Here is an update to the contest which closed on December 1st, 2021. The contest winners have been notified. Thank you for all of your support here on the blog. Now for the feature presentation 👇
Sears Parks at Arlington Mall opened in 1988 as an original anchor of the mall. Parks at Arlington Mall was also a Homart development, which was a Sears company as well. We visited on August 2, 2020, a week before the store permanently closed on August 9, 2020. The store was in really good shape and appeared to have recently been painted.
We will be entering the second floor which is mostly apparel.
Inside of the store, we will see that this is a fairly standard Sears location.
More areas of the store that once were filled with Children's clothes and were blocked off at this point in the sale.
Men's clothing. The inventory here had been consolidated elsewhere.
What is left of the clothing at this point in the sale.
The second floor had some fixtures, but the bulk of fixtures was on the first floor.
The tables were placed here to block this portion of the store off. About half of the second floor was blocked off at this point.
More of the remaining clothes and the mall entrance.
This is more than likely where the Men's pants were located in the past.
More emptiness.
The escalator ceiling design here is interesting. A lot of the stores built in this era had skylights so this is something different.
Now we head downstairs.
Fixture graveyard.
A newer Bath sign in a font I haven't seen before.
The first floor exit and merchandise pickup.
Former tax counter, hearing aid counter, or optical?
Typical Sears, a CRT TV still in use for the package pickup area.
As always, the typical store closing rug sale.
Lots of seasonal boxes here. It was weird seeing these with 90 + degree temps outside.
Now for the lawn and garden and tool departments. This is the section of the store that was reopened for the Sears Hometown store.
Tons of shopping carts for sale. No handbaskets left that I could find unfortunately.
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A look at the various shopping cart fonts.
What once was a wall of tools, is now empty.
More fixtures spilled over into this section of the store.
A few appliances and odds and ends were left.
A decent amount of tools on these racks at this point in the sale. The real question is do they have 10mm sockets?
I am trying to remember what department had this blue background. Maybe it was sporting goods.
More fixtures, there were a ton of shelves, racks, and shopping carts. I guess the good smaller stuff had already been sold off.
More views from this same area. Tools/lawn and garden/sporting goods.
One of the stranger fixture pieces up for sale.
Another unique sign with a font I haven't seen before.
Another view of the massive pile of shopping carts. I wonder if these are now being reused at an Ollie's somewhere.
As you can see, we were in the final days of the sale.
The remaining outdoor furniture sets and vacuum cleaner stuff in the background.
A lonesome appliance checkout counter.
More fixtures!
The former electronics department.
An interesting find. I was having a hard time finding the former electronics department until I found this.
Looking to the escalators from the former electronics department.
More of the appliance department.
A cool vintage sign. Just when you think that a store isn't interesting you find something awesome like this.
The office where this sign was located had seen better days.
Here is the mall entrance to the store. The entrance is very similar to the Rolling Oaks Sears store in San Antonio which also opened in 1988.
Now for a handful of photos as we leave the store. These are from the second floor.
The jewelry counter.
The final look before we leave.
Now for some more exterior shots of the store.
As we head out, the story of this location is not over. The store has recently reopened as a Sears Hometown. Only a portion of the first floor is being used, but the mall entrance is open once again.
We didn't have a chance to walk the mall as we were running out of time on this Sunday afternoon. We had 2 malls left to visit which have already been posted on the blog. The Northeast and Hulen Malls.
This is a timely post as this Sears Hometown location has been making some news on social media just this week! Obviously, Jeff's video pretty much sums up everything that people are saying about this place. This location is much better integrated into the mall than the Macroplaza Mall location, but it sounds like the Macroplaza operators might be closing off the mall corridor before the Sears area so I guess it wouldn't have made sense to do anything to the mall entrance there.
ReplyDeleteThe Sears Hometown store there could use more inventory to fill in the space, but at least there seems to be some shoppers in the Sears Hometown store. I suspect they're doing a lot better than the Macroplaza location just because they are in a much more successful mall!
As for the original Sears closing sale photos, these are some interesting ones, thanks. That Appliance Select sign is really interesting because Willowbrook Mall had one of those as well (as did Baybrook and Memorial City if I remember correctly and maybe some other locations as well). Those rooms were really strange. I wondered what they had in there. I guess builders who used Sears appliances would send customers there to pick out what appliances they wanted. I do remember some big-name house builders in Houston were using Sears appliances about 20 years ago. I wonder when the last time was that those rooms were in use.
This store seems to have some similarities to the Willowbrook Sears, but this store has some newer touches like that escalator area ceiling. Sears tried to make those fancier at new locations built not long after Willowbrook opened. Also, this store did receive some updated interior signage that most Sears around here did not get. Still, there are plenty of 'stuck in the 1990s' fixtures around this store as well. It certainly looks like a Sears!
I think the area with the blue walls was sporting goods. That audio/video distribution system is interesting. Certainly it wouldn't be of much use with modern TVs as that outlet has analog component video connections which most TVs now don't have. Still, it would have been helpful in the late 2000s during the big LCD HDTV push that Sears was certainly a big part of.
I'm sure you never thought that Sears would re-open here, or anywhere, but it looks like that is the case! Maybe you'll get a chance to check out this store again. If nothing else, it looks like Jeff gave all of us a good look at the place.
With the news of this Sears reopening, I bumped up the priority of this blog post. Reopening these Sears stores is a win for the malls, but they need a lot more inventory to be successful. It seems like the Dallas area Sears stores had some good updates over the years that for some reason never made it down to Houston. The Town East Sears in particular had a rare newer signage and an interior update.
DeleteThere is only one business and one kiosk open past the two shoe stores and nail salon in the Sears corridor. It would not be too hard to move those two businesses and close off the corridor.
Did you hear anything about the Sears Hometown in the Willowbrook area?
No, I sure have not heard any new news about the Willowbrook-area Sears Hometown Store. I did drive around the outside of the old mall Sears about a week ago and I didn't see anything obvious indicating that a store would be opening there soon. That said, it's still possible to look into the store from the west and north entrances. They still have the lights on in the store. I only saw that from the car. I didn't want to get out and look through the windows due to a heavy security presence there at the time.
DeleteIt's pretty clear at this point that if a Willowbrook Sears Hometown Store is going to open, it won't happen until sometime in 2022.
The lights are still on at the Deerbrook Sears as well. All of the Spirit Halloween stuff is long gone now so the interior looks very empty now.
DeleteIf you type in Sears Hometown Willowbrook, it shows a listing at Willowbrook Mall and says the store opens on January 13th. The listing shows a photo of the Dick's Sporting Goods anchor so it may not be accurate.
Good find! I did some more research and found that Sears has set up a Facebook page for the Willowbrook location. I think Google Maps is confused about the location because this will be in a subdivided space whose address does not probably technically exist yet in Google Maps. I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing the store will be in the old Sears location. Whether it'll have a mall entrance or not is to be seen though.
DeleteHere is a link to that Facebook page. This is exciting. If this is what we think it is, who would have guessed that Sears would have returned to Willowbrook Mall in any form?!
Pretty cool, keep me posted if they open back up. The past month was a blur, and unfortunately I haven't been able to keep track of much. I did make it out to San Jacinto Mall today to check out the Macy's there. The store closing sale just started today. With the Macy's closing, Fidelis has a blank slate to work with now. Who knows what will be on the mall site now. Macy's had already thinned out their inventory and the second floor is just furniture, mattresses, and the closing sale rug department. The store is looking pretty pathetic with how low the inventory is. The strange part is that they actually painted and spruced up some parts of the store after the second floor merchandise was moved downstairs. Either way, I am looking forward to what fixtures show up in the next few weeks. I am hoping some Foley's era stuff gets put out.
DeleteMike from HHR has an exciting update about the Willowbrook Mall Sears Hometown store. He was at the mall a couple of weeks back and he noticed that there was a lot of work going on at the Sears building and they had a Sears Hometown banner on the mall entrance. Since the mall entrance gate can be seen into, Mike was able to see that it appears they are setting up fake walls through the store using old fixtures so that people can walk into the mall entrance and enter what appears to be the Hometown showroom on the back end of the store where tools and sporting goods used to be in the old Sears store. It's a very Eddie Lampert-looking solution, lol, but it's neat that they appear to be finding a way to get the old mall entrance open again. Mike has photos of this at the HHR Facebook page so you might want to check that out. The store might be opening this week so hopefully Mike or I, maybe both of us, will be able to check it out.
DeleteI did hear the unfortunate, but not unexpected, news about the San Jacinto Mall Macy's. When our friend Mike heard about the news, he headed down there and got some photos for a breaking news post that he made on HHR. It might be worth checking that out, but I guess you've already seen what he was able to get. It'll be worth keeping an eye on the liquidation to see if any Foley's relics become available.
I think having the full ability to redevelop the San Jacinto property might be a net positive for Fidelis. I'm sure having the power of Macy's is a nice thing to have, but building around a rather decrepit looking department store building was probably going to hinder the redevelopment more than benefit it. I think Fidelis still has their hands full, but if they can get a handful of discount stores like TJMaxx, Ross, Burlington, and company like the new powercenter that opened up on 290 near where Northwest Mall was, they might be able to have similar success. Granted, I'm not entirely sure if those chains are already in the area (though Burlington moved to the new 290 development from the old Venture/Kmart down 290 just a little bit so they at least don't seem opposed to relocating to a newer development).
Here's some Mall of the Mainland news. I drove by there the other day and the World Gym has now moved out of the old Foley's and into the old Sears which has been majorly renovated. The reaction to the move seems to be very positive as the parking lot in front of the old Sears was packed! There's a video tour of the new World Gym on their Facebook page. Look for the December 31st post.
In other Mall of the Mainland news, it looks like the festival grounds greenspace looks to be just about complete and it seems the local community college is moving their barbering school and salon to the old Foley's building. It's at the old VF Outlet shopping center in La Marque right now.
It is good news for Willowbrook Mall that the Sears will reopen. Since the mall is a one-level mall this will be a good fit. The stores at 2-level malls just don't seem to look right when only one floor is reopened. I may not be able to visit Willowbrook Mall for a while so any updates will be appreciated.
DeleteI did check out Mike's post at the San Jacinto Mall. The only difference between our visits are the store closing signs. San Jacinto may be the last old school Foley's location left that was not heavily remodeled throughout the years. Once I am ready to put the mall to rest here on the blog, it is going to be a massive undertaking. San Jacinto may be the most heavily documented mall that I have done. I even have enough video footage to do a lengthy video to accompany my photos. I just regret not trying harder to get into the closed off Montgomery Ward wing. I may have been able to get access when the current owners took over just before that wing was demolished. Thankfully I have some photos that I was able to get through a hole in the sheetrock where they sealed off that part of the mall.
The Facebook video of the former Sears is something else. They really opened up the space and made it easier to go to the gym. They are really doing a great job with the old mall. Unfortunately, there was a late night shooting near the greenspace area a month or two ago. At that hour of the night, I wonder if there is any security on the property. As we know, the mall had a history of theft and burglaries over the years.
I wonder if when the Sears Hometown opens, if the escalator or elevator that leads to the 2nd floor will still be accessible
DeleteI have not checked out the new Willowbrook Mall Sears Hometown store yet, but Mike did make it down there last weekend. Unfortunately, the store was already closed for the day when he made it down there, but he did get some photos from the windows of the store and also of the mall entrance. He posted them on the HHR Facebook page. Look for the January 16th post on this link. It's certainly worth checking those out.
DeleteAs you can see in the photos, Sears finally found a use for those Kmart branded tarps they were flooded with a few years ago! The old tool section now has appliances and the old seasonal department has the new tool department. It also seems that the mall entrance is still missing the Sears logo. I wonder if Sears has the old mall entrance sign in storage. If not, I wonder if they have any signs in storage they can put up there. I suppose the mall entrance is going to look a bit rough regardless of the signage with all those tarps and such, but having proper signage won't hurt any. Anyway, I'm looking forward to visiting the store when I get a chance. I still can't believe Sears has re-opened at Willowbrook Mall!
One major anniversary that's coming up soon at the end of January is the 25th anniversary of the Northline Mall disaster where the wall collapsed and killed a couple of mall walkers. It's hard to believe it's been 25 years since that tragic incident happened in some ways, but in other ways it feels like that happened so long ago. It was certainly a major news story when it happened. Here's some news footage from the day the incident happened.
I'm looking forward to seeing all the San Jacinto Mall stuff that you have. Although it would have been great peeking into the Wards wing, I do know that there are a couple of videos of the Wards wing on YouTube. These are the ones from years ago that we've discussed before that show the wing in the early 1990s and also in more recent times. If you can't find those, let me know and I'll send you the links to them.
I heard about the shooting at the Mall of the Mainland. I think any sort of 24 hour gym needs to have a lot of security to prevent car burglaries if nothing else. With all the money that's been put into the mall by the new owners here recently, hopefully they are able to keep up with security. There are a lot of people who use the World Gym and that means they will certainly need to do a good job keeping the place secure especially given some of the problems the mall had in the past with oddball crimes and burglaries. That said, just about every part of the mall has something going on in it these days which is really amazing given where the mall was just a few years ago!
Probably not, these stores are usually just a small part of the former department store. The one in Pasadena uses about a sixth of the available store space including their storage area.
DeleteThanks for sending me the link to Mike's post. Just when I thought the Pasadena Hometown store looked thrown together, the Willowbrook store takes it up a notch. I guess it is a good thing that all of the fixtures were not sold so they could put this store together. I still have my Kmart tarp in the bag, ready to go if I need it.
DeleteThat news article was pretty thorough about Northline Mall. I didn't even realize that the corridor where I took the mall directory photo years ago was the same one that was part of the collapse. There wasn't much left to keep those poor people from getting crushed once that wall gave way. They should have never left that part of the mall open without proper wall support.
The Tears for a Mall videos have come back after initially getting shut down for song copyrights. Vimeo also had a copy once those were taken down. I appreciate the offer. I may see if Yesterdays92 will let me use some of his work in my tribute to the mall. If anything, maybe he has a color version of the Montgomery Ward corridor that I could use, since in his video he had that part of the video in black and white.
Mall of the Mainland isn't the only mall to deal with shootings either. Some malls have had shootings inside lately, which is much worse in my opinion. Pretty much anywhere you have to be on your guard these days, unfortunately.
Very interesting post, since it was a liquidation did you try to pick up that Builder's Resource Center sign? I have been to the Parks mall a few times, but never stopped the Sears. Too bad you didn't have a chance to explore the mall itself. It's a great example of a well kept Homart mall. Reminds me a bit of Deerbrook.
ReplyDeleteI really thought about making an offer for the sign and I probably should have. This mall visit was cut short due to our extended visit to Town East Mall. We got to the Dallas area around noon on a Sunday and I planned to visit 4 malls. We started at Town East, then The Parks Mall, Hulen, and finally Northeast. By the time we got to Northeast we had less than 45 minutes. Maybe I will go back in 2022 to finish up these malls, and get Music City Mall as well. I was only able to document Hulen and Town East on the visit.
DeleteFrom what I saw of the mall your comparison is correct. This mall is far enough away from the other area malls to hold its own. The area around the mall is booming as well which will help the mall last for a long time.