If you've lived in the south anytime in the last few decades, you are likely familiar with the Roses department store chain. I haven't been to a Roses for at least 20 years. The department store I remember from my youth was bright, clean, and well-stocked. The linoleum floor shined and the carpeting was clean. Every September, mom would take us there to get our school supplies and Roses had TrapperKeepers, notebooks, pencils...everything. It was where the toy section was stocked with Transformers and Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. I bought my first slingshot there and later, I got a Panasonic Walkman with my babysitting money when they first came out. Roses had everything.

In town for an extended stay and tasked with purchasing new bedsheets for my mom, I decided to forgo the Wal-mart and Target. I made a detour to the Roses in Churchland. Knowing that the big box stores dominate the department store business like they do, I was surprised that Roses still exists. I was curious to see how they did it. What was their secret to survival? The strip mall hadn't changed much physically since the '70s. The A&P grocery next door to Roses is now a Dollar Tree. Its other neighbor that used to be a Fashion Bug sort of store is now a CHKD Thrift Store. Most of the shops have changed. Roses and Zeroe's subs are the only two remaining original stores from my childhood. Zeroe's hasn't changed. They still make toasted subs. What became of Roses? Did the linoleum still shine? 

Words are inadequate to describe the scene, so let's take a photo tour of the goods offered at the south's biggest downmarket department store. The company website now describes Roses as occupying the niche market of "high end dollar store". High end, indeed.

" so we want our customers to see value very quickly when they walk into our stores. We don't want it to be subliminal, we want it right in their faces."

- R. Edward Anderson, Roses CEO, 1995 

go-to-hell shoes 

day-glo slippers for the neon sasquatch 

gold vinyl boots... 

Bunny slippers...Roses opened in 1915 as a 5-10-15 cent store. Today the prices range from a dollar to fifteen dollars for most items.

 I'm becoming disoriented now

 When would this purse ever be right? Who authorized this?

fleece underwear 

From Booty Pop padded underwear... 

...to bulk stale popcorn in bins on the floor... 

ghastly...everything is cheap in the store. Cheap prices and cheap quality.

seeking to horrify you with color...

This distresses me.

 "Hey, honey, if you squint, they almost look like Corvette taillights!"

 Variety Wholesalers has opened new Roses stores in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia this year, bringing residents of those states more shirts like this.

So ugly, they crucified it 

 Nausea

Neon socks...nobody told me that the 80s were back in fashion 

 the most redneck of snacks, next to pork rinds...

 These are some sort of disgusting knock-off apple fig newtons. Newman's Own makes their version of the fig newton but Paul Newman is a good looking guy. So if you're trying to sell nasty cookies, put a picture of a good looking man on the wrapper, not a drawing of Daddy Ray. 

Last time I was here, the back of the store had cash registers and an exit....now you are barricaded in, no escape, no light from the outside...just fluorescent light.

 These things...ugh. You have to be damn hungry to eat these.

At this point I start to question if these places happen in other countries. Do people buy these shirts in other places? 

Amen...at least we can count on the hat to be discrete. 

 Roses changed in the late 90s to begin unabashedly targeting the low-end consumer...they presume people with no money have no taste.

There were very few customers in the store... 

Gravesite flowers 

Variety Wholesalers also owns Maxway, Super 10, Bill's Dollar Store, Value Mart, Treasure Mart, and  Super Dollar.

Disturbing 

Roses was bought up by Variety Wholesalers in 1997. Variety Wholesalers changed Roses into what it is today...a downmarket department store or "high end dollar store". The website describes their criteria for opening a new Roses: second or third generation shopping centers in urban areas, 25% or greater African-American population within five miles, and a population with a median income of $40,000 or less. With this business strategy, Variety Wholesalers saved Roses from bankruptcy and closure due mainly to competition from Wal-mart and Kmart. But in the process, Roses became unrecognizable from its former retail platform. It is like a hotel that the new owners refuse to maintain. I understand the dollar store approach, but does everything have to be so visually offensive? 

I'm becoming shaky from overstimulation...I have to get out of here. 

faucet screens... 

Dammit... 

"Thank you for shopping with us!" 

  I left feeling odd, partly from all of the shiny things and bright colors, but also because this store is a microcosm of the way the economy has shifted in the last 20 years. Most of the small department stores are gone or have gone downmarket to compete with the national chains. Seeing this store, that I'd seen in better days, in disrepair was disheartening for some reason. I shouldn't care about what happens to a department store, but somehow I feel that the story of Roses relates to the larger story of what is happening in the economy now. The adaptations that smaller businesses have to make to survive in the wake of larger businesses reflects what we as individuals will have to do to adapt to increasing financial pressures as the economy in the US becomes stagnant. Roses' secret to survival was to shift its marketing focus to low-income individuals. With many more people joining the ranks of the low-income segment of the population, there needs to be a business model for individuals to navigate daily life and find success, even if they have to relinquish their previous notions of what success is...sometimes success is just getting by, no matter how you do it. I am not happy with the changes Roses made, but I have to respect their tenacity and perhaps I can learn something from them.