DID YOU KNOW?
Anyway, Family Video always had one of the most iconic buildings. It had that sweet glowing pillar out front with that cool glass and that green roof at every location. You could always tell a Family Video by driving by. Family Video shut down in 2021, citing COVID-19 as the leading reason for the company's closure since few movies were being released and there was low foot traffic. In reality, this was probably an accelerated death as streaming has become more popular than DVDs.
Here is another video chain no longer
This next place I remember from some years ago was ShowBiz Pizza. ShowBiz Pizza Place was founded in 1980 in Kansas City, Missouri. In the neon-lit world of 1980s family entertainment, few places captured the imagination of children quite like ShowBiz Pizza Place. With its animatronic band, arcade games, and cheesy slices of pizza, ShowBiz was not just a restaurant; it was a full-blown sensory experience. Though its reign was
relatively short-lived, its legacy continues to echo through pop culture and nostalgic hearts. During the early 1980s, ShowBiz Pizza Place thrived. At its peak, ShowBiz operated over 200 locations across the United States. There was one location in Southgate on Eureka Road that I can recall. By 1992, the ShowBiz name was phased out entirely, and all locations were rebranded as Chuck E. Cheese’s.
This next business I have driven by, but I have never entered, and that would be Family Video on Northline Road in Taylor, which is now an empty building. At its peak, Michigan had over 50 Family Video locations. This company was not as well-known, having only 800 locations compared with Blockbuster Video, which had over 9,000 locations, which I talked about in part-one.
This next business I went to in my youth. There was one on West Jefferson in the downtown area of River Rouge, as well as many other places. Cunningham Drug Store was a drugstore chain based in Detroit, Michigan. Founded in October 1889 by Andrew Cunningham, the chain operated primarily within the state of Michigan, and was once the largest drugstore chain in the state. The chain sold off 29 of its Michigan stores in 1982 to a private company, which rebranded them as Apex Drug, and they were no longer in business. In my lifetime I have seen many drugstore chains come and go!