What businesses that you loved as a child are no longer there?

[The Deadman]

I would say Toys R Us and Hollywood Video.

[Leo656]

Toys R Us for sure.

I also used to love eating at Roy Rogers, and to this day they still have the best chicken nuggets I've ever had. Wendy's comes pretty close as far as nuggets go, but not quite perfect. And Wendy's is still just a burger place, whereas Roy Rogers was about 50/50 a "burgers and fried chicken place", and their chicken was always awesome.

On that note, I think there's one or two Chicken Holiday places around here but otherwise they're gone, too. Something about the way they made their chicken (and Roy Rogers; the two places must have shared recipes because the chicken was almost identical at either, but they each tasted like nothing else anywhere). I was a fiend for their fried mushrooms and potato and macaroni salads; the mushrooms, nobody ever has on the menu, and the latter "just isn't the same" anywhere else you go.

I have no idea if KB Toys is still around but they're all gone around here. Used to be a huge staple of any trip to the mall. You could find stuff YEARS past its "sell-by date" at KB, usually on Clearance, and that was awesome.

K-Mart wasn't bad for that either.

There's others for sure but all of those jump out at me whenever I look back. I live over by Rt. 18, about ten minutes away, and that whole area is completely unrecognizable now compared to even 10-15 years ago.

I can't see how it's any "better" nowadays, since back when I was a kid the stores around there were institutions and landmarks that had been there for ages, and now anything that isn't a Target or Wal-Mart that opens up goes out of business in a year or two without fail. It's nuts.

[MikeandRaph87]

Toy'rus of course. Blockbuster as well. So many childhood memories in both. Also, my local newsstand store, News & Novels where I got TMNT Adventures and was introduced to comics. All gone, all confinded to a couple of generations but made huge impacts while in existence. I suspect most of us will say something similar as we are of those two generations to grow up with the three kinds of stores. I suspect each generation has a certain set of stores that only last,but a few decades butmake impacts only those who experience them will understand.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by The Deadman

I would say Toys R Us and Hollywood Video.

Absolutely. I'd also add

Tower Records
Suncoast Motion Picture Stores
Borders Books

[TMNTFanatic4Life]

Definitely KB Toys and Toysrus.

I look back now and wish I would’ve gotten all of the Playmates TMNT carded at the prices back then. I got most as a kid, but opened and played with them lol.

[Powder]

Kaybee Toys, above all else.

I miss shops like Natural Wonders. Places that had fossils, telescopes, minerals, dinosaur & space stuff, glow in the dark everything, venus fly traps, you know, those random creative exploration, tactile stimulation goods stores you'd see in malls. We had a few different independent ones over the years, way back when. I also miss how prevalent indie toy & candy shops were back in the early 90's.

Blockbuster was always a fun time. I dunno.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by Jester

I used to love buffet restaurants like Golden Coral and Cici's pizza. I haven't been in years because my wife refuses to go, but I'm sure the shine has also come off if I ever went to them alone.

Golden Coral shutdown due to the pandemic and never reopened. It is something I can only go to so often because you get two meals in one and the nature of the pandemic killed smorgasbord bars like this.

I also lost my local Cici's for the same reason, but it is not really a loss. I do have memories at Golden Coral though. I also know its services to local veterans is a loss.

[CyberCubed]

It's weird to think most malls as a whole have shut down. In 10 years time the mall as we know it will probably be extinct.

[Leo656]

I don't know about that; the closest one to me has a high turnover rate of some stores but on the whole they actually have more shops inside than they did for a while.

I mean, "Lids" is a thing, for reasons I can't explain. Out of all the stores in the mall, that place has never closed. It stands as a testament to the fact that people will always find money they don't have to spend on sh*t they don't need.

Plus, people have been screaming "malls are about to die" for 20 years and for the most part they just shuffle stores around. GameStop was "100% absolutely going to go out of business" at the end of 2020 because of the pandemic and yet they keep skating by, even though they closed some extraneous stores and mostly only exist to sell Fortnite merchandise now.

Stuff like that finds a way to endure, they just refocus. Like I said, our mall over here no longer has a Waldenbooks, an East Meets West, a Rainforest Cafe or a Suncoast, but it's far from empty either.

Also, at some point Hot Topic completely became a store for nothing but glow-in-the-dark dildos (instead of just the back corner of the store) and that was pretty jarring. Like I said, stuff just finds a new way to stay relevant. Usually by eliminating the clutter.

[ABrown]

I didn't see anyone mention this one, remember Venture department stores. Kinda like K-Mart or Target.

[DarkFell]

I know of two malls (with a third one closing in) and one drive-in movie theater that have been gone for years.

Borders, Waldenbooks, and Brentano's (I worked there), were bought out.

I vaguely Kay-Bee and Toys-R-Us didn't impress me much, but they're gone anyway. (Toys-R-Us might see some life return though: a Macy's store that I worked at during the holidays, has a section reserved for TrU (?), so that is a possibility.

Several anime merchandise stores that I used to visit within a nearby mall (they were owned by the same guys, and they often relocated around), they're gone.

Jungle Jim's. I was invited for a birthday party by one of my buds in either elementary / middle school. Now, a Goodwill is there.

Pistol Pete's Pizza. It resembled Peter Pipers Pizza.

Crystal Ice Palace. (It was an ice-skating rink.) Another Goodwill resides in that building now.

Most Diversions arcades are gone. Aladdin's arcade(s) have been gone for years.

Sam Goody / Musicland. Overpriced, but I bought a few cool things from there.

Hastings.

[Jester]

I totally read the title wrong.

Totally Kay-Bee. Got so many Turtles there. Got an awesome (read: when I was 8, maybe not so much now) Kool-Aid Wacky Video there. Boise had an outlet when I lived near there and I found a complete box of TMNT Series 2 Topps cards. The gum was totally foul.

[Andrew NDB]

K B. Toys R Us. All the little bookstore in the malls that went bye bye (B Dalton, Waldenbooks, others). A lot of arcades.

[joe-eyeball]

Toys R Us, Borders, arcades, and Children’s Palace. And when I was kid I loved Ponderosa.

[Jester]

I loved Pondarosa's sister restaurant Bonanza. When my grandparents came to visit they'd also take us to Shoney's for breakfast. All gone (around here, they still have locations elsewhere.) We also used to have Mexican a join near by called Casa Viva which is totally a ripoff (or sister franchise) to Casa Bonita.

I also liked a buffet called Ryan's. Took my wife one year for our anniversary or Valentine's....lucky I'm still married. It was nothing like I remembered. It's dead now though.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by Jester

I loved Pondarosa's sister restaurant Bonanza. When my grandparents came to visit they'd also take us to Shoney's for breakfast. All gone (around here, they still have locations elsewhere.)

I also liked a buffet called Ryan's. Took my wife one year for our anniversary or Valentine's....lucky I'm still married. It was nothing like I remembered. It's dead now though.

I had a local Shoney's, getting rarer every year. I remember ordering steak sandwiches and pasta buffet and getting discounts for my birthday. I loved the hot fudge sundae most of all. The local one shutdown in 2003. A couple of businesses took the buildimg and failed since. Last time I went was at the state capital in the Spring of 2017. Had a Ryan's Steakhouse too.


Rax's was a great '90s success. Loved the chocolate chip milkshakes and Sunday lunches there. It shutdown in 2007. It is on its 4th restaurant since, but it finally found a worthy successor in a local family owned Italian and seafood restaurant. Have you all noticed the number of places that we named that ate salad bar all you can eat focused? Even pre-pandemic that shutdown a couple like Golden Coral and Cici's Pizza these type of restaurants were fading away.

[Coola Yagami]

Damn, you named all the good ones already. I was gonna say Funcoland and EBGames but i guess both of them merged into Gamestop anyway.

For me, I've had the misfortune of always missing out of FYE. I love buying movies and shirts from there and now they sell cool anime figures too. Vegas shut down their FYE. When I moved to PA they had one and we'd hit it every other weekend, but then they shut that one down too. There's a larger one out of town but that's more of a 'if we're in town for something we might swing by' kinda thing. Like we're not gonna drive out several hours for an FYE.

[Leo656]

I used to love FYE and there's still one in our mall but there's seriously no point in going there anymore. I know that it's because they're scraping every nickel to try and survive and I try and support brick and mortar retail as much as possible, but every single thing they sell is almost twice what it costs online. Unless you don't have a credit card or know anyone who does, or you're absolutely addicted to those exclusive steelbook cases they get for some movies, it makes no sense to pay $20-30 for a DVD you can get brand new for half the price on eBay.

Again, I know that it's "overcharge or just shut the place down", but it's not sustainable. Shame, place used to be great AND "cheaper than the next place". Now they're the most expensive option possible AND their selection is weak. "We can order ____ for you and call you to come get it when it comes in in a few weeks!" Yeah, or I can get it on eBay right now and it'll be at my house in three or four days. And I'll save ten or fifteen bucks.

[Andrew NDB]

And to be clear, places like Kay B and Toys R Us... I probably wouldn't be going there anymore (not for me, anyway)... but I like knowing they're out there for other little kids to enjoy. Because those were magical places as a kid.

The worst thing to watch was near the end of Toys R Us as a serious entity, their (at least, this is what happened around me... no idea in other spots of the country) closing of all of their main Toys R Uses and then merging them into their pre-existing Babies R Uses... man. Did some Christmas shopping in those a couple of years. Truly heart-breaking to walk through there, even as a dad. Like, 10-12 year old me walking through there? Or rather, 10-12 year old me seeing a glimpse of the future and seeing that? Damn. That would be hard to believe.

[Leo656]

What happened on my end with Toys R Us really sucked. My wife and I hadn't gone there in a few years; we used to go every weekend, but at some point money got tight and I just stopped collecting toys entirely. I'd only buy a figure if I passed something in a GameStop or FYE or something that was too cool to pass up, or otherwise I had a buddy who worked the vendor table at the shows I wrestled at and he'd hook me up with "friend prices" for wrestling figures. But for like ten years I didn't set foot in a Toys R Us. Not that I didn't have the urge, but I couldn't reasonably justify it.

Then one day on a whim my wife and I decided to stop in at the one close by for some Christmas shopping, and we were overwhelmed by all the cool stuff they had there, a lot of which I'd never even heard about. We bought a bunch of stuff - some for gifts, other stuff just to have - got new "membership" cards or whatever, all of that. Decided we were going to make it a point to start going there again regularly. Pretty exciting.

Never got the chance. A few major car repairs hit us all at once, so we had no spare money for a while, and then we got the word they were closing down. Never got to go back, except on the last day just to "say goodbye". We'd intended to buy something, anything at all, but when we got there we found out it was credit card purchase only and we only brought cash. So all we could do was walk around the empty store and remember how it had looked a few months previous.

Kind of a metaphor for my entire life, really. A glimmer of something hopeful that turns out to be a gigantic f*cking cocktease. But, I did get Legend of Zelda Monopoly out of that last real trip. Still, part of me feels like if we hadn't gone they might still be in business, since most things that happen seem like they only happen to spite me personally.