Here is the first post in 2025 from 2025. We finally made it to the Northeast corner of the State. Here is a former Kmart in Texarkana Texas. This store (#7309) opened on October 30, 1980 and closed on January 28, 2018 per Kmart/Locations | Malls and Retail Wiki | Fandom
This was a traditional old school style Kmart with about 92,000 square feet of retail space and was one of the longest lasting Kmart locations in Texas. I almost forgot about this former Kmart, but I briefly saw the shopping center as we were passing by and made a U-turn back to check it out.
Here are a couple of videos from NAI American Realty showing the inside of the store before it was stripped out. Click the dates below to see when the videos were uploaded.
The main road sign off of Highway 59 has faded, revealing the old Big Kmart logo. Autozone will probably place their logo at the top of this road sign in the near future.
The exterior of the building is still relatively untouched minus the Kmart sign. A small chunk of the building on the right-hand side is under construction for a new Autozone location.
The inside is a different story. All of the ceiling tiles and most of the light fixtures are gone. It appears that the old floor tiles have been removed as well, but I couldn't tell for sure.
Some of the old Kmart A/C vents are still in place.
The old main entrance still has some of the Kmart era stickers.
The former Garden Shop and auto center side of the store.
Inside of the Garden Shop area from two slightly different angles.
I really wish there was more to see here, but at least this is one of the few reminders left from the Kmart era in Texas.
As you can guess, we also covered the nearby Central Mall. Central Mall is a decent enough mall with a few spots struggling as most small city malls these days.
Texarkana was a place of interest to certain retail enthusiasts due to them having a Kmart still until pretty late and also because they had (and still have) an Albertsons. The Albertsons is actually the only one in Arkansas, though the parking lot basically touches the Texas border. It must be strange to have one store in the whole state given all the regulatory stuff which must be understood in each state, but Albertsons just built a new location in Oklahoma, their only location there at least in current times, so I guess they have that one store in a state issue in multiple places.
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to see a mansard slice Kmart like this again after not seeing one in a while, even in photo form. My local Kmart at Jones & FM 1960 looked like this, albeit Jones & FM 1960 never had the modified facade like this one does. On the inside, only the giant HVAC vents are there to remind anyone that this was a Kmart.
AutoZone and O'Reilly seem to be to the 2020s what Walgreens and CVS were in the 1990s and 2000s with their ever-expanding store count. It's pretty amazing because AutoZone at least already had a lot of stores. There are three within 3-4 miles of me, and all are locations which have been around for a while. One, the Cypress N Houston & Huffmeister location in an old Blockbuster, has been closed and under repair for a while because the roof collapsed on it during the Christmas Eve storms. I know these auto parts stores want some larger locations to go along with the smaller ones so they can use them to warehouse parts for their business operations selling to auto repair shops. The Alco on Gessner turned into one of the first of those 'super' AutoZones that was open 24 hours at one time. Advance Auto Parts seems to be the chain which is going in the opposite direction, at least locally, since they are closing locations.
The 'Boris Yeltsin Randall's' Food Town in Webster/Clear Lake, which was the Randall's that Boris Yeltsin made his famous visit to in the late 1980s, closed recently and will be turned into an AutoZone. The well-preserved Food Lion that turned into a Food Town at Jones & West closed recently. That store had not done good business in many years now, though admittedly it was tough for them on an intersection which had four supermarkets on it. The declining store count for Food Town has certainly been an issue. Kroger is closing a location in The Woodlands as well. It was the last Houston Kroger to have a Huggieland/Hugslieland, though that closed around 2020.
Anyway, the first photos on the blog from 2025 are a bit of a blast from the past back when there were still Kmarts in Texas to visit. I'm sure the conversion of the Willowbrook Mall Sears into Round1 and Primark will get some attention this year.
It seems like the bulk of the retail in Texarkana is in the Texas side of the city. The mall and major retail districts are in Texas, but the street that divides the state has retail and food options on both sides. Maybe one day, I will venture even further and capture some of the Arkansas Malls for the blog. The state has a lot of natural beauty, and we barely saw much outside of the city. Unfortunately, there are not any malls near in Arkansas near Texarkana, so it will be a trek even further just to reach one.
DeleteI guess AutoZone is taking advantage of the decline of Advance Auto Parts. To me it doesn't really matter what store I buy from, whatever is closest when I need a part right now. A lot of Internet options have been digging into their bottom lines with cost cutting and free shipping, but to me time is of the essence. If I need to fix something, I usually can't wait for shipping.
With Sprouts and Trader Joe's growing, some of the smaller Kroger's will probably be on the chopping block again. The small Kingwood Kroger is getting a small remodel, so that store is safe for now. I believe another HEB is coming soon to the Grand Parkway/ I-69 area as well. I think the small greenhouse Spring Kroger is still open as well.
Speaking of local news, the old Sears at Deerbrook Mall is going to be a two-story entertainment complex called Score Entertainment. We noticed some activity going on a few months back and even a liquor license application on one of the entrances. There are some pictures on LinkedIn and a website for the business online. The building will be painted up and slightly remodeled outside, and the inside has already been stripped out completely. If this place gets built as anticipated, it will really hurt Round One and the nearby Main Event. Score Entertainment will be as big as both of those facilities combined with more activities including indoor go-carts. Round One surprisingly stays open until 2am every day despite being a relatively small arcade in comparison to the majority of their other locations. Maybe Deerbrook will get a Primark once Forever 21 closes in the near future. If not, at least Spirit Halloween will have a place to open up later this year since the old Sears will no longer be an option for them.
The Macy's at Almeda Mall closed yesterday so we will see how the mall does without the last major anchor. I don't think the future is looking good especially with the long decline in retail surrounding the mall. I only got a chance to visit the store once during the closing sale, but I made the most of that visit.
Greenspoint Mall is getting ransacked and torn up in some of the recent videos I have seen on Youtube. The mini mall that opened up in the former Palais Royal has already closed. One of the commenters said that the mini mall was broken into and the last tenants left once that happened. The Fitness Connection is the last business standing unless the boxing gym in the old Tilt Space is still there. The mall is in really bad shape with water/mildew buildup all over the floors, broken glass, and graffiti. It is already looking like Rolling Acres did when it was torn up before demolition.
Arkansas malls would be a natural addition to the blog given that the state borders both Texas and Louisiana. I only know of one Arkansas mall that I've been to for sure, the Hot Springs Mall which is now known as Uptown Hot Springs. Unlike most malls which get a name change, I think Hot Springs Mall is still doing relatively okay, but the owners wanted to give the mall a different name to emphasize that it is now more of an entertainment destination rather than a retail destination. Such is reality with malls here in the 2020s.
DeleteWhen I went to Hot Springs Mall in 1996, they had signs telling visitors to go to the information desk and receive a free gift from the mall. The gift, or at least part of it, was a coffee mug with the mall's logo on it. I still have that mug and I've kept it as kind of a souvenir of the place. I have vague memories of a mall in Little Rock, though I couldn't tell you which one it was or if I even went in it or just saw it from the parking lot. My boldest memory of retail in Little Rock is that I encountered my first talking Taco Bell trash can there, lol.
I had not heard of Score Entertainment, but that sounds like an exciting entertainment option for the mall. Unfortunately, as you say, with all the existing options there, something has to give because it seems unlikely all three venues can succeed when there's only a limited market for that type of thing. Score sounds more exciting than existing options so maybe they'll be successful. Driving a go-kart around a former Sears sounds exciting given that it is no longer possible to do the same at the Bear Creek Kmart anymore.
Mike from HHR had some photos of the Almeda Mall Macy's last day. It looked like they didn't have much other than area rugs (the liquidators love to bring in that stuff) and fixtures. I drove by the mall this morning and saw them taking the signs off of it. I noticed that the Exclusive Furniture in the old Just for Feet in the mall parking lot, which has been closed since Beryl damaged it, has taken down the signs they put up claiming they would re-open the store after the hurricane damage was fixed and it has been replaced with signs saying the old Just for Feet is now for lease/sale. It is hard to say what happened exactly, but it wouldn't be surprising if Exclusive Furniture bailed once it was known Macy's was leaving. They have a big location near Baybrook Mall anyway. It might be the first case of collateral damage from Macy's closing at Almeda Mall. Unfortunately, I'm sure there will be more cases of that.
I'm not surprised to hear that the Greenspoint Mall mini-mall closed, that sounded like a far-fetched idea anyway. Someone posted some urban exploration photos not too long ago of the Northwest Mall Foley's and that place is in far better condition than the Greenspoint Foley's even with it being an older building that has been abandoned for much longer than the Greenspoint one. With that, I'm not at all surprised to hear the entire mall is in poor condition. At this point, it really needs to be torn down as it is more of an eyesore than any kind of source of nostalgia, at least of the positive kind.
Speaking of redevelopments, permits have been filed to put a Sam's Club at the old San Jacinto Mall site. If things work out, I'm sure that'll draw a lot of shoppers to the old mall site, though I'm sure New Caney shoppers thought the same of their new Sam's Club and we see how that turned out so we'll have to see. Sam's Club has a lot more hits than misses though so it'll probably be okay.
I was in the mall in Hot Springs, Arkansas last November during a quick trip up there. I definitely recommend a visit of that mall for the blog.
DeleteLooks like the Hot Springs Mall would be a great visit for the blog. Thanks for suggesting it Phudman and Anonymous in Houston.
DeleteThe talking trash can sounds a bit strange, what did it say? I hope to make it further into Arkansas one day.
Score Entertainment will be a huge benefit to Deerbrook Mall. For now, it seems like the development is moving a bit slow.
Almeda Mall will more than likely quickly fall off into deadmall status with the loss of Macy's. Losing both anchors in such a short time is going to really hurt the mall. I don't really see the mall coming back from this. A lot of the merchandise was brought in for the closing sale from other vendors. A lot of what was brought in appeared to be junk merchandise that nobody else could get rid of. My Macy's photos will show some of the strange things that were brought in.
The videos of Greenspoint Mall are so weird to see. It was less than a year ago that I was buying some flip-flops at Jimmy Jazz, and now that store is trashed. I will continue to see if someone gets into the old Sears wing to see how bad things are back there.
Sams Club is a huge downgrade from what they were going for at the San Jacinto Mall redevelopment, but I guess it has to start somewhere. Hopefully more retailers will show up, but there are not a lot of expanding retailers looking into redeveloped old mall sites at the moment.