Some of John’s Favorite Chains Are Gone
I saw a post about someone talking about some famous chains that we loved as kids that are now gone. Most are restaurants, but there one I thought of especially because I used to work there. Come down memory lane with me.
- 1
Red Owl
Red Owl stores were started in Hopkins, Minnesota, in 1922. They were purchased by Gamble-Skogmo in the '60s. Gamble-Skogmo was purchased by Wickes Corporation in the '80s. Super-Valu ended up with all the rights to the brand and phased it out. There are only a few stores remaining out of, at one time, more than 400 in in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and North and South Dakota.
- 2
Howard Johnson's
You can never forget those odd shaped and colored roofs. There were more than 1,000 at one time. Twenty-eight flavors of ice cream. The kids menu based on nursery rhymes.
- 3
Sambo's
When Sam Battistone and Newell F. Bohnett decided to open a restaurant and name it after themselves, they ignored the fact that the combination also alluded to a racially insensitive epithet and picture book character. The chain that was once over 1,100 restaurants in the early '80s had to file for bankruptcy and closed.
- 4
Chi-Chi's
Chi-Chi's helped bring Tex-Mex cuisine to the heart of the United States in the '70s and '80s. But declining sales and the largest hepatitis A outbreak in U.S. history forced Chi-Chi's to shut its doors in 2004. But you can still buy the salsa at your local grocery store.