RIP Hastings Conroe Texas

As I post this, I pray for the safety of all of my family, friends, and blog readers during the terrible weather events unfolding all across South, East, and Central Texas and Southwest Louisiana.

Here is the final Hastings I documented during their final days of business in 2016. This was the closest store to where I live, so I spent a good amount of time here over the years. 

There is not much to say about this location that has not already been said. This location was in a former Randall's that moved from a different location in the city.

We will start with photos from the beginning of the sale. 

These two look like they accidentally clicked on two girls one cup for the first time, lol.

Fast forward to about a month into the sale. Junk from other clearance sales was brought into the store including the Blockbuster movie grab boxes.

The last round of new release music that Hastings ever received.

Each Hastings store I visited had several of these during the liquidation sale. I wonder how many of these were sitting around collecting dust in the US.

The Hardback Café was a decent place to sit back and chill. A few locations had drive throughs.

The magazine racks were mostly empty at this point. They later filled these shelves with Prince and Elvis tribute items.

The store did not look too bad in this photo, the Blockbuster box almost looks like it should be there normally. 

Here we fast forward a couple weeks later. Discounts were deeper and as you can see in the first few pictures stuff from other closeouts was brought in to sell.

Steering wheel covers?

Additional sporting goods items which I suspected were from Sports Authority closings.

Sports Authority was in the final month in their going out of business sales when Hastings started their own closing sales.  

Baby and kids clothes?

Tons of socks and boxers on this aisle, same brand as they had at the Sports Authority stores.

A little later on in the sale, we can see the store is getting emptier. 

Near the store entrance, the overhead sign helped you to see what side of the store these items were located. 

Caption this photo, what are they laughing at so hard?

Here is the roadsign on I-45 with Radio Shack, Sears, Hastings all in the same shopping center does not bode well. The Sears is a small appliance store. 

October 16- final two weeks of the sale. Backpacks and random junk that was brought in for the sale were still plentiful. Discounts of 60-90% off at this point.

This whole section of the store had been cleared out, but lots of CD's, books and movies were still left. Some collectables were still left as well.

October 20- Last 9 days of the sale. As you can see from my last pictures, the store was getting cleaned out rapidly except for movies, books, and CD's. The discounts were 70-90% off.

October 29, 2016 the final day in the last hour of business. The deal at the end of the day was fill a large garbage bag of anything left in the store for $20. A bunch of movies and books were still left over, I found a few CD's as well. 

While I was there an argument broke out when a lady started picking through items another customer had stacked up to buy. Once he saw her and said those were his things, she got mad and threw items on the floor and was kicked out by an employee. It all happened so fast I did not record the incident.

RIP Hastings October 29, 2016.

Mall of the Mainland June 2017 update

Things are happening at the Mall of the Mainland. New businesses are opening up and most of the mall property is under construction or construction is finishing up.

Here is the former mall entrance next to Dillard's which is being converted into a trampoline park.

Here is the website for the park http://www.altitudetexascity.com/

 The former JCPenney is being converted into a new use. Storage units may be the new tenant for this building.

 The newly created mall entrance which will lead to the center of the mall and the food court area. 

 A wider view of this section of the mall The former Palais Royal has been converted into the Booker T. World Gym Areana. 

 Construction work is proceeding at the other entrance of the mall next to Sears. From what little I could see, it looks like a medical or office use.

 Wait a minute, yes that is the former Sears mall entrance sign. Drywall has been installed in between the mall corridor and Sears so you can no longer look into the mall. 

 But wait, there's more. Yes, the middle of the mall is once again open to the public. 

As you can see, the interior of the mall has been renovated. No more blue and pink with neon lights. New flooring, a new color scheme, and new spaces for businesses.

 Toxic City Comics http://www.toxiccitycomics.com/ and Stuttegarden https://www.stuttgardentavern.com/ are the first two businesses operating in the renovated space.  

 Here is the newly created corridor that leads to the new entrance at the front of the mall.

 A glass door separates the mall from the cinema now. Code of conduct signs are posted on both doors entering the mall. 

Here is the newly created corridor leading to the new front entrance. 

There are more renderings of the finished project at https://www.jeromekaram.com/mall-of-the-mainland

Make sure you check out the Texas properties tab to see more about the mall redevelopment. I am happy to see a part of the mall reopened to the public and I hope this redevelopment works. A lot of effort is going into the the redevelopment of the mall to truly redevelop the property as it needed to be.

I will have more photos as this project progresses. Right now so much of the property is under construction.

Suncoast Parkdale Mall Beaumont Texas

Here is one of the last remaining Suncoast Motion Picture Company stores located at the Parkdale Mall in Beaumont Texas. There are less than 10 locations left of this very retro store. The interior lighting of the store has been improved even though the neon has been shut off for several years now. The exterior sign as you can tell is mostly functioning though.

The product mix inside of the store has changed tremendously over the years. Movies can still be found, but about half of the store is now dedicated to other products. The product mix is very similar almost to Hastings without the larger products and video games. This store is located right down the mall corridor to 2nd and Charles which is a very similar store to Hastings. The competition may be the reason why the product mix has changed from a focus on movies to the variety that is here now.

The back wall of the store is now dedicated to vinyl music products.

Collectibles have taken over much of the store.

Towards the front of the store more collectibles.

A vast t-shirt wall takes over space that was as of about a year ago movies. 

The other back corner of the store is full of random collectibles and other items.

A vast selection of headphones and portable music devices fills this wall.

Phone cases are also mixed in with the headphones.

Here is the product mix at the checkout area. Few movies and a mix of products. There is also a large candy selection at the very front of the store, not pictured.