The Afterlife of a Chainstore... What it Leaves Behind

(THESE ARE NOT MY PICTURES, AND I DO NOT CLAIM OWNERSHIP OF THEM)

          In particular, the shell of a former store location with an individual storefront with character unlike no other that can be easily identifiable. These are the stores that you see when there was a lack of renovation effort and only a different sign and some paint was placed over the store that originally was in the storefront.

          You do not have to look for to find an example of your own, but Memphis, Tennessee is a great example of it, most of us in this hobby, or field know the city of Memphis to not only be dangerous, but to have one of the highest level of dead and former retail space, dead malls, and neglected shopping centers. When driving down the Winchester Road, that stretch of local street is namely the center of the cities death of urban sprawl, this is where you will ever see the most converted store fronts into cheap Chinese restaurants, pawn shops, and thrift stores, complete with empty recognizable big box stores, a dead mall, and enough chain link fence to block off the Mississippi River.

          What is left behind is the reminder that this store once thought it could make it in the area it set up shop, and either moved or went out of business, these are the stores that when you see them, you will automatically know what it was.

          These are not store fronts in Memphis, that was only used as an example of the best place to find stuff like this, but these are familiar stores fronts that are seen today as Goodwill's, thriftstores, or other chains that bought the property or are leasing it.

Started as Child World/ Children's Place, then Media Play, now empty; Columbus, Ohio.

Former Media Play

Opened as Builders Square

Former Builders Square

As perspective, this is how it looks to see the original store placed next to the current store that inhabits what was once the original.

Thank you for reading and remember to comment and post questions below.