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Vintage price tag from discount drug store Phar-Mor. Their slogan was, "Get phar mor for far less!". The chain used a 'power buying' strategy, which was was based on selling a large quantity of merchandise with a very small profit margin. This price tag was on an old metal tin of Band-aids.
Daily press, September 28, 1989
The more things change, the more they stay the same. 35 years ago people in South Carolina were still reeling from Hurricane Hugo. Very strange how people could just go to someone's house to donate (see left column) back then.
Imagine getting ready to get on a plane to London when you collapse at the airport.
I'd never heard of the comic Outland, it was a spinoff of Bloom County that ran only on Sundays. Here is Mortimer Mouse:
(eBay seller Erickson Comics and Paper)
I found this Sunday night, and then Monday night, I find out that Pete Rose died! VHS Tapes Old newspapers are magic.
Even in 1989, the clothes in these A&N ads already looked outdated. It was always like this with them. I could pull up a newspaper from 1994, and the clothes would look like the clothes people wore in ... 1989.
ooh, we have a Phar-Mor alert. We were not a Phar-Mor family, we did not visit the mythical store known as Phar-Mor. My mom said that area was too crowded. It was like a giant variety store with a pharmacy, right?
I was nosy, and looks like they broke up in 2001. So the Yorks were trying to gain "custody" of their embryo from a lab in Norfolk (they lived in California). I'm not sure if the couple were successful at having children though.
Oh no! It's our boy David Merritt! We remember him from the August 1, 1993 newspaper entry. Remember, his restaurant didn't open until 1992, and was hyping that it was going to open on April 7, 1990.
These ads are magnificent.
Old Mill? I gotta say it:
For you dead mall fans out there, both Outlets Ltd and Great American Outlet Mall are long gone.
I never thought that My Two Dads needed one censor, let alone two. I gotta watch My Two Dads, it has Paul Reiser and Dana from Step by Step! I love that podcast she has with Christine Lakin about Step by Step.
Speaking of censorship, STOPLESS GIRLS. I looked up the address, and looks like it was torn down.
No Cathy in this strip, but there are Fax jokes. Remember faxing in your lunch order? Onion rolls seem so old skool, I feel like I remember seeing them at the bakery at the grocery store when I was a real little kid, and then never again. Is it a regional thing? Do people not eat onion rolls in Hampton Roads anymore?
Garfield was upsetting that day.
OH I almost forgot. Speaking of upsetting:
A man on his bike was hit by a car down the street from the newspaper offices. So just you know, walk down the street and take a photo of it and put it on the front page of the local section. I hope Allen was ok. The McDonalds where it happened is long gone, but the building remains.
/edit/
So the day I went to publish this, I had to take the long way home from Suffolk, and I drove by this intersection on my way to the James River Bridge. Old newspapers ARE magic.
I know we make jokes about certain people putting raisins in potato salad, but what about raisins in your chicken.
I love the names of these raisin recipes! Silk Stockings?! Model T?! I would try a lil bite of each of these.
I can't remember where I mentioned this place, but it amuses me SO MUCH that back in the day you could go to Coliseum Mall and buy steaks.
wait. Bryers made jelly? I wonder if that's the same fruit that was in that yogurt they used to make that was so good. Breyers ice cream is soo bad now.
!! This was my friend Paul's mom! I about flipped when I saw this. This is exactly how five year old me remembers her. She would give me rides to school sometimes in her old jeep and would pick my mom up for room mothers.
Finally, this Eastern Airlines ad is beautiful. They had about a year and a half left, closed in 1991.
I completely forgot to post for September, I got 🦠 at the end of August that went into the first week of September, then I had to get ready for the Norfolk Zine fest, then then this weekend? Is Richmond Zine fest. Don't forget, my zines are available on my Etsy shop.
And there's a new design over at my TeePublic.
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Another type of price tag that defunct drug store chain Phar-Mor used.
Memories 1: Phar-Mor
In the late 1980s and early 1990s there was a drugstore chain called Phar-Mor. Phar-Mor stores were huge and offered "a large quantity of merchandise with a very small profit margin," according to Wikipedia. Hell, I probably bought my first Cappio at Phar-Mor. See, there was a Phar-Mor on the state highway leading from Interstate 24 to Austin Peay State University, my first college, and I shopped there with everyone I ever dated at that misbegotten school, including the woman who became my first wife. Why? Because Phar-Mor was magnificent, in its way. You could find decongestants at half the usual Walgreen's rate. You could buy aspirin in bulk and turn up time-released caffeine pills to boot (a huge concern for your average non meth abusing college student). Phar-Mor, in my memory, was a lovely place to shop. I remember hours wasted at Phar-Mor with a woman to whom I was engaged, and more hours still at the store with the woman whom I actually did marry after her. In my head, in spite of its terrible end as a company rife with embezzlers and crooks, Phar-Mor remains, to this day, the best drugstore at which I ever filled a prescription for antidepressants. I have fluorescent memories of slow happiness, purchasing cut-rate toiletries, and they all belong to the long-gone chain once known as Phar-Mor.
You guys fucking rock
FOLLOW THEM oneluciddream phar-mor cocaineinthemembrain ampersand-et
do you live in the uk?
No, I wish.
This isn't really an ask, but I know that when I start to get down, worrying about money, and food and having a roof over my head, the only way I can shake out of it is by remembering all the terrible things I've overcome. And I know (because you're my favorite blog to stalk) you've been through some rough shit, and it won't be some little pieces of printed paper to bring you down. and if that fails for you, check out solipsism. PS you're gorgeous!
Thank you so much, seriously. Lmaololol dude you're fucking awesome, I love you :} is that weird to sayoh well
