The weird distortion in the faux-window grid you might see in the previous photo is another Blogger compression artifact, but the weird discoloration on that one panel on the left is definitely a real-life thing! As you might expect, things only got worse as time moved on.
This store was built as one of Southcenter's original anchors in the 60s, but not as Sears -- it was originally a Frederick & Nelson store, with Sears moving in much later, relocating from a location in downtown Renton. They did an interesting exterior remodel at that time -- well, not that interesting (though certainly much less bland than Frederick & Nelson's original look!), but definitely quite different from their normal 90s look, so much so that I can't rule out this actually being something Frederick & Nelson did towards the end of their run. Or maybe Sears took over for Frederick & Nelson a while before their bankruptcy and before Sears got going with their standardized design in the 90s -- I'm really not sure.
Huh, I am pretty sure I posted a comment here last night, but I don't see it today! Maybe Blogger ate it, grr.
ReplyDeleteIn my mind, Hometown stores are pretty much the default Sears. I still find the idea of buying clothes and such at Sears quite strange!
DeleteI don't know much about Frederick & Nelson since that was before my time, but I don't think they were that upscale. However, this store does have a rather unusual interior design that doesn't look like anything I've seen before at Sears, so it might be from the Frederick & Nelson era!