GEN Z KID Reacts To 12 GEN X ICONIC Stores That COULD’T Be Saved!

[@michaelhubbard5246]

Radio Shack was where I would go for audio cable adapters and misc electronics. From toys to the latest tech, to hobbiest wires and parts.

[@TaraWilson1010]

my brother and SIL opened a "mom and pop" bookstore in the last couple of years but are having to move into a bigger building. Hopefully, we're about to see more of a boomerang situation, where ppl are sick of supporting these big businesses that don't care about anything other than the rich getting richer on the backs of those less fortunate. I've definitely noticed things changing. More ppl seem to be ready to move to locally owned shops, with actual humans that focus on their neighbors and communities. 💛 sending love to everyone reading this, from your friend in Baton Rouge!! 💙💙

[@deadpolymers3416]

Radio Shack was super unique, in that it wasn't just an electronics store, it was the place to buy electrical parts. You could buy electrical boards, resistors, transistors, motors, fuses, etc. When I was in the Navy, we'd go to Radio Shack to buy parts for the ship when the Navy issued stuff was too expensive or backordered or whatever. Many actual inventors built prototypes of new inventions using parts they walked in and bought from Radio Shack.

[@tsimpsonian]

Radio Shack was a small neighborhood store in the 40s through the 80s. They sold electronics parts that you needed to keep a radio or TV working. As a kid in the 60s I used to go there for tubes which powered my radio, tv, and guitar amps. They sold tubes, capacitors, resistors and other electrical parts which we all needed to maintain electronics before everything went to circuit boards. It was an era when we knew how to fix cars, lawn mowers and appliances.

[@michellelarsen5399]

💛💛💛 My mother worked for Sears for over 30 years. That Christmas Wish Book catalog was the be all and end all for Christmas gifts and toys for every kid! I wish I still had the ones she brought home. People pay good money for them now!

[@christopherblue2004]

In the show Young Sheldon, Sheldon was obsessed with going to Radio Shack.

[@Maria-ix4tp]

I missed those days soo much which we could go back.

[@theidajawho]

They tell what year the stores closed but not when they opened, that would have made it more impactful.

[@adeleennis2255]

Waldenbooks was one of my favorite stores in the mall. I don’t think I ever walked out of there without buying a book. I also had a large collection of bookmarks as they usually had two spinners of them near the checkout counter. I earned gift certificates from their book club card all the time. Most of my spare money went to this bookstore as a twenty something adult.

[@amidthesalt]

My Kmart smelled like buttery popcorn and I loved that.

[@misslora3896]

💛The 1st PC my dad ever bought was a "Tandy TRS-80" from Radio Shack in 1979 when I was 10. My mom managed K-Mart cafaterias/cafes for several years, then went to work for GEMCO doing the same in early 1985. Most people have never heard of. GEMCO because they were only regional, with stores in California, Arizona, and Nevada. I was never big fan of Toys R Us, but they saved my butt Christmas of 1992 when all my 4 yr old little girl wanted was a Teddy Ruxpin. We drove all over the city for hours searching for one, but they were sold out everywhere. Finally we found just 1 at a Toys R Us... We snatched that sucker up and it ended up being totally worth all the effort... It was adorable and my daughters favorite toy for a good 2 years. 💛 It was the original Teddy Ruxpin that ran on what look like miniature 8 track style tapes. We had to replace it a few years later after it accidently got broken and they had changed to cassette tapes. We had to buy all new tape and book sets for it and the style worked like crap compared to the original.

[@tomyoung9049]

We shopped at Kmart all the time. Meijer is a Midwest chain still around. Way back it was called Meijer thrifty acres and had an area you could leave us kids while you shopped.

[@johnw8578]

I had a TRS-80 as a kid! I grew out of it in like 2 months, lol. Then I wanted the Apple IIe!

[@chyannehainstock7842]

Sears catalog was your Real "letter to santa"

[@lalida6432]

A&P had a huge coffee grinder at the end of every check out lane. Everybody bought Eight O’Clock coffee. It’s still one of my favorite coffee brands.

[@johnw8578]

Waldenbooks! That's where I used to get all my favorite books and magazines. Terry Brooks signed one of his book there for me at a signing event.

[@lalida6432]

We lived near a Toys R Us. My mom wouldn’t even let me look at it. We never went in unless we had to go buy something specific. Some friends of mine went every week with their dad.

[@accident12123]

Back on 70s and 80s, it was still a make or fix it yourself culture. It was all the parts you needed plus other home type appliances like radios and speakers. For example, that trs-80 was offered as a kit. Not a kit like today, this was all the parts on the board and you built it.

[@Thom1973]

at timestamp 12:15 when i was young you would see Bookstores and Libraries on just about every corner of town and now i can not find 1 bookstore to buy a book and you have got to do an online search just to see where there might be a library

[@belkyhernandez8281]

The SEARS catalog could be 1000 pages or more. It had everything you could imagine. Clothes, clothes patterns, fabric, jewelry, tires, lawnmowers, candy, beds, ...... You could even buy a house kit at some point. My favorite part was the pop corn and bag your own candy section.

[@chrisbowers3103]

Pretty sure there a couple of those houses from sears in my town where i live now. They’ve been converted into small businesses, i think one is a dentist office not sure about the other one

[@belkyhernandez8281]

@chrisbowers3103 Wow! It's good to know they withstood the test of time.

[@chrisbowers3103]

@@belkyhernandez8281 they certainly look solid!

[@KatyFaulkner-f6c]

My friends and I would spend hours in Walden books in the 80s!

[@AwesomeGenX]

I worked at Kmart back in the 80's and it was great. I got the original Atari from there the day before they were officially released. Great memories. Really miss their layaway plans that they offered.

[@kimberleyalexander8943]

Radio shack was different than Best Buy because this was for people that did diy with electronics U could buy parts to repair and build electrical and computer items And it wasn’t a superstore it was small

[@dewflower7298]

I remember the remote control cars.

[@jrafel1707]

Wow, I totally forgot about Venture and NOTHING could ever replace Toys - R- us. It was a kids dream to wander around a Walmart sized store full of wall to wall toys! The recession in the 1980's was a pretty deep one. Banks failed, businesses failed. If stores weren't well positioned, they were in trouble in those years. But it was still a great time to grow up.

[@remlecat8511]

Former Waldenbooks employee. Company was bought by Borders mid nineties, before that we were owned by K-mart . Borders went bankrupt in 2011.

[@kimberleyalexander8943]

Radio shack was different than Best Buy because this was for people that did diy with electronics U could buy parts to repair and build electrical and computer items

[@j.m.3460]

Gen Beta starts being born TODAY… I know that’s got to make even Gen Z start to feel a little old lol 😅💛

[@Aussiesuede]

Gemco & Price Club were the predecessors to Costco. Radio Shack was a necessity in the early days of home computers because a lot of the early products were proprietary and there were no standardized adapters to connect some products together and you would have to engineer your own, and the only place to get the electronic bits for your contraption was Radio Shack. Resistors, transistors, cables, connectors, etc. we've since learned to develop standardized connectivity at the same time as we design products now, so it's eliminated the need for DIY supplies . But in the early days before standards like serial, parallel, USB, & Bluetooth,byou had to Frankenstein your own solutions. The next big tech lleap will likely be immersive media, were instead of just watching media on a screen as we,'ve done for the past 100 years, you'll be surrounded by photorealistic halogeams that make it seem as I'd you are actually in the middle of the eventa takn gvplace in thee movie. Look up and see anything that is supposed to be up, left right, ans down as well. Kids in the 2050s won't understand how we weren't bored to death with such a simple experience like viewing a movie on a TV screen, and watching a video the eo on KZbin as we do today. And when this new. Tech hits the market, 1st it'll just be available in big cinemas due to cost off the equipment, then the equipment will start to miniturise and be available for home use, and then eventually wearable. But as the tech gets started, and before standards are created, it'll be just like the 80's when personal computers hit the market, and Something akin to Radio Shack will be a special link on Amazon.

[@claranielsen3382]

I used to work for Woolworths. It had been around for 100 years. It first started as a 5 and dime store then worked up into being a major retailer. It closed in 1997.

[@ericzar4470]

My first computer was a Tandy 5000. Talk about a throwback 😆

[@thedoghouse4203]

Toys r us and the r us brand declared bankruptcy but reopened it's Canadian and other countries locations. The US stores remain closed they also had kids r us and baby's r us stores but as stated they closed after the bankruptcy.

[@bryanCJC2105]

One thing I will never forget about KMart was the sickly sweet smell that permeated the stores. I don't know where that smell came from, maybe the popcorn? but it used to always give me a headache as a kid. One of my favorite stores was Miller's Outpost where we used to get my school clothes. I think that's where my OP shirts and shorts came from.

[@mikepaulus4766]

My favorite was the bag of sub sandwiches. They were super cheap, the quality wasn't very high at all, but I loved them. I last went looking for some in Ann Arbor in 2006, but they had long since stopped making them.

[@RoarinRoots]

To answer your questions Amazon was a big reason for the demise of Toys R Us. & Walmart stores selling toys also didn't help. radio shack was great. plus employees could actually help with any questions and make sure you had what needed. A&P brand sodas where the best. I actually have a local store that still sells the a&p soda too. And Eckerd Drugs always had great giftware items. Know most all these places & used to frequent back in day. Couple of them i do really miss

[@KatyFaulkner-f6c]

I’ve never heard of Venture! I don’t think we had those in SoCal.

[@angelastewart7049]

You should watch the video of studies done on the affects of removing traditional learning of reading and handwriting on the human brain. It's no wonder our youth are lacking. People think it doesn't matter as long as they learn but it really does.

[@HowardSchaffel-o3q]

Gameboys were late 80s early nineties. They were around longer seemed like forever. Game boy color was years later.

[@thunderdragon8341]

nintendo game out in the us in 1980 game boy came out in 1989 my fav game i had with my gameboy was pokemon red and blue

[@georgekemp9680]

16:55 I can't believe this, but my grandparents are in this picture of Sears in Regency Mall in 1989!! They're the man wearing a plaid shirt with white hair and the dark haired woman on his left. You can't see from where the picture was cut but they're holding hands.

[@carolgrosklags8933]

I love the fact that they had 70% off on gold jewelry. It was the only time I could afford it

[@Crazycoyote-we7ey]

a long time ago Walmart and Kmart used to have instore cafes Kmart had lit chili cheese dogs that were on par with both Sonic and Wienrschnizel why those cafes asked the companies if they could use ingredients from the products they sold. Then Macdonalds took over and Kmart was gone

[@JonCash]

The internet killed the shopping experience and the end of malls. They aren't all gone yet but they're on their way unless people change the majority of their shopping habits to "in person" shopping. "Convenience makes a comfortable prison."

[@muppetsstoogesfan1]

You used to be able to buy pre made fabricated houses through the Sears catalog.

[@michaelhubbard5246]

Stride Rite for athletic shoes, and Buster Browns for dressy shoes. Kinney's as a teen.

[@kerriniemi9525]

We had some of these in Canada 💛 Radio shack A&P Toy's R us Kmart Sears Maybe Kinney I kinda dislike shopping😊, and only go if i really need things ✌️🐦‍🔥✨

[@belkyhernandez8281]

I still go to brick and mortar stores first. Buying without seeing the object seems like a good way to get garbage, get the wrong thing, or get scammed. Also, shopping centers were community spaces. You could hang out, catch a little mall concert, or maybe go to a celebrity picture signing.

[@thedoghouse4203]

I stipend going to b and m stores bc most round here r goin self check out and refuse to pay to work.

[@belkyhernandez8281]

@thedoghouse4203 Well you are doing the same thing online. I only use cashiers though.

[@andreamaronn4510]

💛❤

[@lisahumphries3898]

I will say that we had A LOT more department store options back then with quality clothing. Not the cheap online clothes that are sold now. Just to name a few stores we had: 1. Mervyn’s 2. The Broadway 3. Buffums 4. Gemco 5. Robinson’s 6. The May Company

[@michaelhubbard5246]

I can't tell you how much I spent at Waldenbooks. Mostly magazines that you couldn't find anywhere else. Many European publications.

[@dianekelly1706]

Never heard of Venture and I live in Michigan.

[@Thom1973]

just so you know at timestamp 5:07 that is 100 % FALSE as there are still Toys 'R' Us in operation in Canada ....... there may not be many of them but they are still in operation but the States do not know anything about Canada ........... Jay why dont you go down the history of the war of 1812

[@lalida6432]

My friend’s dad had a Tandy computer which was a Radio Shack brand. We would try to play with it. But it didn’t do much.

[@dawnhilmer2904]

I hated radio shack. They always seemed to have really heavy old prevented men work there. When you walked in, they would ask, "How can I help you, sweety?" It grossed me out!!!!

[@michaelhubbard5246]

Sears catalog was good for the toy section, and then after puberty hit, the lingerie section.

[@wendel467-r1s]

A & P - The Great Atlantic And Pacific Tea Company. stay hydrated

[@vincecramer7950]

You really want to think about something think about this since the internet came in how many people lost their jobs because the stores are shutting down and because of the upgrade of Internet robots are now taking over a lot of people's jobs as well what's going automated so a lot of people losing their jobs that way as well but yeah back in the 80s it was a great time to be alive you got them all you can chill out with your friends can you go to the food court and go to Sam goodies or charter records that was just so many things you can do in the mall that was really cool some always had all kinds of really cool attractions where other ones just had like movie theaters it was a great time to be alive back then you can talk one on one with people he want buried into their phones like they are nowadays

[@dewflower7298]

I think it was called Consemers? It was like Amazon in a book that you would order from.

[@tammygursky1032]

I’ve never heard of venture.,but I’m in mid Florida area.so states have different stores too.BEFORE WALMART ruined the small businesses 🤷🏻‍♀️😒😳 it was shocking how quick it happened…radio shack was the only store that had remote control vehicles and such! They’re all being over taken ,kinda sad

[@courtneypuzzo2502]

Gen X ended more than 40 yrs ago and stores closes every year some of these lasted until Millennials were preteen/teenager Tom McCann Shoes Jordan Marsh if your in the Northeast Bradlees among many others the TRS 80 is a Tandy 8 bit computer launched in August 1977 list price $600.00 which in 2024 dollars is equal to 3,124.00 while a 1984 Apple Macintosh listed for 2,800.00 new and would be worth over 5,000.00 now same as cars have increased in price when my late maternal grandmother purchased her first Toyota Camry in 1990 she paid 9,300 for it while if my younger brother wanted to upgrade her 2005 that he drives now the same model would cost about 30,000 and is Hybrid only while if he wanted to jump up to a Lexus ES the base model for 2026 starts at $51,000 and goes up to about 80,000 for a fully loaded ES 350

[@EricaGamet]

Try some punctuation... people might actually read your comment!

[@courtneypuzzo2502]

@@EricaGamet yeah I might forget Punctuation most of the time part of that has to do with visual impairment. I tend to be a blunt/honest person who doesn't suffer fools well. shopping styles change every so often and many of these stores lasted into the Adolescence/teens of Millennials before they closed/were liquidated

[@jackiemiles5981]

💛💛

[@kimberleyalexander8943]

Those were Kenny’s version of Adidas

[@malenariggs4266]

Sears was an American and possible the oldest store. Sears and Roebuck Co was started in 1892. You must understand that most towns only had a mom and pop general store back then. If you wanted something the general store didn't have, they would special order it for you. It would take weeks to arrive. Sears is so old that in many rural American towns, they used the catalogue pages for toilet paper. Toilet paper had only been invented in 1857. In addition to competition, failure to renovate, and or change their business model, Offshoring is a reasons not mentioned in this video for the demise of those stores. It was during this time that America stopped making things and manufacturing was moving to China and East Asian countries. Many of the store that didn't make it were using American manufacturers, who made better quality products, had safety standards and gave benefits to their employees thus making the products more expensive. Companies like Wal-Mart were starting and getting cheap products from China. This also collides with a sky rocketing divorce rate. There were many more single parents/single income homes who went for the least expensive thing. The US Government made it easy for companies to off shore manufacturing because it increased corporate profits. Fast forward 40 years to the Covid pandemic, now you can understand why America had such a hard time. We no longer manufacture anything and are dependent on other countries for 75% or more of our needs.

[@ThomasDrish]

Save at Venture. Save with style. Anybody remember Zayre? We’d like to make Zayre your store.

[@cherylthralls4645]

The area where I grew up had a Zayre on the north side and on the south side of town. They later became Woolco, then Hill's, and finally, Ames, before they closed. One is now a Burlington.

[@medicatedmastermind1879]

💛

[@yvonnewakefield7748]

💛