Brands that were once popular....

[auntiehill]

When I was a kid, I remember getting all excited to go shopping at The Emporium--a department store. I thought it as the biggest, coolest store ever. In reality, it was nothing more than another version of Macy's. I'm pretty sure all the stores ended up being bought by Macy's, in the end.

I also remember LOVING to go shopping downtown with my mom at Marshall Field's because, *gasp*, they had a restaurant in the store. I felt very grownup and we had some good mother-daughter time.

Shopping? Sounds like a nightmare. No matter what people say, there's a big difference between boys and girls.

And what exactly does that comment have to do with a discussion on stores and brands that are no longer around?

 

[Timby]

Wag's restaurants (owned by Walgreen's) from the 70's & 80's. The ones in my area were all in smaller malls and had counter seating as well as booths.

Oh, I remember Wag's. There was one on Ogden Avenue in Downers Grove. I think the spot eventually became a Steak & Shake.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Wag's restaurants (owned by Walgreen's) from the 70's & 80's. The ones in my area were all in smaller malls and had counter seating as well as booths.

Oh, I remember Wag's. There was one on Ogden Avenue in Downers Grove. I think the spot eventually became a Steak & Shake.

Up in my neck of the woods, they were at Belvidere & Deerfield malls, among other places.

 

[Bisz]

Blackberry is pretty much done.

I never liked their devices, but it is sad to see a global leader from my area (Waterloo) spiraling the drain.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

BEAGLE BROS.!!!!

 

[Nerys Myk]

Tower Records. Spent a lot of time at their locations in Mountain View and San Jose. Had a friend who worked there. The stories she would tell. Sex and Drugs and Rock n Roll.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Des anyone remember Afri-Cola? It was a good deal better than coke - not so terribly sweet but nicely tangy. No idea why it suddenly vanished.

Other brands that vanished though they were really good: Texas Instruments (they were the first to build pocket calculators), Commodore (computers), Electrola (records), Falke (tights), petit baton (comfortable underwear), Bluna (lemonade), Karina (excellent chocolate with a distinct vanilla note), Rubik's (mathematical toys) and TriTop (syrup)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I remember JOLT cola...

 

[Nerys Myk]

Des anyone remember Afri-Cola? It was a good deal better than coke - not so terribly sweet but nicely tangy. No idea why it suddenly vanished.

Other brands that vanished though they were really good: Texas Instruments (they were the first to build pocket calculators), Commodore (computers), Electrola (records), Falke (tights), petit baton (comfortable underwear), Bluna (lemonade), Karina (excellent chocolate with a distinct vanilla note), Rubik's (mathematical toys) and TriTop (syrup)

never heard of it, but I'm American. The wiki say it's still around.

This is apparently the latest iteration of Rubik.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I remember JOLT cola...

The original had a pretty good flavor. Later on they fooled around with that formula and then it had a really foul aftertaste.

I miss some of the "other" things big name sodas did.

7up did an "upside down" caffeinated, lime flavor thing called dnL I liked a lot.

Pepsi had a Summer Mix cola that had multiple fruit flavors. It was OK as an alternate to Cherry Pepsi, but had an almost bubblegum flavor on first swig.

 

[MacLeod]

I don't think this brand ever became popular in the UK "Dasani", the fact that it lasted barely two months, was a PR catastrophe, disaster etc.. might have had something to do with it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasani#United_Kingdom

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Here in Seattle we had 'Pay N Save', 'Ernst Hardware', 'Frederick and Nelson', 'Jafco' and 'Skippers Fish n Chips'.

 

[Sector 7]

Bill Cosby. He was so popular back in the 80's and 90's. I wonder what happened to him....

He was discovered to be drugging and raping women. Now he's a pariah.

I remember JOLT cola...

I, also, remember cities and areas banning JOLT cola, because the massive amounts of sugar and caffeine were messing up our kids.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

Jolt Cola and Pop Rocks. A match made in hell.

 

[J.T.B.]

And Eastern. I still miss it. When I was little I wanted to be a stewardess for Eastern!

And on the other side, the smaller but (to me) beloved Western. I still have this prize possession from when I was a kid:

And of course:

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzR7xa3KTaQ[/yt]

Damn the Airline Deregulation Act of '79. That messed up the industry something awful.

Only two of the Big Five left today, and I never flew Pan Am or Eastern. Nostalgia for the old order aside, deregulation brought in some really good things. But unfortunately the CAB route cartels have been replaced with unrestricted concentration through mergers and acquisitions, with largely the same results for the consumer.

Some of the US car makes have been mentioned above. Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Plymouth and Mercury were such fixtures it seems almost unreal not to have them around. I can remember when Imperial was a separate marque from Chrysler; two of my mom's uncles were doctors, one was a Lincoln man and one an Imperial man and they ribbed each other over it.

My grandpa had a c. 1970 International Harvester pickup, it only left home a couple of times a year with a camper aboard. Had a manual choke. I used to see International Scouts (a proto "SUV") around, but not much in the last ten years or so. I think parts are really hard to get now.

DeTomaso Panteras used to be sold in Lincoln-Mercury dealerships, it was intended to be Ford's Corvette-fighter. Their quality was bad; Elvis had to shoot a few bullets into his. Opel was a European GM import, sold by Buick dealerships in the '70s. In the '80s Ford tried something similar and called it Merkur. Not a success. There was also a short-lived '80s import called Sterling, which were Honda sedans with "British style" by way of Rover.

And of course American Motors, with the perennially un-loved Gremlin and Pacer compacts. I always get a kick out of seeing the LAPD Matador cop cars on old TV show reruns. When I was in high school AMC was in its final throes, offering 0% on its Eagle four-wheel-drives, but I think everyone could see the mark of death was on them. Which name led to the mostly forgotten Eagle division of Chrysler, selling re-badged Misubishis and Renaults as well as their own version of the Intrepid, the "Vision."

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^ My Dad was AMC mad. We had 2 Ambassador wagons, a Matador and a Gremlin.

I think he "knew a guy" that worked at the AMC dealership.

He was also possibly the first person anywhere around us to buy a Datsun.

 

[Sector 7]

My first company car was an Eagle Premier.
My first car upon leaving the Navy was a used Datsun B210. My dad always called it "Jap Crap". Currently I drive a Nissan Altima... and LOVE it!

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

My Dad's car was a 1976 B210, in turquoise

 

[MANT!]

Datsun becoming Nissan in North America... biggest marketing mistake before New Coke..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datsun

Ultimately, the name change campaign lasted for a three-year period from 1982 to 1984 - Datsun badged vehicles had been progressively fitted with small "Nissan" and "Datsun by Nissan" badges from the late 1970s onward until the Nissan name was given prominence in 1983 - although in some export markets vehicles continued to wear both the Datsun and Nissan badges until 1986. In the United Kingdom for example, the Nissan name initially was used as a prefix to the model name, with Datsun still being used as the manufacturer's name (e.g. Datsun-Nissan Micra ) from 1982 until 1984. The name change had cost Nissan a figure in the region of US$500 million. Operational costs included the changing of signs at 1,100 Datsun dealerships, and amounted to US$30 million. Another US$200 million were spent during the 1982 to 1986 advertising campaigns, where the "Datsun, We Are Driven!" campaign (which was adopted in late 1977 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis and subsequent 1979 energy crisishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_energy_crisis) yielded to "The Name is Nissan" campaign. (The latter campaign was used for some years beyond 1985.) Another US$50 million was spent on Datsun advertisements that were paid for but stopped or never used.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datsun#cite_note-22 Five years after the name change program was over, Datsun still remained more familiar than Nissan.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datsun#cite_note-23

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

The seatbelt buttons had "Nissan" on them. On Top Gear, Jezza still calls them Datsuns.

If the idea was that Datsun was less Japanese than Nissan, I never really bought it.