Forgotten Retail/Restaurant Chains

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Y'all remember Chess King?

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Mom's favorite store. When I was a kid grandma would tell my mom, "Girl hurry ya ass on now so we can go to the mall I can't fit none of this shit in here!!" :roflmao2::roflmao2::roflmao2::roflmao2::roflmao2: That's when I first realized just how cold it was in these streets. :roflmao2::roflmao2::roflmao2::roflmao2:

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ACE has 4800 locations Nation wide. TrueValue is still out there also. The nice thing about ACE is they carry things a Big Box store may not. If you have a House that was built 50, 60, or more years ago there may be some things you want to preserve to the look of the original and some of these neighborhood Hardware stores like ACE can help with those things.
Yeah I ran into a few Ace hardware stores out in the sticks in Jersey. Small stores but like you said can order things especially for older model homes. Damn I haven't seen any TrueValue stores at all though.

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Yeah I ran into a few Ace hardware stores out in the sticks in Jersey. Small stores but like you said can order things especially for older model homes. Damn I haven't seen any TrueValue stores at all though.

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While we are on the Subject of Lost Hardware Empires How about this one.

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Hechingers

It was probably a good five years before Me and my old man stopped calling "Home Depot" Hechingers. Home Depot is a pretty formidable Retail presence because Hechingers was already doing what they were doing and had been doing over 80yrs..

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Yeah I ran into a few Ace hardware stores out in the sticks in Jersey. Small stores but like you said can order things especially for older model homes. Damn I haven't seen any TrueValue stores at all though.

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we have ace and true value hardware stores all over the place in ohio
 


They had one of these at Ford City mall in Chicago. Dont know if its still there. We was posted in there a lot. But this was back in the early-mid-late 90s, when kids used to fill the malls every weekend. Had the movie theater wayyy in the back, food court. They had a Game room in there too! Forgot the name. Mofos use to get jumped on every weekend waiting for the 79th street bus heading back East.

Good memories ....


Speaking of game rooms, it was another restaurant called Shakeys Pizza. It started in Cali, but they had one in Illinois, Orland Park, on Lagrange road. Mom and Pops took us there a lot.. This was back in the 90s as well. Buffet, small game room. It was like a kids version of todays Dave & Buster's.
 


Man the steaks and buffet was on point, they had one on Stony before it became a bj's market


They had one of these at Ford City mall in Chicago. Dont know if its still there. We was posted in there a lot. But this was back in the early-mid-late 90s, when kids used to fill the malls every weekend. Had the movie theater wayyy in the back, food court. They had a Game room in there too! Forgot the name. Mofos use to get jumped on every weekend waiting for the 79th street bus heading back East.

Good memories ....


Speaking of game rooms, it was another restaurant called Shakeys Pizza. It started in Cali, but they had one in Illinois, Orland Park, on Lagrange road. Mom and Pops took us there a lot.. This was back in the 90s as well. Buffet, small game room. It was like a kids version of todays Dave & Buster's.

I think it's gone, but I remember that ocb and I remember hitting ford city, and ever black :lol:

When I was coming up moms took me to odyssey (sp) fun world
 



Man I remember them...... shit


I remember my grandmother used to take me to their lunch, back in the day, because that was big that I knew about that at a young age, because in her day you ate there at lunch if you had money


This place used to be big time when i was a kid.. i just check there are a few around..not many..

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Man that breakfast buffet was the bomb diggity, its one not too far from me, may have to hit it up




Most could not make it when jewels got bigger, and then aldis and Omni' they just got crushed, plus gave no distinction between them and jewels

didn't know value city was nationwide...

i'd still shop there if it was around to this day...


Yes we still got a big one in Chicago not too far from ford city/midway airport


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Chi-Chi’s was launched in the 1970s by Marno McDermitt and NFL star Max McGee. The chain quickly grew, introducing a rudimentary menu of Mexican-style food to many American towns. However, as the popularity and variety of Mexican restaurants grew, Chi-Chi’s began to die out. The death knell for the franchise came in 2003 when a Hepatitis outbreak in the food supply led to three customer deaths.

I remember them, but I'd rather eat at Pepe's then them, but chili's started killing them too




They used to have it all toys and games
 
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At its peak, Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips had about 800 locations across the country.t

Fast forward to today, and the restaurant chain conjures up images of a bygone era.

Throughout the 1980s, Arthur Treacher's went through several owners and quickly began to lose ground to its competitors. Before long, hundreds of locations shuttered, and the chain was a shell of its former self.

The chain isn't completely gone, however. There are seven remaining locations around the country - three in New York and four in Ohio.

Still around food is nothing how it was
had good food back in the 80s
 
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At its peak, Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips had about 800 locations across the country.t

Fast forward to today, and the restaurant chain conjures up images of a bygone era.

Throughout the 1980s, Arthur Treacher's went through several owners and quickly began to lose ground to its competitors. Before long, hundreds of locations shuttered, and the chain was a shell of its former self.

The chain isn't completely gone, however. There are seven remaining locations around the country - three in New York and four in Ohio.
They had some good food.
 
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Hollywood Video ceased operations in May 2010, when Movie Gallery, its parent company, declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy.Its last US store closed its doors on July 31, 2010, whereas the last one in Canada closed on August 8 of that year.

As of late 2011, the HollywoodVideo.com site had been relaunched as a blog, which was discontinued in October 2014
I think I may have single handily put them out of business. LOL.
I used to get free trials at different locations and backup all their movies onto blank DVDs. I would rent like 3 movies at a time, rip em, and be back in a couple of hours.
Repeat, wash, rinse. I built up my entire DVD collection using them and Blockbuster.
 
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Steak and Ale
Known for their prime rib
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Steak and Ale is a soon to be revived American chain of casual dining restaurants, owned and operated by Legendary Restaurant Brands, LLC. Steak and Ale was founded as an independent restaurant chain in Dallas, Texas, on February 26, 1966, by Norman E. Brinker. On July 29, 2008, the chain's remaining 58 locations closed as part of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding.[1] In 2014, Bennigan's CEO Paul Mangiamele announced their intended comeback for 2016 but it was later pushed back to early 2017.[2]

Popular menu items at Steak and Ale included the signature herb roasted prime rib, Kensington club, New York strip, filet mignon, Hawaiian chicken and spicy grilled chicken pasta. The restaurant featured unlimited salad bar or a choice of soup with most of its entrees on the dinner menu. It also featured free drink refills and a honey wheat bread formerly known as squaw bread before a group of Native Americans threatened to protest and sue over the offensive use of the word squaw.
 
Parisian

We always called it ParisianS

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Parisian was a U.S. chain of upscale department stores founded and headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. Competing mainly in the established Southeastern US market through the 1980s against Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Gus Mayer, Parisian underwent a series of restructurings and mergers during its 130-year history, and was taken over by Saks Incorporated in 1998. In September 2006, Belk purchased the Parisian department store properties from Saks for $285 million, although that sale did not include the Parisian nameplate. Belk quickly resold five Parisian store locations in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio to Bon-Ton Stores, and closed a handful of additional stores nationwide. The remaining Parisian locations were rebranded as Belk in September 2007, except for the three Michigan stores, which continued to operate as Parisian until 2013.
 
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