Once common sights at strip malls and shopping centers across the US, a slew of America's most iconic retail and restaurant chains are now ghosts of their former selves. 

Over the years, these floundering businesses have closed countless locations, with factors such as online shopping, COVID-19, and fast-evolving consumer habits all battering their bricks-and-mortar trade.

Read on to discover the familiar brands that have gone from mighty to mini, including three chains with just one location left apiece. All dollar amounts in US dollars.

Department store chains have been at the sharp end of the so-called "retail apocalypse," with numerous once-successful names – including Barney's – all biting the dust in recent years.

With fierce online competition, the impact of COVID-19, and a declining affluent middle class to contend with, surviving brands have had to downsize to adapt to the "new normal."

Among them is Macy's, which was founded in New York City in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy.

Since 2006, the chain has pulled the plug on more than 40% of its locations, dropping from around 850 stores to just over 500. And in January 2023, the retailer announced that it will be closing four more stores before the end of the first quarter. The affected stores are located in California, Colorado, Hawaii, and Maryland. 

The powers-that-be are still in the process of streamlining operations and are moving away from shopping malls, opening smaller locations and targeting strip malls. These stores are operated under the names Market by Macy's, which offers collection for online orders, and off-price shop Backstage, which aims to compete with retailers like T.J. Maxx.

Ann Taylor, the stalwart of business casual shopping, is just one of the many apparel chains that have been impacted by the working from home revolution.

It comes as little surprise, then, that Ascena, the brand's parent company, hit the skids in July 2020, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Along with sister clothing brands LOFT and Lane Bryant, Ann Taylor was scooped up in November 2020 by private equity firm Premium Sycamore Partners, in a deal worth $540 million.

With a view to making the business profitable once again, the new Ann Taylor leadership team has been busy shuttering underperforming stores. Around two-thirds of the chain's locations have disappeared so far, leaving fewer than 200 stores and factory outlets open across the US.

Yet another one of America's flagging big-name brands, JCPenney was founded in 1902 and boasted an impressive 2,053 locations across the US at its 1973 peak.

Among them were 300 full-line department stores, which included all of its standard merchandise plus portrait studios, beauty salons and auto centers.

But while the business was thriving back then, the 21st century hasn't been all that kind to JCPenney...

The chain has seen its store count dwindle, and the closure rate increased following JCPenney's COVID-induced bankruptcy in 2020, which resulted in the sale of the retailer and the demise of a further 200 locations. With the brand's Puerto Rico stores included, the total number that remain open stands at around 650.

Simon Property Group and Brookfield Asset Management collaborated to buy the troubled department store chain at the end of 2020, spending $1.75 billion on the deal according to CNN. The firms own hundreds of malls where JCPenney was one of the main tenants and its loss would have had an impact across their portfolios. 

That still hasn't stopped a flurry of closures across the US though, most recently the JCPenney location at the Concord Mall in Elkhart, Indiana.

The very first Gap store opened on Ocean Avenue, San Francisco in 1969.

Founders Don and Doris Fisher reportedly started the company because Don couldn't find a pair of jeans that fit him properly when shopping at other stores. This simple style quandry ignited the idea for what would eventually become a billion-dollar global clothing business.

By 2007, there were more than 1,000 Gap stores in the US, as well as hundreds of others around the world; the company opened its first non-US stores in London in 1987.

But the all-American brand wasn't infallible and the business announced what would be the first in a long series of store closures in fall 2011...

In October of that year, the company announced that 189 US Gap stores would close their doors by 2013.

This trend has continued over the last decade and today, there are just 412 Gap stores left in the US. Unfortunately, the retailer has also been shedding jobs too. In September 2022 500 corporate employees were let go, and in 2023 it was announced another 1,800 jobs, including several regional store leaders, would be cut in second round of layoffs.

Founded by former fine-dining chef Jimmy Lambatos in 1981, the Denver-based Quiznos chain won America over with its gourmet toasted subs.

By the mid-2000s, there was a branch on almost every street corner, with the total location count peaking at 4,700 in 2007. But the chain's mouth-watering success wasn't to last...

A catastrophic combination of excessive food costs, sky-high debt, increased competition from Subway, and the Great Recession pummeled the business hard.

Locations closed in their droves and the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2014.

By 2017, the store count had nosedived to 400 and, as a result of the pandemic, the current total stands at a paltry 154. That's an incredible drop of 96% compared to the 4,700 branches that were open in 2007.

Famed for its Coney Island hot dogs and creamy root beer, Dog n Suds was at the height of its popularity in the 1970s, when drive-in eateries were all the rage.

Back then, the company was opening around 15 new restaurants every month, and it operated more than 600 locations across 38 US states and around Canada at the height of its success.

With drive-in dining declining in popularity, Dog n Suds has massively downsized over the years, closing restaurant after restaurant to address the falling demand for its core offering.

Today, the 1950s-style chain has just 20 locations left in seven states: Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Established in 1967, this Arby's competitor once tempted diners with its simple, wholesome menu of roast beef, salad, fries, baked potatoes, and soft drinks.

It proved to be a winning formula, and the chain had 504 locations in 38 states by the 1980s. However, by the end of that very same decade, its downfall had begun...

The business wasted money on redesigning its restaurants and also started to meddle with its refreshingly straightforward menu, with fussy new options that no longer appealed to its customers.

Rax Roast Beef also messed up its marketing, with an ad campaign featuring a cartoon character called Mr. Delicious backfiring spectacularly.

The chain went bankrupt twice in the 1990s before being purchased by Cassady & Associates in 1997. Today, just eight locations remain in three states, marking a spectacular 98% dip compared to the company's glory days.

Founded in 1956, Christopher & Banks was a familiar sight in malls across the US until relatively recently.

By 2011, the mid-price fashion retailer, which caters predominantly to women aged 40 to 60, counted a total of 761 stores across 45 states.

However, as competition from big-box retailers and online shopping channels grew during the 2010s, the chain's fortunes started to wane.

Christopher & Banks began to shut stores in a bid to adapt to the evolving retail landscape but was driven to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2021, with the pandemic primarily to blame. In 2020, the company closed all its stores and moved its operations exclusively online, reopening only five stores in select markets a few months later. 

Under the ownership of iMedia Brands as of 2021, eight branches of Christopher & Banks – located in Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Pennsylvania – remain open.

However, when you crunch the figures, that's still a 99% drop from the brand's 2011 glory days...

Once the largest and most powerful retailer in the world, Sears ruled the roost for much of the 20th century. Two-thirds of Americans shopped at the department store chain and its sales represented 1% of the US economy in the late 1960s.

Local branches of the department store titan were everywhere and by its 1980s peak, it had over 3,000 locations.

Like other department store chains, Sears, which merged in 2005 with the equally troubled Kmart, is a victim of the retail apocalypse, with everything from online competition to a lack of innovation behind its demise.

The biggest blow came in October 2018 when Sears filed for bankruptcy. This led to its acquisition by a company called TransformCo, which has overseen the closure of scores of locations. Brostocks reports that there are just 11 Sears still open in America as of July 2023.

Americans of a certain age will have fond memories of Burger Chef, which opened its doors for the very first time in 1954.

By the late 1960s, Burger Chef was the country's second-largest fast-food chain after McDonald's and the brand was reportedly running 1,200 locations by the early 1970s. 

The chain was the first to come up with the burger, fries, and drink combo, and also launched its "Fun Meal" bundle for kids in 1973. In fact, when McDonald's launched its rival Happy Meal offering in 1979, Burger Chef unsuccessfully sued.

Having lost millions due to over-expansion, Burger Chef more or less met its demise in the 1980s, when its parent company sold the chain to Hardee's for $44 million.

The rival operator converted existing outlets into branches of Hardee's and the Burger Chef brand was effectively no more.

However, the Broken Chains blog suggests that there are three "bootleg" branches of Burger Chef still in operation, located in West Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Missing those Blue Light Specials? Kmart went downhill not long after its 1994 peak, when the big-box department store chain was operating 2,323 discount stores and Super Kmart Center locations across the USA.

However, competition from the likes of Walmart and Target ate into the retailer's bottom line and, following a number of store closures, the chain filed for bankruptcy protection in early 2002.

A disastrous merger with Sears in 2005 and the rise of online shopping both helped to seal Kmart's fate. As its customer base dried up, the chain closed more and more stores; by 2015, it was down to just 940 locations.

Things went from bad to worse in 2018 after the bankruptcy of Kmart's parent company, Sears Holdings. The chain was sold to TransformCo, which has pushed ahead with yet more closures.

Today, just three Kmart stores remain and can be foun in Miami, Florida; Westwood, New Jersey; and Bridgehampton, New York.

The casual-dining Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon chain was once a formidable competitor of both Texas Roadhouse and Outback Steakhouse,

Depending on your age, you may recall eating at one of its 265 locations across the USA...

During the 1990s, however, rising costs and declining sales led to locations starting to close.

The chain struggled on for several more decades, shedding stores every few years, and eventually declared bankruptcy in 2017. 

Today, a single restaurant in Tamuning, Guam, is all that remains of this once beloved chain.

The very first Blockbuster store opened in 1985 in Dallas and the business expanded fast.

By the 1990s, it had established itself as America's most popular video rental chain and boasted more than 9,000 stores across the country. Blockbuster seemed truly unstoppable.

Yet by the late 2000s, Blockbuster was on its last legs, with stiff competition from Netflix's emerging mail order service, video on demand, and automated video-rental kiosks all taking their toll.

Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010. The following year, the flagging firm was bought by Dish Network, which went on to close all company-owned stores.

Miraculously, a handful of franchises managed to survive the huge sell-off and just one still stands today: the Blockbuster store in Bend, Oregon.

Sambo's started out in Santa Barbara in 1957 and swiftly become a booming pancake house chain, drawing in customers aplenty with its bottomless coffee and other enticing gimmicks.

At its 1979 peak, there were 1,117 locations in 47 states. However, the chain was riven with problems, not least the fact that its name drew associations with controversial children's book The Story of Little Black Sambo.

Although "Sambo's" was apparently an innocent portmanteau of the two founders' names, its controversial connotations were shamelessly embraced and reflected in the branding and interior design of its restaurants.

While hostility to the offensive name continued to grow, Sambo's real undoing was its poor management. Following a bankruptcy filing in 1981, all locations were shuttered bar one: the OG pancake house in Santa Barbara. The survivor finally dropped the racist moniker in 2020 and rebranded to "Chad's".

Now discover some other famous brands that changed their controversial names.