And here it is. I always loved Best! I bought my first Christmas gifts in the USA there. I can close my eyes and still see it. It just brings a lot of memories.
There used to be a Best store on Carpenter Road in Ypsilanti Michigan but it got converted into a flooring store. I remember seeing the sign behind the building on US 23 north going towards Washtenaw.
@@BIGBLOCK5022006there also was in Wyoming, originally Roger's Catalog Showroom. Now subdivided into Harbor Freight, Jets Pizza and had a Big Lots which moved as part of its floor for some reason kept sinking.
I don't believe there's ever been a department store with more incompetent senior management than Best Products. They built a superb chain of store and then ran the company straight into the ground with lack of innovation, bad store locations and many other bad decisions.
Another to add too that, their direct competitor, Whitmark. They had two locations in the Grand Rapids, MI area. One in the former Eastbrook Mall (in city) and other on Plainfeild Avenue, north of Grand Rapids. That was a stand alone location, building demolished last year after years of neglect, for stupid reasons apparently. Right across street from a Kmart! Which anchored the former North Kent Mall, with Montgomery Wards as the other anchor. Another department store my mom shopped at all the time was Steketees (Eastbrook Mall) and Colortile. Which was in Rodgers Plaze in Wyoming, Michigan. That mall was anchored by Rodgers Catalouge Showroom, before it became Best, other end Montgomery Wards. Former Wards Auto Center on Plainfeild, is now a Plainfeild Fire station. Before that you could tell where its gas pumps once stood.
Both my kids were photographed by Olan Mills. My son is now 51. They set up 1st in Sears and then KMART. (Later KMART bought out Sears then closed many stores.). Olan Mills wasn't a dept store tho...
Olan Mills had there own store front in Grand Rapids Michigan. They did most of the Senior pictures from the surrounding highschools. My brother in 78 and mine in 84. Not sure after that. I think most school districts had them come and take the yearbook pictures too.
If you do a part 5 include Sage department stores and Gemco. There was a Sage store close to where i grew up in west Houston. Gemco was a early attempt at a membership department store. Gemco's were not around long.
In Illinois there was also a ‘Venture’ discount. Somewhere around ‘84-‘85. Don’t know how long it lasted. Also a ‘Builder’s Square’ , like a Home Depot….but, there weren’t any Home Depot yet where I lived. There was also a Zayre as was mentioned in the previous episodes. There was also ‘Goldblatts’…..had everything, even a bulk candy counter. Then there was ‘Arlans’ discount. Anyone hear of these? Also ‘Pranges’, a really nice department store.
Venture discount is a great suggestion! I have a "Forgotten Home Improvements Stores" in the works as well. Your other suggestions are awesome and I'm taking notes.
@@graytabbie VENTURE began as a part of May/Famous-Barr. ... Just as Target began as a part of Dayton-Hudson and Clover was a part of Philadelphia's Strawbridge & Clothier.
I do remember shopping at Gottschalks a lot up until they closed in 2009. My hometown had 3 locations, 2 were at the same mall after Gottschalks merged with Harris (another great department store chain that also went defunct by 2009). I also remember shopping at BEST a few times as a kid. Funnily enough, my local BEST store would later become a Best Buy store 😂.
It's been decades since the time when thousands of independent department stores dotted the American landscape. But in the latter half of the 20th Century, large corporate department stores, like Walmart, put thousands of small town department stores out of business! Both the working owners and employees were left jobless, and together with other large corporations, owned by private individuals who do no work at all, sent factories overseas to places where children and desperately poor adults work in the most squalid of conditions for pennies an hour, or used their stolen wealth to weaken unions in the US in order to pressure workers to accept huge pay cuts, leaving American workers no other way to survive other than to take the pitifully low wages and zero-to-no benefits, such as what the typical Walmart employee receives! Interestingly, the justifications for stealing wealth from workers goes directly back to when the owners of large lands excused their claim to own, not just the wealth workers created, but the workers themselves--overt slavery! They, too, bragged about how "generous" they were, "providing homes, clothing and food" to their "servants"! They further claimed to have delivered their slaves from pagan darkness and "provided them with honest work"! Sure, we can be glad that over slavery was outlawed in the US, but the owner class has, ever since then, done all they can to get as close as they can to enslaving the vast majority of Americans by claiming it's OK to own, if not the workers themselves, all the wealth their work creates, only to return a very small portion of it back to them, and they return even less every chance they get! Rick Lannoye, author of www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Slavery-Taking-Workers-Illegal/dp/B08BD9CWLP
Thank you for this as it is very informative! Sometimes as workers we forget that we are here to make a company more money while getting paid the bare minimum. I checked the link you provided and that's awesome you are an Author! I will defiantly be purchasing your book soon 😊.
It's all monopolies now. For some reason I thought monopolies were illegal. Yes I'm being sarcastic. I'm tired of only a handful of stores. It's wrong! It's modern day slavery!
@@undergroundretail Same here, I want to read more on the subject. Thank you Rick for sharing your book with us, I guess you got yourself two more readers.
If you are from the Midwest, Wisconsin and the UP (and old enough) you probably can finish this jingle: "Say hello to a good buy at..." . Is it stuck in your head? Your welcome!
Wow. BARNEYS! That store was FUN & FABULOUS! l loved the CHRISTMAS WINDOWS on 7th Avenue (at 16th). They used to do the trees out front in rainbow colors at Christmas time!
I had completely forgotten about gold circle. I remember there was a store in that shopping center called elder berhman, we used to buy our shoes there when I was a kid.
Maybe in a future installment, you could include Schottenstein's/Value City Department Stores. Began in 1916 by Ephraim L. Schottenstein on S. Parsons Ave. in Columbus OH, with the first expanded location on 1887 S. Parsons Ave in 1947, it was the first department store in Columbus to actually open on Sundays (and closed on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath). Another Schottenstein location opened in 1961 on Westerville Rd, which became the North Store (also where the corporate office was located). During the 70s and 80s an East and West store were added. However, when Schottenstein began expanding outside of Columbus, they would become known as Value City Department Stores (the family's rabbi made it a rule that any of their stores in Columbus HAD to be named after the family). Schottenstein began to acquire more stores, often renaming them after the store plus Value City (like Grampa's-Value City in St. Louis, when the company bought them in 2002), as well as buying Filene's Basement, Widman's and American Eagle Outfitters. By 2002 the company, now officially known as Retail Ventures Inc., had 117 stores under the Schottenstein/Value City Dept. Stores umbrella. But because of poor management and misguided supply decisions (many of the item suppliers for our store, such as N. V. Spring (fishing supplies), hardware suppliers, paint and Health and Beauty Care, were eliminated under the idea our buyers could do better...they couldn't), plus expanding way too fast, the original store on S. Parsons was shuttered in March 2005, along with two Grampa's stores), then they renamed the three remaining Schottenstein stores Value City stores in Columbus (how they got by with this is a particularly shameful story for another time) soon after. But in December 2008, all remaining Value City Department Stores were shuttered, about a week before Christmas. These days, what remains of the original Schottenstein Stores are the East store, which was sold to Burlington Coat Factory...not sure if that's still open. The West Store eventually was sold to a small clothing outfit and is still open. The North Store was never sold, and today is an abandoned husk....a couple of people have done videos of the place over the past year for RU-vid, and the original store on S. Parsons? Torn down around 2010 and today a Primary One health center stands in its place. I still have a few bricks from where it was being torn down, since I worked there from 1992 to the end. Just for old time's sake, I guess.
Amazing work! I absolutely love reminiscing about some of my favorite childhood stores. Would love to see Jamesway, Ames, and Hess featured down the line. Also loved seeing Steve and Barry's featured. We had one about 20 minutes away that my dad would always take me to for clothes.
It's weird how some of them went out of business and closed and I never really even noticed. Paces like Hills and Gold Circle and Korvette's just disappeared and I never noticed before until you mentioned them. I guess I just wasn't paying attention.
Best department stores had some great architecture. The part of the video showing 9 different stores with unusual architecture, i recognized the middle one. It was located in southeast Houston
Wow, Best had one wild and unique entrance there. Still hoping for coverage of some Long Island, NY lost stores like Jamesway, Alexanders, Great Eastern, Modells (yes, once a department store before they did sporting goods), Times Square Stores & Korvettes. If you ever cover defunct toy stores then Play World simply must be covered.
Best did have one of the wildest entrances ever! Korvettes was covered in either Part 1 or 2. Times Square Stores have been suggested a few times, so I may go ahead and put that on the list. @Post-Mortar did do some documentaries on a few Toy Stores, you should check him out. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JGsh9-Qx8tU.html . I will have some Forgotten Toy Stores, Banks, and Entertainment/Arcades lined up for 2022. 😃
Those crazy looking Bests did not look like the Best's I remember. The exterior was just normal and the interior was not like a costco there were toys, sporting goods, a big jewelry section, electronics, pretty much everything but clothes. It looked like a regular store except when you told them what you wanted it came down on a conveyor belt behind where you bought it. Kid me always wanted to know what was at the other end of the conveyor belt.
I just finished watching all 4 of these videos, was surprised to not see a single one of the 4 stores I grew up with. GC Murphy's, McCrorys, Hecks, Fishers Big Wheel. I worked at Murphy's Mart from 1981 to 1986, my mom worked at Fishers from 1972 to 1999.
Used to shop at Heck’s and Magic Mart. GC Murphy and Ben Franklin as well. I do remember Hills. That’s where I got school clothes for high school. Steve and Barry’s was cool.
Believe it or not, I actually remember the Ben Franklin department stores. We had one not far from us in Sussex Boro, New Jersey, during the late 1980s and very early 1990s. Used to be one of our best and closed located sources for arts & crafts supplies. Fabrics, accessories, notions, extensive lines of stuff, used to get A Lot of creative ideas for different projects there, and prices were good, too.
McRae's were once located at Western Hill Mall, Century Plaza Mall, Rivrchase Galleria, Roebuck, Downtown and Brookwood Village in the 80s/90s down here in Birmingham Al after it was changed to Pizitz
Cussins and Fearns Hardware in Columbus O opened Buckeye Mart. Then became Gambles Buckeye Mart, Then Bought by Fisher's Big Wheel. Also was a Heck's discount Store. Gambles owned 2 or 3 different department stores.
@@PK-bh1ww Similar experience here. For a few years I lived in a city where ShopKo was in a mall with a J.C. Penney; the mall was across the main road from Walmart and across a side street from Kmart. Those other three retailers had better prices on comparable (often identical) products.
My daughter loved shopping there for back to school clothes. In our itty bitty town it was Shopko or Walmart. Now we drive 3 hours to a larger city with more places to shop.
Plz make part 5 these videos are awesome to watch also I know a department store that went out of business Bon-Ton and it’s other six department stores such as Boston Store, Bergners, Carson’s, Elder Beerman, Herbergers, And Younkers. They all liquidated in 2018.
Oh that’s great!!! 😃 Additional info: We actually might see the The Bon Ton back as a store again . The reason for this because of this company BrandX wants to revive The Bon Ton and Stage Stores brands . They made an e-commerce website this summer, and will open a Carson’s brick and mortar store at Louis Joliet Mall and will open in February or Spring of 2023. The articles I read were pretty new as they were posted a month ago, even Wikipedia had something to say too. They also announced a Younkers location too, but that is undisclosed at the moment. So I honestly think we are going to see this brand again.
I miss Woolworths and Levitz (furniture store). Mom would spend hours browsing all the different furniture layouts in Levitz before deciding on a bed frame or dresser. They sold quality furniture unlike IKEA.
One store I haven’t seen listed is Gilchrist’s. It was one of the ‘big three’ department stores in Boston, MA along with Filene’s and Jordan Marsh. Don’t remember when it closed, but it was sometime in the 70’s. They had almost a dozen locations in Massachusetts at one point. All three stores are now gone, sadly.
I just passed by the former Best Product store in Hialeah, FL today (the glass terrarium one at 7:55). It has since been turned into a shared space between Office Depot and a storage center. Now they just repainted the building red and white to match Office Depot's color scheme.
Korvettes on the Roosevelt Boulevard (far northeast Philadelphia). Located in a strip mall, Korvettes was the anchor store. Those of us who grew up there still refer to the Korvettes Mall.
Memories of Wanamakers in center city Philadelphia: Meet at the Eagle, the huge organ, the light show at Christmas, high tea in the cafeteria, the toy floor and its elevated train ride around the perimeter (great view of almost all the toys).
Barring Barneys (where I remember getting a suit in the 80s) I never shopped at--or heard of--any of these. But that may be owing to the fact that several of these chains didn't have outlets in the northeast. Although there MAY have been a Best near where I lived between 1992 and 2008, but if there was, I never shopped there.
This appears to be a common comment ("never heard of any of these") on videos for defunct stores and restaurants. I believe that being very regional (primarily northeast, midwest, southeast, etc.) or being limited to certain states or cities (I can think of several defunct restaurant "chains" that never had very many locations, and those were limited to major cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.) plays a large role in this. That and some going the way of the dinosaur before many viewers were born. 😀
I remember going to the White Front in LA. My mom would take me and we would do some shopping there. Nice store. To bad thay are no longer with us I wish that thay were.
Back in the 1990s when I was a teenager my Mother and I would go to Town Center Mall in Kennesaw - Marietta Gorgia and there was a men's clothing store called J Riggns or J Riggings. I really loved their men's clothing their dress shirts and causal shirts were really beautiful and reasonably priced. Then sometimes my Mother and I would go to the Gadsden, Alabama mall and shop at Mc Rae's but years later Mc Rae's went out of business years later and the store was later changed to the department store starts with a P and I know how to pronounce it correctly but do know how to spelling correctly. My Mother and I lived in Floyd County, Georgia and these two malls were about a hour away from our county so I fell in love with both Malls, because both Malls always had what I was looking for.
Strawbridge and Clothier in center city Philadelphia: Winding through a Christmas village on your way to Santa, It had its own dedicated subway station.
@@undergroundretail I don't know at this point because I don't live in the Yuma area but I like to keep tabs on things in that area because Yuma was my first home in Arizona.
There was a Shopko in the county seat city near my town that closed. They'd been here since sometime in the 80's. But they became over priced and got driven out by Wally World and Target. I think if they had moved to bigger cities and not got outpriced by Wally World they might have had a chance Since around 2015 we've lost JC Penney, Younkers, Sears, KMART and Best Buy. We're left with Wally World Target and Kohls.
when the Shopkos when bankrupt all the "sale" prices were the same! that happens in alot of stores that go bankrupt btw they jack the price up 30% to 60% or more THEN lower the price to make you THINK your getting a "good deal" & you ISN'T!!
@@microbusssthe "jackup" as you call it, is going back too original prices, plus markup for profits. Then drop down too same point where stores zero out a item and send back for credit.
I'm not sure if you did this but stores I remember are Woodward and Lothrop, Jefferson wards, Ivey's, Pranges, and Pizits to be honest this series could go on for a while
I miss BEST, their store in Burnsville MN had a very extensive selection of keyboards, probably a 25 foot aisle’s worth! They even had one those Bandai Pair/Match games, AKA the little pyramid shaped devices on the Ten Forward tables on ST:TNG. My aunt had several of their catalogs too. I’ve also been to Alco and ShopKo. Had many of my glasses done through their Optical department.
The HECHT Company in Baltimore never had any love shown by your channel. The HECHT Company remains my fondest Childhood shopping memory. Hoshchild Kohn in Baltimore. Hutzler's in Baltimore and last and least Stewart's in Baltimore. All department stores that ruled Baltimore in their day. Especially Hutzler's.
I don't remember seeing you mention Murphy's, Heironimus (sp?), or Miller & Rhodes? The first 2 were in the same shopping center with Best. HA!! I remember the Best catalog but we also had a store. I remember being able to pick up items at the store but there was also an actual store that sold merchandise.
@@undergroundretail Well like anyone back then it was a part time job to help pay for collage and such. If you mean the maitenence on the rain forest front, well they kept it up until they changed the front to another unique front.
I remember Best when I lived in the Washington DC suburbs in late 1980s early 90s. I knew it was going downhill when I bought a vacuum cleaner that was supposed to be brand new, but when opened had hair and carpet fiber in the roller brush.
Two I thought would be included in this series was Pomeroy's, mid Atlantic dept store chain and Korvette's. You did mention Korvette's but didn't go into any detail. Great series!
In Arizona there was a White Front, briefly ... but it was a tiny store, no sign of appliances. It was more in the vein of Standard Brands ... which is another store not covered in this series. We had a FedMart ... not FedCo .... though FedMart was as I remember a membership store as well.
Yeah, PharMor--I forgot that one. May I suggest Davison's (a Rich's rival?), GEM membership stores (I thought it was cool my dad's card was #007!), and JC Penney's Treasure Island chain with its signature crinkly roofline. The big TI in Doraville GA went under and became the site of a Zayre with the very 1st Home Depot store on its south end.
Thanks for suggesting those! Be sure to check out the Forgotten Macy's stores here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PaPXhxWtc7s.html . I don't live too far from the Doraville area and I know exactly where that building is. It's a Farmer's Market now.
@@undergroundretail A local Rockford Illinois area chain, Union Hall, which was a discount store that went under about the same time in the 1990s as when Target and Walmart opened their stores in the Rockford area.
The store I worked at is almost impossible to find info about because it was called “The Dry Goods.” There are other stores called Dry Goods. It closed in 1989 I believe. It was famous for having big dollar days sales.
Welles, Rinks, Cooks, Chess King. Not sure if Chess King is still open somewhere but I loved that store as a teen in the early 1970’s. It was in our Lima Mall back then.
I remember setting up a Hill's dept store in the late 80's. I liked that. It was something I knew how to do and could read a plan a gram. They liked the way I trained the others with respect. So, They offered me a manager position in the jewelry department which I gladly took. But once the store opened it was a total nightmare!! Because we had gold jewelry instead of trusting the employees and just let us ring it up and let the customer go in their way. We had to call security to come watch over that sale. It was a total waste of time. Plus we had to log it in the book of display sales. After a month I was done with that store.
What happened to Lehner's they used to have a lay-a-way that was the best. You could go there in the spring and put everything on their plan for the new school year.
Do you mean Lerner's? It was a clothing chain of moderately sized stores in inner-city downtowns and malls. I saw a few city Lerner's stores with an elaborate U-shaped display-window front that had a square island standing display in the middle, making it look like it had two entrances.
A list of other stores not touched upon. Roses, Jamesway, Woodies (Woodward and Lothrop) Memco, Drugfair (who also owned Trac Auto), and other more recent closures like Sears and Kmart.
Roses is alive in Kentucky, too. Longtime residents tell me they used to be plentiful, then died off in the '80s and '90s. They weren't around here 20 years ago, but have come back in recent years, often taking over a building previously used by a defunct or downsizing chain.
We had a Steve & Barry's in our area for a few years. Still have some nice winter coats from there. However, I don't recall it being a department store; I remember it only being a clothing store. 🤔
Thanks for Watching and the suggestions! 😀 You may enjoy this Topic I did on Forgotten Federated and May Department stores (Macy's): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PaPXhxWtc7s.html
I remember the Two Guys Store near us in either Dover, NJ, or Rockaway, NJ. It was kind of hard to tell where one of those towns ended, and where the other one began. Anyway, along Rte., 46, in Morris County, New Jersey. I grew up there during the 70s & 80s. The Two Guys by us eventually became a Jamesway, and there was another similar, more local store near it, called Rockaway Sales, that eventually became an indoor flea market. I moved out of NJ, in 1994, so don't know what happened to those chains, or the buildings that used to house them since then. I think I'd read or heard somewhere that at least one of them had burned down, at some point.
Back when my friend and I were 18 back in 1981 we heard on the radio of a new store opening called Dawahares. It sounded like the radio announcer was sayings Doll Hairs and we started laughing and we weren't going to shop at a place called Doll Hairs. 🤣
I have always wondered about some stores that just disappeared so this was of some interest to me. Unfortunately I couldn’t help noticing the mispronunciation of many towns. The devil is in the details. Check out Greenwich CT and Mobile Alabama - to mention a couple. This is not hard.
Thanks for catching that and pointing that out! We are working on getting some of the cities and stores pronounced correctly as new videos are being released. Please don't hesitate to let us know 😃
Can you find out about a department store called "The Capitol"? It was located in downtown Fayetteville, NC on Hay Street. I'm not sure if they had other locations. It was such a beautifully designed store. I remember my mom shopping there in the early 80s but I was too little to remember more than that. I would love to learn the history of it.
You could probably do an Entire episode on just Toys R Us alone!! I'd watch that for sure!! And I have absolutely No Clue what ever became of the K B Toys & Hobbies stores. Curious about them, too.
