| Retail days |
[Jul. 23rd, 2008|12:17 pm] |
It occurred to me today that every retail chain I ever worked for is now gone.
Crown Books. I worked there from 1987-1989 as a manager. The chain died under a flurry of controversy after scores of buyouts in 2001.
Chesapeake Knife and Tool. I was an assistant manager from 1989-1991. It quietly faded away after slowly dying in 2006.
Gamekeeper: I worked there one Christmas in 1991 or 92. It went belly up in 2003.
Cargo Furniture. I was a manager at the Springfield and the Tyson's Galleria store from 1993-1996 when I finally left to join the tech industry. Right after I left, there was huge political turmoil until it got bought out by Pier One Imports, then went online-store only, and finally died around 2004.
The only place I worked selling anything that is still up in Nancy's Buttons, which still tours the convention circuits. But that's a one-woman operation, mostly. I worked her table a variety of conventions for many years, and kind of think I'd like to do a few more if I could justify the cost of hotel and travel to do so :) |
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| Comments: |
Well, a lot of them seemed to be specialty stores, and I wonder how much of that was swallowed up by specialized internet stores. Also, I seem to recall many of them being tied to malls. Also, in my observation, store chains tend to go belly-up or reorganize after about 20 years. So perhaps the combination of dying malls and the nature of the market just dried them up.
Just a thought.
*grin* Is it better or worse that you kill businesses where I just kill former bosses? ;> | |
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