Top 20 Stores That Don't Exist Anymore

Like many retail outlets, Sports Authority was a casualty of the mid 21st century. Founded in 1928 by Nathan Gart, a series of mergers and acquisitions allowed Gart Sports to become “the” place for sporting goods in the United States. But by 2010, the tired retailer found it difficult to compete with the likes of Walmart and Amazon, and began falling behind in its financials. By 2016, the company chose to close down and liquify its assets. Its brand name and intellectual property ultimately ended up in the hands of its competitor: Dick's Sporting Goods.

If the 2010s taught businesses anything, it’s that the shape of retail shopping is changing. Founded as Lorne’s in 1962, this fashion retailer was incorporated as Wet Seal in 1990. They also sold their clothing and accessories under the Arden B and Blink brands. By 2015 they were faced with heavy competition, forcing them to close several locations. Store windows could be seen with protest signs from employees over communication from managers and compensation. Wet Seal closed all stores in January 2017 - another victim of the so-called “retail apocalypse”. As of January 2023, their website still says “Under Construction”.

Long before the days of Spotify and Apple Music, people had to go into a store and purchase their music. Enter Tower Records. In their heyday, they were one of the largest retailers of music around the world. Based in the US, they spread to over a dozen countries worldwide. The movie “Empire Records” was even inspired by writer Carol Heikkinen’s time as an employee there. Yet with all that success, bad business decisions, and the launch of the digital music era killed off this giant in 2006. The brand did resurface as a website in 2020 and continues to sell music and merchandise online.

When you hear the term ‘big-box store’, you may think of IKEA, Walmart, and even Costco. One such player in this space was the now defunct computer store CompUSA. A purveyor of technology products, they were very similar to competitors like, say, Best Buy. And therein lies part of the problem. Their corporate strategies were out of touch and they were destroyed by the competition. They were eventually sold to Systemax in 2008, and their last CompUSA stores were rebranded as TigerDirect, which also phased out of retail in 2015.

It was 1946 when brothers Harry and Joseph Kaufman opened their own candy store, aptly named Kaufman Brothers. That quickly turned into a wholesale toy company in 1948, and a shopping mall staple in 1973. In the 1990s, a series of additional acquisitions brought the company hundreds of new store locations, totalling 1,324 by 1999. But a combination of both a poorly timed dividend deal in 2002, and a drop in sales the following year, sealed the company’s fate. Neither a bankruptcy filing, or a restructuring of the company was enough to keep it afloat. They were eventually sold to their biggest competitor, Toys “R” Us in 2009.

In 1991, Warner Brothers entered the retail space, selling the likes of Looney Tunes and DC Comic Books merchandise. Eventually opening 130 stores across the country, the chain thrived for a short time. However, the AOL-TimeWarner merger was completed in 2001 and the newly formed company had new plans. With sales in decline, and retail shops floundering in general, the newly formed conglomerate saw the writing on the wall. It took them less than a year to put the nail in the coffin on this chain when their last store closed on New Years Eve, 2001.

Much like many of the other stores on this list, Payless started with humble beginnings, only to fall victim to our ever changing times. Formed in 1956 by cousins Louis and Shaol Pozez, Payless became known for its own unique line of shoes called Pro Wings, as well as a plethora of other footwear related products. Their expansion went far beyond the US, bringing their shoes as far away as Australia and Indonesia. But in the midst of the retail shift in the 2010s, Payless filed for bankruptcy twice, eventually shutting down all operations in North America. They do continue to operate stores in other parts of the world, and online.

Department stores have always been common in big cities. But when Ames opened up in 1958, they went after the retail market in much smaller populated areas. This led to a boom in business and expansion, which reached up to 327 stores. It did not however come without a cost. Poor decisions around consumer credit resulted in a bankruptcy filing in 1990. The company survived, and by 1993 was turning a profit again. But the success didn’t last. By the turn of the century, Ames had begun closing many of its stores, and filed a second bankruptcy in late 2001 which saw the end of this store. Or did it? Rumors of a re-opening in 2023 have surfaced. Time will tell.

No matter how large a corporation gets, you have to remember that they all started out small. Such was the case for Andrew T. Mack and his wife, who formed Teavana in 1997 with a little teahouse in a mall. The brand became so successful that it only took 15 years for Starbucks to take notice and acquire them to the tune of $620 million dollars. The name persisted for five more years before Starbucks pulled the plug on all 379 Teavana shops. Their entry into the tea market has since dropped considerably, as Starbucks now only sells a very limited number of Teavana products.

Similar to SkyMall and Hammacher Schlemmer, Sharper Image was a catalog business that thrived on high tech gadgets and niche products. Distinguishing itself from other catalog companies, they expanded into retail, opening 187 stores throughout malls and airports across the United States. Oddly enough, it was an air purifier product that ultimately helped kill the company. After Consumer Reports gave fail ratings to their Ionic Breeze products, Sharper Image sued. However, they were themselves sued by customers for misrepresentation of their product. As the blame went back and forth, upper management changed and consumer interest tapered off. The company went bankrupt in 2008.

Founded in 1949 under the name Wards Company, Circuit City was one of the most popular consumer electronics stores in the United States. During their peak, the chain boasted more than 550 stores across the country, offering plenty of electronic goods and services. They even had a chance to buy out the fledgling Best Buy operation in 1988, but declined when Circuit City’s CEO thought they could just put them out of business. Well, that didn’t work out in the long run. When 2007 rolled around, wages were being cut, locations were being closed, and management turnover was at a high. By 2009, the company pulled the plug, and the days of Circuit City were over.

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company existed from 1859 to 2015. Known to most customers simply as A&P, there was a time when they were a huge player in the grocery business. From a few retail shops selling tea and coffee in New York, the company blossomed after being acquired by George Huntington Hartford. From there, over much time, it became a full-on grocery store, which would eventually have roughly 16,000 locations. However, by the 1970s, the stores had become conceptually stale and plagued by bad customer service. The chain did manage to have a bit of a comeback in the early aughts but was short lived, and it finally went under in 2015.

Did you know that Woolworth’s may have been the original inspiration for the dollar store? Founded by Frank Winfield Woolworth in 1879, it opened as “Woolworth’s Great Five Cent Store”, which sold everything for a nickel or two. Although that operation didn’t last, the subsequent store became successful. Frank brought in his brother, Charles Sumner Woolworth, and the two began a journey that would see their ideas about retail continue to be used today. Woolworth’s was highly successful until the 1980s, when stiff competition forced them to shift their priorities to their sporting goods division. In 2001, they became known as Foot Locker and are still selling sporting goods today. A few dozen Woolworth stores do still continue to exist in Mexico, under different ownership.

Much like many other music retailers, Sam Goody became the victim of the digital revolution in music. Founded in 1951 as a small music shop in New York City, it eventually merged with Musicland which helped expand the brand. At its peak, the Sam Goody-branded stores expanded to 800 locations and brought in several billion dollars worth of revenue. It had become almost synonymous with music retail, which held it above water for a long time. But after struggling through a handful of acquisitions, and changes to its business model, the stores began to close. By 2012, most of the stores were gone, or simply rebranded as FYE.

Ever since Gutenberg revolutionized printing so long ago, books have been in demand. This human desire to learn or enjoy stories is what eventually spawned the likes of giant bookstore chains like Borders. Operating for nearly 40 years, this bookstore saw its peak with over 500 US-based stores, and even more via other brands and franchising. By the time 2007 rolled along, however, the company had begun to struggle to remain in business. Several attempts were made to keep it going, but by September of 2011, the chain had come to an end, with its stores closing and rival chain Barnes and Noble buying its trademark.

The sale of the Fry’s Supermarkets chain eventually spawned a completely new type of electronics store back in 1985. The intent was to make shopping for electronics a similar experience to going for groceries. Whether it was circuit boards, software, or any other kind of electronic device, Fry’s was the place to get it. It was actually one of the few places you could buy raw computer parts off the shelf to assemble your PC on your own. The stores ballooned in popularity, and even the aforementioned Circuit City didn’t offer the same kinds of fare. But after decades of sometimes controversial business practices, and squeezed by the COVID pandemic in 2020 and longstanding market pressures, all their stores ceased operations in February 2021.

If there is one common thread connecting many of these now-defunct businesses, it’s that for many of them, a combination of acquisitions and management changes seemed to be their undoing. Formed in 1975, this home textile and housewares big box retailer grew considerably by the time it opened its 55th store in 1983. It was acquired and then eventually spun off as its own entity again in 1996, but then re-acquired by Apollo Global Management in 2006. The company then truly began to find itself in financial difficulty. A series of losses combined with the decline of sales, eventually forced the company to pull the plug on their stores by 2008, going online exclusively.

The humble beginnings for Radio Shack began back in 1921. The company focused its sales strategy on radio and electronics hobbyists. For decades, this gave them a lucrative market to fill, and interest in electronics eventually grew even further with the new computer and videogame age. It was also Radio Shack that produced the famous TRS-80, one of the first widely available home computers. But much like many other retailers, their popularity declined with the rise of online shopping, and fewer hobbyists to buy their wares. By 2017, the company had gone bankrupt and was no longer the giant retailer it once was, with a smattering of stores remaining under different ownership, and eventually the brand being scooped up to attempt viability online.

Who doesn’t remember wanting to be a “Toys R Us Kid”? From toys to video games to books to bikes, this was a chain that had almost everything a child could possibly want. But like many retailers over the last few decades, they struggled to keep up with the times, and competition with the likes of mass-market stores and online shopping. In 2017, the chain filed for bankruptcy and began liquidating their assets. By the middle of 2018, they had closed most of their US stores, with the last two closing in 2021. However, you can still find Toys "R" Us stores across Canada and Asia.

One of the biggest industries to emerge from the creation of the VCR was the home movie rental business. At the inception of the movie business decades earlier, no one had ever expected people to want to watch their movies at home, instead of at theaters. With more than 30,000 stores open globally at its commercial peak, if you wanted to rent a new release, odds are you went to a Blockbuster Video. Video rentals became ingrained in our culture, and Blockbuster profited mightily.. But as streaming services and mail-in DVD options became available over the years, the days of “be kind, please rewind” were over, and Blockbuster famously ceased to be.