Bed Bath & Beyond files for bankruptcy: Name a favorite company that went out of business.

Declaring bankruptcy does not necessarily mean the the company will go out of business. It protects the company from creditors grabbing assets, while they see if a reorganization plan can be created. The stockholders are typically wiped out, and the plan is designed to pay employees, secured creditors, unsecured creditors, etc. A buyer could be obtained, outlets can be closed.

Regal theaters, the second largest movie theater chain in the USA, declared bankruptcy recently. The bankruptcy court judge in Texas said that the first thing that would happen is that the employees would be paid. I think they even raised money to continue operations. They do not have late shows during the week now, and a nearby theater is closing.

I made good money a few times, doing temporary work for companies in bankruptcy. I was wary about getting paid by one, but I knew the people there, and they were desperate for the help.

I worked at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square during their first year of operations. Fun place! I got to see a bunch of free in-store performances including Foo Fighters and Bush.

Borders: "Books, Music, Cafe"

Now there's only Barnes & Noble as a major bookstore, at least by me, and I question how long they will be around...

Fry's Electronics. Tech and nerd heaven!

J&R Music and Computer World
This was a great store in lower Manhattan.

Galyan's sporting goods

Huge atrium style buildings with the rock climbing wall in the middle going almost to the roof!

Western Auto. I loved that place when I was a kid in the '80s. For one thing, they were the closest thing we had to a bike shop in town. Not only did they have their own brand of bikes (Western Flyer), but they also sold parts such as tires, inner tubes, chains, grips, seats, brake levers, brake cables, pedals, etc., and they could order parts you didn't see on the shelf. For example, when I was 12 I ordered a pair of 20" Skyway Tuff Wheel IIs and a Shimano 16T BMX freewheel from a big book of parts that they kept under the counter, which I put on my Western Flyer Invader 2 BMX.

For another thing, they also sold toys. When I was about 7 years old I bought an Ertl "Matchbox" type "General Lee" toy car there, exactly like this one (except the "01" decals on mine weren't crooked):

https://collectorarchive.com/pub/media/catalog/product/1/0/10191193_1_1.jpg

I actually had a few of those when I was a kid; some I bought at Ben Franklin, which is another store I loved as a kid that's either gone now or practically gone.

Western Auto also sold sporting goods, hunting and fishing supplies, and they even had their own brand of guns.

The weird thing is, they were ostensibly an auto parts store (hence the name), but I don't ever remember people going there for auto parts, at least not the more specialized parts like say, a water pump or a tie rod end. I wonder if they were actually a fully-stocked auto parts store like say, NAPA, Carquest, Steego, AutoZone, etc., in addition to being a bike shop, toy store, appliance store, gun shop, sporting goods, tools, and hunting/fishing store.

We had another five and dime store called Neisner’s. In the 70s me and my friend used to ride our bikes there to buy comic books, play pinball and order ice cream sundaes at the lunch counter.

Also Eagle Army Navy.

There was also a restaurant called Lums that my family used to go to.