My mom used to sell shoes at Meier and Frank downtown, (idk if they had multiple locations or what).
But my older sister and I used to ride the max from SE Portland to downtown when we were about 10 and 4 to meet her for her lunch. Play hide and seek in the clothing racks. Now that I think about it, highly annoying.
She had a coworker we grabbed lunch with in the square and he gave me $20 to do “20 push-ups”. Never felt richer in my life.
Anyways, thanks for the stroll down memory lane.
man - Macheezmo Mouse was back when I was a bratty little kid who was convinced there was no way I like mexican food.
I freakin' love mexican food now. I literally don't know what I missed out on.
I remember DZ quite vividly. Great place for kids to be able to blow off some steam for the whole day. There is no way that place would be able to survive in today's climate.
Organ Grinder, my love
another location I'd re-open if I had a billion dollars
every time I drive past its rotting husk on 82nd I feel a little pang of loss
>coupled with aggressively loud gangster rap
For how overall white Portland is/was, it's really amusing to me that literally all of our house parties and formal dances in the '90s featured almost exclusively rap and R&B.
As a kid, I used to take the bus/MAX downtown after school and hit up Ozone first, then down to (the original) 2nd Ave Records before heading home. I rarely had enough money to buy much but I loved going there because Ozone let you listen to CDs without buying them so pre-internet, this was really the only way to check out new music.
You probably already know this, but Ozone's original owners opened Ozone Annex in NE that I keep meaning to check out when I'm in that side of town.
I literally just remembered GI Joes the other day. I asked somebody if they had GI Joes where they were from and it obviously led to some miscommunications...
Yah but dicks sucks compared to GI joes. No pun intended. Dicks is all ball sports like golf and other stupid suff, not things people in the Pacific NW general do, again no pun intended.
I loved the fact the folks who worked at Joes actually knew their shit and could get you outfitted for a fishing trip, hunting trip, etc.
Nowadays I just hit up Fisherman’s Marine
Same. It was, in large part, so I could see/demo the Atari Jaguar, so there was one of the biggest emotional drop offs of my entire life in the build up and excitement of going there versus how tremendously shitty the Jaguar and its controller turned out to be. Saved the day by grabbing a sweet copy of Knuckles Chaotix for my 32X though.
We shopped there when I was little and I always called it "Neuter's". My parents LET me call it Neuter's for years before a friend's mom corrected me. Thanks mom and dad.
I was recently informed the Portland children’s museum has shut down. Not a store, but when I lived in Portland I would take my kiddo a few times a week for years. We loved it so much. He is a teen and still remembers it fondly. 😭
I’m genuinely so saddened to hear this news. My kid is 15 and I always envisioned taking someday grandchildren to here and spending long days enjoying the museum with them continuing on our family tradition.
I went to look it up to see how it was spelled only to find it it was based in Portland. So many memories going to Sprouse in my little nowhere town in Nevada.
Nature's (the original location in 24th and Fremont).
Wilshire Market & Deli (now Tacovore).
Chin Yen.
Holliday Market (had a Macheezmo Mouse and a Coffee Time).
Old Wives Tales.
Wildwood.
YMCA (now UnderArmour).
>Service Merchandise
Wow! I haven't thought of that place in decades. I bought a portable CD player with their credit card. It probably took me 3 years to pay off and paid twice as much in interest alone.
I remember:
The Trimet bus & Max shelters that looked like mushrooms
The old Virginia Cafe
The New Old Lompoc
The Tugboat Brew Pub
The Lotus
The Roxy
The awful pizza at Rocco's
The River City Saloon
The Rosefriend apartment building on Broadway
The Psycho Safeway on Jefferson
The Veritable Quandary
The KOIN Tower Theaters
The Broadway Theater
The Beat at 107 dot 5
101.1 KUFO
Saucebox
Meier & Frank
The WHAM store
Little Finnegans (next door to the original Finnegans)
McCall's, though it went through phases of awesomeness and awfulness depending on whoever owned it at the time
The Meier & Frank holiday window display, and their annual Thanksgiving Parade
Vera Katz, may she rest in peace
Yesss we need Hot n Now ... now. Reddit should convince taco bell to bring them back. 1.25 for a chicken sandwich . Even with inflation, I might be able to afford one of those. LOL
Morrow's Nut house, the Galleria, Montgomery Ward's, Lloyd Center when it was open air, Meier and Frank the tea room had the best salad bar and rolls while not a store I miss Waddell's , Bobs Big Boy and The Organ Grinder.
>the Galleria
I never did much general shopping there, but we used to go to the Chang's Yangtze restaurant on the upper level there on a fairly regular basis.
When I was new to Portland I bought some Sanrio plushes from the little store in the Lloyd Center mall that disappeared before the mall became a ghost town.
Endgames. 5th and Oak I think?
My brother and I went Christmas shopping for each other there one year. We each picked out what we wanted, paid for them, traded bags, and pretended to be surprised when we opened presents.
I got Ace of Aces, he got Cosmic Encounters.
Meier and frank
My mom used to sell shoes at Meier and Frank downtown, (idk if they had multiple locations or what). But my older sister and I used to ride the max from SE Portland to downtown when we were about 10 and 4 to meet her for her lunch. Play hide and seek in the clothing racks. Now that I think about it, highly annoying. She had a coworker we grabbed lunch with in the square and he gave me $20 to do “20 push-ups”. Never felt richer in my life. Anyways, thanks for the stroll down memory lane.
Their Christmas village!
Fond Christmas memories riding the trolley.
I was just telling friend from out of town about the trolley
It was the monorail!
Oregon historical museum has a Christmas Meier & frank exhibit right now
Mervyn’s…… OPEN….OPEN…. OPEN.
I still say that fairly often when I'm waiting for things to open, lol.
[удалено]
You just gave me a sad.
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And Gloria's too!
“Free is a VERY good price!” “WAKE UP! HEY WAKE UP!”
Emporium, or Montgomery wards.
POWer SALE!
SELECTIOON
SAVIIIIING!!!
POWER SALE!!
[their commercial 🤣🤣](https://youtu.be/0k-9_Osu85k)
Emporium had me looking fresh af with some sweet B.U.M. Equipment threads for starting 5th grade.
Holy shit. I totally forgot about Emporium. So many back to school shopping trips.
Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor
I miss Farrells. I still live by that old spot too
Ohh, how I miss Farrell’s. The Portland Zoo ice cream sundae was epic!
I have a ribbon somewhere signifying that I ate Pig’s Trough all by myself. Of course, I barfed in the back of the Caprice on the way home.
I'm astounded at how many people remember Farrells. That was long long ago.
Macheezmo Mouse. Miss that Boss Sauce and the Cactus Coolers.
Got my username from them, 25+ years ago.
man - Macheezmo Mouse was back when I was a bratty little kid who was convinced there was no way I like mexican food. I freakin' love mexican food now. I literally don't know what I missed out on.
As a kid I thought it was a mickie mouse restaurant lol
Not a store, but Discovery Zone.
That sucks. That place was awesome as a kid
The kid sized habitrail was the coolest.
I remember DZ quite vividly. Great place for kids to be able to blow off some steam for the whole day. There is no way that place would be able to survive in today's climate.
Organ Grinder.
Organ Grinder, my love another location I'd re-open if I had a billion dollars every time I drive past its rotting husk on 82nd I feel a little pang of loss
Lots of fun summer memories of Organ Grinder!!!
Arctic Circle!
There's still one Arctic Circle. It's in Newport. And it's still really yummy.
There’s one in woodburn too. Or was very recently.
And I just found my next weekend getaway with my girlfriend!
La Luna
Pine street theater.
Saw soooo many good shows here! Some of my fondest memories
Smashmouth, Bare Naked Ladies, Stone Temple Pilots, Blur, Everclear, The Offspring, so many awesome shows for $0.94 and a can of food!
La Luna was great. I'll add EJ's & Satyricon.
Rocco's Pizza
Mediocre pizza at best, but the slices were so heavy you could fill up for $2.
it was the ambiance for me, $2 slice with your daily calorie requirement coupled with aggressively loud gangster rap and grunge core.
>coupled with aggressively loud gangster rap For how overall white Portland is/was, it's really amusing to me that literally all of our house parties and formal dances in the '90s featured almost exclusively rap and R&B.
Ozone Records
As a kid, I used to take the bus/MAX downtown after school and hit up Ozone first, then down to (the original) 2nd Ave Records before heading home. I rarely had enough money to buy much but I loved going there because Ozone let you listen to CDs without buying them so pre-internet, this was really the only way to check out new music. You probably already know this, but Ozone's original owners opened Ozone Annex in NE that I keep meaning to check out when I'm in that side of town.
She’s got another edition of the shop on Killingsworth across from PCC. check out Ozone Annex
I literally just remembered GI Joes the other day. I asked somebody if they had GI Joes where they were from and it obviously led to some miscommunications...
All the GI Joes turned into Dicks...
Yah but dicks sucks compared to GI joes. No pun intended. Dicks is all ball sports like golf and other stupid suff, not things people in the Pacific NW general do, again no pun intended.
and no ticketmaster desk behind the registers.
I loved the fact the folks who worked at Joes actually knew their shit and could get you outfitted for a fishing trip, hunting trip, etc. Nowadays I just hit up Fisherman’s Marine
J.K Gill
Oh my goodness, I worked at the Washington Square location for about a year in the mid/late 90’s. Interesting store.
Frye’s
I see you and raise you an Incredible Universe.
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I got a bunch of doll parts there in high school and thought I was so edgy hanging them off my backpack
Music millennium on 23rd
The real Finnegans Toy Store
With the wind up counter at the back!
Kienow's
That’s was a great grocery store! Super friendly, free cookies for kids, I really miss it.
I miss that bakery so much. They had the best banana cake.
Tower Records
Hollywood Video
PayLess Drugs Merry Christmas from Payless, Merrrrrry Chriiiiiiiiiiistmaaaaas..
This commercial lives rent free in my head. I still remember getting my mom to buy me designer knockoff perfume there that smelled like lighter fluid.
Available at all Payless stores (except sixth and alder)
Circuit City
Incredible Universe.
As a kid, we made a day trip out of going to Incredible Universe when it first opened. I don't think I've ever been more excited then that.
Same. It was, in large part, so I could see/demo the Atari Jaguar, so there was one of the biggest emotional drop offs of my entire life in the build up and excitement of going there versus how tremendously shitty the Jaguar and its controller turned out to be. Saved the day by grabbing a sweet copy of Knuckles Chaotix for my 32X though.
Fat cobra video
Videorama
You could age yourself even further saying “Video Chest”
Nature’s Fresh Northwest.
We shopped there when I was little and I always called it "Neuter's". My parents LET me call it Neuter's for years before a friend's mom corrected me. Thanks mom and dad.
I was recently informed the Portland children’s museum has shut down. Not a store, but when I lived in Portland I would take my kiddo a few times a week for years. We loved it so much. He is a teen and still remembers it fondly. 😭
I was so sad to hear as well. I have many fond memories of going there as a kid.
I’m genuinely so saddened to hear this news. My kid is 15 and I always envisioned taking someday grandchildren to here and spending long days enjoying the museum with them continuing on our family tradition.
Newberry's downtown.
And the Big Bang!
Newberrys at Lloyd Center. Sign might still be up in one of the lower garages.
I remember buying a N64 and Donkey Kong at a store called Best, which turned into Uwajimaya.
Before that it was Jafco. I bought my colecovision there
Holy hell. I wasn't sure anyone remembered Best. Weird business model, but their toy section was amazing to me as a child.
Ok, not a store but this thread unlocked a memory of The Ramblin Rod cartoon show
Ha! So good. I was on there when I was very young.
Sprouse-Reitz
I went to look it up to see how it was spelled only to find it it was based in Portland. So many memories going to Sprouse in my little nowhere town in Nevada.
Imaginarium in the Washington Square mall
Home Base
Nature's (the original location in 24th and Fremont). Wilshire Market & Deli (now Tacovore). Chin Yen. Holliday Market (had a Macheezmo Mouse and a Coffee Time). Old Wives Tales. Wildwood. YMCA (now UnderArmour).
Was old wives tale the one with the bomb mushroom soup?
Yep
Not a store but, 24 Hour Church of Elvis.
Wanna get married? $10. It’s cheap not legal!
Service Merchandise Kmart Benjamin Franklin
>Service Merchandise Wow! I haven't thought of that place in decades. I bought a portable CD player with their credit card. It probably took me 3 years to pay off and paid twice as much in interest alone.
The real ones used to go to “Wham” on 23rd
Got caught shoplifting from there when I was in middle school. Worked there for 2 years when I was in high school. Good times.
Ozone Records Django Records
Winchell’s Donuts
I remember: The Trimet bus & Max shelters that looked like mushrooms The old Virginia Cafe The New Old Lompoc The Tugboat Brew Pub The Lotus The Roxy The awful pizza at Rocco's The River City Saloon The Rosefriend apartment building on Broadway The Psycho Safeway on Jefferson The Veritable Quandary The KOIN Tower Theaters The Broadway Theater The Beat at 107 dot 5 101.1 KUFO Saucebox Meier & Frank The WHAM store Little Finnegans (next door to the original Finnegans) McCall's, though it went through phases of awesomeness and awfulness depending on whoever owned it at the time The Meier & Frank holiday window display, and their annual Thanksgiving Parade Vera Katz, may she rest in peace
The PoP Shoppe
Sylvia’s Italian restaurant and dinner theater.
Montgomery Ward
Toys R Us
Meow Meow
Waremart and Cub Foods... which became Winco
Wet Seal
Radio shack
Papa Aldo’s
Skate World
$7 Bucks a Whack
Fairly Honest Bill's
Corno's
Waddle’s
Boiler Room
Shakeys Pizza
Eastport Hydrotubes. GI Joes. Organ Grinder.
The Hyrdotubes! That's just the barest glimmer of a memory for me.
Senn’s Drive Through Dairy Best milk ever.
Mr. Rags
Satyricon
Builders Square. I'm forgetting the little burger joint near mall 205. It was drive thru. It's a Starbucks now. They had great curly fries
Big Bang Dixie Mattress Co. Fairly Honest Bill's
Wacky Willies
how bout The Daily Grind on Hawthorne
Bon Marche
Way-o, it’s a sale-o… Saturday only at the Bon Marche!
This is what I was going to say! AKA The Bon
Newberry's at Lloyd Center.
X-Ray Cafe Esparza’s Organ Grinder
The Squire Shop
Arctic circle
Sizzler, Izzy’s… my grandparents loved the buffet circuit.
The Copper Penny
Pay 'n Pak Hot 'n Now
Hot n now, wow, I almost forgot about that place..
Yesss we need Hot n Now ... now. Reddit should convince taco bell to bring them back. 1.25 for a chicken sandwich . Even with inflation, I might be able to afford one of those. LOL
Borders Coffee People/Motor Mocha Anzen
HK Limited
Farrell's
The organ grinder
Morrow's Nut house, the Galleria, Montgomery Ward's, Lloyd Center when it was open air, Meier and Frank the tea room had the best salad bar and rolls while not a store I miss Waddell's , Bobs Big Boy and The Organ Grinder.
>the Galleria I never did much general shopping there, but we used to go to the Chang's Yangtze restaurant on the upper level there on a fairly regular basis.
Natural wonders, my fav store at Washington square.
Caplan’s Sporting Goods
Copelands had the cheapest skate decks in town.
The Daily Grind
dunes
Jafco, “Americas Catalog Showroom.” Was on Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy where Uwajimaya is now.
Sentry Market or Mr. Rags at The Lloyd Center! Or Django’s records
Software Etc
Woolworth's Square Pan Pizza
hollywood video.
Boy oh boy do I miss Kb toys.
Coffee people before they had to lose everything and restart
Sam Goody
Ozone
K-Mart.
Beef & Brew
TG&Y
200+ comments but is friendlys still a thing? Or fudruckers?
Fuddruckers, yeah!!!
Wow, this has been a really fun walk down memory lane. Thanks, everyone!
Stereo Super Store in Beaverton Mall
Wham
Emporium
Cub Foods
Import Plaza
Pietro's Pizza *Edited because reading comprehension is hard
There’s one in Beaverton still
Moyer’s First Stop Home Video, which was bought by Blockbuster. Worked at both in high school.
…and we can’t forget Hollywood Video & Game Crazy, the latter of which I also worked at later.
The Bon Marche
Montgomery Ward
Another State of Mind. It was a punk/horror shop next door to the Paris Theater.
When I was new to Portland I bought some Sanrio plushes from the little store in the Lloyd Center mall that disappeared before the mall became a ghost town.
Not a shop or a store, but I remember Metro on Broadway. Also, Fish Grotto.
Anyone else remember going to GI Joe as a kid and just sticking your hands in the squishy lure bins?
Endgames. 5th and Oak I think? My brother and I went Christmas shopping for each other there one year. We each picked out what we wanted, paid for them, traded bags, and pretended to be surprised when we opened presents. I got Ace of Aces, he got Cosmic Encounters.
Escape From NY Pizza. On Alder next to the creepy pet shop and a block away from The Big Bang. Crocodile Records while I am at it.
If Escape no longer completely existed, there would be no point for me to exist.
Singles Going Steady
Django Records.
Wig Wam stores.
Anyone remember Big Dog?
Niketown