OT: Finally happening: Mall post-Sears

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I want to say my city had one of the last 75 Sears retail locations. The Merced Mall had not two, but three, anchor stores. Sears and Kohl’s on the ends, and JC Penney on the side, but not quite the middle. Google AI says the Sears location at Merced Mall closed in March 2019 - I can’t believe it has been that long.

This particular Sears location had a two-story retail establishment, and a Sears automotive repair business adjacent to the store. Maybe a couple of years after Sears closed, the mall operators teased the city with a couple of “Coming soon – Five Below” signs. Well, it looks like the end that used to be Sears has been replaced by a string of shops, rather than a single anchor business. This includes the aforementioned Five Below, a Burlington Coat Factory, a Petco, an Ulta Beauty - So the new section is referred to “The Shoppes at Merced”. The old part of the mall is also undergoing some maintenance, and will also be adding new retail businesses, including a Boot Barn and a Mexican grocery store. That segment is also getting a new name - Marketplace at Merced.

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Our local upscale mall (Simon) had a large 2 story Sears. It has been replaced with a reimagined Dick’s Sports, complete with rock climbing wall and outdoor venue where you can run track, kick a ball, or try other outdoor activities.

The inside has been hollowed out for the rock climbing wall (and elevator bank on the opposite side) and is truly spectacular. And based on the traffic I see, doing land office business.

There was a Sears in a failing mall about 15 miles away, it has been replaced with a BJs. The rest of the mall continues to be an arcade of closed shops, remnant stores, and no-name off brand discounters.

The other mall, alive when we arrived 25 years ago, had a Sears too, but the entire mall was leveled to put up an Amazon distribution warehouse. It has lots of parking :wink: It has also sped up delivery to me from 2-4 days to (sometimes) overnight, nearly always “next day”.

Malls have seen their day, but there’s still some life there. (That Simon mall I mentioned earlier had a Sears Auto Center. It’s now a Tesla dealership. I mean “showroom”. I can see them moving the sedans through, and the Cybertrucks parked there in hopes someone will adopt them before they are killed.)

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