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.
I'm looking forward to the Sears tour! I was a Sears fan so I'm pretty excited to see what this store looks like on the inside. I say I was a Sears fan because they don't exist anymore here after their failed Sears Hometown experiment in 2022, but obviously they are still barely alive in your area.
ReplyDeleteI'm not aware of too many converted Sears stores. I know of a few, like one Wal-Mart that became a Sears in Kansas (DBlackwood has photos of it on Flickr), but there is actually a very odd conversion store we had in Houston. The West Oaks Mall Sears actually started out as a Saks Fifth Avenue! If that isn't a weird enough conversion, when Sears first opened that West Oaks location, it started out as a softlines-only Sears store which reused a lot of Saks' building features/fixtures. This slightly predated the 'Come See the Softer Side of Sears' marketing campaign, which you're probably too young to remember, but it was only a couple years before that so I'm sure there was some thought about how Sears could become stronger in their softlines reputation. I suppose having Sears look like a Saks Fifth Avenue is one way to do that! The weird softlines-only experiment didn't last long and Sears eventually expanded the store and turned it into a normal full-line store with a more typical Sears interior, albeit with some of Saks' features remaining. That store closed in probably around 2018 or so.
I don't know anything about Frederick & Nelson, but I wonder if they were upscale like Saks and if Sears may have kept any of those upscale features! Probably not, at least not in any great quantity, but I suppose we'll see in this tour!
Based on the comment in the other post, I find it hard to believe you only have memories of one full-line Sears! I take it you didn't attend the Sears Driving Schools in Seattle and Tacoma as mentioned in this commercial? These Sears Driving Schools were still operating in Houston until 2020! Link: https://youtu.be/1t7RxlwdRDk
Huh, I am pretty sure I posted a comment here last night, but I don't see it today! Maybe Blogger ate it, grr.
ReplyDeleteWeird! It did post initially since I got an email about it. Here it is:
DeleteI'm looking forward to the Sears tour! I was a Sears fan so I'm pretty excited to see what this store looks like on the inside. I say I was a Sears fan because they don't exist anymore here after their failed Sears Hometown experiment in 2022, but obviously they are still barely alive in your area.
I'm not aware of too many converted Sears stores. I know of a few, like one Wal-Mart that became a Sears in Kansas (DBlackwood has photos of it on Flickr), but there is actually a very odd conversion store we had in Houston. The West Oaks Mall Sears actually started out as a Saks Fifth Avenue! If that isn't a weird enough conversion, when Sears first opened that West Oaks location, it started out as a softlines-only Sears store which reused a lot of Saks' building features/fixtures. This slightly predated the 'Come See the Softer Side of Sears' marketing campaign, which you're probably too young to remember, but it was only a couple years before that so I'm sure there was some thought about how Sears could become stronger in their softlines reputation. I suppose having Sears look like a Saks Fifth Avenue is one way to do that! The weird softlines-only experiment didn't last long and Sears eventually expanded the store and turned it into a normal full-line store with a more typical Sears interior, albeit with some of Saks' features remaining. That store closed in probably around 2018 or so.
I don't know anything about Frederick & Nelson, but I wonder if they were upscale like Saks and if Sears may have kept any of those upscale features! Probably not, at least not in any great quantity, but I suppose we'll see in this tour!
Based on the comment in the other post, I find it hard to believe you only have memories of one full-line Sears! I take it you didn't attend the Sears Driving Schools in Seattle and Tacoma as mentioned in this commercial? These Sears Driving Schools were still operating in Houston until 2020! Link: https://youtu.be/1t7RxlwdRDk
In 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!