This wing also has the mall's only traditional two-story anchor entrance, where the new corridor intersects the back of JCPenney. JCPenney must have had a bit of a remodel when this was built since it fits seamlessly into the store, but you really can't tell these days -- like most of their stores, this one is extremely boring inside with white walls, boring ceramic tile in the actionways, and horrible concrete flooring where there used to be carpet. So no, we won't be touring that store.
Maybe I'm just not used to seeing two-story JCPenney stores with multiple mall entrances, but it is strange to me that the size of the signs on the different floors are not the same! Maybe there is a reason for that which isn't obvious here. Maybe the ceiling height is bigger upstairs? I don't know, it is hard to tell!
ReplyDeleteMy local JCPenney opened in 1992 back when JCPenney had dropped the hardlines and was trying hard to be taken seriously as a softlines department store ala the various Allied and Federated department stores like Foley's and Bon Marche. It was a very nice looking store from 1992-~2012, but it was one of the first stores around here which got the Ron Johnson-era remodels. Not only was the carpet pulled up and replaced with concrete floors in certain parts, but the upstairs actionway tile was removed and Krotesque tile scar was left behind! Eww! Unfortunately, it is still around like that too and now the displays (and customer traffic) are starting to look more like Sears in the late 2010s. While it could be worse (some things Macy's does now is even worse than this), it is still a sad sight compared to how that store looked when it was new or even the JCPenney stores back during the hardlines era.
Speaking of old JCPenney stuff, I recently came across a TV interview a JCPenney regional manager did with the Abilene Christian University TV station back in 1986. They talked about JCPenney for a bit, but the latter half of the interview was about the regional manager's travels and work for JCPenney in Europe and he described spending some time in Milan because JCPenney was selling a business they had there to Italian interests and he was in charge of helping with the transition. He said he was appalled by the behavior of the Americans working in Italy and how they were complaining about the lack of Jello and peanut butter instead of taking in the local culture and cuisine. Then him and the host were talking about 'ugly American' tourists he came across behaving badly and in an uncultured fashion when visiting Italy. Lol, given some of our previous discussions about wanting to avoid fellow American tourists in Italy, I suppose that is kind of interesting and clearly it isn't anything new since that was very much the case in 1986 even. I'm not sure if you'd want to spend 30 minutes watching the interview, but I'll link to it in case anyone wants to see it. It is at the Portal to Texas History, where else! Link: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth779508/m1/
Oh, well, I suppose we ought to discuss the Krogertsons merger...or should I say the Krogertsons lawsuit now? Lol, well, I guess things have gone more or less the way we expected it to and maybe the potential crisis has been averted...for now. We'll see what becomes of Albertsons now. Some of the news stories used a photo of that Albertsons in Seattle from 1955 without saying where it was. That topic came up in our Houston retail group and I immediately recognized it from, I think, you sending over photos of it for me to use in my guest post about Randall's dropping their club card requirement for sales a couple of years ago. We were looking at it on Google Maps and it still had the banner saying that there was a proposal to replace that store with a mixed-use development with a Safeway. I told the group I'd ask you about it, but are they still planning on demolishing that Albertsons? It is looking quite rough in the photos and on Google Maps.
Hmm, I don't think different sign sizes like this seem out of the ordinary to me, but I'm not particularly used to two-story mall entrances either! I'm guessing it is a ceiling height thing of some sort.
DeleteThis store just had its carpet removed, not the tile, but that means there are awkward lips (with ugly rubber transitions) all along the tile actionways! I'm not sure that's much better than having scarred concrete everywhere.
I'm expecting Albertsons to try to find other buyers for at least parts of their business, but hopefully ones that won't lead to an obvious monopoly situation. The Magnolia Albertsons redevelopment project seems to have stalled out, which I suspect was due to the merger but might just be because of the general development slowdown due to interest rates and inflation and/or because they seem to be prioritizing the Capitol Hill redevelopment. I had been thinking they might close the Magnolia store once the new Queen Anne one opened, but that didn't happen. It's been a while since I was last there, but it is seriously rough and only getting worse, so I imagine something's going to happen sooner or later.