{"id":1384,"date":"2015-11-19T07:31:56","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T15:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/?p=1384"},"modified":"2015-11-19T07:31:56","modified_gmt":"2015-11-19T15:31:56","slug":"90s-stores-that-are-dead-and-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/?p=1384","title":{"rendered":"90’s Stores That Are Dead And Gone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I have to admit that I enjoyed shopping in quite a few of these. \u00a0 I loved Structure clothes and in fact still have a shirt that’s hanging on for dear life. \u00a0 And everybody, I mean everybody, had to shop in Tower Records or you just weren’t cool. \u00a0 Some of these were pretty popular back in the day so are a cautionary tale for retailers out there now, soon we may see Staples, Best Buy,\u00a0Abercrombie & Fitch,Aeropostale, JC Penney’s, Macy’s, and even the former #1 retailer in the country, Sears, also closing their doors.<\/p>\n

Borders<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 2011<\/p>\n

Dearest Borders,<\/p>\n

No one ever thought you would go away. We just assumed you’d be with us forever.\u00a0We took you for granted and for that we apologize. We will now go into the street and pour out a nonfat, vanilla latte in your honor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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2<\/div>\n

B. Dalton Booksellers<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 2010<\/p>\n

You may not have had the size or selection of Borders. You may not have been as ubiquitous either. And you certainly never had a cafe located in the back of your store. But you sold books \u2014 actual books \u2014 and for that we will always love you.<\/p>\n

Cue the Whitney Houston<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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3<\/div>\n

Warner Brothers<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 2001<\/p>\n

Yeah, we can buy our Bugs or Daffy paraphernalia anywhere these days, but the actual brick and mortar Warner Bros. store made it special. And the fact that it is coming up on 15 (15!!) years since they’ve been closed truly makes it heartbreaking when I say…<\/p>\n

“That’s all, folks.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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4<\/div>\n

Structure<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 2003<\/p>\n

Yes, you can find the Structure clothing line at Sears, but it’s not the same.\u00a0Buying clothes at the same place you buy tires is just a recipe for fashion sadness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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5<\/div>\n

Merry-Go-Round<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 1996<\/p>\n

Merry-Go-Round was the most democratic store in any mall in the country. It allowed anyone, no matter what race, creed or color, to look like a total cheeseball if they so chose to.<\/p>\n

AMERICA.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

6<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n
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Radio Shack<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 2015<\/p>\n

BUT WHERE DO I BUY MY OVERPRICED BATTERIES NOW!<\/p>\n

Oh, Radio Shack, we are lost without you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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7<\/div>\n

Circuit City<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 2009<\/p>\n

Walking into a Circuit City was like walking into a church. It was a religious experience.\u00a0You bought your new CD Walkman here and you never felt more alive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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8<\/div>\n

Discovery Zone<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 1999<\/p>\n

Nearly every birthday part I went to as a kid was at Discovery Zone.\u00a0If these were still around now and served beer, we would totally come here to celebrate our growns up b-days. (Again, if there was beer.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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9<\/div>\n

Virgin Megastore<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 2009<\/p>\n

Some of you out there may not be old enough to remember a time when you just went into a music store and browsed through it for hours<\/em>, just looking at anything and everything. It was an amazing time suck that, sadly, is just no longer a part of our daily lives. (That is, unless you go visit the\u00a0Middle East or North Africa, the only places where Virgin stores still exist.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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10<\/div>\n

Sharper Image<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of\u00a0death: 2008<\/p>\n

To the store that we went into whenever we found one in a mall, yet never, not once, bought anything in it, we salute you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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11<\/div>\n

KB Toys<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 2009<\/p>\n

Ahhh, KB Toys. The place you insisted on going to as a reward whenever you got a really good report card.<\/p>\n

I rarely went there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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12<\/div>\n

Tower Records<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 2006<\/p>\n

Nothing was cooler than Tower Records. Nothing. You walked in there, bought a CD (or two…or three…or seven) and you walked out feeling like you were on the cutting edge of the music scene…even if the music in your hand was from Chuck Mangione. (Don’t you dare disparage the man. He is thefinest flugelhorn player<\/a> in the history of recorded music.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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13<\/div>\n

GadZOOKS<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 2005<\/p>\n

Zazzle wishes it was GadZooks. But it can never be. GadZooks was special, more special than anything you could get on an Internet site. Yeah, I said it!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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14<\/div>\n

The Nature Company<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 1996<\/p>\n

“Damn! Today is Aunt Ginny’s birthday and we didn’t get her anything! What do we do?”<\/p>\n

“I dunno. Go to The Nature Company and buy something completely random?”<\/p>\n

“Perfect.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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15<\/div>\n

Blockbuster<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 2014<\/p>\n

We loved you because you were everywhere. You were never not around and we could always find a Jean Claude Van Damme movie when we needed one…<\/p>\n

Cause we always<\/u> needed one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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16<\/div>\n

Anchor Blue<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 2011<\/p>\n

For all those times when you said you didn’t care about fashion but refused to get your T-shirt and jeans at JC Penny, Anchor Blue was there for you. RIP, A to the B.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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17<\/div>\n

Chi Chi’s Mexican Restaurant<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 2004<\/p>\n

You were really only Mexican food in name, but damnit, we supported you to the bitter end. We will miss you and your Mexican Fried Ice Cream (which, also, was really only fried in name).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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18<\/div>\n

F.A.O. Schawrz<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 2009 (NY flag ship store closed in 2015)<\/p>\n

This. <\/a>We all did this. <\/a>No one ever went into FAO Schawrz and didn’t do this.<\/a>It was almost a law that you had to do this.<\/a> And now we can’t do this <\/a>ever again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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19<\/div>\n

Sam Goody<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Time of death: 2006<\/p>\n

Sadly, Goody ain’t got it no more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I have to admit that I enjoyed shopping in quite a few of these. \u00a0 I loved Structure clothes and in fact still have a shirt that’s hanging on for dear life. \u00a0 And everybody, I mean everybody, had to shop in Tower Records or you just weren’t cool. \u00a0 Some of these Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retail-companies","category-retail-trends"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1385,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384\/revisions\/1385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}