Connecticut

Founded by the Gilman brothers in Southbridge, Massachusetts, Ames built a discount-store chain concentrated in small towns and rural areas of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. It grew rapidly by acquisition — swallowing Zayre's discount stores and later Hills — but overreached and struggled with debt. After a 1990s bankruptcy and a brief recovery, a second filing led Ames to liquidate its more than 300 stores in 2002.

Carl and Dorothy Bennett blended their names into 'Caldor,' a Connecticut discount chain that grew into a Northeastern fixture sometimes called 'the Bloomingdale's of discounting' for its relatively upscale presentation. Owned for a time by Associated Dry Goods and then May, Caldor expanded aggressively into pricey markets like Manhattan just as Walmart and Target pushed east. Mounting losses pushed it into bankruptcy, and Caldor liquidated its roughly 145 stores in 1999.

Casual Corner was a mall mainstay of women's clothing, dressing working women in career separates, dresses, and coordinated outfits across hundreds of shopping-center stores along with its sister brands Petite Sophisticate and August Max Woman. As fast fashion and specialty rivals reshaped mall apparel, Casual Corner lost its footing. The chain was sold and its stores were liquidated in 2005.

Waldenbooks began as a Depression-era book rental library and became the quintessential American mall bookstore, with compact, browsable shops in shopping centers nationwide and the popular Waldenbooks Preferred Reader club. Acquired by Kmart and later merged into Borders Group, Waldenbooks was squeezed by superstores and online sellers. When Borders liquidated in 2011, the Waldenbooks mall stores closed with it.