 |
| Today's post highlights Tate County, MS, retail. |
"The story of Stage Stores' recent history," Retail Dive wrote two months ago, "could give an observer whiplash."
Ain't that the truth.
Believe you me, we're going to explore that recent history in detail in this post; but first, we need to go back a little further -- over a decade ago, as a matter of fact -- in order to get the first piece of context relevant to our subject today.
Way back in 2008, Goody's Family Clothing -- then in its 55th year as a small-format department store located primarily in the south and midwest -- filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, closing 69 of its stores. Luckily, it was able to successfully exit bankruptcy shortly thereafter, but the happy feeling didn't last long: Goody's again went bankrupt a mere four months later, in January 2009, this time filing Chapter 7 and going out of business for good.
The Goody's format, I believe, had been mostly successful, but evidently numerous factors must have combined to make the business unsustainable as a going concern, such as the 2008 recession. I briefly discussed Goody's and showcased the short-lived Hernando, MS, location last year, in this post over at the My Florida Retail Blog. (Read the post, and you'll understand why it was published on that site instead of this one!)
My point here is to say that the Goody's name did have some value to it, even if the chain itself was driven out of business. Thankfully, a buyer recognized that value, and purchased the Goody's intellectual property during a bankruptcy auction in July 2009. That buyer was Specialty Retailers, Inc., better known as Stage Stores.
Like Goody's, Stage Stores operated small-format department stores, featuring moderately-priced, brand-name goods, centered primarily in small towns with little competition. The difference between the two came largely in scope: Stage had a much larger trade area than Goody's had. So, not only did Stage use its Goody's IP acquisition to expand into new areas ("We have identified approximately 50 former Goody's markets that meet our small town business model criteria of being under-served with minimal competition"), Stage also decided to rebrand a number of its existing stores in areas where it felt the Goody's nameplate had "stronger customer awareness." Ultimately, this acquisition added Goody's to the company's existing roster of nameplates, comprised of Bealls, Palais Royal, Peebles, and Stage itself.
 |
| Image source unknown |
--------------------------------------------------
We've met Goody's. Now it's time to meet Gordmans. Gordmans was founded approximately 38 years before Goody's, and although it, too, operated in the midwest, Gordmans' stores were considerably larger than those of Goody's. Moreover, Gordmans operated under a different store format. Here is an excerpt from a 2013 Albuquerque Journal article titled "So... What is Gordmans?":
Often described as an "off-price" retailer a la T.J. Maxx or Marshalls, President and CEO Jeff Gordman said the company describes itself instead as an "everyday value price" retailer that sells name brand apparel, accessories, and home goods.Is there a difference between the two models?Yes, according to Gordman, although the pricing strategy is very similar.Like off-price stores, Gordmans doesn't play the sale game. Instead, it maintains prices that it boasts are up to 60 percent off of department and specialty stores. ...Gordmans carries many of the same brands shoppers would expect to find at a Marshalls or T.J. Maxx, but Gordman said they're offered in "full and complete assortments" and displayed differently.Rather than spread clothing out on a series of long racks, Gordmans displays its merchandise more like department stores, the CEO said."We compete against everybody (but) we're more directly competing against a Kohl's, a Target and (JCPenney) versus a T.J. Maxx or Marshalls or Burlington (Coat)," Gordman said.At roughly 50,000 square feet per store, Gordmans is also larger than the typical off-price store. For example, Albuquerque's two Marshalls each opened in about 30,000 square feet.
In contrast, Stage Stores listed its average square footage as 18,200 sf, although several of its department stores were larger (as large as 25-30K), and others were considerably smaller (such as the location we'll be touring today, I believe).
But Gordmans and Goody's did have two other things in common. One, Gordmans filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2017, liquidating all of its stores. In the time since that 2013 Albuquerque Journal article had been written, Gordmans had been taken over by a private equity investor, who drained the company of cash as well as put it in debt in order to pay out a special dividend benefitting, largely, the investment firm itself. CEO Jeff Gordman resigned shortly thereafter, and the chain's sales plummeted.
And two, just like Goody's, Gordmans was rescued out of bankruptcy by none other than Stage Stores.
 |
| Courtesy McAfee & Taft |
--------------------------------------------------
Given the many similarities between Goody's and Stage's business models and footprints, the Stage Stores acquisition of Goody's made plenty of sense. But Gordmans, on the other hand, with its larger stores and discount department store format, was markedly different than Stage Stores. What was Stage's game here?
According to Stage Stores CEO Michael Glazer, "By acquiring Gordmans, we believe that we have an opportunity to benefit from its off-price competencies, deep connection with a youthful customer, and strong home and gifts businesses. We are pleased to enhance our store portfolio with the most desirable Gordmans locations, giving Stage a strong Midwestern presence in markets generally larger than those we serve today. We plan to maintain the Gordmans brand and look forward to welcoming a significant number of Gordmans employees to our Company."
In other words, Stage sought out Gordmans precisely because Gordmans was different. Stage felt it could leverage Gordmans' off-price model -- well, semi-off-price, anyway; although as time went on, Stage decided it would take Gordmans in a fully off-price direction -- as well as its brand engagement with younger customers than the typical Stage shopper and its greater focus on home décor as compared to Stage's apparel-driven format, all to bolster Stage's performance as a whole. This was necessary, I might add, because department stores had been performing, and continue to perform, increasingly poorly as the 2010s (and now, 2020s) press(ed) forward.
Stage's deal was announced in April 2017, and involved the purchase of "a minimum of 50 Gordmans store leases" out of bankruptcy, "with rights to assume leases for an additional seven stores and a distribution center; all of Gordmans' inventory, furniture, fixtures, equipment, and other assets at the 57 store locations; and Gordmans' intellectual property portfolio." It is my understanding that Stage reopened all 57 of those locations as well as, later on, at least a handful of additional "original" Gordmans stores that it had not acquired during the bankruptcy.
 |
| 2017 breakout of Stage-owned stores by nameplate, courtesy Chain Store Guide. The accompanying article ended, "Time will tell whether the acquisition was a key piece of a successful effort to turn Stage Stores around, or simply additional weight for a company already treading water." |
At this point, it's worth noting that Stage Stores did briefly engage in an off-price experiment prior to its Gordmans acquisition, although it was extremely short-lived. Launched in November 2011, "Steele's," as the banner was known, had 35 stores in seven states by the time of its disposition in March 2014. Surprisingly, the Steele's stores were actually sold as a going concern to a new retail unit of Hilco Global Retail Group, better known as a key player in the liquidator field; Hilco renamed the stores "Steele's & Deals," and in a much less surprising fate, the stores began liquidating again in October 2014, closing for good by the end of the following January.
 |
| This Miami, OK, Steele's store operated in the same shopping center as parent nameplate Stage. Courtesy The Miami News-Record |
Stage may not have had much success with its earlier off-price experiment, but the company appeared to have high hopes for its new Gordmans acquisition. Namely, Stage's goal wasn't just to operate the 57 stores it acquired and keep things status quo. Rather, Stage's ultimate plan was to begin converting some of its other, smaller stores into its new off-price Gordmans format, to try and boost performance at those existing locations. Sure enough, Stage Stores converted approximately 10 of its existing stores over to Gordmans in 2018, followed by nearly 100 conversions in 2019. To its welcome surprise, the company found that "those [converted] stores that had reached their one-year anniversary had double the sales volume compared to their department store days."
That news was all that Stage needed to be convinced that, in the words of its CEO, "our future is off-price." In September 2019, Stage announced plans to rapidly accelerate its conversion program, with the goal of switching the entire company -- some 700 stores -- to the Gordmans nameplate and format by the third quarter of fiscal 2020. Approximately 40 non-converting stores would be closed, and the company would be exiting the department store business after nearly a century.
 |
| Courtesy Athens Daily Review |
Industry experts seemed to have mixed responses to the move. On the more positive side of the spectrum, Retail Dive author Ben Unglesbee wrote, "Today the move to buy Gordmans appears as smart as ever, as Stage essentially bets the future of its business on the off-price banner. Looking at the retailer's numbers, it's not hard to see why. Its off-price and department store units are on different trajectories, with its department store sales falling 6% year over year in 2018 while off-price increased more than 31%. Those crossing trajectories describes much of the industry. The fortunes of department stores are deeply imperiled, while off-price sellers continue to make sales and market share gains."
Meanwhile, though, Warren Shoulberg, writing for Forbes, opined, "For Stage, it's a gutsy move to consolidate its hodgepodge collection of retail brands and formats and concentrate on what is arguably the only area of physical retailing to consistently be able to produce positive results in the online onslaught. ... Some industry observers have been skeptical of both the overall strategy and the ability of the company to execute it on such an ambitious schedule. ... And while focusing on off-price may be Stage's best chance of survival, it is by no means a sure thing."
Both authors make a point of equating Stage's off-price push to a bet on which the fate of the whole company rested. And unfortunately, the bet does not seem to have paid off. One year later, in September 2020, Stage Stores went out of business entirely, closing the doors of its final locations for the last time. What went wrong?
--------------------------------------------------
Stage promoted their Black Friday 2019 sales as "Our Last Black Friday Ever!" This was only a promotional gimmick given the Gordmans conversion plans discussed above, but little did they know, it would wind up being true.
 |
| Image source unknown |
2020 has been a mess, that's for sure. I will argue that the COVID-19 pandemic (and more directly, the associated economic shutdown) is what wholly and truly killed Stage Stores. But it's important to recognize that Stage was in trouble even before the year (pardon my French) went to shit.
As early as the publication date of that Forbes article I referenced -- January 29, 2020 -- reports began circulating that Stage Stores was late paying its vendors and, per the Wall Street Journal, was considering a possible bankruptcy filing as it looked to restructure its debt. The liquidity concerns originated from disappointing sales results during the 2019 holiday season; its Gordmans conversions had been performing so well that Stage raised its earnings expectations from an earlier estimate of 1-3% to a new figure as high as 9%, but the ultimate result was a mere 1.4%. In response to this, the company maintained that even despite the sales miss, it felt a return to profitability was indeed, and only, possible by moving forward with its plans to convert its entire portfolio to Gordmans. Retail Dive again noted "the company's logic is fairly straightforward," but also shared concern from analysts that "the Gordmans stores outperforming the department stores were 'on a relatively small scale and may not be indicative of results from a larger sample size.'"
Things got worse in February. At once, the internet lit up with posts and messages from Stage employees, sharing the worrisome news that the company had laid off "more than 20, and potentially dozens," of corporate staff members, with the merchandising allocation and buying departments especially hard-hit. This number later grew to "up to 100." Moreover, these sources reported that numerous stores had begun immediate liquidations.
At first, "the company communicated to employees ... that 60 Gordmans stores were closing." From my research, most of these were the large-format, "original" Gordmans stores that Stage had purchased out of Gordmans' bankruptcy in 2017; a sensible move, if an unfortunate one, given that these stores were so much larger than the typical square footage Stage was used to operating in. But then the reports escalated to as many as 200 store closures, including not only those 60 Gordmans stores but also up to 140 "department stores that were slated to be converted into Gordmans" in 2020. Now those conversions, it appeared, would no longer be happening.
As Retail Dive wrote, "In all, the retailer would be left with a footprint of about 500 stores, according to the sources. That is down from the company's previously announced plans to end the year with 700 Gordmans stores, after converting its remaining fleet to the banner. The company did not respond to a request for comment."
Compared to Stage's CEO's November 2019 comments that "There are many who doubted our ability to truly transition from our department store culture. Nevertheless, we are well on our way, and we will not be denied. ... We are rapidly becoming the best story in retail," this early 2020 news was looking a lot like a death knell, and employees as well as analysts grew concerned. Still, though, even though this news lent credence to those bankruptcy rumors, most onlookers didn't expect the company to fail entirely. I personally had been monitoring this news daily on my lunch break, and felt certain that had they filed, Stage would have been able to successfully reorganize and emerge. The webmaster of the Dead and Dying Retail Facebook page agreed, writing, "The last report I heard as far as financial numbers and such were pretty good. The growth and return of the Gordmans brand has been positive. They see the Goody's brand was dead and needed to be retired. ... If they file for bankruptcy, I expect them to emerge and keep operating."
Even Retail Dive wrote that "it's still not clear whether a filing will prove necessary to restructure the company's debt," citing an expert who claimed "store closures wouldn't necessarily portend a bankruptcy filing. 'It just means the plan they had put in place initially wasn't working out as planned.'"
But then, the pandemic happened.
--------------------------------------------------
Rather than converting all of its stores over to Gordmans at once, Stage had been executing its ambitious project on a rolling basis, dubbed "Gordmans Grand Opening Brand Bash" for 2020 (it had been the "Gordmans Grand Opening Tour" in 2019), with about 40-45 store openings scheduled for twice each month or so. Still, due to the uncertainty surrounding the company's stability, the February grand openings were put on pause, postponed until March. So, it's just incredibly unfortunate timing that, as soon as Stage was prepared to resume new store openings again, the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to stop once more.
 |
| March 2020 scheduled grand openings. Note the "postponed due to COVID-19" overlay. Courtesy Gordmans |
 |
| All other Stage-owned stores temporarily closed as well, and the February liquidations that had begun were put on hold. Courtesy The Daily News |
As with most retail that had been deemed "unessential," Stage Stores had been forced to temporarily "close all of its 738 stores and furlough its store workers and most of its corporate staff." But these store closures and existing liquidity constraints did nothing to help the company fulfill its late-payment obligations to vendors. In April, the company asked its vendors for concessions (a plea that fell largely on deaf ears), and entered into a forbearance agreement with its lenders that "significantly reduced its available borrowings." But the biggest blow came not from either of these two parties, but rather, from Stage's landlords. Like many retailers, Stage did not pay rent on its leases beginning in March, when the closures took effect. By mid-May, the company had amassed "some $31 million in overdue rent," and its landlords summarily "started locking it out of some locations with threats to evict the retailer and get rid of the inventory."
As you know, Stage had been struggling beforehand, and its chief restructuring officer, Elaine Crowley, shared that the company was looking at reducing its footprint even more drastically than the reduction of stores it had just announced in February. But ultimately, Crowley stated in court papers that COVID-19 was the "proverbial 'nail in the coffin,'" leading to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on May 11, 2020, with a dual plan to begin liquidating immediately, while also keeping open the possibility of a sale of the company or any of its locations or assets. Another expert similarly opined that "Stage likely filed for bankruptcy simply because it had to, as landlords kicked them out."
As stores began to reopen just days following the bankruptcy filing, some of the Gordmans-converted stores celebrated their grand openings on the very same day they began their going-out-of-business sales.
 |
| Courtesy The News Virginian |
--------------------------------------------------
Retail Dive, which as you can tell covered the Stage Stores saga in great detail, published a "Deep Dive" about a week after the bankruptcy filing, offering a better explanation of the situation and asking a pointed question. "Stage Stores filed for Chapter 11 with a forked plan: it will liquidate while also trying to sell itself. If a buyer emerges, the retailer will be saved. If not, it will disappear. ... As the retailer now looks to wind down, while also seeking out a possible buyer to salvage the company, its entire existence is on the line. And like many retailers before it in bankruptcy, Stage Stores faces some grim questions: Is the retailer worth saving? And who would want it?"
The author noted that 21 parties had indicated at least some interest in parts of the company -- not necessarily all for going-concern purposes, though -- but industry insiders expressed little hope for Stage's survival. One analyst said that, in this current time, "Most retailers are struggling to survive [themselves] ... I don't think any retailer is going to want to take on Gordmans in this kind of environment, even if they have a burning desire to get into off-price or they thought, 'Wow, these are great store locations,' neither of which is probably true." Another more bluntly stated, "I would be very surprised if there was a going concern bid for Stage Stores operations."
Sad as it may be, ultimately, these analysts were right. Without a buyer, Stage began conducting going-out-of-business sales at all 720 of its stores on July 16, 2020. (Sales had started immediately in May -- and others, remember, had actually begun as early as February, and were never completed -- but these were all simply called "store closing" prior to the GOB announcement in July.) In a last-minute gleam of hope, in mid-August it was reported that Houston "real estate developer Ali Choudhri sought more time to buy Stage Stores' business," but by then it was too little, too late; "Stage Stores attorneys said they were unable to close a deal," and the company received court approval to officially wind down its operations, shuttering its final locations in two phases, one on August 29 and the last on September 27, 2020.
Ben Unglesbee of Retail Dive sums up the company's rollercoaster ride in a few short sentences. "Some were skeptical about Stage Stores' plans to convert to Gordmans so quickly, given the small sample size of stores it based its plans on and its relatively small supply of capital to power the conversions with. The company was at risk of bankruptcy long before COVID-19 came along. Would the retailer have survived, though, in a market absent a pandemic? That question will have to remain a hypothetical, as the retailer winds down its business and prepares to turn off the lights."
--------------------------------------------------
After that extremely long introduction, we find ourselves in Senatobia, MS, for today's post. A few years after Stage Stores purchased the Goody's intellectual property out of bankruptcy, the company opened up a new Goody's store in Senatobia Plaza, with visibility from nearby I-55, circa fall 2013. I was aware of this location, but had never visited it, or any other Stage-owned nameplate, to my knowledge; my market was a little too big for Stage to operate in, prior to their assumption of my local Gordmans lease in 2017, anyway.
But in late 2019, having heard the exciting news that Stage was going to convert its entire portfolio to the Gordmans banner in 2020, I was eager upon learning that I would soon have another Gordmans store nearby to experience, this one a post-Stage location, to complement the existing pre-Stage location in Southaven, which to date remained the only Gordmans store in Mississippi. I made plans to write a before-and-after style blog post in the future, showing the Senatobia store both before and after its Gordmans conversion, and to that end visited the store for my first batch of pictures on December 12, 2019.
Sure enough, Mississippi did gain three new Gordmans stores during the 2020 Gordmans Brand Bash... but the Senatobia location was not one of them. Rather, the Senatobia Goody's was one of the stores that was sadly selected during Stage's February 2020 woes not to make the Gordmans conversion after all. Like so many other Stage-owned stores, that means this store underwent a "fake" store closing sale -- which you will see documented below -- before ultimately undergoing a real one. Consumers who don't know any better probably thought that this store spent an entire year in liquidation. But of course, as you and I are aware, the first "store closing" sale was simply a gimmick, designed to move merchandise prior to the Gordmans conversion, which would drastically increase the amount of home décor carried in the store and limit the existing apparel selection in the process. Sadly, though, none of this would come to fruition.
We'll begin with this daytime pic I took of the Senatobia Goody's in late June 2019, while visiting the closing Fred's store in the same shopping center. (We'll see that Fred's in a future post.) While Goody's was running a 40% off "mega sale," it was not yet slated for its faux "closing sale."
In December, I found a different story. The banners outside had been changed to read "store closing -- 50% off." I also could've sworn I saw from the interstate another banner at one point which advertised the upcoming Gordmans conversion, but that was nowhere to be found on my visit. No matter, though...
...as on the doors to the building themselves, we see the prominent purple message that Gordmans was on its way, opening in 2020. Speaking of the purple color, I fully intend to discuss Gordmans' branding style, which was fun and quirky, in a future post, which could very well be considered a "part two" to today's entry. But I think we've spent enough time covering Stage's background here that adding even more to that would be too much.
Entering the building, here's our first look at the interior of the Senatobia Goody's. As you'll see, there isn't a whole lot to speak of, visually... it's very neutral, with little in the way of décor or interesting features. Not to say that's a bad thing, but it is fairly boring. Gordmans, as I said, would've had a much more lively feel to it. But I do also want to emphasize that I didn't find Goody's dated; just a little bland.
That earlier shot looked at the front right corner of the building; the jut-out was home to women's fitting rooms, with women's apparel in the foreground. As we continue down the right-hand side of the store in the above two images, we find additional salesfloor space dedicated to apparel. You can also begin to get a sense for how small this store felt. I was unable to find a square footage figure, but I got the impression it was smaller than even Stage Stores' average size (which, you'll recall, wasn't that awful large to begin with). EDIT: This store was 12,430 square feet.
The mannequins you see were all for sale, in anticipation of the forthcoming Gordmans conversion. Unlike Goody's and the other Stage-owned department store nameplates, Gordmans did not use mannequins in its stores.
Moving over to the center of the store, and looking both backward and forward, we see the actionway lined with some not-totally-presentable stacks of luggage, boxes, and what appears to be a backroom apparel rack. We also see plenty of red and white "store closing" and "doorbuster" signs. The doorbusters were for the holiday sales; remember, these weren't real store closings, so Stage could still set the prices as they wished -- and did, for all the doorbusters. The rest of the merchandise was discounted at Stage's own whim, not that of a liquidator. (Hence also, the absence of any hanging "everything must go" signs.)
Back over in women's apparel, facing up towards the front of the building. Looks like girls' clothing was near this area also.
The back right corner of the store was home to some clearance merchandise, and also some of the only elements of "décor" in the whole building.
The back wall was dedicated solely (pun intended :P ) to shoes, which I hear is quite common in Stage-owned stores. As in, so common that even in the Southaven Gordmans they relocated shoes to the rear wall, displacing several other departments, upon taking over the store in 2017, in order to keep with their preferred layout. That's some dedication.
I liked the second shot both because of the bokeh effect (out-of-focus background) and because I captured that stage.com ad in the middle; with the company set (at the time) to convert all of its remaining stores to Gordmans, I wasn't sure how much longer the Stage name would be around. (I guess my concern ultimately wound up still being valid, but for much different reasons...)
Looking back over to women's clearance from shoes. Looks like there was a separate register specifically for the shoe department back here, but it was not in use at the time of my visit. With the store being as small as it is, I'm not sure why a separate register was even necessary, to be honest.
Some more views down the central actionway, up toward the front. Note that the holiday toy doorbusters likely were not carried year-round, so this store's ratio of merchandise typically would've been even more dominated by apparel.
Additional views of shoes. The leftmost side of the department gives way to the beginning of home goods, which includes bedding, kitchenware, and storage solutions.
I should mention that we actually purchased several pairs of shoes while we were here, including the pair of tennis shoes that I wear regularly to this day.
More in the way of home décor comes into view as we round the corner into the left-hand side of the building, including wall art, decorations, and of course, seasonal Christmas merchandise. The cashier we spoke with said that the Gordmans conversion -- which would be taking place around mid-January -- would involve dedicating approximately the entire left-side wall of the store to home merchandise as opposed to simply the tiny back left corner. There also would not be any painting, just a weeklong closure for the signage swap and remerchandising. She admitted to us that she felt this store was too small to become a Gordmans, which we agreed with. Still, I feel like it would've been neat to see the end result, had the conversion actually taken place...
In this particular shot you can see how the existing home department had an even smaller floor space than you may have thought at first glance -- note that the left-side wall comes inward a considerable amount for some unknown reason, constricting the amount of salesfloor space in this area. This can also be seen four pictures below this one.
As you've probably been able to tell, the store wasn't terribly busy at the time of my visit; most of that is likely attributable to the time of day, but I will also note that the home department seemed busiest. Perhaps that's a sign that the Gordmans conversion would've been successful, had it gotten a chance to occur.
Looking over to the center of the store again, then back up towards the front. Boys and baby occupy additional portions of the middle of the store, with menswear taking up the half of the left-side wall not dedicated to home goods.
Stepping inside the men's department for a couple of pics, before stepping back out into the actionway. In addition to the shoes I mentioned, I also bought a T-shirt here, which I tried on in the fitting rooms in the front left corner (visible in the images below). Besides some 2020 visits to Dillard's both before and during the pandemic, I'm pretty sure this was the last time I've been in a fitting room. And it's not out of my own desire to avoid fitting rooms, mind you (although I never was a fan, lol), but instead because so many stores refuse to open them back up to the public, which is undoubtedly costing them loads of business...
Three additional views of the men's department, as we inch ever closer to the front of the store. Note the focus on name brands here, such as Levi's, and nicely presented tables and clothing racks with a full selection of sizes for each style... that, of course, was all going to change with the Gordmans conversion, had it actually happened. Although Gordmans originally operated in much the same way -- with a full selection of sizes, more department-store-like displays, etc., as described in that 2013 Albuquerque Journal article referenced at the top of this post -- Stage Stores envisioned Gordmans as a true off-price retailer, and in so doing took steps to install the same "series of long racks" common to off-pricers that former Gordmans CEO Jeff Gordman so prided his stores on not having. The selection also became more like a treasure hunt, in that shoppers were no longer guaranteed a complete selection of sizes for each style. You can read more about Stage's changes to Gordmans here, if you're interested.
Also, on the subject of Jeff Gordman... it's worth noting that he, too, made a bid to buy his former chain out of bankruptcy in 2017, but he was outbid by Stage Stores. It's most certainly an intriguing "what if" scenario to imagine what could have taken place had he won the auction instead...
Despite the orange Nike sign in the background, I'm pretty sure this shot was taken from the left side of the store, looking over to the right (i.e., that Nike sign is not in the shoe department). Looks like this area was home to women's accessories and, beyond that, some other holiday doorbusters.
Before we head out, here's a look at the small register area front and center in the store. Some more rare décor bits and pieces can be found in this view, such as the "Customer Service" and "Online Pick Up" signage, as well as the custom "A Thirst For Fashion" refrigerated Coke case, which I found interesting.
Last but not least, as we exit the store, here's a shot of the "Gordmans opening 2020" signage on the doors again. I took this in excitement and anticipation of what was to come, but now it only serves as a sad reminder of what wound up never taking place :(
Above, you'll find one more exterior pic of the store -- by this time, nightfall had most definitely arrived, but I think my phone camera's "night sight" feature performed pretty well! -- as well as one of the shopping bags obtained from our purchase. I liked how it had all of Stage Stores' nameplates on there, including Gordmans.
Below is a much better pic of the store during its last 12 days, which I found on LoopNet. The space currently sits vacant.
 |
| Courtesy LoopNet |
I did not revisit the store during its true going-out-of-business sale, but later in 2020 I did travel to a Gordmans conversion that actually did go through. So, in lieu of being able to see this Senatobia Goody's post-Gordmans-conversion (sniff), in a future post we'll get to experience that other store, to see what these conversions were all about as well as (importantly) gain the ability to compare them to the "original" Gordmans, which of course you all are hopefully familiar with from the Southaven store album in my flickr photostream (linked earlier in this post). Not to mention, I also -- naturally -- got plenty of pictures of that Southaven store's going-out-of-business sale, too (its second in four years!), which I'll get around to posting to flickr sometime soon(ish).
I hope you'll stick around for all of that content! More immediately, however, our next post will return the topic at hand to Kroger, and will combine a contributor post, a "Lost Histories" post, and a "Beyond the Mid-South" post all in one. Definitely exciting, so please stay tuned for that one as well! Until then and as always, thanks for reading, and have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are :)
Retail Retell
It's interesting to see a post here on the Mid-South Retail Blog about a retailer which was based in Houston! Palais Royal had been in Houston for decades, but Bealls (the Stage one, not the other Bealls) operated out of Houston as well many years ago. Modern Palais Royal stores, as well as stores of their sister brands, were quite bland and nothing all that memorable. However, prior to about the 2000s or so, Palais Royal stores were designed like department stores such as a vintage JCPenney, Belk, or something like that. Those store designs were quite memorable and a bit upscale. Unfortunately, around the 2000s, our Palais Royals were downsized and made to look like a big box discount store rather than a department store. I did shop at the modern Palais Royal, but not with the same enthusiasm I had before.
ReplyDeleteHere's a photo on Reddit of a Palais Royal department as it would have looked in the older, better times before modernization: https://www.reddit.com/r/deadmalls/comments/bixjmy/palais_royal_greenspoint_mall_houston_tx_2019/
One thing about Palais Royal is that they were often one of the last holdouts at dying malls in the area. In fact, when the Mall of the Mainland closed, the Palais Royal remained open. When a local developer bought the dead Macy's anchor, and eventually the rest of the mall, Palais Royal moved into a sub-divided part of the ex-Macy's/Foley's. The result was that it was one of the nicest modern Palais Royals around. Unfortunately, photos are proving to be elusive so you'll just have to take my word for it, lol.
I never did make it to a Gordmans, but I did shop at Palais Royal last Christmas season when they were advertising that it was their last Christmas ever. They were more right about that than they thought! At that time, Palais Royal was using similar bags to the one you have in your post. I probably have some vintage Palais Royal bags from better times around the house, but I'm not sure where.
This great post from the South Belt Houston Memories blog shows an ad and image from the Almeda Mall Palais Royal when it opened in 1968. There are many great vintage retail photos on this post worth checking out. Check out how GNC and Spencer's looked back in the day! Almeda Mall is still around and Palais Royal was still there until maybe a year or two ago. Link: https://southbelthouston.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-50th-anniversary-of-almeda-mall.html
On the topic of fitting rooms, here's an image from a Houston thrift store which will probably not make you feel any better about fitting rooms, lol: https://goo.gl/maps/rRRnx71YcszW3mVB8
The "Yep, we're open!" and "Closing" signs on that Gordmans pretty much sums up everything regarding the Gordmans' transition!
A Lost Histories Kroger post? That should be interesting! I'm looking forward to that one. I'm wondering what that post might be about. It would be a real kick in the head if it's about the Dean Martin Kroger or that Kroger in Atlanta which supposedly has a disco mural, lol. Dean Martin Kroger Link: https://flic.kr/p/89DacK
I never had much involvement with Stage Stores prior to their purchase of Gordmans, but I was heavily involved in Gordmans' original bankruptcy liquidation, and then its strange reopening... I've never been able to figure out if my local Southaven store was one of those seven for which Stage purchased the right to assume additional leases, which is something I only found out while writing this post, but back at the time (in 2017) my best research turned up results that Southaven and two other Gordmans stores that had not been picked up by Stage, were suddenly set to reopen... at the expense of three other stores that *had* been purchased by Stage, which my research told me would now be closing, and not be rescued after all. Again, this information might be incorrect now that I have that other knowledge about the additional leases, but it was my understanding at the time that the stores Stage purchased to begin with were to immediately stop liquidating and remain open. Southaven, on the other hand, finished its sale, was closed for about three months, then reopened anew.
DeleteAll that to say, that very odd situation very much got me invested in following Stage Stores, haha! I was excited to see them find success by expanding the Gordmans brand, and also just to see the Gordmans brand revived in the first place. So it's very sad to me how all their dominoes toppled over this year. One comment I read elsewhere said something to the effect of "I'm not sure if all the Gordmans conversions would've been successful for Stage in the long run or not, but I at least would've liked to see them have a chance to succeed (or fail) on their own terms, rather than COVID-19 taking out the company." I wholeheartedly agree.
...Anyway, glad you liked the post! I figured you would enjoy seeing the Houston connection in there. Those older Palais Royal stores sound (and look, from that Reddit photo) like they were much more fun to be in than the more recent look Stage Stores gave them. Bland and unmemorable is a good way to describe it, but I guess it got the job done. To be honest I don't think the Gordmans conversions did all that much to the existing look besides add a new purple border all the way around the store, but even that went a long way to adding some pizazz.
That's sad to hear you never got to go to a Gordmans. Granted, most of them were very short-lived, in the places that didn't have Gordmans already. But I'd be especially interested to learn how well Gordmans was received by the people who weren't already familiar with them. I think the consensus now in people's minds will be that they were simply an extremely short-lived, failed attempt to liven up the existing Stage Stores, when in reality I think Stage actually made a very valiant effort with the brand. Oh well, I suppose.
DeleteI'm glad I got to visit a conversion that did actually go through, after learning this Senatobia one would not, even if I did have to travel about two hours to do that. Being familiar only with an "original" large-format Gordmans location, I wanted to see for myself what one of the true post-Stage locations looked and felt like. I thought it was pretty nice, personally. I'm not sure when I'll get that post published, but it will definitely include a discussion of the Gordmans branding as Stage envisioned it, which I didn't get to dive into in this post.
Those vintage Palais Royal bags you have sound cool, and all of those vintage mall images at that blog are super neat as well -- thanks for that link! Lots of fun stuff in there. And concerning that fitting rooms sign: yikes!!
Yep, sure does...
Ah, thanks! I'm sure the contributor is excited, too. He has been very patient since I've had his images in my inbox for a little while! I wanted to be sure and get this Stage post out while it was still timely, but yes, the next post will definitely be an interesting one I think. LOL about the Dean Martin Kroger! Nope, not that one, or any presently operational Kroger stores actually... (well, except one that I might be adding in there as a bonus, but it's only tangentially related to the true topic to be featured)
Part I:
DeleteLike AFB said below, I agree that the Gordmans concept was the best path forward for Stage. Closeout type clothing stores have shown some strength both before the pandemic and even here during it. I know that Ross has been in full expansion mode here the last few months with them opening several new stores and Burlington has opened a new store in this area as well. OTOH, the traditional Stage model just wasn't working. They were basically operating smaller Kohl's type stores with less selection and prices that, while not higher than the competition, they weren't lower either.
That type of business model certainly wasn't working in a big city like Houston. Stage's bread and butter was operating stores in small towns where the only major retailer is often just Walmart. That model may have worked better there, but even then I think the Gordmans model would have worked better.
All of this said, I'm not really a fan of the closeouts type clothing stores like Ross, Marshalls/TJX, and Burlington. About the only thing I've bought from them in recent years are ties, lol. I have stopped at Home Goods a few times and sometimes they have interesting stuff, but that's about it.
The one closeout store I did like was Stein Mart, but they are in the process of closing as well. I believe Stein Mart started in Mississippi, but moved to Florida at some point. They had a lot of stores here in Houston. I'm not sure how familiar you are with them, but they had nicer stores than the typical closeout clothing stores. In fact, their stores were nicer than the last generation of Palais Royal/Stage stores.
One of the local Stein Marts, the one I shopped at most frequently in the Champions Village shopping center anchored by the last Randall's in this part of town, was in a former Wilson's/Service Merchandise location. We bought a lot of great stuff from that Service Merchandise including a CD player from 1989 which I still have and use.
Shopping at that Stein Mart was about as close as I could get to reliving the great memories of waiting for purchases to come down the conveyor belt at Service Merchandise, lol.
In the same shopping center as that Stein Mart was a Palais Royal that was once a very nice and big department store-like Palais Royal that was downsized and simplified into their big box format of the 2000s. In the last year or so, a former golf store which was right next to Stein Mart (both spots are in the divided ex-Service Merchadise) was turned into a TJMaxx which moved from just down the street at the North Oaks Mall. The end result is that a Stein Mart, TJMaxx, and Palais Royal were all right next to one another and a Tuesday Morning was/is right nearby as well. Talk about a discount store overload! The Tuesday Morning might still be there, but they have their own problems. Aside from that, TJMaxx will be the only survivor there.
Here's some photos from the local newspaper of a Palais Royal converted into Gordmans in 2018 in the Houston suburb of Rosenberg. You might like to see how this conversion looked during slightly less desperate times for Stage. Gordmans was using mannequins here: https://www.chron.com/business/retail/article/Gordmans-to-open-two-new-stores-in-the-Houston-13259585.php
Part II:
DeleteThat South Belt Memories blog is a great repository of information about the Almeda Mall (which had a twin mall in the Houston area, the Northwest Mall). Those malls might not be of interest to you and your readers, but what is interesting is that the blogger was able to scan many Foley's internal documents from the 1960s discussing potential locations for the store, how to name the twin malls and what names were rejected and for what reasons, and even how the parking stalls were designed with women drivers in mind! Also, the photos show all the wide variety of departments a department store like Foley's had back in the day. These posts provide great historical retail insights that we rarely get to see:
https://southbelthouston.blogspot.com/2016/05/uh-foleys-archives-almeda-genoa.html
https://southbelthouston.blogspot.com/2016/09/foleys-fourths-would-be-fiftieth.html
Almeda Mall also donated their photo collection to the blogger and she scanned several color photos from the 1970s of the mall around last Christmas. They're in a few different posts so I can't link them all, but they're great to see.
I'm not sure if you saw the photos of the El Chico Mexican Restaurant menus from that South Belt Memories post I put in my reply yesterday. It appears that menu was from their Memphis location. It's nice to see a piece of Mid-South nostalgia on a Houston blog linked within a post about a Houston-based retailer on a Mid-South blog. Lol, I think my mind was just blown right there!
I'm looking forward to reading about these Krogers of the past. Kroger's current TV/Radio ad campaign is annoying me so I prefer to think of Krogers past right now, lol.
That's exactly what a lot of the articles in my research harped on, too -- that off-price is pretty much the only sector of retail that is hanging on with solid performance these days. Even so, however, success isn't guaranteed for all off-pricers, and some of those articles were suggesting Gordmans wouldn't be able to make it, despite the fact that those same articles also agreed that converting was the best path for Stage to go down. Seems like Stage was stuck between a rock and a hard place with all that. I agree with you, Stage certainly seems to work only in places with minimal competition, and even still Gordmans probably would have done better than Stage in those same areas.
DeleteI don't go shopping for clothes a lot these days, but I've gotten a lot of stuff at TJMaxx and Marshalls in the past. I'm not a huge fan of Burlington or Ross. HomeGoods is okay but I'm just not in their target demographic. I do like Tuesday Morning. Concerning that shopping center with the collection of off-pricers, it's sad but I guess simply a sign of the times that only TJMaxx will remain by the end of the year. Tuesday Morning is currently in bankruptcy but has announced plans to emerge, including the rare results of a 100% payout to creditors and zero dilution to shareholders. That was as of September 24th; since then, I believe they've put the company up for sale, as shareholders wanted to see if that would be better than it staying independent. But either way, I think their survival is more guaranteed than not at this point (which is a good thing!).
Yep, Stein Mart was founded in Greenville, MS, which is where my mom's side of the family is from. She has lots of memories of shopping at Stein Mart while growing up. Unfortunately, you're also correct that Stein Mart is currently going out of business. That's very sad news for Greenville where it's one of the few options remaining. Even though it's not in the original building, Stein Mart #1 is still operational there, until whenever the last day winds up being. I'm hearing that that will be as soon as the end of this month (October), which is a lot quicker than I thought the liquidation sales would end, and also means I won't be able to make it down there to document it like I wanted to, sadly.
We don't have any Stein Mart stores here in north Mississippi, and I've never been to any other locations besides the one in Greenville, despite the fact that there are a handful in Memphis. Perhaps they've changed, but my impression of Stein Mart was less that they are off-price and more of something similar to what Gordmans was in its past life, a so-called "discount department store" with a more complete selection of styles and sizes. I also don't remember the long racks of clothing at Stein Mart like most off-price retailers have, but again, it has been a while. That's interesting that you found them nicer to shop at as well; it could just be because the Greenville location was older, but I always found the beige walls and tiled floors to be a little dated-feeling (and I see this same décor in images of other Stein Marts across the country). Even though it was similarly bland, the Senatobia Goody's at least felt more modern and bright compared to my experiences in the Greenville Stein Mart, but that's just my personal opinion.
Interesting catch in that article with the mannequins. I believe I had actually seen that article a couple years ago, around the time it was published, as some of those images look familiar. Maybe Gordmans did intend to use mannequins, and the Senatobia store was simply getting rid of them because it was so small and needed the square footage for merchandise instead.
DeleteThanks for sharing those links; that's all very interesting stuff indeed! You're absolutely right, it's very fun being able to get that glimpse into those more obscure behind-the-scenes aspects of big retail decisions like the names of the malls and even the orientation of the parking spaces (lol). I personally like the 90 degree spaces better myself... what did the mall ultimately wind up going with?
Ha, I missed that about the El Chico, but that's a pretty fun coincidence indeed! I can't say I'd heard of them before, but I looked them up, and it appears El Chico is indeed still a chain, although their Memphis location closed at some point. A 2005 Memphis Business Journal article said they were looking at opening five (!) new locations in the Memphis area, including one at Carriage Crossing in Collierville, in addition to their original location at 3491 Poplar which opened in 1970. I'm not sure if anything ever came of that. The article also mentioned that the brand was (at least at the time) owned by the same people as The Spaghetti Warehouse. I don't think that's true anymore, but interesting nonetheless. I miss The Spaghetti Warehouse.
LOL... I can certainly understand that, but I must say, I've come to like the Krogis a lot more than I thought I would when I first heard of them :P
That's some good information about Tuesday Morning. I knew that they had entered bankruptcy and were closing some stores around the area, but I had not kept up with the news aside from that. Hopefully the Champions Village Tuesday Morning will survive. If nothing else, that shopping center doesn't need any more vacancies with Stein Mart and Palais Royal/Gordmans already closing.
DeleteIt's kind of funny that all those discount/closeout stores were clustered together in a shopping center whose other major tenants include Randall's, Barnes & Noble, and Kirkland's. None of those chains are known for low prices, lol. That area has a mix of very high income homes and low-income apartments so I suppose such an odd mix is perhaps not a surprise.
That's interesting that Stein Mart retained a store in Greenville even if it's not the original store. I just looked it up on Google Maps and it does like quite old. It's a shame that you won't be able to visit the place to document it because that would have been a nice piece of retail history to document and it also has family history for you. As an aside, the Greenville Kroger looks interesting with it still having a Bauhaus Pharmacy oval sign. We still have some of those lingering around in Houston, but not too many.
Outside of the store fixtures being more outdated looking than what's at our Stein Marts, I would say that the decor and flooring is similar to what we have at our Stein Marts. The decor package does look a bit 'early 2000s', but I think it's quite nice. The carpet, shiny porcelain (I guess) tile, and warm colors of the store look more like something one would see at a more upscale clothing store than what one would see at a discount store. Admittedly, the low ceiling and strip lights at the Greenville might give the store an unavoidable Kmart-like look.
Google hardly has any photos of the local Stein Mart in the old Service Merchandise, but I will post a link to another Houston area Stein Mart which looks similar. This Stein Mart seemed to sell furniture which I can't remember my local Stein Mart doing, but otherwise it's similar: https://goo.gl/maps/meuA1Mkjg4ZuJM8q6
It's possible Je and I discussed that link a couple of years ago in his blog comments. We discussed Gordmans a number of times. It's possible you saw that link there.
Almeda Mall ended up with angled parking spots. I agree with you that the 90 degree spots are better, IMO. I suppose 1960s marketing research would show that 1960s women with big permed hairdos would agree with us, lol. It's interesting how a lot of thought goes into something like parking angles when designing a shopping center.
That's some good research about El Chico. I looked at their website and they still have a few locations which are mostly in smaller cities in Texas. They do have a location in Knoxville, TN, and Melbourne, FL. Perhaps AFB should visit it for the sake of retail research, lol: https://www.elchico.com/locations/
We had Spaghetti Warehouses in Houston, but it seems we no longer do either. It looks like there is one in San Antonio and Tampa. Here again, it seems AFB gets the spoils, lol.
I agree, I'm happy to hear Tuesday Morning will more than likely survive. In the past several years they've really made an effort to improve their image and relocate their stores, which traditionally were no-frills and off the beaten path, to more visible, better-looking locations. My local store was one of those, and I think the stores they've closed in bankruptcy have been largely the ones that had yet to relocate. Which is a shame for those stores, of course, but probably best for the company in the long run, I suppose.
DeleteIt's already been eating at my mind, and now with your comments, I'm even more encouraged to try and find a way to squeeze in a visit there somehow. I'll see if I can work something out. I agree with you, it definitely is a subject I was eager to write a post on. I was under the impression all stores would be closing by the end of the fourth quarter, which would mean I'd have time to visit in December after the semester is over. But it turns out corporate's language of "by the fourth quarter" literally meant "before," in this case. That makes things much harder for me because I am in the thick of the semester right now, but I really would be disappointed to let Stein Mart go without documenting it. We'll see what happens...
Yep, Stein Mart is one of those chains that did a good job of making all of its stores look mostly uniform. I'll agree to the look being more upscale; maybe that's part of the disconnect for me, I don't know. There's no doubt the Greenville location is older, too, which likely doesn't help my impression, either. I believe it used to be a Fred P. Gattas store back in the day. Its neighbor, which you may have noticed has a certain formerly-spinning mug outside, has already been covered and will be the subject of a future post.
That's wild to see a Stein Mart selling furniture! I think the Greenville location has sold a few chairs and whatnot over the years, but I've never seen full beds there or anything. Crazy. I notice that that Stein Mart also has the typical home goods shelving like I've seen in Greenville. I've never been a fan of that style of shelving at any store, to be honest.
Oh, and concerning the Kroger, the Google Maps imagery is outdated. The façade was updated not terribly long ago. It now looks identical to the Columbus, MS, Kroger (both are former Delchamps -- this will be mentioned in that next post), and the old Bauhaus pharmacy sign is gone.
Aw, that's a shame about the parking. They should've listened to those 1960s women with the big permed hairdos (lol!)
It's a monumental task to ask someone to suffer through a great meal just for the sake of blogging about it, but if there's anybody who would be up for that, AFB just might be your guy :P Unfortunately, I doubt he'd have much luck with that Spaghetti Warehouse, though -- looks like it closed in 2016. Yet another instance of Google Maps refusing to accept updates for some reason, I suppose. Today only five locations remain, four in Texas and one in New York. The Memphis location closed a couple years back also. Luckily I was able to get one last meal there and photograph it extensively for my flickr page.
I wouldn't worry too much about the Greenville Stein Mart if you can't make it down there before the liquidation ends. It would be nice to document Stein Mart No. 1, and I think you should certainly do a blog post about that location and Stein Mart in general given their roots in Mississippi (though the MFR bloggers might have a Stein Mart post as well given their recent Florida ties), but there are probably sufficient photos of the Greenville Stein Mart on the Internet already that you could use for the post if you had to. I know that's not ideal, but presumably you do have some of your own photos of the outside of it when you took pictures of the Frostop.
DeleteSpeaking of the Frostop, wow! I'm glad that there's a post coming about that! That certainly looks like an interesting story. Also, does the Office Depot next to the Stein Mart in Greenville still have the mirrored facade like it did in 2016 when the last Google Streetview images were taken? I'm thinking it's pretty rare to find modern Office Depots which still have that. That might be worth documenting if you're in the area.
That's a shame about the Greenville Kroger getting a new facade. Unfortunately, Kroger seems to be trying to keep their stores fresher than fresh these days. Fresher than fresh...ugh! I only wish Kroger would explain what that even means, lol! Oh well, some of those Bauhaus signs have survived here in Houston so at least there's that.
You're right about the home goods shelving at Stein Mart. I'm not a fan of that either, but it is pretty common these days. One other thing which kind of annoyed me about Stein Mart is that it seemed that they always had a bunch of XXL, XXXL type size men's shirts, but very little in more typical sizes that I would wear like M and L. I suppose that's part of their discount/closeout experience, but at least they almost always had nice, colorful golf type shirts for sale. Their clothing always seemed aimed at the older demographics I would say, but that's fine with me because many other department stores are really lacking in men's clothing that would be acceptable to wear at work. On the positive side, Stein Mart usually had a good selection of nice men's belts at low prices.
After looking at that Houston area Stein Mart photos on Google again, I think those furniture photos are from the neighboring Bel Furniture store and not Stein Mart. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for people to upload photos to the wrong spots on Google.
Speaking of Google being wrong, that's unfortunate about the Spaghetti Warehouse. You're right, I was getting that information from Google. I should know better than to trust them!
I don't know if AFB will see these posts or not, but hopefully he's up for the challenge of having to visit the Melbourne El Chico and have a nice meal in order to make a blog post, lol. Although I remember El Chico from way back, I wonder if most people in Melbourne, including AFB, are aware of El Chico's long retail history. With that being the only remaining location in Florida, it's possible some people may think that's just a single family-run business or something. OTOH, I wouldn't be surprised if AFB knows about the history of the chain given his retail knowledge. Perhaps he can compare the current menu to the 1970 menu from the Memphis El Chico. That would be quite interesting! I'm guessing they don't have 15 cent sodas and 50 cent beers anymore, lol.
While I agree, I know I would deeply regret it if I didn't go. So, I'm trying to work something out... stay tuned. I do have a couple pics that I posted to flickr earlier this year, but the chain definitely deserves more. I also was researching some photos earlier this evening, and turns out there was a Fred's Dollar Store next to the original downtown Stein Mart. Go figure.
DeleteYes, the Frostop/Pasquale's will be a fun post! Not sure when I'll be getting to it though, lol. As for the Office Depot, I don't think it has been changed at all. My local Office Depot in Southaven has the same mirrored façade and I have an album of it on flickr. I have always and continue to prefer OfficeMax to Office Depot, even though they are the same company now.
I'm actually struggling to think of any remaining Bauhaus exterior signs here in the Mid-South. The Stateline store that had the Bauhaus interior décor for 30 years recently remodeled a second time and sadly removed its pill-shaped signs. Between that and Greenville, I'm hard-pressed to think of another off the top of my head, which is infinitely sad. There were some more in Covington, TN, but that store is closing this month. I'll have to check on that tomorrow if I remember. (Actually: think Cleveland, MS, still has some. Yay!)
Yeah, that would be annoying to me, too. And very valid points on the apparel skewing older, as well as all the golf shirts. Those are the two things I always noticed. However, that's not to say they didn't have some other stuff either, as incidentally today I was (unplanned) wearing a T-shirt I bought at Stein Mart years ago. Yesterday I believe I was also unintentionally wearing a shirt I bought at the Senatobia Goody's during that first visit in June. Funny how things work out like that sometimes, lol.
Ah, that makes more sense about the furniture now, haha! Yes, I agree, it's unfortunate when people upload photos to the wrong spots and also when Google doesn't remove closed locations. (I don't want the photos gone entirely, but I don't want the places to show up as "open," either!)
That's a good question; I'd never heard of them, but it's possible AFB has. A menu comparison would be interesting indeed! I'd have to agree on the prices, lol :P
That's great if you can make it down to Greenville to document the Stein Mart. I suppose a little inconvenience now is better than a lifetime of regret of not visiting it one last time, lol. Although Stein Mart has been around for a very long time, it seems like people really don't know much about their history. It would be great to document that and I'm sure documenting it requires discussion of Greenville.
DeleteI agree with you about OfficeMax. It seems like that is/was the office store of choice for most retail enthusiasts including myself. I'm not entirely sure why that is because there aren't big differences between what used to be the big 3, but maybe OfficeMax's history with Kmart has something to do with it. We used to shop at a chain called BizMart, which was purchased by OfficeMax in the early 1990s, so I have a pretty long history of shopping at OfficeMax and their predecessor. We still have stores branded as OfficeMax here in Houston, but there are many more Office Depots now than OfficeMax stores. Oddly enough, it seems like the majority of remaining Houston OfficeMax stores are in high income neighborhoods. I don't know if that's just a coincidence or what.
Office Depot also has a long history in Houston. One of the local stores here across from the North Oaks Mall must have opened in the late 1980s. It feels like it's been around since then. That store, like almost all the other Office Depots in this area AFAIK, have received new signage and any stores which had the mirror facade had the mirrors removed some years back. Thus, I'm quite surprised to hear that the Southaven and Greenville Office Depots still have the old signage and facades. Maybe different regions have different priorities about signage/facades? I don't know, but it's a real vintage flashback to see those Mississippi Office Depots.
Speaking of vintage flashbacks, I'm glad there is at least one Kroger in your area which has the Bauhaus pills. We have a few including a store which has the Bauhaus, but not the pill itself (it's a newer store which never would have had a Bauhaus interior). The Seabrook Greenhouse store here in the Houston area not only has the pills on the front of the store, but it also has one pill on the side of the store as well. It also still has the Kroger cube sign so it is an example, fortunately IMO, of a Kroger that is not quite fresher than fresh:
https://goo.gl/maps/SBn2raHa9fsbWyF37
The reason why I'm singling out the Seabrook store is because it's next to a shopping center which, at least in 2019, had both a Palais Royal and a Burkes Outlet. Now that is a confusing combo! It also has/had a Tuesday Morning as well.
That's interesting that your wardrobe unintentionally reflects points of interest on the blog, lol. I still wear shirts around the house which I got from Montgomery Ward, lol. I suppose that speaks well for the quality of their clothing though because that stuff is at least 20 years old! I've purchased quite a bit of clothing from Sears in recent years since they've practically been giving it away with their SYWR points/promotions and I'm sure that stuff will last longer than Sears will.
I drive by the Melbourne El Chico all the time, and I had no clue it was part of a chain - I always thought it was independent. Melbourne Square Mall (which that restaurant sits in front of) is home to two broken chain sit down restaurants then - the other being Shells, which is a seafood chain that I don't believe ever grew outside of Florida. I knew all about the history of Shells, but not El Chico, as I never thought to look into the place. I've never been to El Chico before, although my sister has. That's interesting to know it was a much larger chain at one point, and how it's the last location in all of Florida!
DeleteI actually do have a few "Dining With AFB and Friends" posts in my archives that I've yet to get to, with a few rare or broken chain type places I've come across in my travels (most of which are fast food oriented though, as those are, well, faster to document on the road than a full sit-down place!) I am intrigued by El Chico now, so I'll have to add that one to my list of restaurants to try eventually.
@ Anonymous from Houston -- Exactly, lol. There's actually a book out there on the history of Stein Mart, although it might not be easy to find (Amazon has it listed, but for about $25, which is probably around cover price I suppose but I expected it either to be much less or much more). I bet that would be a good read. I ought to see if I can get it from my library system.
DeleteI'm not sure what it is that makes OfficeMax more preferable either, but I'm glad to see at least I'm not the only one who thinks that, haha. For me personally, we always seemed to get better service at our local OfficeMax, plus the store itself was just nicer. But given that the two were so close together, one of them had to be closed when the merger was completed, and the Office Depot was larger (and company-owned, and better located) so it's clear why they chose that one to stay open. The Horn Lake OfficeMax closure was actually more or less my impetus to get into retail photography.
That's interesting about the remaining OfficeMax stores around you being in high-income areas. I would assume that's just a coincidence too, but who knows for certain. I have noticed (and AFB has also pointed out to me) a growing trend of OfficeMax stores being rebranded as Office Depots, so that might be something to watch out for, also. In Midtown Memphis they (last year) actually closed the Office Depot in favor of the OfficeMax; in this case the OfficeMax is likely the larger and better-located one. I'm worried they'll rebrand it to Office Depot at some point, though. Thankfully, I finally quit delaying (I'd had it on my to-do list for years!) and got it photographed a few weeks ago.
Concerning the mirrored façade Office Depots, I believe they're pretty rare/wiped out around here as well; it's just a coincidence that the two towns I mentioned still have them. Greenville is entirely understandable because the poor town has been deteriorating (in a number of senses, I suppose, but especially retail-wise). Southaven I have no clue why they haven't changed it yet, but I won't complain! Pretty sure the Columbus, MS, store kept the mirrored façade too, but it, too, closed last year.
I just did a quick run-through of my lists of both the Memphis metro and all Mississippi Kroger stores, and based on my recollection of which stores are greenhouses, I'm fairly certain that that Cleveland, MS, store is in fact the only one left anywhere close nearby to have the Bauhaus pill signs. That's really a shame, and also something I never really thought about... I didn't photograph them too well last time I was there, but if I ever stop by again, I probably should. Street view of the Dyersburg, TN, Kroger shows a lone Pharmacy Bauhaus pill sign there as well, but that store isn't on either of those lists I mentioned.
It's cool that the Bauhaus pill signs (including that one on the side) and the cube sign remain intact at that Seabrook Kroger! That may also be the first time I've seen a reversed-layout greenhouse store, too. Not only is the layout swapped (with produce on the left), but I also see floral in the middle of the store. Strange.
LOL at the Sears comment!
@ AFB -- It's fun to discover things are right under your nose like that! Pretty neat of Melbourne Square Mall to have double the broken chain fun, too. Looking forward to your future post on it should you eat there, as well as all the "Dining with AFB and Friends" entries!
Delete@ AFB - That's interesting that the Melbourne Square Mall has a couple of restaurants with an interesting history. I'm glad that you were able to answer the question about whether you were familiar with the history of El Chico. I can certainly see how a singular location like that might be thought of as just being an independent restaurant and not something with decades of retail history!
DeleteThe print date on that Memphis El Chico menu on the South Belt Memories blog is December 1970. That would be neat if you could visit the place around the 50th anniversary of that menu and compare the old menu to the current one and maybe even compare the prices!
As an aside for AFB or anyone else who might be interested, I just discovered some great photos of the closest Albertsons we had in Houston prior to Albertsons' arrival in Houston proper in the mid-1990s. They are some 1987 photos of the Lake Jackson Albertsons where the manager decided to turn the store into a wedding hall as a promotion, lol. There are some great photos of the decor of the store though and I think you and fellow Albertsons enthusiasts will really enjoy looking at the decor at St. Albertsons, lol. I posted a link to it in the recent Kmart post on My Florida Retail, but I think Blogger held the comment for your review since I put a lot of URLs in it.
@ Retail Retell - It's probably worth getting your hands on that book! Maybe you can get it through inter-library loan from your library or maybe your university library. I wonder if any libraries in your area, or maybe in Florida, might have special collections with Stein Mart history in it. I know that when Foley's turned into Macy's, a lot of Foley's historical documents were donated to the a university library here in Houston.
DeleteThat's interesting that an OfficeMax closure was what got you into retail photography. I thought it might have been a Bauhaus Kroger, but I guess not. I suppose it's easy to associate you with Kroger, eh? Lol.
The Office Depot near where I work was formerly an OfficeMax and still has some OfficeMax touches on the exterior of the store. However, I'm not sure if that was converted after the merger or before. I do know of an OfficeMax or two in this area which became Office Depots well before the merger.
Staples was a late entry into the Houston market. They entered this market in the mid-2000s and it's been a struggle for them to steal customers away from Office Depot/OfficeMax even though Staples probably does have slightly better prices and arguably better looking stores than the typical Office Depot. Staples has closed several locations here in Houston, but Office Depot's local store count has been pretty steady.
I'd probably document those mirrored facade Office Depots as much as you can since I think those are oddities here in 2020!
That's funny that Cleveland, MS has a slightly retro Kroger because Cleveland, TX has some retro grocery stores as well. Cleveland is in the outermost region of the Houston area and arguably is just outside it. Kroger isn't active there, but they have an HEB there which is in an old Safeway and, very oddly for HEB, they kept the building looking like an early 1980s Safeway. They also have a Brookshire Brothers grocery store which doesn't have a Bauhaus pill, but it does have a Pharmacy pill in the store with some added neon! It looks like a cross of the Eckerd logo and Kroger's pills. The decor of that store is very odd, it's a hodgepodge of things which would have been popular in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The store itself doesn't look all that old on the outside so they must have purposely have given it a retro look on the inside. I'm certainly not complaining about that! I think you'll find it to at least be mildly interesting: https://goo.gl/maps/oYfs7Xf2mKGfjLcb6
Before it closed in 2013 and was turned into an Academy sporting goods store, the Greenhouse Kroger in the Houston suburb of Spring (near the Old Town Spring shopping district which has lots of little businesses in 19th century buildings...the classical music CD shop is located there) had a reverse layout like that. I shopped at that Kroger a few times since it was by far one of the most retro Krogers we had in this area at the time. It also had the produce on the left and it was very strange. It felt like the Greenhouse stores I shopped at in the past, but not really. Like you, I'm used to Greenhouse Krogers having produce on the right side of the store. It's strange shopping at stores with an opposite orientation to what we're used to even if everything else is more or less the same.
An odd note about the former Spring Kroger is that it was located right next to the Splashtown water amusement park. In the 1980s, Splashtown was another amusement park, Hanna Barbara Land! Yep, it was an attempt to make a Disneyland type amusement park, but with Yogi Bear, the Flintstones, the Smurfs, and Scooby Doo instead of Mickey and the gang. The park was a pretty major flop, but yours truly did visit that real oddball during the short time it existed. You'd probably rather see the Kroger, but here's someone's Flickr album of Houston's Hanna Barbera Land instead, lol: https://www.flickr.com/photos/124651729@N04/albums/72157655702023793
Yes, I believe I would have to get it through interlibrary loan, if in fact my library system is even doing that right now. They still have not reopened the buildings for book browsing yet, and I thought they had also put ILL on hold for a while, too. Not sure about any libraries having special Stein Mart collections.
DeleteHaha! The Stateline Bauhaus Kroger was one of the very first places I took photos in (five total, to be exact), but the OfficeMax closure was the first time I really documented both the whole salesfloor and the closure process. All of this was before I joined flickr, and they are among the first images I posted once I did. Things grew from there. Believe it or not, even though we do shop there for some things, Kroger is not our regular shopping destination. We're Walmart people.
Funny, Staples was a (very) late entry here in the Mid-South as well. I have a post on that from a couple of years ago. They lasted barely two years in Memphis, with only two locations to their name. I'm sure a lot of people don't even realize they were here at all. However, their buildings are pretty intact and therefore recognizable from the exterior still.
Those Cleveland, TX, grocery stores sound interesting! Concerning the Brookshire Brothers store in particular, I totally agree with your assessment of the pharmacy signage. And I also agree about how disorienting it can be to shop in reversed stores sometimes. I've seen plenty of reversed Krogers, but that was my first reversed greenhouse Kroger. Guess it shouldn't surprise me, but it still did :P
Hanna Barbera Land looks like it would've been fun! Thanks for that link. That's a shame to hear it was a flop, the concept seems pretty solid. Definitely a more logical way to use Yogi's likeness than the Yogi Bear RV Parks that I see these days (including one near me).
If the book you're looking for is David J Ginzl's Stein Mart : an American story of roots, family, and building a greater dream, you might be able to check it out for free in eBook form from the Internet Archive or the Open Library (which are basically the same thing I think). WorldCat has links to them below so you might want to check that out: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1151336269
DeleteI know you've said before that you shop more frequently at Walmart than Kroger. I suppose I believe you when you say that, but it's hard not to associate you with Kroger, lol. It would be hard to not associate AFB with Albertsons or Random Retail with Kmart. That said, wasn't Random Retail's original username on Flickr 'Walmart3' way back when (before your time on Flickr perhaps)?
I suppose if people read the comments on Je's blog, they might assume that I'm an unwavering Sears fan. However, when Montgomery Ward was around, I had a clear preference for Wards. I shopped at both, of course, but preferred Wards especially in the latter years. Unlike a lot of dying retailers, and Sears certainly comes to mine here, Wards did not present a mediocre shopping experience in their last years. In fact, my local store was renovated just a year or two before they closed and their inventory was still good until the end. It was quite different than what we're seeing at Sears. I know you're probably too young to have experienced Wards, and I don't know if they were even in your area, but I quite liked them.
I didn't realize that you had a post about Staples. I just browsed it quickly and will read it in full when I get a chance. I can't say I'm surprised that they failed in the Mid-South given what has happened here in Houston. Staples is still around here. In fact, the local location is still around, but the next closest one in the North Oaks Mall shopping center closed a few years ago (the Office Depot I mentioned earlier that has been around since the late 1980s is across the street and is still open) along with some other closures. Je has photos of what the Staples looked like in his North Oaks Mall posts (it's nothing special really), but here's a photo of what the Target looked like that was turned into the Staples. There aren't too many photos of mid-1970s Targets out there that I know of, but here is one that was taken shortly before the Target closed/moved in around 2006: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QjXQY9fpddo/UcXNN84bmZI/AAAAAAABRRc/WgK3Ez-OgyY/s1600/North+Oaks+Shopping+Center,+houston+tx.jpg
Hanna Barbera Land suffered from two things really. First, it was in competition with another now-defunct amusement park in Houston, Astroworld. Also, at the time it opened, the Houston economy was in a real funk due to national happenings and also sharp declines in the oil industry. Houston's usually seen as having a booming economy, but that was not the case in the 1980s and that led to some local retail failures. Oddly enough, the grocery chain which thrived in Houston in the 1980s was one of the most expensive ones, Randall's. When the economy started to rebound, Randall's fate started to slip. Go figure!
Yep, that's exactly it -- thanks for that link! I'll look into that. At first glance it seems like those sites might only grant access for one-hour intervals, so I'll have to figure out a way to get it for longer since I can't read it all that quickly, lol.
DeleteHa, fair enough! Poor AFB hasn't had an open Albertsons near him in a long time. And yep, Random Retail's username (also visible in his URL still) was originally Walmart3, but that was indeed before my time on flickr.
Yeah, I never got to experience Wards, and I don't believe they were ever in Memphis. It's nice to hear you have such good memories of them, though, and also that they stayed classy even into their last years, unlike poor Sears. (Although, it might be incorrect to say Sears is in its last years, as they'll probably outlast us all with the way they keep surviving somehow!)
That pre-Staples Target photo is pretty cool! That looks kinda like the Colonial Rd. Target in Memphis used to look -- it opened in 1980 -- but that store has been renovated quite a bit over the years, both inside and out, because it's such a high performer, so it doesn't look anything like that anymore.
Ah, that makes sense then. Still, too bad for Hanna Barbera Land, though. That's pretty ironic about Randall's, too!
I'm not exactly sure how those websites work. It seems that some books can be checked out for 14 days, but others for just 1 hour at a time. The Stein Mart book appears to be the latter, but the FAQs say you can renew it as long as nobody else has a request to check out the book. I don't know how seamless the renewal process is, but I can't demand there would be high demand for the Stein Mart book so maybe you can just keep renewing it until you're done reading it.
DeleteOTOH, reading an eBook isn't much fun compared to a real book. That said, it looks like the Internet Archive/Open Library does have some retail books available and some might be available for 14 days. That could make for some interesting reading down the road.
Poor Random Retail may soon not have any more Kmarts in his region to cover if that is not the case already. He might have to revert to the Walmart3 name if that's all that's left, but RR seems to be finding a lot of interesting things to cover.
As for Sears surviving much into the future, well, who would have guessed just a few years ago that Sears would have made it into the 2020s? Lol. I really can't imagine them lasting too much longer with their terrible inventory problems. Je recently shared some pictures of the lone remaining Houston area Sears, the one at the almost dead Macroplaza Mall/Plaza Paseo Mall/Pasadena Town Square (you know it's never a good sign when a mall has that many former names, lol). Whole sections of the store are practically empty and what inventory they did have seemed unlikely to sell very quickly. They were even trying to sell a snow thrower! A snow thrower in SE Texas! I'm sure selling snow throwers in Mississippi wouldn't make any more sense, lol. I don't know why they sent that to sell here and not somewhere up north.
I know what you mean about Target renovating their stores so much that they don't show their age at all. The North Oaks Target had a sister location on the other side of town, the Westchase Target. That Target has survived, but they remodeled it so much that it looks like 2000s Target on the outside. On the inside, it looks new as well, but I can tell a couple of features that show that it's an older Target (the lights and the amount of columns in the store). These are minuscule aspects of the store and would probably not be noticed by anyone who didn't have personal experience with 1970s Targets.
Houston was one of Target's first expansion areas out of the upper Midwest. I don't know if you caught NW Retail and I having this conversation on his blog last week, but I have a collection of vintage photo developing envelopes from my personal photos and those of my family from many different retailers dating back to the late 1960s/early 1970s. NW Retail was encouraging me to scan those and put them online. It is my intention to do that, but that'll take some time.
Anyway, I did go through some of those envelopes and I found some Target ones from the very early 1970s (around 1973). These were from the Memorial City area Target which opened in around 1970-71 I think and had a 'Target Foods' kind of like early Kmart Foods and also an auto center. The store relocated in the late 2000s to the Memorial City Mall itself on the old Montgomery Ward anchor spot. The envelope reminded me that the Target was Target No. 10 so it likely was the tenth Target ever.
I recently found a photo of that old Target before it closed. It's on the Levcor website. Levcor redeveloped that shopping center after Target left. The Marshalls you see in the photo became the main anchor in the redevelopment, but it looks completely different now (the old Marshalls was the old Target Foods I think). There is an OfficeMax still in that shopping center and you'll see that as well. Scroll down to the bottom of this site to see the photos: https://levcor.com/projects/hedwig-village
I bet you're right about the demand, lol. I'll look into it. I won't be reading it anytime soon regardless, because I'd rather have the free time to do it. I do agree on the preference for physical books.
DeleteThat's true about the Kmart situation near Random Retail! You're right though, he seems to find lots of other great content still, but I'm sure he misses Kmart.
LOL at the Sears snow thrower! No, that wouldn't sell well here either, but I have seen some similar snow-related stuff around here at certain points anyway.
I think I did see that conversation on one of his posts. Those photo envelopes sound neat and I look forward to seeing them once you are able to share them. I did see on the list of Target stores that Houston was one of the earliest markets, but I had no clue about Target Foods ever being a thing! That's pretty interesting. Those photos at that link are awesome as well.
Those early 1970s Target stores we had in Houston were very big stores with the grocery store, auto center, and all of that. In fact, one of those early Houston ones, the I-610 South Loop store kind of near the former Gulfgate Mall, was eventually turned into the second Houston Auchan Hypermarket store. That Auchan was not as big as the other Auchan in town, the original one that Auchan built themselves, but it was still quite large.
DeleteI posted a link to this in a comment on Je's blog some months back so maybe you've seen this already, but there are some excellent, must-see photos of an early Target in Duluth, Minnesota, on a Web 1.0 website. The photos are from 1982 and our early Targets had a lot of similarities to the inside of the store (the outside of our stores were quite different, however, and looked like the Memorial City area store I linked to in the earlier reply). Link: http://superseventies.tripod.com/70s/id38.html
You can see how the grocery department was somewhat separated from the rest of the store. This was somewhat similar to how Kmart Foods did things since technically the grocery department was operated by an independent grocer in association with Target/Kmart. Also, at least in Texas, there were 'blue laws' in place until some point in the 1980s which prohibited the sale of many items on Sunday. Being able to separate the grocery store from the rest of the store was beneficial in that regard.
Check out those Target Auto Center prices, lol! But, yeah, in many ways, Target has changed, but in many ways you can see the same ideas/designs that Target uses now in that ancient store.
JCPenney also had grocery departments at some of their stores including mall stores. Je of the Louisiana & Texas Retail blog did a great post about the Amigoland Mall in Brownsville, TX just feet away from the Mexican border. I know Je considers that post/mall to be one of his favorite subjects he's ever covered and I can certainly see why. That location had a JCPenney grocery store when it opened in the 1970s.
I found a lawsuit from that location in the 1970s which involved the grocery department. Someone allegedly threw a banana peel on the floor of the main part of the store that a shopper slipped on and suffered injuries after he finished purchasing a fishing rod at the store (talk about something improbable at a modern JCP!). There were questions about JCPenney's liability and whether the banana peel came from the grocery department. I discussed it at some length in the comments of that post. Given some of these potential liabilities, it's a miracle that we got superstores at all, but obviously JCPenney did not stay involved in the grocery business for too much longer after that. I'm sure they stopped selling groceries for more reasons than just that banana peel though. The whole situation sounds like something from a video game, lol. Link: https://southernretail.blogspot.com/2020/05/amigoland-mall-brownsville-texas-march.html
I think I remember you telling me about that Auchan setting up shop in a former Target. The store definitely sounds big enough! Very neat vintage photos at that link as well. Awesome stuff. That also reminds me, I meant to say (in response to your previous link) that seeing the (still-current) Target logo with the white circle in-between the two rings of the bullseye just feels wrong, lol!
DeleteYep, we had blue laws around here, too. I was also aware that Kmart Foods was operated separately from Kmart, as were some of the early supermarket setups like I discussed earlier this summer, but can't say I remember hearing about JCPenney having a grocery store attached at one point! Such a situation as you describe definitely brings up interesting questions about liability; glad everything was (presumably) worked out with that case, though. And lol, you're absolutely right about that situation being totally improbable all around at a modern-day JCP!
Wow, I just came across some Google images of one of the most retro supermarkets I've seen in a while...and it's a Kroger! I was looking at the Kroger in the small East Texas town of Henderson and I came across what looked like a Safeway from the 1970s or very early 1980s (probably 1970s). I can't say for sure that this was a Safeway, but the Food & Drugs signs look very much like what Safeway used at the time and there is also the 'S' medallion on the right side of the store which looks like what Safeway used. You can see that Kroger repurposed that medallion with their own logo.
DeleteStreetview image: https://goo.gl/maps/JDajKwSqg9URwTNz7
The retroness continues on the inside. Check out the third image in the Google list of images (the first non-generic Kroger one). You see the produce section, but look at the back. Wow, look at that bread area with the wooden roofing shingles! That's very 1970s/1980s!
You'll also see pretty retro mirrored columns throughout the store in the photos and huge windows for what I assume are the upstairs offices. Towards the end of the list, you'll see a child with a pumpkin on her cheek near the pharmacy. Look at that brick wall behind that department though! That's quite retro.
What's quite odd is that this store has a cube sign in the parking lot. It must have become a Kroger in the 1980s. That means Kroger has been keeping those Safeway aspects of the store for a long time!
As it relates to the topic of this post, check out the Stage store in the neighboring shopping center to the Kroger. I've seen this before at least once, but the store has a separate shoe store next to the regular store. It reminds me of the former Kmart in LA which had a standalone shoe entrance.
Also, check out the Burger King in Henderson. It feels like the 1980s/early 1990s in there too! Link: https://goo.gl/maps/WAiJLSEUU3wR5mfq7
On an unrelated note, but still about retro things, I remembered an old movie that I forgot about called Career Opportunities. It's about a Target janitor and most of the movie was filmed inside a Target in Atlanta (a former Richway location) in 1989 (the movie came out in 1991). It's a terrible movie, but there are a ton of great footage from inside the Target. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the movie, but here's a trailer for it: https://youtu.be/wUtL18DbFyo
First, I see you posted this comment on Thursday... apologies for not getting around to it until today!
DeleteSecond -- wow, is that an amazing Kroger!! Thanks so much for sharing that. It's awesome to see all those Safeway remnants at that store, both inside and out. I'm pretty sure it was definitely a Safeway, as that spot where the "circle S" would have been seals the deal. I agree that the "FOODS" and "DRUGS" signs are leftover from Safeway, too.
I'm not familiar with Safeway interiors from that era, of course, but all those elements you point out absolutely seem retro and have likely gone untouched since the Safeway days. How neat! Cool that Kroger has preserved that stuff, even if it is likely just unintentional. That would certainly be a cool store to have more photographs of if anyone is ever out in east Texas!
Good catch on the Stage store with the separate shoe store entrance. I like the white-outlined letters on the main store signage there. That Burger King looks like a fun, outdated explore, too.
Finally, yep, while I've never seen it I've definitely heard of that movie -- lots of retail fans have posted about the old Target décor that can be seen throughout the film, haha!
This quote in your response to Anonymous from Houston is my thoughts on Gordmans exactly: "I'm not sure if all the Gordmans conversions would've been successful for Stage in the long run or not, but I at least would've liked to see them have a chance to succeed (or fail) on their own terms, rather than COVID-19 taking out the company." While the concept and decision to convert all of Stage's stores to Gordman's was a huge risk, it idea had a lot of merit. Even if the months leading up to the pandemic were a bit shaky for Stage, potentially the higher sales from all the newly converted stores could have solved those problems about paying vendors and such. While a lot of the companies going bankrupt or out of business right now were a long time coming, I really don't think Stage deserved to go out like it did. The company could have proven itself, but we'll never know if that could have happened :(
ReplyDeleteStill, at least you were able to document the conversions and the liquidation (again). I've never lived near a Stage-owned store or a Gordman's, so it's interesting seeing all of these different concepts from elsewhere in the country. I've yet to see anything about this, but I'm really curious if Bealls Florida would by the rights to the Bealls name from Stage at auction, so Bealls can finally use their name anywhere in the US if they wanted to for their outlet stores (which is the only arm of the company that operates outside of Florida).
Yep, it's definitely a shame that we'll never know how this would've played out without throwing the pandemic and its disastrous effects on the company into the mix. I agree with you, Stage doesn't fit in the same bucket as several other companies that have gone out of business this year. Maybe they would have done so eventually had things gone south for them, but I personally feel like things looked more promising than not with the conversions. Very sad indeed :(
DeleteTrue, always good to get some coverage out of a situation! I had put off re-photographing the Southaven Gordmans, so I guess this gave me the push to do that, for better or for worse :P And that's a great question! I would have to think that Bealls Florida would be interested in that, but I haven't seen any news to that effect, either. I did see at least one news article where Burkes Outlet is taking over a former Goody's, though, so if they don't wind up getting the Bealls name, at least it sounds like they might get several new locations out of Stage's demise...!
At least you were able to get some good documentation of Gordman's, even if it was the company's demise to finally give you the spark to do so (however, I'm just as guilty for doing things like that myself). Burkes Outlet is a good fit for many of the ex-Goody's/Stage stores, as those stores ran about the size. New Bealls Outlet stores are popping up everywhere in Florida, so I guess the same must be holding true for the Burkes Outlet side of the company too. Regardless, it's nice that some of these stores will live on as a department/off-price store of some kind. Even if Bealls Florida did get the rights to the name, I wonder if they would bother converting all the Burkes Outlet stores to the parent name, or if Burkes Outlet has become too ingrained in the areas where those stores operate. It's interesting to think about, as I'd think Bealls Florida would finally like to be able to use their name anywhere they wanted after all this time!
DeleteI agree! And yep, I wouldn't doubt if a lot of Burkes Outlet stores have been and keep opening up, too. That's a good question also about whether or not they'd keep the Burkes name, even if the company does get the Bealls name all to themselves. I'd have to concur that I guess it all depends on how well-known the Burkes name is in its operating areas. If nothing else, perhaps if Bealls Florida was willing to expand in the areas where Stage Stores used the Bealls name (and assuming there aren't already Burkes Outlet stores in those places), they could use the Bealls name there due to the name recognition (even if it's from an entirely different company!)
DeleteUPDATE: Guess what was just announced... https://www.retaildive.com/news/another-bealls-buys-stage-stores-ip-and-other-assets-for-7m/587465/
DeleteAnother great post. My history with the Stage family of stores goes back to the late 90s when it entered my hometown market of West Point, MS. It was the first "department store-esque" retailer to open locally since Walmart came to town in the mid 70s and proceeded to run the small "Main Street" format of Sears, JC Penney and a couple of hometown department stores all out of business.
ReplyDeleteStage lasted there for 18 months before it closed the store. (West Point is cursed by being only 20 miles from both Columbus and Starkville, which are much stronger markets for retail and restaurants.
Later, as I living in Kosciusko, MS, Peebles announced a store there in the early 2000s. It was close to opening as I took a job in Kentucky and departed. Strange that the company was even at this point a little flaky about is multiple identities in close markets.
The Kosciusko store, of course, was later rebranded as Goody's, which had a much more familiar brand in the area than either State or Peebles.
Finally, I read that the store was supposed to survive as Gordman's in that rebrand, but you know the rest.
I am disappointed about Stein Mart. It had a strong presence here in the Jackson market, including -- in addition to a long running store on I-55 -- a location in my current home of Madison that was about 10 years old. There was also a location in Flowood. I shopped there routinely; it was my preferred retailer for dress shirts, slacks, and "work clothes."
Look forward to reading more -- especially Pasquales! (I would love a roast beef sandwich right about now!). My father owned the Pasquales franchise in West Point in the 70s, and I remember it fondly. Unfortunately -- for whatever reason -- we don't apparently have any photos of it, and daddy was a prolific photographer.
Good stuff!
Thanks for the compliments, as well as all the information you provide in your comment! That's a shame Stage lasted for such a short period in West Point. It doesn't seem like West Point can keep much for itself with Columbus and Starkville so close by.
DeleteI agree, that's strange that the company went with Peebles in Kosciusko not long after they had already gone with Stage in West Point. The Goody's rebranding was surely a great move for all of the stores in that brand's trade area, and helped to unify everything under one banner.
Pretty sure New Albany had a Peebles-turned-Goody's as well. That one didn't make the Gordmans rebrand, but you're right, Kosciusko was one of the three that did. The grand opening for those stores was set for March 17th. I have been extremely curious as to whether the stores that were set for March or April grand openings actually had signage and merchandise swaps in full as they were supposed to, or maybe they were some weird hybrid mix for their final months. Unfortunately, that's something I'll likely never know the answer to.
Yeah, Stein Mart's disappearance is a sad one indeed. That one in Madison looked awesome from the outside (as does everything in that shopping center, though). My mom remembers the one on 55. Speaking of that location, I believe last time we discussed the BAM nearby, it was still closing. As you likely have learned, thankfully that decision was reversed.
I'm excited for the Stein Mart post, but don't know right now when I'll be able to get to it. Next semester will be primarily lighter posts for me. Maybe in the summer. Don't know if I'll get to Pasquales before then either, but I'm excited for that one, too! That's really cool about your connection to Pasquales! I was trying to be super-authentic based on what I found concerning the chain, so I had the stromboli steak sandwich. It was good, but the roast beef looked really good as well!