The End of an Era: Discontinued products, services, and defunct companies

[Finn]

We used to have a store around here called "Consumers Distributing" that worked the same way, but it wasn't just electronics, it was all sorts of merchandise. My mom used to take us there as kids. You would walk in, and there would be tables with their catalogues on them. You would go through the catalogue, fill out a paper with the item numbers of the things you wanted, then take it to the desk, and they would go and bring you all your items.

I just checked online, it looks like they declared bankruptcy and shut down in the mid 90s.

That sounds like Service Merchandise. It has been over 20 years



We used to have one of those A&W places nearby though I never went in there, It closed a couple years ago and has since been replaced by Dutch Bros Coffee which seem to be popping up all over Austin in the past year.

 

[Avro Arrow]

FWIW, The Beer Store started this way using a similar model, where you'd go up to the counter and a clerk would go out in back and grab you a case of beer.

I didn’t know that, but I don’t think I’ve stepped foot in The Beer Store in my life!

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yep, that's the way it was done. You'd go up to the front counter and you'd see a list of what was available on the wall, which back then was far less choice given that we didn't have microbreweries back then. It's jointly owned by the big macros, ie Molson Coors, Labatts, Anheiser-Busch, Sapporo, and I think one more I'm forgetting about.

Another store that still operates using a similar model is Lee Valley Tools out in Ottawa. But they don't have as many stores across the country. Being that they're a tool manufacturer, their store more or less served as a showroom, and then fill out a form to order what you wanted which they'd get from out back in their warehouse.

 

[DonIago]

That sounds like Service Merchandise. It has been over 20 years

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What I remember most about Service Merchandise was that they had these terminals where you could request items based on what you saw in their stores and they'd be delivered to the check-out area, versus needing to do the pencil and paper thing. As a kid, that kind of blew my mind.

 

[StarTrek1701]

Many malls are becoming ghost towns now, it's sad to see. Mall culture was the best in the 90's and early 2000s.
And everything is pivoting to becoming an app. It's annoying.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Many malls are becoming ghost towns now, it's sad to see. Mall culture was the best in the 90's and early 2000s.
And everything is pivoting to becoming an app. It's annoying.

Yep, our downtown mall has been in a downward spiral since the 90's. Ever since Eaton's went bankrupt in the 90's, which was the mall's anchor store (It was Canada's largest department store chain), it has struggled to remain relevant by attracting other stores. Over the last several decades it's rented out vacant space for offices, and a call-centre moved in there at one point. My Dad was working doing tech-support for TimeWarner's Hawaii division at some point, though he'd never actually been to Hawaii.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Sadly there is a pattern. The big name retailers killed the locally owned store. The malls killed downtowns. The big boxes killed the big names. The internet killed the malls full of big boxes and what remained of the big names.

 

[StarTrek1701]

Online shopping literally was the savior of shopping in general I'd say, but has been the killer of all big box stores.
At least Best Buy is still around but I haven't bought anything from a brick-mortar store in years.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

We have/had Rainier Beer in Washington State. It was bought out by Budweiser so it's not the same.

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[Owain Taggart]

Sadly there is a pattern. The big name retailers killed the locally owned store. The malls killed downtowns. The big boxes killed the big names. The internet killed the malls full of big boxes and what remained of the big names.

Or in certain cases, you get the big names long after hype has died down. Such was the case with Five Guys and Popeye's in our city. We got our Popeyes about a year and a half ago. I'm not sure how our Five Guys manages to stay open, as not only are they in a terrible location that's hard to get to, and I've never actually seen anyone in the parking lot.

Or sometimes it's simply bad timing. Our first Bed Bath & Beyond opened just a few weeks before the pandemic hit and the shelter in place directive was made, and it fully closed earlier this year.

Or sometimes a company fails to do its market research and ends up giving itself a black eye, such was the case with Target in Canada, which has become a case study. This one is complex. They were a little too confident and unprepared for the Canadian market and their own competition. Upon store opening, many shelves were bare and the prices were high. They more or less counted on brand recognition to dazzle the Canadian market in a market that didn't have its brand recognition, and failed to take into the fierce competition that was Walmart. Their Point-of-Sale system caused a whole boatload of problems. The American company wanted to handle operations of Target Canada on their own, thought they could simply use what they were familiar with to stock the shelves in the US, not realizing the whole metric system was going to doom them and cause issues with inventory orders which led to the shelves not being stocked. We had ours for less than a year. Our location opened in 2013, closed in October 2014, lasting only one Christmas season. It was hubris that killed them

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[DarrenTR1970]

@Owain Taggart

I think something similar happens up here in the Pacific Northwest/Puget Sound with fast food/restaurant chains.
We have/had Carl's Jr., Sonic, Five Guys, Popeye's, but they're few and far between and they don't have any sort of advertising presence and they're competing against local chains that are well established.
The only fast food chain that's made any in-roads is Chik Fil A, and I, personally don't think that they're all that good.​

 

[Owain Taggart]

The frustrating thing is that it feels like we're deluged with chains. If you know where to look, you can find a good local non-chain restaurant, but anything near big box stores will exclusively be chains, as if the box store gods think that the way to entice visitors is to build the same exact restaurants from city to city, and I can't help but feel it removes any originality of these cities.

 

[StarTrek1701]

The frustrating thing is that it feels like we're deluged with chains. If you know where to look, you can find a good local non-chain restaurant, but anything near big box stores will exclusively be chains, as if the box store gods think that the way to entice visitors is to build the same exact restaurants from city to city, and I can't help but feel it removes any originality of these cities.

Chains exist for the convenience factor and at least have the feel of familiarity.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Chains exist for the convenience factor and at least have the feel of familiarity.

Oh, I know that. Take it from someone who plans trip stops according to Tim Horton locations. But if it swings too far one way, it becomes too homogeneous.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Party City closed its doors effective immediately. The employees were given no warning and there's no last paycheck or severance pay.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Party City closed its doors effective immediately. The employees were given no warning and there's no last paycheck or severance pay.

And no sale of the costumes, apparently.

 

[publiusr]

That sounds like Service Merchandise. It has been over 20 years

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I got the Playmates Vor’Cha from there…eons ago it seems.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

And no sale of the costumes, apparently.

I might be wrong on this. Will check up on it soon.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Party City closed its doors effective immediately. The employees were given no warning and there's no last paycheck or severance pay.

I'm surprised it's such a big chain, as you would think it would be rather niche, an area usually supported by local companies.

In 2019, the Canadian operations were bought out by Canadian Tire, so I think this is another case of an American store disappearing while the Canadian version lives on.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

End of an era - the Nordstrom family is taking the department store private and selling a 49% stake in the company to a Mexican business conglomerate.
The two oldest Nordstrom siblings will hold the remaining majority shares.
This won't end well.