Many great stores have come and gone over the years. Hardware stores. Electronics stores. And even department stores. One that holds near and dear to my heart. Also because all of my close girlfriends and I all worked there in high school. I’m talking about Mervyn’s.
Founded in 1949, Mervyn’s (official company name: Mervyn’s California) first opened in San Lorenzo, California. Famously known for carrying a wide variety of goods such as bedding, bath, clothes, and even housewares. And the best part? All at what were always considered “discount prices.”
Side note: fun fact about these types of discounts. The product was usually marked up 300% and then put on sale to make it appear like you were getting a great deal. Good for our pocket books, most of the time. Good for the retail store’s bottom line, all the time.
Like I mentioned above, I used to work at Mervyn’s back in high school. Why? Because all of my girlfriends were also working there. And the paycheck of course.
Minimum wage back in the late 90s in Nevada was about $5.15/hr. And if I remember correctly, federal income taxes were around 15%. (Feel free to fact check this one.) So yes, for me, it was a lot of money out of my check every 2 weeks but compared to today, I am actually not mad about that anymore.
We also received a 15% discount on purchases from Mervyn’s, and a 10% discount at Target. At the time, Mervyn’s and Target were both under the Dayton-Hudson Corporation umbrella. For teen girls who loved shopping, this was perfect! I had a plethora of board shorts thanks to Mervyn’s.
Now, I didn’t really like talking to customers, so I chose the backstock route and got to hangout behind the scenes. My bestie was out on the service floor so how did we keep each other entertained while working? Well, the walkie-talkie system was a great resource and we would just tune to our own channel and BS most of the time we were there.
I remember one night we were both on the closing shift and my bestie got on our radio channel and told me she is pretty sure she encountered a real-live witch. Something about this woman holding a live ferret, and then was also acting weird. Also, she just suddenly disappeared? I’m not sure that is actually what went down, but I remember thinking the entire time my bestie is just joshing me and this isn’t really happening. She sounded so scared but I just couldn’t believe her. To this day, I have no idea if she was just pulling my leg or if something weird was actually happening in the front of the store. Maybe after reading this, she’ll let me know.
When I finally did decide to start working in the front of the store, I got assigned to the lingerie department as my “home base.” That was interesting to say the least. This was in the era of the Wonderbra and the Aquabra. You know, the bra that actually had water in the cups to make your boobs not only look bigger, but feel more real behind the layers of pushup padding?
And don’t think we didn’t have fun for the men. I remember at one point selling men’s circus animal themed banana hammocks. I knew way too much more than I needed to about lingerie in high school.
Lots of good times had at Mervyn’s, that’s for sure. I actually still have some sparkling hair clips I bought there once, and pretty sure some costume jewelry.
The recession and the rise of internet shopping was way too much for this department store. The store closed its final door near the end of 2008.
Just because the brick and mortar stores have disappeared and probably becoming a Kohls or Hobby Lobby by now, doesn’t mean you still can’t shop Mervyn’s! They have completely rebranded as an online-only store, which you can shop here. Same great prices. And just maybe some new memories to be made.