Mine are:
* Reading China (RDU Outlet Mall) – They had everything. Good basic kitchen items that weren’t terribly expensive.
* Jim Collier’s Hobby Shop (North Hills Mall) – Superb store with models and good quality train items. The fantastic HO model train in the rear was visible from the mall entrance, and stands as one of the stand outs in “old Raleigh” childhood memories.
* Cardinal Theater (North Hills) – Remember when they painted the windows to promote the big movie of the summer? Grease, Return of the Jedi, etc? How about their expansion when they added a second theater out into the parking lot!?
* CompUSA – I’m the kind of guy who needs a graphics capture card at 8:30pm, PRONTO!!
* Abercrombie & Fitch (Crabtree) – Of course they are still open, but I mean the OLD store, before the days of giant, self-serving sweatshirts. Back when they had books, antler chandeliers, and tartan. They had a pinpoint oxford shirt for $35 that would last for seasons as well as a great selection of quality sweaters. It was the last time I was excited about a clothing store.

Stores I’m glad are gone: United Fabrics (now Best Buy at Crabtree), Piece Goods Shop (now shabashabu), the Belk fabric department (was next to the cafeteria), and that awful fabric store where Whole Foods and The Wine Merchant now are. Get my drift?

home economics in cameron village
firefly
wardrobbe (when they had mens clothes)

Definitely Firefly
The boutique store with designer shoes and clothes that was located on Glenwood near where Amra’s currently is… (it was a number of years ago & I think he moved to Savannah)
Red Pin
I know there are others… (Thank goodness Stitch returned)

STRUCTURE

Dana sure is anti-fabric. Did your sister Denise make you a “Gordon Gartrelle” for you to wear to the prom? WHAT IS THIS!? IT’S TUCKED IN TO MY SOCKS!

Firefly on Glenwood. Where am I supposed to go now when my Campers wear out? And how am I going to get there?

A shoe store, by definition, should be in a walkable location.

ha ha. One of my favorite sitcom lines came from that Cosby episode. Something like:

“No 12 year-old boy should be wearing a $150 shirt….unless he’s onstage with his four brothers.”

Retail is harder for this topic than restaurants but I think I can come up with some….

Look Out Clothing – cheap trendy clothes on Hillsborough Street…I miss that.
Hold Your Own (Cameron Village) – some very handy stuff there.
Dillards (North Hills) – it’s a decent dept store, but not worth dealing with TTC traffic & mega-sprawl for.
Belk on Fayetteville Street- Department store, downtown. ‘Nuff said.

Cream and Bean on Hillsborough St. BEST ice cream in Raleigh (note that I consider frozen custard to be a different animal — for that, Goodberry’s is awesome!)

Is it bad that I still have some of those A&F oxfords in rotation? Perhaps a wardrobe turnover may be in order.

I miss the newstand at North Hills. It had a unique smell that I can remember to this day.

I miss record stores. I used to work at Music’s in Sutton Square – it was a predecessor to CD Superstore in that you could listen to anything in the store – a cutting edge concept at the time.

I miss my parent’s charge account at Varsity Men’s Wear. I haven’t been in there since college.

You nailed it with the Hobby Shop at North Hills and the Cardinal Theater – some of my greatest childhood memories are from that Theater – saturday morning monster movies, with the popcorn, sweet tarts, and drink that gave me just enough of a stomach ache to avoid the yard work when we got home, and seeing movies with my crazy grandmother (somewhat of a North Hills and Cameron Village legend) there where she would delight in showing her grandchildren how the paint could be rubbed off with the same licked finger she cleaned our faces with.

I miss not a clothing store, but a record store: Crooked Beats. He was on Glenwood when it was just plain old Glenwood and not “Glenwood South.” He then moved to Mission Valley, near Ruckus Pizza for a very short while, I believe, but then disappeared entirely.

I miss the swimming store that was across from Meredith College. As a swimmer and tri-athlete, it was the only place in town where I could go and get what I needed every season of the year.

I miss Porto. It was a really nice store with really nice people. That can be a hard combination for a furniture store alot of the time. It will be missed. Where else is there something like that?

National Art Interiors downtown location, does not seem right looking at that empty store.

I’m one of a very select few I’m sure, but I miss Wax Worx (record store) on the eastern end of Hillsborough Street terribly. It was across the street from St. Mary’s College. The Cycle Logic bike shop has been in that location for several years now since.

It’s kind of nice to see a couple of others mention record stores on here as well. Glad to see I’m not alone as a vinyl music lover!

I miss taking my kids to the hobby/train shop at Cameron Village!

Get ready to miss more wonderful, locally owned shops if we don’t all remember to SHOP LOCALLY this holiday season. Deal with REAL people who know you and your children when you come in and live down the street from you – and not unknown folks on the net. Let’s all keep this in mind so that our favorite stores will be around next year when we want to go and shop them!

From a struggling locally owned shopowner

I miss Accipter toy store in Cary’s MacGregor Village. Unique products to discover.

Also Now! Audio/Video. They hosted seminars, you met the owners, and they truly wanted to help you in the store or via the web … in those EARLY web days.

Raleigh has changed so very much, and I miss so many stores. While I don’t know whether the Cardinal theater and the Village Twin theater count as stores — they would certainly be two of the retail establishments that I most miss. With respect to stores, the department store Ivey’s is perhaps the one I most miss. I have wonderful memories of shopping there (and of one particularly cute sales associate who I dated for many years)! Wrenn-Pharr, the gentleman’s clothier in North Hills, was one of my favorites! The jewelry store Weatherman, on Hillsborough Street, was another favorite. (I just love the Weathermans — some of the kindest people I’ve ever known!!) I will complete my list of most missed stores by adding several: the Hobby Shop, Hungates, Thalheimer’s, Village Stationary, and the Hudson Belk downtown. There are many others, but these are a few that immediately come to mind.

Yes to Crooked Beat (below the Rockford), and Firefly (actually not near Amras but was in a house next to Brooklyn Heights …FM something..). Not restaurants so I’ll put them here…bars….Stingray, 5-0, and the Comet…..

Crooked Beat is now in DC and does business online. I too miss Comet and 5-0 but especially the Stingray!

What about Studio I/II on Hillsborough beside Boo’s Hideaway? I loved that place! Such a great little theater that showed lots of obscure stuff and served beer (a huge bonus). The best place for a date!!!

…and The Stingray…best bar…HANDS DOWN…Raleigh’s ever had. I’ll venture to say it will forever hold that title. Nothing comes remotely close, these days.