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| Company type | Music retailer |
|---|---|
| Industry | Music |
| Founded | 1959 in New York City, New York, United States |
| Defunct | 1992 |
| Fate | Bankruptcy |
Record World was a record store chain (often listed as TSS/Record World; TSS is an abbreviation for Times Square Stores) that operated out of many locations in New York during the 1970s and 1980s. It was headquartered on Long Island. [1]
Record World/Square Circle music stores were opened in 1959 in New York. The chain of record stores eventually expanded to Washington D.C., Virginia, and Sawgrass Mills, Florida.
In 1978, the store chain was operated by Elroy Distributors, and presented Harry Chapin with a $1,000 check for the World Hunger Organization. [2] By 1980, Record World had a total of 32 stores opened, and had expanded the company's warehouse in Freeport, New York from 15,00 square feet to 20,000 feet. [3]
In 1982, Roy Imber was the operator of the stores, of which there were 40 operating in the U.S. Northeast. [4] The same year, Record World was part of a "one sided single" campaign by CBS Records. [5] In 1984, the chain was presented with gold album plaques for the hit Pointer Sisters album, Break Out. [6] Throughout the Mid-80s, the chain continued to expand, [7] having 66 stores open by 1986. [8] That holiday season, the chain expanded its budget for radio and TV advertising. [9] The first Square Circle store opened in the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey in 1986. [8]
Some malls that Record World stores were located in included Roosevelt Field Mall, Green Acres Mall, and Stamford Town Center however, many of the Record World stores were closed by 1989, and by 1990, the chain was completely defunct, due to TSS filing for bankruptcy. [10] In 1992, three Record World locations were acquired by MCD Records & Tapes. [11] Record World was purchased by W.H. Smith after declaring bankruptcy in 1992 and later rebranded The Wall the following year. [12]
Virgin Megastores is an international entertainment retailing chain, founded in early 1976 by Richard Branson as a record shop on London's Oxford Street.
Manhattan Mall was an indoor shopping mall at 33rd Street and Sixth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. There are entrances to the New York City Subway's 34th Street–Herald Square station and the PATH's 33rd Street station on the second basement level.
Deseret Book is an American publishing company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, that also operates a chain of bookstores throughout the western United States. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deseret Management Corporation (DMC), the holding company for business firms owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Deseret Book is a for-profit corporation registered in Utah. Deseret Book publishes under four imprints with media ranging from works explaining LDS theology and doctrine, LDS-related fiction, electronic resources, and sound recordings such as The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square albums.
Walden Book Company, Inc., doing business as Waldenbooks, was an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain and a subsidiary of Borders Group. The chain also ran a video game and software chain under the name Waldensoftware, as well as a children's educational toy chain under Walden Kids. In 2011, the chain was liquidated in bankruptcy.
Tower Records is an international retail franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when Tower Records filed for bankruptcy and liquidation. Tower Records was purchased by a separate entity and was not affected by the retail store closings.
Gimbel Brothers was an American department store corporation that operated for over a century, from 1842 until 1987. Gimbel patriarch Adam Gimbel opened his first store in Vincennes, Indiana, in 1842. In 1887, the company moved its operations to the Gimbel Brothers Department Store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It became a chain when it opened a second, larger store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1894, moving its headquarters there. At the urging of future company president Bernard Gimbel, grandson of the founder, the company expanded to New York City in 1910.
Dillard's, Inc. is an American department store chain with approximately 267 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The company also has stores in 27 more states; however, it is absent from the Northeast, most of the Upper Midwest, and most of the West Coast, aside from three stores in California.
Kaspien Holdings, Inc. is an American company that provides software and services for ecommerce. Kaspien Holdings operates on Amazon in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and India, as well as Walmart Marketplace, eBay, Google Shopping, and Target. Its interim CEO is Goldman Sachs veteran Brock Kowalchuk, who took over March 11, 2022.
Cape Cod Mall is a shopping mall in the Hyannis village of Barnstable, Massachusetts. The mall opened in 1970 and was renovated and expanded in the late 1990s, bringing the property to 723,605 square feet (67,225 m2) of gross leasable area. It is currently managed and partially owned by Simon Property Group. The anchor stores are Marshalls, Best Buy, 2 Macy's stores, Regal Cinemas, Target, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Barnes & Noble.
Sam Goody is a music and entertainment retailer in the United States and United Kingdom, operated by The Musicland Group, Inc. It was purchased by Best Buy in 2000, was sold to Sun Capital Partners in 2003, and filed for bankruptcy in 2006, closing most of its stores. The remaining stores were purchased by Trans World Entertainment, which also runs FYE, Saturday Matinee, and Suncoast Motion Picture Company.
The Musicland Group, Inc. was an entertainment company that ran Musicland, Sam Goody, Discount Records, Suncoast Motion Picture Company, On Cue, and the Media Play Superstore Chains. The Musicland Group was purchased by Best Buy in 2001 at the height of Musicland's success, which ultimately led to its demise. Jack Eugster was the CEO of The Musicland Group, from 1980, until February 2001. Its headquarters were in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
Davison's of Atlanta was a department store chain and an Atlanta shopping institution. It was the major competition to Rich's and it took the Macy's name in 1986.
The William H. Block Company was a department store chain in Indianapolis and other cities in Indiana. It was founded in 1874 by Herman Wilhelm Bloch, an immigrant from Austria-Hungary who had Americanized his name to William H. Block. The main store was located at 9 East Washington Street in Indianapolis in 1896. The company also identified itself as The Wm. H. Block Co., and Block's.
Garfinckel's was a prominent department store chain based in Washington, D.C. that catered to a clientele of wealthy consumers. Its flagship store at 14th and F in the city's F Street shopping district is listed on the National Register. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 1990 and ceased operations that year.
The Record Bar is a former U.S. retail music/entertainment store chain founded in Durham, North Carolina. The company eventually grew from a single location to 180 stores. One of the largest music retailing chains, it was located primarily in the southeastern United States. From 1960 until the late 1980s, the owners were the (Barrie) Bergman family of Durham. In the mid-to-late 1980s, Record Bar began opening large new stores and remodeled Record Bar stores under the Tracks name, to better reflect the changes taking place in retail music merchandising.
Buffums, originally written as Buffums' with an apostrophe, was a chain of upscale department stores, headquartered in Long Beach, California. The Buffums chain began in 1904, when two brothers from Illinois, Charles and Edwin Buffum, together with other partners, bought the Schilling Bros., the largest dry goods store in Long Beach, and renamed it The Mercantile Co. The store grew to a large downtown department store, and starting in the 1950s, grew slowly over the years to be a small regional chain of 16 speciality department stores across Southern California at the time of its closure in 1990.
Spec's Music was a South Florida-based retail music and video rental chain headquartered in Miami. At its height of popularity, Spec's Music operated 80 stores, including 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) "superstores" in Miami Beach, West Palm Beach, and Sunrise. The company's stores were located in malls, strip centers, and free-standing locations throughout Florida. Four of the company's stores were located in malls in Puerto Rico. As of 2021, the last location closed. It was located in the Plaza Las Americas mall in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.
2428392, Inc., doing business as FYE, is an American chain of entertainment retail stores headquartered in Albany, New York. Formerly owned by Trans World Entertainment, it began in 1993 and was expanded in 2001, 2006, and again in 2009 after buying out and rebranding mall-based stores Camelot, Sam Goody, Spec's Music, Strawberries, Record Town, Coconuts Music & Movies, DiscJockey, Saturday Matinee, The Wall, Suncoast Motion Picture Company, Musicland, Media Play, and HMV stores. There are 206 locations as of May 2019. As of 2023, FYE is a unit of 2428392, Inc. and retained its headquarters.
Wallichs Music City was a record store in Hollywood, California, US, founded by Glenn E. Wallichs, that also had stores in West Covina, Lakewood, Canoga Park, Costa Mesa, Torrance, Buena Park, and Hawthorne from 1940 to 1978 and was one of the first to display cellophane-sealed albums in racks. Wallichs stayed open until 2 a.m.