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Bygone Retail Southern California

 

May Company
Lakewood, CA
Postcard courtesy Brent Higginson

May Company has been a Southern California institution for many years. More recently in its incarnation as Robinsons-May after a merger, the May name left the retail landscape for good in 2006. 01-07

 

 

Thrifty Drug (Removed)
Various Locations, CA
Photo by RoadsidePeek.com

A drugstore favorite and old standby in the Southern California area, Thrifty Drugstores was bought out by Rite-Aid last year. Thus, gone forever is the familiar white block lettering on a red background. At least Thrifty ice cream is still around.

 

 

Builders Emporium (Closed)
East Los Angeles, CA
Photo by RoadsidePeek.com

Back before the days of the huge hardware conglomerate (i.e. Home Depot, Orchards and the like), chain stores such as Builder's Emporium used to rule the nest. Alas, Builder's eventually got smooshed by its bigger rivals and has not been relegated to the land of hardware stores of yesteryear.

 

 

Woolworth (Closed)
Los Angeles, CA
Photo by RoadsidePeek.com

Another one of the general merchandise stores, Woolworth's used to be THE place to go when looking for stuff. Unfortunately, like Newberry's, Woolworth's could not survive the 90's for a variety and reasons and has now passed its name down the retail food chain.

 

 

 

 

Lucky Grocery (Demolished)
Pico Rivera, CA
Photo courtesy Sal Garcia

 

This Lucky Grocery store used to be a place to shop in Pico Rivera after eating a Tommy Burger next door. The store was demolished and is now an empty lot. 01-07

(Far left) The sign at the Lucky Grocery Store prior to being demolished

(Near left) A look at the former grocery store

 

 

Montgomery Ward (Demolished)
Pico Rivera, CA
Photo courtesy Sal Garcia

Here is the Pico Rivera location of Montgomery Ward, later known by Wards. This location is now home to Target.

Montgomery Ward used to be a household name for catalog and retail sales. According to Wikipedia, Wards was founded in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward as a catalog only business then branched into retail in 1926. After doing well in the 1980's, sales declined and the company filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in 1997. Despite emerging from bankruptcy in 1999, Montgomery Ward shut down all of its stores for good shortly after the 2000 holiday season. 01-07

 

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© Copyright 1998-2021 Syd Nagoshi. All rights reserved. No portion of this document may be reproduced, copied or revised without written permission of the author.