The Retail Archives

Malls | Retail | Retro & Vintage | Nostalgia

[rainbowsandtornadoes]

this is how i see myself

[the-retail-archives]

Save on the best albums with your Repeat Performer card at Camelot Music!

From my personal collection.

[the-retail-archives]

Florida Choice was an extremely short lived chain of grocery stores in Florida, operated by Kroger. Lasting from only 1986-1988, photos of them are rather rare. Here’s a selection, clipped from Florida Today and the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

[the-retail-archives]

So who knew Zayre had gas stations?

[the-retail-archives]

This photo, which I have in my files as dating to 1980, even if it looks older, shows the cinema at the Searstown Mall in Titusville, FL. While the mall still stands today, it’s not doing very well, even with it’s rebrand to Titusville Mall once it lost Sears. This theater, later a United Artists theater, still operates as an independent theater.

[the-retail-archives]

An old sign for the Rancher’s Roast Beef chain, which no longer holds a presence in St Louis, was uncovered during the installation of a new sign a few days ago.

[the-retail-archives]

A Sears closure- but not a modern one. These photos, from I believe the 70s, show the closing of a small, downtown store, likely for a mall store, anchoring some brand new property.

I thought I had some more info saved with this one, but I don't.

[the-retail-archives]

A Pantry Pride pin, likely an x years of service pin, but the original poster was unsure. This one came from Florida, which was the last holdout for the once vast Northeastern chain, in it’s twilight years.

[the-retail-archives]

A truck-theft gone wrong left this hijacker stranded, and a California Safeway down a shipment of food.

[evan-collins90]

Electronics Boutique (later EB Games) - Crossgates Mall - Albany, NY (1986)

Designed by Planned Expansion Group, Inc. 

Scanned from ‘The Best of Store Designs 2′ (1987)

[evan-collins90]

Coronado Cafe, part of the Coronado Center mall - Albuquerque, NM (1993) - Designed by Space Design International 

Scanned from ‘Food Retail Design & Display 3′ (1994)

[the-retail-archives]

You see this is the environment that would sell me fast food. Not the sterile, “modern design” boxes of today.

[the-retail-archives]

A vintage A&P sign. I like the spiky P.

[alberttrilogyinc]

The Riverchase Galleria circa late 1980s. I can slightly recall bombin’ around the mall when it looked like this. Ah, if only I could have appreciated the splendor back then. It looked like a vaporwave dreamscape.

[the-retail-archives]

Bigger is better! When you get your photo prints at Montgomery Wards!

[the-retail-archives]

This 1958 flyover photo shows Harundale Mall- the very first enclosed, air conditioned mall east of the Mississippi River. With “major stores” (the word anchor hadn’t yet entered common use) including a Hochschild Kohn's department store, it was the highlight of the Harundale development, until it was increasingly outmoded by bigger, newer competitors. Despite community pushback, the increasingly blighted mall closed it’s doors in 1997, to make way for the Harundale Plaza development a year or two later.

[the-retail-archives]

Glen Burnie’s Arundel Plaza still stands, but unfortunately this retro Giant has remodeled to the chain’s most modern, almost digital-camo, facade.

[the-retail-archives]

The beautiful original fountains of the Schuylkill Mall, while a sight to behold, were not one to hear. They were reportedly filled in and used as planters less than 10 years after being installed, because the noise drew complaints from surrounding tenants.