Here we are at the Hastings closing sale in Waco, Texas. This was the only store I visited that had the 2016 store upgrades. The company began rolling out these upgrades just before they went bankrupt. I believe the exterior signs were part of the upgrade as well, but I am not sure.
A typical Hastings Superstore had these departments
Movies for sale and to rent
Music CD's and Records both new and used
Video Games for all major consoles for sale and to rent
Books new and used
Comics
Fan zone with collectibles from the big 3 major sports and all teams
Toys and collectables
Electronics with TV's, CD players, record players, walkmans, tablets
Phone accessories
Guitars and musical instruments
Gag gifts
T-shirts
Outdoor sports
Science projects
Hobby shop with build it yourself cars and RC cars
Skateboards
Magazines and newspapers
Greeting cards
Board games
Magic and Pokemon games
and more
Hastings had a lot of things in one store and you could easily spend hours browsing in the store. Hastings was in the beginning stages of adjusting the products in the stores to increase profits when the company went into bankruptcy.
The books were not always this messy.
The vintage signage in the store was still in place. Most of the interior improvements were product placement related. Movies and music were moved to the back of the store and the collectibles were given a more prominent place towards the front of the store.
Near the back of the store looking towards the music and movie departments.
Looking towards the entrance door from the back of the store.
Music department facing the front of the store.
In the collectible/comic area looking towards the front of the store.
Movies were moved to the back of the store next to the CD's.
A larger t-shirt and trends department than the normal Hastings store carried.
The central information station near the comics and collectibles.
One of the interesting programs that Hastings had. This was the only store where I saw this subscription service advertised.
A view of the book side of the store near the magazine racks.
Not pictured the video game section at the front of the store near the checkouts. Photo came out way too blurry to post here.
There are still more Hastings stores to come, stay tuned.
I loved Hastings, they reminded me of a store we had in Rhode Island called Newbury Comics that I frequented while I was up there.
ReplyDeleteYou should revisit Richland Mall sometime soon. I stopped bit today and things are looking a bit dreary on the inside. Lot's of obvious attempts to fill up dead space. Probably not going to look good in the long run.
Also I was at Valley View a little over a week ago, found it completely by accident trying to get to the Galleria. That whole plan to tear it down in favor of a power center is moving forward. The old Macy's is completely gutted and the entire backside is torn down. The inside is still populated by a bunch of weird "stores" but everything outside of the Sears wing is divided by a partition. After the work is done Sears is be all that's left of the original mall still standing. Will be interesting to see how they incorporate it into the new plan.
Vintage Stock. the company that bought the Hastings intellectual property has a store concept very similar to Hastings. Hopefully they will open some down here in the former Hastings locations. They have some stores in Dallas so maybe they will expand to the central and southern areas of the state.
DeleteI was at Richland Mall last Summer, that mall is actually doing better than a lot of smaller market malls out there. I remember the Sears wing and a hallway near JCPenney with some vacancies, but they were getting an H&M which is a good sign for the mall.
Thanks for the update on Valley View. I wondered how they were able to keep the movie theater open if the interior mall was closed as I read a few weeks ago. I actually have a very lengthy post that I have been working on that should be up soon. I went back in 2015 and took a bunch of photos of the inside and outside of the mall.
The mansard slice design of the outside of this store almost looks like a Kmart, but it’s not exactly like a Kmart. I wonder what the store was before because it clearly seems to be an older building. Hopefully Office Depot survives or else that shopping center might be in real trouble.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like there are socks for sale in one of those pictures. I guess Hastings was getting desperate enough to sell just about anything! At least Hastings tried to renovate their stores before they went under, but obviously some of the signage in the store was still quite dated. I guess they only had shoestring budgets for renovations. Oh well. Thanks for the photos.
The shopping center still has Subway, those places are the GNC and Bath and Body Works of shopping centers. That shopping center is at a very busy corner of town so it probably will not be vacant for long.
DeleteThe liquidators brought in a lot of merchandise from the Sports Authority sales to Hastings. They had a bunch of things that were not normally sold there that were brought in for the liquidation sales. It was very strange to see some of the same items at one sale then at another.