Childhood Department Stores That No Longer Exist

I was boy in the 80s and Hills molded my life. The entry was an arcade and snack shop that smelled of popcorn with the cool sounds of Ms Pacman in the background. Prince and the Jackson Five displays in the music section stand out in my mind. Mamma always had a smile as she left us alone in the toys. OMG the toys. HeMan, Gi Joe, etc. Words can't sum it up. What a cool time to have been a kid. Y'all younger crew missed it

Ames , Zayres , Kmart , Stuarts , Caldor , Bradlees , Woolworths , remember them all in Massachusetts never heard of Hills

Hills man. I got so many of my favorite toys there. (Even the U.S.S. Flag on clearance) I remeber stopping by the snack bar on the way out every time we went. And then it was my first job. Working in the stock room putting price tags on all the merchandise. I have nothing but fond memories. Heck I even bought that candle you mentioned.

I forgot about TG&Y. I can still hear the jingle, "Your best buy is at, TG&Y". Anyone remember Ben Franklin's?

I was working at Murphys Mart in late 84 when Ames bought it. They changed things too much. I can still remember the smell of popcorn as soon as the doors opened at Hills. We had Horns, Gimbels and Kaufmans in one mall and Sears, Montgomery Wards and JC Penneys in another one. The only one left is Penneys, barely. Love Pittsburgh Dad!

I live in Cincinnati...Been in retail for ..sorry to say over 30 plus years( I work for Kroger's right now).. When I was young( that was a long,long,time ago.. In a retail word far .. far ..away:)) We had Gold Circle store's,Rink's Department Store, ODD LOTS( I know it is ) Big Lots now. We had ton's Department Store's here in the city. It was fun to go out to stores .. In Nov and Dec as kid ... They all had TOYS... IT WAS GREAT as a KID. GREAT SHOW!!! MAN!!

I worked at Kings Dept store in 1973. Often wondered why it closed. We had two stores in our town & they were always busy.

We had our own Macy's type store in upstate NY in the capital district. "The Carl Co". They even had elaborate windows and sponsored the Thanksgiving Parade and the circus. Spent much of my young childhood there behind the scenes- with my Aunt who worked there, and with my Dad, when he was head of their security. When I was older, I worked there in several positions before heading off to college to study veterinary science. Loved the place. Miss it and the great people I worked with there, included Mr. Carl and his family.

There was a Zayre a few blocks from my house, but it was on a diagonal street and between my house and Zayre there was a drive in movie theater. I would often get on my top bunk to watch the drive in movie screen that I could see from my house and if you look left you could see the Zayre store sign . I remember when it was bought by Ames. Those really were the days

Want stories... I've got'em.😁 I lived a breathed our little 5nDime, "Spouts Ritz". It was so old that my great grandmother had shopped the store since the earliest days of the township. They had a "green stamp" program that you could collect and cash-in for other merch. They (mom and g-grandma) acquired my entire nursey and wardrobe with them. As a young girl, I would immediately run to visit the mystical looking Sea Horse that was bobbing along in an ancient 20s lighthouse style tank. I happily muched away a on bag of freshly popped pocorn while i stared at this cute yet nafarious looking curiosity.

Growing up I remember Hill's, Twin Fair, and Rink's Bargain City were the department stores we frequented. I can't recall the one Mom liked best that had everything the family needed but I do remember the diner they had. It was the first to go when Kmart took it's place. Then Hill's was taken over by Cook's which gave way to Hobby Lobby. Rink's gave way to Big Lots and Sack and Save Discount Grocery. Kmart stuck in until Wal-Mart came around. Britt's!!! That's the name of the one that Kmart took the place of. I knew digging through the memories it would come to me. I've accepted these stores to be gone forever but memories are still strong.

I worked at Ames for three years. For retail, it wasn’t terrible. But I was a teenager and I wasn’t making any kind of actual living with it. Store workers couldn’t make a living there. Assistant managers could make enough to get by if they lived alone, store managers did OK, and district managers made a reasonable salary but the entire managerial staff was stressed out all the time.

I loved TG &Y when i was a child. Especially during the holidays. I can remember my mom taking us there to pick out one of those wonderful and glorious boxed Halloween costumes in the 70's. Another great department store was the Treasury store. Brings back so many great memories.

I remembered going to Zayre near me. Ames moved in and it felt liked Zayre. There was another store that was in this grocery store that I used to work in the early 90’s. It became a Paminda in 2009-2012. It became a Shopko that closed in June 2019. I do missed in going into that store for shopping. There was 2 Shopko in this bigger town that is a hour and a half away from me. I even liked going to an old school Kmart when I was little kid towards my early 20’s.

As a teenager I worked in a Mammoth Mart and a G. C. Murphy. I worked only the Christmas holidays for about 8 weeks. Dealt with lay-aways and returns. Mammoth Mart had 35 stores and went bankrupt in 1979.

I have a good deal of nostalgia for Sears department store for the simple fact that I got the majority of my PS1 games from a glass case kiosk, arranged much in the same way as perfume or jewelry but instead with video games lol. It was Bazaar, it was placed smack right in the middle of the mens clothing section.

All brown slacks for school come from Zayre. I don't know why. It must have been a law. Sears is almost completely gone. . . . In the 70s when pong home machines came out my mother would dump me off in the electronics section and I would play pong forever with the other kids abandoned there or anyone who walked by. It was doubly awesome when these things evolved into the VCS/telegames... Today I think what my mother did would qualify her for prosecution for neglect and child endangerment and I would end up in a state community home.... It was definitely a nicer world back then.

Worst thing they did ever is taking those store away

We had a regional department store named Grand Central. Their main competitor was Kmart. Walmart didn’t have a location here until the mid to late 80’s.

I remember I used to shop frequently at Bradlees and Ames. And I actually went to work for Ames for a while.