Plaza Las Torres is a newer mall located in the Southern part of the city. The mall is anchored by mostly junior anchors, Soriana, and a Cinemark. There are YouTube videos of the mall as far back as 2008, but nothing about the opening of the mall.
Famsa is located at the southern end of the mall.
The mall has a carousel in the South end below this skylight in the food court.
A partial view of the food court. There are a ton of food options inside of this mall.
This store looks like something that would have been in a 1980's mall.
More of the massive skylight in the food court area.
You can kinda see GNC to the left. I was hoping to see a Bath and Body Works too, but this mall did not have one.
The Soriana store takes up a huge section of the mall right in the middle. The checkouts to this store face the mall corridor. More on Soriana in a bit.
This is the mall entrance that directly goes to Soriana. You have to go through the mall to get in or out of the store.
As you can see this mall is very busy.
Not only were all of the mall spaces full, there are kiosks everywhere. Even the corridors leading to exits had kiosks.
Like most malls, this one had a Sounds store.
Lets take a look inside Sounds.
It is cool how they had the disco lights reflecting off of the ceiling.
American music.
Here is the North main court of the mall. These oil derrick columns are massive, and even have kiosks too!
Applebee's and Wendy's.
The entrance to Cinepolis.
Here is a tour of the Soriana.
The open ceiling design of this store is just like any other Supercenter in America.
This store like the Soriana at Plaza Juarez, has the groceries across the back half of the store.
An advertisement of the produce items sourced from the USA.
The signage is similar to the Plaza Juarez Soriana but looks newer.
Clearance deals.
Motorbikes and 4 wheelers.
The video game display.
The electronics department was better at this location. I am guessing that they downsized their electronics department over the years though.
The electronics department probably had music and movies at one time.
The view into the mall was blocked by these TV's to the right.
Photo lab.
Lots of checkouts, about 50% of them were open on this visit.
More shots from the mall. Here is the section just outside of Soriana headed towards the food court.
A few more familiar faces in the food court such as Pizza Hut, KFC, Subway, and Peter Piper Pizza.
3 Hermanos, these shoe stores are almost everywhere in the city. Downtown had several stores within a few blocks of each other. The corridor to the right leads to the Soriana mall entrance.
And now for the biggest surprise of my trip, a two story Woolworth store.
Yes a Woolworth in 2018 at a mall! There are several Woolworth stores in Mexico that are located in a lot of really popular shopping areas.
I will feature Woolworth in my next article. There is more to see inside of the store.
The restaurants on this side of the mall have exterior and interior entrances.
Now for a few shots of the mall exterior and road signage.
New indoor malls are so rare over here in the US that it’s interesting to see one from overseas which might give us some idea of how a new mall might look here. It is hard to tell exactly how old this mall is, but it still looks very new and clean.
ReplyDeleteThis is certainly the most Americanized of the malls we’ve seen in terms of stores. Granted, most of the American stores are food places, but there are some regular stores as well. The presence of GNC will mean that this mall can count on at least one store sticking around when almost all the others leave (which hopefully won’t be for many, many decades!). Of course, this mall looks to be doing very well so I don’t think there’s any reason to think it won’t do well anytime soon.
Sounds looks like a very interesting store. They obviously have a lot of instruments and at least some recordings, but they also have regular electronics like TVs. These Mexican stores seem like American stores from about 10 years ago when everyone was trying to get on the LCD HDTV bandwagon. Sales were good for a while, but the market has since mostly saturated and it’s hard to make money on TVs now in the US. In Mexico, perhaps there are still a lot of people buying new TVs instead of just replacing broken ones.
The oil derricks are interesting. It almost reminds me of the Greenspoint area Fry’s. The presence of Applebee’s and Peter Piper Pizza in the mall itself is a bit interesting. Something like Applebee’s would not be unheard of as a mall outparcel, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one in the mall in the US. It’s good to see that the shoppers at this mall have a lot of food options. The exterior entrances make these food vendors more popular to those who are just passing through and don’t want to have to step into the mall.
The Soriana at this mall is a little more modern looking than the previous one we looked at, but it mostly looks similar. I think I liked some of the retro touches of the older location like the canopy in the meat department. Still, I think the store looks nicer than a US Walmart. The sign showing produce grown in the US is interesting. I wonder if US supermarkets have that many American products. It seems like a lot of produce comes from Mexico now. Maybe we’re sending our produce there and we’re getting their produce. One thing about Soriana which is pretty impressive is their ability to keep their racks and shelves pretty tidy. Maybe Target here in the US is like that, but Walmarts and Kmarts are usually much messier. Actually, it’s really impressive how tidy the whole mall is.
It seems like photo departments and studios are alive and well in Mexico. You’re right that seeing the Kodak name at a mall is certainly a blast to the past for us Americans. It was common through the 1980s, but then started to become rarer in the 1990s.
Wow, a Woolworth! I have not seen one of those in years. I’m really interested to see what these look like inside and what kind of products they sell.
This mall is on a very busy retail strip. Lots of newer shopping centers and casual full service American style restaurants are all around this area. There is also a Walmart just down the street. I actually did not visit any Walmart stores while I was down there. Since there was a variety of stores at the places I visited, there was no need to see a Walmart.
DeleteThis part of Mexico is a time warp for sure. Another thing I noticed is that Heavy Metal from the 80's and Grunge from the 90's is popular. Not only did every store that carried music have these genres of music in stock. I also saw graffiti in the city with various bad names and people wearing metal shirts.
The employees even in the lower end malls seem to have much more pride in their work than here in the US. I don't know if the pay is better in comparison to other jobs or it is just the culture of the area. Maybe they work on commission.
Another place I did not get a good photo of is an Internet cafe. There are a lot of small Internet cafes in the city. You can see it in the mall video briefly.
Stepping into a Woolworth for the first time in over 20 years was amazing. Once I figured out there was one nearby, I had to check it out. Looks like only Austria, Germany, and Mexico still have Woolworth stores. It is crazy how a company that was the early Walmart of America, faded completely. The only part of their company, the Foot Locker stores remain. Most Foot Locker store employees probably were born after Woolworth closed in the US.
It might have been interesting to see what a Mexican Wal-Mart looks like. I would assume it looks pretty similar to an American Wal-Mart, but perhaps some of the departments would have been more similar to what is at Soriana. I also wonder what a Mexican Sears would look like given the higher standards for department stores in Mexico.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the retail jobs in Mexico pay better, at least relative to the cost of living, than they do in the US. If so, perhaps the employees are more invested in the success of the stores. It looks like a lot of stores in Mexican malls have the same departments so each store has to do a very good job to get people to shop there instead of the other stores. Presentation will obviously be one of the factors that may pull customers in or push them away. Unfortunately, US stores don't put much pride in presentation anymore. Well, maybe they do, but perhaps the idea is to make the store look as low-cost as possible.
Internet cafes are pretty rare here in the US. They were rare in the 1990s and practically extinct now. I suppose not everyone has computers there and broadband may not be accessible for everyone so there is still a market for Internet cafes. I'm not sure if they have libraries there with public Internet access.
I've heard that heavy metal, grunge, and the Raiders are popular in Mexico. I guess they all go together! I'm guessing party speakers must also be popular in Mexico because a lot of the stores seem to sell them based on what I've seen in the pictures. Some even have many different models. Party speakers are sold here too, but usually the stores that sell them will only have one or two models.
Yes, Foot Locker is the legacy of Woolworth, but it's so disconnected from the old Woolworth stores that it's really hard to tell that there was once a connection. It's kind of a shame that Woolworth couldn't get Woolco going and couldn't keep their regular stores going long enough for the revival of smaller format stores like Dollar General and Family Dollar. Maybe Woolworth would have had a better shot in the 2010s than they did in the 1970s-1990s, but I guess it's too late for them now here in the US. In Mexico, it looks like they are continuing to thrive. I'm looking forward to seeing what their stores are like in Mexico so we can wonder what could have been here.
Well, you will get an opportunity to see the Sears from the 5th and nicest mall in Juarez. I was able to stop at this store on more than one occasion as well as the attached mall.
DeleteLet's just say that if Sears had upgraded their stores here, this is what they could have been.
If I ever go back, I may stop at a few American chain stores there. They also have Sam's Club, Home Depot, Office Depot, and probably others.
There are a lot of employees on duty at the department stores. On weekends there are even more. It was difficult getting photos of the department stores without catching the eye of an employee or security guard. The department stores had security guards at the entrances and some in the store. I very discreetly got photos when the opportunity was there, thankfully my new phone is quick.
Internet is hit or miss. My phone would roam and there were a lot of dead spots even allowing full roaming.
The Cowboys and whatever teams were in the Superbowl were easy to find gear for. They had a few stores surprisingly that had NFL gear or souvenirs.
Woolworth is a distant memory here in the US. I agree with you, they could have grown tremendously if they had held on. The discount dollar stores of today are not much different than Woolworth was.
The Mexican Sears sounds like it might be really nice. I'm intrigued by your teaser! I guess we'll have to wait to see how that looks.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that Mexico has Sam's club when we had Mas Club. I suspect that the Mexican Sam's Clubs and Home Depots look like the American ones, but the Office Depots down there might have more electronics in them like our office stores had 20 years ago.
I don't know if Canada has Sam's, but Costco is big up there. They also have Home Depot and I'm sure it looks the same as ours. Lowe's is in Canada as well, but most of their stores are Rona stores. Rona was a local chain that Lowe's brought out a few years ago. Given that, they might look quite different than our Lowe's. Canadian Tire is a big chain in Canada. They are a bit like the old Western Auto stores from the 1960s that sold car items, hardware, sporting goods, and electronics/appliances. They are a bit like a Sears without the softlines, but more successful.
The Cowboys and Raiders are big in Mexico supposedly. Maybe the Raiders are popular because of Jim Plunkett and Tom Flores from way back, but I don't know. Perhaps Sears can send their perpetual overstock of Cowboys gear to Mexican retailers.
Perhaps the experimental Kmart small-format store will go well and Kmart can replicate kind of an old Woolworth of sorts. Walgreens/Rite Aid and CVS have been shedding stores so maybe they could find cheap real estate in prime areas. Of course, it would be great to have some locations in a mall as well.
Looks like Lowes also has a small presence in México. Blockbuster was also there until recently, and the remaining stores changed to a new brand.
DeleteThere are a few Western Auto stores still left, but they are few and far between. I need to stop and check out the one in Alexandria next time I go. Canada has a lot of chains that you will not find here in the US. I am interested in checking Canada out one day.
I guess since the NFL is going to México now, some new teams will also get followers. It is such a shame Dallas and Oakland are the popular teams down there.
Rite Aid stores are closing all over the place now. Louisiana is losing a bunch. Some of these stores are former K&B stores that were never remodeled and had many old fixtures.