Defunct Retail Shorts
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: Service Merchandise was a retail chain of catalog showrooms carrying jewelry, toys, sporting goods, and electronics. The company, which first began in 1934 as a five-and-dime, was in existence for 68 years before ceasing operations in 2002. During the 1970s and 1980s, Service Merchandise was a leading catalog-showroom retailer. At its peak, the company achieved more than $4 billion in annual sales. As the company expanded, it began to open showrooms nationwide, mostly in the vicinity of major shopping malls, which were in vogue in the 1970s.
Description: Founded in 1962 by the F. W. Woolworth Company, Woolco was an American retail chain. Unlike Woolworth's five-and-dime stores, Woolco was a full-line discount department store, and the creation of the new format coincided with the expansion of suburbia. At its peak, Woolco had hundreds of stores in the US, as well as in Canada and the UK. Woolworth's flagship stores were still doing well, but the company wanted to tap into the growing discount department store market without diluting its dominant position in the variety store business. The first Woolco was located in Columbus, Ohio, and by 1966, there were 18 in the US, and nine in Canada with plans for 30 stores to be added per year.
Description: Service Merchandise was a retail chain of catalog showrooms carrying jewelry, toys, sporting goods, and electronics. The company, which first began in 1934 as a five-and-dime store, was in existence for 68 years before ceasing operations in 2002. Wikipedia was a retail chain of catalog showrooms carrying jewelry, toys, sporting goods, and electronics. The company, which first began in 1934 as a five-and-dime store, was in existence for 68 years before ceasing operations in 2002.
Description: Be the king of your own castle with the high fashion, 80's inspired Chess King shirt. Founded in 1968, Chess King was a clothing retailer whose concept was a teen shop with highly identifiable stores that had bold coloring and designs aimed at the 12-to-20 male market. In November 1995, the Chess King chain was closed.
Description: Fry’s Electronics was an American big-box store chain headquartered in Silicon Valley. Fry’s retailed software, consumer electronics, household appliances, cosmetics, tools, toys, accessories, magazines, technical books, and computer hardware. Fry’s had in-store computer repair and custom computer building services. Fry’s began with one store in Sunnyvale, California, which expanded to 34 stores in nine states at its peak in 2019. Because Fry’s stores were enormous, stocking a wide range of each product category, they were popular with electronics and computer hobbyists and professionals. Almost all of their stores carried a theme that was more than just decor, but built into the architecture of the building, using themes ranging from an Az
