Tag Archives: retail

Old School

Neiman-Marcus Christmas Book 1974


This catalog cover is more stunning than it has any right to be — the Neiman-Marcus Christmas Book 1974

Oh, the Trumanity!

Some business trade writers are objective and let the readers form their own opinions from the provided information, and then there was Truman A. De Weese.

Excerpted from an article in System – The Magazine of Business, July 1907.

Continue reading

The shirts off our backs.

July 22, 2018 — The Final Days of Herberger’s (Bon-Ton) in Bismarck, North Dakota

A Music Memory

I remember the music section of Osco Drug in Kirkwood Mall back when I was a kid. All the audio cassettes were in a sealed wall on one side of an aisle, and the wall of cassettes were covered by a giant plexiglass cover with a bunch of round holes in it. Additionally, each cassette was in an extra security case. You could look through the plexiglass/holes and look at all the cassette spines for a cassette you wanted, then reach in through one of the holes and pull it out of the wall. The holes were big enough for your hand to go in, but not big enough to pull your hand out along with the cassette in its security case. So what you had to do was drop the cassette to the bottom (often cracking the cover), where there was a narrow conveyor belt between the wall and plexiglass. Then you had to get an employee to come over and activate the conveyor belt to move the cassette to the side where the employee could access it, remove the security case and then sell the cassette to you.

Some people get nostalgic for the past, but that was pretty effed up.

Make Asbestos Great Again

The late-1940s Marshall-Wells Company had you covered for all your asbestos needs.

Continue reading

Dungasaurus

It’s more properly called coprolite, but somebody at the antique store understands the target audience.

The end of Sears nears.

Sears, Gateway Mall, Bismarck, North Dakota

Beauty is in the eye of the beh… AHHHHHHH!

I saw this floor display for Mission Athletic Care in our local Lowe’s Home Improvement store and I can’t decide if this assembled quirk is a design fail or design win.

Eye caramba!

Eye caramba!

Let’s call it a fawin.

Sometimes my contact lenses feel like this.

Sometimes my contact lenses feel like this.