Making a store pay is a challenge, but not all stores shut because they didn't suceed. From stores sat empty in long-forgotten ghost towns to chains that have abandoned hundreds of outlets to a forgotten branch of British department store giant Harrods you probably didn't know existed, click or scroll through derelict stores around the world and the often poignant stories behind their closures.

Chloride in Sierra County, New Mexico sprung up in 1880 after Harry Pye thought he’d found his fortune when he discovered a silver ore. Word of the precious metal mine soon got out and people flocked to the town, which grew to have nine saloons, stores stocking dry goods, confectionary and fresh produce, two hotels, a laundry and a school. Sadly for the townsfolk the price of silver nosedived in the early 1900s, prompting a mass exodus from Chloride. Incredibly 27 historic buildings remain on the land, including the now-abandoned Pioneer Store, which provides a century-old snapshot of what life was like in the town all those years ago. 

The ruins of the Porter Brothers general store stand in the Death Valley ghost town of Rhyolite. The gold rush town was born in 1905 and within two years had electricity, a stock exchange, stores, a school, hotels and even an opera house. But the financial panic of 1907 hit the prospecting town hard and by 1920 nearly everyone had left. In a town full of saloons, Porter Brothers was known for not selling liquor, with a sign on its shopfront declaring "All Things Good But Whiskey".

The discovery of gold caused people to flock to Golden in Josephine County, Oregon in the 1840s, and by the 1890s the settlement had blossomed into a fully-fledged mining town with hundreds of residents, ample housing and public buildings, which included a general store. As with many hastily established goldrush communities, tumbleweed started to blow through Golden as its population dwindled in the 1920s. The town is mostly abandoned and its remaining buildings stand on what is now an Oregon State Heritage Site.

The lifespan of the tiny town of St. Elmo in Colorado was just 40 years, after it was founded in 1880. Gold and silver mining opportunities drew in a population of up to 2,000 people within a decade and hotels, saloons and dancing halls quickly sprung up. The town also had its own general store and telegraph office. At its peak there were more than 50 working mines in the vicinity of St. Elmo. Sadly fires destroyed much of the town in 1890 and again in 1898, and the local mining industry was in serious decline by the 1920s. The railroad services to St. Elmo stopped in 1922 and the town and its stores were left all but abandoned. The frozen-in-time buildings attract around 50,000 tourists each year.

Duck Hill, Mississippi became notorious across the US in the 1930s after two Black men were brutally lynched and the story gained national publicity and condemnation. Today the rural town has a population of around 1,300 and is regularly buffeted by strong storms and intense rainfall linked to climate change. In 2017, Duck Hill residents pledged to revitalise their town and make it more economically and environmentally sustainable, but dilapidated stores such as these have yet to be brought back to life.

Garnet in Montana is home to the eponymous red, semi-precious stone, but it was the prospect of gold that drew around 1,000 residents to the area in the 1890s. At its zenith, the town had four stores, four hotels, a school and 13 saloons, but once the gold dried up, its residents shipped out. By 1940, Garnet was a ghost town. Work to restore Montana’s most intact abandoned town started in 1970, and more than 30 buildings have been preserved. Garnet is now used to teach visitors about Montana’s history.

Bodie is a town preserved in an "arrested state of decay" by California State Parks. Founded in 1859 after gold was discovered nearby, it flourished into a population of several thousand within years. But the settlement, like others of its kind, fell into decline and by the 1940s nearly everyone had left. In 1961, the Wild West ghost town was designated a National Historic Landmark. The preserved Boone Store, which dates back to 1879, contains dozens of artefacts from years gone by.

 

Thurmond in West Virginia was bustling with trade following the completion of the C&O Railroad and a new river bridge in the 1880s. The town’s steam engine repair shop was at the heart of the town’s thriving economy, but the municipality’s dependence on the business eventually became its downfall. A series of fires destroyed much of the town’s infrastructure in the 1920s and 1930s and then the introduction of diesel engines saw Thurmond’s steam engine repair shop rendered redundant. Custom at other local businesses dwindled and local stores and commercial properties such as these quickly hollowed out. Almost abandoned, the 2010 Census found that Thurmond had just 10 residents. 

This burnt-out butcher’s shop is located in the French ghost town of Oradour-sur-Glane, which saw 642 of its inhabitants massacred by the Nazis just days after the Allied landings in Normandy in 1944. The German SS troops then set fire to buildings and cars in an apparent attempt to hide their atrocities. After World War II came to an end, President Charles de Gaulle declared the town a memorial and reminder of the devastation of war. The SS unit was never brought to justice.

Humberstone is an abandoned former saltpeter mining town in Chile. Founded in 1872, the settlement was named after British chemical engineer James Humberstone who made his fortune from the mineral used to make fertiliser. In its heyday, the company town housed 3,500 people, with residents buying all their provisions from the central store (pictured). But the invention of synthetic fertilisers eventually marked its downfall and it was abandoned in 1960. The ghost town is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

On 26 April 1986, one of the world's biggest nuclear disasters happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in what is now Ukraine. A day later, the nearby city of Pripyat was evacuated with residents told they'd be able to return shortly. But the city remains a ghost town due to radiation, left much as it was when its citizens fled over 30 years ago. Residents haven't returned on a permanent basis, but tourists come to visit the site and see abandoned buildings such as this grocery store, where signs still hang above the aisles.

It is a little-known fact that iconic London department store Harrods once had another branch in Buenos Aires. Founded in 1914 when the Argentinian capital was one of the wealthiest cities in the world, the store expanded over the years but was badly hit by the country's struggling economy and eventually closed in 1998. There are now multi-million dollar plans to revive it as a retail outlet and hotel.

For years, this pretty Art Deco facade was all that remained of the former Tea Rooms café at Museum Street, Bloomsbury, in central London. According to urban explorer Weburbanist, the cosy little shop that had welcomed guests since 1960 closed its doors in 2000 after owner Eugenio Corsini passed away. The shopfront was only recently painted over but attempts to revive the shop as offices didn't last long. The location is reportedly boarded up once again.

This Coles supermarket originally opened as Coles New World in the Australian state of Victoria in 1978, according to anonymous urban explorer Abandoned Melbourne. The superstore then reportedly closed its doors nearly exactly 30 years later due to rising competition in the area. The urban explorer keeps the exact location of his discoveries secret, to discourage vandals, but said the building was owned by former Aussie rules player Chris Langford.

On 11 March 2011, a devastating earthquake ricocheted through north-eastern Japan, causing tsunami waves that instigated the Fukushima nuclear accident, which is deemed to be the second worst nuclear disaster of all time. Some 47,000 people were ordered to evacuate their homes, including in the town of Okuma. Only in 2019 were select areas of the town successfully decontaminated to the point where they were habitable, but only a few hundred of the town’s original 10,000 or so residents registered to return home. A decade after the disaster much of the town remains in ruins, and the streets are lined with destroyed stores frozen in time, like this gift shop. 

What became known as the Kunsthaus Tacheles opened as the Friedrichstraßenpassage department store in Berlin in 1908. Twenty years later it fell into the hands of German electricity company AEG and was badly destroyed during World War II, eventually falling into disrepair until it was taken over by a radical artist collective after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The artists eventually left in 2012 and the entire surrounding area is currently being redeveloped.

Until it shut in 2016, Austins department store in the Northern Irish city of Londonderry was thought to be the world's oldest independent department store. Opened in 1830, the five-storey Edwardian building was renowned for its selection of Irish crystal, homewares and linen. But it closed its doors without warning in March 2016 amid concerns about asbestos in the building, causing 53 sudden redundancies in the process. In 2017 it was announced that planning approval had been granted to redevelop the store, but in 2020 the site was still abandoned and concerns were raised about the state of the site.

BHS was founded as British Home Stores in 1928 by a group of US entrepreneurs. It expanded throughout the UK and to far-flung destinations including Moscow, the Falkland Islands and Hong Kong before being acquired by retail magnate Philip Green for £200 million ($316m) in 2000. But after a series of loss-making years, the company entered administration in 2016, leading to the eventual closure of stores such as this one in Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street. Glasgow City Council is currently reviewing applications to turn the site into an outlet for an unnamed ‘leading retailer’, but for now this BHS store, like many others, remains empty. 

This former Kmart store in Hazleton, Pennsylvania saw its last customers leave the building in 2018, and the abandoned exterior is set to become a common sight across the US as more and more outlets quietly close their doors. Despite being able to open during the coronavirus pandemic thanks to its ‘essential’ status, the company, which like Sears is owned by Transformco, hasn’t seen a boom in custom like its rival discount retailers. Kmart stores could be found in every state in 2019 when the retailer had around 360 locations, but just two years later it’s been estimated that only 30 stores remain nationwide.

New York department store Henri Bendel shut its flagship location at Fifth Avenue (pictured) three years ago, after nearly 125 years in the business. The long-standing retailer was known for selling luxury women's accessories in its distinctive brown and white striped bags. But in late 2018, owner L Brands announced it would close all 23 stores in order to focus on its other brands such as Victoria's Secret.

Founded in 1948, US chain Toys "R" Us became one of the world's best-known toy brands. But with the rise of rivals such as Amazon, it faced an increasingly competitive market. Toys “R” Us filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2017, and in 2018 announced that it was closing all its US and UK stores. In January 2019 the company looked set to make a big comeback when it emerged from bankruptcy as Tru Kids, but the last two US-based Toys “R” Us stores closed their doors for the final time in January.

The very public failures of 16 famous businesses

Adams in Tennessee first welcomed settlers in the 1790s, but most of the early buildings were destroyed during the Civil War. Stores and mills had been built up again by the 1880s and up until the 1960s Adams thrived thanks to its location on both Highway 41 and various railroad connections between Chicago and Miami. The highway was eventually replaced by Interstates 24 and 65 and the railroad was discontinued, which drew traffic away from Adams and caused many local businesses to shut up shop. Dilapidated store fronts still line some of the city’s streets.

The Sears department store in Ottawa, Canada, was one of hundreds of Kmart and Sears-branded outlets closed after Sears Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2018. Founded in the late 1800s and once the largest retailer in the world, Sears was bought by Kmart for $11 billion (£5.9bn) in 2004 but was hit badly by the 2008 recession and the rise of Amazon. The number of Sears stores has been dwindling for years, with 72 outlets closing their doors last year and a further 16 set to shutter for good in the coming months. By the end of 2021 there will only be around 30 Sears locations left in America, which is quite the steep decline from the 489 stores that existed at the beginning of 2019. This particular store was demolished.

All 2,500 Payless ShoeSource stores across North America were closed after the 63-year-old company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2019 – the second time in three years. The company had struggled with heavy debt and cited "unanticipated delays" with its suppliers as a reason behind selling off much of its stock at heavily discounted prices. Its franchise operations and stores in Latin America were largely unaffected, and the company emerged from bankruptcy in January 2020 with plans to focus on e-commerce in the States and its international brick-and-mortar stores.

 

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, department store Macy’s had already committed to shutting 125 of its stores over the coming three years in an announcement made in February 2020. The closures would lead to around 2,000 redundancies, as the company looked to improve profits. Last year 28 Macy’s stores and one Bloomingdale’s location were shuttered, while 37 locations are set to close their doors for the final time in 2021. Some outlets will be turned into fulfilment centres to meet demand driven by online sales, but other sites, such as this one in Maryland, have been abandoned entirely. 

 

Even America’s oldest clothing store has been rattled by the coronavirus pandemic, and it almost slipped into bankruptcy in July last year. Brooks Brothers was then reportedly saved by brand management firm Authentic Brands and US shopping centre owner Simon Property, who acquired the brand in a $325 million (£253m) deal in August. Brooks Brothers fans might not want to celebrate too soon though. More stores are set to be cleared out like this New York outlet, as the new owners have only agreed to keep 125 of the remaining 200 stores open.

Fry’s Electronics served customers at 31 stores across nine states – until COVID-19 hit. The retailer recently announced that the economic impact of the crisis and a change in consumer habits prompted owners to shut the family business for good. The outlets were often recognisable through their quirky designs, including this Burbank, California location, where a UFO appears to be crashing through the store. For now, the site is desolate.

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