tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post5133366662289189698..comments2024-04-08T23:28:14.441-05:00Comments on The Louisiana and Texas Retail Blogspot: Sears Midtown Houston April 2013Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger258125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-63212118111084969642023-04-26T08:27:00.065-05:002023-04-26T08:27:00.065-05:00Great Post!!
Thanks for sharing this nice post wi...Great Post!!<br /><br />Thanks for sharing this nice post with us. This post is more helpful for find the <a href="https://corporaterentalsclearancecenter.com/dining-room-furniture/" rel="nofollow"><b>best quality dining sets</b></a> for your home. These dining sets are also made up of high quality materials. <br />Henry Oscarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16933484262341005755noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-62804307258285101782014-07-02T14:17:58.854-05:002014-07-02T14:17:58.854-05:00I personally think that clothing stores need to go...I personally think that clothing stores need to go with a more humane approach. You know, give back to the community that supported them in the first place.<br /><br />It will become the direction of modern day corporations to expand their reach by helping the people around them. Besides who needs to have the profits of Wal-Mart to live comfortably. <br /><br />Business owners need to take the responsibility for the economic situations that affect our communities. Without their help and money very little can be achieved.<br /><br />I hope this message gets across to some business owners who have a choice to do the right thing or choose to maximize profits. It's okay to maximize profits but just make sure that you are giving back to the community in some way.<br /><br />Thanks for listening.Burlington Street Clothing Company.http://www.burlingtonst.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-36930467096647330362014-04-17T16:10:36.328-05:002014-04-17T16:10:36.328-05:00I think this page may be maxed out on the comments...I think this page may be maxed out on the comments. I am going to reply on my most recent post (Blockbuster) to the above comment. jehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08642257521152353045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-48672182300293427252014-04-17T16:01:45.348-05:002014-04-17T16:01:45.348-05:00Here is the article about Sears being the most hat...<a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/michael-santoli/most-hated-major-company-mall-172527823.html" rel="nofollow">Here</a> is the article about Sears being the most hated company from last Summer. <br />The Deerbrook JCPenney got a small remodel in their home goods area like most stores, but it is only a small portion of their second floor. It is not the best looking remodel, but it looks modern. I don't like the concrete exposed floors, the Walmart in Humble has bare concrete floors and they looked terrible quickly after the store opened several years ago. I am sure there is much more foot traffic in Walmart than at JCPenney, but the floors will look old soon. <br />jehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08642257521152353045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-87278198573172769582014-04-17T15:53:44.818-05:002014-04-17T15:53:44.818-05:00Several news outlets today are sharing an idea tha...Several news outlets today are sharing an idea that Amazon should acquire Sears <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/101593168" rel="nofollow">here</a><br />I like this idea but there would be many challenges to pulling this off from both sides. If this happens, companies such as Barnes and Noble and Best Buy may lose even more market share. If a deal happens Amazon will probably close a large number of stores and possibly leave only a few stores open in large markets such as Houston. Amazon does have the money to pull the deal off and I would be welcome to see at least part of the company saved than to lose it completely. For now this is all speculation, but rumors in retail sometimes pan out. jehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08642257521152353045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-83709739179853316182014-04-17T00:26:50.062-05:002014-04-17T00:26:50.062-05:00For some reason I am just now able to load your mo...For some reason I am just now able to load your most recent replies even though I looked earlier. I suppose that we have to click "Load more" twice now to get all the current replies in this thread. I'll have more comments about your replies in a day or two as I don't have a lot of time right now to write out a full response. <br /><br />I'm not a big fan of concrete floors in most retail settings. I don't have a problem with it at warehouse clubs and home improvement stores, but the expectation for ambiance in those stores isn't very high anyway. I'm not a big fan of concrete floors in grocery stores, discount stores, and certainly not in department stores. It makes stores look like a garage or a jail cell. I suppose I could accept it in a deep no-frills discount/grocery store, but it is just strange when a store that isn't a no-frills store does it.<br /><br />Concrete floors can be problematic even under the best circumstances, but it tends to really be a problem when stores remove a previous floor covering to create the concrete floor look. There are a couple of 1980s built grocery stores here in my area that recently took tiles out to leave the concrete floor. One is the Jones Rd. and West Rd. ex-Randall's that was converted (and expanded) to a HEB. The Randall's looked nice before, but the HEB is quite ugly looking. A big problem is the concrete floors. Either they did a really bad job removing the tiles or the concrete was poured in a way in the 1980s that makes it look very patchy. There are large patches with bumpy stones and little craters in the concrete. Perhaps it was done that way because there was no expectation in the 1980s that the bare concrete would be seen by the customers. <br /><br />The other floor convert is a later style greenhouse Kroger on Hwy. 6 and West Rd. that was recently renovated. The tiles were removed and the floor is also a bit patchy (though less so than the HEB). I think Kroger put down some kind of translucent paint on the concrete, but that made the flooring surface very slick. Perhaps it's not as bad now as it was around the time the work was done, but I was not happy with what they did to that formerly somewhat vintage looking store. The floor looks ugly and it also seemed dangerous to me. Of course, as you say, the bare concrete floors may become damaged easily which will make those stores look even more ugly down the road. <br /><br />But, yes, hopefully only a few Houston area JCPenney stores were converted to the jail cell/garage look. JCPenney usually isn't high on my visit list when I go to malls. Of course, a lot of the malls that I go to don't have JCPenney stores in them (at least not now) anyway. I go to the Willowbrook Mall store sometimes if I am shopping for something they sell, but they aren't very high on the list of stores to check out especially after the Ron Johnson debacle and the uglification of the 2nd floor of the Willowbrook store. <br /><br />I also have been shopping at Sears more in recent times. Part of it may be me wanting to support the kind of endangered department store format that I have always liked, but I think there is more to it than just that. They do have some pretty good deals and I think their online prices have become even more competitive in recent months especially with them matching Amazon's prices automatically on at least some things. Plus, the quality/price (value) of the products tends to be higher than what is available at the discount stores and even some other department stores. That isn't always true, but often it is. I'll have more to say on this topic in my next reply that I will write in a day or two. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-10702467954172133772014-04-15T22:56:00.101-05:002014-04-15T22:56:00.101-05:00Sears is gaining the respect of some of their loya...Sears is gaining the respect of some of their loyal customers such as ourselves, that want to save the company. I have been looking at Sears first on my large ticket purchases and I have spent over $3,000 there in the past two years mostly with large appliances. They hopefully will be able to drive some extra sales from those who are still loyal to the company, but they have to attract the born in the 1990's generation into their stores. <br />I think Deerbrook has a part of the second floor renovated, but I am not sure if they removed the tiles to expose the concrete floors. It sounds like they did a rush job at Willowbrook, but I have been to a few stores where the floors appeared to be in the middle of a remodel. The exposed concrete floors look terrible fast. The Walmart in Humble has mostly exposed concrete floors throughout the store and it looks terrible. The floors must be hard to clean and hold stains. jehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08642257521152353045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-86262144805910388942014-04-15T22:46:57.930-05:002014-04-15T22:46:57.930-05:00I am not too familiar with the history of the Sear...I am not too familiar with the history of the Sears Grand stores except for an article I read a while ago about the opening of the Austin store. They probably use that former toys section for the holiday stuff because there is no other section of the store that looks like they can easily remove items to put together their display. As you can see in the Dead and Dying Retail blog, the electronics signs are not as dated as the Kmarts I covered, but include brand names such as Gamecube on their signs. The Austin store looks very much like the store on the Dead and Dying Retail blog. The Oakland Sears has become a hot topic and may serve as an example of a Sears of the future if they subdivide the space. Sears needs to make something big happen for the company soon, or else they will have to do another round of store closures like they did a couple of years ago. jehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08642257521152353045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-62577123475384129942014-04-09T23:33:18.902-05:002014-04-09T23:33:18.902-05:00Part III:
It is good to hear that the Greenspoint...<i>Part III:</i><br /><br />It is good to hear that the Greenspoint area is still a viable business center even with Exxon's move. Hopefully that will help sustain Greenspoint Mall's food court lunch rush, but then again, call center employees probably don't have the same kind of buying power as Exxon employees. Still, there are a lot of well-known companies in that area so hopefully it'll pull though. <br /><br />San Jacinto Mall is in pretty sorry condition these days it seems, but it still has some anchors so perhaps it can pull though. The mall needs to be fully renovated and probably shrinked if it is going to see any kind of renaissance. Triyar's lawsuit against their insurance company regarding Hurricane Ike damage payments could be a big factor as to whether Greenspoint and San Jacinto Malls get the repairs they need (though it still wouldn't be enough for a full renovation). I'm not sure how that lawsuit is progressing, but both of those malls need some desperate basic repairs. <br /><br />Levcor intended to go the <a href="http://www.levcor.com/UserFiles/File/NewsArticles/Levcor_Plans_Redevelopment_of_NW_Mall.pdf" rel="nofollow">mixed-use redevelopment route</a> when they brought Northwest Mall, but obviously nothing has happened yet. I think that Levcor was pretty serious about the redevelopment (they even brought the JCPenney building), but the economy and 290 construction probably brought those plans to a screeching halt. Perhaps Levcor will open those plans back up once construction is done on 290 and it is known what will happen to Hempstead Highway. I'm still not sure if NW Mall is close enough to the Heights itself to be able to sustain residential developments, but it is kind of between Uptown and the Heights so maybe it can happen. It's perhaps a small miracle that NW Mall is doing as well as it is right now since it is pretty much an anchorless mall even with the antique mall. It's not that NW Mall is doing well, but it is hanging in there despite many obstacles (literally and figuratively). A lot of the stores/services/eateries at the mall offer good value so perhaps that is keeping people coming to the mall. The Galleria and Memorial City Mall aren't exactly known for value so at least they have that niche to themselves. <br /><br />Yes, that Yeltsin Randall's story is quite "remarkable." Of course, Randall's stores from that era were quite good so I can understand the appeal. It's quite interesting that a current Food Town store had such an impact on world history. That Clear Lake area store looked like some ~1984ish era Randall's around here with the angled ceiling and stuff like that. I certainly enjoyed looking at the store in those pictures. <br /><br />I don't get to travel as much now as I used to, but one thing I always like to do when I go overseas is to visit everyday type things and compare them to what we have in Houston. Some may consider this to be weird, but I like to visit foreign stores and fast food restaurants. For example, foreign McDonald's have different menu items than we have (though you see that with other McD's in the US as well to some extent) and the foreign ones usually taste quite a bit better (though they are quite a bit more expensive too). Retail can be different too, but sometimes in subtle ways. For example, in Europe, I notice that grocery checkout clerks sit down while ringing stuff up. They may do this at US Aldi stores, but otherwise clerks usually stand all the time. Foreign department stores are also interesting in that they are usually narrow and tall compared to our stores. By that I mean that the floors aren't as big as ours, but there are usually many more floors. It's kind of neat to go to each floor and see what they have on them. The former downtown Foley's was kind of like that (or even the Main St. Sears to some extent), but each floor at the Foley's was bigger than what you normally see overseas. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-91254709890117948272014-04-09T23:29:21.813-05:002014-04-09T23:29:21.813-05:00Part II:
I think that Sears has been doing the fr...<i>Part II:</i><br /><br />I think that Sears has been doing the friends and family sales for quite some time now, but perhaps they are upping the game on the store promotions front with the banners and such. The promotions may be up to each store manager though. I should probably check the SYWR website to see if there are any other pictures of banners and such. The air dancer might have been a Mall of the Mainland exclusive just to draw attention to the fact that the store is still open. Anyway, I have never been to one of those friends and family sales, but I would like to go to one just to see what kind of sales they have. <br /><br />I have not seen that story about Sears being the most hated company on Wall Street, but I would like to read it. Hopefully it isn't one of those fabricated Brian Sozzi pieces. I can understand why Sears isn't liked on Wall Street though. Obviously Sears' performance has not been good so there is that factor. Then again, their stock prices seem to go up due to speculation about Sears' real estate holdings. Some people seem to think that the value of Sears' real estate is overstated, but others think that it is understated. This perhaps causes confusion that is frustrating to investors. Of course, the sell off of valuable assets causes issues too, but there are spin-offs too that complicate matters. <br /><br />On the consumer front, The Consumerist blog has a popular yearly tournament to determine the worst company in America based on user votes. <a href="http://consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/2014wciabracketqfinal.png" rel="nofollow">This year's tournament</a> just finished and the good news for Sears/Kmart is that they didn't make it out of the first round so I guess they aren't too hated by consumers (or blog visitors at least). Target didn't make it out of the first round this year either, but maybe they should have. Wal-Mart made it to the semi-finals of hate so I guess they aren't very well liked, but sales figures seem to differ from the tournament results. <br /><br />The Willowbrook Mall JCPenney did indeed get a Ron Johnson redesign. The 1st floor was updated (though not hugely) quite some time back. That might have been done during the very early days of the Johnson reign of doom. The 2nd floor was updated more recently (perhaps shortly before/after Johnson left, but I don't know) and more significantly. It has a lot of open space in it and almost everything is painted white. They also took away the ceramic tile and carpet that was there before and replaced it with bare concrete floors. That is an ugly look even under the best circumstances, but the grout from the old tile floor left lines on the concrete floor that wasn't removed. Anyway, I thought the 2nd floor looked like someone's garage. A clean garage perhaps, but it still looked like a garage. It also had the mattress department that was new. I've only been to the 2nd floor once since the redesign (and that was a few months ago now) so I don't know if things have changed now that the Johnson reversal is under way. I don't go to Penney's a lot and I've been even less since the Johnson debacle so it's hard for me to give you full updates on the store. The ugly conditions at the Willowbrook store makes it even less likely that I will go there frequently (at least the 2nd floor), but perhaps the other stores will keep their pre-Johnson look if they have not been renovated yet. The Deerbrook Mall Penney's, for example, looked nice inside before so I hope that has not been wrecked. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-64325439140724596142014-04-09T23:27:57.475-05:002014-04-09T23:27:57.475-05:00Part I:
Perhaps that Sears Grand would have been ...<i>Part I:</i><br /><br />Perhaps that Sears Grand would have been converted to a Kmart if Kmarts existed in Austin (though there is one not far from there in Killeen), but it probably makes more sense to keep it as a Sears. Some Kmart stores that were converted to Sears Essentials stores were converted back to being Kmarts, but I'm not sure how many Sears Grand stores (especially purpose built ones) were converted to be Kmarts. The Dead and Dying Retail Sears Grand post I linked in one of my previous replies does have some information about this topic though. <br /><br />I wonder if the Sears Grand puts toys in the ex-toys department during the Christmas season. Perhaps it's used as a seasonal department now. It's hard to say I guess. It's a bit surprising that they had so many problems with the checkout if the store has a dedicated customer service desk. Perhaps they have some issues that they need to iron out, but maybe you just caught them in an unusually bad moment. I would pretty much expect those issues to exist at a Kmart, but Kmarts usually don't have that many registers open. That makes the issues all the more odd. <br /><br />Anyway, I look forward to seeing your photos of the Sears Grand store. I really don't have any personal experience with the Sears Grand and Essentials concept stores so I would like to see and read more about them. Maybe I will visit the Austin store one of these days if I am in the area.<br /><br />I could be wrong about this, but my understanding is that the Oakland Sears used to be another department store called Capwell's. I believe Sears has only been in that building for around 20 years. Capwell's was a large department store (kind of like the downtown Houston Foley's) so that Sears building probably has a lot of unused space even if the Sears store itself is a regular format Sears store. My understanding is that the developer that Sears was initially negotiating with wanted to turn that building into a retail hub. I believe they stated that Sears could be retained as a tenant, but that was hardly guaranteed (and perhaps that is why the deal fell through). <br /><br />I doubt that Sears would close that Oakland location and then relocate in a new store. Opening new locations just isn't something that Eddie Lampert seems interested in doing. It might make more sense for Sears to let Seritage manage that location if they want to keep that store open. Perhaps Seritage can find tenants for some of the vacant space (Nordstrom Rack or Whole Foods perhaps) and then Sears can maintain a presence there too. That might be a win-win for Sears, but perhaps Sears/Seritage does not believe that the location has the retail potential that some of the other developers think that it has. Of course, Seritage (or anyone else) could convert it into mixed use space with a Sears using some of the space and using the rest as business/residential space. I suppose that anything is possible, but we'll see. The Oakland Sears story is certainly an intriguing one that has taken many twists and turns. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-34000226155654090682014-04-09T08:56:44.704-05:002014-04-09T08:56:44.704-05:00The Oakland Sears saga continues, the article real...The Oakland Sears saga continues, the article really describes how badly the store is doing. Only 20% of the space is being used and the building is worth 25-30 million. Sears should take the money and find a smaller location nearby to let the city bring back the property. <br />I guess the friends and family night is going to become a new tactic by Sears to try and win customers back. I read an article on my phone a few days back that said Sears was the most hated company on Wall Street. Most of the comments were positive about Sears and did not understand why the author made the article in the first place. There are many other companies that are hated more (Walmart) than Sears, but I guess a lot of people out there must dislike the company since the company has seen a significant decrease in sales. jehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08642257521152353045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-37953025327214317342014-04-09T08:44:10.190-05:002014-04-09T08:44:10.190-05:00Did the Willowbrook JCPenney get the Ron Johnson r...Did the Willowbrook JCPenney get the Ron Johnson redesign like so many of the other stores? I have not purchased anything from JCPenney in a long time, I just have not found anything that I was interested in on my recent visits. The stores look nice, but the merchandise and prices have not won me over lately. <br />I heard about a new call center going in by Greenspoint Mall and another company is looking to expand when Exxon leaves the area, but I agree retail districts have moved further South, West, and North away from the mall. Northwest would be a good candidate to become a mixed use development like Town and Country is now. San Jacinto Mall has such a visible location, but the cost of redoing the property will be very high. The mall will probably need major reconstruction at this point from over 30 years of wear and tear on the building with only minor maintenance all these years. Going to San Jacinto is like taking a trip back to the 1980's, but the mall is falling into disrepair in some areas. Some skylights are still boarded up from Hurricane Ike and several sections of the mall have water damaged walls and peeling paint that has not been fixed for years. <br />I know that Randalls very well and I have been to that location several times when I worked in the area. It is interesting to see how amazed that the leader of a different country was at what we see as a normal supermarket. jehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08642257521152353045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-38309132161487624832014-04-09T08:25:30.508-05:002014-04-09T08:25:30.508-05:00I was very surprised to see this store still open,...I was very surprised to see this store still open, since so many of those Sears Grand stores have been converted back into Kmarts or closed. There is actually another Sears store just a few miles South of this location off of I-35 that has been there for many years. The Sears does have a customer service counter at the front of the store just like Walmart and Target stores. The former portrait studio is in the front of the store as well which is closed and creates a void there. Also in the back of the store, the former Toy department still has all of the signage up but only has some sporting goods and clearance items spread out across the former department. Looking at the map of the store, that is the only department that was not filled out well. The extra large furniture section filled out the side of the store that had most of the departments that were taken out of the store. jehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08642257521152353045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-84791776886446537252014-04-08T00:21:57.225-05:002014-04-08T00:21:57.225-05:00Part III:
It has been a while since we've had...<i>Part III:</i><br /><br />It has been a while since we've had an Oakland Sears update, but there has been news about that property. It sounds like Sears has <a href="http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_25488284/one-buyer-out-but-talks-continue-oakland-sears" rel="nofollow">backed out</a> from a deal to sell that building, but they are still negotiating with other potential buyers. It'll be interesting to see how that shakes out. <br /><br />I've been looking at various Sears and Kmart pictures on the SYWR website. It seems like Kmarts tend to upload more current pictures than Sears stores do, but some Sears stores do a better job at uploading new images than others. I've been mainly looking at Texas Kmarts anyway, but I'll try to look at some non-Texas Sears and Kmart stores in the future too. I've found some interesting things, but most of it isn't really link worthy. <br /><br />I did find a picture of a banner that the Willowbrook Mall Sears put up promoting the <a href="http://s5.sywcdn.net/getImage?url=%2f%2fs1.sywcdn.net%2fuser%2f628e_13219805.jpg&t=CatalogItem&w=550&h=0&qlt=100&mrg=1&s=e3e62bd69f96f30eab16a6c5953f9757" rel="nofollow">Friends and Family sale</a> a couple of weekends ago. I wasn't sure if any other Sears promoted that sale as much as the Mall of the Mainland Sears, but at least the Willowbrook store had one banner up. I assume that they had banners up at other entrances too as the pictured one is the East end of the mall (men's department) and that is probably not as busy of an entrance as the West end. I don't know though and I could be wrong about the popularity. Anyway, it's an interesting image as it shows the vintage pre-1984 "Package Pick-Up" sign at the Willowbrook Sears. That sign is one of a few vintage elements that linger on at that store. That entrance (and probably all the exterior entrances at that store) has the famed vintage Sears Satisfaction Guaranteed pledge on it, but it isn't visible in the picture. It might only face the inside of the store on the inner side of the vestibule/package pick-up room. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-37752265882518075442014-04-08T00:15:03.886-05:002014-04-08T00:15:03.886-05:00Part II:
JCPenney is making some good decisions a...<i>Part II:</i><br /><br />JCPenney is making some good decisions and it seems like their business is slowly recovering. Of course, many of the needed changes were obvious. Some of the Ron Johnson stuff like the cake mix was obviously stupid. Penney's had many store brands that were very popular and Johnson dumped them. It makes sense to bring them back, but hopefully the quality of store brand wares are at least as good as they were before Johnson took over. I've heard that the quality of fabric on clothing decreased after Johnson took over. Perhaps Johnson's idea was to make things cheap enough to only last until the fashion trend died out. The typical JCPenney shopper notices things like quality and they buy conservative designs that don't go out of fashion quickly so they need to be competitive with quality. <br /><br />It's interesting that you bring up towels as an impulse buy because I just recently planned a trip to Sears to buy towels. Of course, I had some promotional credit at Sears that made it very worthwhile to buy housewares there, but I also had a couple of other impulse housewares buys while buying those towels. I was actually pretty happy with the quality of the goods for the price even without the promotional credit. I don't know about JCPenney, but Kohl's has dropped off in that regard lately IMO. All things equal between Sears and JCPenney, I would prefer to shop at Sears due to the variety of goods they offer in the store. Plus, the 2nd floor of the Willowbrook Mall Sears does not feel like a jail like the Willowbrook Penney's does with the concrete floors and all. <br /><br />Greenspoint Mall could probably be redeveloped into office space if the mall is ever razed. I don't see much hope for it as a retail space. Exxon leaving may make it harder to sell new officespace, but it still seems like a viable business area. I don't think anything can be done with the Pasadena Town Square if it ever fails, but I think it is hanging on decently enough that it should not be an issue for now. Northwest Mall may be another difficult redevelopment project. It's hard to say though until the 290 construction is settled and done. Perhaps it could be redeveloped into condos or something, but I don't see much hope for a retail development there. We'll see though. San Jacinto Mall is an interesting situation. A lot of retail has developed around it, but I don't know if the property itself can be redeveloped for retail or anything else. All in all, the Houston mall situation is above average I would say. There are struggling malls here for sure, but I wouldn't say that any mall is highly endangered right now now that the Mall of the Mainland is gone. <br /><br />I came across an interesting story in the Chronicle today about Boris Yeltsin's visit to a <a href="http://blog.chron.com/thetexican/2014/04/when-boris-yeltsin-went-grocery-shopping-in-clear-lake/#22200101=0" rel="nofollow">Clear Lake Randall's</a> grocery store in 1989. It has some nice photos of inside the store then. I never visited that particular Randall's (the story says it is a Food Town now), but it looks similar to the Randall's we had here. It's some nice nostalgia.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-2484953662963602442014-04-08T00:14:04.066-05:002014-04-08T00:14:04.066-05:00Part I:
I am glad that you were able to visit the...<i>Part I:</i><br /><br />I am glad that you were able to visit the Austin area Sears Grand store. I was wondering about the state of that store. I am glad to hear that it is open even if it is missing some former departments. It is also good to hear that it had some customers in it, but it is disappointing to hear about the checkout delays. Perhaps putting more employees in each department would help. That said, some checkouts at regular Sears can have long lines at them even if there are two or more employees checking people out. The men's department lines at many Sears that I've seen have long times. I can recall several times seeing oddball delays at the checkout lines while waiting in line to check out at Sears. None of these caused serious delays as usually one of the two people at the checkout desks kept things moving, but they were all odd issues that usually don't come up at other retailers. One was a delay caused by a customer processing a tool warranty replacement, another was the clerk trying to find a tax exempt account code for a customer buying tools, another was a customer signing up for a Sears card, another was a delay caused by a customer paying a Sears card bill, another was a clerk looking up a part number for a customer, and I've also seen a few delays caused by customers signing up for SYWR accounts. Some of these issues could have been solved by having a customer service desk (I'm not sure if Sears Grand stores have them), but some of those issues are unique issues that Sears has due to their added services like the in-store tool replacement stuff and Sears' parts department. Anyway, I've never had to wait really long even with these issues since there were other clerks at the desk (or I could go to another desk), but it might be more of a problem if there are only 6 checkout clerks total in the store or something. <br /><br />I think the merger with Kmart pretty much sealed the fate for Sears Grand and Essentials stores. Sears probably would have been much more aggressive with them if the merger didn't happen. New construction has been almost non-existent under Kmart's Eddie Lampert. Instead they tried to convert some Kmart stores to the new Sears concepts in a kind of half-baked effort. Many of those stores saw extensive renovations that never would have happened if those stores stayed as Kmarts, but still they were located in less desirable areas generally than where Sears wanted to build those concept stores before the merger. Some of those converts have already been converted back to Kmarts. If the merger didn't happen, Sears probably would have continued to build new Sears Grand stores in growing suburbs (many of which don't have malls) and perhaps Sears would be more competitive than they are now. OTOH, some of those Sears Grand stores may have replaced mall stores, but we're seeing some mall stores close anyway. Anyway, it's good that there is a living example of what could have been for Sears not far from Houston in Austin. <br /><br />A non-Kmartized Sears Grand store would probably struggle with groceries though too. The grocery game is one retail sector where local/regional chains still do well. Some national powerhouses like Kroger and Safeway still struggle in some markets. Wal-Mart has done well with their grocery departments, but even Target has been very conservative with the Super Target concept. I think Sears in particular would have had a hard time convincing people to buy groceries from them, but Sears' traditional hard and soft lines might have done well with the Sears Grand concept. The Dead and Dying Retail blog has an <a href="http://www.deadanddyingretail.com/2013/03/sears-grand-solon-ohio.html" rel="nofollow">interesting post</a> showing two Rust Belt Sears Grand stores. One is a converted trapezoid facade Kmart and the other is a new-built store in a mall. Hopefully you'll be able to post pictures of the Austin store. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-61904753536830367242014-04-07T15:31:30.346-05:002014-04-07T15:31:30.346-05:00On the topic of Sears, I very recently visited the...On the topic of Sears, I very recently visited the infamous Sears Grand store in the Austin area. It is still open, but most of the extra departments that made the store special are gone. The only extra department they have there is home furniture. The store maps are still posted across the store showing the extra departments that were once there, so I made sure to snap a picture for my future post. The store really could have been a game changer for Sears if they would have expanded the concept. The store is easy to navigate, has the departments clearly visible from the entrances to the store, and has a very modern feel to the store. The store was very busy, but the checkouts in the front of the store were very slow. There were 15 registers, 6 open, and every line had an issue that held up the movement of the line. There seemed to be a disconnect between the cashiers and questions people had about merchandise from the departments that was holding up at least three of the lines. Overall I believe Sears leaving this concept behind was a mistake. Adding groceries to this store and streamlining the checkout process would have made this concept a competitor that could have taken away market share from Walmart and Target. Instead this store and a few others still live on for now to remind us what could have been. <br />I heard about the Gallery Furniture expansion, but it was postponed for a year. Gallery furniture is smart by not over extending themselves by quickly expanding. He is setting up the company for the future and taking care of store planning to make sure it will be a success. <br />I like the changes Penney's is making recently. It seems they are doing what they can to try and fix the mistakes made from the Johnson era. Filling the store space with items that will move faster such as the towels and soft goods mentioned in the article will help drive traffic. I know that impulse buys have gotten me several times and some items such as towels are not items I usually plan to buy unless I happen to notice they are on sale. $10 cake mix was ridiculous for JCPenney, much like the other high end stuff that was being put on the sales floor a couple of years ago. jehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08642257521152353045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-87169160897291254602014-04-07T15:06:16.188-05:002014-04-07T15:06:16.188-05:00Houston has been better off with how the malls hav...Houston has been better off with how the malls have succeeded than many other urban areas. Most of our lost malls have been redeveloped into very successful retail districts and the dying malls we have with the exception of Mall of the Mainland are in areas that could very well do great if the properties are redeveloped. Greenspoint and Pasadena would be the only two that would be hard to redevelop if they were to fail in the future. jehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08642257521152353045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-50475846155899326842014-04-01T22:50:33.126-05:002014-04-01T22:50:33.126-05:00Part II:
Yes, Sears obviously only put positive l...<i>Part II:</i><br /><br />Yes, Sears obviously only put positive looking photos on their website. Those pictures can still be pretty useful, but some of the photos are of product displays and not of the store itself really. It's possible that some negative or "regular" user-submitted pictures may show up now, but we'll see. I'm not even totally sure where the user-submitted photos end up getting posted. There are some Kmart stores that are in such bad shape that I'm not sure if it's really possible to hide the bad aspects of the store if they photographed them. I really have not looked at many Kmart photos on that site, but I'm sure that I will soon. I'll be sure to report any interesting findings. <br /><br />Yes, the Mall of the Mainland Sears was promoting the Friends & Family event quite heavily. There were also signs in the parking lot discussing the sale in addition to the banner and the air dancer in that picture. There were also ads inside the store. I'm not sure if other Sears locations try that hard to advertise those sales. AFAIK, that sale was at all Sears locations, but most of the other locations just put up fliers on the doors and on the service desks. It's good that the Mall of the Mainland Sears is trying to grab some attention. Hopefully their efforts are paying off. I'm just glad that I wasn't the only one who thought that the air dancer there was kind of an interesting situation!<br /><br />The Baybrook Mall area Sears Outlet store had a 10% off almost everything Grand Opening sale last weekend that they were promoting quite heavily in the Galveston Daily News. They were also giving away free earbud headphones with any purchase. I thought that the Grand Opening sale was a bit odd considering that the store has been open for at least 3 months now, but 10% off is 10% off I guess. The store was certainly busy I would say. I visited the store and it looked like they sold (or shipped back/destroyed) most of their ancient NFL jerseys that they had before. All of the Aaron Brooks Saints jerseys were gone. I have a hard time believing that anyone would buy those, but stranger things have happened I guess. The only holdover from my last visit was a Willis McGahee Bills jersey. They really didn't have a lot of new NFL jerseys to replace the sold ones, but they did have some jerseys/shirts from other sports. Those didn't look to be so ancient at least. <br /><br />Mattress Mack is planning on opening a <a href="http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/fortbend/business/article/Mattress-Mack-plans-over-the-top-Fort-Bend-5354158.php" rel="nofollow">new store in Richmond</a> that will be bigger than his North Freeway and Galleria area stores combined. I have a hard time getting excited about this, but there aren't many bigger names in Houston retail than Mattress Mack so it's probably worth posting. I believe Gallery Furniture sells TVs so at least there is that. I think we need a Frankie and Johnny's in Houston just to keep the local commercials interesting. <br /><br />I came across an <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/j-c-penney-turnaround-faces-040838179.html" rel="nofollow">interesting article</a> discussing JCPenney's latest ideas for their home goods departments. For the most part, it is the same back to the past strategy that they have been using rather successfully. Still, it is an interesting read. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-37126633906980647932014-04-01T22:34:29.401-05:002014-04-01T22:34:29.401-05:00Part I:
Gwinnett Place Mall probably could have r...<i>Part I:</i><br /><br />Gwinnett Place Mall probably could have remained viable even with changing demographics if two new malls weren't built relatively nearby. Fortunately for Houston malls, the current outermost traditional malls really have not faced significant competition in their areas. Houston, like most of the country, has pretty much seen traditional indoor mall construction die since the early-to-mid 1990s. That's certainly helping the existing outermost malls stay as strong as they are. For whatever reason, that did not happen in the Gwinnett area. <br /><br />Memorial City Mall is benefiting from both the revitalization of the Spring Branch area and the continued westward development along I-10. I suspect that if a new mall is ever built in the Houston area, it would probably be near the Grand Parkway near Katy or in between Katy and Cypress. That could hurt Memorial City and Willowbrook Mall if that happens, but perhaps a new mall in that area would be so far away from those other malls that they will continue to be safe. It's hard to say. <br /><br />Almeda Mall has carved out a nice niche for itself. It's certainly not a premier mall, but they do have a decent number of B-list national stores and local stores that at least sell normal mall fare. That said, the mall probably does have too many shoe and women's clothing stores, but at least the lease rate is decent. I'm not sure why they are doing better than some of the other "lost in the middle of town" malls, but I can think of a few possible reasons. One is that it has excellent visibility on a major freeway. That gives it an edge over Pasadena Town Square and Northwest Mall for example. Another is that although the Almeda area does not have a really positive reputation for safety/crime, it really does not have an overly negative reputation either. That certainly gives it an edge compared to something like Greenspoint Mall. It's also a smaller mall so it's easier to fill it and it does not have that zombie feel like Greenspoint. Although Almeda Mall is fairly close to Baybrook Mall, Baybrook has traffic issues that may cause shoppers to consider stopping at Almeda instead. Another thing is that although Almeda Mall has lost a lot of the big box retail directly around it, there is still a lot of newer big box shopping in the area (mainly Wal-Mart) that is driving traffic to the area. Greenspoint and NW Malls don't have that and Pasadena only has that to a small extent. <br /><br />But, yes, continuing urban sprawl does mean that areas that are new now only have a limited time to shine before they become a bit of a forgotten intermediary area. It'll be interesting to see how this changes the retail landscape in Houston aside from the mall situation. We've already seen the impact the changes have had on FM 1960 W near I-45, but perhaps that area will rebound a bit with the business relocations in Spring and The Woodlands. OTOH, the slide could continue to get worse. We'll see though, at least the NE side of FM 1960 near Humble is rebounding a bit. Of course, the outermost edge of development on the NE side isn't as far out from FM 1960 as it is on the North and NW sides of town. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-51105983749598687202014-04-01T00:24:51.771-05:002014-04-01T00:24:51.771-05:00I will probably spend time looking at the virtual ...I will probably spend time looking at the virtual store pictures as well, but it looks like they just have the best images on those links you sent me. It really seems like management in some stores is doing their best with what they have to make the stores look good. The local angle that Sears is taking in Texas City may do well in many other areas where Sears is struggling. I noticed a sign in the air dancer picture for a family night with discounts throughout the store. <br />I have more photos of the Alco store to add in the future. Sadly I was not able to get any on my last visit because the store was mostly blocked off and I was outnumbered by employees. jehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08642257521152353045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-85138749758390938062014-04-01T00:17:26.512-05:002014-04-01T00:17:26.512-05:00I think Houston will continue to grow outward, but...I think Houston will continue to grow outward, but people are starting to go back towards the center of the city because the traffic will continue to get worse. Several areas of town where malls are at now, will become stuck like Gwinnett Place. It seems that inside of I-610 most areas will flourish, while inside of the Beltway many areas will decline. Malls such as Almeda, Pasadena, Northwest, Greenspoint and the nearby retail districts are really hurting right now. The Almeda area is the only mall that seems to be kinda stable, but it is not a top-tier mall. <br />Yes the Gold's Gym finally brought that old anchor back into business. I am glad to see that many centers are being reused instead of building new centers that will hurt what is already there. jehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08642257521152353045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-13196580924206588982014-03-30T03:28:03.698-05:002014-03-30T03:28:03.698-05:00Part II:
I was looking at the Shop Your Way websi...<i>Part II:</i><br /><br />I was looking at the Shop Your Way website the other day after I saw that blog post encouraging people to photograph Sears stores. I noticed that Sears themselves posted (and sometimes still posts) photos inside their stores under the catalog tab including a some walk-thrus that were taken in 2012. For example, here is the <a href="http://www.shopyourway.com/SearsPasadenaTX/catalogs/virtual-store-tour/4599479" rel="nofollow">Pasadena Town Square</a> store, the <a href="http://www.shopyourway.com/SearsWillowbrook/catalogs/virtual-store-tour/4577760" rel="nofollow">Willowbrook Mall</a> store, and the <a href="http://www.shopyourway.com/SearsHoustonMain/catalogs/virtual-tour/4632833" rel="nofollow">Main St. store</a> of course. <a href="http://www.shopyourway.com/SearsHoustonMain/catalogs/thanksgiving/8984509" rel="nofollow">Here</a> is the Main St. store during a recent Christmas season. The Mall of the Mainland Sears air dancer that I mentioned a few days ago on the MotM post was even <a href="http://s5.sywcdn.net/getImage?url=%2f%2fs4.sywcdn.net%2fuser%2f9a50_13216390.jpg&t=CatalogItem&w=550&h=0&qlt=100&mrg=1&s=50457a7f254955f02c42e82d117fc927" rel="nofollow">photographed</a> for the site. It looks like some Kmarts have photos too, but I have not yet checked out as many Kmart stores as I have Sears. Anyway, this is a good way to check out how various Sears stores look across the city and country. I can see myself wasting a lot of time on that website! Perhaps Sears knows that one group of their loyal shoppers are the Kbloggers so maybe they appealing to us. I’m not really aware of any other stores doing this, but then again, I wasn’t totally aware that Sears was doing this either until recently. <br /><br />That is interesting that the Pasadena Alco finally closed. It is sad to see that story come to an end, but at least they tried I guess. I’m glad that they put new discount store life into that old Kmart even if it didn’t last too long. I wish that I was able to visit that store when it was fully open, but oh well. Perhaps the Gessner store is still an option, but I don’t know.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8028753244746628643.post-43035760056708793382014-03-30T03:26:10.536-05:002014-03-30T03:26:10.536-05:00Part I:
Labelscar did a post about Gwinnett Place...<i>Part I:</i><br /><br />Labelscar did a <a href="http://www.labelscar.com/georgia/gwinnett-place-mall" rel="nofollow">post</a> about Gwinnett Place Mall in 2009. Labelscar was somewhat optimistic about the place then, but I think things have eroded a bit more since then instead of going the other way around. I believe the Belk has closed in recent times. The Labelscar page has some photos of the Sears store at Gwinnett Place. It looks like Sears used that as a pilot store to test some upscale looking décor. Part of that included the use of a retro logo at the mall entrances. I assume that the Sears still uses that pilot décor, but I have not really seen that at other malls so maybe the response to it wasn’t all that remarkable. Anyway, <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/real_talk/2013/10/gwinnett-place-finds-a-buyer.html?page=all" rel="nofollow">here</a> is an article that discusses some of Gwinnett Place’s problems. It sounds like the area that it is in is over-retailed and that is causing the mall problems. <br /><br />Atlanta is an area that is like Houston in that it has seen a lot of growth in recent decades, but sometimes that means that something can turn from being brand new at the edge of town to being outdated, forgotten, and stuck in a “new, but old” region of town in a span of just a couple of decades. Perhaps this effect is even more pronounced in Atlanta than Houston though. I know that Atlanta is kind of weird in that both the Falcons and Braves will both be moving to new stadiums soon even though their current stadiums opened in the 1990s (the latter half of the 1990s in the case of the Braves). I guess Atlanta is just one of those places where the 1990s are ancient history. <br /><br />Many parts of Houston are seeing growth right now and the Humble/Kingwood area is one of those areas. The growth may not be as staggering as what is going on here in the NW side or the Katy area, but there is growth. I suppose the growth is happening close enough to older available retail spaces so that is good that those are being reused. I think I read quite some time back that Gold’s Gym (or some other gym) was opening a location in the old Safeway location on FM 1960 and Aldine Westfield that has probably been empty for a number of years. I know that empty location stuck out to me whenever I drove out that way, but that might be because old Safeways are so recognizable. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com