Decade of OH OH
My heart pours out to the people who went through store closure, reorganization, downsizing and a few other schemes I won’t mention.
Left to right top to bottom each of these companies touched me in some way,
1.Denny Hecker, His companies grew so fast I often wondered how a person builds such a large empire in such short time, I know many have built large companies and even Rail Roads and left legacies of how our country was built. It was just so sad to see this company with so many employees and customers left in limbo.
2.Petters Aviation. Guilty of all charges, claimed he was not a flight risk, glad I took this picture when I did, the whole thing went so fast in federal court.
3. Linen and things. So sorry to see you go out of business, I shopped the Minnetonka store in their last days and it was truly sad to hear the employee’s talk about how they will miss each other and that they are looking for other work and some not so nice things about corporate.
4.Northwest, I can’t say I’m going to miss NW. I think it was a crime as to how the whole thing went down, Minnesota was really counting on them and the promises seemed to fall through more often than not. I was impressed with the Union and its members for standing so strong for so many years, through so many changes in government and economy.
5.KFC. This was just one store that closed due to geographic changes, still it looked rough for a long time behind South town mall.
6.Snyders. Franchise stores are still open and apparently doing very good, they closed a lot or all corporate owned stores. Snyder’s is the only Union operated pharmacy/Drugstore in the Twin Cities. In the 70’s & 80’s Snyder’s would have a MAXPSNYDER SALE M1,A2,X3,P4,S5,N6,Y7,D8,E9,R0,Those letters and numbers represented the cost, the item would be marked $3.99 and the letters MAE would be on top of the label so you would pay $1.29 for the sale.
7.Wickes, ouch they pulled out of Minnesota in 2007 closing seven store and a warehouse. In the 1980 they bought Red Owl and didn’t do very well with it, enough said.
8.Vogue furniture I drove by all the time always wanted to stop in it always looked so neat, now they are gone because I assume a lot of people did the same as I.
9.Steak and Ale. It must cost a lot to keep big Restaurants going several steak houses have opened and closed in Twin Cities over the past decade or two, they seem busy when they open and then it slowly slows down until they disappear, many of them I wish were still here and this is one of them
10.Roadway. Recently acquired by Yellow freight, I tried working here in the 80’s they went on Strike and I was not called back, they called it casual labor, very casual. It wasn’t a bad place to work as far as freight companies go. The equipment was old, but they had a lot of work.
11.EBC- Engineered Building Components, Hopkins, MN. This was a long established company in Hopkins they built roof trusses and rafters, I’m not sure why they closed, I’m sure it is due to the recession and no new homes being built.
12.Circuit City. Yes my extended warranties are still good, don’t know how to use them if I need them but they say they are still good!
13.World Market. The name says it all, I think they competed with Pier One and I like window shopping these stores, I have had trouble finding things to match my present décor, they had neat stuff so I wished it would have blended in.
14.Petters Direct Wow guilty on all counts. Fingerhut was in my neighborhood we thought Petters was a great deal when they took it over, and I wondered what they sell because I didn’t see any more catalogs.
15.Comp USA pulled out of many states downsized to a few stores, I liked the early years store format in the latter years it seemed like they were trying to be everything to everyone and not enough to anyone, they had great tech support early on also.
16.Bennigans. Good bye good friend.
17.BlockBuster, This is only one store closing, not sure why. I am impressed that this company has been able to combat incredible competition, keeping open brick and mortar with attractive store. Hurray for you BlockBuster rock on good friend.
18. Levitz. Gracie and I spent a lot of hours in these stores checking out the furniture, try before you buy was our motto.
19.Proex. Downsized in 2009, Still convenient, I do like shopping Proex, they seem fairly knowledgeable about most products.
20.Steve and Barry’s. Another store I heard a lot about and wanted to visit, they closed before I had the opportunity, I heard good things about the stores too.
Decade of OH OH
My heart pours out to the people who went through store closure, reorganization, downsizing and a few other schemes I won’t mention.
Left to right top to bottom each of these companies touched me in some way,
1.Denny Hecker, His companies grew so fast I often wondered how a person builds such a large empire in such short time, I know many have built large companies and even Rail Roads and left legacies of how our country was built. It was just so sad to see this company with so many employees and customers left in limbo.
2.Petters Aviation. Guilty of all charges, claimed he was not a flight risk, glad I took this picture when I did, the whole thing went so fast in federal court.
3. Linen and things. So sorry to see you go out of business, I shopped the Minnetonka store in their last days and it was truly sad to hear the employee’s talk about how they will miss each other and that they are looking for other work and some not so nice things about corporate.
4.Northwest, I can’t say I’m going to miss NW. I think it was a crime as to how the whole thing went down, Minnesota was really counting on them and the promises seemed to fall through more often than not. I was impressed with the Union and its members for standing so strong for so many years, through so many changes in government and economy.
5.KFC. This was just one store that closed due to geographic changes, still it looked rough for a long time behind South town mall.
6.Snyders. Franchise stores are still open and apparently doing very good, they closed a lot or all corporate owned stores. Snyder’s is the only Union operated pharmacy/Drugstore in the Twin Cities. In the 70’s & 80’s Snyder’s would have a MAXPSNYDER SALE M1,A2,X3,P4,S5,N6,Y7,D8,E9,R0,Those letters and numbers represented the cost, the item would be marked $3.99 and the letters MAE would be on top of the label so you would pay $1.29 for the sale.
7.Wickes, ouch they pulled out of Minnesota in 2007 closing seven store and a warehouse. In the 1980 they bought Red Owl and didn’t do very well with it, enough said.
8.Vogue furniture I drove by all the time always wanted to stop in it always looked so neat, now they are gone because I assume a lot of people did the same as I.
9.Steak and Ale. It must cost a lot to keep big Restaurants going several steak houses have opened and closed in Twin Cities over the past decade or two, they seem busy when they open and then it slowly slows down until they disappear, many of them I wish were still here and this is one of them
10.Roadway. Recently acquired by Yellow freight, I tried working here in the 80’s they went on Strike and I was not called back, they called it casual labor, very casual. It wasn’t a bad place to work as far as freight companies go. The equipment was old, but they had a lot of work.
11.EBC- Engineered Building Components, Hopkins, MN. This was a long established company in Hopkins they built roof trusses and rafters, I’m not sure why they closed, I’m sure it is due to the recession and no new homes being built.
12.Circuit City. Yes my extended warranties are still good, don’t know how to use them if I need them but they say they are still good!
13.World Market. The name says it all, I think they competed with Pier One and I like window shopping these stores, I have had trouble finding things to match my present décor, they had neat stuff so I wished it would have blended in.
14.Petters Direct Wow guilty on all counts. Fingerhut was in my neighborhood we thought Petters was a great deal when they took it over, and I wondered what they sell because I didn’t see any more catalogs.
15.Comp USA pulled out of many states downsized to a few stores, I liked the early years store format in the latter years it seemed like they were trying to be everything to everyone and not enough to anyone, they had great tech support early on also.
16.Bennigans. Good bye good friend.
17.BlockBuster, This is only one store closing, not sure why. I am impressed that this company has been able to combat incredible competition, keeping open brick and mortar with attractive store. Hurray for you BlockBuster rock on good friend.
18. Levitz. Gracie and I spent a lot of hours in these stores checking out the furniture, try before you buy was our motto.
19.Proex. Downsized in 2009, Still convenient, I do like shopping Proex, they seem fairly knowledgeable about most products.
20.Steve and Barry’s. Another store I heard a lot about and wanted to visit, they closed before I had the opportunity, I heard good things about the stores too.