> the Kmart Blue Light Special
Hello fellow old timer. Do kids today even get this reference other than possibly just on context? My other favorite old store was a place called Gibsons where their stores signage had each upper case letter as an individual square. After it went under, more than one location became SBINGOS joints where first/last squares were no longer lit.
Another old-timer here who grew up with Gibsons. It was the only grocery store in town back in the days before WalMart invaded. Ammunition, camping gear, dry goods, garden supplies, farm and ranch supplies, blue jeans, shirts, ties, overalls, etc. They sold everything under one roof in a town of 2500.
I thought they had all been swallowed up and shut down until I moved up here to N Texas and was surprised to find a Gibsons here. It took me a while before curiosity took hold but several years later I visited the store, approx 2003-2004ish, and found they still used old-school cash registers, had no UPC scanning capability and every item had a price tag stuck to it. I think they have since moved into the more modern world locally but the store is still there and is a good source for items that you used to need to go to the town's original hardware stores to find. Some of the items on the shelves may have been in inventory here since the 1970's or 1980's. It's a bit like a time machine where you can get obsolete stuff in a pinch if it is still in stock.
I worked slapping price tags on items in KMart back in the day so I too understand the reference. Glad I'm done with that.
> I moved up here to N Texas and was surprised to find a Gibsons here.
Curiosity kills the cat. What part of NTX? I'm willing to take a trip this weekend just for the lulz. You talking Sherman/Dennison/Paris/Gainesville north, or just Denton/McKinney north? Only thing I'm seeing is one way out west in Weatherford.
That's the closest one to me. I'm in that direction though not in that town. There on Main Street on the left heading south from the courthouse.
You could say that they "hacked the Gibsons".