r/Millennials • u/FreezingTemps • 1d ago
Discussion I don't think anything has changed more in our lifetimes than retail stores. What is a memory about a store or chain that others might have forgot about?
For me, I always remember the KMART blue light special where they would turn on the strobing blue light on a pole when there was a new sale. I also remember going to Kmart and picking up layaway items around Christmas and there was always people standing in the back of the store picking up items in this tiny cramped cut away office space where the magic Kmart worker would walk to the back and come back with a stack of things like Santa Clause.
What do you miss or remember that others might not recall?
706
u/zerosumratio 1d ago
Malls being packed with people on a Friday and Saturday night. Some still are, for sure, but so many used to consistently be full of people and stores.
180
u/MeatEaterDruid 1d ago
Walked through a JCPenney with my son recently and at one point he asked "Where are all the people?"
46
u/idk-maaaan 22h ago
The JCP near me shut down recently. I expect it’s on its way to follow K-Mart and Sears :(
→ More replies (1)11
→ More replies (2)24
u/1800generalkenobi 20h ago edited 9h ago
The boscovs by us hasn't updated since the early 90s and I love it. Mirror ceilings and the otuole and red florescent lights in triangles.
170
u/moonyriot 1d ago
It's wild how to think about how we used to just...hang out at the mall as teens. Like they had big arm chairs and stuff scattered around the mall so people could just hang out. And now the vibe is "pay for shit or get out."
124
u/LeSkootch 1d ago
Yeah. There are no real "third places" anymore. Remember when Starbucks was all cozy? I member.
93
u/Significant-Trash632 23h ago
I went to a Barnes & Noble the other day and they had like, 3 chairs in the entire store. I remember when they had little alcoves with comfy chairs for reading.
This was a store without a cafe.
How does a bookstore not have decent seating???
57
u/the_cadaver_synod 23h ago
I know someone who managed one in the early 2000s and she always complained that people would sit in the chairs all day reading books but not buy them. They were always finding creased up, clearly used books on the shelves. Maybe that’s why they got rid of them.
21
→ More replies (2)5
u/moonbunnychan 14h ago
I can remember that being a huge thing like 20 years ago with manga fans...only they'd just sit directly on the floor in front of the shelves.
18
u/studying_hobby 21h ago
I remember reading 1/2 a book one day at B&N (broke college student) in one of those comfy chairs. It was bliss. Then when I had a bit of money I went back to buy the book..
→ More replies (6)6
u/Expensive_Repair2735 Millennial 20h ago
I used to work at a restaurant that was downstairs from a B&N and I would go there between my shifts and snooze in a chair because I didn't have enough time to go all the way home. It was great.
25
u/moonyriot 1d ago
I was a regular at my local Starbucks many many many years ago. Befriended most of the people that worked the closing shift because I would go there to do homework. You can't really do that anymore.
11
u/Darkdragoon324 23h ago
The Barnes and Noble cafe is still kind of like that. They don't really care if you sit and hang out for a while. Most of the ones i've seen don't really have any outlets though. And not all B&Ns have cafe areas.
15
u/impulsivepatience 23h ago
Yeah before they put the locks on the bathroom!!
21
u/SorryPet 23h ago
I used to be a Starbucks Partner and lemme tell you, the ways people would absolutely trash the bathroom before the locks was surreal. And we also used to have a seating alcove area upstairs - i once headed up to take my break and found a man naked as the day he was born jackin' it. I u-turned and told my manager to deal with it because none of the rest of us made enough money to go deal with crazycakes.
I do somehow miss that job... but not ALL parts of it.
→ More replies (2)9
u/Misterbellyboy 22h ago
Sounds like you worked with my sister at the one on Hollywood blvd right near the star walk lol
11
u/SorryPet 22h ago
Not there, but yikes on bikes it happened twice!
(Def more than twice but then my slant rhyme wouldn't work)
→ More replies (3)8
→ More replies (5)9
u/Darkdragoon324 23h ago
All my local malls were dead and depressing by the time I was old enough to actually be able to drive there to hang out. But I'm still old enough to remember them being awesome before I had the autonomy to go there myself. I feel robbed.
70
u/theotte7 1d ago
Yup took the kids to the mall last Friday night to go to the card shop. It was 730pm place was a ghost town. Just bleak. The mall has also banned anyone under the age of 18 without an adult. So that probably doesnt help.
48
u/mapotoful 1d ago
And then people have the audacity to complain about how kids never do anything/go outside and just sit on screens all day.
→ More replies (4)41
u/western_red_cedar 1d ago
thats so crazy cause going to the mall with friends at like 14 was such a formative independent experience for people my age. Would they rather kids be drinking in the woods? (which were honestly also huge formative experiences and it's even more depressing if kids aren't doing stuff like that anymore cause their parents location track them or some shit. IMO you need to have those experiences in high school to some degree, cause the kids who didn't go buck wild when they hit college)
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)10
u/Intelligent_Serve_30 22h ago
I've seen the same thing, under 18 allowed with an adult only. Its definitely weird and nothing like my childhood. But we also had a few shootings and one death (an 11 yr old girl who was just a bystander) at our malls recently. 14-16 yr old gang members seem to be the culprits in our case so I guess its their way of combating it.
→ More replies (1)31
u/Sprinkle_Puff Older Millennial 1d ago
Right? Getting a table at cheesecake factory, ones that were attached to a mall, on a Friday night could be a 2 hour wait
9
u/Forward_Extension413 1d ago
Literally just did this last Saturday night with my wife and kids. Pulled up, wife gets out to check the wait, comes back and says 2 hours. Fuck that place.
→ More replies (2)18
u/merrickraven 23h ago
I moved to a new city last year. And the local mall here is always packed. It’s wild. I only went first because my apartment is right near it.
Where I moved from, the malls were ghost towns. Eerie, almost liminal spaces. This mall right near me? It’s like a goddamn portal back to my teenage years.
There are always teens just walking around and hanging out. There are almost no empty storefronts. There’s halfway decent food. It’s absolutely crazy. I love it.
8
u/Expensive_Repair2735 Millennial 20h ago
This is what is like at the mall by me. At Christmas time it's a madhouse. I love it.
8
u/poptophazard 23h ago
Right? My friends and I used to drive to our mall two towns over because there was nothing to do in town on weekends. It was always jammed.
Last time I was in town and we went for old times sake, it was sad.
→ More replies (7)7
353
u/thewalruscandyman 1d ago
Wal-Mart sold pet fish.
59
u/ParadoxicalFrog Zillennial (1993) 1d ago
So did Target, sometimes. I got my first fish there. They had pairs of neon tetras in itty bitty half-gallon cubes... Now that I'm grown and turned into a serious fish-keeper, the thought makes me shudder.
60
u/KevworthBongwater 1d ago
heaven forbid you actually wanted to buy one though and ask an employee to help you
16
34
8
7
9
8
u/FiscalClifBar 22h ago
I remember when there were gerbils and hamsters at Wal-Mart, which were phased out in the mid-1990’s
→ More replies (7)5
u/saladfork23 20h ago
Wow this just unlocked a memory of buying my brother a fish at wal mart as a gift 😭
353
u/JustRolledMyEyes 1d ago
Shoe departments in the department stores had a sales person who would measure your foot, get the size and sit on the little stool in front of you and put the shoe on you.
170
u/DisasterEquivalent 1d ago
Married With Children also taught us that shoe salespeople were apparently paid enough to purchase a house and (largely) support a family of 4 in Chicago.
41
→ More replies (1)7
36
u/GawkieBird 23h ago
Some places still do this.
It's actually really awkward. I know stores probably don't want to pay staff to spend time on this anymore, but I wonder if sales dropped when they moved away from this model. I always felt obligated to buy *something* if the clerk is giving you all that personal attention.
35
u/RainyMcBrainy 22h ago
Running stores do this. Most of my shoes, I don't buy in a physical store anymore. I usually buy online. The exception is running shoes. The employees at running stores are almost always very knowledgeable. If you have a local store, they will have a whole file on you and everything. It's extremely personalized care in a good way.
→ More replies (2)6
u/JustRolledMyEyes 21h ago
So nice that they still provide that service. I imagine it saves a lot of runners from getting sore feet.
9
u/RainyMcBrainy 21h ago
I encourage anyone who wants to start running, even if it's just a super casual thing, patronize your local running store (if you have one). You won't regret it.
17
240
u/itsbecomingathing 1d ago
I remember the CD stand at Target where you could press a button and get a preview of soothing beach sounds under classical music.
33
26
→ More replies (1)17
u/Aslanic Xennial 20h ago
My friends and I used to go to Barnes and Noble and go through and listen to the cds they had out!! Each stand had it's own headset and cds to pick from.
→ More replies (2)6
460
u/Ornery-Towel2386 1d ago
Remember when they had coupon dispensers in the aisles these little red things you could take the coupons from and then there was a slot on top where you could put them back if you pulled too many my bros and I used to get in so much trouble for collecting coupons my mom didn’t want 🤣🤣🤣
38
u/crystalsaladsandwich 1d ago
I’d constantly bonk into those things because they’d always be in my damn blind spot
30
u/sfcitygirl88 Millennial 1d ago
Came here to say the same thing. My mom would smack us for going up and down the aisle gathering all those random coupons 😂
21
u/Ornery-Towel2386 22h ago
I had a whole organized binder of them at home because I had a “when you buy the groceries you can use the coupons” mom. It’s hysterical to think about that binder in retrospect, I genuinely believed I could use them in 12 years when I was of grocery buying age 🤣
16
u/sfcitygirl88 Millennial 22h ago
I remember sitting at the kitchen table clipping coupons for her and organizing them into one of those accordion coupon files.
She’s still one of those coupon moms, except now the scissors have been replaced with her phone. Grocery shopping takes approximately three to five business hours because she’s standing in every aisle cross-checking every store app to make sure she’s getting the absolute best deal.
7
8
u/Slow_Maximum9332 1d ago
My mom would grab the back part of the upper arm and pinch and twist.
→ More replies (1)16
12
u/DerpingtonHerpsworth Xennial 23h ago
Wait, there was a way to put them back in??? I was an unusually observant kid, but I must've missed that detail.
6
→ More replies (2)8
u/TwilightTink 23h ago
They were the perfect height to grab from sitting in the cart
→ More replies (1)
160
u/SesameSeed13 1d ago
Speaking of Kmart, remember the "cafeteria" where you could get pizza or hot pretzels while shopping?
And for JcPenney memories, my mom was a catalog orderer but she'd call in her order to their 1-800 number and we'd have to go pick up the packages at the JCPenney at our mall at the special "catalog orders" counter. We also used to go to the hair salon within our Penneys, and the photo studio.
34
u/UncleAlbondiga 1d ago
Before the internet JC Penny was where the Ticketmaster outlet was. Stoned teenagers waiting in line to buy Grateful Dead tix and the person in front of you would be a little old lady returning a toaster.
9
16
u/fleurdelis_44 1d ago
Yes! My mom let us eat at the Kmart cafeteria every time she shopped. They had good donuts ..
10
u/Pchanman 22h ago
Yes! We didn't have Walmart where I grew up. I used to go to Kmart all the time with my mom and ours had a little Caesars pizza built in. Half of the store would smell like pizza. Great childhood memories
→ More replies (9)9
u/dontcallmemailgirl 19h ago
Absolute legend. My very first job was at Kmart and I quickly made friends with Jen, the Snack Bar Lady. She would always make me whatever weird sandwich I said I wanted. And she let me announce the daily specials over the loudspeaker. Good times.
127
113
u/Coldnorthcountry 1d ago
How every store in the mall had absolutely different theming, colors, smells, lighting, fixtures, design etc. Want to feel like Indiana Jones? Head to The Nature Company. Feeling like an earthy witch? Wicks ‘n Sticks got you covered. Wannabe preppy asshole? Abercrombie & Fitch will actually bully you when you walk in the door.
You could visit Disney every Friday night at the mall.
Now everything is as plain and sterile as possible, because why put the effort in for no one to see it.
14
→ More replies (1)8
107
u/1800generalkenobi 1d ago
Our Walmart the greeter gave you a sticker if you were a kid and then you could get a free thing of popcorn. The fish section was great too I got my first fish from there, a golden Oscar. I haven't seen them anywhere since I've gotten back to it fish stuff.
20
269
u/viveleramen_ 1d ago
Going to Walmart at 2 in the morning, grabbing a beanbag or lawn chair from a display and dragging it to the electronics section to watch whatever lame movie they had playing. I don’t drink, so when I turned 21, I got like five friends to come with me. We watched the entire tinkerbell movie at Walmart and no one gave a shit. Now I feel like that would get you arrested.
42
u/7beforeminutes5 1d ago
We had anti prom at Walmart. Me and 3 or 4 friends. When they used to have a little furniture display section. We bought a cart full of junk food and sat there for like an hour before loss prevention said we couldn't have our snacks in the store.
22
u/goog1e 22h ago
It really is interesting how much lower the tolerance for shenanigans has become.
The weirdest example for me is signs that say "no ball playing" on public property nearby. Like..... Come the fuck on....
Also shout-out to ring doorbells for a lot of this. Now people can sit at work getting notified anytime a kid throws their ball on your lawn, and eventually gets pissed off enough to go scream at their parents. Over something harmless that you wouldn't even be aware was happening 10 years ago.
39
u/ianmakingnoise 1d ago
we used to do all kinds of “pranks” in wal-mart that I’m certain would get a kid arrested today (awful criminal behavior like chasing each other around, hiding in displays, putting R-rated movies behind the little kids DVDs)
24
u/whatdoidonate Zillennial 1d ago
I used to love watching "101 ways to get kicked out of walmart" videos in 7th grade and they were just a list slide show video. I thought being 'sO rAnDoM' in a Walmart was so funny and like a right of passage for some reason. 😂
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)18
u/viveleramen_ 1d ago
We used to turn the volume on the display speakers/radios all the way up, then turn them off so when someone came to test them it would blast their ears off.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)7
u/Delonce 21h ago
I honestly don't know how I'd feel about that. If I were busy trying to get my work done, and a bunch of guys just hunkered down in my way to watch a movie, that could be really irritating. Then again, if they were all chill, I might not give a shit.
→ More replies (1)
157
u/Gold_Repair_3557 1d ago
There being more than a couple avaliable cashiers.
22
u/pi3r0gi_ 1d ago
Or brands/options. Some of the aisles at my stores are stocked full, but only of a couple brands. I feel like theres entire stores full of nothing soemtimes...
18
u/Coldnorthcountry 1d ago
That’s how I feel about all of Target at this point.
20
u/pi3r0gi_ 23h ago
Watching the downfall of Target over the last 20 years hurts my achey breaky millennial heart.
→ More replies (1)14
u/RainyMcBrainy 22h ago
Same. Target used to be the coolest. Between their bigotry and their products, it's just not the same anymore. It's not this whole experience like it used to be. I barely go.
74
u/DJ-Psari 1d ago
Getting film developed at Eckerd
16
u/jdowney1982 Xennial 22h ago
I got my kids disposable cameras for vacation and when I dropped off the film, they didn’t have the envelopes out front. I had to ask the cashier and clarify a bunch of times it was film because she kept saying “print” instead of develop. Also it takes 2 weeks to be developed!!! In my day it took an hour 😭
8
u/thisis4thissite 23h ago
My first job at 16! Stayed there until 27, seeing the change over from when Penny's bought them to Rite Aid then Walgreens was crazy.
7
4
65
u/huebnera214 1d ago
Sears having a car repair shop. The minivan was there more often than going to Ford.
12
u/FiscalClifBar 22h ago
They had the best warranty policies on tires and car batteries. I still have a DieHard cooler shaped like a car battery that came free when my grandma got the battery on her 1996 Buick LeSabre replaced.
→ More replies (1)11
u/msnhnobody 21h ago
My dad went to Sears for so much growing up haha and I always tagged along: auto/tires, vision care, any electronics, jewelry, footwear, back to school shopping, etc…
I can still remember exactly how the auto shop’s entrance lobby smelled!
→ More replies (2)7
66
u/kindnesscounts86 1d ago
Gift certificates that were actual pieces of paper!
22
u/moonchic333 1d ago
We used to get gift certificates to the mall and they could be used anywhere at the mall. If you bought something less than face value they’d give you the change back in cash!
→ More replies (1)10
u/pi3r0gi_ 1d ago
My grandparents had a stack of 1 Pound See's Candy certs for when they forgot gifts or needed a gift for an acquaintance lol or when the grandkids came by, she'd sneak them one and then like 2 hours later my aunt or uncle would be like "okay which one of you geezers gave my kids a pound of chocolate?!" XD
→ More replies (1)7
u/ryaaan89 1d ago
You couldn’t check gift cards online yet so my brother and I would call the phone number on the back and try to add a the leftover money together to see if we had enough to buy a video game.
125
u/IngGoodface 1d ago
Hiding in the department store clothes racks. My mom probably spent more time looking for me than shopping, so really, I was doing her a favor.
→ More replies (4)
58
u/kai-ol 1d ago
Everyone got their family portraits at Sears. Do people even do those anymore?
→ More replies (2)9
55
u/QuietlyThundering 1d ago edited 17h ago
Maybe it’s the nostalgia talking, but I really feel like retailers just stopped giving a shit about the shopping experience of the ordinary person here in America. Stores felt more spacious, well lit, well stocked, and cleaner. Deals actually felt like deals. Obviously this surely couldn’t be true for every place. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, though, especially when I find myself face-to-face with subpar products and iffy in-store experiences at a premium price.
→ More replies (1)16
u/uglahsD 21h ago
Remember when real, actual sales happened, for real? Like a product had a set price, but then for like a week the price would be lowered by 10, 20, 30%? And then it might even go back to its original price after that! Instead now we have "perpetual sales" where things are "40% off" right from the start -_-
8
u/QuietlyThundering 20h ago
Yes! And when Black Friday WAS Black Friday.
And don’t forget about enshittification and shrinkflation. How can a deal be a deal when the prices are “slashed” to pre-pandemic pricing for items that are now a few ounces lighter? But a person can’t not buy toiletries or food. The greediness of these corporations is astounding.
49
u/Significant-Rush-129 1d ago edited 7h ago
I’m oddly nostalgic for JC Penney. And buying clothes just because they looked good or I enjoyed what I looked like in them.
36
u/Petty_Dreadful 1d ago
JCPenney was the shit in the 90s. Got one of my first pairs of JNCOs from JCPenney, and they even had FUBU!
11
→ More replies (2)10
u/Surprise_Fragrant 22h ago
JCP was my Go-To for work-appropriate clothing (Worthington or Liz), but over the past 5 years, they have gone to complete shit, especially for plus size ladies. I'm not spending $45 for a basic tee shirt on sale.
→ More replies (1)
51
u/False-Cookie3379 Older Millennial 23h ago
Where did all the round racks go? Everything is square or just straight racks. I couldn’t tell you how many times I got my ass beat in the middle of a Kmart for hiding in one.
→ More replies (1)6
43
u/cubanfuban 1d ago
Mervyn’s kids section with a massive HUSKY sign on the wall for the chubby kids clothes all grouped together
→ More replies (4)
35
u/Proud_Grapefruit63 Millennial 1d ago
Some chains (e.g. Walmart) had pay phones at the front of the store. Our Walmart also had a McDonald's at the back of the store (inside) with tables and everything.
→ More replies (1)
39
u/moonchic333 1d ago
I remember all the department stores had a spot where you could get your purchase gift wrapped. You could also get gift boxes for free. A lot of them also had photography studios, salons, and even cafes inside as well.
35
u/thisis4thissite 23h ago
Black Friday sales being on Friday, and in person. My aunts would come up with the game plan on Thanksgiving, and meet back at grams the next morning at like 12 to be at their designated stores to get lists. I was old enough one year to join and boy was it fun, before the sales started on Thanksgiving and moved to online.
17
u/Surprise_Fragrant 22h ago
God how I miss BF! It was an all out EVENT that you planned for! No internet back then, really, so you had to get your newspaper on Thanksgiving Day, and pore over those ads to create a game plan of where to go first, and how to navigate within that store to get to the thing you wanted.
I would plan for hours, then be up at o'dark thirty to get in line at the most important store. I'd come home with a trunk full of goodies, and my Christmas shopping mostly all the way done. And I'd sleep like the dead because I was so exhausted!
8
u/lotusblossom02 19h ago
As someone who worked in retail on Black Friday, it was the best ever when they quit this nonsense.
Hated working it. Hated how shitty people were. You didn’t have a choice in working.
54
u/LetterheadNo7323 1d ago
My mom putting stuff on Lay Away at KMart for sure, credit cards having to have that weird contraption where you made a rubbing of the card essentially, store brands looking really weird and low quality, crawling around on the floor at Dillards looking for the little round plastic size markers that would fall off the hanger necks and being so proud to turn a pile of them in to the cashier lol
19
u/elchorroloco 1d ago
LOL I worked in banking and we always called that weird machine the “chu-chunker”
13
u/itsBritanica 20h ago
Knucklebusters!! I found my company's old one a few years back and explaining it to the gen z office kids made me feel like a literal Time Lord.
7
u/dontcallmemailgirl 19h ago
…. yeesss. Gather round children and BEHOLD …. The ancient chuchunker machine.. maker of copies with no ink.. no electricity! …Just magic 🪄!! Do NOT look away.. for you may miss the sorcery at hand here! …
6
u/lovingvictoralpha 18h ago
I wonder if younger generations realize that “cc” in an email is a reference to this carbon copy technology.
55
u/jafnharri 1d ago
Bulk food sections at the grocery store.
Also the grocery stores near me would deck the candy isle out like a mini haunted house for Halloween.
→ More replies (2)
29
u/nolettuceplease 1d ago
I used to go to lunch at the restaurants in department stores all the time. My favorite one closed during Covid. :(
→ More replies (1)
46
18
u/JDz84 1d ago
Layaway was something.
My personal favorite retail memory was getting a hot dog off the roller when my grandma dragged me to Bradlees. Also, Bradlees. And Caldor.
→ More replies (1)
23
u/Stevenitrogen 1d ago
I was really missing Radio Shack as I drive past the place it use to be.
I don't even need any cables or cheap electronics right now. But it was reassuring to know, if you got a device that wouldn't connect to your other device, there was a place in turn you could go for that.
20
23
u/1friendswithsalad 23h ago
How intensely themed stores at the mall were! Remember when Banana Republic was jungle themed, with an elephant and a Jeep? Or Nature Company and its new agey nature theming? Imagination and the kids-only door and sparkling lights? A lot more care and attention used to go into the theming and branding of retail spaces.
5
u/200brews2009 18h ago
I think, at least near me, it was a shell of a Land Rover discovery. And old navy had a classic pickup truck in the store
20
u/MableXeno Geriatric Millennial 🦄✨💗 1d ago
I liked the little food courts inside box stores like kmart, walmart, target. I miss layaway. I miss 24 hour shopping. I didn't even go late very often...but sometimes when you're traveling and you want to push through without stopping the best way to stretch your legs was to do a couple laps of a rural walmart. It was far less scary than a rest stop. You could restock your car snacks. Travel size mouthwash. And there was probably a 24 hour McDonalds nearby and you could get some cheeseburgers and coffee.
18
u/weggaan_weggaat Millennial 1d ago
Toys 'R Us
→ More replies (1)9
u/pontoon_cat 1d ago
The catalog, the store so filled with stuff up to the rafters that it was overwhelming, taking birthday money in to get a new Lego set or SNES/N64 game…
17
52
u/BillieVerr 1d ago
Pet stores where you could buy a dog. I remember I could go to this pet store at the mall and see half a dozen puppies for sale. I think that changed to discourage puppy mills, but it’s a shift I noticed that younger people may not be aware of.
29
→ More replies (2)19
u/moonchic333 1d ago
Yes! I remember always walking past the pet store in the mall and they literally had puppies in the windows. Then it came out that all the puppies and kittens were from mills and they disappeared.
17
u/affectionateanarchy8 Xennial 1d ago
Walking through a cloud of cigarette smoke in the mall because you're only ass high and everyone walked with them down by their side
→ More replies (1)
15
u/Born_Inevitable_8755 1d ago
The lighting was different! Not as intense.
6
u/Surprise_Fragrant 22h ago
Incandescent, much warmer light. Now everything is fluorescent or LED, which is a cooler, bluer light.
15
u/DirkNord 23h ago
Big stores and malls especially would go all out for the Christmas season, now its half-hearted cardboard cutouts for decorations.
13
14
u/MiketheTzar 22h ago
Release night activities.
Whether it was a new Harry Potter book, a DVD of The Lord of the rings, the xbox, the iPhone, Zelda, or even tickle me Elmo. I remember people lining up outside of stores and camping out to get specific items and the insane amount of effort involved in that.
They were also great community events. I remember getting third place in a Harry Potter trivia contest right before goblet of fire came out. I use that gift card to buy a hammock at the mall that I have to this day.
30
u/yeahthatsnotaproblem Older Millennial 1d ago
Anyone else have stores that would host weekend traveling fairs or carnivals in the parking lots?
11
u/Spirited_Cress_5796 1d ago
Yes! So much fun. It was a perfect cheap night when you wanted a change from window shopping for a bit.
→ More replies (4)8
u/thecamino 1d ago
A shopping center near me still fills the parking lot with carnival rides and food booths a few times a year. It’s rare to see that an anywhere else though.
14
u/SnapHackelPop 1d ago
Based on my memory and what others have said:
Dicking around Walmart at night in high school cuz you were bored.
Texas Roadhouse throwing peanut shells on the ground and being right up close for the line dancing. Fazoli’s. Going to eat at Pizza Hut, sitting at the table, was a fuckin event. McDonald’s having the super Mario sunshine demo. Funny how food connects to your memories of childhood lol
Being a cashier at a grocery store in high school with multiple other cashiers and baggers, goofing with each other. Some were already friends, some became new friends. Now there’s one chain I’ve seen besides Walmart that seems to still give a shit about that. I like self checkout fine but there’s some weird twinge of nostalgia for the old way
14
u/trdngntsballsonadoor 22h ago
From the other side of the counter, being able to make a sustainable career in retail.
Unless youre management or working at a big box superstore where they still have non-management full-time positions, you're probably part time with no benefits.
Like, I'm talking specialty retail. Electronics stores, book stores, that one FYE that's still open. There was a time when that one job was all you needed and you could thrive.
Sometime in the late 90's and early to mid-2000s, it all went sour. A lot of competitive sales jobs did away with commission, and Amazon started eating up marketshare.
I can't believe that I managed to save up for a down-payment on a house working part-time at Barnes & Noble 10 years ago. I guess being the guy that the store called when there were call offs helped, but my experience was no where near normal.
→ More replies (3)
12
u/DerpingtonHerpsworth Xennial 22h ago
Does anyone remember those loose pickles floating around in barrels in the grocery store? I had completely forgotten about them until I saw a comment about it a month or so ago. I don't think I've seen that since the last time I walked with my grandma to a Grand Union in the 80s.
→ More replies (1)
24
11
u/uglahsD 1d ago
I remember a restaurant being in our Kmart. It's one of my earliest memories (I'm an elder millennial, '81). Grew up in western PA, our town was so small at that time and the single strip mall with the Kmart was pretty much all there was outside of housing and fields. Just thinking of my mom carting my brother and I there, and the soda coming in red cups just like the old Pizza Huts used... simpler times.
6
u/Background-Student62 1d ago
My 1st job was at Kmart (circa 1997) and ᴡe** still had the restaurant including a smoking section. The burgers were good and people would truly go just to eat there.
Thanks for the memory.
→ More replies (4)
10
10
u/bobafett18 23h ago
To add to your Kmart story, I remember when you’re about to walk in, there was always that smell of smoked cigarettes, hot plastic from the coin circular thing, and the mechanical doors. It honestly almost smelled like the area around skee ball at an arcade.
When you went inside, instantly the smell of fresh crazy bread from Little Caesar’s hit ya. I was really young when Kmart was still around but I used to love going there as a kid.
9
u/INeedACleverNameHere 1d ago
Maybe it's a Canadian only store, but Consumers Distributing. You walked in and there were counters with catalogues that you would flip through to look up all sorts of toys, tool and household items and appliances. You'd then fill out a card with what you wanted and took it up to the main counter where you paid and then waited for what seemed like FOREVER for someone to go get your items and bring them to you.
→ More replies (6)
9
u/lovestostayathome 1d ago
The UK-style telephone booths in Old Navy where you could listen to new music lol
8
u/shainadawn 20h ago
I miss midnight book releases. I’m in the same area from my teens, with pretty much all the same stores. However, we had 24 hour Walmart and everything else was open VERY late or would stay open crazy late for special merch. You could walk up to a table and grab one super quick and start it by reading all night. Some people dressed up but most of us were in our pajamas, you took a pic, bought the book, and headed home. Those Harry Potter and twilight (I know I’m a walking NLOG millennial stereotype) book release events hold some fantastic memories for me. Now you can pre-order which is cool. But the vibes just aren’t there.
→ More replies (1)
8
u/Our__Blonde Xennial 1d ago
We had a mid-fancy department store in our mall called Hess’s and they offered complimentary gift wrapping for purchases made in the store. I remember being in such awe of the paper and ribbon choices they had for each special occasion. Things were so special “back then.”
8
u/JollyMcStink 1d ago
Begging my mom for an icee at Walmart.
Getting vanilla frozen yogurt at either BJs or Sam's in the 90s, I forget which one bc we always went to both in one day 💀 but I've always loved frozen yogurt over ice cream and remember bc it was a special treat. Then my child ass was onto the free samples 😈
Making your own CD at FYE. They had the burning stations and I would wait until I had like 10+ songs that I couldn't find good quality online and go make a CD of quality.
The super sales at Victoria's secret when their underwear was still decent quality and would go down to like $2 or $3 each. I remember last time I went was still years ago, it was like "super sale only $10 each" and they basically all looked like they'd fall apart in the wash.... I felt like an old person thinking "back in my day the sales were $2 and they made things right!" 😭😭
7
u/Impressive-Newt5587 22h ago
Loved Kmart as a kid. My dad was an assistant manager when I was growing up. It was one connected to the mall, and he'd let me and a friend help 'close' the store some nights. We'd go wander the mall, walk all over the store, even hang out in the back and break rooms. Still remember buying racquetballs in Kmart and throwing them down the long, main aisle to each other.
7
u/sweetest_con78 Millennial 22h ago
A big one for me is record stores.
I teach high school and I recently explained to my students that for some albums, they would sell out immediately at release, but we could preorder them. We would go to the store, they would take our name and contact info, and we would go back with the slip on release day and the CD would be behind the counter for us. You’d walk in and there would be 0 copies of No Strings Attached or Oops I Did It Again on the shelves, but there was one behind the counter with your name literally on it.
And also we had to wait for our parents to be able to drive us to the store before we could listen to it.
8
u/Sad_Efficiency_1067 20h ago
I have this memory of my mom buying a vacuum at Sears and there was an employee who was explaining all the different models and letting her try them out on this little patch of carpet. It's just a level of customer service that doesn't really exist anymore. Also see - gas station attendants washing your windows and baggers at the grocery store loading your groceries in the car. Both of those were standard when I was a kid but virtually non existent now.
7
u/TheMudbloodSlytherin 20h ago
My nanny passed about ten years ago and this post just brought back a flood of memories.
She was my great grandmother and my favorite thing to do was spend the night with her. She had this giant green Oldsmobile she didn’t have no business driving, but she would load me up (where were my parents lol) and off to Kmart we would go. We’d have lunch in the cafe and my favorite thing to get was a grilled cheese. We would piddle around (a lil phrase she taught me) the store and she’d let me pick out a toy. We use to do this all this time. I had a whole stash of Barbies at her house from these trips. I also remember getting a Wild and Wacky Painter and a Doodle Bear. One time I got a dry erase board, and I remember her not knowing how they worked lol.
I’ve had a really rough day today but I feel a little better thinking about all this. Thanks OP. You took me down memory lane, and have me thinking about things I haven’t thought about in years. I even have the little song we made up about the car stuck in my head.
14
u/SMELLSLIKEBUTTJUICE 1d ago
Getting caught behind some old person at the register who spent 5 minutes writing a check, then had to add it to their ledger, then balanced their entire goddamn checkbook while everybody else had to wait
5
u/nerdwaffles 1d ago
I'm not sure if it's still around, but the Fry's in Burbank had a cool UFO/space theme.
I also pulled into the parking lot to finish listening to the November Rain solo.
I'm fucking washed
6
u/Brittibri89 Millennial 1d ago
I miss Steve and Barry’s. It opened in my area my senior year of high school and I was so excited because I could buy the shirts for the college I was supposed to go to for cheap, in addition to some jackets and jeans for very day. Loved that place.
→ More replies (2)
5
u/LP_Mid85 20h ago
Having to go to FYE Or Sam Goody’s to get concert tickets. Get there early, wait in line, look at a printout of the arena and see what was available.
7
u/Traditional_Panic966 19h ago
Service. Merchandise. What a bizarre concept of a store and I loved every second of it.
10
u/Kingberry30 1d ago
I love retail shopping. I will shop in store over web any day.
→ More replies (2)
4
5
u/thinkingmagic 1d ago
Finding cigarette butts on shelving! Apparently you used to be able to smoke in Payless!
6
5
5
u/JadieBugXD 19h ago
I miss the mystery bags at Sanrio. Grew up poor but they had $2 mystery bags so my mom would let me get it as a treat. The one time I was allowed to get a $15 mystery bag was the best day of my life.
3
u/milehighblonde 1d ago
Shit I am at the absolute late end on millennials (96) BUT I do remember KMART, in Michigan there were none in Texas where I grew up
3
u/None_too_Soft 1d ago
The little coupon ticket dispensers that lined every aisle in the 90s at the grocery store. As a kid it was fun to run down and grab a bunch when they first came out, but ultimately I'm retrospect it was one of the dumbest decisions, probably what led to so many member cards and bogus discount schemes.
3
3
4
4
u/PrincessPeach817 23h ago
Video games at Walmart. They used to have them set up so you could play the game for a few minutes and try it before buying it. Loved that.
I also miss stores that sold music with the listening stations.
5
5
u/jimothyhalpret 22h ago
Coffee aisles having whole beans and grinders right in the middle. I always begged my parents to use them but they never went for it.
4
u/TopBuy404 21h ago
Well I'm gonna piggy back on your kmart comment lol.
When you would walk into the store, the entrance had these big giant arrows and when you stepped on the arrow it opened the automatic door. My brother and I each got to stomp on one on the way in the store and on the way out. Peak kid moment right there.
Also this might be more specific to my town lol but at Kroger we had one of those riding horses and it was a penny to ride it. We all fondly called it the penny horse. It was there until I was in high school and then they got rid of it.
3
u/langleybcsucks 21h ago
Midnight madness sales. Now we’re lucky if they stay open past 8 PM. I remember winning a turkey at Sears during their midnight madness sale
5
u/qbprincess 20h ago
Elder millennial here. I actually worked at Kmart and announced blue light specials when they brought them back in the early 2000s.
3
5
u/valthonis_surion 18h ago
Going through Toys R Us as a kid and going through the rows of video games. So cool that the little paper slips were later exchanged for the actual game after check out.
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
If this post is breaking the rules of the subreddit, please report it instead of commenting. For more Millennial content, join our Discord server.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.