Maryland

Crown Books, founded by Robert Haft of the Dart Group, was a discount-bookstore pioneer that undercut full-price shops with the slogan 'Books cost too much. Read a Crown book and save.' Concentrated in the Washington, D.C. area and other major markets, it helped popularize deep discounting on bestsellers. Caught between the new superstores and online retail — and roiled by a family feud over the parent company — Crown Books went bankrupt and liquidated in 2001.

Merry-Go-Round Enterprises sold trendy, of-the-moment clothing to teens and young adults through mall chains including Chess King, Cignal, and Dejaiz, riding the fashions of the 1980s and early '90s. The company rode fads hard — and when youth tastes shifted away from its flashy looks and a major acquisition went sour, it stumbled fast. Merry-Go-Round filed for bankruptcy and liquidated its hundreds of stores in 1996.