Store Chains that have vanished.

[RCMerchant]

I was just thinking of when I was hitchhiking through Ohio in 1978, and me and my brother Glenn ditched out of a Howard-Johnson's without paying, and it got me to thinking "Whatever happened to Howard Johnsons?"
Also- Ben Franklin dime stores (I reckon they would be called Dollar stores now), Burger Chef, Stuckety's, Carol's (served good hot dogs),  or WaldenBooks- where I used to splurge on horror film books.
Do you recall any vanished chains?

[Rev. Powell]

So many... remember Tower Records, Borders' books? The Internet killed off a bunch of non-grocery retailers. Sears, JC Penney (there may still be some Penny's around). I think there are a few Howard Johnson's left, I could be wrong. As kids, we used to love to eat at Chi-Chi's. I see they may be coming back.

[Trevor]

Here we had the Central News Agency, known to all as the CNA and at these stores, you could buy stationery, books, sweets, cold drinks, magazines, records, tapes, CDs, video cassettes and later DVDs and Blu-rays.

They also sold cell phones and laptops and during the early 90s held the majority shares in NuMetro, our second largest theater chain.

In the 2000s, they were sold off at a loss and one by one, the brick and mortar stores closed. I believe you can still buy from them online but all the stores have now gone. Very sad.

[RCMerchant]

I think there are a few Howard Johnson's left, I could be wrong.

I just looked it up- the last Howard Johnson's retaurant closed in 2022.

[Trevor]

Two other chain stores we had here were MUSICA and LOOK & LISTEN. Both specialized in music and movies on all formats but the arrival of online shopping eventually put them both out of business.

L&L went under because of their high prices: I once saw that they had a bare bones DVD of the movie MONA LISA for ZAR600!! ($33) 😳😳😳😳