Perhaps the most obvious decor-related relic from Sears was the
appliance-department cove lighting, which Spirit simply wrapped with their ubiquitous wallpaper border stuff. The border is too tall for the fixtures, but I think it looks pretty cool with the partial backlighting!
This is a pretty good use of the Sears lighting. Spirit has done a pretty good job making use of Sears' old store features. Actually, Mike over at HHR has referred to Spirits in old Sears as being 'Spears'. I like the name! Mike didn't cover any Spears this year (that I know of at least), but he did just post some other Halloween store conversions in the Houston area that you might be interested in including a Bed, Bath, & Booyond (that name in my creation, lol): https://houstonhistoricretail.com/2021/10/29/i-know-what-you-were-last-halloween-visiting-3-costume-conversions/
ReplyDeleteI just found out about some breaking news regarding Sears and Houston as well. Je of the Louisiana & Texas Retail Blog recently discovered that there is a new Sears Hometown store opening in his area. He made a comment about that earlier this evening. When I went to the Sears Hometown website, I discovered that a new Sears Hometown location has also opened up in the ex-Sears location at the Macroplaza/Plaza Paseo/Pasadena Town Square mall in the Houston area just two days ago! Wow! Sears has returned to a Houston mall! Ok, it's only a Hometown store, but it's certainly better than no Sears' presence in Houston malls. Macroplaza is most certainly a nearly dead mall that had no anchors left and the Sears that was there was the biggest driver of traffic to that mall even when Macy's was still open there. While I don't expect the Sears Hometown store to revitalize the mall, hopefully it can drive at least a little more traffic there. The Macroplaza Sears was the last full-line Houston Sears to close in late 2020 so it's fitting perhaps that it is the first former Sears to be converted into a Sears Hometown store in this area.
Interesting to hear that about "Spears" -- this is the only Sears Spirit that I know of around here, only operated for one year, and other than this didn't really seem to reuse anything from Sears (which was a little disappointing).
DeleteInteresting to hear about a new Sears Hometown opening! I had no idea that whoever's in charge of that these days was putting in new stores, and many of the Sears Hometown stores around here have closed in recent years.
We had a handful of Spears here this year. The Baybrook Mall Sears has been operating as Halloween stores for a few years now. It hasn't always been Spirit, but this year it was a Spears. The local Willowbrook Mall Sears operated as a Spears last year and this year as well. There were a couple of other local Spears.
DeleteIt actually looks like Sears Hometown stores are really booming here in Houston. In addition to the Humble store near Je and the Pasadena store, it also appears that the Sears Appliance Showrooms in League City and Cypress (I've been to the latter) were converted into Sears Hometown stores and had their grand openings last week. It also appears the Sugar Land Sears Appliance Showroom might be converted here as well. Shockingly, there is a job listing on the Sears Hometown website for a store general manager at the Willowbrook location! If so, my area will be getting a Sears (Hometown) again! I have no idea if this proposed store will be in the old Sears at Willowbrook Mall or elsewhere (the Humble store is across the street from where the Deerbrook Mall Sears was).
Mike from HHR visited a couple of the Hometown stores and he's planning a post about it. In the meantime, he did post a couple of teaser images on the HHR Facebook page if you want a sample (it's visible even without a Facebook account). It seems that the Pasadena store in the old full-line Sears had a soft grand opening this past week, but a full remodel of the space is planned and a full grand opening will occur after that. It also seems as per the staff at one of the stores Mike visited that the stores are owned by TransformCo even though Sears Hometown stores are typically thought of as independent franchise stores. It seems Lampert has some idea of expanding the Sears chain via small Hometown stores in markets which previously had full-line stores. It's bizarre, but it seems to be true! At least here in Houston, Sears is making a bit of a comeback if that can be believed!