Maine
Do You Remember Maine’s Iconic Service Merchandise Stores?
This is a throwback for you. SERVICE MERCHANDISE. Do you bear in mind the picnic retailer?
What Was Service Merchandise?
Maine had a handful of them again within the day. I bear in mind being on the South Portland and Lewiston shops and we thought they had been THE FUTURE of retail! The shop wasn’t really a retailer. It was a showroom. And the way you bought what you wished was a tremendous journey!
How Did You Store at Service Merchandise?
Once you discovered one thing on the showroom ground you wished, you’d write down the mannequin in your little Service Merchandise notepad.
Then you definately would pay. After which the MAGIC WAIT. You’ll stand subsequent to the conveyor belt and wait in your merchandise to return via. Because the Tom Petty track goes, the ready is the toughest half!
And for some actually large objects that had been too large for the conveyor belt, you possibly can simply convey a retailer worker the tag, they might go discover it for you, and you’d decide it up out again.
Service Merchandise had all types of nice issues. Jewellery was large, and so had been toys and electronics, like this lovely microwave for less than $144.82. That was a ton of cash again within the Eighties!
The centerpiece of the Service Merchandise expertise was the catalog. This was an enormous deal in my household when the catalog arrived.
Take a look at this very sassy Service Merch industrial. It sort of appears to be like like a Whitesnake video you’d’ve seen on MTV in 1989.
Service Merchandise had a fantastic run; from 1960 till the early 2000s. At its peak within the ’70s and ’80s, it was a 4 BILLION greenback firm. However then the massive field shops like Walmart got here into Maine, and that, together with the appearance of on-line procuring, was the tip of Service Merchandise.
I nonetheless consider the shop every time I’m going by the previous location in South Portland. Now it is the spot for the Guitar Middle and Greenback Tree by the Mall.
Right here Are 50 Shops, Eating places Mainers Need on the Maine Mall
It is a wishlist for Mainers, by Mainers, of spots we would like to see pop up on the Maine Mall ahead of later.
A Distinctive Look Again on the Historical past of the Portland Worldwide Jetport
You will note the early days of the Portland Metropolis Airport, via the “Golden Age” and as much as the jet engine period. Its actually a singular have a look at the Jetport’s historical past.
An enormous thanks to the parents from Portland Maine Historical past 1786 to Current for permitting us to share these.