Here is the last remaining Sears department store in the New Orleans area. Sadly this store will close in the Spring of 2019. This is a massive Sears store at 180,000 square feet, that had been a part of Clearview Mall since the mall opened in 1969. There are many similarities to the former Oakwood location that closed in 2017. The final Kmart in Louisiana which is down the street from this Sears will also close at around the same time as this store. Only 1 Sears department store in Baton Rouge at the Mall of Louisiana will remain in the state of Louisiana after these closings. Photos from August 2018.
Here is the mall entrance.
Men's clothing is right at the mall entrance, not many department stores feature Men's clothing right at the only mall entrance.
Gotta love the detail around the escalators.
They still had a decent electronics department.
As you can see, the electronics used to be a much larger department.
For late 2018, this was a decent sized Sears electronics department. The Samsung tablet display still worked.
Even the 2nd floor has awesome detail above the escalators.
A sea of mattresses. This store is huge, with a lot of space to fill.
Typical Sears checkout counter.
Another view of the escalator with the electronics straight ahead.
The second floor seemed to have a lot of hidden space. Not many shoppers were walking this far into the store. Too bad for them, there were a lot of deals to be found.
Here you can see the vintage looking wood trim just under the ceiling that lines the back of the store.
One thing about this location, the floors were in really good shape. A lot of Sears stores have broken tiles and cracked floors, but I did not see any here.
Random furniture tucked in the back corner.
The second floor had a mismatch of clothes, and everything else but tools and jewelry.
The very back of the store, was eerily quiet.
The Children's clothes stretched almost to the back corner of the second floor as you can see here.
A peek into the former portrait studio.
Children's clothing was also on the second floor.
Restrooms and employee offices on the second floor.
One thing about the second floor on my visit. Employees were only around the appliances and mattresses. Hard to sell those items in the far back area of the store if nobody is there to help you out. And seriously, it is a far walk to the back area of the store where the pillows and bedding sets are located.
The appliance department.
Back to the first floor, more escalator detail.
Now we enter the tool department. Huge Nomex suits, not sure if I have seen these at other locations.
Summer outdoor items were packed into this area as well.
This is a nice program for students, I wonder how many people took advantage of deals like these?
Lots of activity in this part of the store. This is one of the larger tool/outdoor departments that I have been to in years.
The lawn and outdoor department stretches out to the far right.
Looks like these were emergency exit doors.
This section of the store stretches out further than the tool side does. This store has all kinds of hidden/extended spots.
Doors to the former garden center.
More outdoor furniture.
Sporting goods are also mixed in with the tools and outdoor furniture.
Women's clothing and shoes.
Now for the outside of the store.
I found this seemingly abandoned van in the far parking lot of the store. This van perfectly sums up how Sears is doing these days.
Back of the store with the former garden center fenced off.
There was also a detached Auto center at this store that closed not too long after my visit. Sadly I did not get any photos of the building.
More blog posts coming soon.
Wow, that Sears van is surreal! The clouds in the picture really make the photo. The van must have been used somewhat recently as it looks like it has some labelscar with the current logo, but it really looks like it hasn’t moved in at least 5 years. I actually saw a Sears van in similar condition next to the Mall of the Mainland Sears a couple months back. It wasn’t as bad looking, but all the tires were flat.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pictures of the store. This is one nice looking Sears (by Sears standards at least) so it’s a shame that it’s closing. Even though it’s a big store, it does not appear to have inventory problems in the pictures. Even the electronics department is above average for a Sears electronics department these days, but the fact that they only have a couple of TVs on display still makes it look kind of depressing. The different departments actually have different looks to them unlike some Sears stores. I like it. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen anything like that Coffee Shop sign in the coffee maker section.
It’s also surprising that the online ordering computers at this Sears were still working. Those are usually off and/or not working in my recent visits to Sears stores. The teal lights in the escalator section of the store are interesting, I have not seen that before. That’s a nice touch given that some Sears have burned out lights and such in those areas.
I have not heard about Sears offering discounts to technical students through the Craftsman Club. That’s a nice benefit, but unfortunately I’m not sure how many students are aware of that benefit. Some Sears stores have more workwear in the men’s department than others, but this really seems to have some unique choices. It’s kind of surprising that the Plaza Paseo and Mall of the Mainland Sears don’t sell these items. I think they would be popular there. In fact, they might be popular at all the Sears stores.
This Sears store seems to be better organized than most other Sears stores as well. It’s a shame that this store is closing, I think Sears would be doing a lot better if all their stores looked as nice as this one. Plus, it seems to have better selection than the average Sears. The Memorial City Mall Sears was the last Sears we had which is roughly similar to this one, but this Sears looks nicer than the Memorial City Mall one did. Granted, this store is newer.
I hope that the Louisiana shoppers won’t forget about Sears if Sears should continue on under Lampert. Then again, only shoppers in Baton Rouge and ones near the state border will probably shop at Sears. Maybe SHOS can pick up some slack, but I hear SHOS is really struggling since the bankruptcy. Some stores are struggling to get inventory. If Sears is going to make a push with new, smaller format stores, it may have to come straight from Lampert’s pocket. I think the chances of that happening to any great extent is close to nil unfortunately.
I really like this Sears location. I lived very close to this store for several years, and used to bike to this mall to shop. This is a big blow for Clearview Mall, but management was able to replace the huge Dillard's store that closed with a 2-story Target. The intersection where this store is located is one of the busiest in Louisiana so it will not sit vacant for long.
DeleteWhen this store was remodeled in the late 1990's, it was a big deal that a story was made about it in the newspaper. Management had taken care of this store and it showed. Even though the store never got new signage, their signage looks good surviving hurricane winds and the rainy climate of the New Orleans area.
I would not be surprised if some of the more desirable inventory at this store was moved out prior to the closing announcement to non-closing stores. Now that Lampert may have won the company, hopefully we will see some improvements in our local stores. We can dream about the mini-Kmart inside of Sears finally being rolled out nationwide. The Kmart stores in the New Orleans area had mini-Sears departments.
I had suspected that this store wasn't going to last much longer after this article came out:
ReplyDeletehttps://neworleanscitybusiness.com/blog/2018/08/02/clearview-shopping-center-acquire-sears-site/
The article made it sound like management had approached Sears, so they were already planning on redeveloping the site.
Mall management must have a good plan for the site now that Sears is leaving. Maybe the mall corridor can be extended and a good junior anchor such as TJ Maxx can take over a portion of the Sears site. This would probably involve a demolition of the anchor to create this space.
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