Merry Christmas From Labelscar!

By most accounts, the 2007 holiday shopping season has thusfar been a bit of a bust. In an effort to bring a bit of cheer (and remind everyone of how fun that holiday mall shopping used to be!), one of our frequent contributors, Michael Lisicky, has sent in the following set of photos of vintage department stores and malls at Christmastime, along with this note:

“As a holiday gift to the readers of Labelscar, here is a collection of photographs from my collection of stores from the past as they celebrated the holiday season. Many of these stores no longer exist. Whether it was shopping downtown or in the local malls, department stores help set the pace for displaying holiday cheer. Even as some were breathing their last breath, they still managed to deck the halls.

Enjoy these photos and enjoy the holidays.”

1- B. Altman New York 1989

B. Altman New York 1989
2- B. Altman New York 1989

B. Altman, New York, 1989
3- Burdines downtown Miami 1994

Burdine's, downtown Miami, 1994

4- Burdines downtown Miami 1994

Burdine's, downtown Miami, 1994

5- Burdines Aventura 2004

Burdine's, Aventura, Florida, 2004
6- Emporium San Francisco 1995

Emporium, San Francisco, CA, 1995
7- Globe Store Scranton 1991

Globe Store, Scranton, PA, 1991

8- Goldsmith’s Southland (Memphis) 2004

Goldsmith's, Southland Mall Memphis, TN, 2004
9- Bon-Ton/Hess’s Allentown, PA 1995
The Bon-Ton/Hess's, Allentown, PA, 1995

10- Hutzler’s White Marsh (Baltimore) 1989

Hutzler's, White Marsh Mall, Baltimore, Maryland, 1989
11- Leh’s Allentown 1991
Leh's, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1991

12- Miller & Rhoads Richmond 1989

Rich's, Lenox Square Mall, Georgia, 2004
13- Rich’s Lenox Square 2004
Rich's, Lenox Square Mall, Georgia, 2004

14- Rich’s Lenox Square 2004

Rich's North DeKalb, Georgia, 2004
15- Rich’s North DeKalb 2004
Rich's Greenbrier, Georgia, 2004

16- Rich’s Greenbrier 2004

Rich's

17- Stern’s Manhattan Mall 2000
Stern's, Manhattan Mall, New York City, NY, 2000

18- Stern’s (Gimbels) Philadelphia-Center City 1988

Stern's (Gimbels), Philadelphia-Center City, 1988
19- Stern’s Middlesex Mall 2000
Stern's, Middlesex Mall, South Plainfield, New Jersey, 2000

20- Strawbridge & Clothier Philadelphia 1995

Strawbridge & Clothier Philadelphia, PA, 1995

21- Strawbridge & Clothier Philadelphia 1995
Strawbridge & Clothier, Philadelphia, 1995

22- Thalhimer’s Richmond 1991

Thalhimer's, Richmond, VA, 1991
23- Thalhimer’s Eastgate Mall 1991

Thalhimer's, Eastgate Mall, Richmond, VA, 1991
24-26 – John Wanamaker (Hecht’s) 1995 Philadelphia

John Wanamaker's (Hecht's), 1995, Philadelphia, PA
John Wanamaker's (Hecht's), 1995, Philadelphia, PA

John Wanamaker's (Hecht's), 1995, Philadelphia, PA

News and Miscellany

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It’s been a while since we offered anything other than shopping center write-ups, and we realize that part of the advantage of having a chronological blog is the ability to post current information.

In suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a large upscale regional mall proposal called Pabst Farms Town Center is tenatively back on, but this time with a different developer and possibly a different format.  In October, Chicago-based General Growth Properties dropped the project, citing lack of interest for the upscale tenants the city wanted to attract, such as Nordstrom or Von Maur.  Today, Doris Hajewski writes in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that the city has found a new developer in Developers Diversified Realty (DDR) of Cleveland.  However, DDR’s portfolio does not include high end department stores, and it was reported that the center will probably be open-air rather than enclosed as previously planned.  Yet the city of Oconomowoc is repeatedly pressing that the site not be just a collection of big box stores or any other sort of bland ephemera, like the development a couple exits to the east along I-94 at WI 83 in Delafield.Personally, this turn of events is kind of a let down.  The state of Wisconsin, which has an above average rate of growth, has not had a new regional mall constructed in over twenty years.  In fact, it has lost several in the same span of time.  More specifically to this project, Waukesha County is a fast-growing and wealthy county, with an estimate of 380,000 residents as of 2006.  Waukesha County currently has one regional shopping center, located in the far eastern side of the county in Brookfield; it was constructed over thirty years ago and is a simple one-level barbell design with three anchors.  

As the entirety of Waukesha County is suburban Milwaukee, residents also utilize the shopping options there, which have also dwindled in recent years and focus on Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa and Bayshore Town Center in Glendale.  However, as suburban growth has invaded Waukesha County, the county’s center of population has moved significantly west away from Milwaukee.  In addition, the towns closest to the center in the “Lakes” area are some of the wealthiest in the state. 

This project would simultaneously take advantage of both the center of population shift in Waukesha County and the lack of large regional centers in the area.  Located in western Waukesha County with easy access to I-94 and the new WI 67 bypass around Oconomowoc, the center would draw from a large and wealthy base, including rapidly growing areas along I-94 west all the way to Madison which is only 40 minutes away and the state’s second largest population center.  

So, the argument that the density is low in Oconomowoc and that no one would come is completley ludicrous.  People will travel to get to this type of center, if it’s made destination-worthy.  And, it sounds like it would have been and possibly will be if the city and others get their way.  They definitely have the right idea, and have been planning this project for years, even working with the WI Department of Transportation upgrading the interchange there and locating a business park with a future hospital at the southern end of the interchange.  I think it’s entirely appropriate for the city to send the message to developers that they don’t want another generic strip mall of big box stores; that sort of thing already exists a few miles down the road anyway and has been growing tremendously over the past several years.  

In addition, the shift from an enclosed mall portion to the development to open-air may reflect popular trends right now, but let’s get a few things straight.  For one, consider the average temperature in Wisconsin in January is 15 degrees.  Who wants to walk around a pretend-village going store to store in the winter?  Or even when it’s raining?  Or really hot?  That brings us to another point.  Many of these open-air “Lifestyle Centers” are the same vapid looking, whitewashed village downtown, often built in suburban areas on reclaimed farmland and consist of the same group of stores often found in enclosed malls.  What’s the deal with this?  These developments become even more ridiculous when the concrete sea of parking lots surrounding them really makes them nothing better than glorified strip malls; they aren’t that nice.  Let’s not have one of these?

In other news, Levitz Furniture appears to be closing up shop following an auction of its assets.  The New York-based chain has also given many employees hints they may be permanently layed off in January, even though the winning bidder has not indicated whether they will liquidate the stores and give up, or resume doing business.  Levitz has not been doing well for some time, having scaled back significantly from having a nationwide operation several years ago to focusing on core markets on the west coast and New York metropolitan area today.  

And finally, a little bit of fun.  We’ve unearthed a vintage mall tour from 1987 of the now-defunct Crystal Point Mall in Crystal Lake, Illinois, posted on YouTube.  Located about 40 miles northwest of Chicago, Crystal Point Mall existed from 1976-1998 and was McHenry County’s only regional enclosed mall.  It was anchored by Joseph Spiess and Robert Hall Village, which later became K-Mart.  In 1996, Spiess went out of business and K-mart soon closed off their mall entrance, and the mall’s in-line stores slowly vacated as their leases weren’t renewed because the owner wanted a strip mall with big box stores, and not an enclosed mall.  You can read more about Crystal Point Mall at Lisa’s neat retro page all about the mall, complete with photos.  

Even More Steinbach Department Stores!

Steinbach sign at the Red Bank, NJ store, 1999

Last week, after I got all worked into a lather about that Steinbach photo that was sent to us by Michael Lisicky, he wrote me again, saying “You want Steinbach?” Boy, did he mean it.

He dumped this pile of old Steinbach shots on us, and we couldn’t be happier. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do. Michael guided us through each one:

The vacant downtown Asbury Park store, in 1984. It closed in 1979. The store burned in 1989 and lost its top floor and clock tower.

Original Steinbach's store in Asbury Park, NJ, taken in 1984

Steinbach in Red Bank, NJ. This was taken in February 1999 as it was preparing to close. It was 53,000 square feet. It became a Bon-Ton briefly before closing again.

Steinbach in Red Bank, NJ, 1999

The rear of the Red Bank store. The photo at the top of this post is the sign from the parking lot of this same store.

Steinbach in Red Bank, NJ, 1999
Steinbach at the Brick Plaza in Brick, NJ. Taken also in 1999. It opened in 1964. The store was the most profitable branch at the end of the chain’s existence and had just received a $1 million makeover.

Steinbach in Brick, NJ, 1999

Inside of the same store in Brick, NJ. This store also became a Bon-Ton and still is today.

Steinbach in Brick, NJ, 1999

This is a nighttime view of the Manalapan Mall location in NJ. In 1996 it became a Value City, along with the stores at the Shore Mall and the now-demolished Seaview Square Mall outside Asbury Park. This picture was taken in January 1995. It was located in a tiny, tiny mall that was active for most of its existence. It was the only anchor.

Steinbach at Manalpan Mall in Manalpan, NJ, January 1995

The last picture is of Michael’s old credit card, and a gift box from Steinbach from the mid-1980’s. At that time all boxes and bags named the store Howland-Steinbach. Howland was a store based out of Bridgeport, CT that was merged into Genung’s out of White Plains, NY. All of the small Steinbach’s in NY, CT and MA were former Howland stores. By the late 1990s all of those stores took on the Steinbach name. Though the store was named Steinbach those familiar with the Asbury Park area stores called them “Stein-BACK’s”. They were quite upper-moderate stores through the 1970s, but dropped off dramatically by the early 1980s. Former Ohrbach’s stores also became Steinbach in NJ and NY. Crowley-Milner from Detroit bought the stores in the mid-1990s but couldn’t keep them going. They all closed in 1999.

Steinbach Credit Card and Howland-Steinbach gift box from the mid-1980s

Steinbach Unearthed!

November 1994 shot of Steinbach's inside Shore Mall in Egg Harbor Township, NJ

Michael, one of our readers, sent us some historic 1986 and 1994 photos of the soon-to-be-demolished Shore Mall in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, just outside of Atlantic City, (as well as two shots of the now-horrifying River Roads Mall in Jennings, MO). All three shots are pretty cool, but I’m especially excited about the unearthing of the photo above–a shot of the departed Asbury Park-based department store chain Steinbach, memories of which seem to have disappeared almost completely right along with the chain in 1999. I never even got to go inside of one of these, but I remember they had some very mysterious New England locations (like Concord, NH, South Burlington, VT and Waterford, CT) that mystefied me even then.

This actually is a good time to share a photo set that I took of the former Steinbach store in Waterford, CT, just over the border from neighboring New London on US1. These shots were taken in early March 2007, and are of the former “Waterfall Place,” a very strange old strip mall-enclosed mall hybrid that once hosted Steinbach as its main anchor, along with a very small enclosed mall on its second level. Today, the long-vacant Steinbach has been redeveloped with a Sav-A-Lot food store on the first level and a Planet Fitness on the second floor, although its plaza is as curious as ever despite attempts to renovate. The second level of the Steinbach building, which once housed a small enclosed mall connecting from the strip mall, over the Steinbach store, and then down a set of stairs into the back/side entrance of Steinbach, has been cleaned up and reopened to the public, so today it’s possible to get inside and witness a truly strange piece of retail. It also sports a location of Rhode Island-based Benny’s Home & Auto Stores, whose survival continues to beat the odds, and which we wrote about last August. Check it out:

Former Steinbach at Waterfall Place in Waterford, CT

Former Steinbach at Waterfall Place in Waterford, CT Former Steinbach at Waterfall Place in Waterford, CT Former Steinbach at Waterfall Place in Waterford, CT

Former Steinbach at Waterfall Place in Waterford, CT Former Steinbach at Waterfall Place in Waterford, CT Former Steinbach at Waterfall Place in Waterford, CT

Former Steinbach at Waterfall Place in Waterford, CT Former Steinbach at Waterfall Place in Waterford, CT Former Steinbach at Waterfall Place in Waterford, CT

Inside the second level:

Inside the former Steinbach at Waterfall Place in Waterford, CT Inside the former Steinbach at Waterfall Place in Waterford, CT

New: Share Your Fitting Room with the World

 Fitting Room

Coming soon: Share your fitting-room experience with friends, family, or anyone with Internet access. 

If you’re thinking like we are, you might recall watching episodes of The Jetsons and other futuristic science fiction programs and balking at the almost surreal-like experiences related through them.  Well, possibly in the not-so-distant future, new technology will enable shoppers to send images from their fitting rooms anywhere in the world via the Web through a site called Shoptogether.com, which is not yet functional.  This new technology was announced at the National Retail Federation’s 2007 Convention & Expo in New York.

Here’s how it works.  Shoppers will try on clothing in their fitting rooms, then walk into a common area with an interactive three-way mirror located nearby.  This mirror, called the Magic Mirror will communicate with the shopper’s cell phone using infrared technology, and the shopper would then be able to establish a Shoptogether session and show off his or her potential new wares to anyone in the world. 

The JetsonsPeople on the other end of the connection would, in turn, be able to offer comments such as “I love that outfit!”, “It’s not your color,” or others, which would be displayed directly on the interactive mirror for shoppers to see.  Here are some of my own personal suggestions.

“The limitation of vertical stripes has been reached.”

“You look like Rainbow Brite.”

“This is neither Paris nor New York, so that will only garner odd looks here in [insert city here].”

The collaborators would then be able to peruse other items available for trying on via the store’s web site and offer further help. 

Humor aside, the generation gap between those who grew up with the Internet and those who did not seems to dictate whether people will embrace this technology or not.  Mothers have expressed concern that people will have unauthorized access to the Magic Mirror, and perhaps perverts will be able to see their underage daughters changing.  This concern is less so for young people, who think the technology is cool and convenient.  Because many youths are insecure about their shopping choices, having collective input from their peers would help them in making the ‘right’ fashion decision.

Personally I feel the technology is neat, but I’m pretty much the typical guy when it comes to clothes shopping and rarely feel the need to share my decisions with anyone.  I imagine, though, this is niche-oriented toward women, especially young women and perhaps the fancier men out there, and I predict it will become very popular.  Look for the website shoptogether.com to launch later this year (2007) at a Nanette Lepore boutique in the United States.

How do you feel about this technology? Will people embrace it or shun it?  Leave your comments here.   

Filene’s Basement to Shut Boston Flagship

Filene's store in Boston's Downtown CrossingToday’s Boston Globe reports what was possibly an inevitable story: that the 99-year-old landmark Filene’s Basement store in Downtown Boston will shut for 1 to 2 years while the building is redeveloped. Unlike most of the tamer, modern Filene’s Basement stores that opened as part of the chain’s expansion, the original downtown Boston store is a true “basement,” with few adornments. Clothes are heaped into bins, there is no attempt to “merchandise” the space, and markdowns are taken automatically depending on how long an item has been in the store. The original Filene’s Basement is also the home of the famous “Running of the Brides,” an annual bridal gown markdown sale that frequently attracts national attention. Filene’s Basement is one of Boston’s major tourist destinations, and at this point may be its top retail-related tourist destination.

Unfortunately, the loss of Filene’s, its namesake chain upstairs (the two long ago split apart, though they maintained some synergy here) is forcing some changes. After the Federated/May merger, the Filene’s flagship store closed its doors because it was smaller and more outdated than the Macy’s flagship across the street (which was itself a Jordan Marsh store until 1996). Vornado Realty Trust purchased the vacant Filene’s building with the intention of redeveloping the entire block and replacing the store with a 38-story tower while mercifully maintaining the historic facade of the building.

Unsurprisingly, it’s going to prove much too difficult to keep the Filene’s Basement store open during construction, and while the current space–which is a dark, claustrophobic room with low-slung ceilings–isn’t normally the type of thing that inspires much nostalgia, it almost certainly will this time.

It will be interesting to see how this impacts the already-troubled Downtown Crossing shopping district, which also recently lost both Barnes & Noble and HMV, and suffered from the loss of the enclosed Lafayette Place shopping mall in the late 1990s. Most of the downtown retail activity in Boston now occurs just to the north, at the tourist-oriented Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall complex, or a mile to the west in the increasingly-successful Back Bay retail district. Many are skeptical the store will ever reopen, given the shiny, high-end prototype store that the chain opened there just months ago, between Newbury and Boylston Streets.

Wal-Mart Installs Hitching Posts for Amish Patrons

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Yes, you read correctly. Some offbeat retail news caught my eye today…

A Wal-Mart Supercenter in Black River Falls, Wisconsin is installing hitching posts for the Amish so they can hitch their buggies to something other than the store’s signposts, trees, or whatever else is available. The store wants to make it easier for both the Amish to park there without asking the important question of “Where am I going to hitch up this buggy?” and also for the rest of the store’s patrons and employees who desire a bit of order in the world.

amish_walmart.jpgThis isn’t a new idea, either. Wal-Mart and other stores have been doing this for years in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, all states which contain a sizeable Amish population. However, it is new to Wisconsin, which contains about 10,000 Amish residents. However, a professor at UW-Eau Claire stated there are only about 150 Amish around Black River Falls. More Amish live in Tomah and Sparta, which are near to Black River Falls and also have Wal-Marts, but without the coveted buggy hitching posts. Guess we know where they’ll be going from now on.

amis0505.jpgHas anyone else seen anything like this before? I know I’ve seen Amish buggies pulling in to a Walgreens in Indiana and also shopping at the Cross County Mall in Mattoon, Ill., but do they regularly shop at the same stores the rest of the population frequents? I’m admittedly pretty ignorant about their culture, and also curious. At any rate, it’s considerate that the stores are accomodating to such a small fraction of the population. Anything for a buck, I guess.

New Classic Sears Concept: Really Freakin’ Cool

Sears new

Where’s that vintage Sears photo from, you ask? Actually, it’s brand new! According to the Gwinnett (GA) Business Journal, Sears has just unveiled yet another new prototype store at the Gwinnett Place Mall. Titled the “Duluth” model for the city in which it’s located, it’s designed to appeal directly to female and teen shoppers with a more fashion-conscious image that plays up the “softer side of Sears” (remember that jingle?). According to the article:

Gone are the interior walls stacked from ground to ceiling with merchandise. You can see across the entire floor, like a show room, on each level. You’ll also notice a number of other changes … a “customer solution center” that’s equal parts concierge desk and Internet cafe. “Lifestyle vignettes” that look like cutouts of a home and show how various Sears’ offerings could look in your house. Expanded display areas of major brands such as Lands’ End clothing. And 13,000 feet of additional shopping space.

The article also mentions that it’s going well so far, and the redesign may join the myriad other Sears concepts (Department Store, Essentials, Grand, Hardware, Appliances, umm… Big Kmart) in being rolled out to select locations nationwide. And while Sears as a fashion-oriented retailer may be something of a tough sell (Personally, I think they should work on competing head-to-head with Target and sniping at the upper end of Wal-Mart’s customer base), the use of the classic Sears logo on the store is pretty awesome. It really brings back memories of the days when people got all gussied up to go shopping downtown, and when salespeople still wore white gloves.

K’s Merchandise Closing All Stores

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Founded in 1954 in Decatur, Illinois, K’s Merchandise Mart is (or was, depending on when you read this) a hard-lines merchandise wholesaler not unlike the now-defunct Service Merchandise chain.  Like Service Merchandise, it has fallen on hard times as competition from stores which offer overlapping merchandise at competitive prices, more convenient locations, or both have flooded the markets where K’s operates.  Earlier this year, a Boston-based bank offered K’s a cash infusion to avert bankruptcy.  K’s used the cash to spiff up its stores, namely the furniture and jewelry departments, and anticipated larger sales from these modifications in order to pay off the bank and get back in the black.  Unfortunately, the increased sales never materialized, and K’s has been forced to pack up and march out.   All 17 of K’s stores in Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri will liquidate and close when the walls are bare, including the Rockford location I shopped at as a kid.

K's Merchandise in Rockford, ILWith the closest Service Merchandise in the Chicago area – over an hour away from where I grew up in Janesville, WI, we shopped at K’s Merchandise for those crazy times we needed wholesale hardlines and needed them fast.  K’s was never a fancy store, and I personally thought the concept was easily duplicated at specialty electronics, jewelry, or general discount retailers like Wal-Mart and Target.  In fact, I haven’t even been inside a K’s store in over a decade, a testament to the loss of my need for the store.  In addition, just last week when passing a K’s incidently I had wondered about their viability.

The stores themselves were never fancy in decor, in varying conditions physically, and until very recently never attempted to update themselves as Service Merchandise did toward the end of its run, modernizing many of its stores.  Perhaps the only interesting thing about K’s is the logo, and the memories you have if you ever shopped there.  Feel free to post comments about K’s, too.

Tower Records Going Out of Business

Tower Records

Long-struggling California-based Tower Records announced yesterday they will officially begin liquidation proceedings and wind down their business, closing all 89 remaining stores in 20 states.

According to the Associated Press, the company was sold at auction to Great American Group for $134.3 million. Great American feels the physical assets of the company, including its remaining product and real estate, out-value the brand’s future potential in the marketplace, and will shut the chain. Sadly, Great American’s bid bested the auction’s second-highest bidder, Albany-based record store conglomerate TransWorld Entertainment (owner of FYE, Strawberries, Coconuts, Sam Goody, and other banners) by a mere $500,000. Unlike Great American Group, TransWorld planned to close only some Tower stores, keeping the remainder open and hoping to resuscitate the brand.

Now the storied 46-year-old retailer with stores spread across 20 states will be yet another dinosaur littering the landscape of departed media retailers, following many before them. Tower is a sadder loss than most, because they pioneered the record superstore format in the United States, even if in recent years their stores have declined in popularity, failing to remain competitive with their strongest competition on price or selection. Unlike most electronics superstores or the TransWorld chains that now dominate this market, Tower Records cared about its product and employed staff who knew about music (check out the detailed staff listing of some stores on their website, which includes employees’ names and product specialties). This is the kind of touch necessary to be a good music retailer–selling music isn’t like selling shoes–so it’s a sad loss for the industry.
Strangely, the record superstore format has done quite poorly across the board in the United States even as it is the norm in some foreign countries, such as the United Kingdom and Canada. In the U.K., large-format HMV or Virgin stores are common, and Canada’s largest music retailer is HMV, who often operates stores in similar formats as Tower in the United States. HMV pulled out of the United States in 2003 and Virgin still has a relatively limited presence restricted to large cities.

I was a manager at a record store for three years, so I saw the challenges facing this industry first-hand. Increasingly, media products are more easily (or cheaply) found online, via outlets such as Amazon or by downloading through iTunes. This is weeding out all but a) the most loyal of customers, who are collectors attached to the “product” and b) the least sophisticated customers, who may not have the technical know-how or the means to download music or movies. The latter audience has little loyalty, and will often turn to stores such as Target or Best Buy that also sell music and movies, as opposed to specifically seeking out media marts with a larger selection of titles they’ve never even heard of.

That leaves the die-hards–people who buy dozens to hundreds of CDs or DVDs a year–as the remaining audience for these stores. These customers are very sophisticated and expect a wide selection at fair prices, and they only shop in a record store because they choose to, because they have an emotional attachment to the experience itself. Many of these customers religiously buy new releases the day they come out. This audience may not continue to last forever, but it explains why many of the very best stores–such as Newbury Comics in New England, or Amoeba in California–are surviving, even if they are feeling the same pinch as their competitors. These customers do not shop at FYE. There was a time they shopped at Tower Records, but due to the chain’s cost-cutting and inventory-slashing, Tower became less fun to shop than their competitors. The die-hards left, and now another yet one bites the dust.