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Two Guys Discount Stores

Posted: 15 Oct 2007 19:09
by mike t. whittier ca
Does anyone remember the Two Guys Department Stores? I worked for them when I was in High School in Garden Grove Ca. Please share anything about the company. thanks.

Posted: 15 Oct 2007 21:48
by Groceteria
There are two recent posts about the chain on the front page of this site:

http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com/

Nice photos, too...

Posted: 16 Oct 2007 21:30
by runchadrun
There's also some history of Two Guys and its Socal predecessor Unimart in this post, particularly in the comments I posted:
http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=1877

Two Guys

Posted: 23 Oct 2007 14:12
by scanman2
Yes I remember that Two Guys in Garden Grove. Strange growing up in Anaheim that many of these stores were in surrounding cities except White Front and Thriftimart had stores in Anaheim. How did mom afford to do all this shopping when my dad was making $2.50/hr? lol!

Re: Two Guys Discount Stores

Posted: 31 Dec 2007 09:55
by carljohnson
There were two Two Guys Department Stores in the Albany, NY area. One was north of Albany in Menands, something of a retail outpost at the time but near the huge Montgomery Ward store. The building still stands, but I don't know if it has any tenants. There are a number of old pictures floating around the web of this location because its huge parking lot was used for midget racing in the '60s. The other location was in downtown Schenectady, two blocks off the main downtown street, where Two Guys had two separate buildings: the main department store, and, across the street, the auto center. Both buildings still exist and have been converted into office space. As teens, we used to get dropped off a the city library just a block away, pretend to do school projects for an hour, then we'd go prowl the Two Guys for a while. We loved it because it sold everything you could imagine for Gilbert chemistry sets, had all the comic book action figures, and had an amazing year-round toy department. They had a pretty good record department, much more vast than the local Apex Music Korner store. They were also a decent camera supplier, and I bought most of my darkroom supplies there as they were considerably cheaper than the local camera shops and I could get there at night. I bought my first SLR camera there on layaway in 1977.

Someone has posted an old Two Guys commercial (who saves these things?) on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgn1yY34jjs


The original name was Two Guys from Harrison. Vornado was the parent corporation, and many of the "house brand" items, such as transistor radios, carried the Vornado name. The Vornado Realty Trust now controls substantial property and retail in New York City and elsewhere.

http://www.virtualnewarknj.com/memories ... woguys.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vornado_Realty_Trust

Re: Two Guys Discount Stores

Posted: 31 Dec 2007 17:57
by BillyGr
carljohnson wrote:There were two Two Guys Department Stores in the Albany, NY area. One was north of Albany in Menands, something of a retail outpost at the time but near the huge Montgomery Ward store. The building still stands, but I don't know if it has any tenants. There are a number of old pictures floating around the web of this location because its huge parking lot was used for midget racing in the '60s.
The front portion of the building was a grocery store (Albany Public, then Grand Union) for quite some time.
The Two Guys part held a flea market at one point.

At this point, most (if not all) of the building is used by the State of New York (or companies working for them) as a tax processing center.
It has always been hard to tell (since the grocery portion has it's front windows/doors covered) if that part is used or just the Two Guys part.

Re: Two Guys Discount Stores

Posted: 17 Mar 2008 21:01
by scott7789
Two Guys in Scj=henectady, New York played a huge part in my growing up. It, in my opinion was the best overall store of its kind ever. The only thing I wouldn't personally buy there was clothes. Their record dept was second to none. Their hobby center sold old vintage coins which you could examine on a rotating conveyor belt. Sporting goods had everything. I also remember for a couple of years after their opening, selling Pirranah in the pet dept. But the biggest thrill I had was taking my allowance and heading down to their Amusement area. There was about 12 Pinball games and 10 miniature bowling games with miniature marblized 5 inch bowling balls that worked and looked like the real thing. it was also there where I used an electrical dollar billchanger for the first time. State of the art. I remember looking at the multitude of color televisions. Most of them looked like the people on tv went through a nuclear blast. Their faces were orange and pink and their clothes had green lines around them. Gastly by todays standards. There was also a gaunt older man who used to come in on occasion and play the Magnus Chord Organs for hours. He looked homeless but man could he play

Re: Two Guys Discount Stores

Posted: 05 Jun 2008 23:24
by MikeRa
I also remember Two Guys in the SE Pennsylvania area. We had 3 of them, located at:
  • Knight Road & Street Road, Bensalem, PA
    Lincoln Highway, Levittown/Langhorne, PA
    Red Lion Road & Roosevelt Boulevard (US Route 1), Philadelphia, PA
The Bensalem location also had a grocery store in their building. The Philadelphia, Pa store shared a shopping center with a Acme Super Saver Market, and the Levittown store was near a K Mart that used to be the Langhorne Speedway.

All of the Two Guys in the Philadelphia area later became Jefferson Ward, and then Bradlees The Bensalem location became a Jefferson Ward (later Bradlees)/Shop Rite store. Here is what became of them:
  • Knight Road & Street Road, Bensalem, PA: Demolished & replaced by Kohl's
    Lincoln Highway, Levittown/Langhorne, PA: Today, The Dump
    Red Lion Road & Roosevelt Boulevard (US Route 1), Philadelphia, PA: replaced by Best Buy

Re: Two Guys Discount Stores

Posted: 07 Feb 2009 19:47
by Ephrata1966
Most Two Guys were in the Philadelphia area. The ones there all became Jefferson Ward. Most of them became Bradlees after that, except for one that became a PACE wholesale club. PACE was acquired by Sam's Club in 1993-1994. This Sam's relocated in 2005 and is still vacant.

Another one became Bradlees, but it closed in 1989, and became a Sam's then. This one relocated in 2003.

Re: Two Guys Discount Stores

Posted: 28 Oct 2009 20:40
by MikeRa
Ephrata1966 wrote:Most Two Guys were in the Philadelphia area. The ones there all became Jefferson Ward. Most of them became Bradlees after that, except for one that became a PACE wholesale club. PACE was acquired by Sam's Club in 1993-1994. This Sam's relocated in 2005 and is still vacant.

Another one became Bradlees, but it closed in 1989, and became a Sam's then. This one relocated in 2003.
here are the 12 Two Guys in the Philadelphia area, including the 3 I mentioned before:
  • Cherry Hill, NJ
  • Turnersville, NJ
  • Lawnside, NJ
  • Marlton, NJ
  • Delran, NJ
  • Bordentown, NJ
  • Red Lion and US Route 1, Philadelphia, PA
  • Knights and Street Road, Bensalem, PA
  • Broomall, PA
  • Glenholden, PA
  • Business US Route 1, Langhorne/Levittown, PA
  • Hatboro/Upper Moreland, PA
The ones that did not become the inital 12 Jefferson Ward stores in Philadelphia area were:
  • Turnersville, NJ
  • Delran, NJ (Became one in the 2nd wave)
  • Broomall, PA
  • Glenholden, PA
  • Hatboro/Upper Moreland, PA

Re: Two Guys Discount Stores

Posted: 28 Oct 2009 22:51
by TenPoundHammer
I have one listed for Hudson, NJ at the Hudson Mall, where Marshalls and Kids "R" Us (now Sixth Avenue Electronics) are. I think the Jefferson Ward->Bradlees->Ross/Dick's building at Coventry Mall (née Norco Plaza) in Pottstown, PA might've been Two Guys at one point given that it was Jefferson Ward and Bradlees.

Re: Two Guys Discount Stores

Posted: 29 Oct 2009 16:35
by umtrr-author
If it's the Hudson Mall, it would be Jersey City, NJ and I can certainly confirm that one for you...

It was quite the large store. I don't have too many specific memories of it as we moved out of JC when I was a First Grader. I did get back there once in a while but the usual Two Guys after that for us was the Woodbridge NJ store.

We also shopped at the Two Guys in North Bergen, I believe it was officially on Paterson Plank Road but I could be wrong about that. It was visible from west of the Palisades, for example the ramp eastbound up to the covered roadway of Route 3 that leads to the Lincoln Tunnel. I recall a large neon sign structure, don't recall whether it was "Two Guys" or "2 Guys" (or whether that is faulty memory entirely).

Was just at an estate sale yesterday and came across model train building kits-- still with the "Two Guys" price stickers attached. Two Guys was up here in the Rochester NY area as well.

Re: Two Guys Discount Stores

Posted: 07 Nov 2009 20:42
by catnapped
There were also a few out on Long Island (NY). New Hyde Park started out as Grants, then went Two Guys, Channel, Bradlees, now it's Stop & Shop, and there were a couple scattered around Suffolk County. In addition there was one in Lancaster PA (Roherstown Rd @ Columbia Ave). Became Jamesway, then was demolished and now is a Lowe's

Re: Two Guys Discount Stores

Posted: 22 Jun 2017 18:53
by Ampersand
scott7789 wrote:Two Guys in Scj=henectady, New York played a huge part in my growing up. It, in my opinion was the best overall store of its kind ever. The only thing I wouldn't personally buy there was clothes. Their record dept was second to none. Their hobby center sold old vintage coins which you could examine on a rotating conveyor belt. Sporting goods had everything. I also remember for a couple of years after their opening, selling Pirranah in the pet dept. But the biggest thrill I had was taking my allowance and heading down to their Amusement area. There was about 12 Pinball games and 10 miniature bowling games with miniature marblized 5 inch bowling balls that worked and looked like the real thing. it was also there where I used an electrical dollar billchanger for the first time. State of the art. I remember looking at the multitude of color televisions. Most of them looked like the people on tv went through a nuclear blast. Their faces were orange and pink and their clothes had green lines around them. Gastly by todays standards. There was also a gaunt older man who used to come in on occasion and play the Magnus Chord Organs for hours. He looked homeless but man could he play
I look at this location now and I can't imagine there ever having been a department store there.. Is the building still standing? or has something else been built there?
Right now on this location there is a sports bar with a garage, which I guess was the autocenter, but looking across the way just raises more questions in my mind... did it have a large parking lot? Do you have any pictures of the place?

Edit:
OK I found it finally thanks to newspaper archives would be nice to see it in its heyday though https://goo.gl/15arhr