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Thursday, February 5. 2009

Sad

How many Army and Navy stores have closed over the past 20 years? Here's old Levine's, finally shuttered. My lousy photography makes it difficult to read the "Est. 1923" under the name. Note the signs on the little shop next door.


 

Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 05:30 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)

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The one in my town is doing great. It helps that the back third of the store is dedicated to guns and ammo.
#1 NJSoldier on 2009-02-05 08:19 (Reply)
Ahh, a blast from the past. As a youth I used to live in the Army/Navy store...buying stuff for camping, fantasizing about being an Army man. 'Tis a shame they are going away.
#2 Big___Al on 2009-02-05 09:15 (Reply)
GRAND OPENING
Store Closing

Signs of the times, indeed. Could be the Obama Administration's official motto.
#3 The Distributist (Link) on 2009-02-05 10:03 (Reply)
What's with the five olive-drab trash cans in front of the store? A little purposeful visual metaphor for the current state of our minds?
`
#4 Meta on 2009-02-05 10:33 (Reply)
For Meta at #4: those look like recycling bins to me, although I can't be sure.
Army-Navy stores sprang up originally because of the huge stockpile of manufactured goods that the armed forces needed to sell when they contracted by some 80% -- uniforms, canteens, boots and so many items after WWII. To paraphrase a logistician of the time (R. Adm Daniel V Gallery), "we didn't shoot the last enemy with the last bullet." That's why so much of the stuff was so cheap. The stores have had other suppliers for decades and I'm surprised the name Army-Navy continues in use. Billings MT has two of them.
#5 Geoff on 2009-02-05 13:02 (Reply)
You know, if you scroll so that you only see the top part of the Army-Navy store, this photo almost looks like a Hopper painting. Or maybe it's just the keratitis I'm suffering today...
#6 KRW on 2009-02-05 14:07 (Reply)
We visited an Army/Navy store in Louisville a few years ago. The things in the front of the story were not-so-exciting and sometimes kitschy.

The back of the store was a treasure chest. It was so dusty that it set off my asthma. But it was filled with box upon crumbling box of filthy, worn out military belts, casings, etc. I felt like the place was inhabited with the ghosts of the original equipment owners. When I left, the owner encouraged me to come back and actually make a purchase.

The next day my son went in and asked to buy one of the dirty empty metal boxes (about the size of a cigar-box) from the back. He was told that nothing in the back was for sale.
#7 obladioblada on 2009-02-05 15:02 (Reply)

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