Which stores do you remember from your childhood?

Oh, and there were no Malls.. went to the Beach Shopping Center.
Plus no convenience stores.. there was one place that was 'officially' a gas station owned by a local couple, but they also sold half-gallons of ice cream, soft-serve cones, all kinds of candy, and newspapers.
 

when i was a kid... and TVs had only 3-4 channels, Thanksgiving started with the Gimbel's Thanksgiving Day Parade. floats, mummers, bands, those big balloons. at the very end, was a big, hook & ladder, firetruck that took Santa Claus to Gimbels. he climbed up the ladder to the EIGHTH floor, in a window and onto Toyland for the season. that's why, for me, Christmas doesn't start until Thanksgiving.
 
A furniture store named "Butler Bros."
"White Front"
"Zody's"
"Sight & Sound"
"Alexander's"
"Circuit City" & "Good Guys" for electronics
"Piggly Wiggly" (supermarket)
"Thrifty's"
"Grand Central" (market)
My mom used to drag me with her to a women's fancy clothing store downtown named, "Nelson's."
 

Chet said:
In our small town there was Novak's, a small grocery store. My mother sent me there for lunch meat and a few other things. I went there for penny candy and ice cream.

There was Irene's Pharmacy in town where I would buy balsa wood model airplanes, and John's Restaurant where you could buy a burger and magazines and with a juke box in back.

My mother would take me on the streetcar first, and later a bus when street cars no longer were, to Penney's and Kresge's in another town. We got ice cream at Kresge's and sometimes a goldfish.
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Wow, someone else that actually built balsa wood model airplanes. I have a kit for a 'Flying Tiger' rubber band powered in the basement that I am going to build with my 11-year-old grandson. He is really curious how you build them using the plans and pins....I want to pass that on to him...
 
My paternal great grandmother owned a corner store in Philadelphia. She sold all sorts of penny candy among a ton of other items. She would always yell at us as soon as we stepped foot in the store, "don't touch that candy." She was an austere looking woman, so you can be sure we obeyed her.
 
Hmm, ok...The Hecht Co.- G.C. Murphy- Morton's- Garfinkels- Hechinger's- ESSO[EXXON]- American[Ammco]-John's Bargain Store- Kresky's Five And Dime- People's Drug Store[CVS]- McBride's- The Hub- High's Ice Cream- Briggs Ice Cream- Bergman's Laundry.
 
DH was in the Navy when we got married. We lived in San Diego very briefly and at that time it was a really cheap city to live in. We could go for lunch at Newberry's lunch counter, then take in a 50 cent triple feature movie. We loved living there, so of course we were sent to Washington State.

A few years later, we went to see my grandma and my favorite cousin and her husband and kids were back from Libya where her Air Force husband had been stationed. She didn't like it much there, but what really irked me was when she said, she couldn't enjoy their trip to Europe because they had to take the kids with them. I knew we would have been thrilled to see Europe with the kids because they traveled quite nicely. Before we took any long trip, I'd go to the 5 and dime and buy lots of cheap toys 3 exactly alike. Then if the kids needed a stop, and we couldn't stop right then I'd toss 3 toys back. That would keep them happy until we could stop for a potty break, or a food stop. Never a problem. My cousin's sister became my favorite!
 
Here in the UK there was a supermarket called Fine Fare....long gone.
Woolworths was a favourite place..bought many a 45 there.
They closed the normal Woolies and opened a big Woolco in my town.
Then closed it and opened a normal Woolworths again!
Timothy Whites chemists...cheaper than Boots.
Ironmongers....every town had one.Don't often see one now.
And although there are a few in Britain still ,the Wimpey Bar.
 
I remember that Woolworths had all these balloons at the lunch counter. We would break them and take out the little slip tucked inside that had a number on it, and whatever the number was, that was the price we paid for our banana split. And Kresge's had something they called a "College Ice" which was just a scoop of ice cream in a dish, but I always got it because I thought it sounded so sophisticated. There was also a store called W. T. Grant's that had wonderful school clothes.

My aunt worked at the Planter's Peanut Store, it always smelled amazing in there. But my favorite stope of all was Kennedy's Butter and Egg Store - it had sawdust on the floor and it smelled wonderful with all the coffee and cheeses.
 
Piggly Wiggly, Jackson's Minit Market (both in Florida during the 1960's)
S.S. Kresge's
W.T. Grant's
Fanny Farmer
Montgomery Ward
Gimbel's (NYC)
Abraham & Strauss (NYC)
Robert Hall (clothing)
Ben Franklin (five and dime store)
Howard Johnson's (restaurant)
Army and Navy Store
A&P Supermarket
7 11 Store
Sears, Roebuck & Company (aka Sears)
JC Penny
 
Something called the 5, 10 and 25 cent store. I think there was another name too but don’t clearly recall.

Related question: what is the lowest gasoline price per gallon you can remember seeing posted? 28 cents is the lowest I can recall as a kid.
 
MarkD said:
Something called the 5, 10 and 25 cent store. I think there was another name too but don’t clearly recall.
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dooley-s-5-10-25c-store.jpg
 
Rexall pharmacy, with soda jerk. And was Beaverton, OR greyhound bus station.
Safeway, when they had a restaurant inside.
Kmart. Same thing & blue light special.
Sears quality, when it was quality.
Montgomery Wards, thieving scum.
Bazzar dept store. (Replaced Wards pricks)
Sinneruds clothing store. Nice old world guy fitted for suit, later nice coat.
Humdinger oh the burgers were huge. Pizza burger to die for.
Thriftway was just 200 yards away. Which sucked when mom forgot something.
Bellaire pharmacy where it was a normal 1950's type with people way more interested in filling your prescription correctly instead of fast.
And yes, they sold cigarettes! 🤣🤣
ARCO SERVICE station, when it WAS a service station.
 
MarkD said:
Something called the 5, 10 and 25 cent store. I think there was another name too but don’t clearly recall.

Related question: what is the lowest gasoline price per gallon you can remember seeing posted? 28 cents is the lowest I can recall as a kid.
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was in college in late 60s. had a vw beetle... 10 gallon tank, i think. when car was running on FUMES, could fill the thing up with about $3.
 
Never mind about childhood stores, think about all the ones that have shut their doors in recent years. In NYC alone, there's Gimbles, Shwartz's toys, A&S in Brooklyn, Alexander's, E.J. Korvet's, then there's Zayre's. My first job was working at the first Ames.
 
I grew up in a small mountain town in Colorado. During Christmas season our city was always covered in snow, sometimes very deep by Christmas. It was a 'playland' for the kids that lived there. Walking downtown was about two blocks for me and my favorite store was the 5 & 10 store. They had the biggest selection of penny candy in town. I did not have a lot of money so I spent lots of time deciding on which candy I would buy with my nickel. Very fond memories for me....
 
Mitchell's in Haverhill Mass.
It had one of those vacuums that suck up the payment then send back the change like banks. It was magic to me.
Black jack and those other gums in a really neat penny dispenser.
And Made in America clothes!
 
OneEyedDiva said:
There was a Sears & Roebucks, Woolworths and W.T. Grant in town. I remember my mother shopping for me at Sears.
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R.I.P. Sears I worked there for 13 years. Recently found a video I'd taken on one of their special sales days around 1995. I had tears in my eyes for some of the people that have passed on and also the heyday of malls at that time. So much fun and community.
I was really taken back.
 

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