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Bargain Town
Posted by:
Kchi
(---.dsl.chcgil.sbcglobal.net)
Date: December 03, 2010 12:15PM
Now that it is the Christmas season, it reminded of fond memories as a child going to the Bargain Town on Milwaukee Ave and eyeing all the toys.
Here is a link giving a history of the chain.
http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com/2008/06/bargain-town-is-now-toys-r-us.html
Here is a link giving a history of the chain.
http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com/2008/06/bargain-town-is-now-toys-r-us.html
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
cmysli
(---.dsl.emhril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: December 10, 2010 06:42PM
Yes, I remember Bargain Town; there was one on the southwest side of Chicago, near Midway Airport. It was a red and white building. My parents used to buy most of our Christmas toys there.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
Chipast
(---.dsl.chcgil.ameritech.net)
Date: December 10, 2010 09:59PM
At about 6319 S.Cicero.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
daveg
(---.lightspeed.joltil.sbcglobal.net)
Date: December 11, 2010 02:00PM
Yes, I remember the red and white stripped building on Cicero, a bit south of the airport. Wonder if it just went out of busines, got bought out, or morphed into something else.
Ooops. I shoulda clicked on the link in the OP. That answered the question.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2010 09:29PM by daveg.
Ooops. I shoulda clicked on the link in the OP. That answered the question.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2010 09:29PM by daveg.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
Chipast
(---.dsl.chcgil.ameritech.net)
Date: December 11, 2010 03:39PM
It closed down years later at that location, I guess. I believe it was later a Swap-O-Rama flea market, During the 1970's-80's??????????.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
bwalsh
(---.dsl.chcgil.sbcglobal.net)
Date: December 11, 2010 06:52PM
This is a great blog on shopping centers, stores, groceries, etc.
Here's a bit on Bargain Town and its history:
http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com/2008/06/bargain-town-is-now-toys-r-us.html
Here's a bit on Bargain Town and its history:
http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com/2008/06/bargain-town-is-now-toys-r-us.html
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
telefrank
(---.dsl.chcgil.sbcglobal.net)
Date: March 03, 2012 12:05AM
There was a Bargain Town on Lincoln Ave a few blocks south of Irving Park Rd. The reason I remember it so well was that when I was in 7th grade I went there with a friend who was looking to buy a model and instead he attempted to shop lift one. I didn't know he was trying this so I figured he just didn't find one he liked. I had been in a different section most of the time. Store security caught him and we both ended up in the Police station on nearby Devon. Neither of our parents were home that day so eventually they just released us and we went home. My parents didn't come home that day till I was already in bed.
Early the next morning my Mom was awakened by my friends mother calling and accused me of being the real thief. Mom didn't take this well and woke me up with a swift kick. With a shoe in her hand awaiting to start throttleing me I told her what had happened. I told her that the police had told my friend they were going to contact his parents and let them know. I pointed out that she had not received a call and I was just there with him. She called his Mom back and she said that yes the police had called and no they had not mentioned my name. My friend had fingered me as the ringleader. Well he lost a friend that day and we didn't speak again till years later when we ran into each other on a bus. But even then it was a short conversation.
And that's why I remember Bargain Town.
Early the next morning my Mom was awakened by my friends mother calling and accused me of being the real thief. Mom didn't take this well and woke me up with a swift kick. With a shoe in her hand awaiting to start throttleing me I told her what had happened. I told her that the police had told my friend they were going to contact his parents and let them know. I pointed out that she had not received a call and I was just there with him. She called his Mom back and she said that yes the police had called and no they had not mentioned my name. My friend had fingered me as the ringleader. Well he lost a friend that day and we didn't speak again till years later when we ran into each other on a bus. But even then it was a short conversation.
And that's why I remember Bargain Town.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
tomcat630
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: March 12, 2012 03:56AM
There was a Bargain Town on North Ave in Melrose Park and it changed to Toys R Us, still there today.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
n8405g
(---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: March 12, 2012 01:05PM
I'm pretty sure the BT up north was at Byron and Lincoln, SW corner. I can vaguely remember my grandmother walking me there in the late 60s from her house on 3900 block of N Hoyne. I would have been 4 or 5 at the time.
And [b]telefrank[/b], the nearby police station was the Area 6 HQ around the corner at Grace and DAMEN, where the fire house is today.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2012 01:08PM by n8405g.
And [b]telefrank[/b], the nearby police station was the Area 6 HQ around the corner at Grace and DAMEN, where the fire house is today.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2012 01:08PM by n8405g.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
ChiTownJim
(64.134.162.---)
Date: March 25, 2012 02:19PM
I remember my mom always calling Toys R Us stores 'Bargain Town' but I don't remamber if it was just the one on North Ave or if it was all of them. Could you tell me if all the Toys R Us stores were once 'Bargain Towns' or if it was just that one and about when they started to change their names.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
Mornac
(---.dsl.chcgil.ameritech.net)
Date: March 26, 2012 12:17AM
My recollection (and this is strictly from late night TV ads) is that "Toys R Us" was a originally a slogan that Bargain Town used. The announcer always ended the script by chanting, "Bargain Town! Bargain Town! Bargain Town!". I remember during the transition that he would say "Bargain Town! Bargain Town! Bargain Town! is now Toys R Us! Toys R Us! Toys R Us!" It was annoying enough to have it echoing in my head all these decades later.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
Chipast
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: March 26, 2012 12:56AM
Must have been about 1972?.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
Berwyn Frank
(---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: March 28, 2012 03:32AM
When I was a kid (1980s) Toys R Us in the North Riverside mall complex (fronting on Cermak Rd.) had a sign in front that said "Toys R Us Children's Bargain Town" I remember the exterior being decorated with big long vertical "strips" of wood that were painted the colors of tha rainbow.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
ChiTownJim
(64.134.160.---)
Date: March 28, 2012 06:42PM
I also remember the colored strips on the Toy's R Us on North Ave and I think they had the same "Bargain Town' sign. I also remember the Toy's R Us on Milwaukee Ave near Armitage. It had a main level and then a basement level where they had the bikes. I think it closed about 1981 when the one opened on Western Ave near Belmont.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
rjmachon
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: March 28, 2012 10:31PM
That was a "Bargain Town USA" on Milwaukee near Armitage when I was a kid growing up there in the late 60's.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
RegularGuy55
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: April 25, 2012 02:20PM
My parents always bought furniture from District Furniture on south Cicero Avenue. IIRC, it was near the old Bargain Town toy store. Whenever they'd go furniture shopping, I'd try to wheedle a visit to BT.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
the_mogra
(---.hfc.comcastbusiness.net)
Date: April 10, 2015 05:59PM
the big 'Bargain Town' toy store I went to a lot in the mid-'60s address would be 2029 N. Milwaukee, the northwest corner w/ Campbell
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
rjmachon
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: April 11, 2015 04:00PM
I think it was the northeast corner mogra if the address 2029 Milwaukee. I can remember this place very well. What a madhouse at Christmas time. It is a parking lot now.
Here is a picture of this Bargin Town on WhatWasThere.com.
http://www.whatwasthere.com/browse.aspx#!/ll/41.917928,-87.689164/id/68595/info/sv/zoom/14/
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2015 04:10PM by rjmachon.
Here is a picture of this Bargin Town on WhatWasThere.com.
http://www.whatwasthere.com/browse.aspx#!/ll/41.917928,-87.689164/id/68595/info/sv/zoom/14/
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2015 04:10PM by rjmachon.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
the_mogra
(---.hfc.comcastbusiness.net)
Date: April 15, 2015 01:20PM
the link you provided above does show the old Bargain Town on the northwest corner of milw. & campbell (where the congress pizza parking lot is now). the BT street number i'd offered maybe off though just a trifle. across campbell on the northeast corner there was a large pet shop called Pete's Petland (which was a great location when you think about it, right by a very popular toy store) and I believe it was the 'ancestor' as it were of the present-day Petland store chain.
one last thing before I (or anyone else) completely forgets - the Pete's Petland store itself had an 'ancestor', the owner having moved from a storefront on North Ave called The Fish Bowl (no relation to the one now in Evanston) in the early '60s (that earlier location i'm going to take an educated guess at was 5229 W. North ave). I can still recall being in the North ave Fish Bowl store one day way back then when the owner told me he's closing down this store but opening up a bigger pet shop on milwaukee ave across from Bargain Town (the year he moved maybe 1964)
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2015 01:23PM by the_mogra.
one last thing before I (or anyone else) completely forgets - the Pete's Petland store itself had an 'ancestor', the owner having moved from a storefront on North Ave called The Fish Bowl (no relation to the one now in Evanston) in the early '60s (that earlier location i'm going to take an educated guess at was 5229 W. North ave). I can still recall being in the North ave Fish Bowl store one day way back then when the owner told me he's closing down this store but opening up a bigger pet shop on milwaukee ave across from Bargain Town (the year he moved maybe 1964)
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2015 01:23PM by the_mogra.
Re: Bargain Town
Posted by:
rjmachon
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: April 15, 2015 02:58PM
I can remember a butcher shop south of Bargin Town that we use to go to around that time frame as well. I think it was closer to Armitage Ave. Wasn't there a White Castle in that area around 1970?
