Defunct Department Stores From The Past 

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You know, another benefit of these videos is you can see all the sweet cars people drove at the time.

I miss those days when retail shopping was the primary method of shopping and a large cornerstone of our economy. Plus the whole family experience. I have fond memories of going to these stores at Xmas or summer with my beautiful kind parents and my brother and sister. Just the happiest childhood memories one could ever hope for.

The Sears Christmas Wish Book is still one of my fav childhood memories. Good times...good times. I miss them.

I miss Radio Shack. I know it's not a department store but I just had to bring it up.

I still like brick and mortar better than online.

I miss Woolworth and the lunch counter

I miss K-Mart. Used to go there when I was little with my Grandma and my Mom. Nice memories

Our TV when I was a kid came from Montgomery Ward. I miss the good ole days shopping for things as a family.

Marshall Field's was a special store, particularly the flagship in downtown Chicago. Many of us native Chicagoans (even we who moved away decades ago) absolutely despised Macy's for completely obliterating the Marshall Field's brand and changing the entire downtown store's look and feel. With the changes, they destroyed many decades of memories for us. Everything has changed too much, including the disturbing closures of many department store chains over the year. Occasionally one does experience a burst of sentimentality and nostalgia. Thanks for the video.

It's always a good day whenever Recollection Road uploads

Kmart is still going strong here in Australia and New Zealand . In fact it’s one of our largest department stores with 300+ stores. Woolworths also still exists here - they operate one of our largest supermarket chains plus have a chain of dept-stores called Big W (same format as Kmart).

Seeing the 99 Cents Only and Family Dollar Stores close down today because of "Legalized" shop lifting made me think of the stores in this video...and I felt so sad...

When k mart opened their "super" kmart in our area i was so excited. They had mini carts and a mini door for kids. That place was so huge! I miss brick and mortar.

While I remember most of of them. Zodys in Garden Grove was where my future wife was working when I met her. She worked in domestics and I needed some towels. I ended up with a wife, two daughters one son. Couple of dogs a few cats. There was a bird. Hamsters and reptiles. More memories than I can hold. Side splitting laughter. Heart breaks, tragedy and tears. Oh and one set of blue towels she recommended for the low low price of $7.99

In our section of SoCal, there were many department stores from high end types like I Magnin, Buffums, Bullock’s, Robinson, Saks. Next tier occupied by May Co, The Broadway, Mervyn’s. Then there was always dependable Sears, Montgomery Wards and KMart. Going into JC Penney now is like visiting an old friend on life support.

My grandfather opened a Ben Franklin five and dime in the 1930's in Carrollton Ohio. It is still there, though not the same format. My mother Co-owned one in Orrville Ohio from 1961 until 1976.

I must admit that I’m one of the kids that couldn’t wait for the Christmas catalog 😆😆My Mother would hand it to me along with a marker to circle things I wanted…. Ahh, those were the days 🥰Wards, Sears,Mervyns, KMart,Woolworths, were all regular shopping places for us🙂I also absolutely loved Service Merchandise ♥️Nobody had better jewelry prices!!!

One childhood memory of K Mart is the smell of popcorn and onions from the food stand right inside the front doors. I and my buddies never went further than that, we had no interest of anything else besides the huge (in our kid's eyes) sleeves of popcorn and the ham sandwiches.

Miss all these stores! Yesterday drove by the large empty land where our Sears was. 😢

Korvettes also in NJ. My dad worked there selling appliances. Great clothes and vinyl records.

For us in the 70s the biggest department store was always Sears. Then there was J.C. Penney. But K Mart was always the biggest discount store. My best friend and I used to say that nearly everything in our homes was either bought at Sears or K Mart. I remember Caldor, but I don't remember where or when. I remember commercials for Korvette's, but never saw a Korvette store. Yes, Two Guys! That was a store my parents went to occasionally. The location we went to is shown at 18:10. We also occasionally went to H.L. Green and W.T. Grant. But I have no idea where "our" stores would have been.

Thank you so much for mentioning my cousin Dorothy Shaver at 16:23. She was president of Lord & Taylor and was the first woman in history to lead a multi-million dollar company.

I loved Mervyn's. I was devastated when it closed. I wish that Kohl's closed instead.

I used to go to Abraham & Strauss, better known as A&S, in New York, New Jersey area.

@11:05.... take a good look at how people dressed in those days! As if they were attending an opera or a graduation of their kid from a medical school. Impeccable attire; women were ladies and men were gentlemen. Unlike today; you're lucky if you see people in clean clothes. Very, very enjoyable video, Thanks very much!

Of all the department stores mentioned here, the one I miss the most is Service Merchandise. Our family bought a large portion of our house's interior decorations here in the 1970s and 1980s in Pittsburgh. Really miss this place.

As a kid I remember the old White Front store. Millers outpost had a great assortment of shirts. Montgomery Wards I do miss. The last time I bought anything at a Sears was 20 years ago before they all closed up. I miss those days.

As a child on Cleveland's west side a trip to one of our two nearby K mart stores in early August was a sad reminder that summer was drawing to a close, and the arrival of the Sears wish book was a sure sign that Christmas was coming soon and it was time to show my parents what I wanted and write that letter to Santa

I remember Kmart's parking lot behind packed with cars when I was a kid. My Mom would always try to get there early to try to get a spot. Also Zayre and Burdines in South Florida.

Monkey Wards was great but as i grew older nothimg beat the tool isle of Sears. As a kid the Christmas catalog was magical.

@8:17. when a company buys another to try to save it, they both end up going down the tubes...

I'd love to see an episode about Horn and Hardart automats! 😊

The guy who wrote the original "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer " was a salesman for Montgomery Ward. I have seen a copy of that book.

In my area there were Grant's, Murphy's, Pebble's, Shelby's, Woolworth's, Jamesway and Ames. All gone now.

We always went to Gimbels for Christmas in Pittsburgh. Thick memories here.

Omg. I just remembered my mom didn’t want me to wear pants to school at the age of 12 I got her to change her mind. I was allowed to wear Levi’s but only on Fridays. Then she buys me three polyester pants suits in three different colors. They were ok but too old of a style. But I wore them. When I finally got to High School I had acquired 2 pairs of hip huggers jeans one burgundy and the other was dark green. I loved them as I finally felt like I was dressing ‘normally’!! Yeah progress. My favorite pair of jeans was a crazy patch work pattern which I always wore with my red white n blue suede shoes. Ah memories are great !!

Fun fact - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was a book published for Motgomery Ward. Hard to believe some of these companies are gone, but mergers and on-line shopping helped with their demise. Of course, incompotent leadership and greed sure helped! Just look at the Sears/Kmart disaster merger by Fast Eddie Lampert. He used the Ayn Rand model of running a business and promptly ran it into the ground quickly. There are still 6 Kmart stores and 11 Sears stores, but how long this will last is unknown. The remaining Kmart stores, with the exception of the one in Florida that was shoehorned in their garden center, have a monopoly on things, but the Sears stores don't seem to be viable at all (the Sears number would be even lower, but two were recently re-opened late in 2023). I enjoyed going shopping with mom to many of these stores in the 70s, especially during the Christmas season, but times change, and people nowdays use the internet to shop, including myself! BTW, love the photos of the old stores. They were certainly better looking than the more sterile stores of today. They had a grander appearance back then.

I really miss Montgomery ward. Come to think of it I miss sears too. I don't even visit out local mall area anymore.

Fun Fact: Both Korvette and Service Merchandise were in the same location at 12 Mile and Gratiot in Roseville Michigan. An Apartment Complex down the street on 12 Mile is still named after Korette.

Thanks for the work and upload. Fun, and sad at the same time, to see some of these former stores :)

"It looks like the back room at Monkey Ward's." This was a common assessment of any junk filled space. I said this recently when we were in my grandson's garage. My wife laughed, but Charlie and Ashleigh (his girlfriend) didn't get it. Guess I'm officially old now.

Thanks for the wonderful memories of yesteryear!😯💯💫👍!

My mom and I shopped at Korvettes in NYC in the 1960’s

“Monkey” Wards, Gimbels, Woolworth, Marshall Fields…all of these stores were popular in the city where I grew up. Lots of fun shopping, there!

There was Bamburgers before it became Macy's

Another Bay Area store was the Emporium. I remember going up and down the escalator as my mom shopped. Good times.

2024 04 21... Many of these stores had items or the way they were displayed that kept me returning. But more than that, it was the people that I dealt with. Many times after hearing what I needed, they helped me buy a product that fit my needs. In most cases, when the store closed, I never saw that person again. I miss these stores, but I miss the people that worked there even more 😢

Yup, we had a Jefferson Ward in Miami, it was called Jefferson's. Hello K Mart Shoppers, over in Kitchen ware, there is a BLUE LIGHT Special going on. That was my mothers choice to go shopping, it's where I bought my first book series, The Chronicles of Narnia, and ALL of my K -Tell Records. Service Merchandise was located just a short drive, or even a bike ride from where I lived in Miami. I bought many a Christmas present in that store. We filled out an order form and pay and the items would come via a conveyor belt to the drop location for pick up. Sears was an anchor store in many locations in Miami. Cutler Ridge Mall and also on Miracle Mile in Coral Gables. Here in Montreal, when I first moved here, there was a Sears Catalog Drop location where I did my laundry in my first apartment. Burdines was located at Dadeland Mall as one of the Anchor stores of the mall. Lord and Taylor was also located at Dadeland Mall. When I was a small boy, we lived in New Britain Ct, my mother worked at Two Guys at the Twin City Shopping Center on the Berlin Turnpike, across the parking lot was the Twin City Theatre where we saw the first Star Wars Film in 1977.

B.Altmans in NYC still miss it.

My oldest niece said that Mervyn's blows. If you go up on Harbor Boulevard from Fullerton into La Habra and turn right on Imperial Highway, there's a street called Mervyn's in about 300 yards. That's where the Mervyn's used to be, and of course it's now a Kohl's.

You misted Klines and B Altmans, They had stores in New York city and Westchester county N Y

I was a dept manager at Caldor in the early 80's , any former employees remember their store # , mine was #29 in West Hartford CT.

I loved Service Merchandise. I still have things from there.

Older people often tell me (I'm 23) that people used to make working at the department store a real career, and you'd get benefits and actually make a real living, be able to buy a house or at least support your family in an apartment anyway. People at stores were skilled, helpful, and professional. Nowadays I'm used to just not getting amy help at all if I go to the store fot clothes. I usually juat buy online anyway. I guess in their quest for maximum profit, the store owners settle on no profit as their whole business model is obsolete and they don't bother making a department store experience attractive anyway, either for customers or employees.

I'll never forget my parents in their Italian accents calling Sears 'Sissy Robey' (the 'Robey' being former Sears partner Roebuck...if you went to an old enough Sears you'd still find the Roebuck name in entryways).

My folks had credit cards for Montgomery Wards and Penny's.When my son was little in the late 80s and early 90s I used to take him to KMart shopping.Always bought him little toy cars there.😊

Zayre, GoldBlatt's Sears, many great old stores.

Two guys also awesome.

My first guitar came from Korvette, back in 1974🎸

Remember K-Mark Blue light specials? and getting a hot dog and drink - during the 70s? Woolco and Woolworth use to have HO scale trains and slot cars - when they were closing stores during the 70s one could get HO trains and slot cars very cheap. As a boy I would get all I could and ended up with enough to fill a basketball court. Young kids today do not know what it was like when the Sears Christmas catalog arrived.

My first job was kmart in Hamilton Nj. We had a caldor, bradlees( former Jefferson Ward) and Ames(former clover) all in the same area. They all thrived back in the day.

Here's one that I remember growing up with in Phoenix, AZ, F.W. Grants. There was also Goldwaters.

My first credit card was Gimbals and I loved shopping at the Korvette’s Audubon NJ shopping center.

Korvets was in Illinois too. Mom worked there when I was 7 or 8.

Love the content on this channel. Oh so many memories shopping with mom and my brothers. We would go to the white sales mom wold make a pile of stuff and leave one or two of us there to guard them while she went and got more piles together. We had 6 kids in the house so constantly needing items. I have a treasured 1897 Sears and Roebucks catalog, I little rough for wear but so cool to peruse. The stoves are incredible works of art with all the polished nickel and porcelain. I love all the farm implements also.

I truly love your videos.. They truly take me back to my youth and when things were so much simpler. Thank you for all the memories

RIP to Hills department store one I still miss !

Venture, Zayre, Shopko, Pamida, Topps, Goldblatt's, Wiboldt's, Boston Store, Younkers, McDade;s, Bells/Bellscott ( we had one in Waukegan, IL)

We shopped a lot at Montgomery Ward when I was little because it was the only place Dad would let Mom open a charge account.

Hi. We had a Korvette's in Brooklyn, NY. There was also a Wetson's fast food restaurant. Have a nice day everyone.

when i was a kid growing up in the 70's. my town had Jefferson ward - Woolworths - sears & a Kmart. we didn't get zayers until 82 or 83 then later they switch out to aimes. when aimes closed down a bank open up where aimes used to be. back in the 80's i did most of my school shopping at Kmart's. we didn't get Walmart's until the late 80's early 90's

I worked at the Paramus, NJ Korvette's from early 1979 until the closing on Christmas Eve, 1980. It was a part-time college job and I loved it.

I also miss May Company, Broadway and Robinson's department stores. 😢 Also, there were many 'bed & bath' shops like Linens & Things that were wonderful to shop at 💔.

You missed Famous-Barr, owned by the May Company. Famous-Barr was the flagship of the May Department Stores Company. I worked for the largest Famous-Barr in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. Venture stores were also owned by May Co.

In the uploading of videos, have older videos been removed? I hope not as I replay the old ones often as there are several that I love, and i like to listen to them as I clean. There was a video that showed a young girl in a dress walking past a small building in the thumbnail. I think there were a few little boys playing or ordering food in the thumbnail as well. I loved that video and it suddenly disappeared. I have driven myself crazy trying to find it. Can anyone help? Does anyone know which video I mean? This channel is my happy place, both the videos itself and the stories in the comments. I thank you all.

I really miss Sears for all the great made in USA Craftsman hand tools. I'm also old enough that I can remember as a little kid Sears closing out their sporting goods department. Kmart was always fun to shop at and the prices were low. I remember stopping by there the morning after my senior prom in my tux to pick up a few things and running into a girl I knew that was a cashier. I still have the GE clock radio I bought there 30 years ago for my desk at work for $6.97 and a lens doubler for my Nikon 35mm camera. I also have fond memories of Gimbles with a small restaurant in the third floor by the toy department and the bargain basement down a really neat curved stairway. I can still see the 10 cent brown bag with handles dispenser on the landing of the curved stairs. I also really liked Copps Department Stores which closed in the mid 80's to concentrate on their grocery business. They had a good mix of items including sporting goods and tools.

We had several in our area that were popular. Hannes, was in one of the main malls we used to go to. Epsteins department store lived in Morristown, NJ for years and years before closing completely in the early 2000s. Strawbridges was a landmark department store in South Jersey and Pennsylvania. Sterns lost its lease to Macy's about 20 years ago. There was a time Macy's was incorporated with Bamburgers in the 70s and early 80s. Consumers occupied our area as a store similar to Service Merchandise, where you would get a card off the table, using a chopped off pencil, look in a catalog using the 6 digit ID number and handing it to the customer service person and they would go in the back and get the item. Ben Franklin was another 5 and 10 store that had multiple departments to it before the 1990s. Rickels used to be a garden center that tried to branch out into a housewares store before closing completely in the mid 1980s along with Channel Lumber. I also had the pleasure for working for A C Moore, which ended in 2020 where people are still griping about closing, they were basically an arts and crafts store which started pulling in other odds and ends before deciding to close its doors during the pandemic.

K-Mart & Service Merchandise, ah the memories. I remember getting so excited about the Sears Christmas Catalog when I was a kid and just looking for the toys that I wanted for Christmas!!!

I miss Hills and Kmart!

They had a great record store in the 1960's. I bought all my Beatles albums there. We would walk through the cosmetics department to get upstairs to the record department. I remember the heavily made-up cosmetics ladies who we would snicker about saying they look like scary evil clowns with all the hairspray, eye shadow, liner, and heavy lipstick.

I was born in Western Mass and we had Two Guys, J. M. Fields, Ames, and Lechmeres.

Wow, this was good. This was Really good. Thank you, Sir! 😊

I remember going to Kmart after church on Sundays and we would buy have and rolls from there and bring it home for our Sunday supper.

Fond memories of my grandmother and siblings shopping at J. C. Pennys especially for Easter clothes and shoes. I miss those simple, good old days. Also browsing through the record store and video store.

My father used to tell me that E.J. Korvette got its name from the fact that it was started by eleven Jewish Korea veterans. That aside, spent a lot of time (and probably money) there during the 70s.

I'll always remember the wild bird cage at the korvette shopping center on "the boulevard " in northeast philly. Cardinals,blue jays, woodpeckers, etc. I would sit there for hours while mom shopped.

Thieves have helped for the closures of many large stores. Thieves destroy everything that they touch.

What people seem to forget when they get nostalgic about these department store chains is that they wiped out so many small, mom & pop businesses that couldn’t compete. Partially as a result of these chains closing, small specialty retailers have made a resurgence.

I did not grow up having a Walmart. But we had Katz City, and a little later had a Venture Store. Those stores were similar to a Walmart. We had several dime stores as well. Jupiter, Newberries, and I cant remember the name of the other one. I remember a Kresgies, but I think that might have become Jupiter. Too many years ago to remember! Lol.

Service Merchandise where my first husband bought my wedding ring. I knew when I saw the ring our marriage was doomed lol

I'll never forget the feeling of: 'ATTENTION KMART SHOPPERS....'

We shopped at Korvettes at the Riverside Mall on Cermak rd (22nd) st Riverside Illinois

Montgomery Ward is back again as a catalog, as I get about two of them a couple of times a year! I bought a Signature brand microwave from them and that thing lasted for 13 years until a power surge in a storm finally killed it! I still miss Mervyn's as they were finally getting better inventory in the last decade! Ironically to this video info the one that used to be here in San Francisco closed and then reopened to become a two story Target! Best Catalog Store was similar to Service Merchandise and even had the uniqueness of having several incredible architectural novelties in their building structures across the country! Also very missed to me was the Emporium Department Stores! Some of my first Christmas ornaments were purchased from them in the 1980s!

I LOVED Mervyn's CUTE pure leather shoes!

When I was little my mom also shopped at Zayre.

I remember shopping at several of these stores when I was growing up 90s early 2000s even cried when some of these closed such as Jordan Marsh Caldor Service Merchandise Sears Filenes etc. I remember shopping at some of them for back to School clothes when I was Growing up and my late maternal grandmother had charge cards for several of them among others there are stores you missed such as Lord & Taylors which was the oldest continuously run Department store in the US founded in 1824 and run as a brick and mortar store until 2021

As a child I felt like royalty at a Montgomery Ward store. I thought they must be my family as we had the same name. When you are a kid - especially during the pre-tech years - you don't think your name is common.

When I was growing up in Spokane, WA we would often go to Grants department store. Later I went to college in Davenport, IA and worked for one of their stores for awhile during the college terms. W. T. Grant or Grants was a United States-based chain of mass-merchandise stores founded by William Thomas Grant that operated from 1906 until 1976. The stores were generally of the variety store format located in downtowns.

I remember Brendle's and Best as a kid. Also living in the Southeast, we thought Service Merchandise was made up just for Wheel of Fortune. I remember people saying it wasnt a REAL store 😮