MetaChat - Kennedy and Cohen appliance stores.

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01 December 2007

Kennedy and Cohen appliance stores. Does anyone remember these places from the 1960s? We apparently had a couple of them here in Atlanta- one left a towering towering 110-foot sign south of town (pics by me, today), but nobody I've asked remembers them, at all. Google searches turn up my own photos (weird how fast that happens) and a few mentions on message boards, but not much else. Was this a national chain, or a southern thing? I've seen mentions of stores in Houston and Atlanta, so far.

post by: BoringPostcards at: 20:56 | 4 comments

Uh, "towering towering"? Apparently I wanted to make sure I got the word "towering" in there... yeesh.

posted by BoringPostcards 01 December | 21:14

They were still advertising on cable television when I moved to Atlanta, in 1985, IIRC. I think they went belly up before 1990, though. It was already feeling competition from the newly opened Gwinnett Place Mall by 1985, and the build out of the corridor along I-85 North sealed its fate, more than helped it. Affluent Gwinnett and Cobb onsumers just had too many, nearer stops for appliance choices.

posted by paulsc 01 December | 22:14

Hmmm.... I guess it's just selective memory, because I've lived here or near here since 1965 and I have no memory of these stores. I have an aunt and uncle who made their fortune running an appliance store in Alabama, so I've always been intrigued by this kind of store.

posted by BoringPostcards 01 December | 22:22

Apparently they were national. From what I've gleaned in Google's snippet view results they went bankrupt around 1976, infamously selling long-term service contracts up to the end. Surprisingly little out there on the net about them, not even in books.

For 31 years being derelict that sign looks pretty damn good.

posted by stilicho 03 December | 05:20

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