It appears that the random overstock merchandise that had been placed in the old cosmetics department had sold by this point, taking it back to its completely empty state. I have to wonder why, several months into the closing sale, no one had decided to turn off the power to all of the display cases! Some stores (I'm looking at you, Fry's) like to turn off power to things even when the store is still in normal operations... 😉
Then there is Sears! The Mall of the Mainland Sears in Texas City (Houston area) was located in a mall that never did well even when it was new. The mall (which did have a Foley's/Macy's at one point, but it closed in around 2012 or so). The mall ended up closing in 2014, but the Sears stayed open until 2019 I think. Anyway, even though the Sears was open, it never did much business and they closed early. They closed at 6pm or 7pm every night except during Christmastime.
ReplyDeleteAs a result, they almost never actually turned their signage lights on on the outside of the store. However, when the store finally closed, they kept the sign lights on for several months when the store was vacant! It made no sense at all. I suppose someone set the lights to turn on and nobody was around to turn them off. Someone finally removed the Sears signage from the store after a few months like that. But, yeah, it was funny that the Sears sign lights only turned on after the store closed, lol.
I earlier mentioned that the Mall of the Mainland never did well even when it opened in 1991. Things got so bad that the mall operators actually pained up fake storefronts in parts of the mall that never got stores since the mall wasn't fully leased when it opened. There was a painting of a fake postcard put up in the mall where the message was that there was so much to do at the mall. This became one of the biggest jokes around in Houston retail. The only thing to see at the mall, more or less, was fake storefronts, lol! This has to be seen to be believed: http://www.labelscar.com/texas/mall-of-the-mainland
That's funny! I've seen stores where the signs still light up long after they're closed, but having that happen after they weren't lit up when the store was in operation is a new one. I wonder if some employee did that as a joke or something when the store closed! Those fake storefronts are a new one too... I've been to plenty of dying malls over the years, but I've never seen anything like that!
DeleteOh, and you probably already saw this, but if not, you'd probably enjoy the 8-bit guy's recent video on dying electronics stores! I've visited a few of the chains he mentioned, but not nearly as many as I would have liked...
DeleteThanks for sending over the 8-bit Guy video. I actually had not seen that. I had to laugh at that video because he kept talking about how it is impossible to find photos and videos of those stores. Well, not only did I find videos of almost all those stores he mentioned for my blog posts, but they are from Dallas-Ft. Worth malls as well! 8-bit Guy is really missing out. Maybe you ought to message him on YouTube and tell him about my blog posts, lol. I even have two videos in my spreadsheet about the AT&T landline phone stores!
DeleteI do agree with 8-bit Guy that those too young to remember shopping for electronics at B&M stores won't really understand what was so great about it. I suppose it's hard to explain, but technology was changing so fast in those times and the electronics stores were really the only way to really see what new stuff was out. Visiting an electronics store was like looking into the future. As things stabilized and as smartphones replaced so many individual items, that experience went away. Oh well.
While I do agree with 8-bit Guy that electronics were more expensive back in the day and that electronics retailers make their profit off of accessories and warranties, the reality is that the same was true back in the 1980s-1990s even though electronics were more expensive. They weren't more expensive because the profit margins were thicker for the stores, but rather because they were more expensive to make and such. Profit margins on computers, TVs, and so forth has been razor thin for decades now. The profit was always in the accessories, but people bought more accessories back in the day.
Anyway, I could take a fine-tooth comb to just about everything he said, but all I can say is that if you want to relive some of those things that he was talking about, watch some of those Texas History videos and you'll get a good taste for things!
I see that 8-bit Guy has a posted e-mail address. I'll let him know about my work. Hopefully he likes it!
DeleteHa, I figured you'd know more about those places! 🙂 Good luck with trying to contact him!
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