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象徴的な店舗が廃業
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00:00Businesses come and go, and over the years we've witnessed some pretty iconic brands fall into bankruptcy.
00:06It's the cycle of business, and the nature of our capitalistic society.
00:10But today we'll be taking a look back.
00:12Here are 15 iconic stores that are now out of business.
00:21First established as Lazarus Children's Furniture Store in 1948,
00:25but rebranded as Toys R Us in 1957, when toys were added to the offering,
00:30the company became one of the most synonymous brands worldwide for where you'd find the best toys for kids.
00:35In the pre-internet age, when you actually had to go to stores to find what you'd want,
00:39children were amazed by the wide variety of things on offer at Toys R Us,
00:43and along with its catchy adverts, the company became by far the market leader.
00:47At its peak, it had more than 800 stores across the United States and a further 800 around the rest of the world,
00:54and it was beginning to seem as if no one would be able to topple their market dominance.
00:58After a majorly successful 65 years, however, and the company's inability to establish an effective online presence,
01:05its market share began to diminish, and by 2017 was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
01:12The following year, virtually every Toys R Us store in the world was forced to close,
01:16leading to the loss of thousands of jobs, but all didn't seem to be lost.
01:21The company managed to emerge from bankruptcy in 2019 under the brand True Kids,
01:26but despite seeing somewhat of a resurgence with a restructured business model,
01:30these stores were unable to survive the effects of the COVID pandemic and were ultimately forced to close down in 2021.
01:42Founded in 1971 and based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Borders soon became one of the largest book retailers in the world.
01:49Known for providing a relaxing environment to peruse the books on offer before buying them,
01:54it seemed for a time at least that the company had found the magic formula to resist increasing competition
01:59that was coming from the online space, especially from competitors like Amazon.
02:03Operating stores under the Borders name and also specialty outlets called Walden Books,
02:09Borders reached its peak with 517 locations across the US,
02:13with a further few hundred across the world including in countries like the UK, Australia, and Singapore.
02:19By 2011, however, even an established bookseller like this wasn't able to survive in the modern world,
02:25and after 40 years in operation was forced to apply for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
02:30At first, the plan was to close down 226 of its US stores,
02:34but when the administrators were unable to find a buyer to the approval of the creditors,
02:38the remaining stores were also shuttered by the end of the year.
02:41The brand and assets were sold to Barnes & Noble in the US,
02:45and various other organizations in international territories,
02:48and were ultimately confined to the history aisle.
02:55The first Woolworth's store was opened in 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth in Utica, New York,
03:01where it was originally called Woolworth's Great Five-Cent Store.
03:05Promising bargain prices to customers, things appeared to be a success to begin with,
03:09but the business model was flawed, and this first store was forced to close.
03:14Not one to give up, though, Woolworth opened a new store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
03:18and with his and his brother's commercial noose, the company was turned into one of the world's largest chains,
03:23with thousands of stores across the world bearing the name.
03:26One of the reasons it became so successful was its ability to diversify in different markets,
03:31so the products you'd find on offer in the US would vary from state to state,
03:35and were very different from what you'd find in the UK or Germany, for example.
03:39As with all companies that see success to levels like this,
03:42there were soon countless competitors springing up to try to take a portion of the market for themselves,
03:46and this is when the Woolworth company began to struggle.
03:49This led to it eventually going out of business in 1997, with the loss of thousands of jobs,
03:54and the company rebranded itself to Foot Locker to focus on sporting goods.
03:58Some of the foreign outlets remained in operation for another decade or so,
04:02but with mounting competition, they too have now closed.
04:06If, however, you travel to Australia or South Africa, you still see outlets trading under the Woolworth's name,
04:12but amazingly, these have nothing to do with the original company.
04:15Instead, they named themselves after Woolworth because the brand hadn't yet been trademarked in those countries,
04:20and created wholly different businesses, with the Australian version being a type of supermarket,
04:25and the South African company being an upmarket department store.
04:3012. Warner Bros. Studio Store
04:33With the worldwide success of the Disney Store, it's no surprise that other entertainment companies looked on with envy,
04:40and wanted to have a chain of outlets of their own so they could use to leverage the properties they had created.
04:45So in 1991, Warner Bros. opened their first in the Beverly Center in Los Angeles.
04:50Offering merchandise based on Looney Tunes, DC Comics, and plenty more,
04:55the offering was further widened in 1996 when the parent company Time Warner merged with Turner Broadcasting,
05:01and gained access to the MGM library and Hanna-Barbera characters.
05:05For a while, the stores seemed to be a resounding success, and some even featured live entertainment,
05:10like a 4D experience where you could watch the first ever 3D produced movie.
05:15The merger, however, uncovered problems with the business models of the stores,
05:20and by the time it was completed in 2001, the new company was looking to offload them.
05:24Unable to find a buyer, the Warner Bros. Studio Stores went out of business, and closed virtually overnight.
05:30Despite a few independently owned locations in Australia remaining open for a few more years,
05:35this was the last the brand was seen on the high street.
05:38You can still visit a Warner Bros. Studio Store, though,
05:41because it's the name that's now given to the stores in their various theme parks around the world.
05:45And there's also been a resurgence in China, where there are now two,
05:49one of which can be found in the Special Administrative Region of Macau.
05:57These days, we're all used to buying technology online,
06:00and on occasion may go to a store to look at a product before buying it.
06:03But in the time before online shopping, there was a wide range of tech specialists,
06:07with Circuit City being the industry leader.
06:10The company was formed in 1949, when it was originally known as the Wards Company.
06:14But after a period of phenomenal growth and expansion, and floating on the stock market,
06:19it was renamed Circuit City Stores in 1984.
06:22What arguably set the company apart from the competition was the level of customer service.
06:27Most of the staff were factory trained, so knew exactly how to operate everything that they sold,
06:32and this became one of its biggest marketing devices.
06:35Despite making a long line of great decisions, though, the management made a few errors,
06:39such as passing up the opportunity to purchase Best Buy for $30 million in 1988,
06:44and deciding to refocus on smaller consumer electronics in 2000.
06:49Despite having sold nearly $1.6 billion worth of appliances the previous year.
06:54After experimenting with various other changes to the business
06:57to try to keep up with the developing competition online, and also from Best Buy,
07:01Circuit City was forced to start closing down stores in 2008.
07:05Over the following year, further stores were closed, many thousands of people lost their jobs,
07:10and the company was finally shuttered by March of 2009.
07:13In the aftermath, the assets of the company were bought by various parties,
07:17and you still see the Circuit City name being used in various guises,
07:20but this is certainly not the same iconic company that was the mainstay of the American high street for more than 60 years,
07:26and won't provide the same customer service the brand was known for.
07:34When it was first found that in 1985, the owners of Blockbuster Video
07:37couldn't have had any idea how large their empire was going to become,
07:41and similarly had no clue how quickly it would come crashing back down again.
07:46The first store opened in Dallas, Texas, as a video rental store
07:49to capitalize on the expense of buying videotapes for the new technology that allowed the home viewing.
07:54Working hand-in-hand with the major movie and TV studios,
07:58Blockbuster was instrumental in helping develop the market for movie rentals
08:02before they became available to purchase,
08:04and helped significantly increase the profits made by every movie that was released.
08:08Large-scale expansion in the 1990s saw Blockbuster become an internationally recognizable brand,
08:14with more than 9,000 stores all around the world, and around 85,000 employees.
08:19It would be the place to go for children of the 90s,
08:22where they'd have access to an incredible range of videos to watch,
08:25but there was a sense of arrogance breeding in the upper levels of management.
08:29Believing they were now too big to fail,
08:31the owners of Blockbuster passed over an opportunity to buy Netflix,
08:35which at the time was a mail-order rental service.
08:38Believing that the business model and online streaming would never supersede physical sales,
08:43they were soon proven catastrophically wrong.
08:46Without having developed and established their own online platform,
08:49revenue began to sharply drop in the late 2000s.
08:52The company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2010,
08:55and all the stores had been sold by the following year.
08:58While some worldwide franchises remained open,
09:01only one now remains in Bend, Oregon.
09:08First opened in 1895,
09:10Henry Bendel was an accessory store in New York City
09:13that sold a range of brand handbags, jewelry, fragrances, and other products.
09:18Originally working as a milliner,
09:20Bendel opened his first store in Greenwich,
09:22and within a few years had developed the brown and white striped boxes that the store was known for,
09:26and proved his eye for trends by being the first store to sell Chanel products in the United States.
09:31It was the first store to sell its own fragrance,
09:34to offer makeovers to customers in-store,
09:36and to host fashion shows.
09:38This ensured that Henry Bendel established the company at the center of New York's fashion scene.
09:43This continued long after his death with a series of smart hirings,
09:47and at its peak the company had 29 stores,
09:49including its flagship one at 712 Fifth Avenue.
09:52L Brands took over Henry Bendel in 1985
09:56to operate alongside the holding company's other brands like Victoria's Secret,
10:00and for a while it went from strength to strength.
10:03Facing tough market conditions, however,
10:05it was announced that Henry Bendel,
10:06one of the mainstays in the New York scene for more than a century,
10:09was to come to an end in 2018,
10:12and by early 2019 all the stores and its website were closed permanently.
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10:278. Hex
10:29Hex was a traditional family-run company for more than a century
10:33after first opening its doors in 1857.
10:36It was a department store,
10:37with the first location being in Baltimore, Maryland,
10:40and within 20 years it had taken over a number of sites in the city.
10:43The big change for the company was when it expanded to Washington, D.C. in 1896,
10:47and was the first place in the city to offer products from brands around the country.
10:52With such a range of things to buy,
10:53it soon established itself as one of the premier shopping locations,
10:56and this gave the company the launchpad to expand nationwide.
11:00Over the following decades, more and more Hex department stores would open,
11:04and by 1959 it had become such a presence
11:06that the family was given an offer they couldn't refuse,
11:09and sold their controlling interest to the May Department Stores Company.
11:13Under their direction, the brand continued to grow,
11:16and by 2005 had 81 stores across 19 different markets.
11:20When the parent company was itself purchased in 2005, however,
11:24the decision was made to remove Hex's name,
11:26and rebrand all of the stores as Macy's.
11:29While the company didn't technically go out of business,
11:32it's now sadly gone from the high streets forever.
11:39You probably have to be of a certain age to remember a time when taking a photograph
11:44meant using a dedicated device that would imprint an image onto film,
11:48which you would then have to take to a company to develop into a printed picture for you.
11:52For decades, this was a multi-billion dollar business.
11:55In the United States, Photomat was a widely recognized brand in the industry,
11:59not just because of the ease at which you could get your photos developed,
12:02but because of their iconic store designs.
12:05The company itself was founded in the early 1960s,
12:08and its first kiosk opened in Point Loma, California in 1965.
12:13Known for their gold-colored pyramid-shaped roofs with blue lettering,
12:17you could spot a Photomat from miles away,
12:19and that was the genius of the concept.
12:22They required very little floor space,
12:24so it was possible to drive up to them and be served from your car,
12:27and not only would they develop film for you,
12:29but would be able to sell you new rolls of either Kodak or Photomat film,
12:33along with various other photography supplies.
12:36By 1980, there were more than 4,000 Photomat kiosks around the U.S.,
12:40but their main selling point was outdated by the end of the decade.
12:44Having focused so much on overnight development,
12:46they didn't have enough space to install the one-hour technology
12:49that other companies began to offer.
12:51The advent of digital photography
12:53all but killed off the need for a place like Photomat altogether,
12:57and despite trying to enter other markets like videocassette rental,
13:00the company went out of business and its assets were sold off.
13:03You may, however, still see the iconic huts in some places to this day,
13:07because while they don't sell photography supplies,
13:09a number of them have been converted to become drive-thru coffee kiosks.
13:14Number 6. Sears
13:17Sears is undoubtedly one of the most well-known chains of department stores in U.S. history,
13:22and the fact that it's on this list
13:24proves no matter how established a company may seem to be,
13:27it only takes a few wrong moves to make yourself obsolete.
13:30The company was first established in 1892 in Chicago, Illinois,
13:35and because Richard Sears had previous experience selling things by mail order,
13:39this new company began selling watches and jewelry from catalogs.
13:42Over the following few years, several other investors joined the company,
13:46and the catalog had expanded to offer a range of new products,
13:49so much so that by 1984 it had 322 pages.
13:53By continuing to add things people couldn't find anywhere else,
13:56such as sewing machines, sporting equipment, and even automobiles,
14:00the company went from strength to strength,
14:02and became the country's first major retail initial public offering in history.
14:06Amazingly, the first Sears department store only opened in 1925,
14:11in response to other stores taking business away from the catalog side,
14:15and this proved to be a major success over the following decades.
14:18During the 1980s, for example, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States,
14:22but by 2018 had fallen to number 31 in the rankings.
14:26While this fall shows how far Sears had fallen behind the rest,
14:30the company was also facing huge structural issues that, in the end, were deemed too difficult to overcome.
14:36The company filed for Chapter 11 protection in October of 2018,
14:40despite managing to restructure the following year.
14:42It's now not even known how many are still in operation after the name was sold off in late 2019.
14:495. Discovery Channel Stores
14:52In the heyday of cable TV, a large number of channels were launched
14:56with the aim of attracting viewers' eyeballs to advertisements,
15:00but perhaps none has been as successful as the Discovery Channel.
15:04Starting as just one television station,
15:07Discovery has now expanded to become the third most available channel in the United States
15:11and accounts for a large number of other entertainment brands under its umbrella,
15:15such as the Food Network, TLC, the Travel Channel, and the Oprah Winfrey Network.
15:20It was perhaps inevitable, then, that the owners of Discovery decided to cash in with physical retail stores
15:26in the same way that Disney and, to a limited extent, Warner Brothers were able to.
15:30The brand was licensed to venues wishing to sell educational gifts,
15:34CDs and DVDs of the top shows, and education kits, with the first opening in 1995.
15:40Within a couple of years, there were 17 stores in the United States and one in the UK,
15:44and the company began building two multi-level-themed flagship stores in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.
15:50The project all fell apart soon after, though,
15:52when plummeting sales and an overall lack of consumer interest
15:56meant that the standalone stores were closed in 2007,
15:59and all that remains are some of the better-functioning ones in airports.
16:03Number 4. RadioShack
16:06Founded in 1921 in Boston by two brothers who wanted to give access to newly-developing radio technology to the masses,
16:14RadioShack would become a multinational firm with more than 500 stores throughout seven different countries.
16:19Named after the housing in which a radio's components are arranged,
16:23the company tried to keep on top of developing trends,
16:26and released its first catalog in 1939 to coincide with the emerging market of home music systems.
16:32They weren't able to gain the traction they needed, however,
16:34and very nearly went bankrupt before securing investments from Charles D. Tandy,
16:38who bought the company and its nine stores in the late 1960s for $300,000.
16:44Tandy refocused the company to target hobbyists,
16:47and instead of selling high-priced items, instead offered cheaper goods that could be modified.
16:52With a series of further acquisitions, the company continued to grow,
16:55and was in the perfect place to offer telephone handsets to customers
16:58following the breakup of the bell system in 1982,
17:01when people didn't have to rent them from their phone companies anymore.
17:05Despite remaining as the go-to place for affordable electronics,
17:08RadioShack, like many others, fell victim to online stores,
17:11and was forced to file for bankruptcy protection in 2015.
17:14The constituent parts of the company were sold off to other interests,
17:18and while you may see the name still being used,
17:20it's not the same companies you're familiar with at all.
17:27For almost a century, if you were looking to buy shoes in America,
17:31chances are you would have considered going to Kinney Shoes.
17:34The company was founded in 1894,
17:36and by 1930, there were as many as 362 stores across the country.
17:40During the 1950s and 60s, it was by far the largest family-owned shoe retailer across the U.S.,
17:46but this was all about to change when it was bought by F.W. Woolworth in 1963.
17:51At this point, it was merged with the company, but continued to operate dedicated show stores,
17:56and these continued until 1998,
17:58when it was finally announced that the 467 Kinney stores,
18:01along with 103 Footquarters stores, would be closed.
18:05It's not the end of the story for Kinney, though.
18:08Chances are you probably bought something from them recently.
18:11In 1974, a subdivision was created called Foot Locker,
18:14and this became the brand that Woolworth would also turn into,
18:17and remain one of the premier sports stores in the country.
18:212. Tower Records
18:24The story of Tower Records is another lesson into how important it is for companies to move with the times,
18:30because what was once one of the country's largest music retailers is now completely defunct.
18:35Launched in Sacramento, California in 1960, it had proved to be a major success,
18:40thanks in part to the clever branding and the affordable music selection on offer.
18:45Within seven years, further outlets had opened, and the company had expanded into San Francisco.
18:50What followed was an unbelievable period of growth,
18:53which, by the end of the 1970s, had seen Tower Records stores opening in Japan, the UK, Canada,
18:59South Korea, Malaysia, and many more countries, as well as in cities across the rest of the U.S.
19:04Despite being one of the first music retailers to launch a website in 1995, however,
19:09Tower Records was unable to replicate its high street success,
19:12which, along with the controversy after being found guilty of price-fixing,
19:16proved to be the death knell of the company that was shut down in 2006.
19:211. A&P
19:24The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, or A&P, was founded in 1859,
19:29and by 1915 had become not only the largest grocery chain in the country,
19:33but the outright largest retailer of any type.
19:36This was a record the company held until 1965,
19:39and during its peak in the 1940s, accounted for 10% of the entire U.S. grocery spending.
19:44At that time, A&P had more than 15,700 stores across the United States,
19:50and was beginning to seem like they were unstoppable.
19:53As often happens, however, this simply forced competitors to up their game,
19:57and by the time A&P was losing market share, it was too late to do anything about it.
20:01Facing competition from all angles, with larger supermarket stores and more modern amenities being offered by others,
20:07A&P's stores felt extremely dated by the 1970s.
20:11Despite a series of cost-cutting measures and attempts to change their strategy,
20:15the company was simply too large to turn around, and this became its downfall.
20:19By 2015, it was forced to apply for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection,
20:23and by the end of that year, all of its stores and supermarkets had closed.
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