Viacom Entertainment Store was a proposed chain of merchandise stores offering product based on Viacom owned properties, including

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

, Showtime, and other

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

properties. The first (and only) Viacom Entertainment Store opened at 600 Michigan Avenue in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, on May 23, 1997. The store's grand opening party was attended by celebrities tied to the company at the time, including

Jon Bon Jovi John Francis Bongiovi Jr. (born March 2, 1962), known professionally as Jon Bon Jovi, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He is best known as the founder and Lead vocalist, frontman of the rock band Bon Jovi, which was fo ...

and

Jenny McCarthy Jennifer Ann McCarthy-Wahlberg (' McCarthy; born November 1, 1972) is an American actress, model, television personality, and anti-vaccine activist. She began her career in 1993 as a nude model for ''Playboy'' magazine and was later named thei ...

. Flagship stores had been planned for large metropolitan areas around the United States, all in response to the success of the

Disney Store The Disney Store is a chain of specialty stores created on March 28, 1987, and sells only Disney-related items, many of them exclusive, under its own name and Disney Outlet. It is a business unit of the Disney Experiences division of The Walt Disn ...

, Warner Bros. Studio Store, and Discovery Channel Store concepts. In addition, more than a dozen standalone Nickelodeon stores opened during 1997 and 1998: The Chicago flagship failed to meet the company's expectations, and the company announced it would shutter it and the Nickelodeon stores in 1999. The store closed on January 17, 1999, while the Nickelodeon stores gradually closed throughout the year.

Citations

Paramount Global Defunct retail companies of the United States Retail companies established in 1997 Retail companies disestablished in 1999 {{US-retail-company-stub