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Guy wants to revive Caldor name? Feh, bring back Zayre
By adamg on Wed, 06/04/2014 - 7:29am
So this guy down in Connecticut thinks there's enough nostalgia for the Caldor name to get people to give him money to revive it as some sort of e-commerce Web site.
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Comments
Some people beg to differ
My memory of Caldor is my
My memory of Caldor is my mother insisting on buying stuff there because it was "cheap" and that stuff inevitably breaking within days (if it worked at all to begin with). Today, Wal-Mart has mastered the art of convincing people to buy low-quality, disposable crap because it's "cheap" and raking in the bucks as people return to buy more "cheap" stuff. What we really need is the return of stores that sell mid-range products that, yes, cost more, but also are of quality to last for several years. These days it seems that discount or luxury are our only options.
(My other memories of Caldor are of my high school friends who worked there and had to wear those horrid brown & orange vests. Oh, and another HS friend who got arrested for shoplifting from Caldor).
We totally need an e-Spags!
We totally need an e-Spags!
It was what it was , but it
It was what it was , but it provided jobs then and there . Just like Orbit , Sherbros , J M Fields , Almys , Sandy's , Forest Hills Factory Outlet.and a bunch of others. And the supermarkets as well, First National , A & P , Purity Supreme , Food Center , Elm Farm, Capitol markets , plus the onsies and twosies owned by the merchants. Things weren't too sophisticated back then . Good old Jack Surman would let you buy on the cuff, pay a little each week from the pay you earned at one of the dinosaurs...
Capitol WAREHOUSE :)
Capitol WAREHOUSE :)
That particle board furniture
".@universalhub. Caldor was brutal. Only a handful of old guys around who remember their furniture made of particle board. "
Hey, I still have some of that! Or could have been from Bradlees, they were pretty interchangeable & both close. I just moved 2 short particle board bookcases from temporary duty in a bedroom down to the basement (with plastic feet added to keep the particle board from the floor). They were purchased between 1982 & '86. Wow. I think that's the last remnant furniture of grad school days.
no, bring back Woolworth's instead
Family Dollar is a really depressing substitute.
nostalgia....
Woolworth's---a store with historical roots!
Zayres, Caldor, Bradlees
1985 called, they want their discount department stores back.
Little historical fact:
The largest Woolworths in the world was in downtown crossing in what now houses Marshalls, TJ Mad, H&M, and a health club/gym. It was an awesome place, even had a sporting goods department that sold firearms. Use to buy my fish there as a kid.
If you're ever in downtown Manhattan
Be sure to check out the lobby of the Woolworth Building on Broadway, which has some amazing tile work and gargoyles of F.W. Woolworth himself and the building's architect (says the guy who spent weekends during high school working in his father's office in the building).
Uh, Adam, you can't get into
Uh, Adam, you can't get into that lobby anymore. You can peer at it through the doors, and sometimes if your NYU class gets assigned to that building, you can snake through the hallways and catch a peek of the lobby. But, no, non-tenants cannot access that lobby.
Further proof I long ago stopped being a Nooyawka
Oh, well, thanks for the update.
Bring back
Mammoth Mart
Raymond's
Where U Bot The Hat.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Re:Raymond's
I got a hamster there for 43 cents.
A Few More Lost Retailers Of Boston
Gilchrist's
W. T. Grant's
Kennedy's (the mens clothier, not the butter-and-egg concern)
Mickey Finn's
Harry The Greek's
My favorite memory of the latter came from my brief stint as a City of Boston street cleaner. All the members of our crew would go there to cash our checks, a needed service since we were mostly late teens and without bank accounts. They did the service for you, for a fee - I think it may have been a dollar - but they also always gave you some bit of merchandise in return. I recall receiving quite a few pair of decent work socks (mid-shin whites, good with boots) for that buck and always feeling as though I had been treated fairly. It made the experience pleasant and almost looked-forward-to since it was a sort of surprise package you'd be receiving.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Barracuda jackets and Snorkel Jacket
Got my prized beige barracuda and snorkel @ Kennedys.
Harry the Greeks and Mickey Finns...what can I add...they were legendary.
snyder's leather allston
so you could look like the fonz.
Hooray an opportunity to post
Hooray an opportunity to post links about one of my passions: dead retail.
www.amesfanclub.com
www.labelscar.com
can't forget
www.deadmalls.com :)
I wonder what The Caldor
I wonder what The Caldor Rainbow thinks of this development:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/10073060@N00/
Caldor? How about a Lechmere
Caldor? How about a Lechmere!
Caldor?
What about dolor, rubor, and tumor?
The Bargain Center in Quincy?
The Bargain Center in Quincy?
Service Merchandise?
Paperama?
Angelos?
Trying to remember more from the old days of my youth....
NHD
NHD
I just died of nostalgia overload
The Bargie! The Bahgin Centah!
I swear ta Gawd that every time we went there we lost my little brother. He was a punk ass and hid inside the circular racks of shirts.
Bring back Paperama!
Does anyone else remember Heartland?
Heartland and Angelo's I
Heartland and Angelo's I think were owned by the same people, which were the Tedschi family, I think.
Heartland and Purity Supreme
Heartland and Purity Supreme were always the "red" grocery stores to me.
Service Merchandise was
Service Merchandise was always bizarre to me. Literally a catalogue show room. Walk in, pick up some weird gray plastic notepad thing and if you wanted something, you wrote down the number, pay for it and it comes out on a conveyor belt.
Shit was VERY expensive there too from what I recall, despite everything being overall "meh" and the same stuff you could find at Lechmere. It feels like the last one to close was up Salem, NH.
I miss their very brown logo with the diamond.
K-Mart should go back to
K-Mart should go back to being S.S. Kresge! So much classier!
Tacky
is timeless.
kings? turnstyle?
anybody remember the big buy/turnstyle store in allston (later became caldors, later became office max) with the brighams set up on a stage in between? you actually had to go thru a turnstyle to get into the store if I remember correctly.
Don't remember that place
Don't remember that place specifically, but that seemed to be a common setup in the old days for places that sold electronics, etc. You would go in through a turnstile, and when you picked something out, they would bring it up to the front counter for you to purchase. Loss prevention, presumably. Sherman's on Bromfield Street worked that way and there was a place up in Lawrence where I used to buy cheap Maxell cassettes in the 80s.
shermans on bromfield
I worked there when I was 18.
Shermans!
I was trying to remember the name of this store a few nights ago. Thank you.
Turnstiles
This dredged up a long-forgotten memory. Patrons of Star Market in Dorchester Lower Mills used to enter the store through turnstiles when I was a child. Similar was true for the Osco's Pharmacy in the same small shopping plaza. Between the two stores was a Brigham's, no turnstile to enter, and you could just walk directly from the Brigham's into Star via a side entrance connecting the two stores.
I guess they assumed would-be thieves choosing to exit via Brigham's would be so enticed by the prospect of a raspberry lime rickey, they'd stop dead at the counter and give themselves up.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Waltham
use to be a big ass discount store on Main St in Waltham. Even had a basement. Can't remember the name but it was very popular. Use to get toys there as a little kid.
Waltham Supermarket?
Yeah, was best known for the "world's largest meat department" and the murals of Eskimos hunting seals and stuff, but they also had a bargain basement with non-food stuff.
Moe Black's?
Moe Black's?
grover cronin's in waltham
children's clothes located downstairs.
Not on Main Street.
Not on Main Street. (And not a 'discount store', AFAIK.)
cellar dwellars
I know grover Cronin's was not located on main, it was off moody but I don't know of any other place/dept store with a big basement. I think everyone assumes everything in Waltham is on Main or Moody, either way I always did after school shopping at GC's. right next to the river.
Mistuh Big!!!
Mr. Big's Toy Land on Moody Street!! Mysterious and lovely Moody Street!! Always wanted to go there but it was too far to convince my mother to drive just to buy a Grendizer robot.... sigh.... you know that's why I killed all those people...
Which store was this?
http://www.historicaerials.com/aerials.php?scale=5.69932619782686E-06&la...
Zayre? Sandy's? King's?
It was the very long and narrow discount store off the VFW Parkway across from where Home Depot is now. I remember it had giant fans along the upper part of the walls near the roof. According to the aerial photo it seems to have been torn town between '71 and '78.
Answering my own Q
http://archive.org/stream/shoppingcentersi00mass/shoppingcentersi00mass_...
This was when it was a Purity Supreme, later Heartland and now it's one of those Savers thrift outlets, I think.
Sandy's , you walked in right
Sandy's , you walked in right past the popcorn and hot dog stand !
Sold fishing rods and reels, Garcia rods , Mitchell reels were the balls !
Watertown
Which discount store was the one at or adjacent to the Arsenal Mall? Like the VFW Sandy's it was extremely long and narrow.
bradlee's?
Bradlee's was located in the old watertown mall at the other end of the mall from stop and shop, now target and best buy. ann and hope (all my Italian friends called it ann and hopes) was located at current site of home depot.
Maybe I'm thinking of Ann &
Maybe I'm thinking of Ann & Hope.
Liberty Tree Mall
Used to refer to the Ann & Hope anchor at Liberty Tree as Ann & Despair, as my mother would go in there and never come out. So I just hung out on the dinosaurs that you could play on. And fall off. And smash your head on the tile floor. With no adult supervision. I think Mom was trying to get rid of me.
Decelle's!
Centre Street, West Roxbury...
Although not as prominent or
Although not as prominent or old , Raschels in Foxboro , was a good bargain, bringing to mind , the a Bargain Center , in Quincy.
My first job was as a cashier
My first job was as a cashier at Mars. People used for pay for windshield wiper fluid with a check.
Child World! How could I
Child World! How could I forget...
shoppers world!
they had animals?