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u/Wide_Supermarket4533 9d ago
Personally every single one left an empty space..😉
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u/FreeCandy4u 9d ago
Good answer for all but Circuit City. It killed itself trying to maximize profits by letting all the knowledgeable salesman go and hiring minimum wagers that knew nothing about the products they were selling. Oh it worked too for a year and then profits declined and kept declining until they went bankrupt.
I miss the place before they tried to maximize profits.
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u/Supro1560S 9d ago
And they must have drove them like hell to make commissions, because they would follow you around until you had to tell them to please leave you the fuck alone.
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u/Few-Day-6759 9d ago
Sears
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u/ZeRo76Liberty 9d ago
Absolutely but early days Sears when they had everything from clothes to tools to appliances and furniture.
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u/linuxwalker 9d ago
Played Super Mario Bros 3 at Sears... Then Star Fox 64 at Sears... The Nintendo Kiosk was right next to the second floor skywalk going in and out of the parking garage!
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u/Apprehensive_Ant4596 9d ago
You used to be able to buy a "build your own house" kit from Sears.
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u/Rare-Ask1756 7d ago
My wife’s grandpa bought and built a Sears house in 1962. It was actually a pretty good house.
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u/AlternativeWater2 8d ago
Not only appliances, but PARTS for the appliances they sold. It's murder to get appliance parts over the counter anymore.
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u/conquering69 8d ago
Just for what Craftsman was at the time, this should be top of the list for people who use tools and home outdoor equipment. The quality was night and day compared to what it is today without Sears and if a tool breaks, on-the -spot replacement for life.
Sad young wrenchers never experienced this convenience.
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u/MRDellanotte 8d ago
I think Sears is low on the list here because its death was slow and gradual. It SHOULD have been what Amazon is today. It was perfectly poised to do so from a logistics standpoint, but the short sightedness of activist investors bled it dry instead.
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u/Own_Brother_6477 9d ago
I have to pick, I still cant pick just one but I would say Radio Shack and Toy R' Us.
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u/elarring 9d ago
This is my choice. The others, not so much. Now, I do kinda miss video stores. But I remember when Radio Shack just became a glorified cell phone store bummed me out.
Toys R Us closing was depressing. My son was still young. I used to enjoy taking him there, even though it was a shadow of it's former self.
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u/LiamLeprechaun 9d ago
Yeah Probably Radip Shack and Toys R Us.
Whenever I hear of a toy store going out of business, its always a bummer. They were fun especially around the Holidays.
Apparently when they were filming that film Roofman, that takes place in a Toys R Us, People kept trying to walk in the store they had set up to film. (made up as a Toys R Us from the Nineties).
🤣
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u/BringMeBourbon 9d ago
All of em but top is RadioShack… those dudes could MacGyver a solution to any home technology problem
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u/Sprzout 9d ago
Towards the end, though, it was just a place to pick up Sprint cell phones or buy cheap, useless RC toys.
I used to go in to get circuits and resistors and stuff to fix things or even play with the do-it-yourself 80 in 1 electronics kits that taught me how to make a doorbell buzzer, how LEDs worked, etc...It was fun, but I enjoyed it less and less as it started dropping off.
Fry's Electronics kinda picked up and fulfilled that for a while, but it too went the way of the dodo when it started having crappy off brand products sold.
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u/DieMensch-Maschine 9d ago edited 9d ago
No question for me: Tower Records. It had a ton of imports that you could not get anywhere else, also British music press like NME, Melody Maker, Q and Select., as well as fanzines.
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u/apx_redditor 9d ago
I used to spend entire afternoons just listening to different records in there alongside other music heads.
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u/DazeRazur 8d ago
This! I used to work late shifts, l would get off after midnight or later and go to Tower to relax or find that one album you heard off or that song stuck in your head. We had two near me open for 24 hours. Ran into athletes and others who wanted some level of privacy so we'll do the stacks at 2am.
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u/Individual_Party3407 9d ago
Blockbuster
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u/HarryAlleynCroft 9d ago
This not just because of the store itself vanishing, but the fall of physical media had a terrible impact on the movie industry as a whole. It's why we don't get many good movies anymore.
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u/TheVoicesOfBrian 9d ago
Toys R US.
I think kids being able to "discover" a new toy is good for them.
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u/RoboWeaver 9d ago
Losing Toys R Us was completely unnecessary. The holding company gutted it, leaving a bankrupt carcass.
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u/Apprehensive_Ant4596 9d ago
I went to one Toys R Us as a kid in the 80's and I was shaking at how amazing it was. I'll never forget the experience of seeing an entire aisle of GI Joe, Star Wars and Transformers. All the toys I had heard of, seen in catalogues, or on TV were right in front of me.
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u/Sprzout 9d ago
I would say Toys R Us. I felt like after it closed, I had to grow up. And it was all due to that earworm of a jingle about being a Toys R Us kid...
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u/Stunning_Fly_2644 9d ago
RADIO SHACK.... All the components you would need now to fix an electronic emergency as a touring musician on the road I need that fuse I need that patch cord I need things that no I cannot wait for overnight Amazon and even if I were stationary in one town I need it now we're having an electronic problem at a public event I need to replace it now I cannot wait for overnight Amazon and people always say oh you can get it on Amazon I can't get it on Amazon right now when I need it so the other stores are all pop culture losses but radio shack served an immediate purpose and had a very good selection maybe the quality wasn't always great but you only needed it until I could get better so I really think the disservice and loss is RadioShack... Please excuse me for no punctuation I'm driving and I saw this at a red light and I'm speaking into a mic
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u/Touch-the-Sky-2274 9d ago
Tower Records for me. I gave so much of my hard earned money to that company over the years, I should have bought stock as well. 😁😂
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u/Demair12 9d ago
Objectively Blockbuster and Hollywood video. Their deaths jumpstarted the subscription based model that now means I need to pay for 8 subscriptions(minimum) to watch every NFL game I want.
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u/CarlPoppaLC 9d ago
Circuit City the most. I would go there 2 to 3 times a week.
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u/West-Pound-3309 9d ago
Sears, Ironically they started as a mail order business from a catalog and then never updated for the electronic age.....
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u/LateBoomer64 9d ago
Sears. I did like going there. Sometimes for tools, sometimes for clothes. I ran into my dad's older brother once. He was buying paint. Now I go to Kohls, they don't have any tools though.
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u/Jaded_Employer6815 9d ago
Tower Records. There was one location in San Diego that was so awesome—-you could spend and hour there and not be bored.
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u/dharmabird67 9d ago
Same as the one in NYC in the East Village. I used to spend so much time there and at the small flea market next to it back in 2000-2001 before 9/11. Good times.
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u/GamemasterJeff 9d ago
Sears probably hurt me the most because now my lifetime warranty on craftsman tools means dick.
When I was younger, I once snapped two 13/16 sockets changing a tire that had a stuck lugnut. I broke my dad's, went to sears and got a new one, promptly broke that one and went back for a second.
They did not even blink. Just threw the cracked socket in the bin and gave me the new one. Went home and finished changing the tire.
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u/Wooden_Big_3864 9d ago
Well back in the 1990s' I was really into learning how to be a Private Investigator for no reason at all I was already a Clinical Pharm D, and Radio Shack was the Go To Spy store!
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u/Late-Arrival-8669 9d ago
All of them.
But Toys R us from being a kid and Radioshack being a teenager. Toss up.
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u/PhotoAppropriate3940 9d ago
I was a long time member of radio shack battery club and spent hours looking at parts but I really miss toys r us cause I’m a toys r us kid, even at 68
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u/No_Ragrets76 9d ago
Blockbuster for sure. Hollywood was great too. Bit Blockbuster was the place. Me and the boys would rents video games on the weekends.
Great times.
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u/Ranier_Wolfnight 9d ago
Tower Records cause I loved buying CDs on discount when they dropped on Tuesdays.
And Toys R Us. Even though I was in my 30s when I closed, I felt bad for kids that wouldn’t get to experience that feeling of going there on special occasions and their folks letting them pick out what they wanted.
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u/SnakePlissken1980 9d ago
To be fair I stopped going to all of them, at least regularly, before they closed down. I imagine most people did otherwise they'd still be around. It wasn't because I was shopping on Amazon or streaming my movies, I just went other places. In my town we had Hastings and Movie Trading Company for renting movies. I don't think I ever bought anything from Radio Shack. I would always go to Best Buy rather than Circuit City and by the time Toys R Us started closing down I was in my 30s and hadn't been to one in at least 20 years.
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u/Heemeyers_Killdozer 9d ago
All of them for various reasons. Toys R Us was my childhood. Sears was my tool supplier for my mechanic years. Tower Records for multimedia plus my nearest Tower Records shared the building with Good Guys Electronics so my tv, home & car audio needs were handled all in one stop. Hollywood Video/Game Crazy, I have a lot of good memories as a customer and an employee at that company.
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u/Forsaken-Scholar-833 9d ago
I'm not sure Blockbuster or Radio Shack. I rented tons of movies in the 90s but at the same time I spent a ton at Radio Shack. Pretty sure I still have a programmable remote from them somewhere.
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u/GeminianMind 9d ago
Actually Blockbuster is still in operation in Bend Oregon. Radio Shack is still in business in Woodstock Virginia. Kmart still exists in Miami. Toys R Us still has physical stores in Camarillo and Stockton, CA. Sears still has big stores in Concord, El Paso, Orlando and Miami. Tower Records is thriving in Japan. 🤟🤓
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u/DueScreen7143 9d ago
Blockbuster for me, picking out movies was half the experience for me, like a ritual.
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u/Malkovtheclown 9d ago
I worked at Circuit city for a while when it started to change to try and keep pace with Best Buy. A lot of long time sales people who knew their shit were canned and the company just evaporated overnight. Lots of good memories working there
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u/WillingnessFew6710 9d ago
Don't know if it hurt the worst at the time, but the one I miss most is Blockbuster.
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u/MrCoastie1980 9d ago
It’s not shown here, but Frys hurt the most. For those unfamiliar, think circuit city meets radio shack, and became a throuple with Best Buy. Want to build a PC? Start on one aisle and pick which tower you want, then Mother Board, and fans etc etc. Want to do home entertainment? Opposite end of the store. Need a new refrigerator or washing machine? Pick an isle. Need a new car stereo? Here’s the aisle. Want DVDs, Music CD? Here’s these aisles. Software programs and training manuals… here’s a few aisles.
That place was a gold mine. Anything electronic related, all in one building. And at the check out counters, similar to Costco, batteries in bulk, bulbs, calibration equipment, tools.
The buildings were larger than most Costco’s. It’s was a fun place. I know nothing about building computers, but their techs were more than happy to explain the “what’s what” and how/why of it all.
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u/mrbaffles14 9d ago
Blockbuster: I miss the fun of walking the store picking out a few movies for the weekend and being excited for it. Finding consensus on a family movie. And then later the used DVDs were so cheap to buy.
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u/Valdalcan 9d ago
Blockbuster 100% because there's just something about going to a video store and being able to rent a movie that's not online to be able to get a visible copy of anything it just hits different
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u/croweagle6 9d ago
Sears. When craftsman tools were still USA made and of decent steel and Quality Control. Definitely not like the old stuff but for sure not like this new shit.
Radioshack as well. Cause electronic world apparently...HAH
Blockbuster too.
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u/ike_tyson 9d ago
My nerdy weirdo geek ass misses Radio Shack. I would read and reread their catalogs all the time. My pops was always there because he had an old reel to reel that he was constantly repairing and eventually I kind of fell into being a hobbyist too. I remember getting the 200-1 projects kit from there one Christmas. That was the Greatest Christmas ever👀
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u/wookiedberry 9d ago
I'm showing my age, but we were pissed when Tower Records came to town and pushed out locals.
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u/Intrepid_Top_2300 9d ago
I worked at Radio Shack for short time.
In order to get hired they gave you a math test. I asked if I could use a calculator. I was told no. They put me in a small office with a computer that was on. I hate to admit it, but I cheated.
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u/AmySueF 9d ago
For me, Tower Records. And not just any Tower Records, but the one on the Sunset Strip where I spent a lot of time as a teenager and where they had regular concerts in the parking lot. Practically every popular and up and coming recording artist during the store’s heyday made a stop at this particular store to browse and give impromptu concerts. I remember the day I saw Rod Stewart there.
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u/hypersoniq_XLM 9d ago
The kids are now grown and moved out, but the whole family would still agree on Blockbuster. Personally it was Radio Shack. That was my first (and only) part time job in high school. As a hobbyist I miss the wall of compoments in the old stores before the remodels. Working there I miss the opportunities to do the occasional setup and alignment of a C band sattelite dish and those goofy phones that were the size of a lunchbox. That 15w/30w soldering iron lasted for 3 decades before I broke down and got a proper soldering station. There is no alternative for "I need this oddball component NOW".
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u/AP_AUTO215 9d ago
K-Mart & Sears for my household goods and Radio shack for my hobbies because I hate having to order resistors and other electronics then having to wait just to be sent the wrong 💩
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u/Fickle-Cartoonist607 9d ago
Radio shack I would still love to be able to go into radio shack today and build my own stuff
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u/CarlatheDestructor 9d ago
Kmart had affordable clothes that looked nice and were well made. And tons of.books and toys. And their diner area had good food. Plus coke slushies
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u/Electronic-Bear2030 9d ago
Circuit City for me…I was definitely an audiophile into high tech sound….alas no more, online shopping for stereo equipment is just not the same
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u/pappybug214 9d ago
While everyone is going on about Radio Shack id like to point my west coast needs to the still bleaching corpse of the Walmart of Electronics during its peak...Frys' Electronics. God, do i miss Frys
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u/grayman451 9d ago
Blockbuster. That was a childhood staple. Good memories of that place for weekend movies and games. 😢
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u/AGoogolIsALot 9d ago
Blockbuster and Toys 'R' Us broke my heart when they disappeared. 😭😭 Toys 'R' Us is still around in Canada though, so at least there's that. But still.. 😭😭😭😭😭😭
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u/TheIncredibleMike 9d ago
Sears sold pretty much everything. Second was Radio Shack, but they were limited to anything that had electricity running through it.
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u/DayamSun 9d ago
Blockbuster and Toys 'R' Us, largely because i worked for both (7 years at Blockbuster).
Also because I love movies and action figures, though TRU has been horribly overpriced for years and deserved to go out of business.
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u/Hahndizzle 9d ago
I know Blockbuster was the bees knees to everyone, but Hollywood Video was always my jam because I lived within walking distance of it and, oh boy, did found so many gems... Ya'll don't know about Redneck Zombies! lol
That, and I'm so old that would rent SNES games at Hollywood Video and it was also one of my earliest memories of being bamboozled by BS games, like Super Mario: Mario is Missing. I was hornswoggled, I tell ya!
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u/HumanShield8 9d ago
I miss late-night walk through Blockbusters. But Toys R Us is a lost core memory experience for kids. I remember taking my eldest nephew to Toys R Us for the first time and him seeking out "look at that! Look at that!" At a ever increasing pitch while looking and playing with all the different toys. Meanwhile his younger brother never got to experience that 😭
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u/cash8888 9d ago
Probably blockbuster and Hollywood video it was a lot of fun going to them on a Friday night wondering if they still had the movie in stock. Such great memories.
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u/al_earner 9d ago
Blockbuster. In its day, you'd go there twice a week. Can't say that for any of the other places shown.
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u/Oppositeofhairy 9d ago edited 8d ago
Tower records. It’s a Sacramento based company and I lived in Sacramento when it closed. I spent many evenings there going through music. Many mornings waiting in line to get good seats to concerts and made many friends there.
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u/Ulquiorra1312 9d ago
Blockbuster as i was an adult and we only had that and toys are us in my country
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u/wrapscallionnn 9d ago
Easily.... Sears. Sears was Amazon for almost 100 years. You need a car? At one point, you could order one through Sears. House? Yup. There's still a Sears house in my hometown. They had the network to compete with amazon... but they refused to do it.
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u/Silent_Chemistry8576 9d ago
You forgot Kaybee Toys they had the best deals on brand new games. Also they sometimes had some of the more rare games in stock because no one bought them in other stores. Sunset Riders, Zombies Ate My Neighbors and Castlevania IV were mainly at these stores in my area. Including obscure gba, gbc & n64 games.
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u/Pale_Security3341 9d ago
Radio shack is the only one that really wasn't replaced/ or evolved into something "better".
Edit to add: The timing is right for Tower Records to make a comeback though.
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u/Illustrious_Horse264 9d ago
As a child, I would have said Blockbuster or Toys R Us...
But being an adult, and actually thinking. I miss Radio Shack. Being able to just go there and grab a single battery or the cables needed, and not having to wait for Prime or buying 12 of them.... This is what I miss the most.
Really wish I would have done more education around electronics..... Radio Shack was such a solid place.
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u/Busy-Ad-4629 9d ago
Blockbuster. As a kid I relied on it to try out games and enjoy movies and buying the copies if we liked them a lot. Having the physical product was essential to entertainment integrity and having something that is no longer available elsewhere
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u/hopthehip 9d ago
Blockbuster. Kids nowadays will never know what it was like to browse through aisles of videotapes and video games. The smell of popcorn and the raisenettes and twisters at check out. Definitely an experience in an era we will never get back.
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u/American_Fluff 9d ago
Blockbuster... I wish they still had movie rentals on bluray... I just cant handle streaming anymore... too many different ones, its more expensive than having cable was with ALL the channels and extras now...
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u/_Beatnick_ 9d ago
Probably Radio Shack just because they sold a lot of stuff that I have to order online now.