What long term businesses near you have closed recently?

[gimmethesimplelife]

I post this question after returning from a trip to visit my husband's relatives in Nogales, Mexico. On the way back to Phoenix, we debated stopping in Tucson and overnighting there and I mentioned the Roadrunner Hostel there I used to stay at ten years ago when I first started posting here. It was a very special place to me and I looked the hostel up online only to find out they closed a few weeks ago! Bum deal. I was sorry to find that out. What businesses have closed around you that you are not happy to see closed? Rob

[LDAHL]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I miss Radio Shack.

[CathyA]

I live out in the country. About 8 miles from here (in the country), there was a "country market". It served lunches there in the middle of no where. The big parking lot was packed solid with cars/trucks every day. The owners decided to close it. I don't know why they couldn't sell it to someone, since it was obviously extremely popular. Hopefully they didn't want to sell the land to the dump, which is right behind it. Then again, maybe all their customers were growing extra heads after eating there?
But I know a lot of people really liked it and there was nothing any closer than about 15 miles from there. I'm sure it bummed a lot of people out....especially workers who were in the area.

We have one little hardware store left in our town. I can't believe it can stay in business with Menards close by. But they are more expensive with everything they sell......which I'm sure makes it hard for people to not go to Menards.
And we also lost awhile back a small fabric/craft store, which I miss.......but at that time Walmart had a big craft department....which isn't there now.

[SteveinMN]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I miss Radio Shack.
That makes you one of about four people in the U.S. :laff: There are certain things I want to buy for which RS was on the short list. But they weren't making any money selling those items, so...


We have one little hardware store left in our town. I can't believe it can stay in business with Menards close by. But they are more expensive with everything they sell......which I'm sure makes it hard for people to not go to Menards.
We have plenty of Menards here (as well as Home Depot and some Lowe's) -- and plenty of neighborhood hardware stores. They stay in business because shopping at Menards (and the other big boxes) can be an time-consuming ordeal and because the big boxes only carry the kinds of hardware and tools that you can use in the 'burbs -- hardly anything for hot water heat or old double-hung windows or smaller versions of anything for those who don't live in 3500-square-foot split-levels. IME the level of assistance and knowledge is higher at the smaller stores, too. I just wish the local Ace/True Value/Doitbest offered building materials (plywood, etc.). I probably never would go back to a big-box.

As for long-time businesses closing, most of those around here went dark because the existing owners retired without finding new owners. Restaurants are bit of a mystery, too, with even popular places calling it quits (sometimes overnight) after years of service. I gotta think there are different economic rules for dining places.

[JaneV2.0]

I must be one of the four who miss Radio Shack. Ours was replaced by just what we needed--another bank. My town is famous for having nowhere to buy underwear but the largest camera store north of Los Angeles--which, as far as I can tell, no one ever goes into. It also was--briefly--home to a large shop devoted to triathletes. Really? Lot of those around. It folded faster than you can spell derailleur.

[iris lilies]

I remember watching business after business close down on a major downtwon street in St. Louis durng the long drawn out period where mega improvement were made to the street. The work took 2+ years, and it was supposed to take 8 months. Oh, it was more than repaving, it was millions and millions put into strip light ps in the street and other fancy foo lighting (which now does not work) and parking systems and bump outs amd signage and infrastructure that i cant see to complain aboit.

The last fabric store in the city of St. louis closed shop. They did, later, move out to the county, so bless their hearts. But other long time businesses folded because their customers could not get to them.

In some ways businesses would have probably been pushed out later by high rents as buldings were renovated by developers. Now the street is full of high end restaurants and bars and clubs, many of them nice, some not so nice.

[razz]

My small town and others in our extensive county has a significant problem with the old established stores downtown closing OR, more likely, moving to the main thoroughfare. There is a huge initiative underway trying to find ways to revitalize the old downtowns throughout the county. As IL mentioned, it could be restaurants, art centred outlets but nothing brilliant seems to be coming out so far. I still believe that we need low-maintenance apartments, condos etc so that the population revitalizes by their presence. No one seems to be listening though.

[pinkytoe]

It has beef very interesting watching our city go from sleepy college town to something on the other end of the spectrum. There is so much money here now that some moms and pops can't keep up with all the new trendy stuff setting up shop. I miss an old fashioned cafeteria that closed some time ago and a great Chinese buffet that burnt down and was never replaced. A hardware store where one could find or order all sorts of old house parts.

[Teacher Terry]

I read that restaurants make very little $ on their food but make it on beverages and especially alcohol.

[KayLR]

Nordstrom closed their local store here in my city last year. We can still go across the river and down I-5 to the next large city to shop with them (PDX) but I haven't done so since they left. I really do miss that store.

Best Buy also left my city, but still found in PDX.

[Float On]

The old fashioned drugstore that had been downtown for decades was bought out by Walgreens a few years ago. Read the other day that Walgreens will close that location. It'll probably become another flea market.

[Lainey]

My small town and others in our extensive county has a significant problem with the old established stores downtown closing OR, more likely, moving to the main thoroughfare. There is a huge initiative underway trying to find ways to revitalize the old downtowns throughout the county. As IL mentioned, it could be restaurants, art centred outlets but nothing brilliant seems to be coming out so far. I still believe that we need low-maintenance apartments, condos etc so that the population revitalizes by their presence. No one seems to be listening though.

razz, I wonder if we're thinking along the same lines. I've thought for years that zoning regs should be changed to allow more residential units above the stores. That's how lots of immigrants made a living back East years ago - a tailor shop in the front room or first floor, and the family lived above the shop or even in the back of the shop. Basically need to keep small shops cheap to operate and also keep family housing costs down.

[iris lilies]

Live/work properties have been promoted here for 15 years but they are still a hard sell. Small retail shops are pretty much full of over priced little giftie things no one needs.We have them in our small business district.

since we are talking about Live/work spaces, House Hunters recently featured a young couple who was looking for such a space in or near our neighbrhood. They shot some footage here, and the couple ended up in a big building nearby.

[sweetana3]

We had some lovely live/work buildings built here but they were built on a one way street and are somewhat hard to get to. Not a good place for walk in or impulse trade.

Big note: Habitat for Humanity did its first live/work house in the US recently. It was to promote the idea and the first floor held a photographer's business and the upper floor was the home. It fit perfectly into the community.

In Indianapolis, some of our neighborhood development groups (more successful before the housing recession) bought and renovated such units. Saved a number of smaller brick corner buildings that way.

[iris lilies]

We had some lovely live/work buildings built here but they were built on a one way street and are somewhat hard to get to. Not a good place for walk in or impulse trade.

Big note: Habitat for Humanity did its first live/work house in the US recently. It was to promote the idea and the first floor held a photographer's business and the upper floor was the home. It fit perfectly into the community.

In Indianapolis, some of our neighborhood development groups (more successful before the housing recession) bought and renovated such units. Saved a number of smaller brick corner buildings that way.
Yes! Saving the corner buildings with live/work spaces has been a goal here. It has been moderately successful in my immediate area.

[Gardenarian]

An independent coffee shop. I think it closed not for lack of business, but because the owners retired.
Our Recycled Furniture store is for sale, and I sure hope someone purchases it and continues the business.
A local framing shop moved to a less expensive location, off the main drag.
A hat store closed and was replaced by a head shop (recreational cannabis is now legal in Oregon.) Do people still use the term "head shop", or am I dating myself?

[JaneV2.0]

An independent coffee shop. I think it closed not for lack of business, but because the owners retired.
Our Recycled Furniture store is for sale, and I sure hope someone purchases it and continues the business.
A local framing shop moved to a less expensive location, off the main drag.
A hat store closed and was replaced by a head shop (recreational cannabis is now legal in Oregon.) Do people still use the term "head shop", or am I dating myself?

I've trained myself to say "dispensary." My SO is an unrepentant "head shop" patron. :D Geezer stoners, we. (All right--my cannabis use is mostly limited to rubbing infused liniment on my knees, but admitting to being a "stoner" is so deliciously naughty...:~)

[ToomuchStuff]

I miss RS as well, but RS of old. I went in to my local one, a couple of years before it closed for an antenna adapter (the old ribbon cable to coax adapter), and they didn't know what it was, but they would like to sell me a phone.
Most of them, had already shifted/been remodeled to "phone" stores, and gimmicks. Our other electronic parts place, really isn't electronic bits anymore. (tried to find stuff to make some custom meter leads and didn't have any of it)
I miss multiple of the old mom and pop hardware stores. One was also popular when I was a kid, for a large models and games section. My neighborhood one, closed last year, finally.
I both miss, and don't, a variety of smaller stores, that have closed over time, being chased out by mega stores, that have opened further away, being developed in area's due to tif money. (leaving a lot of vacant stuff, closer to my area).
I miss a lot of the used book stores. Now the one I am aware of, Amazon and used books tends to be easier then the drive out. (less accidental finding of books, so no happy surprises)

[Tulips]

Macys dept store in University Mall in Carbondale will be closing--not enough customers

[19Sandy]

J.C. Penneys
Sears
Our mall is about empty.

My entire county has hundreds of empty stores (and homes).

I really need to move to greener pastures.

[Lainey]

I think malls and commercial spaces are overbuilt everywhere. More news of layoffs today too from Cisco. Are we at a tipping point?

[iris lilies]

Online sales will only be growing.

I stilldo not understand how we all are supposed to,figure out how clothing fits when we buy online. And liberal return policies do not cut it woth me, I hate returning things, it os a giant PITa.

[gimmethesimplelife]

Something else that bummed me out - while I was in Nogales (on the Arizona side) I looked for a place called Lotus in the Sun. This was once a really cool hippy dippy type of place that was so incongrous with it's surroundings. It was a small store about a block north of the border crossing in a gritty and kind of rough area that had Buddhists selling legal herbs and tinctures and chanting tapes - so funky that is was located right where it was. It was a wonderful place to buy kava kava tincture to help maintain clarity and sanity while waiting tables and their prices beat anywhere else I've ever seen - now closed. Bummer deal, it was such a special place to me. And now it's been remade into an ugly Boost Mobile store. Can't fight progress.....Rob

[freshstart]

I've trained myself to say "dispensary." My SO is an unrepentant "head shop" patron. :D Geezer stoners, we. (All right--my cannabis use is mostly limited to rubbing infused liniment on my knees, but admitting to being a "stoner" is so deliciously naughty...:~)

our combination head shop/sex toy store, a mom and pop, has delightfully stayed in business since the 70s. They actually moved into a strip mall developed with chain stores.

our mom and pop bra shop went out of business. It was wonderful, the woman who owned it could fit anybody, she was gruff and German and was called the Bra Nazi by her customer base. She died and a young woman in her 30s took it over, she was doing a good job. She dropped dead at 36 and a former employee and her sister are currently fighting about who gets to keep the name when/if the store re-opens. I hope it does, no dept store works so hard to give you the best fit like these women did.

[flowerseverywhere]

I live in one of those areas where building is going on like crazy. We luckily moved here right before the boom and our real estate value has soared. However we are aware it can go down as well so we do not use our house like a bank, which caused some people to end up underwater at the last big crisis.
But as a potter two nearby clay and supply stores have closed in the past few years. I band together with other potters to make the hour and a half trip for clay.
Most of the restaurants built in the past few years in the area are chains. Big box stores are the norm. Our ace hardware is hanging in there, as well as our small local quilt shop.
As we RV around the country you see everything. From abandoned strip malls to areas in Colorado and Texas that are teeming with construction.
It is very difficult for small stores to compete with the Denny's, Home Depots and Walmarts. But those are the stores that are always packed.

[Tenngal]

this is not lately, but remember the 5 & 10 stores? Woolworths? Mr. Yard? I miss them all.