Defunct Store Mugs
Description: FedMart was a chain of discount department stores started by Sol Price, who later founded Price Club. It was originally a discount department store open to government employees, who paid a membership fee of just $2 per family. FedMart's first location in San Diego, California was in a converted airport hangar and the store's first year was highly successful, exceeding all expectations. Over the next 20 years, FedMart grew to include 45 stores in a chain that generated more than $300 million in annual sales and expanded to several states in the Southwest United States with many locations being previous White Front or Two Guys stores. Price later sold two-thirds of the chain to Hugo Mann, a German retail chain, and in 1975 and was forced out.
Description: Springman Records is an independent record label founded in 1998 by Avi Ehrlich that was run out of his parents' garage in Cupertino, California, until late 2005, when Ehrlich moved the label to Sacramento. The label's official slogan is "Friendly Punks" though many other styles of music appear on the label, such as indie rock, rockabilly, ska, folk music, pop punk, and hardcore. In 2007, Springman stopped releasing albums, but launched Silver Sprocket, a bicycle club that also releases records with a more collective and community-oriented philosophy. Silver Sprocket members jokingly refer to themselves as a cult on their Myspace page.
Description: Finast was a leading retail supermarket in the Northeastern US. Its beginnings go back to 1938 when a man by the name of Edward Silverberg first introduced supermarkets to the Cleveland area. By 1940 Mr. Silverberg had grown his business to a total of 10 supermarkets under the brand name Pick-N-Pay. In 1951 Cook Coffee Co. of Cleveland acquired all 10 stores in addition to another 25 Foodtown, Inc. supermarkets. From there Pick-N-Pay continued to grow and in 1972 Cook sold what was then a total of 57 supermarkets. By 1975 the business became the leading supermarket chain in Cleveland, in direct competition with the other grocery chains such as Fazios and Stop-N-Shop. The business then grew beyond Ohio in 1978 when they acquired the ...
Description: Beginning in 1974, Power Records produced ‘Book & Record’ sets that included either a 7" 45 rpm record or a 12″ 33 rpm record and a comic book. The record followed along with the comic using sound effects, audio dialogue, and a backing soundtrack. Power Records’ Book & Record sets remain highly desirable collectables, not just due to their pop culture value, but because complete sets with both the record and comic are hard to come by, especially in good condition, as these were loved and well used by children over many years. Power continued to produce these sets until the early '80s.
Description: Remembering the B. Altman Department Store. B. Altman and Company was a luxury department store and chain, founded in 1865 in New York City, New York, by Benjamin Altman. On March 12, 1985, Altman's Fifth Avenue building was designated a New York City landmark. The Manhattan B. Altman store featured in the storyline of the television series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, in which the main character, Midge Maisel, takes a job on the shop floor. Exterior scenes were filmed at the store's former Fifth Avenue building.
Description: Remembering the great Kaufmann’s Department Store. If you lived in Pittsburgh PA this was the place. Kaufmann's flagship store was built in 1887 at 400 Fifth Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh. It was known as The Big Store. And no wonder, at one point, the building was the largest department store in Pittsburgh with twelve retail floors, spanning an entire downtown city block. Kaufmann's Big Store had a landmark outdoor clock at Fifth Avenue and Smithfield Street. It was popular downtown meeting place, with the oft-used phrase "Meet me under Kaufmann's clock." The clock is still a Pittsburgh icon.
Description: Remembering the great Marshall Field’s Department Store. Marshall Field's was a department store in Chicago, Illinois, founded in the 19th century that grew to become a large chain before being acquired by Macy's, Inc in 2005. Marshall Field's great six-story merchandising emporium catered to urban women with leisure time. Rather than "buyer beware," Field's motto was "Give the lady what she wants." He had that motto displayed on a sign above his desk.
Description: Price Club was a warehouse store chain, founded by Sol Price in San Diego, California. Price devised the Price Club concept in 1975 after being forced out of FedMart, another retail chain he founded. Price and a few of his friends put up $2.5 million in capital to open the first Price Club on July 12, 1976, in San Diego. Price Club would eventually merge with one of its competitors and the combined company would go on to become the global leader in the wholesale shopping club space with more than 800 warehouses worldwide as of 2021.
Description: Ghostly International is an American independent record label founded in 1999 by Samuel Valenti IV and currently headquartered in Brooklyn, New York City. Chief artists include Matthew Dear, Dabrye (a.k.a. Tadd Mullinix), Com Truise, Tycho, Gold Panda, School of Seven Bells, Mux Mool, and Shigeto.
Description: At least five record labels with the name Bullet Records have existed. The earliest Bullet Records was a record label based in Nashville, United States, which was started in 1946 by Jim Bulleit and C.V. Hitchcock. Bulleit was an early partner in Sun Records. Its only national hits were by orchestra leader Francis Craig. The pop hit "Near You" made in early 1947 was a monster, topping the charts for seventeen weeks and having a chart run of twenty-five weeks. Craig also made the charts at #3 with "Beg Your Pardon", but no further hits were forthcoming.
