Brands that have vanished in our lifetimes...
 

I was just reminded this weekend of all the brands that have vanished during out lifetimes. Which ones can you come up with?

-S & H Greenstamps.

-Western Electric Telephones.

-Bradlee's department stores. Ditto for Zayre and Caldors.

-Barrelhead Root Beer.

-Thom McAnn shoes.

-Flying A Gas stations. (Where I first learned how to mount up a bicycle tire.)

-Ross Bicycles. My LBS sold them.

Top Value savings stamps (dispersed these from the cash registers in grocery store I worked in)
Pontiac automobiles
Oldsmobile automobiles
Rambler automobiles
Mercury automobiles
Plymouth automobiles
Eastern Airlines
National Airlines (landed "Donna" in Pensacola Bay)
Allegheny Airlines
Pan Am Airlines
Braniff Airlines

A few I can quickly type out.

Bill

PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines?)
Weyless (best cycling gloves I ever had - came in a cardboard tube)
Kaypro ("portable" computers the size and weight of a sewing machine)

Hostess

TWA

American Motors

ESSO

Murphy's

Woolworth's

Plymouth


I have a 1977 Ross in my basement. Fully functional ! The "Made in Allentown" sticker still intact. :beer:

TWA, my mom worked there; Pam Am, my dad worked there; Braniff, my uncle worked there.

I work for myself.

Peugeot, Univega and many other bicycles (you could make an argument for Schwinn and Motobecane!)
Kneissel, Northland, Olin and many other brands of skis
BSA motorcycles (Indian died, was resurrected, and died again!)
Depending on how long your lifetime is;Saab, Yugo, Delorean, Bricklin, DeSoto, Edsel, Studebaker cars
Rexall, Brooks pharmacies

In many cases the brand is still there but under different ownership. Raleigh is one of them and you can name the American ones.

But many names are still about and the original product has been changed to suit the modern consumer. Don't care about the modern consumer as I am not one-Just give me back the "Wagon Wheels" that I first bought in 1953 when sweet rationing stopped over here--and not that thick hard biscuit covered in something that looked like chocolate but wasn't that the wife bought last week as treat for me.

Western Flyer bicycles from Western Auto.

Kress Department Stores

W. T. Grant Department Stores

Biff Burgers

Nash Rambler automobiles

Packard automobiles

Willis automobiles

Tandy Computers

In the south:

Phillips 66 gasoline

Sinclair gasoline

Gulf gasoline

Studebaker
Grants 5 & 10
Indian Motorcycles
Lambert Bicycles

Bavarian (beer)
Sunshine (beer)
Old Reading (beer)

Saab automobiles were being manufactured up until sometime in 2011. Not what I would call a vanished brand, especially since the aircraft/aerospace manufacturing plant is still producing product.

Simplex derailleurs
Eastern Airlines

Is RCA still around?

Kelly Hamburgers
A & W root beer stands
Sears & Roebucks (soon)
International Harvestor
the city of Detroit

This subject is kind of depressing, think I'll stop here...

Minolta, yashica, contax, bell & howell, curtis mathes, agfa film, ma bell, standard oil, daytons and donaldsons department stores, us west and qwest (even the baby bells are dead).

In Canada, Eaton's, Woolco and Woodward's stores.

I liked the cool green dinosaur on the Sinclair signs. There was one on my bike route yesterday. My daughter was clueless.

Anyone mention Studebaker yet? That was the first car I remember riding in. Then the Plymouth with the cool push button transmission.

Oops, I missed the Studebaker reference.

Things that have been obsolete that I once thought were cool: the Harvard pump (God save us), Cope's Diagnosis of the acute abdomen ( no one reads that anymore. We just order CT scans).

Montgomery Ward
Balance brand bike (I own an MB-450 and it is mighty fine)
Looks like JC Penny is in a death spiral along with KMart

MG, Triumph, Austin-Healy, all staples of the sportscar world.

No, Allegheny Airlines is (sadly) still with us... They renamed themselves to US Air after people here in Pittsburgh where they originated (and where we built an airport for them) renamed them to "Agony Airlines"....

My first job out of college was as a credit manager for W. T. Grant... I knew my days were numbered there when they moved me to three different stores in as many cities inside of about 4 months. When the manager of the last store stopped by and told me he had heard they were going to move me again I told him "No they're not. I'm going deer hunting"... That was the last time I was in a W.T Grant. I saw them tell an assistant manager with a wife and kids on Friday morning that he was to report to another store 300 miles away on Monday morning.... It was at that point I decided those crazy B's weren't going to do that to me...

A couple of more obscure brands, my dad made his living at American Can Company and my first job was at Burger Chef...both long gone.

While I was running my bicycle recycling program in the 90's and early 2000's, the department stores were selling a lot of Royce Union and Ross bikes, and these companies were donating thousands and thousands of dollars worth of overstocked supplies to us. Today, I think both brands are completely gone.

Bridgestone Bicycles :(