Discount stores of the 60s.
If names like Woolworth, Kresge, Zayre, GEM, Korvettes, Spartan, Woolco, Venture, and Shopper's Fair don't mean anything to you, then you're probably not as old as me. They used to be called "five and dime" and later just "dime" stores. Or maybe these are a midwestern phenomenon. Could be you didn't grow up in the retail smorgasbord that is the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan Area. There are more fast food joints and strip malls in St. Louis per square mile than anywhere I've ever seen. The house we had in Overland, Missouri had, within a one-mile radius, two each of three different fast food chains.
When we moved to Virginia in 1997, we went the first day to Pembroke Mall (because it was close) and we were relieved and thrilled to find a Woolworth's there. It closed shortly thereafter, the last gasp of chain department stores, killed off by Wal-Mart, Target, and Kmart (which I think rose from the ashes of Woolworth and Woolco). Sure, today's Target is nicer than any of these old places, but variety is the spice.
10 comments:
You forgot Safeway and Ben Franklin stores. Those were midwest as well, but could have been relegated to the Nebraska hell I was forced to be raised in.
Ben Franklin! Yes, we had those, but not Safeway. Actually, I thought that was a west coast thing, but obviously not.
Even up in the wilds of Maine, we had Woolworth's, Woolco, Kresge's, and Zayre's. We also had Grant's, which might have been a New England thing. Grant's went under in the mid-70s.
I believe Kmart was actually the offspring of Kresge's (as Woolco was to Woolworth's).
W. T. Grant's! Yeah, my Mom got a lot of her sewing stuff there. The Dry Goods section. Very exciting for the young boy in me. I think you're right about that Kmart/Kresge thing.
Woolworth's is still around in the UK and thelast ten years has seen Walmarts pop up.
For grocery stores in Tidewater I remember Safeways, Big Star, Be-Lo, Gene Walter's Marketplace and who could forget the Piggly-Wiggly! We also had the 7-11 knockoff Tinee-Giant. Be-Lo was always the one kids made fun of, we turned their jingle into something about "....our prices bring you in, our roaches take you out...." The stores were disgusting.
Be-Lo sounds familiar (God, what a dumb name). There's a big local chain in St. Louis called Schnucks too. We also had a grocery named A&P (usually called "the A&P") throughout Missouri too.
It was a real shock when I came across here and found Woolies in the US. While it's died out here I still go into the one on the market place in Wantage whenever I'm back home. They have cheap sweets....
We had Woolworth's, Ben Franklin, and Pamida in International Falls through at least the mid-80s (and I think the BF burned down just a few years back).
Aha, I knew there were initials in front of Grant's, but I couldn't remember what. Thanks for coming up with W.T.
As far as grocery stores go, in Maine I recall First National Stores (very likely a New England or even Maine-only phenomenon), IGA, A&P, and Shop 'n Save. Or was it Stop 'n Shop? I honestly don't know if First National still exists (it sounds like a bank, not a grocery store), but I do remember that the store brand was Finast, which looks misspelled but is the first two letters of each word in the full name of the chain.
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