7 Florida Stores Everyone Over 60 Shopped At That No Longer Exist

Ask an older Floridian for directions, and you might hear about a store that closed decades ago.

Many of the shops families once counted on are gone now, but the memories haven’t faded.

Here are the stores that may still bring back a smile.

1. Burdines

Burdines began with William Burdine and his son John, who came to Miami in 1898.

In February 2005, the Tampa Bay Times cited a 107-year history behind the Burdines name.

Federated renamed its Burdines stores Macy’s effective March 6, 2005, according to its annual report.

The stores kept going, but the name disappeared.

The Miami-Dade Public Library System says Burdines’ downtown store at 22 East Flagler Street would still be the most important store in Miami into the 1960s.

If you shopped downtown, you may know the building.

The downtown store shut its doors for the last time in 2018.

2. Maas Brothers

Maas Brothers was founded in Tampa in 1887 by brothers Abe and Isaac Maas, according to the History Center.

From christening gowns to toys, Maas Brothers provided for the wants and needs of the community.

If you grew up near Tampa, you may know the name.

The Tampa Bay Times called Maas Brothers the area’s premier store until 1991, when it closed.

The History Center says the closing of Maas Brothers in March 1991 was the symbolic, if not literal, end of downtown as a shopping destination.

Tampa Bay stores were called Maas Brothers/Jordan Marsh in 1991.

A company history of Burdines on Encyclopedia.com says 17 Jordan Marsh and Maas Brothers stores were merged with Burdines.

3. Woolworth’s

Woolworth Corp. said in July 1997 that it would close the last of its 410 Woolworth’s stores.

The Tampa Bay Times called it another page turned in the history of American retailing.

If you ever ate at a Woolworth’s lunch counter, you may remember the regulars.

A July 23, 1997 story followed a lunch-counter regular who nibbles on a cake doughnut and sips iced coffee.

The regular also munches on half a grilled-cheese sandwich.

The State Archives holds a photograph of a sit-in at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Tallahassee.

4. McCrory's

In December 1991, the Tampa Bay Times reported that McCrory Corp. was closing nine Tampa Bay stores.

That wasn't the end.

In November 2001, liquidators began going-out-of-business sales at 193 Dollar Zone stores, including five in the Tampa Bay area.

The headline called Dollar Zone the last remnant of McCrory.

McCrory's also had a store at the corner of Washington Avenue and Espanola Way in Miami Beach.

If you remember a McCrory's near you, you remember a name whose last remnant was closing in 2001.

5. Montgomery Ward

Montgomery Ward announced in December 2000 that it would shut its stores, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

A sluggish holiday season dealt the struggling retailer a death blow.

If you shopped at Montgomery Ward that December, you caught its final holiday season.

The closing would leave thousands of square feet vacant at Gulf View Square Mall, which was wrapping up a $9 million renovation.

It closed its doors in March 2001.

6. Jacobson's

Jacobson's, which the Tampa Bay Times called an upscale specialty retailer, filed for federal bankruptcy protection in January 2002.

It said it would close five stores.

Jacobson's store at Waterside Shops in Naples was liquidating by November 2002.

If you shopped at the Naples store in late 2002, you were shopping a store in liquidation.

A bankruptcy judge had cleared the way for a lease buyout, and the landlord could pay the chain $1 million to buy out its lease on the 62,000-square-foot space.

7. Eckerd

In April 2004, CVS Corp. and Canada's Jean Coutu Group agreed to pay a combined $4.52 billion in cash to acquire Eckerd Corp.

The two companies planned to split it up.

The Tampa Bay Times headline said the buyout ended Eckerd in Florida.

By August, CVS Corp. had taken control of 1,260 Eckerd drugstores.

If you filled a prescription at an Eckerd that summer, your pharmacy had a new owner.

A headline from that August said the stores CVS bought wouldn't change much for a while.

The Lunch Counter Years

McCrory's and Burdines each desegregated a Miami lunch counter, in 1959 and 1960, according to the Miami-Dade Public Library System.

There was a series of sit-ins at the downtown McCrory's in 1959, and the McCrory's ownership desegregated its lunch counter that same year.

Burdines desegregated its lunch counter in 1960, four years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

If you ate at either counter after those years, you ate at a desegregated counter.

Ivey's and the Dillard's Name

Ivey's began in Charlotte, North Carolina, as J. B. Ivey & Company, according to NCpedia.

Dillard Department Stores acquired the chain's 23 stores from Batus on June 4, 1990.

That October, the Tampa Bay Times reported that Dillard's had decided to convert its 10 Ivey's stores in Florida to the Dillard's name during the first week of November.

If you shopped at a Florida Ivey's in October 1990, the sign was due to change.