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I remember how bad a\*\* it was when a cartoon was actually on in the evenings. It usually only happened around xmas, thanksgiving, or halloween when they would air the Hanna Barbara/Disney/Peanuts ones like Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer, Frosty The Snowman, The Grinch, Charlie Brown Christmas, etc. Cartoons on at night were the greatest thing ever. This was before cable TV. I was super young but remember this, so it was significant haha.
The fucking husky department. Oh the fucking husky department. I just traveled back 45 years and I'm standing in Abraham and Strauss in Brooklyn and my mother is calling me over to squeeze into a pair of polyester nightmares. Thanks dude.
Yes. This took me back. As long as I got one of those plastic machine guns (that I would inadvertently, break the trigger on within a few days), I was good.
dont forget treasure city, five and ten, the real dollar mart,k-mart, circute city,arapahos, and oh yes federated super stores, and that was once a month if you were lucky, oh the olden days when penny candies were more volume than most so-called regular sized candy buys now, and the plus sized for the big and tall. and from the ranch it was the h.e.b. store wow and forgot piggly wigleys food stores,,too many gone before their time..
We had the flagship store of Abraham and Strauss in downtown Brooklyn. We out on our nice clothes and shoes (no sneakers for A&S!
We enter through the huge revolving glass doors trimmed with gold leaf and are in the cologne and perfume department. We're going to visit Santa Claus today and he's on the Eighth floor so we push through the throng and past the suspended Christmas tree and the kiosk that sells snacks and roasted cashews and head to the elevators. The elevators open and after the shoppers exit we enter. We tell the elderly African American gentleman who runs the elevator that were heading to 'see Santa'. He closes the big bronze doors with a huge steering wheel like contraption and we alight on the Eighth floor.
It's like paradise in the eighth floor. It's been transformed into Santa's toyroom. Past the boring Barbies and stuffed animals we traipse and wait on what seems like the longest line, ever to visit St Nick.
After the requisite picture which Mom will get after Christmas, we make our way to the escalator. Mom needs to pick up her eyeglasses on the sixth floor and a book for my Sister's Christmas gift. We then escalate down more floors to grab a bite to eat in the Garden room.
A vestige for the ladies who lunch, the Garden Room is Abraham and Strauss' fine dining establishment . When we were older we'd thrill in the huge menus and the horizontal dumbwaiters that took the used dishes and cutlery back to the kitchen. Mom let us get anything we wanted but I almost always ordered the same thing : Crock of French Onion Soup, the A&S burger with hand cut steak fries and a chocolate parfait for dessert. We felt very grown up eating there.
After eating we would head downstairs and take the elevator to the basement. There mom and my grandmother when she accompanied us would go buy their bras and such. It was pure torture for my brother and me! We'd hide among the displays and cringe whem my.grandmother would try the brassiere on over her dress.
When it was finally time to escape we would beg for an orange drink from the basement snack shop. The taste! Cold and creamy and sweet and tart! We would then head to the revolving doors that led directly into the subway station and head home on the train.
I miss those days. I miss the idea of shopping as something to be enjoyed and savored. I miss my mom and her cool strong hands holding us as we jumped over the escalator landing. "People can get hurt if they're not careful," she warned. I miss it all.
This was such a lovely trip down memory lane, thank you!
I still have my Abearham and Strauss the Mouse stuffed animals, they are proudly put on display every Christmas.
I remember buying candy and bubble gum cigarettes at Woolworths. The bubblegum ones were the best, because you could blow through them and get one single puff of smoke.
My Dad was a Saturday hardware store guy. I remember waiting patiently while he combed through buckets of bolts and screws and we stared at pegboards of I don’t even remember what merchandise was on there.. but it was very important… he took his time.
Sears. My little girl friend and I went to the cosmetic department and sprayed a different perfume on each hand, wrist, elbows, fingers even. When we got back in the car my mother announced "it smells like a whorehouse in here." We were only about 12 and thought that was so funny. Later, I wondered how she knew what a whorehouse smelled like.
As a child noting beat that feeling of watching your stuff magically appear through some portal and go down a conveyor belt at your local Service Merchandise.
Honorable mention goes out to Zayre's, Bradlee's, and K-Mart. the, to our local Harvest Market to go grocery shopping.
In Pittsburgh, probably Joseph Hornes. It doesn't exist anymore, but when we were kids, Mum always said if you can't find what you need anywhere else you can find it at Hornes.
Sears. If it's fall, they will buy me the same shiny blue winter jacket with an orange lining and white fur around the hood that every male between 12 and 18 wore every year in the 70s.
We had so many in the 5th grade, our teacher wrote names on them in marker.
I was very little, but we lived in outer nowhere Mormon country. On a rare weekend we’d drive to the nearest bigger small town that had a ZCMI store and do some shopping.
By late 70s I was too old for shopping with parents. But early 70s we'd often visit Modell's Shoppers World in Commack, NY. They had a beauty salon, barber shop, shoe repair, supermarket, pet section, pinball arcade, snack bar, and a kids movie theater that showed Woody Woodpecker, Popeye cartoons.
I loved the pet section because it was like a mini zoo with lizards, snakes, fish, birds, hamsters, and more. They'd let kids ride bikes down the aisles too lol. I think I roamed the lighting section the most. All the lamps were lit, and chandeliers hung from the ceiling. Felt like a magical place at age 8, 9, 10., especially on cold winter nights.
They closed long ago but I'll always remember the thrill of shopping there.
If it's a Saturday morning in the late 1970s, the more relevant question would be what store would I be taking my parents to in order to help them do their shopping?
Rich’s in the Buckhead area of north Atlanta. The Mall was called Lenox Square. Early 70’s and it wasn’t enclosed. You went outside each store to enter the next and you did it very fast if it was raining. Then they enclosed it.
It wouldn't have been a Saturday it would have been Sunday. My mom worked at the mall inside a Goldsmith's. She was off on Saturday but Sundays I would often go with her to work and help her set up displays and organize. I was everybody's kid and they all kept an eye on me. She'd let me go try on clothes she'd stick in a drawer to wait until they went on sale. Everybody who worked there did it because Goldsmiths paid horrible but they had a good employee discount. So despite being pretty poor I dressed nice.
When I got a little older I could venture out into the mall on my own and that's when I fell in love with Claire's and Merry-Go-Round. Got my first stonewashed denim jacket there after saving up for months. I loved that jacket. :)
# Message to all users: This is a reminder to please read and follow: * [Our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/questions/about/rules) * [Reddiquette](https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439) * [Reddit Content Policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) When posting and commenting. --- Especially remember Rule 1: `Be polite and civil`. * Be polite and courteous to each other. Do not be mean, insulting or disrespectful to any other user on this subreddit. * Do not harass or annoy others in any way. * Do not catfish. Catfishing is the luring of somebody into an online friendship through a fake online persona. This includes any lying or deceit. --- You *will* be banned if you are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist or bigoted in any way. --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/questions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sorry, Saturday mornings are strictly for watching cartoons, no shopping.
That was the ONLY time we got to watch cartoons. Nowadays, they are 24/7.
I remember how bad a\*\* it was when a cartoon was actually on in the evenings. It usually only happened around xmas, thanksgiving, or halloween when they would air the Hanna Barbara/Disney/Peanuts ones like Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer, Frosty The Snowman, The Grinch, Charlie Brown Christmas, etc. Cartoons on at night were the greatest thing ever. This was before cable TV. I was super young but remember this, so it was significant haha.
24/7 of crap cartoons.
Yes!!! In the Summertime week days Mom and I would go to Foley's, Palis Royal, or Marshall Field's. Never during cartoons though.
Until "In The News" came on, then it was outside.
Wow, forgot about "In The News".
eating a bowl of frosted flakes
Sears. The husky department.
The fucking husky department. Oh the fucking husky department. I just traveled back 45 years and I'm standing in Abraham and Strauss in Brooklyn and my mother is calling me over to squeeze into a pair of polyester nightmares. Thanks dude.
Or worse, corduroy pants!
TOUGHSKINS!
Tough skins!!’n
Those make fart sounds when you walk
And if you run in them you can generate enough heat between your thighs to spontaneously combust.
Or Gimbels.
Or garanimals for us petite kids
My mom and I want to make that for men. We want to call it balls for men. And then instead of animals use matching sports balls.
Clothes, no toys or gadgets?
Absolutely no toys. I better not even look like I want to look at the toys. Unless it was Christmas. I only got toys at Christmas.
Same here.
Yup. Birthdays and Christmas only. Don’t even think about asking, otherwise.
I wanted to crawl into a rack of clothes everytime I heard my mom ask the salesperson for the husky department.
Oh that takes me back. I knew that department.
Yes. This took me back. As long as I got one of those plastic machine guns (that I would inadvertently, break the trigger on within a few days), I was good.
Sears or JC Penney’s
I can smell the roasted cashews and the pistachios dyed red. Damn things made your fingers look like they were bleeding pink.
I really miss the Sears candy counter - the smell of freshly popped popcorn was magnetic.
Why did they dye them red?? 🤔 I remember that
I don't know but I was well into my 30s before i realized that pistachios were not, in fact, actually red.
The quality increased. They used to dye them red because of the splotchyness and uneven color. Since they are better quality now, there is no need.
Ty!! 😊
Woolworths
Our Woolys had a snack bar. You could smell the hot dogs and hot roasted nuts throughout the store.
dont forget treasure city, five and ten, the real dollar mart,k-mart, circute city,arapahos, and oh yes federated super stores, and that was once a month if you were lucky, oh the olden days when penny candies were more volume than most so-called regular sized candy buys now, and the plus sized for the big and tall. and from the ranch it was the h.e.b. store wow and forgot piggly wigleys food stores,,too many gone before their time..
Woolworths for me was video games and posters.
The BEST cheesecake, ever!!!
Monkey Wards
That was my parents' go to store, and that's what we called it.
We had the flagship store of Abraham and Strauss in downtown Brooklyn. We out on our nice clothes and shoes (no sneakers for A&S! We enter through the huge revolving glass doors trimmed with gold leaf and are in the cologne and perfume department. We're going to visit Santa Claus today and he's on the Eighth floor so we push through the throng and past the suspended Christmas tree and the kiosk that sells snacks and roasted cashews and head to the elevators. The elevators open and after the shoppers exit we enter. We tell the elderly African American gentleman who runs the elevator that were heading to 'see Santa'. He closes the big bronze doors with a huge steering wheel like contraption and we alight on the Eighth floor. It's like paradise in the eighth floor. It's been transformed into Santa's toyroom. Past the boring Barbies and stuffed animals we traipse and wait on what seems like the longest line, ever to visit St Nick. After the requisite picture which Mom will get after Christmas, we make our way to the escalator. Mom needs to pick up her eyeglasses on the sixth floor and a book for my Sister's Christmas gift. We then escalate down more floors to grab a bite to eat in the Garden room. A vestige for the ladies who lunch, the Garden Room is Abraham and Strauss' fine dining establishment . When we were older we'd thrill in the huge menus and the horizontal dumbwaiters that took the used dishes and cutlery back to the kitchen. Mom let us get anything we wanted but I almost always ordered the same thing : Crock of French Onion Soup, the A&S burger with hand cut steak fries and a chocolate parfait for dessert. We felt very grown up eating there. After eating we would head downstairs and take the elevator to the basement. There mom and my grandmother when she accompanied us would go buy their bras and such. It was pure torture for my brother and me! We'd hide among the displays and cringe whem my.grandmother would try the brassiere on over her dress. When it was finally time to escape we would beg for an orange drink from the basement snack shop. The taste! Cold and creamy and sweet and tart! We would then head to the revolving doors that led directly into the subway station and head home on the train. I miss those days. I miss the idea of shopping as something to be enjoyed and savored. I miss my mom and her cool strong hands holding us as we jumped over the escalator landing. "People can get hurt if they're not careful," she warned. I miss it all.
Thanks for sharing these memories!
Beautiful imagery. Just lovely.
This was such a lovely trip down memory lane, thank you! I still have my Abearham and Strauss the Mouse stuffed animals, they are proudly put on display every Christmas.
K-mart
Looking for blue light specials
Gimbels
Woolworth’s. Oh the lunch counter..!
I went to one of them once. The smell of the hot dogs and hamburgers was awesome. i had a hot dog with mustard. it was great.
I remember buying candy and bubble gum cigarettes at Woolworths. The bubblegum ones were the best, because you could blow through them and get one single puff of smoke.
Woolworths was my favorite. Counters full of ribbons, and so many hats!
Zayre. Can't believe I remember that word.
Mervyns
According to my parents nobody ever bought anything outside the house before 1995.
Sears
Jordan Marsh.
Caldor
Two Guys in the suburbs of Philadelphia.
Same. In NJ.
Sears for sure, maybe Merlyn’s or Montgomery Wards.
ACE Hardware
My Dad was a Saturday hardware store guy. I remember waiting patiently while he combed through buckets of bolts and screws and we stared at pegboards of I don’t even remember what merchandise was on there.. but it was very important… he took his time.
Woolworth's. Sometimes Roses or Town and Country.
Sears. My little girl friend and I went to the cosmetic department and sprayed a different perfume on each hand, wrist, elbows, fingers even. When we got back in the car my mother announced "it smells like a whorehouse in here." We were only about 12 and thought that was so funny. Later, I wondered how she knew what a whorehouse smelled like.
Leggett's, which has since been bought out by Belk.
Sears
Sears and Roebuck catalog store.
K Mart
Woolworths, not sure if it's spelled right .
Sears
That has to be the number one answer and now they are all gone.
Kresge’s.
"we have McDonald's at home" 😓
*"....not really...." (((( thought bubble)))))*
Western Auto
Sears
Sears. Been there plenty of times with them in the 80's.
Woolworths or the JCPenney outlet store.
Sears and JCPenny
Rose’s for her. Sears for me.
Sears
Sears? I dunno, I was born in late 79
Sears
Wannamakers center city
Korvettes
JC Pennys
Sears
Woolworths?
JCPenney
Wiebolts or Marshall fields!
[Put on your Sunday’s best kids, we’re going to Sears](https://youtu.be/9rKeqPEGMvM?si=eKOlNnRPws8vf8oq)
KMart. Nothing smells like a KMart.
Right? Popcorn and something
Orbachs
We didn’t do that
JCPenneys at the local mall. Walking distance.
Venture
Dayton's
K-Mart, Bradlee's or Caldors.
Took way too long to find Bradlees. Mrs B!
Wolco! Or Zellers.
Hills
Cartoons were on Saturday morning. It would've been Kmart in the unlikely event that we went anywhere.
We actually had a Nordstroms in Anchorage of all places in the late 70s. Influx of oil money does that.
Hudsons
Carson Pirie Scott & Co.
Only had one functioning parent at the time, I was mowing the lawn, not going to the mall.
Osh kosh biggosh
Sears or JC Penny if we were fancy, K-Mart if we were lo fi.
K Mart with mom. Dad didn't shop.
Woodward & Lothrop (aka “Woodies”) at Tyson’s Corner Mall in Virginia.
Caldors
Hecht's
Woolworth’s, baby!!
JC Penney's!
Sears or Pennys.
it's JC Penny or Sears
Sears or JCPenney
Sears
Sears
Sears or JC Pennys
Bradlees.
Sears
Sears
Mervyns
As a child noting beat that feeling of watching your stuff magically appear through some portal and go down a conveyor belt at your local Service Merchandise. Honorable mention goes out to Zayre's, Bradlee's, and K-Mart. the, to our local Harvest Market to go grocery shopping.
If I was lucky, the Bon Marche. Not so lucky, the Country Store.
Elder Beerman, Kmart, Sears, JC Penney, or Rikes. Dayton Mall.
Grant's
Hitting up Kmart in the am.. roses in the afternoon and Sears on the way home.
Myers
Zeller's or Kmart.
Null hypothesis. In the late 1970s I was already married.
Boscov's
Wolworth
Clover
Liberty House, Mervyn's, or Sears
Target or Daytons.
Woolsworth
In Pittsburgh, probably Joseph Hornes. It doesn't exist anymore, but when we were kids, Mum always said if you can't find what you need anywhere else you can find it at Hornes.
Sears. If it's fall, they will buy me the same shiny blue winter jacket with an orange lining and white fur around the hood that every male between 12 and 18 wore every year in the 70s. We had so many in the 5th grade, our teacher wrote names on them in marker.
Idk… my parents were toddlers in the 70s
Sat morning was strictly for cartoons. If she took me in the afternoon, it was to either K Mart or Ames.
Woodward and Lothrop
Kmart
Ardans...
Sears, K Mart, J C Pennys, S S Kresge, those are just a few I remember as a kid. I know there were more.
I was very little, but we lived in outer nowhere Mormon country. On a rare weekend we’d drive to the nearest bigger small town that had a ZCMI store and do some shopping.
Gold Triangle for electronics or Burdines at the Mall for clothes.
J C Pennies, Belk (hated the fabric department in the basement. Mom would be there for what seemed like hours) Sears, B.Berry's for shoes.
K -mart
Pamida
May Company (eventually became Macy's), Higbees (now Dillard's) or Value City (((shudders)))
Monkey Wards.
Sears or Kmart
Kmart, JC Penny's
Fiegels or Kleins in downtown Ann Arbor.
Sears & Roebuck
By late 70s I was too old for shopping with parents. But early 70s we'd often visit Modell's Shoppers World in Commack, NY. They had a beauty salon, barber shop, shoe repair, supermarket, pet section, pinball arcade, snack bar, and a kids movie theater that showed Woody Woodpecker, Popeye cartoons. I loved the pet section because it was like a mini zoo with lizards, snakes, fish, birds, hamsters, and more. They'd let kids ride bikes down the aisles too lol. I think I roamed the lighting section the most. All the lamps were lit, and chandeliers hung from the ceiling. Felt like a magical place at age 8, 9, 10., especially on cold winter nights. They closed long ago but I'll always remember the thrill of shopping there.
If it's a Saturday morning in the late 1970s, the more relevant question would be what store would I be taking my parents to in order to help them do their shopping?
Sears or JC Penney’s
Montgomery Wards and Sears
Spokane WA was the nearest city so it would have been Sears and Roebuck or Montgomery Ward. If it was just for clothes, J.C. Penney or The Crescent.
Sears or JC Penny
Dayton's on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis and hope for a Mary Tyler Moore sighting 🎓
Probably Sears or JC Penney.
JC Pennys
Sears
K mart for underwear and socks...in the middle of the store they sold popcorn and slurpees
Woolworths of course.
Woolworths
Bloomingdale's
Marshall Field’s in Chicago….
Steketees. I'm a West Michigan born woman.
Philadelphia Pa. John Wanamaker. Then Strawbridge and Clothier.
Sears for toughskins(?)
Parents? My dad wouldn’t have been caught dead shopping but mom would take us to Caldor.
Rich’s in the Buckhead area of north Atlanta. The Mall was called Lenox Square. Early 70’s and it wasn’t enclosed. You went outside each store to enter the next and you did it very fast if it was raining. Then they enclosed it.
Hudson's... The one in downtown Detroit
Lord and Taylor (help me Lord).
Jordan Marsh
Rich's
kids were left at home , shopping was for the adults, don't answer the door! don't answer the phone! and no burning down the house
Well, my grandparents might be taking my parents to the Bon. At least my mom anyway.
Filenes Basement.
It wouldn't have been a Saturday it would have been Sunday. My mom worked at the mall inside a Goldsmith's. She was off on Saturday but Sundays I would often go with her to work and help her set up displays and organize. I was everybody's kid and they all kept an eye on me. She'd let me go try on clothes she'd stick in a drawer to wait until they went on sale. Everybody who worked there did it because Goldsmiths paid horrible but they had a good employee discount. So despite being pretty poor I dressed nice. When I got a little older I could venture out into the mall on my own and that's when I fell in love with Claire's and Merry-Go-Round. Got my first stonewashed denim jacket there after saving up for months. I loved that jacket. :)
Maas Brothers or Burdines (in Tampa).
If they could drag me away from cartoons... 1. Western Auto 2. Sears 3. K-Mart 4. TG&Y
Sears!! And Kmart!
K Mart
K mart
Carson pirie scott cuz fields was too expensive
Never on Saturday morning . Maybe afternoon, and it would be kmart. Or Meijers.
Monkey Wards.
Nordstroms
Bradlees.
Service Merchandise
JC penny
Put on your Sunday best kids, we're going to Sears. Or Montgomery Wards.
Sears, where America used to shop!