LaBelle's stores...

[cfz2882]

anyone remember "LaBelle's"department stores?-these were one
of my faves back around 1977-78;they didn't have large
appliances,but man did they have small appliances,heaters,
novelty lamps,and the like- a small automotive section too
-lots and lots of cool stuff!
The local LaBelle's closed in 1990 and i haven't seen one since
-they must have gone "belly up"around that time.
after it closed the building was remodeled into a "toys-r-us"

 

[hydralique]

Never heard of 'em, maybe they closed because Patti upped the royalties for her name . . .

 

[pdub]

LaBelle's...

was owned by Modern Merchandising of Minneapolis and was primarily set up as a catalog showroom. They had stores under other names in different states as we had JAFCO stores here in Oregon that were set up identically.

In 1982 BEST acquired Modern Merchandising and all its stores and renamed them all BEST by 1986. BEST finally went completely bankrupt in 1996 and all stores closed.

See link below for an old LaBelle's commercial.

 

[cfz2882]

cool lamps

Thanks for that info!
Might have just been because it was 1978,but LaBelle's had
some cool lamps around that time;lava lamps,"disco"lights,
and some that had nylon threads that recirculating oil was
dribbled down to resemble rain.A little later,around 1981,
they had some cool(but very fragile)fiber optic lamps.

 

[sdlee]

Yes I remember La Belles...loved it, It was odd to not be able to take stuff off the shelves. Ours came and went in about the same time frame and is now a Hobby Lobby. I liked LaBelles because they had all the regular stuff but they had somethings you couldnt find anywhere else and anything brand spanking new on the market useaully showed up there early.

 

[roto204]

Oh, yes!

Loved LaBelle's...ours in Yuma became a BEST, and became my most favorite store ever...until it was no more.