70's And 80's Mall Stores

[RhinoVP]

I wonder if this is that store that featured rows and rows of really neat Wax candles ???

I do recall always seeing a candle shop that had really cool candles made to look like ice cream, ala Banana splits, Soda fountains, sundaes. They seemed very realistic from a distance and I think had scents of that specific flavor of ice cream.

I also think they featured inscents?

Another Houston Mall mystery question! 1st winner gets a banana split! Yumm!

Yeah Vert, your right that would have been the place. I remember the Wicks n' Sticks at Westwood mall back in the 70's which also had candles either carved or moulded like dragons and castles among other things. I couldn't imagine someone buying one of these, and then ever lighting it. They were not cheap!

It was no Yankee Candle Company, for sure!

Now if anyone else remembers Westwood...there was another store there (I think) called Pickwick records. They had so much stuff in this store! In the 70's they had records, black light posters, lava lamps, tie dyed clothing, you name it.

One of the things I remember buying there was a beer can lamp. I know somebody else has to remember these. They sold them in all different colors, beer or soda cans, and they had this sort of flickering fillament in them that looked like a flame when you pluged it in. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world as a kid, but you can't find these anywhere now. Lava lamps, sure... but not those.

[Vertigo58]

Yeah Vert, your right that would have been the place. I remember the Wicks n' Sticks at Westwood mall back in the 70's which also had candles either carved or moulded like dragons and castles among other things. I couldn't imagine someone buying one of these, and then ever lighting it. They were not cheap!

It was no Yankee Candle Company, for sure!

Now if anyone else remembers Westwood...there was another store there (I think) called Pickwick records. They had so much stuff in this store! In the 70's they had records, black light posters, lava lamps, tie dyed clothing, you name it.

One of the things I remember buying there was a beer can lamp. I know somebody else has to remember these. They sold them in all different colors, beer or soda cans, and they had this sort of flickering fillament in them that looked like a flame when you pluged it in. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world as a kid, but you can't find these anywhere now. Lava lamps, sure... but not those.

The beer can lamps came in Busweiser, Coors, Lone Star, etc. That store did have major cool stuff! I bought one of those long rectangular glass enclosed things that contained BLUE liquid inside. As the casing tilted back & forth the blue substance would roll up and down like a real ocean wave, major cool!

Most of the these shops had some of the newest, chrisp off the presses Rock n Roll band T-shirts too. I clearly recall Led Zeppelin, Bad company, Eagles (I still have a pic of me in y Hotel California T) The Who, Boston, Yes, then once New Wave became all the rage, those cool T's ala The Pretender's, Blondie, Devo, invaded the racks.

Many of these stores were also allowed to sell "rocks" that really neatly psychedelic colored rock w/a hole thru it so people could place thier doobees inside & puff away?They even featured huge bong's I suppose for big parties, etc. What ?

Ever notice the managers, and staff always seemed lind of hippish at these stores? Coincidence?lol

[Heights2Bastrop]

You mean nobody else here shopped at Kaplans?

[musicman]

You mean nobody else here shopped at Kaplans?

i did.

[PapillionWyngs]

Wow, another Houston mystery solved! Tks Papi!

The pieces of memories puzzle slowly come together...

PS, how can we ever forget the carousel turning around in the center court of Almeda Mall? I am pretty sure it has been mentioned on Haif-a-rama.

My kids LOVED that thing. They literally cried when it was taken out.

[Absinthe_1900]

One of the things I remember buying there was a beer can lamp. I know somebody else has to remember these. They sold them in all different colors, beer or soda cans, and they had this sort of flickering fillament in them that looked like a flame when you pluged it in. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world as a kid, but you can't find these anywhere now. Lava lamps, sure... but not those.

Memories of Spencer's Gifts.

7Up started it with a TV commercial that had one of those oscillating filament bulbs in a 7Up can lamp. I had one around 1970 when I was a kid.

You can find the 7Up can lamps on eBay, the colored oscillating bulbs are very scarce, though you can substitute one of these:

http://www.kyp-go.com/products.htm Balafire bulb.

[pdmalek]

Seems all my clothes came from Weiners, the Sears Surplus near Almeda Mall (same shopping center as Millers Outpost, incidentally), KMart and Target. When we left town in the 80's and dad got a better paying job, we actually shopped at JCPenney's sometimes!!!

I recall being embarassed about this in junior high, but by high school I could care less. Mom and Dad buying me some jeans at Sears beat the hell out of me buying my own clothes!

After I became responsible for myself, I realized that even Sears is out of their minds on price! Most of my clothes come from Sam's Club now. I can appreciate $15 slacks, $12 jeans and $15 shirts.

I also shopped with my parents at the Sears Surplus store near Almeda. That strip center has changed a good bit over the years. If I remember right, there was a Woolco in the same center in the 70's.......

[KimmerTX]

Not for clothes but a popular place I shopped as a teen was SOUND WAREHOUSE. I bought all of my albums & cassettes there and occasionally rented VHS movies. Occasionally used their Ticketmaster service for concert tickets.

[Wildcat51]

On August 30, 2008 at 11:03 AM, jetbeetle said:

We used to get music shirts from H&H music that said stuff like HAMMER GUITARS and D-DRUMS, we couldn't play a single note but the girls didn't know that. Parachute pants and Go Round are still things tied together in my mind and Chess King always reminds me of Michael Jackson's Jackets.

HAMER

[Msmugler]

1) J. Riggings (the men's store that looked like a ship)

2) In Wear Matinique: where we bought our Z. Cavarrici and Girbaud pants! (The least flattering pants ever invented!)

3) North Beach Leather

 

[chiky80s]

There was a clothing store in the Houston Galleria. Early 90s I'm thinking. It was tropical/surfer themed. I never knew how to say the name. Maybe started with an X but I could be wrong. It was in a small section of Galleria back then (I think Galleria 3) near Thirsty's. You had to walk through a long hallway to get there. Please help me remember the name!

[Merry Go Round]

On 8/29/2008 at 2:30 PM, srm said:

As most teens did in the 80's, I spent a lot of time trolling the mall! I'm trying to remember all those shops we used to love to buy clothes at. Here are some that come to mind:

Clothing:

County Seat

Jean's West

Merry-Go-Round

Dejaiz

Chess King

Foxmoor

The Gap (when it was strictly jeans and t-shirts)

Judy's

Some other mall stores that are now defunct:

Kinney's shoes

Thom McAn

Wicks n Sticks

Morrow's Nut House

Art Standing

Hickory Farms

Woolworth's

Baker's Shoes

The Wild Pair

Anybody else out there have memories of great shops in the malls of the 70's and 80's? I know there are tons more. Open your memories!

 

[Reefmonkey]

This one was mid-late 80s, into the 90s, Babbage's computer software store. My younger brother and I frequented the one in Willowbrook Mall in the late 80s-early 90s. I remember wanting to get Leisure Suit Larry there, and my mom read the back of the box and said "uh, no, you're not buying this, not even with your own money." We bought some of the first LucasArts (back then LucasFilm) games there, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and The Secret of Monkey Island.

 

If you remember Babbage's and are asking yourself "I wonder what happened to them?" the answer is they merged with another software retailer you might remember, Software Etc., in 1994, and became Babbage's Etc,. then launched the GameStop brand in 1999, which took off, with all the Babbage's Etc. stores being rebranded as GameStop in the next few years after that. I'm sure everyone is familiar with GameStop, you probably have a recently shuttered one just down the street from you.

 

This picture is not of the Willowbrook location, I just pulled it off the internet.

Edited December 18, 2020 by Reefmonkey

[Gurgis]

Good post there about Babbage's. I completely forgot about that place. Definitely went there in the early days of computing (maybe at Westwood, Sharpstown, or Meyerland malls). I can't remember what I purchased, but probably was DOS books or early software.

Edited February 9, 2021 by Gurgis

[clutchcity94]

26 Red

Yaga

[bugtoaster]

On 3/21/2009 at 12:19 AM, RhinoVP said:

 I remember the Wicks n' Sticks at Westwood mall back in the 70's which also had candles either carved or moulded like dragons and castles among other things. I couldn't imagine someone buying one of these, and then ever lighting it. They were not cheap!

 

The history of Wicks 'n Sticks is something I would like to find more of - did they have a catalog circa 1980 that illustrates all the crazy candle designs? Are there candle catalogs from this era, not necessarily from Wicks 'n Sticks, which include these sorts of candles? Is there anywhere on the web that showcases the candles of this era? 

According to their Wikipedia entry, the chain started in Houston in 1968. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicks_'N'_Sticks Does anyone know more about it?

[birdsanctuary]

Memorial City was my 'main' mall...Esprit (I wish they were still in business), Foley's, Lord & Taylor, the Limited, Frost Brothers...other places we always checked out - the Hammond (?) Organ store, Cactus Records & Tapes, Spencer's Gifts, Wicks 'n' Sticks, Waldenbooks. A kiosk that sold little ribbon glass animals.

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

We have a similar thread here, but, yep... Dream Merchant and Judy's... Judy's had some clothes for guys, I bought my first pair of Spandex there. The girl I was hanging around with at the time talked me in to getting silver instead of the standard black. This was 83? 84? i haven't talked to her in a couple of years, she went off the deep end when the T-Word won his election... 

Just the other day, I was thinking about a button I bought at Dream Merchant... It had five four letter words on it, it's something that will trigger and word filters we may have here, but it's euphanisms for feces, fornicate, damn, urinate, hell.... I wore that to school today along with the silver Spandex and a black and white zebra print shirt I bought at Dream Merchant.... 

 

I wonder how Sadie and JD are doing these days....

[JJ4077]

Anybody remember Farrell's Ice cream parlor at the Alameda Mall? My main mall was Baybrook back in the 80's. During the summer I would hang out at Aladdin's castle to play video games then walk across the parking lot to Cactus records and tapes.

[Good Witch]

My friends and I used to take the city bus downtown and shop at a store called "Three Sisters"...and of course ..."Foley's"

 

[birdsanctuary]

Going to The Galleria was a special treat - we lived in what was in the mid 70s far west Houston...past what's now the SH Tollway. The stores I remember best are the magic shop, it was maybe named Harry's? (it was at the Neiman's end on the lower level), Farrell's, Teuscher Chocolates, It's My Bag (THE store for preppy accessories in the 80s - Leslie & Co nearby on Post Oak was also great), Pappagallo (wow I wish they were still in business), and for fun, the Famolare store. There was a vast Abercrombie & Fitch - the original company that sold things like $400 - that's 1970s dollars -  footstools made of leather in the shape of a hippopotamus.  There was also a great costume jewelry store in the 'new' (circa 1985) expansion.

I waited in line for about 2 hours to see Star Wars in July 1977 at the movie theater there in between the original Galleria and Galleria II.