The handwriting for the death of the American mall has been on the wall for awhile, but no one talks about the stores inside of it.
Hot Topic, Claire's, Sam Goody and more were all places that the teens of the nineties and two-thousands spent countless afternoons browsing, buying and wasting time to avoid their parents. But just about all of them have disappeared without a trace.
Scroll through and see some brands that will probably activate some core memory from a weird high school afternoon.
1
Hot Topic
The iconic, awful look of the 2000s.
2
Gadzooks
The Forever 21 of the 2000s.
3
Brookstone
Holding on for dear life in airports.
4
KB Toys
Even it's bigger brother Toys'R'Us is dead.
5
Imaginarium
They just couldn't imagine a good business strategy.
6
County Seat
The denim haven of the 90s.
7
Claire's
The store that literally punched holes in children's ears.
8
Sharper Image
Ironically, technology was their doom.
9
Miller's Outpost
They don't even have one last outpost.
10
Contempo
They are not even close to contemporary anymore.
11
Wet Seal
How could they fail with a name like that?
12
Deb
The home of cheap prom dresses.
13
B. Dalton
The little brother of Barnes and Noble.
14
EB Games
They couldn't pull off the GameStop stock surge.
15
Sam Goody
The CD store murdered by the iPod.