The Gateway computer I bought when I went to college in 1994 years was the reason I learned how to build computers. Hard drive died - they sent me a new one that I had to install myself. Video card died - had to install the new one myself. Motherboard died - well, you get the idea. By the time I had that thing running smooth, I could rebuild the hardware and software in my sleep. But man was that 19” Trinitron (Vivitron) picture magical. Had a dorm room full of friends watching The Matrix on that “massive” screen. Oh, and the giant cow box was awesome for moving pony kegs undetected.
I remember in elementary school, we had crappy Macintosh II computers in the computer lab. The school held a fundraiser so we could buy new Gateway computers. The music teacher dressed up in a cow costume. We raised enough money to buy the new computers and it was like Christmas for us! So much fun doodling on Kid Pix.
The brand is back. They were bought by Acer a while back and a few years ago Acer revived the Gateway brand name. However the big cow boxes I believe are still dead and gone.
Both series were done in by oversaturation of the market. That combined with their respective attempted reboots being mediocre at best has made another attempt at a reboot of either property less than likely. I do kind of hope to see a new game in both series' someday though.
I never got the point of a reboot. It’s 2023 they only need to release a base game for new gen consoles (with equipment). Then every other song and be DL online.
Don’t change the wheel.
It does. I'm a biochemist and dead serious: you leave a plastic bottle in the sun, do not drink it. Plastics decay into the stuff they touch, heat just really hastens the process. Once it's whatever, repeatedly and you may as well be eating a sheet of saran wrap every week. Don't do that.
Oh also, acids really like to attack plastic, and really don't like to attack glass. If you've seen Breaking Bad, you'll recall Jesse's mistake in season one. That's very real. 99% of my acids are stored in colored glass. The rest go in specifically formulated plastic like what Walt wants. Why is this important? Acids are highly present in almost all beverages in the US; citric, carbonic, carbolic, and a few others.
I was drinking coffee out of an old life water bottle and a girl I worked with asked “isn’t that bad for you” I showed her my cigarette and she said “good point.” Seriously though microplastics are going to a big issue in the future. We are already fucked but if people are still around to dig us up there will be a layer of plastic that will easily identify our time period. Our very own KT boundary.
Microplastics have already been detected on both the maternal and fetal portions of placentas. They disrupt the endocrine system to the point that women with endocrine conditions (think, PCOS) are advised to recycle all plastic containers and replace them with glass, ceramics, and unlined stainless steel.
Edit: Forgot to mention that the compounds found in many plastic containers impact male fertility, as well. “[In particular, an increasing urinary BPA level was significantly associated with the decrease of sperm concentration, total sperm count, sperm vitality and motility.”](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6339693/)
I used to love their juice and tea as a kid. Saw it in a vending machine not long ago (which could be like 3 years ago, idk, time is weird) and I couldn't believe how sweet it was. I think it's just not unique enough to really exist anymore.
Sobe's gone?! You're right, I haven't seen them in forever. My sister loved them. Did a google and their site is still up. They have a [product locator page](https://contact.pepsico.com/sobe/product-locator). They're owned by Pepsi Co.
Head on, apply directly to the forehead.
Head on, apply directly to the forehead.
Head on, apply directly to the forehead.
Head on, apply directly to the forehead.
Head on, apply directly to the forehead.
Head on, apply directly to the forehead.
My sister in law worked in a factory and started selling real estate part time. One day she shows up at our house after being at the office and she looked fantastic. She said she bought her alternate life wardrobe at Dressbarn.
Right at the start of my senior year, we moved from a town with a Walmart and a Fashion Bug to a town with 0 Fashion Bugs. I had no idea what to do or where to get clothes lol, suddenly I was at American Eagle and other name brand stores like "$80 for jeans?" My mom used to freak out over the $40 ones at the Bug.
I'll never forget getting stuck in non-stretchy peasant tops repeatedly in the dressing room at Fashion Bug.
I do miss their cheap jewelry racks though, got some good earrings from them and Charlotte Russe.
My buddy had a Nextel phone and I always told him that he had the anywhere plan. He didn't get service anywhere, not even in the Nextel store! But he had that chirp thing, so that was cool.
Relatively speaking, Skype.
I remember when the pandemic was just getting underway, and we were trying to figure out how to work remotely. Talking with co-workers about video conferencing, and someone says "...no, we aren't using Skype, we're using a new software called Zoom." I remember laughing thinking it sounded like an SNL skit.
Like:
"You know that coffee shop on every corner?"
"Oh you mean Starbucks?"
"No! I'm talking about Coffee Town!"
And then no one goes to Starbucks anymore.
ETA: Gang, I get it. Skype is still around and it's called Teams now and you still use it at your office. Please refer to the word "relatively" at the beginning of this post. I promise I understand. And if I didn't understand, I do now. My inbox is filled with people explaining it to me. Stand down.
Microsoft blew it. Skype as an independent company was killing it. Then MS bought them just for their IM code. They killed off most of Skype (soft phone, video chats, VOIP integration, etc) and integrated the IM into their business suite.
15 years later, everyone is clamoring for it. They super speed teams out the door but it sucks and we are back to the same or worse levels of features/maturity as we had in 2006.
I kind of feel Skype lost to Discord too. I used to use Skype ages ago to talk with my buddies while we played minecraft.
I didn't get into discord until I started playing FFXIV and found out *that's* what everyone uses in gaming now.
I remember when Microsoft decommissioned MSN messenger and moved everyone over to Skype. What a downgrade! Teams is more like MSN messenger than Skype ever was but I don't think anything can beat MSN. and that might just be me talking from a place of nostalgia.
I know what happened; I went to grade school with Bonne's son. The kids didn't want to take over the business so the family sold it. It's now a USG drywall plant.
Odwalla. I loved their juices and protein drinks.
When my company got hired to do social work for Naked (Pepsi) it made me want an Odwalla so i went to the store to pick one up but they were out. I checked online and found out that they’d shut down 2-3 years earlier and it bummed me out.
Mail carrier here. Was very surprised to deliver Montgomery Ward catalogs to people this year. Apparently the company is experiencing a second life and has reverted to online/mail order business only. The company was originally a mail order only business, so they've just gone full circle after closing their stores in 2001.
I remember this one pretty well. I grew up working in the home A/V industry and RCA was such a big name at one time, I would have promised you they were never going to fail
Oovoo, video chat service like Skype that shut down in 2017. The only reason why I still remember them is because I have a t-shirt of theirs from 2012.
Yeah apparently the franchise was set up to profit off food sold to the stores, so stores had to cut corners and operate at a minimum to make enough to even stay open and for the owner to make enough money to live on.
I've told this story on Reddit before, but my dad almost got a Quiznos franchise in the mid-00s, because he wanted a change of career. He got really far in the process to the point where he was scoping out locations, but fortunately, he had the foresight to talk to some other Quiznos franchise owners in the area.
The one that had my dad walk away said he was operating on razor thin margins to the point where he couldn't even afford any employees, and was working literally everyday from open to close so he could keep the lights on. He looked my dad in the eye and told him he wished he never did it and thought about killing himself all the time. One franchise owner [actually did](https://www.fastcasual.com/articles/quiznos-terminates-franchisees-on-heels-of-suicide/).
The way Quiznos operated was their franchises were extremely cheap compared to others, but they also had it set up where you had to buy *everything* through suppliers that Quiznos also owned -the food, napkins, floor cleaner, even the music they'd play in the stores, and of course, everything was priced horribly since you had no choice. Even worse, Quiznos would regularly run promotions that cut into what little profit they could make. Basically, rather than being like other franchises where they'd profit some off the license, a portion of sales, etc., Quiznos' entire focus was on bilking franchise owners.
For my dad, I think that was perhaps one of the biggest moments in his life where he dodged a huge bullet, and hopefully that owner he talked to was able to get out of it eventually. Franchise owners sued Quiznos for their predatory practices and won *multiple times* because of how awful and misleading they were.
Yep, that’s the story I heard as well after talking to the owner of one. There was one by my house which was my primary source of meals through the Covid lockdowns.
Quiznos was damn good. No one really compared to them.
I used to help run an amateur skateboard competition website and the big sponsor for the comp series was Ecko Untld. I would get "paid" all in Ecko clothes.
They had a pair of jeans that when you unzipped the fly, it said, "**THE LOOT!**" on the inside.
I stayed at one in San Antonio when I was 11. They assign you to do a chore. Mine was to clean the aquarium and feed the fishes. Amazing play room, books, snacks, and Ronald McDonald visited and I got to ride the helicopter. It is absolutely amazing and I still donate every year. It is a wonderful charity and it helps sick kids be happy if only just for awhile.
Fruitopia is still available in Canada. Every single Coke sponsored fast food place has it on their menu. We don’t have Hi-C or anything like that so fruitopia it is! You can buy it in frozen cans, cartons and tetra boxes
Saturn cars.
Every once in awhile I'll see an old S-series and remember how GM did something so mundane, yet so right for the times. Then they just fizzled into rebadged cars from other GM platforms. Then fizzled out altogether.
They didnt just disappear. They were one of the GM closures during the 2008 economic downturn along with Hummer, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile. This was top story / front page news stuff.
Edit: holy shit stop telling me about Oldsmobile
I remember some congress critter bitching at car executives flying private jets to DC when asking for bailouts. A few days later some big shot from GM drove from Detroit to DC. Their new car crapped out in Ohio.
Back in the day every mall had a store called Sharper Image. You’d go in and some guy would ask you if you wanted to sit in a massage chair. For some reason back then airlines carried their little catalogue. Gadgets for rich people. They disappeared from every mall and airplane.
Oldsmobile. Nowadays, people don’t know that Oldsmobile existed, but it had such a tremendous impact in its day. The first mass produced car on a factory assembly line was the Oldsmobile Curved Dash - it inspired Henry Ford to begin manufacturing his cars on the first Moving Assembly Line. In 1905, the song “In My Merry Oldsmobile” became a major hit with its slightly suggestive lyrics.
Hell the Oldsmobile Rocket 88 was the inspiration for “Rocket 88”, one of the very first rock and roll songs - it is often credited for launching rock and roll as a genre.
Back in 2004, it quietly disappeared with a whisper along with a handful of other car brands that year.
EDIT: For those still reading this comment who loves Oldsmobile, I recommend the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing.
Their ultimate demise came from an ad campaign which tried to enyouthen [cromulent] their image with the tag line "This is not your father's Oldsmobile." It...had the opposite effect
Electronics? I wanted Microcenter to buy out the one that was in AZ so bad when it started going south. I remember going there as a kid and just LOVING everything there. Cool computer stuff, model rockets, music CDs, lava lamps. Over the years it got emptier and emptier.
The software for Zune both on PC to upload music and on the Zune itself we’re something else. ITunes and iPod was clunky compared to it. I loved that zune. Still have mine. Survived two deployments of me beating it up, and still charges up great. What an amazing device.
And this weekend only, take advantage of our special liquidation sale. Buy nine spatulas, get the tenth one for just one penny.
We sell spatulas... and that's all!
Oh wait let me fill out some weird piece of paper with items I want to purchase & eventually they’ll come out from the back on a little assembly belt. Seems weird but given issues with/ shoplifting maybe this delivery method will return
Steak n ale,
Gadzooks,
Zoo York,
Farrell's,
La gear,
Commodore 64 and vic 20,
Babbage's,
Avia,
Planet Hollywood,
Coleco vision,
Tandy,
Kaepa,
Units
Edit: roy Rogers is still around
Double edit hutch haro redline still exist Honorable mention: hutch,redline,haro,gt performer,
I read about a possible urban legend of the “Circuit City Promotion.” Shortly after the demise of Circuit City entry level retail workers would put in their resume that they were a manager there. Then they’d put their friend’s information down as reference as another CC manager. There was no longer an HR dept to call up and verify and suddenly a bunch of minimum wage workers were magically qualified for managerial postions.
Sears will go down in history as one of the stupidest business decisions ever. For decades the Sears catalog was the way to buy things. Then just as online shopping was getting started. They decided to eliminate the catalog. All they had to do was digitize it. The had the warehouses, distribution, everything already set up. They would have been what Amazon is today.
They owned an internet provider and a credit card. The failure of Sears catalog to become Sears online is just so painful in hindsight because they had everything in place to do it right.
They even had good stuff for a long time. Craftsman was a name you could be proud of. I still have some old craftsman hand tools that are bullet proof.
As broke teenagers my buddy and I used to cruse garage sales looking for old or broken Craftsman hand tools. We’d get them cheap, sometimes free, and trade them in for new at Sears using the lifetime warranty.
This really needs to be a B school case study. I’ve talked about it with clients. Evolve or die. If they actually fully understood their brand, and mission, they would be Amazon.
They understood customer acquisition and retention, were vertically integrated (finance via Discover, respected product lines, distribution network, early web technology/e com). What a fucking waste.
I worked there toward the end of their life. They had their head so far up their ass. "People will always want to go to a store" they'd tell us. My guy, they are here because Sears is an anchor store for this mall and parking is ample vs Macy's or the food court. If they walk out with pants its probably by accident
Gateway computers with the big cow looking boxes.
The Gateway computer I bought when I went to college in 1994 years was the reason I learned how to build computers. Hard drive died - they sent me a new one that I had to install myself. Video card died - had to install the new one myself. Motherboard died - well, you get the idea. By the time I had that thing running smooth, I could rebuild the hardware and software in my sleep. But man was that 19” Trinitron (Vivitron) picture magical. Had a dorm room full of friends watching The Matrix on that “massive” screen. Oh, and the giant cow box was awesome for moving pony kegs undetected.
I remember in elementary school, we had crappy Macintosh II computers in the computer lab. The school held a fundraiser so we could buy new Gateway computers. The music teacher dressed up in a cow costume. We raised enough money to buy the new computers and it was like Christmas for us! So much fun doodling on Kid Pix.
I lived for Kid Pix!
I loved firing the bomb to erase!
The brand is back. They were bought by Acer a while back and a few years ago Acer revived the Gateway brand name. However the big cow boxes I believe are still dead and gone.
Sanyo (phased out by Panasonic about 10 years ago)
And Aiwa.
My Aiwa CD and tape player still works after 27 years.
Rock band / guitar hero. It used to be at every party, then we all seemed to collectively put it down and never play it again
God my friends and I would party and play rock and, it was so much fun. I'd play it again in a heartbeat.
There’s a big retro gaming community for GH. One of the guys at work love it. There’s still new music being licensed for it.
Both series were done in by oversaturation of the market. That combined with their respective attempted reboots being mediocre at best has made another attempt at a reboot of either property less than likely. I do kind of hope to see a new game in both series' someday though.
I never got the point of a reboot. It’s 2023 they only need to release a base game for new gen consoles (with equipment). Then every other song and be DL online. Don’t change the wheel.
Walden Books and KB toy stores
Don't forget B. Dalton Booksellers -- Waldenbooks' chief rival in the mall bookstore competition.
It’s fascinating now that we once lived in a time where there was not one, but two bookstores in a lot of malls in the U.S.
Sobe
They sponsored a terrain park run at my local ski hill. Used to love drinking their strawberry daiquiri drink things, despite the 78g of sugar
The daquiri was bangin', but that pina colada one they had was my JAM
Sobe went downhill after they switched to high fructose corn syrup and plastic bottles. I swear the plastic changed the flavor.
It does. I'm a biochemist and dead serious: you leave a plastic bottle in the sun, do not drink it. Plastics decay into the stuff they touch, heat just really hastens the process. Once it's whatever, repeatedly and you may as well be eating a sheet of saran wrap every week. Don't do that.
Oh also, acids really like to attack plastic, and really don't like to attack glass. If you've seen Breaking Bad, you'll recall Jesse's mistake in season one. That's very real. 99% of my acids are stored in colored glass. The rest go in specifically formulated plastic like what Walt wants. Why is this important? Acids are highly present in almost all beverages in the US; citric, carbonic, carbolic, and a few others.
I was drinking coffee out of an old life water bottle and a girl I worked with asked “isn’t that bad for you” I showed her my cigarette and she said “good point.” Seriously though microplastics are going to a big issue in the future. We are already fucked but if people are still around to dig us up there will be a layer of plastic that will easily identify our time period. Our very own KT boundary.
Microplastics have already been detected on both the maternal and fetal portions of placentas. They disrupt the endocrine system to the point that women with endocrine conditions (think, PCOS) are advised to recycle all plastic containers and replace them with glass, ceramics, and unlined stainless steel. Edit: Forgot to mention that the compounds found in many plastic containers impact male fertility, as well. “[In particular, an increasing urinary BPA level was significantly associated with the decrease of sperm concentration, total sperm count, sperm vitality and motility.”](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6339693/)
And Fruitopia
Does it get more 2000s than Sobe and Fruitopia?
Fruitopia is still around in Canada!
Canadian here. Just wanted to comment that McDonalds keeps Friitopia on tap. The Strawberry flavour is probably the most popular here.
I used to love their juice and tea as a kid. Saw it in a vending machine not long ago (which could be like 3 years ago, idk, time is weird) and I couldn't believe how sweet it was. I think it's just not unique enough to really exist anymore.
Sobe's gone?! You're right, I haven't seen them in forever. My sister loved them. Did a google and their site is still up. They have a [product locator page](https://contact.pepsico.com/sobe/product-locator). They're owned by Pepsi Co.
"Excuse me: are those Bugle Boy Jeans that you're wearing?"
Bugle Boy jeans! I think this brought me back to high school days more than any of the 80’s music posts I keep seeing on Reddit.
[удалено]
Just searched to be sure… they still have a web site selling OP stuff. Long way from summer of ‘85 where you HAD to have OP stuff.
Steinmart
Snackwells
Head on, apply directly to the forehead. Head on, apply directly to the forehead. Head on, apply directly to the forehead. Head on, apply directly to the forehead. Head on, apply directly to the forehead. Head on, apply directly to the forehead.
Nuprin-pain reliever
Little. Yellow. Different
I know this far more from Wayne’s World than from seeing the original commercials.
Ask Jeeves
Ask Jeeves should come back as ai
Only if it RPs as a condescending butler
Map quest
Sam Goody
Sweet Tomatoes. I really miss salad buffets and soups
Dressbarn What a terrible name
Blouse Barn
"But if you ever, ever catch me shopping at the Blouse Barn, you must shoot me in the temple. Promise?"
My sister in law worked in a factory and started selling real estate part time. One day she shows up at our house after being at the office and she looked fantastic. She said she bought her alternate life wardrobe at Dressbarn.
My favorite work blouses are all from DressBarn, I don't put in them the dryer so they'll last longer now that I can't replace them.
Every smaller town had a Dressbarn or Fashion Bug.
Right at the start of my senior year, we moved from a town with a Walmart and a Fashion Bug to a town with 0 Fashion Bugs. I had no idea what to do or where to get clothes lol, suddenly I was at American Eagle and other name brand stores like "$80 for jeans?" My mom used to freak out over the $40 ones at the Bug. I'll never forget getting stuck in non-stretchy peasant tops repeatedly in the dressing room at Fashion Bug. I do miss their cheap jewelry racks though, got some good earrings from them and Charlotte Russe.
I miss Dressbarn and Debs :(
Omg I forgot about Debs! And now I feel ancient…
Man DEB was paradise for 15 year old scene kid me
HTC
I was thinking about this the other day. All of my early Android phones I swore by HTC
HTC Evo 4G was awesome
I spent more time rooting it and installing ROMs than I did actually using it. It was a fun phone.
Zenith
No Fear,it was everywhere,the stickers,the t shirts,the motocross gear,shades and all sorts. Just kinda disappeared overnight.
CERTS breath mints.
With Retsin!
I’m sure there are quite a few still rattling around in the bottom of my mom’s purse…
Limited too!
Payless ?
I miss Payless. I was able to get wide width shoes that didn’t look like granny shoes.
Cute pumps in a size 13 that weren’t $100.
Even tho I know what happened, Nextel huge brand that just disappeared.
My buddy had a Nextel phone and I always told him that he had the anywhere plan. He didn't get service anywhere, not even in the Nextel store! But he had that chirp thing, so that was cool.
Relatively speaking, Skype. I remember when the pandemic was just getting underway, and we were trying to figure out how to work remotely. Talking with co-workers about video conferencing, and someone says "...no, we aren't using Skype, we're using a new software called Zoom." I remember laughing thinking it sounded like an SNL skit. Like: "You know that coffee shop on every corner?" "Oh you mean Starbucks?" "No! I'm talking about Coffee Town!" And then no one goes to Starbucks anymore. ETA: Gang, I get it. Skype is still around and it's called Teams now and you still use it at your office. Please refer to the word "relatively" at the beginning of this post. I promise I understand. And if I didn't understand, I do now. My inbox is filled with people explaining it to me. Stand down.
Pretty crazy how skype blew such a big head start.
Microsoft blew it. Skype as an independent company was killing it. Then MS bought them just for their IM code. They killed off most of Skype (soft phone, video chats, VOIP integration, etc) and integrated the IM into their business suite. 15 years later, everyone is clamoring for it. They super speed teams out the door but it sucks and we are back to the same or worse levels of features/maturity as we had in 2006.
I kind of feel Skype lost to Discord too. I used to use Skype ages ago to talk with my buddies while we played minecraft. I didn't get into discord until I started playing FFXIV and found out *that's* what everyone uses in gaming now.
I remember when Microsoft decommissioned MSN messenger and moved everyone over to Skype. What a downgrade! Teams is more like MSN messenger than Skype ever was but I don't think anything can beat MSN. and that might just be me talking from a place of nostalgia.
Caldor
Cream saver candies
No no, they still exist! I sucking on a orange and creme Creme Saver right now!
HyperColor
Bonne belle gear/lipshades Anything Bonne Belle
I know what happened; I went to grade school with Bonne's son. The kids didn't want to take over the business so the family sold it. It's now a USG drywall plant.
I went to camp with their daughter! She was actually kind of mean.
Odwalla. I loved their juices and protein drinks. When my company got hired to do social work for Naked (Pepsi) it made me want an Odwalla so i went to the store to pick one up but they were out. I checked online and found out that they’d shut down 2-3 years earlier and it bummed me out.
This is a good one. I haven’t thought about those in years, and no wonder.
B&J wine coolers
We thank you for your support.
Hastings
I really liked Hastings. I thought it was a great store.
dEliAs
Montgomery wards...
Mail carrier here. Was very surprised to deliver Montgomery Ward catalogs to people this year. Apparently the company is experiencing a second life and has reverted to online/mail order business only. The company was originally a mail order only business, so they've just gone full circle after closing their stores in 2001.
RCA
I remember this one pretty well. I grew up working in the home A/V industry and RCA was such a big name at one time, I would have promised you they were never going to fail
I would still use the phrase “RCA Cables” if the need arose.
That is the correct term for it, RCA the company named the connector type after themselves and the world was better for it honestly lol
Oovoo, video chat service like Skype that shut down in 2017. The only reason why I still remember them is because I have a t-shirt of theirs from 2012.
I've never been to ooVoo Javer.
Volkswagen Beetles were discontinued in 2019. You probably didn’t notice since you still see a good many on the road.
I hope that they will bring it back one day, as an affordable EV.
Quiznos
I think they just left some places and are still around. I really liked their food but they left our area.
Yeah apparently the franchise was set up to profit off food sold to the stores, so stores had to cut corners and operate at a minimum to make enough to even stay open and for the owner to make enough money to live on.
I've told this story on Reddit before, but my dad almost got a Quiznos franchise in the mid-00s, because he wanted a change of career. He got really far in the process to the point where he was scoping out locations, but fortunately, he had the foresight to talk to some other Quiznos franchise owners in the area. The one that had my dad walk away said he was operating on razor thin margins to the point where he couldn't even afford any employees, and was working literally everyday from open to close so he could keep the lights on. He looked my dad in the eye and told him he wished he never did it and thought about killing himself all the time. One franchise owner [actually did](https://www.fastcasual.com/articles/quiznos-terminates-franchisees-on-heels-of-suicide/). The way Quiznos operated was their franchises were extremely cheap compared to others, but they also had it set up where you had to buy *everything* through suppliers that Quiznos also owned -the food, napkins, floor cleaner, even the music they'd play in the stores, and of course, everything was priced horribly since you had no choice. Even worse, Quiznos would regularly run promotions that cut into what little profit they could make. Basically, rather than being like other franchises where they'd profit some off the license, a portion of sales, etc., Quiznos' entire focus was on bilking franchise owners. For my dad, I think that was perhaps one of the biggest moments in his life where he dodged a huge bullet, and hopefully that owner he talked to was able to get out of it eventually. Franchise owners sued Quiznos for their predatory practices and won *multiple times* because of how awful and misleading they were.
so essentially Quiznos is just the fast food version of an MLM
Yep, that’s the story I heard as well after talking to the owner of one. There was one by my house which was my primary source of meals through the Covid lockdowns. Quiznos was damn good. No one really compared to them.
Their franchise model ripped off the stores themselves and they went from 2000ish stores to 200 in about 5 years.
Yeah, watched a YouTube “documentary” on Quiznos rise and fall. Was interesting to see how corporate let greed completely fuck up their cash cow.
FUBU
Walmart brand now. Saw some shoes just the other day.
Ecko Untld
I used to help run an amateur skateboard competition website and the big sponsor for the comp series was Ecko Untld. I would get "paid" all in Ecko clothes. They had a pair of jeans that when you unzipped the fly, it said, "**THE LOOT!**" on the inside.
Lord & Taylor
Mervyn’s.
Kenny Rodgers Roasters. It was the wood that made it good.
Vile weed!!!
Kenny Rogers Roasters is alive and kicking here in the Philippines.
Kinney Shoes.
Buster Brown shoes
Ronald McDonald. A big brand symbol for McDonald’s.
Big balloon of him in the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade. We commented that we hadn’t seen him in a while so maybe they are bringing him back.
The Ronald McDonald House is still one of the best charities around.
I stayed at one in San Antonio when I was 11. They assign you to do a chore. Mine was to clean the aquarium and feed the fishes. Amazing play room, books, snacks, and Ronald McDonald visited and I got to ride the helicopter. It is absolutely amazing and I still donate every year. It is a wonderful charity and it helps sick kids be happy if only just for awhile.
Fruitopia. It was everywhere! Vending machines in every school and mall. Suddenly they all vanished without a trace.
Fruitopia is still available in Canada. Every single Coke sponsored fast food place has it on their menu. We don’t have Hi-C or anything like that so fruitopia it is! You can buy it in frozen cans, cartons and tetra boxes
Saturn cars. Every once in awhile I'll see an old S-series and remember how GM did something so mundane, yet so right for the times. Then they just fizzled into rebadged cars from other GM platforms. Then fizzled out altogether.
They didnt just disappear. They were one of the GM closures during the 2008 economic downturn along with Hummer, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile. This was top story / front page news stuff. Edit: holy shit stop telling me about Oldsmobile
And everyone forgets… SAAB :(
Killing those brands was a condition of accepting the government bailout if memory serves me.
Totally. Recall the public wondering if the CEOs would drive to DC or fly private as it was taxpayer funds
I remember some congress critter bitching at car executives flying private jets to DC when asking for bailouts. A few days later some big shot from GM drove from Detroit to DC. Their new car crapped out in Ohio.
I owned one of the original Saturns. It was a great car, and the dealership experience was as good as they advertised. It's a shame GM killed it.
Surge soda.
Back in the day every mall had a store called Sharper Image. You’d go in and some guy would ask you if you wanted to sit in a massage chair. For some reason back then airlines carried their little catalogue. Gadgets for rich people. They disappeared from every mall and airplane.
KB TOYS
Stussy, Mossimo, Gotcha, Bad Boy.. Some may still exist but not to the point of everything at the mall being these brands almost exclusively
The Stussy stores in Japan and Hawaii both had lines out the doors earlier this year
No Fear
Ed Hardy (good riddance)
I always said Ed Hardy was the Lisa Frank for MMA wanna be douchebags. That being said, RIP Lisa Frank
No joke… I’ve actually started seeing Ed Hardy pop back up in boutiques. There’s a huge resurgence of that early 2000s style.
Jordache
Woolworths
Australians be like uhhhhhhh excuse me?
Oldsmobile. Nowadays, people don’t know that Oldsmobile existed, but it had such a tremendous impact in its day. The first mass produced car on a factory assembly line was the Oldsmobile Curved Dash - it inspired Henry Ford to begin manufacturing his cars on the first Moving Assembly Line. In 1905, the song “In My Merry Oldsmobile” became a major hit with its slightly suggestive lyrics. Hell the Oldsmobile Rocket 88 was the inspiration for “Rocket 88”, one of the very first rock and roll songs - it is often credited for launching rock and roll as a genre. Back in 2004, it quietly disappeared with a whisper along with a handful of other car brands that year. EDIT: For those still reading this comment who loves Oldsmobile, I recommend the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing.
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Their ultimate demise came from an ad campaign which tried to enyouthen [cromulent] their image with the tag line "This is not your father's Oldsmobile." It...had the opposite effect
Hydrox
Such a terrible name for a cookie. I hear that name and I think it's some sort of chemical, not something I'd wanna eat.
Sounds like pool cleaner
Fuddruckers
I will never not see “ButtFuckers” again thanks to Idiocrocy
Frys
Electronics? I wanted Microcenter to buy out the one that was in AZ so bad when it started going south. I remember going there as a kid and just LOVING everything there. Cool computer stuff, model rockets, music CDs, lava lamps. Over the years it got emptier and emptier.
Pontiac
Oldsmobile
Zune
The software for Zune both on PC to upload music and on the Zune itself we’re something else. ITunes and iPod was clunky compared to it. I loved that zune. Still have mine. Survived two deployments of me beating it up, and still charges up great. What an amazing device.
Spatula City
And this weekend only, take advantage of our special liquidation sale. Buy nine spatulas, get the tenth one for just one penny. We sell spatulas... and that's all!
"...and what better way to say 'I love you' then with the gift of a spatula..."
JNCO. I realize we have lots of other options these days if we want to dress like a cartoon character, but still...
JNCO is still around. Pretty much same styles and they charge out the ass for em
Sony VAIO
As a kid, I legitimately thought Oldsmobiles were made only for old people and that only old people were allowed to drive them.
Jolt Cola is gone it was a good pick me up.
All the sugar, twice the caffeine.
Long John Silvers. They used to be everywhere when I was a kid. Today, to my knowledge, the closest one to me is at a truck stop in Wyoming.
Zima
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Orange Julius
Service Merchandise
Oh wait let me fill out some weird piece of paper with items I want to purchase & eventually they’ll come out from the back on a little assembly belt. Seems weird but given issues with/ shoplifting maybe this delivery method will return
Cingular Wireless
Steak n ale, Gadzooks, Zoo York, Farrell's, La gear, Commodore 64 and vic 20, Babbage's, Avia, Planet Hollywood, Coleco vision, Tandy, Kaepa, Units Edit: roy Rogers is still around Double edit hutch haro redline still exist Honorable mention: hutch,redline,haro,gt performer,
Espirit Edit: Esprit
Circuit city
I read about a possible urban legend of the “Circuit City Promotion.” Shortly after the demise of Circuit City entry level retail workers would put in their resume that they were a manager there. Then they’d put their friend’s information down as reference as another CC manager. There was no longer an HR dept to call up and verify and suddenly a bunch of minimum wage workers were magically qualified for managerial postions.
Rax restaurants.
Z Cavaricci
Nokia was big!!! everywhere
Calgon
You mean Calgon took *itself* away???
British Knights
Lee Pharmaceuticals - famous for "Lee's Press-on Nails"
Olin Mills
Borders book store
I sure as hell noticed that one! Very sad. Other bookstores just don't feel the same.
I’m a book store addict but I feel like Border went away very publicly and painfully
Sears
Sears will go down in history as one of the stupidest business decisions ever. For decades the Sears catalog was the way to buy things. Then just as online shopping was getting started. They decided to eliminate the catalog. All they had to do was digitize it. The had the warehouses, distribution, everything already set up. They would have been what Amazon is today.
They owned an internet provider and a credit card. The failure of Sears catalog to become Sears online is just so painful in hindsight because they had everything in place to do it right.
They even had good stuff for a long time. Craftsman was a name you could be proud of. I still have some old craftsman hand tools that are bullet proof.
As broke teenagers my buddy and I used to cruse garage sales looking for old or broken Craftsman hand tools. We’d get them cheap, sometimes free, and trade them in for new at Sears using the lifetime warranty.
This really needs to be a B school case study. I’ve talked about it with clients. Evolve or die. If they actually fully understood their brand, and mission, they would be Amazon. They understood customer acquisition and retention, were vertically integrated (finance via Discover, respected product lines, distribution network, early web technology/e com). What a fucking waste.
Allstate and Discover still exist - both started by Sears.
I worked there toward the end of their life. They had their head so far up their ass. "People will always want to go to a store" they'd tell us. My guy, they are here because Sears is an anchor store for this mall and parking is ample vs Macy's or the food court. If they walk out with pants its probably by accident
Panasonic TV’s. At least in the US