The other end of the northernmost Westwood Village building is occupied by Staples, which appears to predate the strip mall portion of the building (though I don't know whether Staples was the original tenant). With how many other stores have closed in this plaza recently, I'm a bit surprised that Staples is still open today!
I really don't know what's going on with Staples elsewhere in the country, but here in Houston, they've closed so many stores that they are down to just 3 left in all of the Houston area. I wouldn't be surprised if those close when the leases are up or whatever the case might be that's keeping those stores around when several others have closed. Office Depot has also closed some Houston stores around here in recent months as well, but they still have a pretty large presence around here.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of funny to see that old Volvo facing that current generation Toyota Prius! It seems to me that a lot of the people who bought Volvos back in the day are Prius or Subaru people these days. I guess the Volvo sedan buyers are now Prius drivers and Volvo wagon drivers are now Subaru SUV drivers.
Yeah, that's how it's been around here too. But someone on Discord recently mentioned that in their area, it was Office Depot that was closing a ton of stores and Sears that seemed dominant, so I guess it depends on where you are!
DeleteI'm amazed you can identify the cars in such a blurry picture from a significant distance! I was thinking about your Volvo and Subaru comment the other day... my parents have an old Subaru that they are starting to think about replacing, and briefly considered a Volvo since they are about the only company making wagon-type cars these days (I say briefly because we hadn't realized how expensive Volvos are!). Amusingly enough, they've also been considering a Prius!
I'm sure you meant Staples instead of Sears, but there is some interesting Sears news in my area. I mentioned to you earlier that Sears had opened several new Sears Hometown stores in Houston including at one dying mall (some of these stores were converted from Sears Appliance Showrooms). Well, there was reason to think that Sears Hometown was considering opening a location at their former Willowbrook Mall location, my local mall and still a successful mall, and we can now confirm that this will be happening. The store looks like it'll open on January 13th.
DeleteWhat's crazy is that it appears, though we can't confirm it yet, that Sears Hometown will use the old Sears mall entrance, but the store will actually be in the old tool/appliance area of the store which is on the back of the first floor. What it appears that Sears Hometown is doing from what Mike saw of the preparations is that they are taking some of Sears old fixtures and are creating fake walls with them to create a path into the back part of the store! Mike has some photos of this on the HHR Facebook page. You don't need to be on Facebook to see it since I'm not and I can see them. It'll be pretty crazy if that's actually what they do!
Yes, Volvos are quite expensive and they aren't always very reliable here in modern times (a far cry from their 1980s models!). I think their cars may need premium gas as well. Most European cars sold here do need premium. That might not be a good value car, but the Prius ought to work well. It's not a wagon (they did sell a Prius V wagon some years ago, but that's long gone now), but it does have a liftback which does give some hatchback versatility while still feeling like a sedan. But, yeah, I'm not surprised that Subaru people are considering Volvos and Priuses!
Oops, I guess that words that start and end with an S are all the same in my head! 😃 Interesting to hear that about that Sears, and it's even more interesting that Sears keeps opening new Hometown stores like that. If they're using the old tool and appliance department, hopefully that means the selection in those departments will be better than the full Sears store near me, which is looking rather sad these days!
DeleteThe Willowbrook Mall Sears appliance & tool departments didn't look too bad when the store closed in early 2020. The biggest problem they had was inventory rather than the upkeep of the store...especially that part of the store. That said, it's been two years since then and the store has served as a Spears (Spirit Halloween in an old Sears) the last two years so I can't say for sure that the store is in the same condition it was when it closed. I guess we'll find out a week from tomorrow when they are supposed to open.
DeleteAt the last remaining local Sears, the main issue is that the tool department was on the third floor, which was closed off recently, so they now just have a few haphazard racks in what used to be the mattress department (with appliances taking up the rest of the mattress department and mattresses in what used to be a clothing section). And it's a really small section, with very minimal inventory (though that's not surprising for Sears these days). Also, lawn and garden is gone entirely, meaning that the Sears Hometown stores around here actually carry products that you can't get in a real Sears locally anymore!
DeleteWow, I've seen some videos from the remaining Sears stores and inventory is really, really thin. Also, like you say, some departments have been moved around, but I don't think I've heard of anything as bad as what you're describing with your local store. If you got photos of it, I'm sure it would make for popular posts on the blog. Maybe the store will be 'upgraded' to a Sears Hometown store soon if these experiments in Texas work out!
DeleteSome months ago, Je visited a true Sears Hometown store in a small Texas town and photographed it. Our thoughts were the same that the Hometown store appeared to have better inventory than a regular remaining Sears full-line store! Oddly enough, based on what Mike heard from the store manager of the Macroplaza Sears Hometown store that opened a couple of months back, that store at least is owned by Sears/Transformco. Thus, it's strange that the inventory is different, but who knows what Sears has in mind. They're a real mystery, lol.
I have quite a few pictures of that place! Unfortunately, they're mixed in with several hundred pictures of the mall as a whole, and I haven't felt like starting such a long set (though I'm probably going to start a different extra-long set quite soon!).
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