If I had a time machine...

[specialdad]

1. I would have made Rite Aid be bought by Eckerd instead of the other way around.

2. I would have made Target go out of business instead of Montgomery Ward. But perhaps the two could have merged. Also, Montgomery Ward would have bought Service Merchandise, along with Lechters Housewares, which was often found in malls in the 90's.

3. I would have made Kohl's go out of business instead of Clover, the Philadelphia department store chain that a lot of Kohl's stores replaced. Venture would have also stayed in business and would have merged with Clover.

4. I would have made Giant, the PA supermarket chain, sell out to Genuardi's instead of the other way around.

5. I would have made Bradlees merge with Caldor, Jamesway merge with Ames, Hills merge with Zayre (but neither would merge with Ames), Woolco merge with Grant City, JM Fields merge with Nichols, Two Guys merge with Jefferson Ward, and King's merge with Murphy's Mart. Also, Walmart could merge with Kmart.

6. The last Oldsmobile ever made would have been a Cutlass (same as the 1997-2003 Chevy Malibu) instead of an Alero. Also, the Oldsmobile 88 would have lasted longer, until 2002. It had been discontinued in 1999 at the same time as the Cutlass.

7. Target would have bought Christmas Tree Shops.

8. Sears would have bought RadioShack.

9. Jo-Ann Fabrics would have bought Tuesday Morning.

10. Big Lots would have bought Woolworth.

11. Dollar General would have bought Halloween Adventure.

12. The PLCB (Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board), owner of the PA State Stores/Wine & Spirits stores, would have been privatized in 2002, and the Virginia ABC liquor store board would have been also privatized and merged with the former PLCB stores.

13. Builders Square would have been bought by Lowe's instead of shutting down.

[Pikapower]

If I had a time machine, here's what I would to

1. I would have made Chuck E. Cheese's be bought out by Discovery Zone instead of the other way around.
2. Toys "R" Us would have Toys "R" Us/Babies "R" Us/Kids "R" Us combo stores.
3. The Disney Store would have stayed in business with stores located outsides of malls.
4. I would have made the Burger King on Transit Rd. near the Eastern Hills Mall close instead of the one in the Eastern Hills Mall food court
5. Subway would have bought Quiznos.
6. Borders would have been bought by Barnes & Noble instead of shutting down.
7. Jeepers! Fun Centers would have been bought by Six Flags instead of shutting down.
8. Ames would have bought by K-Mart instead of shutting down.
9. Game Stop would have bought Blockbuster

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

1. I would have ShopKo buy out Bradlees and Caldor.

2. I would have Wesfarmers Ltd./Coles Myer, the owner of Kmart and Target in Australia and New Zealand, buy out Kmart USA, and change their identity (both in logo and store appearance) to reflect that of Kmart Australia, here in America.

3. I would have Kmart buy out Prange Way (a Sheboygan, Wisconsin-based discount store division of the H.C. Prange Co. department store).

4. I would have JCPenney and Sears buy out Kohl's.

5. I would have Blockbuster Video buy out Hollywood Video/Movie Gallery, Netflix, and Red Box.

6. I would have Burger King open in the Kcafe space inside most Kmart and Super Kmart stores, just like how Walmart has McDonald's, Subway, or Dunkin' Donuts shops in their snack bar spaces.

7. I would have Toys "R" Us buy out KB Toys and Toy Works while they were still in business, and have them converted to Toys "R" Us Express stores.

8. I would have Foot Locker buy out Champs Sports and The Athlete's Foot stores.

9. I would have Petco buy out Docktor Pet Supply Stores.

10. I would stop the buyout of Sohio/Boron by BP. Therefore, the merger between BP and Amoco would never happen, and BP would still use the green "shield" logo.

11. I would make sure Rovi/Macrovision/Gemstar-TV Guide does not discontinue the over-the-air broadcast-based Guide Plus+, TV Guide On Screen and Rovi Guide starting in November 2012 and ending in mid-April 2013.

Instead, I would keep it going, just as long as there are host broadcasting stations (mainly CBS affiliates) that support it, and electronics manufactured that use it.
Example:



12. I would start my own cable company and buy out Time Warner Cable, Charter, and Comcast in some parts of the country.
I would have The Weather Channel's Local on the 8s be delivered to viewers of cable television using the WeatherStar 4000 or Weatherstar Jr. systems.

The WeatherStar 4000:


The WeatherStar Jr.:

[Pikapower]

Besides changing the face retail business, If had a time machine to experience something, here's what i would do.

1. I would have made Six Flags not sell Darien Lake and keep it open
2. Ride Nightmare at Phantom Cave when it was at Darien Lake
3. I would have made Cedar Fair keep the Paramount/Viacom licensed properties until 2017
4. I would have made Chuck E. Cheese's keep the first design of Chuck E. Cheese

5. I would have stopped Sesame Street from putting in "Elmo's World" at end of each episode!
6. I would have made Six Flags Discovery Kingdom sell their spinning coaster (Pandemonium) to Darien Lake
7. I would have made Nintendo end the Pokemon video game series with Pokemon Platinum Version

[BillyGr]

2. Ride Nightmare at Phantom Cave when it was at Darien Lake

Or you could ride it through CrackAxle Canyon when it was at Great Escape in Lake George (where it wound up after leaving Darien Lake), or maybe go way back and ride it at Beech Bend or Kentucky Kingdom (where, per Wikipedia, it was first, then 2nd before going to Darien Lake). 
This ride looks to have had more "riding" from park to park than many.

[Pikapower]

^Well there was a story that went with number 2 regarding that roller coaster. In 1999 I went to Darien Lake and I wanted to ride Nightmare at Phantom Cave, but it was gone and then I asked myself "Whatever Happened to Nightmare at Phantom Cave". Then many years later I've learned that it was relocated to The Great Escape and I've also learned that the coaster has relocated from Kentucky Kingdom then Darien Lake then The Great Escape and now it's no longer operating there either from what I've heard. So I really wish that I had the chance to ride Nightmare at Phantom Cave during the limited time (1996-1998) that Darien Lake had it. :(


Speaking of roller coasters, if I had time machine to go back ride any coaster besides Nightmare at Phantom Cave, here my list

1. Steel Phantom at Kennywood (I've ridden the remodeled version, Phantom's Revenge)
2. Drachen Fire at Busch Gardens Williamsburg
3. Python at Busch Gardens Tampa
4. Big Bad Wolf at Busch Gardens Williamsburg

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

1. I'd go to the future, and buy my 18-year-old self a Sports Almanac.
2. I'd go back to March 15, 2005 (my 18th birthday), and give my younger self the almanac, after teaching my younger self how to bet on the winning results. I'd also tell my younger self to buy safe to keep the almanac locked up, until needed, and to hide it from plain sight when in use.
3. I'd make my first $1,000,000 bet on the horse races in Kentucky, making me a millionaire overnight.
4. I'd use the money start the megacorporation known as Justin Hill Enterprises. My first order of business would be to buy Shopko Stores, Inc., then to buy PepsiCo, then to buy the Burger King Corporation (and bring back the Big King every year for a limited time, just like how McDonald's promotes their McRib, and have Burger King switch to Pepsi products permanently), and then buy a 20% share of Royal Dutch Shell.
5. After betting on the Packers in Superbowl XLV, I would use the newly-obtained money to form Justin Hill Entertainment, and buy out Viacom International for a million+ dollars, I would also obtain permission from the FCC to air syndicated reruns of SpongeBob SquarePants on a newly-created digital subchannel called the Justin Hill Network (JHN). I would also launch an ad campaign on why antenna TV is better (and cheaper) than cable TV or satellite TV.

[Pikapower]

1. I would have made Six Flags renew the Tony Hawk and Thomas and Friends licences until 2020.
2. Move Darien Lake's Scrambler ride to another part of the park instead of getting rid of it.
3. I would made Fox end The Simpsons with The Simpsons Movie.
4. I would have made Darien Lake repaint Viper's track green instead of black.
5. I would have made more McDonald's keep their Ronald's Playplace with the ball pits.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

I would have ShopKo Stores, Inc. of Green Bay, Wisconsin merge with Ames of Rocky Hill, Connecticut. Included in the deal are hundreds of Ames stores and distribution centers. Once their leases run out, ShopKo will delay their merger with Pamida until all the Ames locations are converted to ShopKo locations. The ShopKo-Ames merger would mean ShopKo will solidify their place as America's 4th largest discount store. In this alternate reality, ShopKo will still have their red/blue logo introduced in 1991, instead of the new brown logo. ShopKo will then merge with Pamida and all Pamida stores will become ShopKo Hometown. ShopKo would merge with Clover. ShopKo would buy out all the U.S. Woolco locations in 1983. ShopKo would open its first New England store in South Portland, Maine, followed by another location in Bangor.

I would make Kohl's a more appealing department store for the people on THIS website. I don't know what it is, but people here are complaining too much about Kohl's.

Nickelodeon Universe indoor theme park has been a success at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota (a suburb of Minneapolis/St. Paul), since opening on March 15, 2008 at the former Camp Snoopy/Park at MOA. If I worked for the company that owned Nickelodeon Universe, I would plan an outdoor version of the theme park for St. Louis, Missouri, Seattle, Washington, Boston, Massachusetts, and Orlando, Florida (next to Nickelodeon Suites Resort).

Netflix and Redbox would be bought out by Blockbuster Video and shut down.

I would have Toys "R" Us buy all the KB Toys and Toy Works stores, and merge them into Toys "R" Us. As a result, all toy stores are Toys "R" Us.

Nickelodeon Stores would stay open, instead of shutting down. By SpongeBob SquarePants' 10th Anniversary in 2009, the top-selling items at the Nickelodeon Stores would be the SpongeBob SquarePants t-shirts, SpongeBob SquarePants cuddle pillows, SpongeBob SquarePants books, SpongeBob SquarePants DVDs, SpongeBob SquarePants Music CDs, SpongeBob SquarePants toys, etc. By this time the Nickelodeon Store would open their 10,000th location in Bangor, Maine at the Bangor Mall. Their 10,005th store would open in Bay Park Square in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Containers of Gak will be given to the first 1,000 customers that attend each grand opening. Sears would unveil a lime green version of their 1984 logo to coincide with the rebranding of Kmart to lime green. Kmart and Sears will be headquartered out of Troy, Michigan instead of Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

Instead of filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002, Kmart would merge with Sears. Kmart would open more Super Kmart stores in 2003 and 2004 to compete with the up-and-coming Wal-Mart Supercenters. Kmart would also try opening a new dollar store concept called Kdollar, and open some new prototype stores including the White Lake, Michigan and Peoria, Illinois store sporting the new green/gray Kmart logo. Kmart will start accepting Sears Credit Cards in 2003 and selling Kenmore appliances at Kmart in 2004.

ShopKo would merge with Meijer and Phar-Mor.

I would have Michael Jackson release some of his unreleased songs to the general public, including "Hotstreet" and "A Place With No Name" in 2002.

[TheFugitive]

I would go back and relive our dating time with my lovely wife around the time
we both met (and were both working in an Ames store)

I would go back and do one more round of Christmas shopping at Century III Mall
in it's heyday, and at Hills.

I would spend one more Christmas Day with my children when they were little
(something I really felt cheated out of as in retail management, by the time Christmas
Day came around you pretty much slept through it)

I would go back and return that piece-of-crap VCR I bought from David Weis.

[EddieJ1984]

I'd go to the early 1900's, some point before 1938 and go see a phillies game at baker bowl then an athletics game at shibe park.

Oh what would I change retail wise? I dunno the 70s would be cool to see tho.

[TheFugitive]

Oh what would I change retail wise? I dunno the 70s would be cool to see tho.

When I joined Ames in the 80's there were still some stores that were not fully onboard with
automated POS systems.  I know our training manuals had instructions on how to handle an
ad if you were assigned to one of those stores.

There was some piece of paperwork called an Admaster or an Adfab or something.
You literally had to do a piececount of everything you had in stock before the ad, keep a
manual count of every item you sold during the ad, and then record the markdowns manually
on the sheet.

I don't think I would have enjoyed running ads in the 1970's.

Thankfully Ames never sent me anyplace where the IBM 3680's were not fully up and running.

[Hudsons81]

1. I would go to the future and buy my 18-year-old self a Sports Almanac too.
2. I would go back to June 7, 1999 (my 18th birthday) and and give my younger self the almanac, after teaching my younger self how to bet on the winning results. I would buy a safe as well so I can keep the money I won and the almanac itself.
3. I'd make my first $1,000,000 bet on the Red Wings in the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals, making me a millionaire overnight.
4. In July 2002, I would use the money to start the megacorporation known as Matt Burb Enterprises. My first order of business would be to buy Meijer Inc., then to buy Pepsico, then to buy the McDonald's Corporation, then to buy Beaner's Coffee (and immediately rename it Biggby Coffee five years early), then to buy Illitch Holdings Inc., then to buy Art Van Furniture and then stop the BP-Amoco merger by buying Amoco.
5. After betting on the Pistons in the 2004 NBA Finals, I would use the newly-obtained money to form Matt Burb Entertainment (which would be a subsidiary of Matt Burb Enterprises) and buy Time Warner Inc. and S&S Productions, as well as buy WBRC-TV, WVTM-TV, KSAZ-TV, KNSD, WTVT, WAGA-TV, WSBK-TV, WJBK-TV, WDAF-TV, KTVI, WGHP-TV, WJW-TV, KTBC-TV, KDFW-TV, KDFI-TV and WITI-TV from either Fox Television Stations or their then-owners for a million+ dollars, I would also obtain permission from the FCC to air syndicated reruns of Hanna-Barbera television shows like The Flintstones, The Jetsons and Scooby-Doo; Tiny Toon Adventures, Taz-Mania, Batman The Animated Series, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Freakazoid, Road Rovers, Superman The Animated Series, Histeria and post-1997 The Red Green Show episodes on a newly-created digital subchannel called the Matt Burb Network (MBN) and have it be the only network played on televisions inside Meijer, McDonald's, Pret a Manger, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Boston Market, Little Caesar's, Biggby Coffee and Art Van stores and inside Amoco stations. I would also launch an ad campaign on why antenna TV is better (and cheaper) than cable TV or satellite TV. In late 2012, I would also buy a 20% share in Me TV and would be one of the co-owners of Movies, two other digital subchannels.

[TheFugitive]

5. I would have made more McDonald's keep their Ronald's Playplace with the ball pits.

My kids absolutely LOVED Ronald's Playplace when they were little.

Damned lawyers!   >:(

[Pikapower]

5. I would have made more McDonald's keep their Ronald's Playplace with the ball pits.

My kids absolutely LOVED Ronald's Playplace when they were little.

Damned lawyers!   >:(

I blame the maintenance issues like cleaning and fixing them up for many McDonald's restaurants getting rid of the playplaces, not the lawyers!

[jamesway_95]

As you can probably guess, I would have tried to save Jamesway.

[TheFugitive]

2. I would have Clover and Value City buy out Kohl's. Clover and Value City would later convert the Kohl's stores to Clover and Value City stores.

I rather doubt that the Kohl family, one of whom was a U.S. Senator at the time,
would have gone for this.

[Pikapower]

Speaking of roller coasters, if I had time machine to go back ride any coaster besides Nightmare at Phantom Cave, here my list

1. Steel Phantom at Kennywood (I've ridden the remodeled version, Phantom's Revenge)
2. Drachen Fire at Busch Gardens Williamsburg
3. Python at Busch Gardens Tampa
4. Big Bad Wolf at Busch Gardens Williamsburg

A few more to add to my list of dead roller coasters that I would loved to ride

.Tidal Wave at Great America
.Son of Beast at Kings Island (with the loop)
.Zonga at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
.Ultra Twister at Six Flags Astroworld
.Viper at Six Flags Great Adventure
.Chaos at Opyland (I've ridden this one seven times in one day)

I just love roller coasters, dead or alive!  ;D

[Hudsons81]

1. I would have Meijer acquire the largest Ames, Bradlees and Caldor stores and have Shopko acquire the rest.
2. I would have assassinated Eddie Lampert a year to the date he would've taken control of Kmart. Therefore, Kmart would never go bankrupt in 2002 and would still be in a position to open both regular Kmart and Super Kmart stores in 2014. Plus, I would have Sears relocate their headquarters to Troy, Michigan after the 2004 merger.
3. I would have Value City merge with Kohl's in 2002.
4. I would have Blockbuster buy all the Hollywood Video, Movie Gallery and Family Video stores and merge them all into Blockbuster. As a result, all video rental stores are Blockbuster.
5. I would have kept the McDonald's locations inside Meijer stores and even have McDonald's open outlets in more Meijer stores.
6. I would have taken Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and the Mixels shorts and have them all premiere on September 18, 1989 rather than on September 14, 1990; September 13, 1993 or February 14, 2014 respectively. Even better, I would place them all in a sixty-hour package (TTA first, Animaniacs second and a Mixels short in between) that would be syndicated to stations across the country, including WKBD-TV in Detroit. Plus, I would have all three shows continue to air all-new episodes to this date and within the exact same timeslots.
7. The Warner Bros. Studio Stores would stay open, instead of shutting down. By the 20th anniversary of Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and Mixels in 2009, the top-selling items at the Warner Bros. Studio Stores would be licensed merchandise pertaining to all three shows. By this time the Warner Bros. Studio Store would open their 10,000th location at the Meriden Square Mall in Meriden, Connecticut; followed by their 10,001st store in Southland Center in Taylor, Michigan; their 10,002nd store in the Century III Mall in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania; their 10,003rd store in the Eastern Hills Mall in Clarence, New York; their 10,004th store in Midway Mall in Elyria, Ohio and finally; their 10,005th store would open in Bay Park Square in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
8. I would have stopped A&P from acquiring Farmer Jack and kept them open. As a result, even in 2014, there would still be A&P and Farmer Jack supermarkets in Metro Detroit.
9. I would have had Ghostbusters III actually filmed and released in June 1994.