Lord & Taylor was one of the most iconic and oldest retailers in the game. Would you believe they’ve been in business since 1826? They’ve seen it all, but apparently, the COVID epidemic took the brand out (along with past debt that finally caught up with it).
Other fashion retailers began to cut into margins, which caused them to drop brands left and right. It didn’t help. This year, Lord & Taylor went belly-up and went bankrupt. There were only 38 stores, but they all closed, soon followed by the website.
Who else loved glass Snapple bottles? They felt stronger, and it certainly felt like you were getting your money’s worth! You could even reuse them. Well, not anymore. Glass Snapple bottles became a thing of the past starting last year.
A Snapple spokesperson announced that they were ditching glass bottles in favor of “environmentally friendly” plastic ones. Um…what? Swapping forever-recyclable glass for plastic doesn’t make any sense in that aspect. Regardless, say bye-bye to glass Snapple!
For many of us, our first car was a Ford Taurus. That thing didn’t know when to quit and would keep going and going. It was one of the best vehicles on the market, but Ford decided it was time to give the brand its walking papers.
To be fair, the more recent models have been lackluster. We’re putting that lightly. Hardly anyone felt good behind the wheel, and that’s largely why the model was ditched. Apparently, even police officers hated driving them.
New York & Co. has been known by several names and was one of the original mall stores. The brand was endorsed by several A-list celebrities from Eva Mendes, Gabrielle Union, and Kate Hudson. Unfortunately, New York & Co. was unwilling to create a robust online presence.
Focusing on brick-and-mortar locations was a mistake. By 2019, revenue was down 7%, according to the Washington Post. Then, the pandemic struck, and stores had to shut down. That was the final death knell. In September of 2020, the parent group stated that all physical locations would be shut down.
For the last 10 years, Coca-Cola spent a lot of time acquiring brands, and we mean a LOT of brands. The brand purchased Tab, Odwalla, Zico, and so many more. However, last year, they spent most of their time unloading what they could.
Zico and Odwalla are two brands that got the ax. Their goal is to focus on selling energy drinks as the market shifts. It has also opened up Coca-Cola to innovate and create new flavors, but that doesn’t mean these “healthy” smoothies and coconut water won’t be missed.
Pier 1 Imports has been on shaky ground for a while. For some reason, people just weren’t interested in wicker furniture that lasted four years and weird-shaped bowls. Sales had been dipping for about five years, so we all saw it coming.
What we didn’t see was the sudden departure of the brand due to COVID. There was too much competition out with Wayfair and Target. So, they declared bankruptcy and announced they would be shutting down. Another company acquired Pier 1 in the hopes of bringing it back, but we’re not going to hold our breath.
GM made a big decision in 2020: it would be putting an end to all of its front-drive sedans. While most of them were pretty lame, some will certainly be missed. We’re talking about the iconic Chevrolet Impala. It drove great, felt nice behind the wheel, and we feel like it was totally understated.
Sure, most of our thoughts come from nostalgia, but the Chevrolet Impala wasn’t being outpaced that quickly, so this choice doesn’t make too much sense. Regardless, it’s going to feel weird not seeing the Chevy Impala on the market.
Did anyone even like Lean Pockets? They didn’t taste as good as Hot Pockets, and it wasn’t like they were healthy. Despite the name, Lean Pockets were sometimes even worse than Hot Pockets nutrition-wise.
Maybe that’s why Nestle decided they could do without them. Hot Pockets were in high demand, but Lean Pockets didn’t sell as well as hoped. There was no reason for the lower-fat option to stick around if customers didn’t want them.
The stores on this list all have a very obvious similarity: unless the parent company puts a lot of effort into having an online presence, the brand won’t make it. That’s what happened to Modell’s. Modell’s had a huge physical footprint but not a great online showing
Sadly, that sales method wouldn’t outlive the pandemic. Online sales made up only a tiny percentage of sales, so they couldn’t afford to stay open. It didn’t help that fewer and fewer people were participating in sports. This is another one that may pop up again in the future, but they’ll have stiff competition.
Stein Mart was the must-have in many cities (at least in Texas, Arizona, and California). Well, that didn’t matter much. Stein Mart had reported steady losses since 2016 thanks to larger chains like TJ Maxx. At the beginning of the year, Kingswood had purchased Stein Mart, and all seemed well.
Oh, actually, no, it didn’t. Kingswood stopped the acquisition almost immediately after the lockdown began, putting Stein Mart in a bad spot. They had to shut down all 300 locations. Retail Ecommerce Ventures took over the brand afterward with the plan of starting it back up as a digital store.
The poor, poor Volkswagen Beetle. It’s seen this treatment once before. The original design was retired because people were moving toward front-wheel drive vehicles with a hatchback (something the Beetle sorely lacked). Then, Volkswagen introduced the new design in 1998.
It was basically the same with a few changes that customers wanted most (like storage space in the right spot). Unfortunately, it was discontinued again. So much for being one of the most influential cars in history. There are still a few here and there, but we’ll never see a new one again.
Google has spent a lot of time obtaining companies from Waze to YouTube. Because it has YouTube, it saw no reason to keep Google Play Music. It really is pointless, right? YouTube has a better platform, even if it asks us to try premium every time you use it on your phone.
It gave users the chance to migrate all their files and playlists over before Google permanently shut it down on December 3, 2020. The one question we have: did anyone really even use Google Music? Spotify has pretty much reigned supreme since it came out.
No, we don’t mean the realty company! We mean the one in New York. If you were visiting New York, you stopped at Century 21. It was featured on many popular TV shows, which made people flock to the stores. That was great at the time, but it hasn’t helped recently.
If you want bargain clothing, you’ll have to go to TJ Maxx or another discount retailer. Century 21 ended up $56 million in debt, and apparently, their insurer refused to pay out $175 million in business interruptions caused by COVID-19 (all info according to WaPo). No money meant Century 21 was dead.
Sur La Table didn’t immediately announce that it was shuttering its doors permanently. At first, it was a restructuring strategy to close the underperforming stores. Then it turned into a total liquidation of nearly all of the remaining locations while the brand searched for a new buyer.
Thankfully, the iconic brand isn’t going completely under (just yet). Fifty stores have remained open thus far, but we suspect the stores will all be closed soon. Since the major downfall happened in 2020, we’re putting it on this list because the brand would have remained afloat if it weren’t for COVID.
The fall of the Chevy Cruze came in parts. First, the international version was discontinued all over the world in 2019 after the Ohio assembly plant shut down. It wasn’t long until other Cruze models followed suit.
The last country to hold on was China. However, after sales of the Chevrolet Monza destroyed Cruze numbers, even China followed suit. Goodbye, Chevy Cruze! The predecessors are still out there, including the Cobalt, Prizm, and Cavalier.
Quibi was the huge joke of 2020. The streaming service started up in the beginning of 2020 with bright eyes and bushy tails. By all accounts, Quibi really should have succeeded. They had content, and people were stuck at home watching TV every day, all day.
The problem? Branding. No one knew what Quibi was really about. When they found out that it was like Netflix and Hulu (but with episodes that were only 10 minutes long), people wondered why they had to pay extra for a YouTube video. Quibi was bankrupt and defunct by the end of the year. RIP Quibi.
Death to Papyrus! Long live Times New Roman! Just kidding. We don’t mean the font--although it wouldn’t be so bad if the typeface disappeared. We mean the greeting card vendor. It may be a huge surprise (sense the sarcasm), but people aren’t buying greeting cards as they did in the ’90s.
Papyrus has had to compete with brands like Paper Source, which has lower prices, and it found there was no way to stay in business. Paper Source scooped up what stores they could and will change the names. The rest? Gone forever.
This is a pretty sad one because many couples were left scrambling in the wake of Noah’s screw-up. Noah’s Event Venue was a wedding event chain that filed for bankruptcy protection in May. There were over 42 venues in 25 states, so it was nearly a nationwide problem when a judge ordered them to shut down.
The couples didn’t get any notification. Even worse, no one received a refund or assistance. An attorney for the company, Kenneth Cannon, stated that couples were legally entitled to refunds, but “there’s not very much, to be able to repay people with.” Weddings are already too expensive to deal with this crap.
What is a buffet to do in a pandemic? When everyone was forced to shut down for a period of time, buffets had the hardest time, and that includes Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes. According to the FDA, there’s just no way to operate a buffet during a pandemic.
All 97 locations shut down, and no one knew when they’d reopen, especially considering they were located in one of the hardest-hit states in the nation--California. They didn’t hold out long. The owners released a statement in May saying they would be permanently closing every location.
Ascena Retail has had a hard time staying open, and many of its brands are closing doors. The parent company owns Justice, Lane Bryant, Ann Taylor Loft, Lou & Grey, Cacique, and Catharines. Naturally, when the parent company struggles, they start shutting down stores.
Catharines was one of the first to go simply because it didn’t make enough money to remain open. While it did have online stores, the brand focused on brick-and-mortar stores. When the pandemic began and everyone had to “temporarily close,” Catherines was one that wouldn’t ever open again.
Art Van Furniture was once one of the more profitable furniture chains in the nation. That’s precisely why private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners purchased the brand for $612 million in 2017. Then, online furniture stores began to explode. They were popping up out of nowhere (and offered free shipping more often than not).
The growth of online competition, the owner’s death in 2018, and a “series of questionable decisions” (according to Modern Retail) led to the company liquidating everything it owned. The weirdest part was that it did so before it even declared bankruptcy. Weird is putting it lightly.
Before the pandemic really became an issue in the United States, Bose got ahead of the game and closed all 119 retail locations located in North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia. The global shut down accelerated the closures, though.
Bose decided that it would focus efforts on selling everything online, which is what they’re doing. The reason they’re on this list is because you’ll never see another brick-and-mortar Bose store again, which feels like the end of an era.
We don’t need Costco sheet cakes, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want them! In June, Costco customers discovered there was a shortage of half-sheet cakes. Figuring it was part of the pandemic, people brushed it off. Well, it wasn’t really a “shortage.”
It was discontinuation. Costco told Eat This, Not That! that the grocery store chain will focus its efforts on smaller cakes. Guess anyone who needs a lot of cake will have to purchase various little ones from now on – or go to another grocery store.
Aunt Jemima was a staple of many people’s kitchens for a long time, but not anymore. The company finally realized that their imagery was racially insensitive. After the Black Lives Matter protests rocked many towns in 2020, Quaker Oats decided to make a change.
In a press release, Quaker Oats stated that they would be changing the imagery and the name of their product, so it wasn’t based on a “racial stereotype.” The new name hasn’t been released, but let’s hope it’s something that’s progressive.
Uncle Bens is another food product that decided to change its brand to something else after a social media outcry. A spokesperson came out and announced, “We understand the inequities that were associated with the name and face of the previous brand, and as we announced in June, we have committed to change.”
On top of that, the brand gave $2 million to National Urban League and $2.5 million to Greenville, MS, where the rice is grown. The name and imagery will have a complete change. There hasn’t been any news as to what the name will change to.
The Buick LaCrosse has only been around since 2004, but we’re betting it’s one of the most common vehicles you see on the road. Because of slumping sales, GM gave the LaCrosse a chance and redesigned it in 2010. It also moved the sedan into a larger premium market. That didn’t do the LaCrosse any favors.
They tried again in 2017, but still nothing. All good things must come to an end. GM decided to discontinue the Buick LaCrosse. All production ended in 2019, but LaCrosses still popped up. The model is still being marketed in China, but who knows how long that’ll last?
How can we live without Tab? Maybe easily, since people kind of stopped buying them a long time ago. This soda became a huge icon in the ’70s, but most people moved on to better-tasting sodas years later. While it still maintained a cult following, they didn’t buy enough.
This isn’t the only cut by Coca-Cola, and reputable news sources claim that it also won’t be the last. Some are even suggesting that Dasani may be cut. We doubt Dasani will go away, but Tab will no longer be available.
Okay, we didn’t technically lose Taco Bell, but they cut so much stuff from their menu that they may as well left. They got rid of steak tacos, Mexican pizza, fiesta potatoes (although some locations have brought this back), loaded potato grillers, and more.
At this point, what’s the point of going to Taco Bell? Sure, they have tacos, but they ditched half the stuff people ate on a regular basis. Even worse, they didn’t add anything to the menu, either. Guess we’ll just grab the soft taco meal.
Eventually, this had to happen. Nintendo has released a flurry of new systems, including the Wii, Wii U, Switch, and several others since the 3DS came out. In all fairness, it has been over a decade since the system was released.
It was one of the first “3-D” systems that released, so we’re sad to see it go. Manufacturing has completely ended, according to Nintendo’s website. The fact of the matter is that it just hadn’t been selling like it used to.
One of the largest telecommunications companies ceased to exist in 2020, but it wasn’t that much of a surprise for most. The merger between T-Mobile and Sprint was a battle that’s been going on since April 2018.
The merger was brought before the Justice Department because some claimed it would reduce competition (and was causing us to move toward monopolies). The claim also stated it would cause higher bills for lower-income customers. The merger eventually went through, and Sprint was gone by August 2020.
