Repurposing Sears and other retail sites

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Calling something a fallacy that lasted as long as it did seems questionable IMO …
I for one don't plan to judge any companies that lasted over a century …
If I don't like them, I don't do business with them, simple enough …
 
A mall still works in a nice neighborhood/area … but too many are no longer in that part of town …
 
Originally Posted by 4WD
Calling something a fallacy that lasted as long as it did seems questionable IMO …
I for one don't plan to judge any companies that lasted over a century …
If I don't like them, I don't do business with them, simple enough …




The fallacy I described was Eddie Lambert's argument that the Sears real estate was worth more than its value.

Sears did not adapt to the changing consumer model. That is the sad fact.
 
Did you state that ?
So a successful company (the one before fast Eddie) bought those places and it was not a mistake …
Most come and go in far less time …
Call me on your Nokia phone to discuss …
 
Maybe I wasn't clear on my original statement. I'll admit that.

Sears had been on a downhill slide for a long time before Lampert stepped in. That is what these hedge fund vultures do, scavenging dead and dying companies. Perhaps in Texas Sears was still successful. That was not the case in most parts of the country.

The fact remains, it's dead and it has been dead for a long time. Eddie Lampert milked the last remaining value out of it, whatever little there was left.

Who uses Nokia phones anymore?
 
One of the former Sears locations around here has been split into two stores (by upper level and lower level). One will be a furniture store and the other a "food and game" place similar to Dave & Busters. At another former Sears site, the detached automotive center was converted into, believe it not, an Outback restaurant.
 
Originally Posted by JayhawkRoy
Kmart building in Leavenworth, KS has been repurposed into a U Haul rental and storage place.

That seems to be a game plan for U-Haul across the nation. I see other comments where former retail stores are now renovated and being used by U-Haul and they've done that around here in at least two locations (maybe more) that I'm aware of.
 
Home Quarters turned into Big Lots
Child World turned into Marden's Salvage (a junk store)
Lowes turned into Market Basket (penny pinching grocery)
Circuit City turned into Goodwill
 
Yeah that's been covered here 500 times. I have been very consistent on this for years … said they would retreat to small overhead stores and that would last a while .
A year after I posted … ours opened up … first time in 30 years …

I'm not interested in financial advice from oil sites … have real people for that. I speak as a consumer with lots of annual spend. As for online … I buy appliances and outdoor equipment at Sears … that will never go online.
I don't like Eddie either but I also don't like Bezos … actually there are several favorites here I don't do business with …
Back on topic our Kmart "big box" was bought by the city …
 
Originally Posted by SevenBizzos
The mall concept is dead. My two local Sears are being demolished in favor of mixed use developments.

Originally Posted by Mr Nice
No reason to shop at retail stores when Amazon and Walmart online with free shipping is so convenient.
Malls are still awesome and not just for nostalgia. They don't work in hillbilly country anymore but they are very much alive in cities where living near them means living near transit and government services. The closest mall to me has actually grown with strip malls and condos around the perimeter. Malls have to be transit hubs, it was the same when I attended university in Niagara. That creates the foot traffic necessary to make people buy things or eat there.

A previous poster mentioned "lifestyle centers" and I think that's what they are turning in to. If you had a condo near a mall that had transit, shopping, movie theatres you would never be bored or have to sit in traffic to get to work, or be inconvenienced by having to hit the store after work when you just want to go home.

However you wouldn't be able to wrench on cars, which would make that lifestyle unbearable.
 
Sears was long gone, there is one Sears "Hometown" in the town I work in.

I do buy appliances there.
 
Originally Posted by Richie
Rumors of turning the Sears store in my town to a Costco.

Rumors from developers, from city zoning/planning departments or rumors from folks wishing that is what would happen ?

Those type of rumors pop up all the time in my hometown related to Target. They don't have a Target store there or one very close and people seem to think they're the greatest store in existence so any time construction begins or another store closes, gossip starts that "I heard Target is moving in that old store" or building a new store.
 
Anyone seen Costco do that … the two I shop were built from the ground up …
 
Old k mart-split into three stores-new tractor supply location, planet fitness, bargain Hunt

Old Walmart-torn down, now stands the south side Walgreens and a buffalo wild wings

Old tsc-some kind of furniture store

Old Dodge dealership-gutted and turned into four or five restaurants, including a firehouse subs and a Marco's Pizza

Old Winn Dixie-now a save a lot and a farmers home store

Old blockbuster-buddys furniture

Next town over the Fred's is vacant, hoping for a rural King but I highly doubt it

Note: some of these changes happened 10-15 years ago, some in the past 2-3 yrs
 
The Sears in Ala Moana in Hawaii was demolished not too long ago where they built expensive condos and expanded some of the old long time stores there.

Kmart doesn't exist here anymore so many of the buildings are either demolished, repurposed into smaller stores or left abandoned.

We only have one Sears on the central part of the state but if I was the mall owner I'd start making plans for that space once Sears fully leaves the islands.
 
Originally Posted by MasterSolenoid
A big question I ask myself is, Will Developers ever build another Mall anywhere ?

I think a common solution is to convert the big empty stores into a mixed use / small retail, office, housing.

Things change over time:
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Growing up in the 60's, we had a large shopping Plaza.
It was nice with stores on each side of you with steps as you walked along (cold in the Winter)

Years latter, the Plaza was covered and turned into a Mall

Years later, the Mall was torn down and turned into a Home Depot and Wal Mart

Years later, Wal Mart moved down the street (into a building that was vacant)
Wal Marts first location was divided into smaller use stores
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We have another Mall that was turned into all Office space
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And another Mall that was torn down and is still a vacant lot.




Google " American Dream mall in New Jersey. They started building in in 2002, I worked there for about a year in 2007, they're still not open.
 
Originally Posted by Red91
Old k mart-split into three stores-new tractor supply location, planet fitness, bargain Hunt

Old Walmart-torn down, now stands the south side Walgreens and a buffalo wild wings

Old tsc-some kind of furniture store

Old Dodge dealership-gutted and turned into four or five restaurants, including a firehouse subs and a Marco's Pizza

Old Winn Dixie-now a save a lot and a farmers home store

Old blockbuster-buddys furniture

Next town over the Fred's is vacant, hoping for a rural King but I highly doubt it

Note: some of these changes happened 10-15 years ago, some in the past 2-3 yrs



We have a Rural King now that's maybe 5 miles north of me and I hear they are possibly putting one where I used to live or 2 minutes from OHIO line
wink.gif
 
I think there are some in Tennessee, but as far as I know there are none in Alabama. I'd like to have really any of the northern/Midwestern farm chains come this way, but knowing this area we'll get a clothing store, a furniture store, or a restaurant before we get anything other than a tsc.
 
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