5 Department Stores of the Past

Long lost department stores of the past, top 5.

In the last 30 years or so the great department stores have for the most part been destroyed or consumed by the larger retail beasts. What once was a vast landscape of varied strip malls is for the most part gone, replaced with something a bit more mundane in most cases. I remember fondly some of these lost places and in particular their ripe for the picking toy aisles! Here is my top 5 department stores of the past.

Zayre

Zayre is a bit of a stretch for me admittedly. They closed their doors around 1990 when I was 6 so my actual exposure to Zayre was limited.

My mother worked in one of the stores for a few years when I was young and is where she defeated the Cabbage Patch insanity to bring me home a Cabbage Patch of my own, a feat not all parents of the 80's can lay claim to.

Service Merchandise

An oddball of the five on the list. Service Merchandise was a treasured place for my young self. A quick list of some memorable moments in the store:

• First time playing a Sega Genesis, mind blowing (they had playable units available for most consoles)
• Using the Gameboy camera and printer for wacky photos
• The expanded TMNT toy section
• Bikes, lots of bikes!

It was a fun store and always a highlight of going into town. Any time you can play some of the latest games on the latest consoles IN THE STORE was a big deal.

KB Toys

Folks have mixed feelings on this one. Yeah they had inflated prices (video games in particular), a claustrophobic atmosphere, and a terrible layout but it was a dedicated toy store. Found mostly in malls this one was always on my list of places to hit as soon as we were offered the chance to go to the mall. One thing in particular sticks out in regards to KB which is the X-Men toyline. KB had an ongoing 3 for $10 bin full of random figures and I was a sucker for the deal!

Later KB would be swallowed whole by Toys R Us. I remember sadly walking by the shell of the store in its last days.

Ames Department Store

Ames was a big eastern US chain and was the prominent department store found around my area. It was where everyone went and it had a bit of everything so when mom needed something it was a trip worth taking. Why Ames? Ames had one hell of a toy section! A good quarter of the store was dedicated to toys, games, trading cards, bikes, and activity sets. The other great thing was that the store was always stocked so getting that rare toy was not a huge hunt.

An interesting story my mother told me was how I once shoplifted a Big Bird child's chair from the store at a very young age. I would normally wait for my mother to check out at the front of the store perusing the selection of 25 cent machines and arcade games but one day I decided to drag a chair displayed nearby to the outside of the store to wait. Embarrassed my mother brought the chair back in and made me apologize, I started off crooked early it seems!

Ames absorbed Zayre back in the 90's but declared bankruptcy in 2002. The husks of those stores lingered for many years locally and around the country, a once great place to shop still leaves me wanting it to somehow magically make a comeback. Then again I will do anything to stay away from the hell that is Wal-Mart.

Hills (psst, it's where the toys are)

Hills was the big one, the holy grail besides Toys R Us. Hills catered to the kids it even had a slogan promoting it "Hills is Where the Toys Are" and damn were they NOT lying. Our closest Hills was a trek from home but oh so worth every agonizing minute in the minivan. Walking up and down those isles was like a dream and I wanted EVERYTHING.

The catalogs Hills sent out were a toy goldmine. "This is coming out! No way! Oh and check this out the new series of this is in here whoa!". More red markers were used for circling "wants" during this period than any other time in the history of red markers.

Those trips to Hills was a highlight even if it meant enduring hours at the craft store with mom and grandma. When those magical words were uttered "you can get ONE thing" it was on! Grab everything you wanted, slowly chip away at the selection until the best toy remained and the ride back home was toy heaven.

There you have it, my fond retail memories. Maybe I am seeing some of this with too much nostalgia but damn it seemed so fun! I would see we are more limited today as far as department and toy stores go but with the online shops I will call it even.

Any department or toy stores you loved that have gone extinct? Let me know!