Party City, Big Lots, Sam Goody (yes, Sam Goody): A look at 2024's gloomy retail finish
Plus, the sad closings at Frisch's Big Boy; last call at Subway Inn; salvation for Smith's Bar neon; KFC gets "Saucy" and more headlines from the road
The headlines have been doomy and gloomy in the retail world as we wind down 2024. In short order, we’re saying goodbye to all of Party City and a big chunk of Big Lots, which struck a deal to keep hundreds of stores open after announcing it was going down entirely. The Container Store declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy but intends to stick around and rebuild its business. One of the last two Sam Goody record stores, in St. Clairsville, Ohio, at the Ohio Valley Mall, is set to close in early 2025, leaving only one rogue store, in Medford, Oregon, appropriately enough at the Rogue Valley Mall.
The hardship extends to chain restaurants. The Wall Street Journal looked at what ails TGI Fridays, which is on the ropes in a once unimaginable way. (Things are so bad, the headquarters were vacated, and key documents are being stored in employees' homes, Heather Haddon reports in the WSJ.)
The slow-motion disaster afflicting the once venerable Frisch’s Big Boy restaurants in the Midwest has been brutal to watch. Dozens of restaurants have closed because they could not pay rent to the REIT that is now their landlord. This is a depressing, if somewhat predictable, outcome of the chain's sale from family ownership to private equity and then partially to a real estate investment trust.
The story hit an especially depressing note when the iconic Frisch’s Mainliner in Fairfax, Ohio, which doubled as the flagship and hosted an exhibit on the restaurant’s history, closed forever a few days before Christmas. The only good news out of the sad affair was that the American Sign Museum in the Camp Washington neighborhood of Cincinnati saved the sign, which featured a model of a Mainliner aircraft.
RELATED: SEE MY TOUR OF FRISCH’S MAINLINER IN HAPPIER TIMES.
Frisch's Mainliner: Farewell to the fabulous flagship of this Big Boy chain
When I visited Frisch’s Mainliner in Fairfax, Ohio, back in October 2022, I wasn’t the least bit concerned about its future. This location, and the overall Frisch’s Big Boy chain, seemed healthy, and the Mainliner was the pride of the fleet, where Dave Frisch in 1939 founded his own Mainliner restaurant — Cincinatti’s first year-round drive-in — and eventually allied it to the Big Boy franchise he secured from Bob Wian, the founder of Bob’s Big Boy. Frisch’s Big Boy expanded rapidly and became the biggest Big Boy operator, bigger than Bob’s itself.
Mom and pops have also experienced their share of tragedy in 2024. In New York City, the iconic Subway Inn shuttered on Saturday, Dec. 28. It is now in its third location in the past 10 years and possibly at the end of an 87-year history. Owner Steve Salinas told my colleague, ABC7’s Sonia Rincon, that they hope to resurface in Queens or Brooklyn—along with their sign—in the next few months. I’m certainly hopeful, because, as I’ve pointed out before, the Salinas family has an admirable determination to keep this institution alive.
Smith’s Bar in Times Square, a grand neon holdout in a neighborhood largely shorn of the magic tubing, unceremoniously closed this fall, and, as with Frisch’s Mainliner, a glimmer of goods news emerged when we learned Noble Signs, the Brooklyn-based sign shop revitalizing the art of New York signage, saved the neon and channel letters for their New York Sign Museum — you can help by donating to fund the restoration. (And stay tuned for a fresh post on Smith’s and Noble Signs’ rescue of its neon in the next few days! )
My pal, the author and historian Tom Rinaldi, captured much of this loss with his annual roundup of neon signs we’ve lost, and it’s not a pretty sight — but it’s an important read.
And that’s just a sample platter—an admittedly selective one—of the current state of affairs. I’ll monitor these and other sagas throughout 2025 as this relentless, complex shakeup of American retail continues.
Which retail losses hit you most in 2024? Comment as you see fit.
Retrologist Roadside Roundup
Congrats to Phoenix’s historic MacAlpine’s Diner, which has endured a difficult few years due to the death of its co-owner and the financial devastation of the pandemic. MacAlpine’s is now open seven days a week for the first time since before the pandemic!
At some point in the late 1990s, the Bat Symbol was plastered on a water tower in Taylor, Utah. The kid who did it never fessed up, and nobody would rat the teen out, though there were suspicions about one person. (All heroes do not wear capes!) Locals grew to love the Bat Symbol, and it’s been left alone for a generation. Now, it seems like it may vanish under the new logo for the local high school.
Pittsburgh’s Club Cafe is closing on Dec. 30. The historic club has been under its present ownership for 11 years.
Seattle’s Merchant Cafe, which dates to about 1890 in Pioneer Square and is billed as the city’s oldest bar, is reportedly set to close Dec. 31.
After decades of family operation, the Pahaska Tepee Gift Shop and Café on Lookout Mountain, Colorado, must close by Dec. 31. The Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave on the site will not be affected.
Chowhound revisits the story of Sbarro, that pizzeria shopping mall standby of the 1980s and 1990s that began as a Brooklyn pizzeria in 1956. The article leaves the impression that Sbarrro’s is but a memory but there are indeed hundreds of locations still, and from time to time, I still get the urge for its pizza and pasta. (An urge I don’t indulge like I did when I was a Sbarro-obsessed mall rat in the late 1980s.)
El Rancho, a cozy, cabin-like historic restaurant in Evergreen, Colorado, is facing an uncertain future.
Congrats to Nesper Sign Advertising, which is responsible for many signs in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, region. The company is turning 100 in 2025. It will mark the Big 100 by re-creating the long-lost giant ear of corn for Theatre Cedar Rapids. (The sign company is actually turning 102; the owners found this out through research but are moving full speed ahead with their centennial.) The ear of corn emblazoned the theater from its opening in 1928 until its removal in 1964 due its poor state. Whether it exists is still uncertain, but a bold re-creation awaits us next year. It’s very bright news for roadside lovers.
SF Gate checks in on some California’s iconic hamburger stands.
The former Morrison Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles has gone up in flames. Long abandoned, the hotel was used by the Doors for an album cover.
Atlanta's “Fabulous Fox” Theatre turns 95. It showed its first film on Christmas Day 1929 — Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie.”
A nice overview of headlines this year in the world of architectural preservation.
No buckets in sight at Saucy. (Handout photo/KFC) KFC, famous for its secret blend of 11 herbs and spices, now wants to be famous for the 11 sauces you can dip its crispy chicken tenders in. Welcome to Saucy by KFC, the colonel’s new concept restaurant, with its first location in Orlando, Florida.
A Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian gem in Kalamazoo, Michigan, has hit the market for just north of a million. Pro tip from the Realtor Fred Taber:
“If you want to own a Frank Lloyd Wright home in this country, Kalamazoo is the best bargain,” Taber said. “The homes are great. They’ve been overlooked.”
Definitely not overlooked (or underpriced) is Phoenix’s “Merry Christmas House,” set high on Camelback Mountain, and so named because its owner installs a sign with that holiday greeting every year. It’s been in the family since 1976 when it was purchased for a not-inconsiderable amount for that era of $275,000. Today, they are asking for $30 million.
The 250th anniversary of the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere is next year, and just in time, his church in Boston’s North End is getting a special renovation: Long-hidden, painted angels, covered for over a century and dating to before Revere’s time, have been uncovered and restored at the Old North Church.
Miami’s Big Orange sign will ring in 2025 — check out these great photos of Big Orange celebrations in Miami over the years.
Substack Recommendation!
Amy Cavanaugh runs a great newsletter, American Weekender, for those who love road trips, weekend getaways and entertaining places to eat and drink along the way. She graciously included me in her roundup of favorite trips of food and travel writers in 2024. (I shared a meal I had in New Orleans! Read on below and give her Substack a follow.)
Looks like the Merchant in Seattle may be reopening.
https://www.seattletimes.com/life/food-drink/seattles-historic-merchants-cafe-and-saloon-closing-but-will-return/
I got to get down to that last Sam Goody before it closes.