Here is my first and potentially final look at the Dirt Cheap business. After doing my long look at the Pierre Bossier Mall, I passed by the former Kmart site just down the street. The former Kmart has been split into 3-stores. Dirt Cheap, Dirt Cheap building supplies, and Ollie's.
Thankfully we get to peek inside of the former Kmart store that we last visited when that store was closing. The Dirt Cheap Building Materials is scheduled to close on December 15, 2024.
The old floor, ceiling tiles, and A/C vents are still in place.
Really not a whole lot left besides floors, toilets, boards, and some doors. There are a lot of random odds and ends type of things.
More photos from around the store.
As you can see, the floor has been torn apart. A lot of the old Kmart tile still remains, but it is in really bad shape.
Still had the look of Kmart from end to end of the store.
Pretty sure this spill magic sign was left over from the Kmart days. It looks really faded.
With the help of the AI magic on my latest phone, I made the people in these images disappear.
They use the old Kmart customer service desk for the checkouts.
Just like the last time we were here when the Kmart was closing.
For the clothing side, we missed out. Here are a couple of shots on the inside from the glass doors.
Here is the Ollie's side of the former Kmart. It is pretty cool that they incorporated the former Garden Shop into their store.
On my first December trip, we did not go in the store. Since we had some time, I had to get a quick trip in to take a look.
The garden center wall to the store was removed leaving this as a wide-open space now.
As we progress through the store, we began to notice that this is the messiest Ollie's location by far that we have seen.
Lots of stuff just thrown around and stacked in shopping carts.
Even the center aisle displays were all over the place.
The clothing department really needs to be straightened up.
The A/C vents look very different without the ceiling tiles.
The stockroom door was propped open. This was the former auto center of Kmart.
The back area of the store with carpets, bedding, and other stuff just thrown around.
Ceiling tiles falling down.
That is all from the former Kmart. As you can see, this is a very small Ollie's location and a pretty messy one as well.
Now as an added bonus. Here is an update to the former Circuit City and Linens and Things on Youree Drive that we documented years ago (click here for that post).
As you can see the replacement Conn's also met the same fate as the previous tenants. The parking lot lights at the shopping center
were only dark in front of Conn's. With the signage still on, it made for a great photo.
More to come on the Shreveport/Bossier City series including a part 2 of Pierre Bossier Mall and a revisit to the former Southpark Mall.
First, let me say that it is great to see the blog back for another year! 2025 isn't getting off to a great start as far as local retail goes with the sad, but completely expected news at the Almeda Mall Macy's will be closing. Oh well, it almost made it to 60 years so I suppose that wasn't a bad run.
ReplyDeleteStarting the new blogging year off with some Kmart coverage is always interesting. I went back and looked at your photos of this Kmart back in 2013 and 2016 and even in 2013, this Kmart was looking a bit sad and tired. Kmarts back in 2013 generally still had decent electronics departments and such, but this one wasn't as good as the btter Kmarts of that era. Even still, however sad the Kmart might have looked, it is still way better than the state of this store under Dirt Cheap and Ollie's!
While I'm not surprised that a Dirt Cheap wouldn't look nice, especially when they were liquidating, the sloppiness of the Ollie's is a bit surprising. I've been to the Jones & FM 1960 Ollie's in the former Target recently. While it'll never win any awards for presentation, it is in much better shape than this Ollie's and that includes the condition of the old Target drop ceiling.
In some ways, the Dirt Cheap and Ollie's look similar to the FM 1960 & Kuykendahl Texas Thrift store in an old Kmart, though the Texas Thrift might be in better shape in certain regards. One thing I'll say about the Jones Rd. Ollie's is that I went there during the Christmas 2023 season and now recently after Christmas and the amount of shoppers there on a Saturday afternoon was really low. Maybe it was just a fluke, and maybe the Texans were playing at the time, but there were no more than 3 other shoppers in the store in addition to myself. It was really quite surprising. Maybe Ollie's deals aren't quite what they used to be, but they still had good prices on some stuff.
But, anyway, at least Ollie's will be keeping a small taste of Kmart alive at this location. I'd rather have Kmart, at least the 2013 or earlier version of it and not the current one in Miami which is surely worse than Ollie's, but obviously Kmart is all but gone and not coming back...barring any kind of strange Eddie Lampert stunts.
Looking at your high-res Ollie's photos, I saw some Vivitar brand toothbrushes for sale. It is very strange to see that brand on toothbrushes! I remember when Vivitar made quality camera lenses sold at places like Service Merchandise. Then they were selling low-grade cameras. Now toothbrushes. What next?
Oddly enough, a lot of the former Conn's and Big Lots are still lit up at night around here. It is a bit strange to see those zombie stores lit up like that.
I hope you and your readers were able to keep warm this week. Those heaters at Ollie's looked appropriate for the week! Some of the temperature readings I saw for places like Beaumont and Lake Charles were really quite amazing.
So far, 2025 has been off to a quiet start. There is some new content coming from 2025 including one new mall to the blog, one new old Kmart to the blog, and one new failing outlet mall. There are a few updates to post as well.
DeleteI have been cobbling together some photos of the Almeda Macy's to use for a future article. The store is pretty close to being done as I type this comment.
This will not be the only former Kmart that you will see in 2025 on the blog. I recently checked out another former Kmart that is being partially redeveloped. It is a new one to the blog, so I never got to see it when it was open.
Ollie's is making a push for several closed JoAnn and Big Lots locations. It wouldn't surprise me if we see them getting some of the soon to be closed Forever 21 locations as well. There will always be cheap leftover goods that nobody else will sell.
The items you find at Ollie's do live up to the hype. There are so many random brands on random items it can be humorous to see. There are some name brand items, but you have to compare the price per ounce to see if it is a good deal.
We certainly have a lot of up-and-coming zombie stores hitting the market these days. Spirit Halloween will have a great 2025 with all of the vacant retailers out there.
I am glad that the freeze back in January wasn't too bad for us. The snow was fun to see, and the temperatures didn't stay cold for too long. The low teens and single digit temps in Beaumont through the I-10 East corridor in Louisiana were pretty wild to see. They certainly got the worst of it and a few places even had blizzard warnings.
I love the photograph work, been following for years- anonymously!
ReplyDeleteYou should go back to Houma sometime, check up on the mall. (I am from the area, moved to France years ago)- there is also on Barrow Street a old bingo hall called Town Hall, that was once a Grants five & dome and Kroger. Down the bayou is/was a operating Piggly Wiggly. West Park Storage, was once a Woolco, later the original Walmart- and there was an attached cinema.
I believe any other interesting old retail got torn down due to the last storm on Grand Caillou.
Thanks for the tips. I didn't do the best job on documenting the mall in Houma. It was kind of a rush job. Maybe one of these days I can get back down there once I finish up covering the Northeast part of Louisiana.
Delete