As you probably already guessed (since we've already seen pretty much everything that used to be up there), the third floor was completely shut off at the time of this visit, and has remained so ever since. It's a little odd that they used a "passengers only" sign to block off an escalator they didn't want any passengers to use, but there's no way to pretend you didn't realize you weren't supposed to go that way. (Though I highly doubt they had bothered to modify the elevators to skip the third floor... I never have bothered checking that out, however.)
I'm trying to think about it now, but I really don't think any of our Houston-area Sears closed off a floor before the stores themselves ended up closing. I can't say the same for Macy's and some of Macy's attempts to close off a floor make this Sears' solution look like a classy one!
ReplyDeleteNow, having said this, in the last few months before my local Sears closed, the escalators were just stairs rather than escalators more often than not. It was pretty clear at that point that Sears wasn't going to put much money or effort into repairing those escalators.
I'm not sure if you've seen this, but if not, check out Je's latest post at the Louisiana & Texas Retail Blog. He has some demolition photos going on currently at the N. Shepherd Sears here in Houston, the 1950s era Sears with the famous neon bus stop shelter sign which you've probably seen elsewhere due to how often it has been photographed (I'm not sure what the plans are for the sign itself, perhaps it'll get saved). It is pretty interesting to see what a 1950s Sears looks like on the inside when it is hollowed-out. I'm sure it looks different than a more modern Sears! Also, there are some supermarket neon decor photos in here too: https://southernretail.blogspot.com/2024/08/fiesta-18-ost-and-kirby-december-2022.html
I think this is the only Sears I ever visited that had more than two levels, so it would have been less of a big deal to close one level here than at a lot of Sears stores. Then again, as of the last time I visited, they definitely have closed off more than half of the floor space by now! Most stores closed outright before Sears really started their downsizing push, unlike chains like Macy's which have downsized stores instead of closing them.
DeleteThis store's escalators have been working on all of my visits, but I'm not surprised by their lack of maintenance considering what most Sears/Kmart stores looked like in those years!