This past weekend the infamous Dunbar Fas-Chek closed its doors for good. I worked there when I was fresh out of high school, for about three years. It was quite an experience. You can read one of the many stories here. Wotta shithole.
By the way, you can see my old bedroom window in this shot. I slept and rocked out, and whatnot (ahem), behind those windows from the ages of 11 through 22.
Almost every place I’ve ever worked has now bitten the dust. Here’s a rundown:
Dunbar Toll Bridge GONE
Fas-Chek GONE
Dunbar Exxon GONE
Food Lion STILL KICKIN’
Peaches Records GONE
Gemini Distributing GONE
Warner-Elektra-Atlantic GONE
Warner Home Video STILL KICKIN’
I’m closin’ ’em down! Please note, however, that the toll bridge itself still exists. The toll has just been lifted — and all the toll collector jobs are GONE. Also, I think WEA still exists in some form — maybe a couple of cubicles in Burbank — but the company I knew is… GONE.
I have a whole section of my new book (not just a chapter, but a section) dedicated to my tenure at Fas-Chek. Oh, the stories are many…. Did I mention, wotta shithole? Maybe I should be sad about its demise, but for some reason I’m not feeling it.
I radically overslept today, so this is gonna have to do it. Can you beat my percentage of closed businesses left in your wake? Please tell us about it. And I’m going to work now…. No chance the current place is going under anytime soon. Holy shitballs, are we busy!
See ya tomorrow, my friends.
I think Burger King is still kicking….
Man, you can even slaughter the big boys. I fear that a cubicle farm in wherever the hell you are now is going to crumble into dust if they lose you.
I think only two of my old employers have bitten the dust. Sears in San Jose, CA (where I worked in high school and have many stories about) and Laufen Tile – a Swiss tile company with American HQ in Sacramento. I was their San Francisco rep many moons ago. I think that does it.
Happy Tuesday, Surfers!
The business I own is closing in the next month or so. Does that count?
Only if you need a loan.
I’ve noticed that businesses tend to blossom after my departure. Since I own my own business now, that puts me in a persistent state of confusion.
Three of the five places I’ve worked in my lifetime are closed.
I also worked at this dump. I threw a $12 roast up into the ceiling tiles before I left. Wonder if it’s still there?
I once hid a slab of fresh salmon deep behind the cereal boxes in a grocery store. Wonder how long it took to stink. (I didn’t work there).
I’ll bet that one caught someone’s attention ASAP! We worked with a guy who was always messing around with stuff. Of course, this was back before tamper-proof packaging was mandatory. He once opened a bottle of Heinz and stuck a tampon way down in the bottom of the bottle and put it back in regular circulation. I can just imagine the SURPRISED look on the face of that lucky person when it dumped out onto their burger or fries.
That is both gross and awesome.
Go Food Lion!
It’s sad that the smaller, independent grocers are closing. I hate having to go to WalMart or a 150k sq ft. Kroger to get table salt. I like the small, independent places.
Me too Steve!
Off topic….
I opened my lunch box today and found two $20’s and a bottle of fiber pills. My wife is trying to tell me something, but what could it be?
“Take a good dump and pop for $40 worth of flowers. ”
But I don’t want to put words in her mouth.
“Thanks for last night, but it’d be better if you lost a little weight.”
The fiber pills are for a couple of good healthy dumps. The $20’s are for extra toidy paper and new gutchies in case you don’t make it in time.
See also Jeff’s writeup on everyone’s favorite OTC medication: http://thewvsr.com/alli.htm
It still astounds me that any corporation would name their bank after this product.
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Got no idea about the fiber pills but that $40 says lap dance to me.
She wants six Percocets as her script ran out and a 12 pack of Charmin?
Three of the five places where I’ve worked are gone. If you include my little stint at being self-employed (I cleaned houses in college), then 4 of 6 are gone.
That’s weird. I never really thought about it before. Thanks, Jeff, for giving me something else to obsess over!
I’m 50/50 with the companies I worked for.
McDonald’s = stil there
A&P – the one where I worked is still there but quite a few have closed.
Law Firm – Still kicking
Ad Agency – GONE – oh – , ahem – “disbanded – the partners wanted to retire” – which is all a huge euphanism for: No fucking clients. The head honcho, Mike, would go out to lunch, come back at 4:45 and take us all out for drinks. It was a great place but I was told about the “disbanding” 5 months before my wedding. It wasn’t a big wedding (65 people) but still. WHo needed that stress?
Lighting Company – GONE – creepiest muthafucka I ever had the pleasure of working four days for. The day I went to quit, I had my (soon to be) husband and his policeman friend waiting in the parking lot in case this weird bastard went postal and threw something. He did try to screw me out of a day’s pay and he took his sweet time paying me. The reason I stayed all of four days was because every one of those days I was fielding calls from bill collectors. I knew he wouldn’t last more than 6 months. I hope the cocksucker is in jail taking it deep and on a slant from some 400 pounder named “Tiny”
Temp Company: GONE! Swallowed up by someone else.
Current Position – Please, keep me emplyed until I reach retirement.
Where is this place of which you speak–“retirement”–and if it’s so wonderful that you yearn to reach it, where might it be found?
In the land called “Utopia”.
Trust me, my “retirement” will probably have a guerney and medical tstaff involved with it.
My retirement housing plan is an urn.
That’s a little cramped for me…I prefer a 3×6 plot!
I used to work for IEG, Internet Entertainment Group (lookit up, jeebus do i hafta do everything?) and I think they are toast, and i know that the founder is in exile in thailand.
Those days were …..interesting. The last three companies i have worked for went tits up. Maybe it’s me?
Of the six places I’ve worked, only one has gone toes up. Probably because I tend to gravitate towards larger companies where I can be a “small duck in a big puddle!”
I like to keep a low profile.
For the last 20 years or so, I’ve worked for several doctors. All are still around but may have moved to different offices or new partnerships. However, living in Indiana, PA, until I was about 24 or so, I worked in about 6 places. Mickey D’s and Wendy’s are the only ones that exist now. That was back in the glorious 80’s.
One place was the 2-story wedding/dress shop where I witnessed some dude playing with himself in his truck at the main street light while I was standing in the window. Ahhhh. Good times
It would be really weird if he was Mr. Bobbitt. Here today, gone tomorrow.
Short rundown:
GSE Gone
Emery Worldwide Airlines Gone
Comair (Will be gone in 6 weeks)
Midcoast Aviation – New owners and name
AAR – Still going strong
Allegiant Air – probably collapse in on itself in 5 yrs
Delta – Still there
Domino’s – Still there
DHL – Not sure
4 outta 5 gone.
Alex.
We’ll Walk Your Cats! – Gone
Ed’s Knife Sharpening Shack – Gone
We’ll Empty Your Ashtrays! – Gone
T. Farty McAppleass’ Mailbox Repair – Gone
Booger and Jaime’s Goat Milk Delivery – Gone
T. Farty McAppleass’ Black Market Human Organs – Open
When I wake up with a huge cut on my side in a bathtub full of ice and alcohol, I’ll know who to thank!
Regarding the bathtub: http://xkcd.com/914/
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My bf smoke’s like crazy. One in each hand and one between his knees on case the other two go out. Could you revisit the Ashtray Emptying” business again?
Digital Equipment Corporation – gone
Federline Engineering – Bankrupt, I think. Fucker still owes me $1000 back pay. No, Dave, I haven’t forgotten.
All others still around as far as I know.
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Oil production company: GONE
(by the way it’s name was “Evangiline Pumpers”. The owners were old and I don’t think they got that their company name sounding like they empoyed people to pork some fat hick named Evangiline)
Defense contractor: GONE
(swallowed up a dozen times by other companies, owner changes, and mergers)
US Government: still here
(Damn)
In no particular order:
McD’s – obvious
library at JMU – still there
various babysitting gigs – I should hope not
UVa – still open for biz
Harrisonburg Holiday Inn bar – no idea
Calhoun’s – closed, but repoened
Big Pharma company 1 – sill drruggin’ it up
USF – grant ran out, but the school’s still open
CRO – bigger than ever
Small Pharma that got bought by bigger one – we still hold on to the name, and i still have a job, so I’m counting it open.
I too tend to gravitate toward the larger institutions that are on the cusp of ‘too big to fail,’ except for the move to my current job, and even THEN we got bought out by a behemoth. I didn’t get laid off in the transition (as many other people did), so no complaints.
US Air Farce–still there
Sears –don’t know if the ft walton branch is still there
dinky nut shop in the mall–most likely gone
meijer–still going strong (my fav store still)
UPS- well, after i left with 13 years of service, people started following their dreams too and left that demoralized place (I’m looking at YOU, corporate Payroll!)
and finally, Chase–never been happier
Me and a couple other ex-UPSers are actively luring good people away.. its our revenge and it is working.. Chase got some, The Limited got some, Exel Logistics got some, some local businesses got some.. slowly but surely we are taking that office down..
Just heard from a friend who is retiring in December from UPS say the controller took all the people that were left and made them stand in a circle and hold hands to tell themselves that they will make it through.
UPS is so cheap, that they will not hire anyone to replace the losses.. they have more supervisors than workers now.. i love hearing that another one has come to their senses and left.
Mind you, I am only talking about the corp. payroll office.. still like UPS as a delivery service.
Chase has its faults (obviously) but they treat people like adults..it’s almost like working for Google, minus the live-in perks and segways
We’ve got quite a few people over here at Cardinal that worked at The Limited previously.
If it’s like the other Fas-Chek doings here in wv, Jeff, they will re-open it as a Save-A-Lot supermarket in the near future, selling generic brands and sporting lower prices…which just happens to also be owned by Mr. Fas-Chek himself, Don Tate. You should hear the public service spots he does on local AM radio…I shudder every time I hear his voice until I can turn the dial.
My first 9-5 was another long-gone WV favorite, Heck’s.
This one’s gonna be a Dollar General. Just what the mayor told me.
How about beach houses being totally wiped out by hurricanes a year after we stayed in them for our weeklong vacation? That was in better times (for us, anyway–not the owners of the beach houses), but the tally stands at 4 for 4. As for jobs, I worked at hospitals for half of my working career and they tend to stay open pretty much. However, my better half worked for 5 finance companies early in his working phase that are now gone, and then for 9 rent to own companies, at least half of which–including the one he was part owner of–have either simply closed their doors or been assimilated. Then there is the phenomenon of changing careers. I grew up with the notion that I would find a job and stay with it throughout my working days. I guess many of us did. Not only did that not happen, I calculate I reinvented myself 4 times during my working life. Not that I don’t work now, it’s just that it’s not for financial gain. Unless you count making homemade cleaning products and cooking from scratch to save money as financial gain. But that’s another story. After the early pre college and college days of food service jobs, I worked as a nurse for 20 years or so. Then, I was a teacher. Next, I tried insurance coding (but then, we all make career choices that turn out to be mistakes–just some bigger than others), and last and decidedly least, I was an at home medical transcriptionist for 10 years or so, where it finally dawned on me that modern society is to its workers what the floor of a rendering plant is to its livestock–a slow death accomplished by squeezing the last drop of life out of you. Call me a slow learner. Good memories, all around. I hope to have my recovery completed by the time I begin to collect social security.
Reinventing myself has been my whole life! And I’m currently trying to do it again. I have always been an artistic person. Being in the general working population can beat you down to a pulp.
parkside drive-in – gone
Sears still there
home hardware – gone
woolco- gone
kiddie city -gone
woodville mall- gone
lane drug – gone
cub food (columbus)-gone
script rx -gone
asissted care-gone
kindred health- gone
us health gone (not us healthcare)
ohio health still here
2 still kicking 9 all gone
the first thing I ever read by you was your tales of working at Fas-Check….I was hooked from that moment on.
Oh wait – is Wilson’s Suede and Leather still around? How about Woodward and Lothrop? Ship n’ Shore? Fairfax County Park and Rec?
I forgot some positions of power I used to hold…
Woodie’s is long gone, as is Hecht’s. And Hechinger’s. I haven’t seen a Wilson’s in a hell’s age – didn’t they used to have a store in Fair Oaks Mall? FC Park and Rec must be around, since the parks are. Never heard of Ship ‘n’ Shore.
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