Sources of info for old locations?

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Pete

Sources of info for old locations?

Post by Pete »

Has anyone hit upon any good avenues for finding lists of locations of defunct retail chains? The Wayback Machine (http://www.archive.org/web/web.php) is one avenue for companies that have been around since the dawn of the web, but there are slightly older ones I'd like to get info on.
parkave231

Post by parkave231 »

I always love to go to the library and look through the old phone books. Most library systems I've been to have a "historical" room of sorts, usually at the main branch. I haven't been to the one here in Charlotte yet, but when I was in Greenville I went often and perused the phone books there.

In addition, I know that I've seen before books which listed locations of shopping malls in all of the states -- maybe some sort of trade publication? They were old, and it was at my college's library, but perhaps there's a related publication for specific types of stores.

Matt
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Dave
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Post by Dave »

After some searching, I found where I'd stashed a selection of old Richmond telephone books I have dating from 1940 to 1956. Guess what? No listings in either the white or yellow pages for any of the chain stores (except for their local district offices and distribution centers) - not A&P, Colonial/Pender, or Sanitary/Safeway.

The city directory (Polk's or Hill's) is the way to go. I have a 1941 Richmond directory that's helpful. However, the Richmond city directories are just that - CITY directories - and their listings stop at the Richmond city limits. That's not a problem unless you are researching in a place like Virginia, in which the cities aren't in counties and the directory listings stop right in the middle of a highly developed commercial corridor because that's where the line is. There are suburban directories, however, I don't have any. Off to the library for me.

On another note, if you are interested in taking pictures of buildings before they are changed or torn down, don't forget to look at the surplus property listings that are available on a company's website via the web.
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tesg
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Post by tesg »

This, by the way, is all the better reason to save location directories for current chains as well. It'll help you, and others, years from now when you're looking back at today.

Which reminds me...I'm due to find an updated copy of that spreadsheet Safeway maintains of their stores...
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Dave
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Post by Dave »

I've got a couple of tips for using city directories that may be helpful.

Typically, a city directory is laid out in sections by name (of business or person), by street address, and with a classified section (by business type), plus by telephone number in later directories. The classified section is similar to the Yellow Pages except that not all of the business classifications are paid advertising entries; in the Hill directories I'm using, grocery stores are supposed to be included in the classified section from their canvass results.

Guess what? They miss locations sometimes, so you need to check the name section, not just the classified section.

They also have an annoying habit of deciding that a corner address will be on one street one year and the cross street the next.

This may be old hat to you all, but if it saves you one-tenth of the aggravation I've suffered, it's worth it.

On another note, I've discovered a possibility as to why the telephone directories are not too good in finding out about old locations. I happened to notice in a 1970's vintage directory that a lot of grocery stores and convenience stores had their telephone numbers grouped together (in Richmond, with the numbers beginning with 9, like XXX-9XXX) and I remembered that the phone company used to group pay phones in the 9XXX area in most of the exchanges. My theory is that a lot of the older stores had pay telephones rather than regular phones - the reason they don't appear in the phone book.
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