Dozens of stores you once loved that don't exist anymore
Dress Barn, A&P, and Borders are just a few chains you may never set foot in again, though some brands are seeing a second act in e-commerce.
Bethany Biron/Insider
- Declining foot traffic and rising e-commerce have led thousands of stores to permanently close.
- Former household names like Borders, Circuit City, and Blockbuster are now just retail history.
- Here are 49 once-beloved stores that no longer have a meaningful brick-and-mortar presence.
Brick-and-mortar retail is a tough business.
One day, your favorite brand can be riding high and enjoying strong sales from loyal customers, while the next it's fighting for survival and fending off creditors.
The only constant is change, especially as emerging trends, shopping patterns, and e-commerce players take larger pieces of the pie.
Here's a look back at some of the retail brands whose stores once greeted thousands of people each day, but are now consigned to retail's history books — or exist only online or as a tiny fraction of what they once were.
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Blockbuster got its start in 1985, and acquired the Sound Warehouse and Music Plus music chains to create Blockbuster Music in 1992. The music division was sold to Wherehouse Entertainment in 1998 before closing for good, but there remains one single Blockbuster video rental store in Bend, Oregon.
AP Photo/Justin Ide
Thom McAn was a chain of shoe stores that peaked in the 1960's and closed up shop by 1996. The brand's shoes continued to be available at Sears and Kmart.
Glen Martin/The Denver Post via Getty Images
First opened in 1894, Kinney Shoes had 467 stores at its peak, all of which shuttered in 1998.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Warner Bros. Studio Store competed with the Disney store until the company closed all of its locations in 2001.
Dan Loh/AP
Zany Brainy filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and closed all locations in 2003. The educational toy retailer's founder, David Schlessinger, co-founded the discount company Five Below.
Wikimedia
Debt and poor sales forced Ames Department Store into bankruptcy twice., and in 2002, the remaining Ames stores closed.
AP Photo/Jeff Zelevansky
Imaginarium was an educational toy store in the 1980s. Stores started closing in the 1990s, and by 2003, parent company Toys R Us closed all remaining locations.
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
Hecht's was purchased by Macy's in 2005 and all locations were either turned into Macy's stores or closed.
AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh
Federated Department Stores bought Marshall Fields in 2005 and converted the stores to the company's more recognizable flagship brand, Macy's.
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Gadzooks was a teen clothing store that was around from 1983 to 2005. It filed for bankruptcy in its final year and was purchased by Forever 21, which then closed all of the stores.
AP Photo/Keith Srakocic
In 2006, Macy's retired the Kaufmann's name, and the brand disappeared.
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Tower Records couldn't keep up with the rise of digital music, and all stores in the US were closed in 2006.
Flickr/AdamL212
Media Play was a big box store selling books, movies, software, toys and video games. It closed for good in 2006.
AP Photo/Terry Gilliam
Discovery Channel's 103 stand-alone stores closed in 2007.
AP/Damian Dovarganes
KB Toys announced it would be going out of business in 2008, and by early 2009 all locations were closed.
Eric Risberg/AP
Sharper Image declared bankruptcy and wound down its physical retail operation in 2008.
Wikicommons/Laurie Avocado
Levitz Furniture declared bankruptcy twice — first in 1997, and then in 2005. It closed all of its stores in 2008.
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Linens 'n Things had over 500 stores in 2006, but by the end of 2008, they were all closed.
AP Photo/Ben Margot
Mervyn's once had almost 200 locations in the western US. In 2008, the company declared bankruptcy and closed all of its stores.
Associated Press
Limited Too's success began dwindling in the early 2000s, and all stores were eventually rebranded as Justice by 2008.
Flickr/Dalvenjah FoxFire
Tweeter filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and all of its stores were closed by the end of the year.
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Circuit City filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and shuttered all stores the following Spring.
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
Steve & Barry's filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and closed all of its stores in 2009.
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Filene's Basement's parent company went bankrupt in 2009, and by 2011 all of its stores were closed.
AP Photo/Ricardo Santos
B. Dalton was acquired by Barnes & Noble in 1987, which officially closed the bookstore in January 2010, except for a single location in Oviedo, Florida.
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Waldenbooks merged with Borders in 1994, and all Waldenbooks stores closed when Borders Group liquidated in 2011.
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Borders Books & Music stores closed shortly after the company was forced to liquidate in 2011.
AP Photo/Donna McWilliam
CompUSA started in 1984, but by 2007, Best Buy and other superstores had taken over, and the last CompUSA closed in 2012.
Dawn Villella / AP
Sam Goody music stores suffered from the rise of digital media, and most Sam Goody stores were either ultimately shuttered or converted into other brands like FYE by 2012. Two locations remain: one in Clairsville, Ohio, and one in Medford, Oregon.
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A&P filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010 and again in 2015, closing its stores that year.
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Competition drove Sports Authority into bankruptcy in 2016, when it closed all its stores and sold its website to Dick's Sporting Goods.
AP Photo/Reed Saxon
Sport Chalet, which first opened in 1959, abruptly closed all of its stores in 2016.
Kirsten Acuna/Business Insider
Wet Seal, a teen clothing store, filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and closed for good in 2017.
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Virgin Megastores stopped operating in the US in 2017, but the brand continues online and in select international markets.
Facebook/The Limited
The Limited abruptly shut down all of its stores in 2017, and the brand is now sold exclusively through Belk.
Starbucks
Starbucks closed Teavana's 379 locations in 2018.
AP Images / Rusty Kennedy
The Bon-Ton stores included its namesake brand, as well as Bergner's, Boston Store, Elder-Beerman, and Younkers.
Business Insider/Jessica Tyler
Toys R Us and its subsidiaries closed in 2018, but in 2021 Macy's announced that it would open Toys R Us sections in hundreds of its stores, while Babies R Us is opening within Kohl's stores across the US.
After 123 years of business, luxury retailer Henri Bendel closed all of its stores in 2019.
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Dress Barn shut down in 2019 after 50 years in business.
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At its peak in 2009, Papyrus had 500 stores across the US and Canada, but the company ultimately filed for bankruptcy and closed its 254 stores in 2020.
Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Lord & Taylor filed for bankruptcy in 2020, leading to the closure of its 38 stores. An attempt at reviving the brand as a "digital collective" was unsuccessful.
REUTERS/Chip East
Century 21 closed its 13 locations after going bankrupt in 2020. The company reopened its New York flagship store in 2023 with a greater focus on e-commerce.
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After a slow decline and a tumultuous stint with private equity owners, Maine-based Olympia Sports shut down its remaining stores in 2022.
Ben Tobin
Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy and closed its 896 remaining stores in 2023, though the brand was sold and relaunched online.
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The Dallas-based home goods company shut down all of its stores in 2023 after it had only planned to close half of its stores amid bankruptcy proceedings.
John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
The Massachusetts-based seasonal specialty retailer filed for bankruptcy in 2023, winding down the remaining 72 locations across 20 states.
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Just months after buying Moosejaw from Walmart, Dick's Sporting Goods closed most of the brand's locations and formed one team that would handle both the Public Lands and Moosejaw brands moving forward. Only three Moosejaw locations remain open.
John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Chicago-based Foxtrot abruptly shuttered its 33 locations in April 2024 after it came up $35 million short of its 2023 sales goal.