One of the things I really remember well when I was a kid..
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Indeed. I was thinking of this recently myself. The lower end stores had a cafeteria and some of the higher end ones would have a fine dining restaurant. The rationale is still there in modern store planning, but somehow it's just not the same. Walmart with a McDonalds isn't the same thing. I think the single item I miss the most is the red and blue icees from Woolco.
I grew up in a place called Painesville (home of Harlan Ellison and sort of Don Shula) and there was a department store called Carlisle's that had a restaurant in the basement. It was a real treat to eat there after getting back to school shopping done. Thanks for bringing up a buried and wonderful memory!
K-marts used to have cafeterias in them back in the 1970's until like 1984(?). They had salsbury steak, hamburgers, chicken, fries, Jello, pies, etc.. Now we live in a world dominated by corporate fast food junk. There are Subways in Wal-Marts now. My aunt retired as the snack bar manager at a Wal-Mart. They had hot dogs, hamburgers, Icees, hand dipped ice cream, etc..
Antique Hoosier
“Aircooled”
Here is a thread of similar commentary.... Wonder if the Rexall Soda counter is still around? I will visit the Butt's Drugs in Corydon, Indiana this weekend,,,they have a soda counter...
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/127058-1950s-Woolworth-Restaurant-Menu
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/127058-1950s-Woolworth-Restaurant-Menu
As a kid in Iowa I used to sit at the counter of a Kresge’s right on main street and watch the doughnuts floating along in the grease as they were made. Then they flipped and were rolled in sugar and put on your plate. YUMMM!
What? The Starbucks counter inside of a Borders bookstore doesn't count?
We actually have a thriving one where I live. It's been around over 60 years and still have the largest variety of magazines than any place in the state. People go there just to get their delicious egg salad sandwiches. It's a place where if they don't have it (which is rare) they will get it within 48 hours, call you when it is available and hold however many you want for a few days to let you come in and get it at your leisure. Prices are right too - just proves that mom and pop stores can get competitive pricing if they were financially savvy and try hard enough.
We had a Woolworth's in the little town I grew up in. You could buy a snow shovel, a pair of pants, a parakeet, and then have a burger shake and fries. Bought my first rock record there. I guess you can do that at the Walmart now, but it's just not the same.
I also remember the KMart diners. There still was one at one of the KMarts here in Omaha a couple of years ago.
A few months ago I was at the drug store in the even smaller town where my wife's grandparents lived. Had a Coke that was pumped and mixed by hand. Yummy.
I also remember the KMart diners. There still was one at one of the KMarts here in Omaha a couple of years ago.
A few months ago I was at the drug store in the even smaller town where my wife's grandparents lived. Had a Coke that was pumped and mixed by hand. Yummy.
Oh dear...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYYdF0zcuSI
When I was a kid, my grandmother would take my sister and I with her when she went shopping. We would often hit a store called Watson's (now called Peebles). For a while, they had a toy section with a small playpen area that had a Brio train set. She'd drop us off there and I'd make a bee line for that train set. I could've played with that set all day long. My parents tried like mad to find a set for me, but at that time with no internet and no apparent local retailers of Brio, it was a pipe dream. At the tender age of 27, I finally got my first Brio set for my birthday. I'm now 29 and still play with it. (And just how did I manage to get a girl to marry me?)
Penny candy!!! 
"Flattery is like [candy]. Enjoy it but don't swallow it". Hank Ketcham
I vividly remember a transport cafe I went to once or twice when I was five. This was 1973 and I assume the place hadn't changed much since the mid sixties. Lots of very fat, uneducated men in string vests eating terribly greasy food. Huge wreaths of smoke and scalding hot coffee. If anyone had asked for a cappucino then the servers would have said "Sorry, we don't do pasta".
Scroll down to 2009 and a place near my flat in Glasgow opened up, themed to look like a sixties cafe. But this time there's a vegetarian breakfast option, Machiatto is on the coffee menu and the place is clean and frequented by students and bohemian types.
Scroll down to 2009 and a place near my flat in Glasgow opened up, themed to look like a sixties cafe. But this time there's a vegetarian breakfast option, Machiatto is on the coffee menu and the place is clean and frequented by students and bohemian types.
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I fondly remember the mom and pop corner drug stores where they had great soda counters and a pharmacist who knew you and would call you by name. One of them had a stack of comic books under the counter that we could read while we enjoyed a soda, ice cream sundae or whatever. They made the best vanilla cokes and phosphates.
Regards,
Doug
Regards,
Doug
Whenever we think back on the "old mall" which is now more of a slummed flea market, someone always mentions the restaurant in the Lazarus (Maceys).
In Canada we used to have a chain of stores called Towers (no connection with the Towers music stores which I believe are also out of business). They had a lunch counter called the Red Grille. This was the first place I ever saw the hot dogs turning around on those metal tubes. Zellers came into Canada and bought up Towers. They shut down some locations and converted the rest to Zellers. Any other Canadians remember Zellers?
We also had a store called Consumers Distributing. I think this one was also only in Canada. They would send out catalogues. You'd visit the store and it was basically a warehouse. They had some (just a tiny bit) merchandise out for display, but you didn't pick it up and take it to the cash. Instead, you filled out a little card and put the product number down, handed it over to a guy at the counter, and he'd go in the back and get it for you. I only remember buying a clock radio there, but it lasted from my teenage years until I was well into my 30s. It still worked when I threw it out.
Here's a link to one of their commercials. Please note the business is defunct, so don't expect to be able to buy the awesome cable converter they are advertising
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-WSTOz1bxg
Here's another one with American actress Shirley Jones (Mrs. Partridge) telling us that she's attached to Consumers. I can just picture here coming up to Canada to buy all her products here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6GhsQIFscU
We also had a store called Consumers Distributing. I think this one was also only in Canada. They would send out catalogues. You'd visit the store and it was basically a warehouse. They had some (just a tiny bit) merchandise out for display, but you didn't pick it up and take it to the cash. Instead, you filled out a little card and put the product number down, handed it over to a guy at the counter, and he'd go in the back and get it for you. I only remember buying a clock radio there, but it lasted from my teenage years until I was well into my 30s. It still worked when I threw it out.
Here's a link to one of their commercials. Please note the business is defunct, so don't expect to be able to buy the awesome cable converter they are advertising
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-WSTOz1bxg
Here's another one with American actress Shirley Jones (Mrs. Partridge) telling us that she's attached to Consumers. I can just picture here coming up to Canada to buy all her products here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6GhsQIFscU
Remember the independent department store in your hometown? Some guy founded it back in the 1880s or the 1920s or whenever, and it was named after him ... and there was probably a street somewhere named after him too, and he was the mayor of the town for a decade or two way back when ... and it was the only "x--y" store in the world.
(You can mourn the loss of the independent shoe store, hardware store, camera store, clothing store &c &c ... but those are easier to hang onto than an actual independent department store.)
(You can mourn the loss of the independent shoe store, hardware store, camera store, clothing store &c &c ... but those are easier to hang onto than an actual independent department store.)
I miss going to the fotomat with my mom after grocery shopping.
Weaver's in Lawrence, KS is that store. And they're still going strong. They've been around for 150+ years, and are a destination every Christmas shopping season. Their Santa Claus always heads the city Thanksgiving parade, and they've been a staple of the downtown area for decades.
Funny enough, when I was about 16, the guy that usually portrayed their Santa came down with a serious case of the flu and was going to be out for a week or two. I happened to know the head of the Chamber of Commerce, and she asked if I would fill in. I looked nothing like a Santa then (and still don't now), but it was a chance to make a few bucks even though I generally loathe kids. I took the job and for two weekends I grinned and took all the leaky diapers, screaming, and snotty kids I could handle. So I can put "Bad Santa" on my resume.
I'm sure those mom and pop stores that have been open for decades all have a million stories like that.
I remember buying jeans at Weaver's in Lawrence when I was at school at KU. I was thinking of the other store ......... Litwin's I think was the name. Also I remember going to The Corner Drug Store to buy DE razor blades because they were the only ones in Lawrence in the mid 80's that had them. I cannot remember which barber shop had the reproduction of the Allen Field House Basketball court on the floor of the shop. I loved walking down Mass. St. in Lawrence seeing all the old Mom & Pop stores, this was back in the 80's and it is not like that anymore.
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