Something that seems to have become a fixture of closed Sears/Kmart stores around here is the fleet of A&E appliance repair vans hanging around well after the store closed. Presumably Sears is using the stores as a base for their appliance repair service, but that seems a bit weird seeing as they would presumably still need to lease the entire store to do that.
Perhaps Sears had some agreement with the mall operators to keep their vans based here. I'm not sure, I don't think I've seen any A&E vans at Sears stores around here since they have closed.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few shopping centers around here, I can think of one in particular, which seems to have an agreement with Amazon or one of their contractors because there are all kinds of Amazon delivery vans parked at those shopping centers. It's quite strange to see what shopping centers are used for these days and some aren't even abandoned shopping centers!
Of course, seeing Sears vans at a store reminds me of seeing a Sears repair van parked outside the Mall of the Mainland Sears that clearly had not seen the road in quite some time as it was kind of rusty and it had severely underinflated tires. I think I may have gotten a photo of it, but I can't remember for sure. Either way, Je of the Louisiana & Texas Retail Blog captured a similar sight at a Sears in the New Orleans area that closed in 2019 (scroll towards the bottom of the post): https://southernretail.blogspot.com/2019/01/sears-clearview-mall-metairie-la.html
Honestly, Sears having abandoned the vans was my first thought! They look to be in too good condition for that, however. And the Port Angeles Sears had a van just like the one in your picture for many years... they may well still have it, even (it's a hometown store that's somehow still open).
DeleteYeah, I've seen similar Amazon things around here, though it can be hard to be sure since they use so many unmarked vans (some of which are very obviously rentals). And it's not just Amazon -- at my old apartment, my mail was delivered from an old Office Depot that USPS had taken over!