Greenville's Long-Gone Stores

[StevenRocks]

What was/is Vince Perone's

I've heard Meyers-Arnold had a few branch stores in the day. Anderson? Asheville? Spartanburg?

[gs3]

What was/is Vince Perone's

[Greenville]

Vince Perone's was a restaurant adjacent to McAlister (it was just recently torn down and is the site of the new Fresh Market and Forest Park Shopping Center). When I moved to Greenville, the restaurant was still open. I went a couple of times. It seemed to have a very mature, long time Greenvillian crowd. Apparently it had been there for years and years, and had been visited by most any and all of the famous, whenever they were in Greenville.

One of the longtime Greenvillians on the board probably has more info.

[Beowulf]

Vince Perone passed away about five years ago. His family decided to discontinue the restaurant bearing his name. The restaurant featured Italian cuisine, and was quite good.

As for the other stores mentioned, I've shopped at Meyers-Arnold and Iveys. Those were the only two department stores at McAlister Square at one time. There was an expansion on the back of the mall for Belk. I shopped at Belk and J. C. Penny when they were located on Main Street, and at Sears when it was on Stone Avenue. I even shopped at the Roses at Bell Tower Mall, and attended many, many movies at the Towers Four, including Animal House. Belk on Main was my favorite, with random staircases and weird entrances onto side streets. It was easy to get lost there.

Does anyone remember the Wade Hampton Mall? It's now occupied by Bob Jones Academy and other BJU entities, but at one time it was a premier retail location. There was a store in the mall called Wilderness Outfitters which employed one Jim Kelley, who went on to sell camping supplies from his living room in Travelers Rest as a new startup called Sunrift Adventures. I bought stuff from Jim at Wilderness Outfitters, his living room, and from all of Sunrift's eventual retail locations. Jim sold his share of Sunrift to Bo Terry, who still operates it today, and went on to sell solar powered somethings down in Florida.

Of all these long-gone stores, my absolute favorite was the Dollar Store on Main Street. It operated more as a flea market/thrift store. While Belk was larger and a bit more modern, the Dollar Store had even more nooks and crannies for exploration. It was in operation until the mid-80's, if I remember correctly.

[G'ville-gal]

Beowulf.

I too remember all you mentioned. I remember when Belks on Main street was where you went for Boy Scout and Girl Scout uniforms. The toys were downstairs with an entrance on a side street.

Sears had a cafeteria and as a child we would walk to Sears and get a grilled cheese and for desert go to the candy station inside Sears.

Eckerds was at The Wade Hampton Mall and had a Soda Fountain and restaurant until about the late 80's.

[gvilledh]

There was JM(?) Fields at 291 and Rutherford with their tower that still stands today. I also remember going back-to-school shopping downtown. We would go to Belk's and Penney's, then the Dollar store, and then the Kiddie Korner. I would also spend the day with my grandmother, who lived in City View and we would ride the bus to where the West End area is now and walk up Main St., ending at Woolworths to shop and have lunch.

[silverseale]

Who owned the Woods? I remember it well; it was on the lower level of Haywood between Rich's and Sears. I liked their clothes; seemed like a combination of Eddie Bauer clothes and the physical setup of the Mast General Store.

[Sandlapper]

It's been years now, but my mom worked for a store called S-Mart. I was very young when she worked there but I think they were sort of an outlet of Stone Manufacturing. Once Stone shut down so did her store. She worked at the one on Augusta Rd. Does anyone remember S-Mart?

[linkerjpatrick]

It's been years now, but my mom worked for a store called S-Mart. I was very young when she worked there but I think they were sort of an outlet of Stone Manufacturing. Once Stone shut down so did her store. She worked at the one on Augusta Rd. Does anyone remember S-Mart?

[gregtrob]

Wasn't there an S-Mart on Laurens Road too? I think it was near where Sitton is now but I may be mistaken as I was very young at the time.

Also I do remember Her Majesty and hiding in the clothes racks too ...

[Greenville]

It's been years now, but my mom worked for a store called S-Mart. I was very young when she worked there but I think they were sort of an outlet of Stone Manufacturing. Once Stone shut down so did her store. She worked at the one on Augusta Rd. Does anyone remember S-Mart?

[tkdickey]

So does anyone remember anything else about Meyers-Arnold?

[linkerjpatrick]

I used to work at Meyers/Arnold in the corporate offices in the early 80's. I was in advertising and we did have (I believe) 7 stores in 5 cities in 3 states. Greenville had McAlister (Square) the flagship store and Haywood had a one level Womens store. Anderson Mall had m/a as an anchor as well as Greenwood Mall. We also had a store in the Asheville Mall. The two stores in Georgia were in Augusta GA. I never went to these. I worked in the advertising department and have a few copies of the old ads. I also moonlighted doing the ad layout and design for McAlister Square (I tried to get htem to drop the castle from the logo).

Thanks, TKD

[gvilledh]

It's been years now, but my mom worked for a store called S-Mart. I was very young when she worked there but I think they were sort of an outlet of Stone Manufacturing. Once Stone shut down so did her store. She worked at the one on Augusta Rd. Does anyone remember S-Mart?

[Sandlapper]

I don't remember one on Augusta Rd. ironically since I lived closer to there but I remember one on the same property as Stone Manufacturing. If I remember correctly it was in about the same place Atlanta Bread Company at Cherrydale is now. In my young mind I always thought it was strange how different it was from K-Mart! Of course I also remember a little convience store near where Jones Gap State Park is and it was called F-Mart.

Anyone else remember the other big outlet store in Mauldin called, Her Majesty? I used to dred going down there with my mother, etc. I got bored out of my mind and hid in the clothes racks if I recall correctly. That was about 35 years ago. I'm 41 now for the record! LOL.

For some reason this also brings back memories of the S&H Green Stamps Store on Pleasantburg Drive near Faris Rd. I recall they had a play room for the kids with a TV, toys, etc. near the front of the store.