Comments on: Waldenbooks Slowly Disappearing

By: Hank Stevens

Hank Stevens — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:01:47 +0000

I was in Valley River Center in Eugene, Oregon last summer and they still had a Waldenbooks that looked like it had zero remodeling done since I last saw it circa 1993. It also looked like it had the same employees! The mall also still had a Suncoast Motion Picture Company that looked exactly the same. There can’t be many of those around anymore!

By: Matt from WI

Matt from WI — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:49:45 +0000

@Gary, Not to forget online alternatives either. I used to frequent many area Suncoast, Musicland/Sam Goody/FYE stores and one large Media Play location before they all flipped to the FYE banner, mainly due to my anime hobby.

Speaking just for that hobby alone, it’s all now gone to online catalogs and larger Best Buy stores exclusively (after they purged the category and other niche categories in small stores like my local one from their DVD section to focus more emphasis on BluRay disc selection). It’s already a niche market among many niche entertainment options, which have all been dealt a blow by online stores which have a wider breadth of selection and, for me, It requires no trip to a large city.

Stinks, but that’s the way the retail segments are rolling. Mall-based music and books really didn’t proliferate and peak until the late 1970s and especially in the 1980s when it wasn’t a surprise to find within a 150+ store mall, two or three bookstores, and 3-4 music/entertainment stores, all due to them being under different chains.

By: stacy

stacy — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:56:47 +0000

@Caldor, it was just a plain beige front, IIRC. Looked like they took the sign down and painted over any scar. Very sad. I believe they had put “Wakefield Mall” on the glass above the front doors, in white. The W and M were stylized a little bit, but nothing like the old sign. I took pictures, but lost them in a hard drive crash. I’m going back for Christmas and hopefully will have a chance to spin by.

By: Ed

Ed — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:15:19 +0000

@Doug, They did open a Barnes and Noble in the periphery of my local mall, maybe that’s what did them in, although the other mall with Waldens, i don’t know if there’s a B&N or even a borders nearby.

By: Allan

Allan — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:56:48 +0000

Now that I think about it, it’s pretty sad I never got to the Concord Mall Waldenbooks in Elkhart, due to the fact I heard from a source(plus confirming on Concord’s website) it was one of the few Waldenbooks that had the old school 70s look. What other Waldenbooks have the 70s look left, besides the one in Sheboygan’s Memorial Mall?

By: Allan

Allan — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:50:41 +0000

@Nick Archer, You are so completely right about the significance of micropolitan areas losing the last of their local book and music stores, even if they are a chain. As for Mount Vernon, IL, while I was doing an unsuccessful search for a national list of FYE store closures(not that unusual for a search, since I did one about 1-2 years ago when Hollywood Video/Movie Gallery was closing stores while in bankruptcy, and was rewarded by finding a huge nationwide list of closures), I did feel sad hearing Times Square Mall in Mount Vernon was losing an FYE in addition to B. Dalton, as someone who has spent at least a little time traveling to almost all parts of Illinois throughout my life.

By: Allan

Allan — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:43:29 +0000

….as for what I said for Circuit CIty, that is despite how much I did like shopping there. I’ve always wandered about H.H. Gregg, since I’ve seen them all over Indiana(but’ve never made it to one of their stores), and later read up that they started in that state too.

By: Allan

Allan — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:09:02 +0000

Speaking of FYE(not to mention I first heard of the new round of closings from a friend who frequents one of their locations more often than me that is about to close), I stopped by one of the closing FYEs a few days ago, and learned that 4 were closing in the Chicago area, including 2 mall locations: Harlem-Irving Plaza and Ford City. The other 2 are standalone stores, and were rebranded from Coconuts within the last 2 years: Lake and Harlem(River Forest) and 95th St.(Oak Lawn).

While I like FYE since I once in a while will find a good buy for used products(before Trans World began selling used products in FYE stores, I refused to shop at them), I would not be surprised if that chain goes under in the next few years, if not next year. Other people have summed up the points enough about why FYE is shedding stores, that I have no need to repeat those(and my theory) here. The amount of Blockbuster and Hollywood Video stores remaining in the Chicago area has surprisingly gotten pretty scarce, and I constantly am amazed to see a Hollywood location hang on as long as it has.

As for this particular Hollywood location, I also partially think it’s b/c of 2 factors: little video rental competition in the immediate vicinity, and the sales at their attached GameCrazy store are likely higher than average, due to the fact that there are almost no GameStops in close range, and that the closest one is 11/2 miles away. There used to be a 2nd Hollywood Video south of me that closed several years back, as well.

Well, the next few years will be very interesting, to see if such retailers like FYE, Hollywood, Blockbuster, etc. can adapt in time to increasing online competition and from other brick-and-mortar stores, or die. I can say with all my memories of shopping such stores when I was younger, I probably will be at least a little sad if more than a few of them go under. (wasn’t so surprised about Circuit City’s demise, due to their internal problems I’d read about)

By: Caldor

Caldor — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:54:46 +0000

@stacy, what did they change it to?!

By: stacy

stacy — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:06:33 +0000

That Wakefield Mall sign is gone, too. I visited in July and it broke my heart a little!