roy Rogers Restaurant,
Kinney shoestores ,

 

[Northland]

Bamberger's Department stores (which I think morphed/merged into Macy's at some point in some places)

 

[Calboner]

I have not been to Chicago since Marshall Field was taken over by Macy's, but I expect that, whenever I do get there again, it will cause me pain to see the big store on Michigan Avenue with the wrong name on the awnings.

 

[NCbear]

I miss J. Riggings men's clothing store. Incredible natural fabrics from Europe, Southeast Asia and the Phillipines; all their ties coordinated with that season's coats and pants; and amazing service while being affordable and fashionable (classic lines with nouveau colors). I remember when you could buy a wool sportcoat, two pairs of matching wool-blend pants, two silk ties, and two cotton shirts for $150.

I still miss my Italian wool summer-weight medium brown and bronze windowpane plaid double-breasted suit that I couldn't get into after I gained 30 pounds--mostly around my waist--one lazy summer eleven years ago.

And three of my J. Riggings ties are getting so old I can't wear them any more, and their colors (olive/gold/bronze/ivory/black) and designs (soft, not jarring, abstracts from the 1990s imitating natural lines and textures) are literally irreplaceable.

The crap that other men's stores currently sell is nowhere near the quality, elegance, or fashionable style that J. Riggings used to have.

NCbear (who wonders whether there's a niche for that in today's market :rubs chin thoughtfully

 

[nudeyorker]

Just had a conversation with someone on how much I miss
King's Hawaiian Bakery & Coffee Shop

 

[LaFemme]

Woolco and Kresge's.

I remember when I was little, going to Kresge's and getting to sit at the lunch counter as a special treat. I'd get a hot turkey sandwich and an Orange Fanta. I still remember the twisty red stools, grey counter tops and the taste of the peppery gravy covering piles of turkey on white sliced bread (at home, it was all home made - could this be Wonder Bread?), the mashed potatoes, and the peas and carrots. Yum!

 

[ronin001]

Tooo many to list.

New York had so many Family Department Stores, That closed their doors

Alexanders
Gertz
Mays
Korvettes
Gettz
Ohrbacks
Gimbels
Abraham and Straus A&S

and sadly so many many more

 

[nudeyorker]

I fell in love with movies and many movie stars on rainy summer Saturday afternoons in Honolulu....

 

[nudeyorker]

I also really miss Pan Am and in a pinch Western Airlines made getting from LA to Honolulu a breeze!

 

[nicenycdick]

Anybody remember Wetson's hamburger chain and Nedick's (with their winding counter stools) in NY? And, in LA, Sambo's and Pup 'N" Taco, Ships Coffee Shop (there were 3, I think) and Cassell's Hamburgers on Berendo and Sixth.

 

[nudeyorker]

I remember Sambo's quite fondly.