Before malls and, more recently, online retail, local and national stores operated in downtown Chippewa Falls where people would come out to shop in large numbers. Sears had a small catalog store in a late 19th century building at the Southeast corner of Grand Ave and Bridge Streets (later the home of Shades of You).
Montgomery Ward had a substantial store on the Northeast corner of Grand Ave and Bay Street. There was still a catalog store there in the 1980s where my brother and I ordered a toy called the Tank Dashboard as kids. Like Touch of Class, the building is still in use (as B&G Liquor, named for Bay & Grand.)
Another store of years past was JC Penney Co. which was located in the Metropolitan Building on the corner of Bridge and Spring Streets. Later, a new store would house Penney’s on the corner of Bridge and Grand (across Grand from the Sears store). That location would become the Mason Shoe outlet.
The big department stores moved out of town and it was Prange Way, K-Mart and Shopko that would serve the Chippewa area during the 80s and 90s. The retail picture has changed further and none of those stores are still in operation. Downtown shopping has never died out in Chippewa Falls though and local stores fill the void left by these big national retailers of the past.
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