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| This McDonald's is somewhere in Arkansas very close to the Mississippi border; I'd say there's a good chance it's actually within the MSRB coverage area. |
Happy almost Memorial Day, everyone! (Okay, so it's half a month away, but bear with me here...) Although some school districts are still in session as June begins, the end of May holiday weekend widely symbolizes the start of summer. Here at the Mid-South Retail Blog, we're getting things started a little early! On
my flickr page, I'll be kicking off summer with a special extended two-week photoset called "Retail Road Trip" featuring detailed tours of several stores (or, as I like to call them, "stours"). But I have plenty more photos of random places taken while actually
on road trips. As such, the quality of these photos may vary, and I don't exactly know for certain where many of them were taken... but that doesn't mean they're not worth sharing below! Enjoy :)
From Alabama:
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| Domino's probably took over this location fairly recently, or else ditched an older logo road sign for a new one, given the inset photo shows their new logo facing the street. |
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| Fairly certain this mansard-roof McDonald's is in Birmingham, AL. Pay close attention to it - it'll come up again later. |
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| The Publix in Oxford, AL, as seen from the Panera Bread outparcel. |
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| A shopping center also in Oxford, AL (if I'm not mistaken...) |
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| Newer signage on this Olive Garden! |
From Georgia:
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| Interstate sign for the Gateway Walmart, which looks to be in Columbus, GA. |
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| I thought I framed this shot well... but then discovered it came out unfocused :( |
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| Waffle House... thinking it's somewhere in GA, haha |
From South Carolina:
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| An eyebrowed McDonald's, evidently near Reed Ave. and W. Butler St.! These SC photos are mostly from the Columbia/Lexington area. |
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| A Sears hometown store, partially housed in what could be a former Kmart...? |
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| KFC/LJS combo. Long John Silvers was spun off from Yum! brands (parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut) in 2011, yet still operates in cobranded restaurants. |
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| An older-logo'd Domino's Pizza |
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| Another remaining mansard-roof McDonald's! |
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| (...which means it deserved two pictures, of course :P ) |
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| Former Eckerd-turned-Dollar General |
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| Former Hollywood Video-turned Beauty Stop |
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| Typical Walmart Supercenter. |
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| This RadioShack looks to have been considered a keeper by Sprint. It's right next door to that Hollywood Video Beauty Stop, and the complex altogether is on an outparcel of the Walmart. |
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| Very nice-looking Chick-fil-A. Interestingly, it shares its road sign with the Office Depot nearby! |
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| A fully updated Wendy's location. If this isn't a newly-built location, then they did a pretty heavy remodel here! |
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| Not retail but important nonetheless :) |
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| Another eyebrowed Mickey D's |
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| Standalone Subway in a pitched-roof building. |
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| The Book Dispensary, a really cool used-book store |
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| A not-so-extensively remodeled Wendy's. All they did here was stick up some new signage and call it a day! |
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| An older McDonald's, retaining both mansard roof and playplace |
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| This and the next shot are from a mall in Columbia. |
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| Pretty sure this was formerly a Sears. |
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| An older-logo Big Lots sign hangs on to dear life on the back of this store... |
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| Older Burger King location on a naval base. |
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| Shopping center in Lexington featuring Food Lion and Stein Mart, among others. I have photos of that Books-a-Million store here on my flickr account. |
From North Carolina:
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| These two pictures are from a separate, earlier trip, but geographically they fit best at this point in the post :P |
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| I thought this custom McDonald's in Asheville looked really neat! |
From the return trip:
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| Given this wasn't a one-way trip to SC, I have pics from the trip back through GA and AL as well! |
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| This and the above pic are of another as-yet-unremodeled McDonald's. All of the mansard roof locations in this post may have since been remodeled, though... :( |
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| Relatively newer BK beside a RaceWay gas station/convenience store. This shot was taken before the two McD's ones, so while I'm not sure of the location of either restaurant, this one has a better chance of being in GA than the former |
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| Back in Birmingham, AL... tried to get a shot of its original Arby's sign, to little success. This driver's lawnmower, however, I captured perfectly! :/ |
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| Forestdale Square is one of many desolate sights in this part of Birmingham, which has never seemed too successful retail-wise during my travels through there. Note the old Save-a-Lot sign. |
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| Aha, there's that McDonald's again! Can you catch the difference? I'll give you a hint: look at the sign on the front of the building... |
From Mississippi:
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| This, in addition to most of the following photos, was taken in Columbus, MS. Located in Lowndes County, Columbus actually is within the MSRB coverage area set forth by our logo! |
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| From the interstate sign way in the background, I'm guessing this is Leigh Mall. I'm also guessing that the Sears Hometown store seen in the previous photo is operating out of a former Sears Auto Center, and that this Hobby Lobby is in part of (if not all of) a former full-line Sears store. |
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| From left to right - Electric City, Dollar Tree, JCPenney, and Trustmark |
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| An older, mirrored-façade Office Depot in the background, as well as a Hardee's to the right |
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| Peking Chinese Restaurant is almost certainly in a former something, but I'm not sure what. BK, maybe? Old Navy is in the background. |
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| Cap'n D's |
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| What looks to be a neon Kroger, though has since been expanded/remodeled. |
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| Standalone Jimmy John's. |
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| Arby's, with Walmart in the background... |
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| ...and Backyard Burgers, with Walmart again in the background. |
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| Pretty busy Sonic! |
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| Strip center featuring, among others, Buffalo Wild Wings and regional Lost Pizza Co. |
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| Sweet Pepper's Deli |
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| A still-operating Texaco! |
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| Thinking this is/was a former mall entrance. Not sure if this is Leigh Mall still or another retail conglomeration |
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| Michaels, with Dick's to the left |
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| The Columbus Kmart, which is staying open... for now |
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| Another shot of the Kmart :P |
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| Looks like a Shell, right? I thought so, anyway. It's not. (Can't remember what brand it actually was, though) |
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| Not the best shot, but another Texaco warranted one! |
UPDATE: Commenter "publisher73" has left a great deal of information regarding the histories of the Columbus retail pictured above, which I encourage you to check out below this post!
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| Some random MS retail pics to top us off. This is one of the state's original Target stores, in its capital of Jackson. |
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| The Sears store entrance in Barnes Crossing Mall in Tupelo. Note the use of the first variation Sears logo. Later versions had more streamlined placement of the lines within the letters. |
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| A Pizza Inn location in Greenville, MS, occupying what used to be a long-standing Gus's Fried Chicken location. |
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| A newer Denny's, on a Walmart outparcel in Greenville. This has to be one of the more interesting conversions out there: this was once a Blockbuster Video! |
And that does it for this "Retail Road Trip" blog post! I have at least one more RRT post set for next month, with another in mind that I may or may not get around to. And as I said, watch out for my RRT photoset over on flickr after Memorial Day weekend, which I hope you enjoy!
One last note before parting: the Mid-South Retail Blog now has a secure link, and opens only in HTTPS form over its former HTTP. This provides me and you with encryption, data integrity, and authentication. All a part of creating a safe and enjoyable experience that, hopefully, keeps you coming back! :)
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| Piggly Wiggly! :P |
Whether locally or from the road, have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are!
Retail Retell
As for that McDonald's in Jasper - It took me a while to figure it out, but the front sign was moved up slightly, wasn't it?
ReplyDeleteThe Sears Hometown store in Lexington is in a building that is way too small to be an old Kmart. I'm not positive on this, but that building looks like it was originally home to a really old 60's Winn-Dixie to me based on the design of the awning.
Otherwise, I really like the concept of this post!
Yep! :)
DeleteInteresting, thanks for the info! I remember my first thought passing it was that it was a former Kmart, but at that time and especially since then I haven't been able to remember the building's size.
Thank you! Admittedly it's a bit of a "photo dump" post, but I felt they deserved to be shown.
I agree, cool concept for a blog post! Lot's of interesting stuff there (rare, older Big Lots sign for one).
ReplyDeleteLooks like that you might have caught that first McDonald's shown (from the return trip) in the very beginning stages of eyebrow remodeling since it had it's roof lights removed, but nothing else done yet. I'm almost certain they removed the side mansard roof portions for the Hernando remodel, but then just covered over and built around the front part of the mansard!
As for the already remodeled eyebrows in the post: I thought some of the eyebrow remodels around here were ugly, until I saw those :P
Thanks!
DeleteMaybe so, I dunno! I haven't been back since. And I could've SWORN it was in Jasper, AL, since that's the route we take for that trip... but I can't find it on Google Maps for the life of me! I did find this amusing McD's near there, though :P https://www.google.com/maps/@33.7588823,-87.065461,3a,49.4y,274.24h,91.68t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sXgQ1PPdjAwWIgSevsQLmGw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
LOL!
UPDATE: No wonder those places weren't showing up in Jasper - they're actually in a part of Birmingham!! The post has been updated. Like I said, I could've sworn the route we take goes through Jasper... so maybe part of it does, but evidently not that part (!)
DeleteYep, I did something similar although I gave no clues what so ever as to where my pictures were taken. It is a nice idea and looking forward to seeing future posts and pics!
ReplyDeleteI'm commenting on Memorial Day so don't feel too bad about that! :D
Thanks man!
DeleteAnd lol! :P
Recent discoverer of your blog and a native of north Mississippi now living in the Jackson area. Re, your photos from Columbus, some history of the buildings pictured (I forget how much has changed on the US 45 corridor in 25 years!):
ReplyDelete• The Sears Hometown location is the former auto center outparcel for the Sears full line store formerly located in the Hobby Lobby location
• The Office Depot/Old Navy strip mall was the original location of Kmart prior to the early 90s.
• The Peking Chinese Restaurant was originally the one-and-only Burger Chef. Sometimes mistaken for a former Burger King location.
• Kroger is the former location of Delchamps, a now defunct deep south grocery chain bought by in the 1990s (and subsequently responsible for the downfall of) Jitney Jungle.
• The Arby's was constructed in the mid 80s as a local, upscale Mexican/Tex-Mex eatery, J.C. Garcia's.
• Buffalo Wild Wings and The Lost Pizza Company strip mall was one of the original greenhouse Kroger location, the store's first north Columbus location. A former mid-70s superstore location located on east Main Street eventually housed a furniture store and has since been reconstructed into the police department and municipal court.
• the "seocond mall" where Michaels and Dick's are located is the former University Mall, built in 1984 and which never was was a successful venture. It housed McRae's, a Mississippi based department store that was sold to Proffit's and, eventually, Belk. I'm not sure why the Belk sign is missing here; it still operates at this location and takes up most of the property adjacent to Michael's.
• The gas station housing Chix was, in fact, a Shell Sprint Mart. There's been a major reshuffling of gas station brands in Mississippi in the last five years.
You may have known all of this, but it was fun to remember what used to be where. I'm from West Point, which within the last year lost its Kroger, which has operated since 1975 in the West Main Shopping Center. It's now a Save A Lot.
The Kroger opened under the Superstore design and was remodeled to Bauhaus in the mid 80s and subsequently the Pretend Neon design in 1996, which it clung to until Kroger gave up on West Point and poured all of its capital into expanding the Starkville location, doubling its size and upgrading to the 2012 design package.
My hometown desperately misses its Kroger.
Thanks for sharing, and glad you've discovered the blog! I appreciate all the info. Aside from guessing that about the Sears Auto Center, I knew none of what you mentioned, so it really helps to have that here!
DeleteI lived in Caledonia for a short period of time when I was born, so while I'm from Columbus, I'm not all that familiar with it. It's interesting to read about its retail history, particularly the grocery store changes. I would never in a million years have guessed Buffalo Wild Wings and Lost Pizza were housed in a former greenhouse Kroger! Also, thanks for confirming about the West Point store - I've seen that one online in several searches, and have been wondering about what décor(s) it sported. I agree that it is a shame Kroger decided to close that store. Towns with few or, especially, zero grocery alternatives are always unfairly hurt when chains decide to bail.
I don't know how many different places in Mississippi you've lived or visited, but you may be interested in this series I posted to my flickr account recently, covering what all information I could dig up on the ten Albertsons stores that operated during the chain's short stint in the state from the late 90s to early 2000s: https://www.flickr.com/photos/130271900@N03/albums/72157670676814892
Glad this post could inspire you to reminisce, and thanks again for checking out the blog and commenting :)
The whole center where Buffalo Wild Wings and Reed's now exist has been extensively remodeled (obviously). The wing where Peppers is located was added. The upscale Grill restaurant nearby was originally a Shoney's. You'd never be able to tell that from its current design.
DeleteI grew up in West Point but have lived in Starkville, Kosciusko, Olive Branch and, now, Madison in my working adult life. Spent a lot of time in Memphis as a child and have a great affection for many of the areas you reference. Great blog.
West Point, of course, has Walmart and an independently owned Sunflower in addition to the Save A Lot. But it was still a disappointment to lose Kroger, even though its location was tiny and dated. (That was its charm!)
Again, thank you for the compliment!
DeleteI can understand that for sure! Stores that have been left untouched certainly draw my attention and affection more than those that have been homogenized.