Times Square Stores

]

George Seedman continued to own and run the chain until 1987, when, at the age of 90, he began looking for buyers. Price Club (later renamed Costco) announced plans to buy an 81% stake in the company for $50 million in 1987. [cite news|title=Price Co. Plans to Buy 81% of a Store Chain|publisher="Wall Street Journal"|date=1987-03-17|pages=D4] After Seedman learned of plans to convert the TSS stores to warehouse clubs, the sale did not go through, and TSS was sold to the Pritzker family of Chicago later in 1987 for the same price.

Although it was a discount chain, by the 1980s its main markets were Nassau and Suffolk Counties, two of the richest in America at the time. Nine of their twelve modern-sized stores were on Long Island, one in Brooklyn on Linden Blvd, in Queens on Farmers Blvd, and another in The Bronx. [cite news|title=TSS contracts to stay alive on L.I - discount store chain on Long Island - Regional Analysis: Middle Atlantic - company profile|publisher="Discount Store News"|date=1989-05-29|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3092/is_n9_v28/ai_7621691] The chain began to struggle in the late 1980s and took drastic cost-cutting measures: downsizing stores and eliminating leased departments in a mistaken belief that the company could operate those departments more efficiently itself. In the early 1980s the chain attempted to stake a claim in Northern New Jersey when it leased 2 vacant, former Two Guys locations. The plan was to gauge reaction to these two large stores (150,000 sq/ft each), and then plan further expansion into New Jersey. Neither location lived up to expectations, and the two stores were first downsized to one level each and then shuttered.

On December 4, 1989, the chain, which had about 2,875 employees by then, filed for bankruptcy and announced it would close its doors on December 31, 1989. Three stores remained open for liquidation until June 1990.

Former locations

*Levittown, New York: Now an empty building on the corner of Hempstead Tpke. and Gardiners Ave. Was a K-Mart
*Elmont, New York: Now a Home Depot, On Hempstead Tpke.
*Hempstead, New York: Now a small shopping center off Greenwich st and Peninsula Blvd.
*Five Towns, New York: Now a Costco locaation
*Oceanside, New York: Now a Kohls and a Waldbaums. Long Beach Rd. and Daly Blvd.
*West Babylon, New York: Now a KMart
*Sayville-Bohemia: Now a KMart on Route 27
*Kearny, New Jersey: Former flagship Two Guys location, building demolished, now site of Pathmark.
*Union City, New Jersey: JFK Blvd, former Two Guys location, now mixed use office/retail center
*Brooklyn, New York: Linden Blvd; now a Magic Johnson movie theatre.
*Queens, New York : Farmers and Merrick in Saint Albans, Queens; now a Western Beef location.
*Bronx, New York: Former Caldor Now K-mart, on Bruckner Boulevard
*Melville, New York: Former Caldor, now Kohl's and Dick's Sporting Goods, on Route 110
*Middle Island, New York: Former White on Route 25, most recently a KMart, now abandoned.
*Middle Village, New York: later Robert Hall Village, then Caldor's, then K Mart

References