Bradlees sold various retail items in its stores, including clothing, jewelry, health care, beauty products, footwear, furniture, electronics, housewares, and bedding.

Bradlees was named for Connecticut's Bradley International Airport, where early planning meetings were held by the store's founders.

In some cases, especially in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, stores large enough to house both Bradlees and Stop & Shop under the same roof were constructed.

This practice ended in 1982 when Stop & Shop elected to close its New York metro division; in the case of the supercenter stores, a wall was built to divide the building in half.

Executives of Bradlees said it filed for bankruptcy protection because of a general economic downturn, including rising interest rates and higher gas and heating-oil prices that had left customers with less disposable income.

The executives also said new competition, unseasonable weather in the first half of 2000, and the tightening of trade credit contributed to its inability to operate profitably.

In an interview just before the chain closed, analyst Eric Beder of Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. said, "They really needed a perfect economy to get this thing moved", referring to the attempt at recovery after the restructuring of the company.

Many of its former store locations were purchased by Walmart, although other locations became Big Lots, Staples, Super Buy Rite, The Home Depot, Forman Mills, Shaw's Star Market, Target, Kohl's, Burlington Coat Factory, Ocean State Job Lot, Bob's Stores, Marshalls, Dollar Tree, ShopRite, National Wholesale Liquidators, or Stop & Shop.