OT Businesses that you grew up with that no longer exist

[57reasons]

Well my broker is EF Hutton. When EF Hutton speaks, ....

[Lamda]

Godfather's Pizza - their buffet...

I miss downtown Bothell - walking to get candy in the early 80's...$1 or 2 got you a lot....then there was a shop that made fresh cinnamon roles.. another shop that had cats in there that I used to love visiting....

1cent gumball machines lol....

[Pharmabro]

The big ones are That Blue light Special from Kmart. Sears Robuck and Co., Blockbuster video.

And just to keep up with that Hydro Pay N Pak energy I’ll match you a Squire Shop.

I did say squire shop, remember buying my over priced jeans there

I didn’t read all the replies before I replied. But I had a Squire Shop in my local mall. I remember their branding, the red, the knight, over priced jeans the 80’s version of Buckle.

I grew up 1 block from a Kmart, it was in the same plaza as a Price Chopper but Kmart was an Icon.

Sears was a stand-up company. Their Craftsman brand was an Icon. Gramp’s 30-year old 3/4” wrench breaks = replaced. NO questions, NO problem.
Sears sold kit houses.

“In the year 2000” Conan O. K-Mart, and Sears were the top 2 retail outlets in the USA. Now they are both out of business in all intents and and purposes. I guess there was like a couple of K-Marts still operational of a few years ago.


Anyhow, nice thread for the memories.

[Pharmabro]

Yep, I had a subscription to the Seattle PI for a long time. That was my first venture into this type of forum. I had no idea what even happened, I somehow clicked on read comments or something and became a Seattle PI form commenter!

I'd say something that I sometimes miss is BlockBuster! LOL. I realize it's more convenient to stream, but for crying out loud, do any of these services have good movies, or is it all about getting into a new series?

Sometimes I want to go, and walk around the store looking for a movie I want, specifically when there were sections like New Releases. Now? You just get the movies that are new to that streaming service. I watched a movie last night and was like "no way that is Wynonna Rider!" It was, because the movie was over a decade old

My wife and I now spend 90 minutes looking for a movie to watch and then realize it's too late to start a movie! LOL

Crap Balls! Another Seattle PI transplant. I’d say I started there in the early 2000s. Maybe 2002, 3, 4 somewhere that orange.

What about you do you remember when you started up there?

[Michael K.]

Crap Balls! Another Seattle PI transplant. I’d say I started there in the early 2000s. Maybe 2002, 3, 4 somewhere that orange.

What about you do you remember when you started up there?

I am not 100%. It was either the year we lost to the Rams at home in the playoffs, when Matt H. missed Bobby in the endzone, or the year before. I remember that game vividly because, since Chad Brown and Anthony Simmons are made of paper mache? We had to start three MLBs at LB, and I'm pretty sure two of them were slow white dudes! LOL

The Super Bowl year, I made the paper. They took comments directly from the forum, I don't remember the first couple of times they took mine, but I remember the one from the victory over the Redskins, because a ton of people I know read it in the paper! It was something like "you guys can all thank me, I started out drinking Bud Select, and we turned it over. I switched to Corona Light and Alexander got hurt. So I moved on to IPAs and we dominated!" My buddy called me the next day to tell me his dad read my comment in the paper! So did my wife's uncle! LOL

I wondered if there were any others of us still around. There was some real good discussions on that forum. Do you remember Randy Renner? From Naches? The dude was one of the first guys to really pound the desk about it's not about the back it's the O Line. When we resigned SA and lost Hutch? He was beside himself. And he ended up right. He just stopped posting one day, and someone found and Obituary with that name of someone from Natches. The other guy I really remember, but he might have been from the Times site, was Jim Valvis. That guy HATED me. Actually left the forum over a back and forth with me. I don't even remember the topic, but he blew his top, flew off the handle, and bailed and never came back!

[Captain 97]

Shakey's Pizza, Alfies Pizza. Pizza and Pipes.

Alfy's Pizza still has a few locations in Snohomish county.

[auroraave]

Hickory "freakin" Farms! I think they're available only online now. Them smoked sausages and cheese samples on a toothpick.

Swenson's for sundaes.

Ferrills on Aurora Ave! We need to get AuroraAVE in on this. lol

Rax (those shakes!), Farrells (they had 'em down here in SoCal!), Sambos, does Herfy's still exist? Anyone remember when they had thier little 'happy meal' thing and you could get football helmets and stickers? Or was I microdosing back then, too? Frederick & Nelson? DT - this is for you... that dude that kept Meadowdale is absolutely shit beer and marlboros in the box... it shouldn't still exist, but I'll bet it does!

[D-train]

Ha! Day and Nite right by Beverly Elementary where I went for two years in 4th and 5th grade for some reason.....btw did you know my HS GF Cindy Kendrick? She went there as well. Here she is in 1985.

Screenshot 2026-02-18 070503.png (675.91 KiB) Viewed 19 times

[auroraave]

Ha! Day and Nite right by Beverly Elementary where I went for two years in 4th and 5th grade for some reason.....btw did you know my HS GF Cindy Kendrick? She went there as well. Here she is in 1985.

Screenshot 2026-02-18 070503.png

Ah, yes. Cindy. Bartles & Jaymes and Virginia Slims girl if I remember correctly.

[D-train]

Ha! Day and Nite right by Beverly Elementary where I went for two years in 4th and 5th grade for some reason.....btw did you know my HS GF Cindy Kendrick? She went there as well. Here she is in 1985.

Screenshot 2026-02-18 070503.png

Ah, yes. Cindy. Bartles & Jaymes and Virginia Slims girl if I remember correctly.

I actually invented Power Coolers back in the day. Vodka cocktails with Coolers as the mixer. The girls seemed to get so much friendlier after a few of those. ha