Florence Mall- (Florence, Kentucky)

     Florence Mall is a regional mall located in  Florence, Kentucky, a few miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio. This is the largest mall in Northern Kentucky with over 130 store and food court and four anchor stores, Sears, JCPenney and two Macy's department stores.

     Florence Mall was developed by Homart Development, a real estate subsidiary of Sears, Roebuck & Company. The malls opening in September 1976 consisted of around 90 stores, and anchor stores Sears, Roebuck & Co., and Pogue's. JCPenney and Shillito's opened in 1977 and 1978. Other than Sears and JCPenney, Pogue's and Shillito's would change names continuously through the malls history as a result of store merges and buy outs. The Shillito's changed merged with competing Rike's department store chain, creating Shillito-Rikes for several years before being merged into the Lazarus department store chain.

     Pogue's department store converted to L.S. Aryes in 1983 before being sold to Hess's in 1987. Hess's went out of business in 1993 and the anchor was filled with Lazarus Home Store a year later. A major renovation consisted of a newer style food court and an added 64 inline tenants. In 2003, Macy's purchased Lazarus, former Lazarus-Macy's from 2003-2005, before dropping the Lazarus name entirely. Currently the mall is doing very well with its business and a major retail hub of Northern Kentucky and I see many more years of success coming its way.

     A very interesting story with the water tower in the photo below. Before the mall even opened, the water tower was constructed and painted "Florence Mall". This form of commercial advertising was considered a violation to federal and state laws. The "M" in "Mall" was painted over and a "Y" was put in its place spelling "Y'all". This fixed the so called violation and was pragmatic to the dialect of the local culture.

These photos below are of the mall this August as a bonus visit to my trip to Cincinnati for the Forest Fair Village mall.

Strange there closed so early on a weekday.

Neat to see such a large Hallmark store still opened.

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Sears Closing 28 More Kmart Stores- Chicago Market Dwindling Down.

     Sears Holdings is add it again slowly bringing the Kmart chain to an end. According to USAToday, Sears has announced this week that 28 more Kmart locations will be closing by years end, on top of dozens this past year alone. Among these locations, locations in Illinois include suburban Oak Lawn, Elmhurst, and Belleville, IL near St. Louis. By this December, there will only be 13 Kmarts left in Illinois, 5 of which around the Chicago area. Store liquidation sales begin on or by August 31st, and most stores should be closed by mid-November Sears says, some by mid-December.

Here is the latest list of Kmart stores that are slated to close:  

Arizona

1445 S Power Road Mesa AZ

California

23222 W Valencia Blvd Valencia CA

10500 Wichlow Way Jackson / Martell CA

10400 Rosecrans Bellflower CA

16968 Main Street Hesperia CA

Colorado

15200 E Colfax Avenue Aurora CO

200 W Belleview Englewood CO

Connecticut

100 Main Street North Southbury CT

Florida

900 N Miami Beach Blvd North Miami Beach FL

Georgia

5590 Mableton Pkwy Mableton GA

Illinois

4101 W 95Th St Oaklawn IL

7230 Westfield Plaza Dr Belleville IL

265 S Illinois Rte 83 Elmhurst IL

Kansas

1740 Sw Wanamaker Road Topeka KS

Michigan

7601 23 Mile Road Utica / Shelby Township MI

4001 N Euclid Avenue Bay City MI

545 West Sanilac Sandusky MI

New Jersey 

401 Route 38 Moorestown NJ

808 Route 46 Parsippany NJ

New York

810 Paul Road Rochester (Chili) NY

10 Cobblestone Court Drive Victor NY

374 Windsor Hwy, Rte 32 Vails Gate (New Windsor) NY

Ohio

2600 Lincoln Way E Massillon OH

Oregon

2470 Mission Se Salem OR

Pennsylvania

2620 Moreland Road Willow Grove PA

4701 Tilghman Street Allentown PA

Rhode Island

296 Garfield Ave Cranston RI

South Carolina

1610 Church St Conway SC

     This really might soon be the end of Kmart, these closures planned sound like Sears wants it done quick, because going off from the past, liquidation sales that begin in September tend to end in December (a week before Christmas), but these sales want to be suspended by mid-November, at least before Black Friday. The big list might come out after Christmas, could it be the end?

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Jungle Jim's International Market: An Amusement Park Grocery Mecca in Fairfield, Ohio

     Jungle Jim's International Market can best be described as a theme park of food! As this main location in Fairfield, Ohio, 30 minutes from downtown Cincinnati, another smaller formatted store is in nearby Eastgate, Ohio. Founded in 1971 by "Jungle" Jim Bonaminio as a small fruit stand, over 40 years later has grown to this 300,000 square foot warehouse sized comical mix of products from all over the world. There are so many products from all over the world, as well as foods not found anywhere near the Cincinnati area that people drive from other major cities to shop here, as described by the store directory, commonly it takes the average customer 2-4 hours to shop here, I'm sure there implying to walk around the entire store.

Here are the photos I took during my visit to what should not be referred to as "just a grocery store".

An overhead sign welcoming customers to Jungle Jim's Foodie Land!

As my Father said, this "highway" sign may be a exaggerating just a bit.

Approaching Jungle Jim's main entrance!

A Kraft stock car awaits the checkered flag as shoppers prepare there carts to race into the store.

This really got me to appreciate the store, the large shoppers express signs and singing soup can, young children will really be amazed in my opinion.

The best seat in the house.

Everyone's favorite cereal buddies, the breakfast club jamboree.

The sea food is centered around a large boat!

A fire truck parked above the salsa and hot sauce display.

There is a stop light in the center of the store to control the massive customer flow.

In search for Double Cola for years, finally finding cases of it and seeing it in person was a goal achieved. Literally any drink or soda from anywhere can be found among these aisles, Jim really is the "King of Pop"!

There is a reconditioned ride called the Lion Country Safari Monorail donated by Kings Island, a major amusement park in Mason, Ohio. At first I thought it was a tram service that takes customers from the parking lot to an entrance to the store, although it did not seem to be in service at the time of my visit. It could be under renovations currently with hopes of providing such services in the near future.

 

 

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