Discount Stores of the '60s

[Pool Hall Ace]

Great nostalgic site recalling a time before WalMart bought every chain up.

http://www.wtv-zone.com/dpjohnson/60sdiscountstores/index.html

[CO Liberal]

1. I Grew Up Going to Two Guys Stores in NJ

The chain was started by two brothers from Harrison, NJ. In factm the chain was originally called "Two Guys From Harrison".

We also had E. J. Korvettes, J.M. Fields, FMC, W. T. Grant's, White-Modell, Robert Hall, Jamesway, Ames, Bambergers, McCrory's, J. J. Newberry's, Woolworth's, amd Kresge's.

[intheflow]

2. I was just posting on Two Guys when I lost my connection!

That was the first one I remember going down. :(

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. Oh Wow! We had a Two Guys by PennCan mall in Syracuse.

The last Kresge's went out of Universal Mall awhile ago...This is great! :hi:

[qnr]

6. Well, still around in some respects, if you go to K-Mart n/t

[ScreamingMeemie]

16. Oh no....Kresge's was the ultimate 5 and 10 experience.

:hi:

[qnr]

28. I know, I used to shop at Kresge's, but Kresge's became K-Mart.

http://www.kmartcorp.com/corp/story/general/corporate_history.stm

[ScreamingMeemie]

30. Yes, most of us here in Michigan know that. Kresge's at Universal Mall

was still just plain old Kresge's and a very different shopping experience than the K Mart it later became. I guess I didn't make myself clear...my mother in law was employed by KMart until 1989 in their Headquarters off Big Beaver in Troy. I'm well aware of its history. The Kresge's that went out at Universal still had the old fashioned soda fountain and only sold five and dime items. :hi:

[qnr]

31. Actually, I figured you knew, I only gave the link to back up my point

for people randomly browsing the thread :)

Edit: My reasoning being that most people that shopped Kresge's knew it became K-Mart, but that K-Mart shoppers didn't know it came from Kresge.

[GalleryGod]

29. My Buddy & I once Hitchhiked UP 130 North to the Two Guys

Near Trenton:shrug: We were 15!
It was Sooooooo Big!

Thanks for the Memories!

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

32. I remember Korvette's in the mid-to-late 1970s (bought my first

record there, a Monkees GH album); used to be in Coliseum Mall in Hampton, VA.

[Redstone]

4. Zayre's, W.T. Grant, Newberry's, Atlantic Thrift...

Redstoe

[Seabiscuit]

5. The Berkeley Co-Op

Before that the "Five And Dime Store" chain.

[southlandshari]

7. Anyone remember Murphy's?

I admit I just scanned the linked site (great link, though!) and didn't see it. When I was around 6 or 7 years old, I have vivid memories of buying my own Christmas presents for my mom and dad (I'm sure with a dollar or two that they gave me) at a store called Murphy's in our local mall. It was inside the mall, but was definitely one of the discount stores with a little of everything pre-Wal-Mart days.

[Pool Hall Ace]

9. G.C. Murphy? Oh, yes.

Murphy's, Kresge, Memco ($1.00 membership fee), Korvette's, McBride's, Woolworth . . .

[southlandshari]

10. Thanks for the confirmation!

That memory of Christmas shopping at Murphy's (I don't remember the G.C. part, but don't doubt that we are talking about same chain) is one of my earliest childhood memories that involves an event of more than a minute or two. It is so clear to me! Walking through the turnstile, buying my mother some bedroom slippers, my father something having to do with shaving (maybe one of those brushes used to spread on shaving cream?), and my little sister a beautiful blue plastic lady on a plastic pedastal.

I was so, so proud of my first independent shopping experience. It didn't last, of course - today I despise shopping, but I still treasure that memory.

Thanks again to the OP for the walk down memory lane!

[SmokingJacket]

26. Murphy's had a distinct smell.

Ours was really old: wooden creaky floors, ladies' wigs, wallets, penny candy, sponge mops, rat traps, tiny notebooks (what I used to go there to buy), stationary kits I bought to write to my penpals, bath kits (good Christmas presents for mom)... etc.

It also had a big glass front window. I wish more stores would let in natural light.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

33. I remember Murphy's Mart and Zayre's as well as Ames.

[KoKo]

8. A neat site with great memories....thanks for the post.

Amazing how excited everyone was to shop in some of those stores. The few times I've gone into Walmart I can't wait to get out. I like Target and can deal with K-Mart...but I remember some of the great old stores and miss the kind of mixed up bunches of merchandise they had.

Now everything is computerized to the exact count of stock and thoroughly packaged so that sometimes it's hard to really "examine the merchandise." Plus people seem more hurried and pre-occupied today for shopping to be FUN! Tired cranky kids and adults just trying to buy what they need to live rather than get a bargain.

It was a fun read. :-)'s

[Nicole]

11. TG & Y stores here

They were everywhere.

[6000eliot]

12. What about Monkey Ward?

That's where I got my records when I was a kid.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

34. LOL! I thought we were the only ones who called it "Monkey Ward"?!

There was also a place called King's.

[Kat45]

13. We didn't have a lot of those here in Mass. We did have

Zayre's and Turnstyle, which were on that page. And of course Woolworth's--I think everyone probably had that one. We also had a store called King's.

[maveric]

20. I remember Turnstyles! I grew up im MA too. Remember JM Fields?

I bought my first stereo at JM Fields (turntable/tuner/8-track). My parents bought a few major appliances there too.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

14. Good lord, WT Grants...

Wow, that takes me back. The one in my town had these painted pink footprints on the floor. I've always wondered about that.
We also had a Cook's. My dad used to take me there to buy school supplies. Now it's a warehouse and the parking lot is a used car lot.

[solinvictus]

15. I remember them...

I was a kid in the 1970's and remember TG&Y, Big-K, Zayre (a biweekly trip), Woolco, Woolworth, and Newberry's. We used to have a Woolworth down the block from us until 1997. It had a luncheonette that could whip up a killer burger. Woolworth was the only general merchandise store here in the Five Points South area of Birmingham.

Now, Dollar General, Family Dollar, and Fred's Pharmacy have taken up the five-and-dime niche left in the wake of Wally World. We shop for TP, detergent, and such at Family Dollar.

[SouthoftheBorderPaul]

17. What about Caldor's

That was the place where I grew up in Branford, CT. They had a brown, beige and off-white rainbow--the most dated 70s logo you can imagine. Didn't see it on the site, but I merely scanned it too. Oh well. MEMORIES (to the tune of Memories. Not that one, stupid--the one from CATS)....all alone in the moonlight....

[SarahB]

22. Caldor's only closed about 5 years ago.

Also a CT person (well, now anyway, but not as a kid).

[maveric]

18. J.M. Fields, W.T. Grant, Zayre's, Stuarts, Stone's, Rich's...

and Raymonds where they spelled words wrong in their advertisements just to be cute.
All these were in the Lawrence MA/Merrimack Valley area.

[Beware the Beast Man]

19. Man, I forgot about Zayre!

Anyone remember Gee-Bee?

[maveric]

23. "Before you go back to school you go to Zayre..." I hated hearing that...

jingle. It meant that summer vacation was almost over.

[Left Is Write]

25. I'd forgotten too - Zayre's Shoppers City!

I used to love Woolworth. Our Woolworth had a lunch counter too. And we had a Ben Franklin.

[SarahB]

21. TurnStyle!

I have these vague memories as a little kid growing up in Omaha of going there in the 70's, but all I remember are these huge psychedelic wall murals. Freaky, man! :hippie:

They've got Skagway too (the one in Omaha and Grand Island, NE)! Wow, some nicely obscure stuff there. :thumbsup:

[Left Is Write]

24. Haven't looked at the link yet, but Target was a good (local)

discount store in the 60s. Target was born in 1962. When I was a kid in the early 70s, we called it "Discount Dayton's."

[lpbk2713]

27. We had a Woolworth and a Woolco within a block of each other.

Also had Grant's, Zayre's (later Ames), TG&Y, McCrory's, Montgomery Ward's, West-Gibson, Kresge, and J M Field's.