This is not much of an update, but more of an extended look at this Sears Grand location.
Since our last post, the Pittsburgh Mills Sears Grand has closed bringing the number of known stores on my list down to 7. To see the list check out my first post here.
The map of the store featuring several departments that have been eliminated.
Here are some views of the store not seen in the first post. Looking across the store from the mattress department.
Near the back corner of the store near the mattresses.
From the back corner of the store looking towards the clothing and electronics departments.
Looking from the clothing to the back corner of the store.
Looking from the electronics section to the front of the store.
Looking from Men's clothing to the far side of the store by the furniture.
The front of the store at the checkouts.
The exercise equipment looking towards the shoes.
Bikes and electronics.
Exercise equipment and shoes.
The entrance to the auto center and auto parts department.
Outdoor furniture, tools, and lawn and garden in this image.
Lawn and garden
A wide view of the shrinking electronics department. As with all Sears and Kmart stores, the electronics department has been downsized.
An up close view of the electronics monitors. The colors change around the CRT's (compare the two photos).
Thanks for the additional photos of this Sears Grand. There aren’t many Sears Grand stores left as you say so it’s good to chronicle the store as it currently is here in 2015. The parking lot actually seems to be fairly busy. Perhaps the store is doing decent business. I hope so.
ReplyDeleteWhoever designed those little slogans that are around the store must have also worked on The Great Indoor stores too. I’ve seen some regular Sears stores that were renovated in the early 2000s that have those slogans too. They’re strange, but oh well I guess. The store more or less looks like a big box version of a regular Sears store. I prefer the look of a regular Sears store to the big box look, but I think Sears would have been better off if they were able to build more of these Sears Grand stores in the newer suburbs throughout the 2000s. Oh well, I guess Lampert had other ideas.
It looks like the CRT TVs on the wall might have been turned off. That’s interesting. Sears probably sells most of the electronics brands that they still have up on the wall, but some are outdated. I don’t think Sears sells Apple products anymore. Even if they did, the iPod probably isn’t the product to advertise anymore. They definitely don’t sell Mitsubishi products as Mitsubishi does not make consumer electronics anymore. Of course, the Nintendo GameCube sign is way outdated.
On both of my visits to the store, the place was fairly busy. I also went both times on the weekend, but the Sears store a few miles South on I-35 was very slow.
DeleteI tried to get as many of those weird slogans photographed like I did at the Great Indoors store. Sears probably does very well at this location and hopefully it will be open for years to come. The store is just a regular Sears store now and all of the extra departments that made this store special are gone.
I wonder what they would show on those TV's if they were on. The year this store opened, these TV's were already obsolete. The electronics section looks really empty even with the nearby departments taking up some of the unused space.
Here’s a picture from another Sears Grand, the Pittsburgh Mills one I believe, in 2013 where the CRT TV wall appears to have been operating. The picture is too blurry to see what is on the displays though. The CRT TVs certainly date the appearance of the electronics department even though those TVs really aren’t that old. Oh well.
DeleteIt is good to hear that the store is doing decent business though. Hopefully that will continue for Sears. One can only wonder how much better Sears would be doing if they were able to build more new stores in the newer suburbs in the 2000s-2010s, but I guess we’ll never really know the answer to that. Of course, if they built more new stores, some of the old ones that are still open today may have been closed down or may have seen reduced business. Still, I think building the new stores would have been a net positive.
I would guess that they had the display TV's all hooked up to the same channel. The Pittsburgh Mills store seems to have some different signage than the Austin store, but I think each store had small differences in signage.
DeleteSears would probably be in better shape if they had expanded this concept and continued Super Kmart Center expansion. Now we are down to 7 Sears Grand stores with most stores missing the extra departments that made these places special. The last I heard there are 11 Super Kmart Centers left in the company. Sears/Kmart could have carved a niche like Target has done with these Sears Grand and Super Kmart stores. Maybe the K Fresh concept will help the remaining stores, but having the different business models of both large and small stores is helping several companies grow these days. Sears is shrinking some stores and they still have smaller concepts, but the larger concepts with one-stop shopping are mostly gone.
Speaking of Sears, make sure to check your email fairly often they have been sending out lots of coupons lately.