That sign is something quite old, referencing this door as a place for (pre-internet) customer pick-up, which I'm guessing involved phone-based catalog sales, similar to what Sears did in that era. It's a little hard to tell what's going on because of how long the sign has been painted over (I tried to make it a little clear in the image below), but I'm pretty sure the logo here is the pre-1998 version! That's interesting, because I thought this store opened as a Toys R Us with the Concept 2000 look -- either it was quite an early store with that design, or it's had multiple exterior remodels over the years!
The customer pick-up area probably wasn't for catalog orders, at least not primarily, but rather for people buying large items from the store itself such as swing sets, trampolines, and such. The customer would drive to that area and someone from the store would help them load the item into their car. Department stores like Sears and Macy's had these and may still have them for things like furniture, appliances, and large electronics.
ReplyDeleteI've mentioned this a few times, but Mike from HHR posted his images of The Woodlands Lifestyle v2 Randall's that is now a Spirit Halloween. You might enjoy checking this out! Link: https://houstonhistoricretail.com/2022/10/31/halloween-costume-conversions-2022-featuring-randalls-sears-and-more/
Ah, that makes sense -- though it's odd that they would make the staff take the large items in question down a flight of stairs! Fred Meyer used to have these too, and the doors and signage are still up on many of their stores, but they stopped using them quite some time ago.
DeleteCool stuff! Strange to see a former Goodwill too.