Remember Caldor? We Found Video from this Capital Region Store!

Talk about a throwback. Caldor was a department store in the northeast that once touted close to 150 stores. It was founded in the Westchester County town of Port Chester in 1951 and and quickly grew into the Hudson Valley, the Capital Region, parts of Connecticut and as far south as Washington DC.

Much like a typical department store at the time, it had everything. Clothes, electronics, hardware, home goods, toys, music, gardening supplies, outdoor recreation stuff - you name it. Growing up in Clifton Park, the Caldor at Clifton Country Mall was my family's go-to in the 90's.

As is the story with a number of department stores in the 90's, sales began to decline as brands like Target and Walmart were picking up steam. Caldor officially shut down in 1999.

Other department stores quickly moved in and took over the old Caldor real estate. For example, when Caldor closed its Clifton Park location, the building was knocked down and a new Boscov's was built.

Back in 1997, Brian Florence of Glens Falls was working at the Caldor location in Aviation Mall. One day, he brought his video camera into the store and gave us a tour of a few of the different departments. Point of reference, this Caldor became a BonTon and is now an Ollie's Bargain Outlet.

It should also be noted that Brian is the creator of the widely popular website deadmalls.com, where now defunct shopping centers are remembered.

If you ever shopped at Caldor, the following pics should look familiar. Although forgive the quality, there's only so much you can do with VHS images from 1997.