Mall Stores You Once Loved But No Longer Exist!

no matter how old you are there's a pretty good chance that you've been to a shopping mall if you have lived in the U.S or Canada at one time they were a great place to shop eat and just hang out with friends and family in the 1970s 80s and 90s they really were our social network only better since it was face to face throughout the years there have been many stores that have come and gone in today's video we will have a look back and remember some of the stores that used to Grace the shopping malls Tom McCann was a chain of shoe stores that had over 1400 stores at its peak in the 1960s they could be seen in many malls across the United States and they were one of the oldest and best known shoe retailers in 1996 the chain shut down all of its stores but the shoes are still available if you're lucky enough to have a Sears or Kmart nearby Kenny shoes was another shoe manufacturer and retailer that became quite prominent in malls they began in New York in 1894 and at its peak they had 467 stores which they all shut down in 1998. however you may recognize one of the retail shoe divisions named Foot Locker which began in 1974 and is still going the Warner Brothers Studio store was similar in style to the Disney Store in fact they were each other's biggest competition they first opened in 1991 and they sold Looney Tunes merchandise as well as DC Comics and any other merchandise based on Warner Brothers films all the stores closed by December 31st 2001. gadzooks was a mall-based teenage clothing retailer they were known for their Crazy T-shirts and a Volkswagen Beetle car that was cut in half the first store opened in Mesquite Texas in 1983. from there they grew to more than 400 stores in March of 2005 Forever 21 purchased a chain and closed out all of the gadsoup stores KB Toys was an American toy store chain that began in 1922 as a candy store called Kaufman Brothers in 1946 they acquired a wholesale toy company from a candy client who owed them money in 1948 they ended their candy business to focus on toys in 1973 they ended their toy wholesaling to start a shopping mall based toy retailer the company eventually grew and operated over 1300 stores across all 50 states after some financial trouble and poor sales the company filed for bankruptcy in 2008. by 2009 all of the locations were permanently closed The Sharper Image was founded in 1977 and was a catalog business that sold jogging watches later on they expanded their catalog selection to an assortment of futuristic gadgets Electronics massaging chairs and air purifiers they eventually expanded into 187 retail stores across 38 States in 2008 they declared bankruptcy and closed all of their stores the company still sells merchandise through their website catalog and third-party retailers however that's not quite the same as going into the store and checking out all the gadgets in person [Music] The Limited launched a children's store in 1987 called limited 2. they sold apparel and accessories for girls between the ages of 5 and 15. at its peak there were over 600 stores in operation in the later 2000s their success began dwindling between 2008 and 2010 The Limited two stores were rebranded as Justice since that time the limited to trademark has been revived into an online store and sold on Amazon Sam goody music stores began in the 1940s with Sam goody opening a record store in New York City the chain as we know it was founded in 1951. they specialized in records cassette tapes CDs VHS tapes DVDs video games posters Comics and More eventually technology would catch up to them and leave them struggling by 2012 most of the stores were either shuttered or converted into other brands like FYE however there are two Sam goody stores that are left in the U.S one is in Ohio and the other one is in Oregon B Dalton books was an American bookstore chain that was founded in 1966. they became one of the largest retailers of hardcover books with over 798 stores at its peak the stores were primarily in shopping malls and they competed with Walden books Barnes and Noble acquired the chain in 1987 and they continued the stores until 2010 when they were all shuddered Walden books was founded in 1933 in Bridgeport Connecticut within 15 years they grew to 250 locations Kmart eventually acquired the bookstore and their success continued in 1994 they combined Walden books brentanos and borders to form borders Walden group at that time Walden books had 1216 stores in 50 states in 1995 the renamed borders group was able to buy back its stock and become independent beginning in 2004 many Walden books locations were rebranded as borders Express stores in 2011 the borders group filed for liquidation to close all of the remaining Walden books and Border stores Wet Seal was once a trendy clothing retailer for young women the store was founded as Lawrence in 1962 and renamed Wet Seal in 1990. by 2014 there were 478 stores across the U.S and sales were sluggish they filed for bankruptcy in 2015 after closing most of their stores in 2017 they closed the remaining locations it now operates as an online retailer Mary Go Round was a women's clothing chain that operated from the 1970s to the 1990s at their Peak they operated almost a thousand stores they specialized at capitalizing on the latest fashion trends for women ages 15 to 35. in 1993 they purchased the men's clothing store chess King things were not going as well as they appeared and Merry-Go-Round filed for bankruptcy just one year later in 1994. in 1996 they closed all of their more than 500 locations which were primarily in malls Deb Shops was a women's clothing store that dominated the malls with their market share of teenagers and 20-somethings they were known for their excellent customer service and frequent updates to stay up with the latest fashion trends in 1995 they even bought out Atlantic bookstores and they operated them in several Northeastern states the company was also great at using their own Capital to open new stores this business plan continued to work for them until the 2000s their parent company Lee Equity Partners filed for bankruptcy in 2011 and again in 2014. in 2015 they closed out all of their stores and became an online retailer selling plus size clothing until their website shut down without warning in December of 2018. since that time the name was acquired by a new company who has reopened the website for plus sizes and has added a hyphen in the middle of the name chess King was a men's clothing retailer that began in 1968 and grew to over 500 stores by the mid 80s they were known for selling men's parachute pants shoes bomber jackets and other trendy accessories chess King remained popular with fads and fashion throughout the crazy 80s the company was bought out by Merry-Go-Round in 1993 just before they filed bankruptcy and shut down their doors in November of 1995. [Music] Wilson's Leather is based in Minneapolis and at their peak in 2002 they had 763 stores throughout the U.S and Canada in 2003 and 2004 the company scaled down its operations and closed dozens of non-performing stores in 2008 they announced that they would liquidate all of their Mall stores somehow there were still some out there and in 2020 they announced that they would close 110 stores managed by Wilson's Leather as of today I have no idea if there are any Wilson's Leather stores they're still left in operation however I do know that they have an online store that they run a spree began in San Francisco California in 1968. they became a retailer that specialized in women's clothing and accessories but they also had men's and kids one of the things that they became best known for was the Esprit sportswear which was a huge hit with teens in the 1980s in February of 2012 they announced plans of closing all retail stores in North America because they were no longer competitive in the market however in 2015 they reopened a few stores in Canada they have continued to operate stores around the world most notably in Asia not only that but they also have an online store 579 was a retail chain that offered mid to low price fashions for young teens and young women between 13 and 22 years of age this is one store that was very prominent in many malls in 1999 they had gone bankrupt and the stores were all liquidated [Music] Fashion Bug was a plus size women clothing retailer that once had more than one thousand stores their parent company Charming shops which owned other plus size retailers such as Lane Bryant closed the Fashion Bug brand in early 2013. the men's clothing store chain structure was originally part of Express Under The Limited Brand and spun off as its own store in 1989. in 2001 it was reintegrated as Express Men and the Structure brand was sold to Sears in 2003 for less than 10 million dollars in an effort to attract younger shoppers Casual Corner was a clothing chain that began in 1950. their original Focus was on women's sportswear the company was sold to the U.S shoe corporation in 1970 with just 20 stores and soon expanded into shopping malls across the country by the 1990s they had changed from women's sportswear to women's working attire under the U.S choose ownership Casual Corner became the foundation for a larger company known as Women's Specialty retelling group in addition a Casual Corner they owned and operated August Max petite sophisticates sophisticated woman and a few other lesser-known brands at its peak in 2000 Casual Corner operated more than 525 stores by 2005 there was increased competition in all remaining locations were closed after being sold to a liquidator throughout the years shopping malls have declined in popularity there are several reasons as to why this has happened but two of the main ones are increased cost of rental space and competition with online sales many of the malls we once knew are now sitting empty or have several retail spaces that are not occupied the landscape of shopping online may have changed things but there are still many people who will never forget their special memories that were made inside of a mall do you have any special memories that you would like to share let us know in the comments below as always thank you so much for watching [Music] [Music]

Channel: Rhetty for History

Views: 2,094,274

Keywords: mall stores you once loved but no longer exist, mall stores you once loved, mall stores that no longer exist, shopping mall stores, stores that no longer exist, store we wish were still around, old stores we miss, shopping mall, mall, rhetty for history, shopping mall memories, mall memories, remembering the past, yesteryear, nostalgia, nostalgic, remembering old stores, vintage, popular old stores, popular stores, defunct stores, stores that closed, clothing stores, shopping, shop

Id: L_yErF5qdzE

Length: 13min 5sec (785 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 19 2022