Borders
Three hours in the armchairs with a stack of books you never bought, a chai from the café, and a lap through the CD listening stations — Borders wasn't a store so much as a place to be. Then it was gone, all of it, in a single September.
#Big Box
3 items
Circuit City
The electronics superstore where your parents went to buy the first family PC, camcorder, or big-screen TV — with a commissioned salesman in a dress shirt walking them through every feature. Those red-tower storefronts were the 90s temple of consumer electronics. From superstore dominance to total liquidation in 2009, Circuit City is the retail ghost story of the era.
CompUSA
Aisle after aisle of boxed software, a wall of printer cables, and a cart carrying your family's first PC. CompUSA — the self-billed Computer Superstore — was where America went to buy the future, one weekend errand at a time.