From the Mexico series, we have the Sears and mall at the WTC in Mexico City. This Sears is mostly 3 levels, but there are 2 lower mini floors with products that mostly lead to parking garages. The mall which is quite small, has 3 floors as well. The office tower is connected to the mall on the first floor. This is a perfect example of an excellent mixed use project in highly populated areas such as this one.
There is also the attached 50 story WTC tower. The top of the tower features a revolving restaurant that has great views of the city.
This Sears is upscale in comparison to some of the other stores I visited in the city.
A mini Sanborns is on the main floor.
A view of the escalator setup showing the 3 levels of the store.
The toy department.
Not sure why, but these games caught my eye.
A mini Pier 1 Imports on the upper level. Every Sears in Mexico I have visited, has a Pier 1 mini store.
More of the upper level.
Lawn and garden.
Electronics
Sears Travel agents.
Auto and tires.
Credit center.
Music
Televisions
Video games, my favorite department.
More Televisions
Now for a peak into the attached mall, 3rd level.
The lights on the floor is a nice touch.
The 3rd level entrance with the massive candy counter.
Athletic wear and mopeds.
Sporting goods.
Appliances
A look down at the levels in the store. At the bottom of the escalators are the lower mini floors.
Now a peak into the mall at the 2nd floor.
The evacuation route shows the layout of the complex.
Back into the store we go to the lower main level
Here is the locations of each department in the store. Sotano 1 and sotano 2 stands for basement 1 and 2, the mini floors.
Now we look into the first floor of the mall. This part of the mall goes to the office tower elevators. (Not pictured, too much security).
It looks like most of the businesses in the mall are only open during the day.
1st floor mall entrance.
Here is the basement level 2.
And the basement level 1 with furniture displays.
Welcome to Sears.
A look up at the main 3 floors of the store.
Here is the 2nd basement level, not much to see here.
Now for the mini Sanborns.
Candy counter.
Music and electronics.
You gotta love the gross tobacco warning labels. These may get implemented in the USA in the future.
Cosmetics.
Sanborns store and restaurant advertisements. Sanborns has an excellent restaurant especially for breakfast.
A better view of the majority of the store.
Store hours 11-9pm daily. No early closings in Mexico.
More photos of the mall.
I managed to get one photo of this awesome entryway to the tower/mall complex.
Now for the exterior of the complex.
Several sit down restaurants and cafes.
One of the entrances to the parking garage, with the tower in the background. It was a very long walk to get around the complex, I underestimated the size of the trade center.
The exterior entrance to the Sanborns restaurant.
Starbucks is just as easy to find in Mexico City as it is in the United States. Every retail area we visited had at least one, some malls had multiple Starbucks locations.
The road sign for the complex. There is also a 9-screen Cinemex cinema within the complex.
One last photo with the Sears and WTC tower overhead.
I apologize for the recent slow pace of updates and comment replies. For the time being, all posts are being completed on my phone. My computer went out and I am working towards a replacement.
I know I should not be surprised by these Mexican Sears stores since you've posted pictures of them before, but it's still quite shocking to see how nice these stores are. They are without question nicer than US Sears stores, even when Sears was doing well in the US, and may be even nicer than higher end department stores in the US. Of course, even higher end department stores don't have the variety of goods that this store has. I suspect that online shopping hasn't taken off in Mexico quite as quickly as it has here and perhaps in-store credit offers are still important in Mexico.
ReplyDeleteThe combination of malls and downtown office towers within the same complex are common in Canada. In fact, in Montreal, it seems like each block has a mall with a mall on the first floor and/or down in the basement. These malls have massive food courts meant to serve shoppers and the people who work in the offices in the towers. Even mid-sized Canadian cities like Calgary have a mall or two downtown like this. The US is lagging behind in the development of such buildings.
It's good to know that if Sears goes belly up in the US, at least the name and logo will live on with respectability in Mexico. I suppose the same is true with Kmart in Australia. Also, if Sears struggles again, maybe the media will use this blog post to create stories about the difference between Mexican Sears and US Sears like I feel they did with some of your earlier Mexican Sears blog posts!
As an aside, I'm not sure if you received my latest reply a couple of days ago in the La Palmera post. I have a feeling I accidentally pressed the preview button instead of the publish button, but I don't know. If you didn't get it, let me know and I'll try to retype what I initially wrote.
Another thing that keeps brick and mortar stores going in Mexico is the lack of trust in the postal system. Buying a large ticket item at a department store and taking it home is less risky than getting it delivered. Electronics are especially pricey in comparison to what you would pay in the USA.
DeleteYou are right, there are not a lot of mixed use developments in the USA in comparison to what you see in other countries. It is surprising to see other places get it right, while many of the downtown malls in the USA have struggled to stay open. To top it off, department stores are nearly impossible to find in any downtown areas of the USA.
I wonder if the USA Sears goes away, if the Mexican Sears company will take over any locations. They would have to buy the rights to the Sears name, but a lot of stores would do much better. Texas has a lot of shoppers that love Sears.
Yes I did get the comment, I overlooked it for some reason. I posted a reply. I am glad to continue to blog into 2020, but so many of the chains that I have been covering are going away.
The idea of another company buying out the Sears name in the US and operating stores is an interesting idea. However, at this point, the chain would practically have to be rebuilt from the ground up since it has been so far gutted. I've long thought that the Sears name could be used on a national chain of furniture and appliance stores similar to a Conn's, but I suppose we'll have to wait for Lampert to be completely out of the picture for anything like this to happen.
DeleteThe Sears home services division is probably the strongest part of the company, but one has to wonder how long even those divisions can stay strong. With Sears basically being a failed company from a retail perspective, how many people will buy new Sears extended warranties when they aren't buying appliances from Sears? How many people will call Sears for appliance repairs when they aren't buying Kenmore appliances anymore and when the Sears name is gone from many local communities?
Lampert has probably killed off any revival even if he gave up ownership of the company. There is little to no trust left with the public, that Sears will last into 2021. With only around 130 stores total, the company is nearly gone.
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