Stores of the Past

Blockbuster opened its first video-rental store in Dallas in 1985 and rode the VHS and DVD boom to roughly 9,000 stores worldwide at its mid-2000s peak. Friday-night trips to browse the new-release wall — and the dreaded late fee — were a fixture of American life. The chain famously passed on a chance to buy Netflix, and as streaming and mail-order DVDs took over, Blockbuster collapsed into bankruptcy. Corporate stores closed in 2014, leaving a lone franchise in Bend, Oregon as 'the last Blockbuster.'

Brothers Tom and Louis Borders opened a bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1971 and built a chain of large-format superstores famous for deep inventories, in-store cafes, and racks of CDs and DVDs. Borders expanded aggressively but was slow to develop e-commerce — outsourcing its website to Amazon — and was caught flat-footed by digital books and online retail. Unable to restructure its debt, Borders liquidated its remaining stores in 2011.

Circuit City began as Wards Company, a Richmond TV and appliance retailer, in 1949, and grew into a leading big-box consumer-electronics chain known for its red 'plug' logo and commission sales floor. It spun off the used-car superstore CarMax in the 1990s. A series of missteps — including laying off its highest-paid sales staff during a downturn — and pressure from Best Buy and online sellers pushed it into bankruptcy, and Circuit City liquidated its stores in 2009.

Frank Winfield Woolworth opened his first successful 'Great Five Cent Store' in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1879, pioneering the fixed-price, open-shelf 'five-and-dime' format that let shoppers handle merchandise themselves. Woolworth's spread across America and abroad and built the Woolworth Building in 1913 — briefly the tallest in the world, paid for in cash. Its lunch counters became a fixture of downtown life and, in Greensboro in 1960, a flashpoint of the civil-rights sit-in movement. Squeezed by discount and mall retailers, the variety chain closed its U.S. stores in 1997.

Founded by the Gimbel family, Gimbels grew into one of the largest department-store chains in the country, famous for its New York rivalry with neighbor Macy's — immortalized in 'Miracle on 34th Street.' Gimbels ran Philadelphia's Thanksgiving Day parade beginning in 1920 and operated the upscale Saks subsidiary for years. Unable to keep pace with changing retail, the chain shut down in 1987.

Howard Deering Johnson built a roadside-restaurant empire from a single Massachusetts soda fountain, and by mid-century its orange-roofed restaurants and motor lodges lined America's new highways. 'HoJo's' was famous for its '28 flavors' of ice cream, fried clams, and a dependable family menu for travelers. The interstate era that built the chain eventually passed it by; the restaurants dwindled for decades until the final one closed in 2022, though the Howard Johnson hotel brand lives on.

The S. S. Kresge Company — itself a five-and-dime chain dating to 1899 — opened its first Kmart discount store in Garden City, Michigan in 1962, the same year Walmart and Target debuted. Kmart grew into the dominant U.S. discounter of the 1970s, known for the in-store 'Blue Light Special' and later for Martha Stewart Everyday home goods. A 2002 bankruptcy and a 2005 merger with Sears began a long contraction that left only a few stores standing two decades later.

Marshall Field's grew from a Chicago dry-goods house into one of America's grandest department stores, anchored by its State Street flagship with its Tiffany favrile-glass ceiling and landmark clocks. The store built its reputation on lavish service — 'Give the lady what she wants' — and on signatures like the Walnut Room restaurant and Frango mints. Federated Department Stores bought the chain and rebranded all Marshall Field's locations as Macy's in 2006, to lasting protest from loyal Chicagoans.

Aaron Montgomery Ward launched the world's first general-merchandise mail-order business in 1872, selling to rural customers through a single-sheet price list that grew into a hefty catalog known as the 'Wish Book.' The company opened retail stores in the 1920s and competed head-to-head with Sears for decades. Its copywriter created Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as a 1939 holiday giveaway. After years of decline, Montgomery Ward closed its stores and catalog in 2001.

Service Merchandise pioneered the 'catalog showroom' — shoppers browsed a printed catalog and showroom samples, wrote up order tickets, and watched purchases ride out on a conveyor belt from the stockroom. The format kept prices low on jewelry, electronics, and housewares, and the chain grew to hundreds of stores. Big-box and online competition eroded the catalog-showroom model, and Service Merchandise liquidated in 2002.

Charles Lazarus founded what became Toys 'R' Us in 1957, building the big-box 'toy supermarket' that dominated American childhood for a generation. Geoffrey the Giraffe, the jingle 'I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys 'R' Us kid,' and aisles of bikes and Nintendo defined the brand. Saddled with debt from a 2005 leveraged buyout and undercut by Walmart, Target, and Amazon, the company liquidated its U.S. stores in 2018.

F. W. Woolworth opened its first British store in Liverpool in 1909, and 'Woolies' became a fixture of the UK high street for a century. It was beloved for its pic 'n' mix sweets counter, the Ladybird children's clothing line, and Chad Valley toys. The British business had become independent of its American parent decades earlier; hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis, Woolworths Group entered administration and shut its roughly 800 stores in January 2009.

Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck built a mail-order watch business into Sears, Roebuck and Co., whose thick catalog — the 'Consumer's Bible' — sold everything from tools to entire build-it-yourself houses to rural America. Sears opened retail stores in the 1920s, anchored countless malls, and launched powerhouse brands like Craftsman, Kenmore, and DieHard, even building the world's tallest tower in Chicago. A long decline accelerated after a 2005 merger with Kmart under Eddie Lampert, ending in a 2018 bankruptcy that left only a remnant of stores standing.

Mervin Morris opened the first Mervyn's in San Lorenzo, California in 1949, building a mid-priced department-store chain that anchored West Coast and Sun Belt malls with brand-name apparel and home goods. Owned for years by Dayton-Hudson (later Target), Mervyn's was sold to private-equity investors in 2004, who saddled it with debt and split off its real estate. Squeezed between Kohl's, Target, and Macy's, the chain filed for bankruptcy and liquidated its roughly 175 stores in 2008.

William Filene's Boston department store grew into a New England institution famous for its downtown flagship and, especially, for Filene's Basement — the bargain cellar whose 'automatic markdown' system cut prices the longer goods sat unsold, sparking legendary scrums at the annual bridal-gown sale. The full-line stores were folded into the May Company and then converted to Macy's in 2006; the separately owned Basement chain struggled on before closing in 2011.

John Bullock opened his namesake store in downtown Los Angeles in 1907, and Bullock's became Southern California's premier department store, celebrated for elegant service and the Art Deco landmark Bullocks Wilshire with its luxe Bullock's Wilshire 'tea room.' The upscale Bullock's brand and its sister stores passed through Federated and then a 1988 buyout before the nameplate was retired and converted to Macy's in 1996.

Bonwit Teller was a luxury specialty store known for high fashion, its violet-and-floral signature packaging, and a flagship on Fifth Avenue. The chain dressed generations of well-to-do shoppers and helped launch designer boutiques inside its stores. Its Fifth Avenue building was demolished in 1980 to make way for Trump Tower — a teardown that destroyed prized Art Deco reliefs — and after a string of owners and a bankruptcy, the remaining Bonwit Teller stores closed by 1990.

Benjamin Altman built B. Altman & Company into one of New York's grand carriage-trade department stores, opening a palazzo-style flagship on Fifth Avenue at 34th Street in 1906 that helped move upscale retail uptown. Known for refined service and a famous holiday windows tradition, Altman's was long owned by a charitable foundation. A leveraged sale in the 1980s loaded the company with debt it couldn't carry, and B. Altman closed in 1989.

Carson Pirie Scott & Co. grew from a frontier dry-goods business into a leading Chicago department store, best remembered for its State Street flagship wrapped in Louis Sullivan's ornate cast-iron ironwork — a landmark of American architecture. 'Carson's' anchored Midwestern malls for decades under various owners before being absorbed into the Bon-Ton Stores, whose 2018 liquidation finally closed the chain.

Founded by the Gilman brothers in Southbridge, Massachusetts, Ames built a discount-store chain concentrated in small towns and rural areas of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. It grew rapidly by acquisition — swallowing Zayre's discount stores and later Hills — but overreached and struggled with debt. After a 1990s bankruptcy and a brief recovery, a second filing led Ames to liquidate its more than 300 stores in 2002.

Carl and Dorothy Bennett blended their names into 'Caldor,' a Connecticut discount chain that grew into a Northeastern fixture sometimes called 'the Bloomingdale's of discounting' for its relatively upscale presentation. Owned for a time by Associated Dry Goods and then May, Caldor expanded aggressively into pricey markets like Manhattan just as Walmart and Target pushed east. Mounting losses pushed it into bankruptcy, and Caldor liquidated its roughly 145 stores in 1999.

Bradlees grew from a single store in New England into a regional discount chain owned for years by supermarket operator Stop & Shop. Popular across the Northeast for apparel and household goods, it pitched itself with the slogan 'You've got a friend at Bradlees.' Caught in the same 1990s squeeze that felled rivals Caldor and Ames, Bradlees filed for bankruptcy, briefly reorganized, and finally liquidated its stores in 2001.

The Feldberg family's Zayre — Yiddish for 'very good' — grew into a major East Coast and Southern discount chain through the 1960s and '70s. Its real legacy is corporate: Zayre's management launched the off-price spinoffs T.J. Maxx and BJ's Wholesale Club. In 1988 the company sold the troubled Zayre discount stores to Ames and renamed itself The TJX Companies, building an off-price empire while the Zayre banner itself vanished.

Hills was a discount chain that thrived across the Ohio Valley, Appalachia, and the Midwest, beloved for its snack bar, layaway, and an in-store soundtrack many shoppers still remember. The chain was especially known for its enormous toy department and its annual hype around hot holiday items. After emerging from a 1990s bankruptcy, Hills was bought by rival Ames in 1998 and its stores were converted, ending the Hills name in 1999.

Sydney and Frances Lewis built Best Products into one of the country's largest catalog-showroom chains, where shoppers picked from a thick catalog and order tickets summoned jewelry, electronics, and housewares from the back. Art patrons, the Lewises commissioned the architecture firm SITE to design surreal 'de-architecture' storefronts — crumbling brick facades and a building with a peeling corner — that became pop-architecture landmarks. The catalog-showroom model faded against big-box and discount rivals, and Best liquidated in 1997.

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company began as a New York tea and coffee seller in 1859 and grew into the dominant American grocer of the early 20th century — at its peak running nearly 16,000 stores and pioneering the low-price 'economy store' and the supermarket. A&P's house brands like Eight O'Clock Coffee and Ann Page were pantry staples, and its sheer scale once drew federal antitrust scrutiny. Decades of decline against newer supermarket chains ended in a final 2015 bankruptcy and liquidation.

Grand Union traces to a 19th-century tea company and grew into one of the Northeast's major supermarket chains, with a green-and-orange logo familiar across New York, New Jersey, and New England. It even lent its name to a board game and was an early innovator in store design. A grinding series of bankruptcies through the 1990s and 2000s whittled the chain down until the last stores were sold off and the Grand Union name disappeared around 2013.

Pathmark launched in 1968 when a group of independent grocers under Supermarkets General built a chain of large, brightly lit 'superstores' across New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Known for long hours, in-store pharmacies, and its blue-and-red logo, Pathmark was a fixture of the metro-area suburbs and cities. It was acquired by rival A&P in 2007 and went down with its parent when A&P liquidated in 2015.

Webvan was a dot-com-era online grocer that promised same-day home delivery from automated warehouses, backed by hundreds of millions in venture capital and a fleet of branded delivery vans. It expanded into multiple cities and built costly distribution centers far faster than its customer base grew. When the internet bubble burst, Webvan burned through its cash and collapsed in 2001 — a textbook cautionary tale that nonetheless prefigured today's grocery-delivery business.

Bennigan's brought the Irish-American pub theme to the casual-dining boom, with brass-and-stained-glass decor, the Monte Cristo sandwich, and a clubby bar scene that made it a fixture of 1980s and '90s suburbia. Part of the same restaurant empire as Steak and Ale, it overexpanded and struggled as casual dining crowded. In July 2008 its corporate parent filed for bankruptcy and shuttered company-owned Bennigan's overnight, leaving only scattered franchises.

Restaurateur Norman Brinker opened the first Steak and Ale in Dallas in 1966, popularizing affordable sit-down steak dinners, a Tudor-tavern atmosphere, and one of America's first all-you-can-eat salad bars. The chain helped define the casual-dining category and trained a generation of restaurant executives. After decades of ownership changes it landed in the troubled Metromedia Restaurant Group, which went bankrupt and closed every Steak and Ale in 2008.

Founded in Minnesota by a restaurateur and a former Green Bay Packer, Chi-Chi's served Americanized Mexican food — fried ice cream, chimichangas, and frozen margaritas — in festive cantina-style dining rooms that made it one of the country's largest Mexican chains. Already weakened and in bankruptcy, the chain was devastated by a 2003 hepatitis A outbreak traced to green onions at a Pennsylvania location, and it closed all of its U.S. restaurants in 2004. The brand lives on today only as a line of supermarket salsa and chips.

Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart opened America's most famous Automats — gleaming cafeterias where customers dropped nickels into chrome-and-glass coin slots to pop open little doors and retrieve fresh slices of pie, baked beans, and coffee from spouts shaped like dolphins. A democratic fixture of Philadelphia and New York dining for decades, the Automat was overtaken by fast food and changing tastes. The last Horn & Hardart Automat closed in Manhattan in 1991.

Burger Chef grew out of a flame-broiler equipment company and at its 1970s peak was one of the largest burger chains in the country, second only to McDonald's. It introduced the 'Works Bar' for self-serve toppings and, in 1973, the Fun Meal — a kids' combo with a toy that predated McDonald's Happy Meal. Sold to the parent of Hardee's in 1982, the Burger Chef name was gradually phased out, with the final locations converted by 1996.

Red Barn was a fast-food chain instantly recognizable by its buildings shaped like bright red barns. It was an early innovator with a self-service salad bar and signature sandwiches like the Big Barney and Barnbuster, promoted by costumed characters such as Hamburger Hungry. After changing corporate hands, the franchise agreements lapsed in the 1980s and the barns went dark, though a few former locations kept operating under improvised names for years.

Founded by a former Del Taco partner, Naugles was a Southern California fast-food chain serving Mexican food around the clock, beloved by night owls for the Macho Combo Burrito and a cult-favorite menu. Naugles merged with Del Taco in 1988, and the Naugles name was retired by the mid-1990s. Devoted fans kept its memory — and recipes — alive so persistently that the brand was legally revived as a small restaurant in 2015.

RadioShack began as a Boston supplier for ham-radio hobbyists and, under the Tandy Corporation, grew into a ubiquitous strip-mall fixture for batteries, cables, components, and gadgets. It was an early personal-computer pioneer with the TRS-80 and was famous — and later mocked — for clerks who asked for your name and address at checkout. Battered by big-box and online competition and a confused strategy, the chain filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and again in 2017, shrinking to an online brand and scattered dealers.

Crazy Eddie was a New York–area consumer-electronics chain made famous by manic radio and TV ads in which a frantic pitchman screamed that 'his prices are INSAAANE!' Behind the showmanship, the Antar family ran one of the era's most notorious frauds — skimming cash, then inflating inventory and sales to pump up the stock after going public. The scheme unraveled in the late 1980s, the company collapsed in 1989, and its executives were prosecuted in a case still taught in accounting classes.

CompUSA was the country's leading computer superstore through the 1990s, with warehouse-sized floors of PCs, software, printers, and peripherals plus an in-store service department, drawing tech shoppers before the web took over. As prices collapsed and online sellers and big-box rivals moved in, CompUSA's model faltered. Most stores closed in 2007, the brand was bought by electronics retailer TigerDirect, and the last CompUSA locations were gone by 2012.

Founded by the Jemal family, 'Nobody Beats the Wiz' was a New York–area electronics chain known for low prices, a deep music selection, and one of the most relentless ad jingles in regional broadcasting. It expanded aggressively in the 1990s, filed for bankruptcy, and was bought by Cablevision, which shortened the name to 'The Wiz.' Unable to compete with Best Buy and Circuit City, the remaining stores closed in 2003.

Lechmere started as a Cambridge, Massachusetts tire and radio shop and grew into a New England chain selling electronics, appliances, and housewares, anchored by its landmark store at Lechmere Square. Famous for green-stamp promotions and a wide selection, it was a go-to for stereos and TVs across the region. Sold to Montgomery Ward in the 1990s and folded into its electronics concept, Lechmere was liquidated in 1997.

Hollywood Video grew quickly in the 1990s into Blockbuster's biggest national rival, with large, brightly lit stores, a deep catalog, and the no-late-fee 'MVP' membership push. It launched the Game Crazy video-game shops inside many locations. Acquired by Movie Gallery in 2005, Hollywood Video was dragged down as DVD-by-mail and streaming gutted rental demand, and it liquidated alongside its parent in 2010.

Movie Gallery built the second-largest video-rental chain in North America by concentrating on small towns and rural markets that the bigger players ignored. Its 2005 purchase of Hollywood Video doubled its size overnight but loaded it with debt just as the rental business began to crater. After two bankruptcies in three years, Movie Gallery liquidated all of its stores — including the Hollywood Video banner — in 2010.

Family Video outlasted nearly every competitor by owning its real estate rather than leasing, keeping costs low and renting on properties it controlled. Concentrated in the Midwest and South, it stayed family-owned, leaned on free-rental promotions, and even added pizza shops and fitness centers to its buildings. The pandemic finally did what streaming had been doing for years, and Family Video closed its last stores in 2021 — the end of the American video-store era.

Waldenbooks began as a Depression-era book rental library and became the quintessential American mall bookstore, with compact, browsable shops in shopping centers nationwide and the popular Waldenbooks Preferred Reader club. Acquired by Kmart and later merged into Borders Group, Waldenbooks was squeezed by superstores and online sellers. When Borders liquidated in 2011, the Waldenbooks mall stores closed with it.

B. Dalton Bookseller was launched by the Dayton department-store family and became a leading mall bookstore chain, helping bring bestseller racks and mass-market paperbacks to suburban shoppers. Barnes & Noble bought B. Dalton in 1986 and ran it as its mall division even as it built the bookstore superstores that made small mall shops obsolete. Barnes & Noble closed the last B. Dalton stores at the end of 2010.

Crown Books, founded by Robert Haft of the Dart Group, was a discount-bookstore pioneer that undercut full-price shops with the slogan 'Books cost too much. Read a Crown book and save.' Concentrated in the Washington, D.C. area and other major markets, it helped popularize deep discounting on bestsellers. Caught between the new superstores and online retail — and roiled by a family feud over the parent company — Crown Books went bankrupt and liquidated in 2001.

Russ Solomon grew Tower Records from a corner of his father's Sacramento drugstore into a cultural institution, with vast, stay-open-late stores — the Sunset Strip and Greenwich Village locations chief among them — that treated records as a way of life. Famous for its yellow-and-red logo, knowledgeable clerks, and the magazine Pulse!, Tower was a hangout as much as a store. Crushed by CD downloading, big-box discounting, and heavy debt, Tower liquidated its U.S. stores in 2006.

Sam Goody built a New York record empire that became one of the country's best-known music chains, a mall staple selling LPs, then cassettes, CDs, and eventually DVDs and games. Run for years by the Musicland Group, Sam Goody was the place a generation bought its first albums. As music sales moved to discounters, downloads, and the iTunes era, the chain faltered, was rebranded toward the FYE concept, and the Sam Goody name faded out by the early 2010s.

Camelot Music grew from an Ohio record shop into one of the largest mall music chains in the country, its castle-themed logo familiar in shopping centers across the Midwest and South. Camelot sold records, tapes, CDs, and accessories and rode the album boom of the 1980s and '90s. After a bankruptcy and consolidation in the shrinking music-retail business, it was absorbed by Trans World Entertainment around 2001 and rebranded as FYE.

KB Toys began as the Kaufman Brothers wholesale candy business and reinvented itself as a toy retailer, becoming the dominant toy store inside American malls — small, densely packed shops with stacked boxes, blowout sales, and a knack for hot holiday items. As big-box discounters and Toys 'R' Us pulled toy shoppers to standalone stores and the web, KB's mall model lost ground. A 2008 holiday season and the recession finished it, and KB Toys liquidated in early 2009.

Child World, with its sister stores branded Children's Palace, was for a time the nation's second-largest toy chain behind Toys 'R' Us. Many of its stores were unmistakable — built to look like castles, complete with turrets — and packed with toys, bikes, and games. Fierce price competition with Toys 'R' Us and discounters, plus heavy debt from a buyout, pushed Child World into bankruptcy, and it liquidated its stores in 1992.

Eckerd grew from a single drugstore into one of the largest pharmacy chains in the United States, a fixture across Florida, the South, and the Northeast known for its photo developing, pharmacy counter, and ubiquitous strip-mall stores. After passing through several corporate owners, the chain was carved up: J.C. Penney sold the drugstores, and by 2007 the Eckerd locations had been absorbed by CVS and Rite Aid, retiring the name.

Revco Discount Drug Centers grew out of Detroit into one of the country's biggest drugstore chains, dominant across the Midwest and Appalachia with a deep-discount approach to prescriptions and sundries. The company survived a troubled 1980s leveraged buyout and bankruptcy, then rebuilt itself, only to be acquired by CVS in 1997. Every Revco store was rebranded CVS, instantly extending that chain's national footprint and ending the Revco name.

Phar-Mor was a fast-growing deep-discount drugstore chain whose 'power buying' undercut rivals so aggressively that founder Mickey Monus boasted competitors fled wherever he opened. The growth was a mirage: Monus and his finance chief hid more than $500 million in losses in one of the era's largest corporate frauds, exposed in 1992. Phar-Mor went through bankruptcy and a reorganization but never fully recovered, liquidating its remaining stores in 2002.

Casual Corner was a mall mainstay of women's clothing, dressing working women in career separates, dresses, and coordinated outfits across hundreds of shopping-center stores along with its sister brands Petite Sophisticate and August Max Woman. As fast fashion and specialty rivals reshaped mall apparel, Casual Corner lost its footing. The chain was sold and its stores were liquidated in 2005.

Merry-Go-Round Enterprises sold trendy, of-the-moment clothing to teens and young adults through mall chains including Chess King, Cignal, and Dejaiz, riding the fashions of the 1980s and early '90s. The company rode fads hard — and when youth tastes shifted away from its flashy looks and a major acquisition went sour, it stumbled fast. Merry-Go-Round filed for bankruptcy and liquidated its hundreds of stores in 1996.

George Romanta Kinney founded the shoe chain that bore his name in 1894, building one of America's largest family-shoe retailers with affordable footwear in downtowns and malls nationwide. Owned by Woolworth for most of the 20th century, Kinney spawned the wildly successful Foot Locker spinoff. In 1998 Woolworth — by then refocusing entirely on athletic retail under the Venator/Foot Locker banner — abruptly closed all Kinney Shoes and Footaction stores.

Wet Seal began in Southern California in 1962 and grew into a national fast-fashion chain aimed at teen and young-women shoppers, with trendy, inexpensive clothing in malls across the country. It thrived in the 1990s and 2000s but was hit hard as teen tastes fragmented and online and fast-fashion rivals surged. After repeated losses and store closures, Wet Seal filed for bankruptcy and shut its remaining stores in 2017.

Hechinger was the Washington, D.C. region's dominant home-improvement chain, its orange logo and 'The World's Most Unusual Lumber Yard' slogan familiar to generations of Mid-Atlantic do-it-yourselfers. As Home Depot and Lowe's expanded the warehouse format, Hechinger was bought by an investment firm and merged with Builders Square. The combined company couldn't keep up, went bankrupt, and liquidated all of its stores in 1999.

Builders Square was Kmart's foray into the warehouse home-improvement business, a chain of big-box hardware and building-supply stores meant to compete with the rising Home Depot. Kmart struggled to make the format work and sold it off; Builders Square was merged with Hechinger under a single owner in the late 1990s. The combined company was no match for Home Depot and Lowe's and was liquidated in 1999.

Sports Authority pioneered the big-box sporting-goods superstore, filling warehouse-sized floors with everything from treadmills and tents to team jerseys and bikes, and grew into the largest sporting-goods retailer in the country. It even bought the naming rights to the Denver Broncos' stadium. Saddled with debt from a private-equity buyout and undercut by Dick's, Walmart, and online sellers, Sports Authority filed for bankruptcy and liquidated its roughly 460 stores in 2016.

Herman's was for decades the leading sporting-goods chain on the East Coast, a go-to for sneakers, exercise gear, team uniforms, and camping equipment well before the big-box superstore era. After a series of ownership changes and an ill-fated repositioning, Herman's lost ground to the warehouse-format newcomers like Sports Authority. The chain filed for bankruptcy and liquidated its stores in 1996.

Levitz popularized the warehouse-showroom furniture store: shoppers walked through a furnished showroom, then took their purchases home the same day from the attached warehouse instead of waiting weeks for delivery. The slogan 'You'll love it at Levitz' made it a household name and the model reshaped furniture retailing nationwide. Burdened by debt and outflanked by newer competitors, Levitz cycled through bankruptcies and finally liquidated in 2008.