DID YOU KNOW?
around in Michigan and other states, which is Hollywood Video. The video rental chain closed all its stores in 2010 after its parent company, Movie Gallery, filed for bankruptcy. This marked the end of a significant era in video rentals, as Hollywood Video was the second-largest chain in the U.S. at the time, operating approximately 2,700 stores. The last U.S. store closed on July 31, 2010, with the final Canadian locations shutting down shortly after.
Anyway, they were founded in 1988. Toward the end of the 1990s, Hollywood Video was the first major chain to introduce DVD rentals in their stores and would expand into the internet with the purchase of Reel.com in July 1998. However, following the rise of video on demand services in the early 2000s, the company began to experience losses, which led to the company going out of business, as I mentioned.
This next defunct business I remember, and that would be Waldenbooks. Waldenbooks started in 1933 and was once the cultural anchor of the American shopping mall. Long before Amazon or
or the Kindle, it was the place where millions of Americans discovered their first Harry Potter book, grabbed the latest Stephen King novel, or joined the famous “Preferred Reader” program. For decades, it served as the “gateway drug” to literacy for suburban America, making books accessible in high-traffic retail corridors rather than dusty, quiet libraries.
Today, Waldenbooks is a memory. The brand was liquidated and dissolved in 2011 alongside its parent company, Borders Group, a casualty of the digital revolution and the decline of the traditional mall,. There were 22 stores in Michigan, and there was a store location in the Southgate Shopping Center on Eureka Road, with 1,200 nationwide.
Lastly, this last defunct business, many people have never heard of, but it was one city over from me when I lived in River Rouge. Joey’s Stables was the restaurant in Delray in the city of Detroit in 1905. Though most people thought of the Delray area as Hungarian, it was a melting pot of nationalities as they started on their quest of the American Dream. Joey’s Stables restaurant was where the elite met to dine in the area. Back before Delray’s appearance became a slum, this was the place to visit according to my dad, because of its high-class service and food.
Now, from the moment you walked in, and your eyes had to adjust to the dimness of the bar, it had the feeling of