Former shops and restaurants in your area

Over the years, there have been countless shops and restaurants opened. However, as new ones open, old ones come and go. This is a place to reminisce and discuss about what these places were like when they were open.

I'll start with Wilko, which was a shop chain that sold homewares and household. It had over 400 stores across the UK. They had quite a wide variety of household items, stationary, sweets, and small furniture. My family used to shop there reasonably regularly for many years, since it was always a good place to buy stationary, paint, tools, or house decorations. Sadly, the chain went into administration last August, then the final remaining stores closed last week.

What are some defunct shops and restaurants that you used to visit

Toys R Us. There was one in a nearby town I have a lot of fond memories of. I went to that same Toys R Us for my 14th birthday, the 2008 Darkrai distribution, my 15th birthday, the 2009 Shaymin distribution, my 21st birthday, and some other, more random times. I think it shut down not long after I went there for my birthday in 2014. It was replaced by a different store. I often see the new store and feel bad that I can't go to Toys R Us anymore, since they had a lot of nice stuff.

There was also a local bakery/café I liked to go to some years ago, which shut down during Covid and never re-opened. Thankfully a different local café opened more locations near there, and I go there instead.

K-Mart also used to be a nice store, but it went downhill and then closed.

Also, there was a little bookstore near the K-Mart with amazing prices and rare items that closed in 2013. I still miss it. I used to buy cheap manga there. I even found Hamtaro coloring books there once.

I could probably make a billion posts about this subject but I'll do it one at a time. I'll start with FYE. Sure it was a bit pricey and music was becoming available online but I got a thrill as a teenager to actually buy records from a music store. I loved spending hours just seeing what albums were for sale.

In Chicago, we had a bunch of shops and restaurants from years gone by. If you want me to name them, feel free to ask.

The next one I have nostalgia for is Looney Birds. My area didn't get a Chuck E Cheese until after I was too old to really go to those kinds of things so all we had was Looney Birds which was similar. The game selection wasn't that great and the pizza was mid but I have a lot of nostalgia anyway because I spent a lot of time there with friends as a kid.