#tbt Dead retail with a side of Memorex

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The thrift store. the funky smells, the Bible verse screaming woman, the men in dog collars… err wait not that sort of post today. One of the fun things to do when at the thrift is to look for old store tags. If you are lucky the store separates the “New with Tag” clothing from the regular donations. Those racks can be a treasure trove of old price tags from old school and dead retail (and a few laughs when the thrift tries to price stuff for more than the final markdown price…).

This week was sort of boring in the old school price tags, but a few were found.

Ahh Kmart the land of the blue light specials. I’m not sure when Kmart switched over from using these tags to using the UPC scan system but I know these pants were in someones closet for quite a long time.

I can say these pants were in a closet somewhere for at least 20 years. Bon-Ton Stores bought out AM&As in 1994 and it took a few months for the rebranding to happen. I still miss AM&As. Bon-Ton is OK but it is not the same.

Hills is where the toys are! Growing up my family was not Hills shoppers- Kmart yes, Twin-Fair (later Gold Circle) yes, Two Guys yes. I don’t know if they didn’t like Hills or if it was their long time cash only policy. I really started to “shop” at Hills when I was in college. I would go to the Ames across the street since Ames had a much better Arts & crafts supply department but for some reason Ames could be empty but there would still be lines at the registers. I last shopped at Hills in Richmond, VA before moving to Texas. So I missed the whole Ames buying out Hills and running them into the ground.
The Sheridan Drive, Amherst, NY location circa 2007:

The Delaware Avenue, Buffalo NY location circa 2007 (It is now a Kohls). The Big Lots is a former Tops Supermarket:

Not new but a few other fun finds:

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A lovely 100% acrylic sweater from Grants department store. It was actually a fairly nice looking cable knit sweater but again- cheap acrylic. I’m sure Salvation Army was selling it for close to what it cost new.

Finally- the coveted clear memorex tape. Everything about this tape screams 1980s mix tape with a side of sitting by the radio waiting for the songs you love to come on so you could record it.

So that’s all for now.