Before Walmart

[amadeus]

Does anyone here remember what it was like before Walmart? I lived in California when I first heard of Walmart, but there was not a single Walmart store that I knew about in California itself. We had K-Mart we kind of watched from the distance as with the passage of time the demise of K-Mart before the onslaught of Walmart.

When I moved with my job to Wyoming in 1985, they had neither Walmart nor K-Mart. They did have one White Front a mini version of the two giants that also fell into the cracks some where along the way.

And then there was McDonald's. There were hamburger places, such a Foster's Old Fashioned Freeze, but then along came fast foot stores several different chains, McDonald's being only one of many. I remember when I had not been married long they had a price war among the fast foods restaurants like McDonald's. Henry's Hamburgers was one other name I recall. At one time the price of a regular hamburger dropped to 10 cents which was very cheap even for then. I am certain that the stores were losing money to sell at the price, but I guess their purpose was accomplished as a number of the fast food hamburger places were gone forever. Competition eliminated and the prices went back up to about 35 cents for a burger.

 

[Mayflower]

Does anyone here remember what it was like before Walmart? I lived in California when I first heard of Walmart, but there was not a single Walmart store that I knew about in California itself. We had K-Mart we kind of watched from the distance as with the passage of time the demise of K-Mart before the onslaught of Walmart.

When I moved with my job to Wyoming in 1985, they had neither Walmart nor K-Mart. They did have one White Front a mini version of the two giants that also fell into the cracks some where along the way.

And then there was McDonald's. There were hamburger places, such a Foster's Old Fashioned Freeze, but then along came fast foot stores several different chains, McDonald's being only one of many. I remember when I had not been married long they had a price war among the fast foods restaurants like McDonald's. Henry's Hamburgers was one other name I recall. At one time the price of a regular hamburger dropped to 10 cents which was very cheap even for then. I am certain that the stores were losing money to sell at the price, but I guess their purpose was accomplished as a number of the fast food hamburger places were gone forever. Competition eliminated and the prices went back up to about 35 cents for a burger.

Had to smile. Walmart is a country mall and Mcdonalds is a mom's life saver on late work days.

 

[mailmandan]

Prior to Walmart coming to my neighborhood we shopped at Kmart. We seem to have a lot of CVS’s where I live and prior to CVS it was Osco and prior to Osco it was Skaggs and prior to Skaggs it was Katz. You know you’re getting older if you remember Katz.

 

[amadeus]

I grew up in tiny town Calif. population 1,000. We had one small grocery store, a little bakery which stocked a few groceries and a meat market which sold only fresh meat. My mother would drive 8 miles to a town on 5,000 or 15 miles to a town of 10,000 to shop at a larger store for a bigger variety of groceries on payday. The first 'super' market in the vicinity was built during the years I was in public school. For Christmas shopping, she would drive 50 miles one way to a city which had large department stores like Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Wards. But... I have mostly good memories of those years. [I graduated from high school in 1961.]

 

[Mayflower]

Prior to Walmart coming to my neighborhood we shopped at Kmart. We seem to have a lot of CVS’s where I live and prior to CVS it was Osco and prior to Osco it was Skaggs and prior to Skaggs it was Katz. You know you’re getting older if you remember Katz.

I lost you after CVS. Lol

 

[lforrest]

Before Wal-Mart we had the catalog department stores. SEERS, JCPenney, McCrorys, Montgomery Wards.

 

[Mayflower]

Before Wal-Mart we had the catalog department stores. SEERS, JCPenney, McCrorys, Montgomery Wards.

That was my mom's generation.

 

[lforrest]

That was my mom's generation.

Us kids would look at the catalogs as a reference for a Christmas list.

 

[Mayflower]

Us kids would look at the catalogs as a reference for a Christmas list.

These days though, at least toys and things, we shop online. I was sad they got rid of "toys r us" though. I never got to take the kids. They will never know. Lol.

 

[DuckieLady]

My town didn't get a Walmart until I was a teenager. It was a big deal for a logging town of 5,000. 1/5th of the town applied as soon as it opened.

We had a Red Apple, but it's gone now. I think ethnic foods were difficult to find. My grandfather (by marriage) was Hispanic so I remember as a kid my grandmother taking me to the Mexican grocery store to pick things up for him and me being so confused as to why there were piñatas hung all over the place.

We had JCPenney's and Sears, if I remember correctly, Bloomingdales(?), on a very small strip. They were replaced later and if you wanted to buy clothes in town, you had two choices - either go to Walmart or go to the thrift shops.

We went to the thrift shops.

I spent a lot of time daydreaming flipping through the Fingerhut and Newport News catalogs.

 

[TLHKAJ]

I lost you after CVS. Lol

Me too! Lol

 

[amadeus]

Prior to Walmart coming to my neighborhood we shopped at Kmart. We seem to have a lot of CVS’s where I live and prior to CVS it was Osco and prior to Osco it was Skaggs and prior to Skaggs it was Katz. You know you’re getting older if you remember Katz.

I remember not long after moving to Oklahoma the only local Walmart upgraded to a the super Walmart or whatever they called. The only K-Mart in order to compete upgraded to a Super K-Mart. Eventually K-Mart lost the battle and closed their local store.

 

[DuckieLady]

I lost you after CVS. Lol

That's okay. They charge way too much for cosmetics.

I think our usual pharmacy was Rite Aid before Walmart. Our pharmacy was cool. Our pharmacy had cool ceramic animals and snow globes and other things to make my grandma nervous if I got too close.

 

[TLHKAJ]

I remember Woolco or something along those lines, when I was a kid ...and I think there was a delicatessen inside. I was pretty small, but I remember that big word. lol

So my question is...to some of you who have a few years on me, did Woolco have a delicatessen? I have a friend who says that Australia still has Woolco stores.

Tagging @Josho and @amigo de christo @Nancy

 

[Josho]

I remember Woolco or something along those lines, when I was a kid ...and I think there was a delicatessen inside. I was pretty small, but I remember that big word, lol.

So my question is...to some of you who have a few years on me, did Woolco have a delicatessen? I have a friend who says that Australia still has Woolco stores.

Tagging @Josho and @amigo de christo @Nancy

Interesting, I have never heard of Woolco, perhaps it's only in a few parts of Australia

 

[Josho]

Does anyone here remember what it was like before Walmart? I lived in California when I first heard of Walmart, but there was not a single Walmart store that I knew about in California itself. We had K-Mart we kind of watched from the distance as with the passage of time the demise of K-Mart before the onslaught of Walmart.

When I moved with my job to Wyoming in 1985, they had neither Walmart nor K-Mart. They did have one White Front a mini version of the two giants that also fell into the cracks some where along the way.

And then there was McDonald's. There were hamburger places, such a Foster's Old Fashioned Freeze, but then along came fast foot stores several different chains, McDonald's being only one of many. I remember when I had not been married long they had a price war among the fast foods restaurants like McDonald's. Henry's Hamburgers was one other name I recall. At one time the price of a regular hamburger dropped to 10 cents which was very cheap even for then. I am certain that the stores were losing money to sell at the price, but I guess their purpose was accomplished as a number of the fast food hamburger places were gone forever. Competition eliminated and the prices went back up to about 35 cents for a burger.

I never knew America had K-marts

 

[amadeus]

That was my mom's generation.

Where we lived we always received the Sear catalogues and sometimes the JC Penny's catalogue for ordering things. It was mail order or drive to the city to shop. There were no local clothing stores except for a small one catering to farmers and ranchers. Very little in the way of women's clothes were for sale locally. My step father worked for the Ideal Cement Plant making Portland type cement. He always had lots of animals in our huge backyard: chickens, turkeys, rabbits, pigeons so he needed to buy feed. He would buy large sacks of feed made from decorative cloth purposely so that women like my mother could make dresses for herself and shirts for the menfolk. She really was chief cook and bottle washer as well as seamstress.

We also had a shoe shop in town which mostly repaired shoes having few pair for sale. Almost everyone wore leather shoes which could be repaired with new half soles and heels to extend the life of the shoe.

 

[TLHKAJ]

I found this, @amadeus

 

[JohnDB]

In California there was a place called Gemco.
Safeway was the grocery store of choice that got replaced with Albertsons.

 

[amadeus]

Our little town had no movie theater and no dime store [also called five and ten]. On Saturdays sometime my brother and I would be allowed to ride the Greyhound bus the 8 miles to the closest town to go to the single movie theater there. A larger town 15 miles away had four movie theaters, but we were never allowed to go there alone. Both of those towns also had Woolworths [five and ten cent stores].

In those days Greyhound buses went everywhere in the United States and were very inexpensive to ride. I remember making three round trip bus trips between San Francisco and New York City [about 3,000 miles one way] as a young man... once while still a teenager.