What was the name of this store I vaguely recall from my childhood?

December 30, 2021 7:32 AM

What was the name of the discount warehouse next to a D&K in some strip mall in the Buffalo, NY area in the early/mid 90s?

I'm sorry this is a bananas question but it's driving me up the wall. A strip mall in the Buffalo, NY area had, among other stores, a large, poorly lit, dusty discount warehouse type place next to (if you were standing in the parking lot, the dusty warehouse place was to the left) a D&K Store, which was sort of a dollar store type place.

Other things I can recall:

- it had a green sign, I think in script
- it was the largest store in the plaza, it was in the center of the strip
- it sold all manner of goods, I'm assuming that didn't sell elsewhere, because the only thing I can actually recall is a rack of Loverboy tank tops
- the strip mall was not super close to the Southtowns, I think it may have been somewhere between West Seneca and Cheektowaga

posted by everybody had matching towels to Grab Bag (10 answers total)

One that comes to mind in that general region is Pete n' Larry's, but that may have been more of a discount pharmacy.
posted by theorique at 7:41 AM on December 30, 2021

Have you tried asking this on Reddit? r/Buffalo might have the answer for you.
posted by MexicanYenta at 8:43 AM on December 30, 2021

You can also try the Facebook group, "Buffalo Memories".
posted by alex1965 at 8:48 AM on December 30, 2021

I've lived in Buffalo my entire life and this doesn't really ring a bell (and I don't recall us ever having any stores named "D&K".) But one idea is that it was a Sibley's location: This was a department store, not a "dusty warehouse", but their logo was green script, and I suppose some other business could have been using an old store before the logo was taken down.
posted by jonathanhughes at 8:51 AM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]

I was thinking of Grant's.

But here is a list of defunct department stores for the nostalgic.
posted by nothing.especially.clever at 9:35 AM on December 30, 2021

Or FBC, "Family Bargain Center?"
posted by nothing.especially.clever at 9:39 AM on December 30, 2021

Could it have been Ollie’s? There’s one in a strip mall in Cheektowaga, and the description of the store definitely fits, if not the sign. (I don’t know what a D&K is, but I’ve only been in Buffalo since 2010, so it may have been gone before I got here.)
posted by okayokayigive at 1:58 PM on December 30, 2021

Jamesway?
posted by Sassyfras at 3:20 PM on December 30, 2021

Pamida?
posted by Juniper Toast at 5:10 PM on December 30, 2021

I remember the D&K! There was one in North Tonawanda on Webster St. by the Riviera Theater. I don't remember where there were others around WNY. I am going to guess a dusty discount warehouse store with a green sign in script was Ames, although I remember Ames as more of a dumpy department store. There's a picture of the sign in this article: https://wyrk.com/old-buffalo-stores-you-shopped-at-but-your-kids-have-never-heard-of-list/. We did a lot of shopping in the 90s when I was a kid, but mostly in the northtowns. If you can narrow down the location, a lot of those strip malls took a long time to (or never) be redeveloped. There might be an old Google street view that shows the old plaza with the sign.
posted by DEiBnL13 at 9:20 PM on December 30, 2021