Nostalgia Thread

[TL1961]

“Drive in movies on a clear summer day” has me laughing.

We went at night.

?

 

[Granada]

You're too young, but Service Merchandise used to have the best toy section. You walk into the store, and the walk paths were designed around the logo's 5sided diamond from the entrance. Then to the far left(at least the 2 near me were like this), it was a mix between a dusty Toys R Us, and being in a Costco. Except, they seemed to have every damn thing a kid was really hoping their parents would buy them, not just toys.

It was pretty sneaky. At the end of the toy section on one side, you would go from action figures to the next aisle, which had bb guns, slingshots, martial arts equipment. On the other end of the toy section, you went from remote control cars and stuff like that, the next aisle was computers and all that software (so many video games). And before all of it, was the kitchen section. The part of the kitchen section that you had to pass, in order to get to the toys had a selection of appliances that made all the sugary treats and popcorn makers, with a few gumball machines thrown in. And on the other side of that main aisle was floor space with air hockey, foosball, pool, and ping pong tables.

You would be 7 years old. Your parents got distracted by their own shopping dreams, somehow let you run off on your own or with siblings(let's be honest, nobody asked, we snuck away and didn't ask). In a 20 minute span, you went through this unique experience unlike any normal toy or other department store. On the same day you walked into the store as a shit kid spaced out just wanting some hot wheels. By the end of the day you grew up wanting to have a whole HiFi stereo system home theater decked out in your bedroom, planning how you were going to steal the basement away from your dad.

And the only reason your parents would dare take you to Service Merchandise, was to feel you out for your Christmas list. Places like Toys R Us, Kay Bee, those were places you were rewarded with for behaving in the mall while mommy bought her new dress and makeup. Service Merchandise wasn't even on the table as a reward, but you would ask, and they would pretend like you didn't say anything, no matter how much you begged and screamed. Scream about Toys R Us, they might take you there once in a while to shut you up.

I can remember being brought to Service Merchandise -- that store was absolutely gigantic -- even the toy aisle seemed to go up to the ceiling. Certain K-Marts were awesome too. Do you remember Zayre's?

Since we're on the subject, I miss the days when you walked into a store or a mall and it actually felt like Christmas/Halloween/etc. Maybe I'm just old now and it felt different when I was a kid, but stores just don't seem to put in the effort anymore. I can remember going to Jewel or Walgreens, and their Halloween aisles would be epic. Now, they barely put anything out. The only places that do decorate well nowadays is places I'd never shop at, like Von Maur.

 

[Ares]

Oh oh anyone member Venture?

 

[Burque]

Oh oh anyone member Venture?

Wasn't that like a low rent JC Penny's?

I am sure I have been to one before, but i would have been pretty young.

 

[Crystallas]

Zayres, Ames, and Pharmor were like a streamlined K-Mart, well, a 1970's/1980's K-Mart. Venture was great too, that's where I would get all my Bulls clothes. Pretty sure they had some kind of deal. I still have a lot of Venture exclusive Bulls collectibles. They liked doing events with local companies and giveaways. Lot of bumper stickers and radio station shirts too.

All these stores had something memorable for sure. Even the old Sears. If you ever went to the old Sears, wow, that was such a different store all together. Venture was interesting, because they had a spot in the front where they would engrave anything metal that you bought in the store. There was a time where people cared about that kind of a service, especially when Truevalue/Ace were the only places that did non-jeweler engraving at the time.

Montgomery Ward was where we would get our family pictures taken. Yeah, that's a whole different subject for us older folk. But a lot of department stores had their own portrait studio area.

And the poster sections. People would hog those, flipping through them like a book.

On the subject of stores.... who remembers all the record stores that let you listen before buying. The booths or the listening bars with headphones. Heck, eventually Blockbuster *MUSIC* brought that back, where a $8 CD everyplace else cost $25 there, entirely different experience because people rarely bought anything.

 

[Burque]

Zayres, Ames, and Pharmor were like a streamlined K-Mart, well, a 1970's/1980's K-Mart. Venture was great too, that's where I would get all my Bulls clothes. Pretty sure they had some kind of deal. I still have a lot of Venture exclusive Bulls collectibles. They liked doing events with local companies and giveaways. Lot of bumper stickers and radio station shirts too.

All these stores had something memorable for sure. Even the old Sears. If you ever went to the old Sears, wow, that was such a different store all together. Venture was interesting, because they had a spot in the front where they would engrave anything metal that you bought in the store. There was a time where people cared about that kind of a service, especially when Truevalue/Ace were the only places that did non-jeweler engraving at the time.

Montgomery Ward was where we would get our family pictures taken. Yeah, that's a whole different subject for us older folk. But a lot of department stores had their own portrait studio area.

And the poster sections. People would hog those, flipping through them like a book.

On the subject of stores.... who remembers all the record stores that let you listen before buying. The booths or the listening bars with headphones. Heck, eventually Blockbuster *MUSIC* brought that back, where a $8 CD everyplace else cost $25 there, entirely different experience because people rarely bought anything.

For us that was Hastings. It was like the mecca of VHS, CD's, books, and a bunch of random posters and spencers type items that you could pick through.

They wouldn't let you listen to new CD's but anything used you could listen to before buying. I would dig through those used CD bins for hours.

 

[Scoot26]

Oh oh anyone member Venture?

Oh I member!

We went there often. But I don't remember what set it apart from anything else. They all went out of business by the time I was 10 around us.

 

[Ares]

Oh I member!

We went there often. But I don't remember what set it apart from anything else. They all went out of business by the time I was 10 around us.

The zebra style paint job is all I member.

 

[Omeletpants]

If you are a real Chicagoan, then you remember "6 Corners" at Cicero and Milwaukee avenues At one corner there was a Woolworths, Sears on another corner and a pharmacy anchoring another corner

 

[Burque]

If you are a real Chicagoan, then you remember "6 Corners" at Cicero and Milwaukee avenues At one corner there was a Woolworths, Sears on another corner and a pharmacy anchoring another corner

View attachment 4417

Just cause I am not sure anyone has said this to you yet today..... **** YOU!

 

[KittiesKorner]

If you are a real Chicagoan, then you remember "6 Corners" at Cicero and Milwaukee avenues At one corner there was a Woolworths, Sears on another corner and a pharmacy anchoring another corner

View attachment 4417

Sears was still there 4 years ago. Do you want to get credit for being old?

 

[Hawkeye OG]

 

[MDB111™]

Elephant Bell Bottoms. I had two pair

View attachment 4406

 

[Anytime23]

@Gunzaan im guessing you're a big fan of post-911 Dennis Miller?

 

[LordKOTL]

I can remember being brought to Service Merchandise -- that store was absolutely gigantic -- even the toy aisle seemed to go up to the ceiling. Certain K-Marts were awesome too. Do you remember Zayre's?

Since we're on the subject, I miss the days when you walked into a store or a mall and it actually felt like Christmas/Halloween/etc. Maybe I'm just old now and it felt different when I was a kid, but stores just don't seem to put in the effort anymore. I can remember going to Jewel or Walgreens, and their Halloween aisles would be epic. Now, they barely put anything out. The only places that do decorate well nowadays is places I'd never shop at, like Von Maur.

Every time I walk into a store at Hallowe'en nowadays there's Xmas decorations out...which kinda negates the whole feeling.

And on that topic, since the Xmas decorations come out sometime after July 4th, by the time Xmas actually hits you're oversaturated, so I think that takes some of the feeling out of it--like when they only started the Xmas decorations after Thankgsgiving you felt the season was upon you and you had a month of it. Now it's like, "When the hell with they shut this down?!"

 

[nvanprooyen]

Oh oh anyone member Venture?

I didn't until now. Weird how an image can unlock a super buried memory I vividly remember those stripes on that sign now.

 

[Ares]

I didn't until now. Weird how an image can unlock a super buried memory I vividly remember those stripes on that sign now.

IIRC back in the 90s the Venture my Mom would go to wound up pretty close to a Target.

And after a while I thought "Why don't we go to Target, it is better than Venture"

And apparently the U.S. market had the same thought.

 

[Crystallas]

Since we're on the subject, I miss the days when you walked into a store or a mall and it actually felt like Christmas/Halloween/etc. Maybe I'm just old now and it felt different when I was a kid, but stores just don't seem to put in the effort anymore. I can remember going to Jewel or Walgreens, and their Halloween aisles would be epic. Now, they barely put anything out. The only places that do decorate well nowadays is places I'd never shop at, like Von Maur.

Here's one. I can't remember the exact name of the store. We used to buy our Christmas decorations on closeout in February at FiM, F&M, maybe T&M? something like that. This seasonal store was near or in every big shopping mall. They sold patio and pool supplies year round, and had a huge section for whatever holiday was on the sales calendar. ALWAYS advertising on TV. Christmas tree sales in September. The one we went to, was next to another long-gone store. Highland, which was just a standard electronics store, like a Circuit City.

And I still miss Elek-tek. They were like a Microcenter, but they actually kept old hardware to help people upgrade much older machines. Also what killed them when we hit the 686 period(the point where people couldn't wait a generation to upgrade anymore to run the latest software).

 

[Crystallas]

IIRC back in the 90s the Venture my Mom would go to wound up pretty close to a Target.

And after a while I thought "Why don't we go to Target, it is better than Venture"

And apparently the U.S. market had the same thought.

That is accurate. K-Mart dominant consumers migrated to Walmart, and Venture dominant consumers migrated to Target.

Venture in the 80s was better than Target. In the 90's, they lost their identity. When all these places started selling East Asian goods over USA made, even the best store models couldn't compete if they were paying 5x as much for the same products from the supplier.

 

[Ares]

Idk if this counts as nostalgia persei...

@Crystallas or anyone else with experience back in 1999-2000

I know Y2K was a big scare that supposedly ended in nothing major.

However, were there any companies or institutions that actually got bit by it?