Tuesday, July 21, 2015

The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company Filed for Bankruptcy



          The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company has filed for bankruptcy yet again, and this time it does not look good. Although the company currently operates 296 stores primarily in the Northeast under the brand names A&P, Best Cellars, Food Basics, The Food Emporium, Pathmark, Superfresh and Waldbaum's, the competition of Acme, and Stop & Shop might prove stronger when looking for a buyer. This may be the end of the A&P chain, but details are not certain yet other than several dozen stores closing in the next few months. Pathmark has always had trouble with customers by being seen as a dirty store, which is why a lot of them closed a several years back, because of the bankruptcy and under performing stores.

I will update this post as more news is released on what will happen.

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

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.

Monday, July 20, 2015

FLASHBACK: Driving Down Ogden Avenue in 1990

          I have consulted the use of this video from the YouTube channel Mark Davis when I posted about the former Dominicks store in Naperville, Illinois. This video shows during his high school days of driving down the twisting and curvy road of US Route 34, known as Ogden Avenue to the local traffic of Naperville and Aurora.



Franks Nursery store closed about 2002-2004, and was demolished in 2013 and a high-end market open, called Standard Market in 2014.

Still open

Pontiac is gone, but Woody Buick GMC is there.

Not sure when this Kmart closed, but the store was a Menards until 2003? when a new store opened on Aurora Avenue and has since been empty.


Was Nabisco, then Post, then Kraft, then Mondelez, now Nabisco again.

Empty.

Was OfficeMax, now future home of a Fresh Thyme market

The 76 gas station is now Fey & Co jewelery store.

Super H Mart

Empty as of April 2013.

Current Subaru dealer.

Congratulations to the Naperville North High School class of 1990, as this video marks the 25th anniversary's, it also shows 25 years of change to the street of Ogden.
Thank you for reading and remember to ask questions and comment below.