Value City was more than just a store, it revolutionized discount shopping. Out of the lowly Schottenstein’s from Columbus Ohio and branded Valley Fair in Northern New Jersey Value City was far more than just a store, but an institution. It was but another one of those gems from Ohio that you take for granted, sort of like the Dewey Decimal System, or tires.

Take into consideration that Value City expanded to include DSW and of course Value City furniture. Earlier in January they were considering selling out to Burlington Coat Factory, but instead went with another holding company and filed for bankruptcy. But die hard shoppers do not care about that, in their home state Value City had numerous stores in various cities 12 to be exact 2 in Columbus alone. Here in Hampton Roads they had one in Virginia Beach and one in Newport News I never knew about until now. There was also a location in Danville, where ever that is at.

Fond memories of this retail establishment include buying overpriced Valentino sweaters for $30, and RRL when it was chic for that one season for like $35, of which you are hard priced to find those jeans for less than $100 today. Unbelievable stupendous your mother smokes crack and works in a basement in the projects without any top on type of deals like Bally shoes for $70, among other things.

One thing that shoppers will note that Value City always had a penchant for carrying clothing that was not only cheap and reflected the best of deals you would find but true labels with the highest in quality. They also sold a lot of junk as well, but if you were willing to wade through the racks, like a true shopper does, you could find unbelievable deals. Too often, as was the case with the Valentino, people didn’t even really know what it was they were selling. Imagine people in Dayton, OH making $10 an hour figuring out what to do with a $400 Valentino sweater marked down to like $30. That store had a real sense of humor concerning where they sold the deals, considering the market they would dump merchandise in.

Just the other month I picked up a linen Joseph Abboud t-shirt for $4! Brand junkies do not know what Joseph Abboud is, which is why they were so cheap, which is why I came out the way that I did. Of course in a market like Chicago those shirts wouldn’t have went lower than $30. So that pretty much sums it up, my love affair with Value City; the location in Akron, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and finally Virginia Beach ended in Virginia Beach. But this store shouldn’t have closed, it should have been K-Mart, which deserved to die a timely death over 20 years ago or Khols, whose marketing scheme is about having a sale every single day of the year on merchandise no one really wants. No matter how you cut it though, Value City is gone, and with it, another part of the history of Ohio for locals that loved that store and took it in like a stray cat found along the road in the middle of the night.