U.S. chains that no longer exist

Sharper Image

Sharper Image was founded in 1977 in San Francisco and became known for selling electronics, gadgets and futuristic items. However, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and closed all of its retail stores -- although the name was bought at auction and licensed products are sold at other retailers and online today.

Discovery Channel Store

Discovery Channel lent its name to a chain of stores which opened in 1995, selling educational gifts, books, videos, DVDs and other tie-ins to the network programming. However, in 2007, the network elected to close all of its 103 standalone stores and shifted its focus to online retail.

Teavana

Starbucks announced in July 2017 that it will be closing all 379 Teavana locations, due to struggling sales by the chain which the coffee giant acquired in 2012.

Bonwit Teller

Luxury department store Bonwit Teller was founded in 1895 in Manhattan, and added locations from Boston to California, including one in Manhasset. However, the company fell into financial trouble by 1979 when its flagship store, above, was sold to Donald Trump, who built Trump Tower in its place. The rest of the chain was liquidated by 1990.

Sleepy's

Hicksville-based Sleepy's was founded in 1931, and by 2014 had 1,000 stores across the country thanks to expansion and acquisitions. The company was bought out in 2015 by Mattress Firm, and while the company still has an online presence, its retail stores were rebranded over the next two years.

Media Play

Media Play was a Minnesota-based chain that sold video tapes, DVDs, electronics, CDs and video games, and at one time had 72 stores in 19 states. However, competition from other retailers and online ordering led to the chain's eventual closing in 2006.

Levitz Furniture

Levitz Furniture was founded in 1910 in Pennsylvania and the furniture warehouse store eventually became known for its advertising tagline "You'll Love It at Levitz." However, the company started to suffer financial difficulty, declaring bankruptcy first in 1997 and then in 2005, and eventually closing its nearly 80 stores for good in 2008.

Hecht's

Hecht's Department Stores began in 1857 in Baltimore, and by 2005 had 61 stores around Maryland and in the District of Columbia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, and also operated 20 Strawbridges in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. But Macy's bought the chains in 2005, and eventually converted them into Macy's or closed locations.

Incredible Universe

In 1992, Tandy, the parent company of RadioShack, founded a large-scale electronics store called Incredible Universe that tended to carry about 85,000 items per store. The chain quickly expanded from 2 to 17 locations, but with competition from other big-box retail stores, the concept was shuttered by 1997.

Kids "R" Us

Kids "R" Us was a subsidiary of Toys "R" Us, and was launched in New Jersey and Brooklyn in 1983 to sell children's and teen clothing. However, by 2003, the chain decided to discontinue the chain, closing 146 stores.

Gadzooks

Gadzooks was founded in 1983 as a T-shirt retailer in Texas and eventually grew to 422 stores by 2003, focusing on teenage clothing. That same year, the chain decided to discontinue clothes for boys, and two years later the chain was purchased by Forever 21 and eventually all the stores were phased out.

Service Merchandise

Service Merchandise was a catalog showroom store that was founded in 1934, selling toys, jewelry, electronics and other items. The brand gained recognition due to its sponsorship of such game shows as "Wheel of Fortune" and "The Price Is Right," but by 1999 declared bankruptcy and in 2002 eventually closed its 100 stores. The name was sold at auction, and the brand was revived online in 2004.

Sport Chalet

Sport Chalet was a sporting goods chain that started in 1959 in the western United States and had 47 locations in four states as of 2016. However, the company abruptly announced it was shutting down that year, and all of its stores were subsequently closed.

Kinney Shoes

Kinney Shoes started in 1894 and by 1936 was the largest family chain shoe retailer with 335 stores nationwide. The chain lasted until 1998, when its parent company decided to shutter the chain's 467 stores.

hhgregg

Indiana electronics retailer hhgregg was founded in 1955 and at one point had stores in 20 states, but in 2017 the firm filed for bankruptcy and is closing all of its remaining stores.

Steve & Barry's

Steve & Barry's, which was headquartered in Port Washington, was founded in 1985 and eventually grew to have 276 stores in 39 states, including four on Long Island. However, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008 and eventually closed for good a year later.

Zany Brainy

Zany Brainy was a chain of educational toy stores founded in 1991, which had 187 locations by 2001. However, the company, which was owned by FAO Schwarz, filed for Chapter 11 that year, and its assets were sold to Right Start.

A&P

Grocery store chain A&P was founded in 1859 in New York, and was the largest grocery store chain in the United States from 1915 to 1975. However, competition from other retailers and being leveraged from the acquisition of Pathmark led to the chain's first Chapter 11 filing in 2010, and five years later, it filed for Chapter 11 and closed all of its stores.

Linens 'n Things

Linens 'n Things was a housewares chain that was founded in 1975 and numbered over 500 stores by 2006, but eventually closed its brick-and-mortar stores by December 2008. The company still does business online.

Woolworth

Once of America's iconic five-and-dime stores, Woolworth first opened in Utica, N.Y. in 1878. By the late 1970s, it was the largest department store chain in the world, but its fortunes quickly changed and by 1997, all its stores in the United States were closed. The company eventually transformed into the sporting goods chain Foot Locker.

Tweeter

Tweeter was a high-end electronics chain that began in Boston in 1972, and eventually had more than 100 locations in 18 states. However, the chain began closing most of its locations in 2007, and eventually filed for Chapter 11 in 2008 and closed all of its locations by December of that year.

Thom McAn

Thom McAn was a chain of shoe stores that began in New York in 1922, and expanded to over 1,400 stores by the end of the 1960s, making it the largest American shoe retailer at the time. However, the chain had closed by 1996, although the products are still available at Sears and Kmart.

Minnie Pearl Fried Chicken

Comedian Minnie Pearl lent her name to a chain of chicken restaurants in the 1960s to compete with Kentucky Fried Chicken. While initially successful with 40 locations and plans to expand to 300, allegations of accounting irregularities and stock price manipulation brought the chain to a close in 1971.

Horn & Hardart

Horn & Hardart was a chain of automats, meaning food and drinks were served by vending machines, which first started in Philadelphia in 1888. The chain, which had 157 locations in New York and Philadelphia by 1941, closed its final location on 42nd Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan in 1991. The Times Square location is shown in this 1971 photo.

Kaufmann's

Kaufmann's was a department store that started in Pittsburgh in 1871, and in 1995 had 44 stores in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. But in 2006, Macy's retired the name of the store and the brand disappeared, and in 2015, its flagship store in the Steel City, shown above, was closed for redevelopment.

Howard Johnson's restaurant

In the 1970s, Howard Johnson's restaurants numbered over 1,000 in the United States, serving patrons under the familiar weather vane and orange roof. However, the company was sold to Marriott in 1985, and the hotel chain of the same name still exists. In 2022, the last HoJo's restaurant left, in the upstate resort village of Lake George, N.Y., shut its doors for good.

Sports Authority

In 2003, sporting goods retailer Sports Authority had more than 200 stores across 33 states, but competition from online stores and other retailers drove the company into bankruptcy in 2016. The chain closed all its stores, and its online presence was sold to rival Dick's Sporting Goods. This photo is from June 17, 2016 in Denver, Colo.

Herman's World of Sporting Goods

Herman's World of Sporting Goods was a sporting-goods retailer that in 1993 had 259 locations in 40 states, about half of them along the East Coast. However, the company entered bankruptcy that year, closing stores outside the New York metro area first. Eventually all of its stores were shuttered by 1996. This photo from 1996 was taken in the Sunrise Mall in Massapequa.

Circuit City

Electronics retailer Circuit City had 567 stores in 2008, when it declared bankruptcy and eventually began closing locations. What was once the nation's second-largest retailer eventually closed its last brick-and-mortar stores in 2009.

The Wiz

The electronics and music retailer famous for its "Nobody Beats the Wiz!" commercials had 94 locations in New York and around the rest of the Northeast in 1998. However, its market changed with the move to digital for music and electronics, and it was closed for good in 2003.

Tower Records

In many major U.S. cities, one of the largest stores with records, tapes and compact discs as well as music magazines was Tower Records, which expanded to about 90 stores nationwide in the late 1990s. However, the move to digital music spelled the end for the superstore in the United States. It closed in 2006 -- although some locations exist outside the country. This photo is from 2006 in San Francisco.

Ames Department Store

Discount store Ames at one point had more than 700 stores in 20 states, but the chain was eventually forced into bankruptcy twice due to debt and slowing sales. The last 327 stores closed in 2002.

Chi-Chi's

Chi-Chi's was a Mexican restaurant chain that was founded in 1975 and expanded to 210 locations by 1995. However, the chain filed for bankruptcy several times, and eventually was purchased in 2004 by Outback Steakhouse. The remaining 65 U.S. locations were closed. The name does live on in supermarkets as Chi-Chi's Mexican products sold by Hormel Foods Corp., as well as locations overseas.

Steak and Ale

Steak and Ale was founded in 1966, and by the 1980s, the dinner house chain had grown to 280 locations. By 2008, the chain was in bankruptcy and the remaining 58 locations were closed for good. The chain does plan to relaunch its brand in 2017.

Crown Books

Crown Books was was founded in 1977, and by 1993 was the third-largest book-selling chain in the country, with 193 stores, trailing only Barnes & Noble and Borders. However, a family feud among the chain's founders took its toll on the business. The last of the chain's stores closed in 2001. This photo is from 2008 in Greenbrae, Calif.

Borders

The bookseller Borders was founded in Michigan in 1971 and had grown to 511 locations by 2010. However, a changing market for books nudged by electronic books cut into the company's bottom line, and the next year the company filed for bankruptcy and closed all of its U.S. stores. This photo is from 2011 in San Francisco.

B. Dalton Bookseller

B. Dalton Bookseller was founded in 1966, and had grown to 798 locations by 1986, when the chain was acquired by Barnes & Noble. The chain dwindled down over time, eventually closing all but two locations in 2010. The last stores -- in Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City and Union Station in Washington, D.C. -- closed in 2012 and 2013.

Filene's Basement

Filene's Basement started as an off-price store in Boston in 1908, in the basement of Filene's Department store. Eventually it expanded to 20 locations in eight states. However, the economic downturn of 2009 brought the chain's parent company into bankruptcy, and the last brick-and-mortar store closed in 2011. This photo from 2009 was taken in Manhattan.

Kenny Rogers Roasters

Country music star Kenny Rogers started a chicken restaurant chain called Kenny Rogers Roasters in 1991. It grew to 425 locations and had a prominent part in a Seinfeld episode. However, the company went into bankruptcy in 1998, and was purchased by Nathan's Famous, which pared the chain to 40 franchised restaurants in the United States by 2000. The last U.S. store in Ontario, Calif., closed in 2011. The chain still operates overseas, and Nathan's U.S. locations sell some Kenny Rogers Roasters items.

City Sports

Boston-based City Sports started in 1983, and eventually operated 27 stores in Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vermont and Washington, D.C. However, the sporting goods company went into bankruptcy in 2015, and closed all of its locations.

Mervyn's

Department store chain Mervyn's started in California in 1949, and by 2006, had 189 locations in 10 states, mostly in the West. By 2008, the company had declared bankruptcy and closed all locations by the end of that year. This photo is from 2008 in Hayward, Calif.

Warner Bros. Studio Store

Warner Bros. Studio Stores opened in 1991, selling Looney Tunes and other items from the series Bugs Bunny made famous. However, a decade later after the AOL Time Warner merger, the company couldn't find a buyer for the stores and closed down the U.S. locations. It still operates today in China. This photo is from 2001 in San Francisco.

CompUSA

CompUSA started out in Texas in 1984, and was a chain specializing in retail computer hardware and software. But by 2007, the marketplace had been dominated by superstores such as Best Buy, and the 126 stores were marked for closure, leaving 16 locations after a liquidation sale in 2008. These were closed by the end of 2012.

Crazy Eddie

Crazy Eddie was an electronics chain that started in Brooklyn in 1971, and became known for its over-the-top commercials which included variations of the phrase "his prices are insa-a-ane!" The chain grew to 43 locations in four states. However a federal investigation discovered the company routinely understated its income to avoid taxes and committed securities fraud after going public. The late owner, Eddie Antar, and his cousin Sam Antar served prison time. Two subsequent attempts to revive the brand in 1998 and 2009 failed. The photo is from 1998 in Wayne, N.J.

Virgin Megastore

Virgin Megastore, which began in London in 1971, opened its first U.S. location in Los Angeles in 1992, and grew to 23 locations across the country at its peak. However, due to sagging sales of records and compact discs, the last of its six U.S. stores closed in 2009. This photo is from 2009 in Los Angeles.

KB Toys

KB Toys began in Massachusetts in 1922, and at the peak of its reach, had 1,300 locations in all 50 states. However, the chain declared bankruptcy twice, and eventually closed all its stores in 2009, with rival Toys R Us buying the rights to its name. This photo from 2004 was taken in the Chicago suburb of Norridge, Ill.

FAO Schwarz

Once the nation's oldest toy store, FAO Schwarz began in 1862, with its iconic Fifth Avenue location in Manhattan being featured in films like "Big" and "Smurfs." The chain expanded to 40 locations across the United States by 2000, but it fell into bankruptcy and was bought by Toys R Us. By the end of 2015, all of the chain's U.S. locations -- including the flagship store -- were closed. This photo of the flagship store in Manhattan is from 2003. The brand was purchased by another group, and a new store under the name was opened at 30 Rockefeller Center in 2018, and others in Chicago, Bejing, London and Dublin followed in 2019, and Milan in 2021.

All-Star Cafe

In 1995, the All-Star Cafe launched in Times Square, and the chain, which had such athlete investors as Tiger Woods, Ken Griffey Jr., Wayne Gretzky, Joe Montana and Shaquille O'Neal, began popping up at tourist destinations across the country. However, the concept didn't last, and the last All-Star Cafe shut down in 2007 in Florida. This photo from 1997 is of golf star Tiger Woods at the Myrtle Beach, S.C. location.

Marshall Field's

The Chicago department store with its iconic clock opened its doors in 1862 and eventually expanded to locations across the country. However, the brand's name changed in 2005 when Federated Department Stores bought the chain and converted most of the stores to the company's more recognizable flagship brand, Macy's, where a customer can still find Field's famous Frango Mints. This photo from 2005 was taken of the original State Street store in Chicago.

Caldor

Discount department store Caldor started in Connecticut in 1951, and became a successful regional chain. However, in 1995, the chain declared bankruptcy, and four years later, announced it was shuttering all of the 145 Caldors. This photo from 2000 was taken in Melville.

Toys R Us

Toys R Us began as a store called Children's Bargain Town in Washington, D.C., then changed its name to Toys R Us in 1957. The company expanded and launched two related stores, Kids R Us and Babies R Us, and grew to over 700 stores in the United States, including a flagship store in Times Square that opened in 2001. However, pressure from e-commerce and retail giants such as Walmart and Target, the chain announced in 2018 it would close all stores in the U.S. While the chain operates in other countries, there is an effort to open stores under the Toys R Us name inside Macy's stores.

Stein Mart

Stein Mart began in 1908 when Sam Stein, a Russian immigrant, began a general merchandise store in Mississippi. The store expanded into a chain in 1978, and eventually grew to over 280 stores by 2020, including this store in Commack. However, the pandemic scuttled a planned buyout and store closures forced the chain to file for bankruptcy and close all its brick-and-mortar stores. The brand name does live on online, but it is not related to the former company.

Brookstone

Brookstone was founded in 1973 in New Hampshire, and eventually became a staple at shopping malls, with over 100 locations in the U.S., and allowing shoppers to play with its merchandise before purchasing. The company declared bankruptcy in 2014, then after a purchase by a Chinese conglomerate, it declared bankruptcy again in 2018, and closing its 101 stores located in shopping malls. It still has a presence online and at various airports around the country.

RadioShack

RadioShack began in 1921 in Boston by a pair of ham radio enthusiasts, and eventually grew to 7,300 stores selling electronics, parts and batteries and claimed that it had locations within three miles of 95 percent of Americans. However, the close concentration of stores and online competition became a problem, and a shift to concentrate on cellphones led to the chain declaring bankruptcy and eventually closing most of the chain's stores by 2017. The company has now rebranded mostly online, and has 400 franchised stores still using the name but independent from the original company.

Lord & Taylor

Lord & Taylor began in 1824 in New York, and developed into a high-end department store with as it became a destination store for expanding suburban shoppers, including opening its first branch store in Manhasset in the 1940s. The chain had 86 locations in 2003 after nationwide expansion, but eventually ran into problems that plagued other department stores and closed its flagship store in 2019, and then in 2021, the chain closed its remaining 38 locations, including the 80-year-old Manhasset location, pictured above. The brand has been revived as an online store.

Dressbarn

Dressbarn began in 1962 in Stamford, Conn., selling women's clothing and peaking at 775 stores in the mid-1990s. However, like many brick-and-mortar retailers, the chain began to struggle in the 2010s, and eventually closed its 650 stores in 2019. The brand name was revived as an online retail store.

Pier 1

Pier 1 Imports began in 1962 in California, and the home goods retailer had grown to over 1,000 stores across North America by the mid-2010s, including this one in Huntington Station. However, the chain had financial difficulties as 2020 began, announcing shuttering of stores and Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the closures which were accelerated by the pandemic, and the brick-and-mortar stores were closed by Halloween that year. The chain's name was transferred to an online retailer, where it does business today.

The Limited

The Limited began in 1963 in Upper Arlington, Ohio, and specializing in women's clothing. While the parent company helped acquire and develop such retail staples as Victoria's Secret, Bath and Body Works, the chain itself ran into financial problems, and closed all its 250 stores in 2017. The Limited clothing line does still exist, but online at its own store and at the department store Belk's site.

Payless ShoeSource

In 1956, the first Pay-Less store opened in Topeka, Kansas, and it quickly became popular allowing customers to select the shoes for themselves, and with limited staffing, the shoes were less expensive than other stores. The chain grew to over 700 stores by the end of the 1970s, and they became a staple in U.S. shopping malls. By 1991, there were nearly 3,300 Payless ShoeSource stores. However, internet shopping began to eat into the chain's business, and it closed all 2,100 of its U.S. stores in 2019 after filing for bankruptcy for the second time. The chain did relaunched its e-commerce site, and relaunched a much smaller chain of brick-and-mortar stores in 2020.

Gymboree

In 1976, Gymboree was launched as a play and music center, and a decade later, a chain of clothing stores was launched selling clothing for sizes newborn to 10. By 2017, the chain had grown to 1,300 stores, but began a series of closings with a Chapter 11 filing that year. Within two years and two more bankruptcies later, the clothing stores were all shuttered. The play centers were separated from the retail chain in 2016, and weren't impacted, and the other assets were acquired by The Children's Place and now Gymboree clothes are sold online by that parent company.

The Bon-Ton

The Bon-Ton store was founded in 1898, and department store chain that was largely in Pennsylvania expanded aggressively in the 1990s and 2000s by purchasing other local retail chains in New York State and Ohio, and then aggressively moving into the Midwest with other chain purchases. However, by the 2010s, like other department stores, The Bon-Ton started to run into financial issues, and filed for Chapter 7 in 2018, and deciding to shutter its 267 stores. The name was sold and liquidated, and now operates online.