Were huge stores like Bed Bath and Beyond, Walmart, Target etc already a scourge by the time it was the '80s? In North America and Australia, I mean, Europe still hasn't caught that disease even now for the most part.  ;D

No, it was still primarily Montgomery Ward and Sears back then.

I remember Montgomery Wards. They eventually went out of business in the late 90's or early 2000 or so.

I remember Montgomery Wards. They eventually went out of business in the late 90's or early 2000 or so.


Sometimes people used to call them "Monkey Wards."  ;D

No, it was still primarily Montgomery Ward and Sears back then.


I still remember when Montgomery Ward went under. I think it was in 1998 or 1999. I live in the West and it seems like malls and old school style stores held out longer here, in the South and Midwest they started going under in the late 1980s/early 1990s from what I understand right?

While here in the West it was about 10 years later, even now Wal-Mart doesn't seem to dominate the market here like it does in the Bible Belt.

I still remember when Montgomery Ward went under. I think it was in 1998 or 1999. I live in the West and it seems like malls and old school style stores held out longer here, in the South and Midwest they started going under in the late 1980s/early 1990s from what I understand right?

While here in the West it was about 10 years later, even now Wal-Mart doesn't seem to dominate the market here like it does in the Bible Belt.


Probably more like in the 2000's.

Probably more like in the 2000's.


Oh yeah like totally kill them off, yeah. But Walmart was actually a bigger retailer than Sears by 1990, I read, which surprised me because Wal-Mart wasn't even a part of my early childhood, I don't think I even went inside one until 1999. I guess maybe it was just such a regional giant in the South/Lower Midwest, they didn't even start to build them outside that region until the late 80s.

Oh yeah like totally kill them off, yeah. But Walmart was actually a bigger retailer than Sears by 1990, I read, which surprised me because Wal-Mart wasn't even a part of my early childhood, I don't think I even went inside one until 1999. I guess maybe it was just such a regional giant in the South/Lower Midwest, they didn't even start to build them outside that region until the late 80s.


Wal-Marts were in smaller towns back in the 80's I believe, but they really didn't start blowing up until the late 90's.

Oh yeah like totally kill them off, yeah. But Walmart was actually a bigger retailer than Sears by 1990, I read, which surprised me because Wal-Mart wasn't even a part of my early childhood, I don't think I even went inside one until 1999. I guess maybe it was just such a regional giant in the South/Lower Midwest, they didn't even start to build them outside that region until the late 80s.


Yeah, Wal-Mart has been a force in the south for as long as I can remember. Here in Georgia, there were three Wal-Marts and one Sams Club in my general area when I was growing up, and let's just say I don't exactly live in metro Atlanta. We actually had one of our old style Wal-Marts become a Super Center way back 1995, which seems to be well before they became the norm everywhere else.

Sears was still a factor here back then too though. They used to still send out the gigantic 2,000 page catalogs around Christmastime, and there was even one of those so called "pick-up centers" where you could go collect anything you ordered out of the catalog here in my very small town. That closed down about 16 years ago or so.

Sort of, though they tended to be more "medium box" stores. Although its still holding on today, K-Mart was huge back in the '70s and '80s, usually being the #2 retailer behind Sears. They tended to be more regional (Target was mostly confined to the Upper Midwest, Wal-Mart to parts of the south), however the quality generally wasn't as good as it is today, though it was still new at the time alongside the still-shiny enclosed shopping malls. I remember Caldor, Evans, Bradlee's, and Ames in my area. Ralph's was common in Southern California. They were just referred to as "superstores" back then. Like today even, some branches were larger than others. Check out this article from 1984 for a perspective:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=TkRgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mXANAAAAIBAJ&pg=4814,3789983&dq=superstores&hl=en

I still remember when Montgomery Ward went under. I think it was in 1998 or 1999. I live in the West and it seems like malls and old school style stores held out longer here, in the South and Midwest they started going under in the late 1980s/early 1990s from what I understand right?

While here in the West it was about 10 years later, even now Wal-Mart doesn't seem to dominate the market here like it does in the Bible Belt.


Holy crap! I almost completely forgot about Montgomery Ward! I don't remember shopping in there, but I do remember my mom mentioning that store often years ago. The Montgomery Ward in my hometown turned into a Target when they went bankrupt.

I'm curious to know, does anybody who lived in Southern California in the 90's and before remember Fedco? Also, does anyone remember when Costco used to be called Price Club?

Sometimes people used to call them "Monkey Wards."  ;D


My dad always called them Monkey Wards. 

We still had the regional department stores in the 1980s.  New England had Ames, Bradlees, Caldor's, Rich's, McRory's, Almy's, Woolco, Zayre's, Service Merchandise, and so forth.  The only one that survived the onslaught of Walmart and Target was K-Mart, which itself is a national chain. 

I first heard of Walmart in the mid-eighties.  They were the store that wouldn't stock your favorite heavy metal records.  We didn't have Walmarts until the early nineties.

Critics blame Walmart for killing the downtown shopping districts, but the downtowns were already dicked over by the malls and the shopping plazas.  Walmart just made it worse.  We also got the dead mall phenomenon of the nineties.  You couldn't retrofit the hideous buildings very well so they went to hell after a year without climate control.  Sometimes one of the anchor stores would go under and the other businesses in the mall wobbled like a rudderless boat.  A grimy malodorous flea market inhabited the old Almy's at one of our dead malls before Walmart took it over. 

I resent Staples because it put all those funky stationery stores out of business.  Every town had a couple where you could get scented envelopes and exotic chewing gum.  Amherst still has A.J. Hastings, but they stay alive by selling college swag and god knows what else. 
8)

=
We still had the regional department stores in the 1980s.  New England had Ames, Bradlees, Caldor's, Rich's, McRory's, Almy's, Woolco, Zayre's, Service Merchandise, and so forth.  The only one that survived the onslaught of Walmart and Target was K-Mart, which itself is a national chain. 



Where I live, we still have Fred Meyer. :)

We do have 'big box' stores in Europe. And especially France is full of it.

In Canada we had Woolco and Towers, Eatons, and Simpsons which were taken over by the big box stores like Wal-Mart, The Hudson Bay Company, and Sears.  :( Not that this is a good thing because it's horrible when a big box store comes in and destroys the down town core and everything else.  :P I just want to say fudge WAL-MART for moving into our town and putting almost the entire downtown core out of business.  :P

In Canada we had Woolco and Towers, Eatons, and Simpsons which were taken over by the big box stores like Wal-Mart, The Hudson Bay Company,


*blink*

(Yes, I know HBC has been through innumerable restructurings.  But really, the Hudson's Bay Company, which is the oldest commercial corporation in North America, having been operating in some form for all of the 342+ years since May 2, 1670 and the present day, can't exactly be considered a young upstart that's hollowing out the world of old-school retail.)

*blink*

(Yes, I know HBC has been through innumerable restructurings.  But really, the Hudson's Bay Company, which is the oldest commercial corporation in North America, having been operating in some form for all of the 342+ years since May 2, 1670 and the present day, can't exactly be considered a young upstart that's hollowing out the world of old-school retail.)


This is very true. Though the modern company is totally different from the fur trading company that essentially governed so much of Canada and the northwestern United States two centuries ago, it's amazing that the company still exists today.  :o

*blink*

(Yes, I know HBC has been through innumerable restructurings.  But really, the Hudson's Bay Company, which is the oldest commercial corporation in North America, having been operating in some form for all of the 342+ years since May 2, 1670 and the present day, can't exactly be considered a young upstart that's hollowing out the world of old-school retail.)


That's not what I mean. 
Zellers took over Towers=============> Hudson Bay Company took over Zellers=======> Target is taking over Zellers.

Because Target is taking over aproximately 200 Zellers stores we could loose our Zellers store as early as next spring putting aproximately 15,000 people out of work. 

Yeah but not to the extent of today. K Mart, Ames, and Toys R Us are/were big box stores and were common in the 80s. Also Child World (closed in 1992).

Also Child World (closed in 1992).


Everything a toy store should be.

lJglq1hYCQI

Where's our thread about construction toys, where someone was looking for a construction set that wasn't one of the obvious candidates?  This Child World commercial from 1980 includes a shot of "Fiddlesticks, the Giant Toy Builder Set from Knickerbocker".

oBlJiUegi1o

To answer the original poster's thread, the model was relatively new in the early '80s.  For example, take a look at this second Child World ad, which emphasizes the consumer-friendliness of its prototype store in Framingham, MA.  Wikipedia has that store as having opened in 1989, which must be the date of the video shoot.

Everything a toy store should be.

lJglq1hYCQI

Where's our thread about construction toys, where someone was looking for a construction set that wasn't one of the obvious candidates?  This Child World commercial from 1980 includes a shot of "Fiddlesticks, the Giant Toy Builder Set from Knickerbocker".

oBlJiUegi1o

To answer the original poster's thread, the model was relatively new in the early '80s.  For example, take a look at this second Child World ad, which emphasizes the consumer-friendliness of its prototype store in Framingham, MA.  Wikipedia has that store as having opened in 1989, which must be the date of the video shoot.


Apparently your Child World was our Children's Palace, Peter Panda included

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pohJZ5HKi4

When I was growing up it was Kmart and Zayre's.

Does anyone remember a department store chain called Ardens? Or, was that more or less just a Midwestern thing?

Apparently your Child World was our Children's Palace, Peter Panda included

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pohJZ5HKi4


We always had Jeffrey!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLGgFI_4u8Y

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Here's two commercials.  One for Hills Department Stores which was taken over by the now defunct Ames Department Stores.