I remember quite a few of these, especially the toy stores because my kids were young during the 1990s and early 2000s. My takeaway: Amazon has changed the retail landscape beyond comprehension.
Judging from their expiration dates, it appears that a fair number of them were done in by a lethal combination -- Amazon (as Deb noted), computer downloads, and the cresting and crash of the 2007-08 economic crash that finished off whatever Amazon and downloads left shakily standing.
Chess King has actually been gone since 1995. I've failed to note its absence for two decades...but I haven't tried to buy a bolo tie in that period, and rarely go to "indoor"/non-strip malls.
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It's more a matter of "never heard of" (Natural Wonders?) than forgot.
But no New Yorker of a certain age could have forgotten Sam Goody. And who forgot Sharper Image?
I remember quite a few of these, especially the toy stores because my kids were young during the 1990s and early 2000s. My takeaway: Amazon has changed the retail landscape beyond comprehension.
I was in and shopped at just two of them: Waldenbooks and Sharper Image. Both stores I liked. The rest? Never heard of them.
Judging from their expiration dates, it appears that a fair number of them were done in by a lethal combination -- Amazon (as Deb noted), computer downloads, and the cresting and crash of the 2007-08 economic crash that finished off whatever Amazon and downloads left shakily standing.
. . . and the cresting and crash of the 2007-08 economic tsunami that finished off whatever Amazon and downloads left shakily standing.
The clothing stories are the only ones I was always unaware of. Wonder if Chess King still flourishes?
B&N got bigger than Waldenbooks when it was merged with B. Dalton. I believe the Walden/Borders/Bassett combo were briefly Even Bigger.
Chess King has actually been gone since 1995. I've failed to note its absence for two decades...but I haven't tried to buy a bolo tie in that period, and rarely go to "indoor"/non-strip malls.
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