Editor: David Tanny
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Correction: Businesses Gone By (May 18, 2009)Rally's drive-through was seen on East Main street in El Cajon. The problem is that you have to drive carefully through some key intersections that are equipped with scameras. Be careful. El Cajon needs your money! Their sales tax is high.More Businesses Gone By (May 18, 2009)Great Western Bank, Kinney's Shoes, Southwestern Cable, Fashion Gal, GTE, Pacific Bell, Mission Cable, Times Mirror Cable, Dimension Cable, Adelphia Cable, Southwestern Cable, KB Toys, Play Co, Saturdays, Tower Records, Wherehouse, PC Club, The Bacchanal, Licorice Pizza, Diamond Designs, Kaleidoscope, Silo, Pic-n-Save.More Businesses Gone By (May 16, 2009)Foster's Freeze, Grahalva Chevrolet, Lamb Chevrolet, Rally's Hamburgers, Bob's Big Boy, Farrell's Ice Cream Emporium, Picnic 'n Chicken, Sambo's Restaurants, Chicken Delight, Imperial Savings, First National Bank, Video Library, Penguin's Frozen Yogurt, Fred's TV, Drug Mart, Payless Drug Store, Cingular, Airtouch, Levitz, Pioneer Chicken.Leonard via e-mail adds: Thrifty Drugstores, Savon Drugs, Amoco gas stations, Straw Hat Pizza, Dr.Free Dentists, Nurseryland, Bill Gambles (clothing store), TG&Y, and UniMart (This later became The Chula Vista Two Guys store, which later became FedMart, and finally Target).
Businesses Gone By (May 15, 2009)I'm just thinking the other day about all of the business names that I used to see on the local streets sometime in the 60s and 70s. Many of them were well-known regional or local chains of stores. Some were just well-known with just one store in the county.When Pearson Ford closed its mega car dealership earlier this year, this got me to thinking about all of the regional and national chains of stores that had a prescence when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, but disappearred during that time and later in the following decades. There once was a regional chain of discount stores that was called White Front. The store gots its name from the practice of lining up appliances like washers, dryers and stoves in front of the store, giving it a "White Front." Was that name racist in itself? Anyway, from reading about it online, it filed for bankruptcy in 1975. Another discount chain called Two Guys had a local prescence for a few years. That too was gone in 1982. Another prominent discount chain also went bankrupt in 1982, and that was Fed Mart. There used to be a couple of them in my side of town. The stores also had a food retailing section as well as an optical, pharmacy, and cleaner stores. When that chain went bankrupt, its cleaner and pharmacy businesses were spun off into their own stores in some of the areas. Fed Mart cleaners still exists today in the Kearny Mesa area. Most of the stores were picked up my Target and Ralphs supermarket chains in 1983. Gemco was a discount membership store that was seen in several parts of town. It closed in 1986. Another discount membership store, Fedco, with two stores in the San Diego county area, went belly-up around 1999. Many other chains of stores come to my mind that were in existance when I was a child, but are now long gone. Walker-Scott disappearred around 1987 I think. Woolworths were gone in 1997. The May Co stores in name only disappearred in 2005 when Federated Department Stores bought the chain and renamed them Macy's. Federated used to have its own chain called The Federated Group. We had Fed Mart, Federated, and Fedco. I guess we got Fed up with the whole matter. The Broadway stores were gone in 1991. Montgomery Ward was gone in 2001. Grocery chains that disappearred under my watch include Thriftymart, which had a store in the northern La Mesa area. It was a store with a giant "T" that could be seen for a few miles. Among the other well-known grocery chains were Alpha Beta, Mayfair, Food Basket, Lucky, Safeway, and Big Bear. Fed Mart had a grocery section during the late 70s and early 80s. Fast food chains that came and went include the Char Burger, Square Pan Pizza, and the A&W drive-in. Gas station brands that disappearred from the area include Texaco, Gulf, Atlantic Richfield Inc., Ultramar, and Mobil. Fed Mart used to offer gasoline at their stores. Among electronics stores include the aforementioned Federated Group, plus Pacific Stereo, Mad Jack's, Dow, Tweeter, Circuit City, Computer City, and Comp USA. Other chains that used to exist were Handyman, Builder's Emporium, Best stores, Mervyn's, and Linens and Things. What names do you remember?
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