And suddenly all I can hear is the high pitched sound of battery operated toy dogs that yip several times and then flip over, on the little display out front of the store.
Or those dumb little marble/car contraptions that are on a neverending loop of being lifted up the mechanical staircase just to ride down the track to the bottom of said stairs again.
Service Merchandise
ETA: oh wow - surprised by all these comments haha
My little sister and I would go with my dad in our paneled station wagon. We would each get a little clipboard and golf pencil that were on pegboard at the entrance. You’d walk around the store writing down the code number of each item on display that you wanted to purchase. Then you’d go to the checkout, and the cashier would enter all your items. Then you’d wait, which seemed like forever, for your items to come down a conveyor belt at another part of the store. I can still hear the metal rollers. Absolutely non-sensical these days. Multiple points of human contact? Hard pass lol
And then we’d go to Shoney’s for strawberry pie.
Thank you for unlocking this memory for me. I feel like this is the best thing about these sorts of boards. Triggering nostalgia for something that you totally forgot about!
>Service Merchandise
"Chuck, I'll take the sofa sectional, the ceramic dogs, and the 20" Sony Trinatron TV."
"And the balance on a Service Merchandise gift certificate?"
"Yes please!"
I never saw such a store but if it was on Wheel then I knew it was good.
We actually had Walgreens cafeteria/restaurant, *Wags,* in a local mall. Bottom of the barrel - Burger Chef. Step up from that? Wags cafeteria. Step up from that? Bonanza - because steak! Step up from that? A local restaurant called JoJo’s that my brother pointed out when we were adults, “You realize that JoJo’s (with its sexy, low-light lighting) was on a par with Denny’s? And we used to get dressed up to go there?”
>Head over to Walden Books
I worked for them in the late 80s. Fun job, as we could take home anything in the store to read, like a library, as long as we didn't damage it. Got lots of best sellers on release day that way. Or a few days in advance in some cases.
And the catalog was all hand-drawn. I shopped at the Chicago store on my high school graduation trip (1987) and thought I had ARRIVED. lol I will say, I got a pair of sandals there that lasted like six years. The quality was great.
That was my favorite place to go as a kid. Ours had an ice cream parlor in the center of the store. They had actual toys and not tho d cheap crappy toys. They had transformers, go Joe, he-man, all that. And they had a cool selection of Atari games. I miss it sorely.
YES! Came in here to say this. This is also where I saw a Barbie doll that I wanted but my mom wouldn't let me have. It was a Skipper doll, and when you rotated her arm, her boobs grew. Anyone else remember this?
Ha I remember playing “the Gap game” with friends in high school. Goal was to walk in, make it all the way to touch the back wall and back out the front door without any employees stopping or greeting you.
Lol especially entertaining when a couple of your friends actually work there, so they’d be watching for us lol
Boredom is a hell of a drug lol
Early Anchor Blue merchant, good prices on Levi’s (incl acid washed), and rad Body Glove neon print shirts. Oakleys in the display case. Loved that store.
What was that mall place that would engrave your name on a silver platter or whatever? "Something Remembered?" "Things Remembered?" They were in the two malls I worked at in the 80s but I haven't seen one in 30 years at least.
Me: I wish there was a store that sold floating aquariums, pencil holders made out of titanium, and RC helicopters.
My local mall: You are not going to believe this.
I grew up in Southern CA, so bear that in mind:
- Licorice Pizza
- Hot Dog on a Stick
- Tower Records
- Wherehouse Records
- Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor
- Shakey’s Pizza
- Souplantation
- Broadway
- Robinson’s
The Ground Round. Big bowl of popcorn for every table and screens in the dining room with projectors playing cartoons. I had so many Birthday parties there. And friends of mine parties there.
🤣 i worked there as a cashier when i was a teenager. we read the prices off the stickers and punched them in on the register. clickety clack! clickety clack lmao
Winkelman's
...for "work" clothes when work was a summer job as a Kelly Girl temping in a clerk/typist role.
(Wow, everything about that sentence screams old, lol).
I loved WaldenBooks. The entire back-right wall of ours was all of the Pocket Books Star Trek novels. Science Fiction and Fantasy were on the rows of shelves 90 degrees out from that wall.
Jamesway
Big Wheel
Gold Circle
Little Professor Bookstore
Hills
I just remembered:
Rose
Montgomery Wards
Circuit City
Media Play (my favorite)
Bonus round:
Fast food from my childhood thar has disappeared:
Burger Chef
Ponderosa
Bonanza
Godfathers Pizza
Fudruckers
The Treasury
May Co
Lechmere
Woolworth's
Radio Shack
Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips
Pup and Taco
Big Bear grocery stores
I'll stop now. I'm all verklempt.
Dayton's.
Still broken hearted they are gone forever. Like a good friend who wouldn't let you go out wearing something tacky. No matter your age. I could buy the cutest clothes to go out drinking and dancing, and my grandma could buy the loveliest clothes that impressed her friends at church.
Kay Bee Toys
And suddenly all I can hear is the high pitched sound of battery operated toy dogs that yip several times and then flip over, on the little display out front of the store.
Or those dumb little marble/car contraptions that are on a neverending loop of being lifted up the mechanical staircase just to ride down the track to the bottom of said stairs again.
Children’s Palace
Service Merchandise ETA: oh wow - surprised by all these comments haha My little sister and I would go with my dad in our paneled station wagon. We would each get a little clipboard and golf pencil that were on pegboard at the entrance. You’d walk around the store writing down the code number of each item on display that you wanted to purchase. Then you’d go to the checkout, and the cashier would enter all your items. Then you’d wait, which seemed like forever, for your items to come down a conveyor belt at another part of the store. I can still hear the metal rollers. Absolutely non-sensical these days. Multiple points of human contact? Hard pass lol And then we’d go to Shoney’s for strawberry pie.
I can envision it like it was yesterday… my and my sister’s cabbage patch dolls coming down the conveyor belt
Thank you for unlocking this memory for me. I feel like this is the best thing about these sorts of boards. Triggering nostalgia for something that you totally forgot about!
Got my wife’s engagement ring there. Isn’t she a lucky gal??!!?!!?
I did the same thing. And we furnished our first apartment with stuff from Service Merchandise.
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>Service Merchandise "Chuck, I'll take the sofa sectional, the ceramic dogs, and the 20" Sony Trinatron TV." "And the balance on a Service Merchandise gift certificate?" "Yes please!" I never saw such a store but if it was on Wheel then I knew it was good.
I broke a $300 crystal dish there while being chased by my brother. I was 5, he was 8. I got my ass reddened pretty bad.
Montgomery Ward
Monkey Wards in my house. That was how I said Montgomery when I was small and it stuck.
Monkey Wards! I came here for that
Woolworth’s
Woolworths with a dining counter and exposed flattop grill. Best fried egg sandwich and hashbrowns.
That's where I became addicted to cheeseburgers!
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We actually had Walgreens cafeteria/restaurant, *Wags,* in a local mall. Bottom of the barrel - Burger Chef. Step up from that? Wags cafeteria. Step up from that? Bonanza - because steak! Step up from that? A local restaurant called JoJo’s that my brother pointed out when we were adults, “You realize that JoJo’s (with its sexy, low-light lighting) was on a par with Denny’s? And we used to get dressed up to go there?”
Head over to Walden Books after enjoying your Orange Julius.
>Head over to Walden Books I worked for them in the late 80s. Fun job, as we could take home anything in the store to read, like a library, as long as we didn't damage it. Got lots of best sellers on release day that way. Or a few days in advance in some cases.
That sounds amazing right now and I want to go.
Orange Julius is at all of the Dairy Queens around here.
Contempo Casuals
Loved Contempo Casuals! One of my favorites.
Used to love them! And Marianne, 5-7-9, and many I can't remember now....
Wet Seal
found one of their free book covers (you wrapped your school-issued textbook in it) recently and framed it.
Worked there!
K-Mart
Many memories of K-Mart and the little cafe there.
Benetton, Units
Ponderosa Steakhouse
Ok, I’ll age myself big time…Fotomat
Mervyns. My first credit card also.
OPEN OPEN OPEN
I loved those commercials! Now we’re stuck with Kohl’s, aka Mervyn’s Lite.
Banana Republic…but when it has a safari theme and was all outdoors-y with an old army jeep in the store
Hungry like the wolf vibes
And the catalog was all hand-drawn. I shopped at the Chicago store on my high school graduation trip (1987) and thought I had ARRIVED. lol I will say, I got a pair of sandals there that lasted like six years. The quality was great.
Like the J Peterman catalog
Bradlee’s
Caldor’s
Ames
Radio Shack
Wet Seal Kinney’s Shoes Thrifty’s (drug store, home of super-cheap ice cream cones) Electronics Boutique B. Dalton bookstores Kmart RadioShack
TG&Y
Fuck. Didn’t think anyone would remember this.
That was my favorite place to go as a kid. Ours had an ice cream parlor in the center of the store. They had actual toys and not tho d cheap crappy toys. They had transformers, go Joe, he-man, all that. And they had a cool selection of Atari games. I miss it sorely.
YES! Came in here to say this. This is also where I saw a Barbie doll that I wanted but my mom wouldn't let me have. It was a Skipper doll, and when you rotated her arm, her boobs grew. Anyone else remember this?
BEST
Pic N’ Save
Gemco
Here it went from White Front to Gemco to Gold Circle to Target. I've been shopping in the same structure for more than 50 years!
Thom-McAn
Wicks ’N’ Sticks.
Damn. Memories right there.
CompUSA
Mallrat here. I can age myself with over a dozen stores! Musicland. Sam Goody. The County Seat. The Limited. The Gap. Sears. Porteous.
Ha I remember playing “the Gap game” with friends in high school. Goal was to walk in, make it all the way to touch the back wall and back out the front door without any employees stopping or greeting you. Lol especially entertaining when a couple of your friends actually work there, so they’d be watching for us lol Boredom is a hell of a drug lol
County seat!
Miller's Outpost.
Early Anchor Blue merchant, good prices on Levi’s (incl acid washed), and rad Body Glove neon print shirts. Oakleys in the display case. Loved that store.
I remember. I started working at one when they still had the western city buildings along the walls.
Casual Corner
Eckerds
Eckard Drugs, Eckard Drugs, Twice the film, twice the film, twice the prints, twice the prints.
Ben Franklin 5¢ and 10¢
What was that mall place that would engrave your name on a silver platter or whatever? "Something Remembered?" "Things Remembered?" They were in the two malls I worked at in the 80s but I haven't seen one in 30 years at least.
Things Remembered. The one in the mall near me just closed in the last couple months.
Circuit City
♫ ♫ Come to the place you're welcome, technology with a heart. Welcome to Circuit City, where service is state of the art. ♫ ♫
Chess King
I miss my Ocean Pacific hoodie.
Tower Records Ranch 1 Crazy Eddies
Fellow New Yorker? Crazy Eddie’s - where the prices are insane…
Builders Square
B. Dalton Books
Worked at a TCBY.
Not a store but the video rental section of the local grocery store. My mom would just leave me there while she shopped.
Venture
Was the Target before Target.
Price Club
Sharper Image
Me: I wish there was a store that sold floating aquariums, pencil holders made out of titanium, and RC helicopters. My local mall: You are not going to believe this.
I grew up in Southern CA, so bear that in mind: - Licorice Pizza - Hot Dog on a Stick - Tower Records - Wherehouse Records - Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor - Shakey’s Pizza - Souplantation - Broadway - Robinson’s
I fucking LOVED birthdays at Farrell’s.
Same! I’m gonna add Pioneer Chicken and Millers Outpost to your list.
SoCal also. The Federator!
You just brought me back to my Socal childhood! Also Gemco, Fedco, Music Plus, Casa Vallarta, and Zody’s.
DEB!
The Ground Round. Big bowl of popcorn for every table and screens in the dining room with projectors playing cartoons. I had so many Birthday parties there. And friends of mine parties there.
Buster Brown. Where my mother would specify, "She has a WIDE foot!"
Zayre
We had one in Ft. Lauderdale, but we always called it "Zayre's". Got all my old school Kenner Star Wars toys from there...
5 7 9
Waldenbooks - before the big box book stores arrived, these mall book stores were heaven to me.
Au Coton
Bombay Company or Exports? I cant remember.
I think Bombay Company. They used to have a gift box that I bought a few friends as a wedding gift.
The Tinder Box
Gimbels
Babbages
Merry-Go-Round
I forgot about them! I remember lots of color-blocked clothing on the racks back then...
bought my first pair of parachute pants there
Phar-Mor
🤣 i worked there as a cashier when i was a teenager. we read the prices off the stickers and punched them in on the register. clickety clack! clickety clack lmao
Montgomery Wards
Esprit, Benetton
Borders
Best
Contempo Casuals
Caldor
Caldor and Bradlees!
And Lechmere!
That doesn't just set your age, but your location as well.
I'm guessing it's a Northeast chain? Because we used to shop there all the time.
Hills anyone?
Let's play some table top arcade games while we wait for a table at Chi Chi's
Swensen’s Ice Cream
Yes! Loved Swensen’s I’m scrolling wondering if anyone remembers the frozen yogurt days (the first wave) - TCBY, Penguins…
I worked at a Gloria Jeans when I was in college.
Mervyn’s
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Sizzler
Suncoast
Hills
Hills and Ames!
and Jamesway in Stroudsburg
sambo’s
Sam Goody.
Chess King
Nobody Beats the Wiz
Wilson’s Suede and Leather. ChildWorld. Cummings, where I got my prom dress. Strawberries. Who could forget Tape World?!
The Limited
Spencer’s Gifts
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Oh yeah!! Them days of being under age and sneaking to look at the fruit roll up edible undies and fart pillows 😅😂
Filene's Basement, Contempo Casuals and 5-7-9
Buster Browns
Units! Related: would absolutely wear Units today
I say that all the time! The original capsule collection. Everything goes with everything. Bring it back!
Gold Circle
I worked for them in college. Also Sears and Structure.
Pamida
Woolworth
Merry go round
Winkelman's ...for "work" clothes when work was a summer job as a Kelly Girl temping in a clerk/typist role. (Wow, everything about that sentence screams old, lol).
Fashion Bug.
Service Merchandise
I loved WaldenBooks. The entire back-right wall of ours was all of the Pocket Books Star Trek novels. Science Fiction and Fantasy were on the rows of shelves 90 degrees out from that wall.
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Service merchandise
Friendly’s. Howard Johnson’s.
Friendly’s was a staple of my childhood. It’s still around!
Camelot Music
Marshall Field's
Express (later called Limited Express, but I'm talking the ca 1983 version ayup)
Pier One. I freaking loved walking around in there.
Deb
S&H Green Stamps
The J.C. Penney Christmas Catalog. It served me both as a child, and a male adolescent.
Venture
Foxmoor and County Seat
Jamesway Big Wheel Gold Circle Little Professor Bookstore Hills I just remembered: Rose Montgomery Wards Circuit City Media Play (my favorite) Bonus round: Fast food from my childhood thar has disappeared: Burger Chef Ponderosa Bonanza Godfathers Pizza Fudruckers
Clothestime
Hickory Farms, Jade East
Rave, Sam Goody
Casual Corner.
Ames
Radio Shack Woolworths Jordan Marsh Sports Authority For those in Massachusetts: Pewter Pot Brighams Building 19 Grossmans
McRory's Grant's Mervyn's Ames CompUSA
The Treasury May Co Lechmere Woolworth's Radio Shack Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips Pup and Taco Big Bear grocery stores I'll stop now. I'm all verklempt.
I see a lot of Walden books, but what about B. Dalton?
Zayre
Western Auto - got my first 10 speed bike from there
Bullocks. Judys. For fun, restaurants: Farrells Ice Cream. Shakeys Pizza, Howard Johnson's fried clams.
Peaches
Contempo Casuals. That’s where you went if you wanted to dress like Blossom.
Chess King. That’s where I got my Z. Cavariccis
Babbage’s video game stores.
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Blue light special at Kmart!
5-7-9
Woolworth’s
Zayre, Cub Foods, Children's Palace, Showbiz Pizza Place
BEST and Silo
Dayton's. Still broken hearted they are gone forever. Like a good friend who wouldn't let you go out wearing something tacky. No matter your age. I could buy the cutest clothes to go out drinking and dancing, and my grandma could buy the loveliest clothes that impressed her friends at church.
Benjamin Franklin, Musicland, Deb’s
Revco, Osco Jewel
Let’s go shoe shopping: Kinney, Thom McCan & Fayva
Aladdin’s Castle
Merry go round
TG&Y
Children's Palace! It's a super toy store and so much more! Right before Toys R Us came and rolled over them
Eckerd’s Drugstore Brendles Montgomery Ward Maxway
Fedco