1970s Department Stores You’ll Never Walk Into Again (And What Killed Them)

Push open one of those heavy brass-trimmed doors one more time and walk back into a Saturday afternoon in 1975. W.T. Grant was the first giant to fall, shutting more than a thousand stores in a single year. What follows is the story of those department stores, and the reasons each one finally went dark. In this video: ✓ W.T. Grant, the giant that closed first ✓ Wanamaker's eagle and the wooden escalators ✓ Gimbels, the rival across the street ✓ Jordan Marsh and its Christmas village ✓ Rich's and the Magnolia Room in Atlanta ✓ Marshall Field's clock and the Walnut Room ✓ Hudson's and its Thanksgiving parade ✓ The discount chains that finished the job These were stores that held an entire Saturday inside one building: the shoes on the ground floor, the toys up on the second, and the restaurant at the top where a grandmother could rest while the packages piled up beside her chair. What killed them came in pieces. Which name comes back first when you close your eyes, the one your family used for school clothes and for Christmas? Write it down below, because these stores live a little longer every time somebody says the name out loud. 1970sDepartmentStores #DepartmentStores #DowntownShopping #1970s #Nostalgia