Bluelight News Flash: Another Massive Closure List (Updated)

Once again another massive list for closures for Sears and Kmart has been announced. Some of these stores I had actually planned on possibly visiting in the future.1 Some of these stores I had no intention on visiting, but I may change my plans to check them out.

Although my local stores are safe, I'm very saddened to wake up to this news this morning.

Here's a full list:

Kmart:                                                                                    Sears:
Birmingham, AL                                                                       Montgomery, AL
Decatur, AL                                                                             Oxford, AL
Homewood, AL                                                                       Little Rock, AR
Mobile, AL                                                                              Pine Bluff, AR
Nogales, AZ                                                                            Jacksonville, FL   
Lodi, CA                                                                                 Des Moines, IA (Southside Mall)
Dinuba, CA                                                                             Bloomington, IL
Tulare, CA                                                                              Chicago, IL (Lawrence Ave) 3
Wasco, CA                                                                              Houma, LA
Brighton, CO                                                                          Midland, MI
Fort Collins, CO                                                                     Irondequoit, NY
Putnam, CT                                                                            Plattsburgh, NY
Jacksonville, FL (San Jose Blvd)                                           Rotterdam, NY
Neptune Beach, FL                                                                 Marion, OH
Perry, FL                                                                                 Sandusky, OH
Rome, GA                                                                               Stuebenville, OH
Chicago, IL (Pulaski Rd)                                                        Butler, PA
Deactur, IL                                                                              Monaca, PA 
Danville, IL                                                                             New Castle, PA  
Galesburg, IL                                                                          Scranton, PA
Lansing, IL                                                                             Wausau, WI
Pekin, IL 1
Rock Island, IL
Bloomington, IN (East Third St)
New Albany, IN
Hutchinson, KS
Elizabethtown, KY
Louisville, KY (Taylorsville Rd)
Louisville, KY (Poplar Level)
Maysville, KY
Paintsville, KY
Booiser City, LA
Pineville, LA
Fall River, MA
Tewksbury, MA
Presque Isle, ME
Farmington Hills, MI
Houghton Lake, MI
Taylor, MI 2
Bridgeton, MO
Springfield, MO
Billings, MT
Bevard, NC
Gastonia, NC
Lumberton, NC
Pineville, NC
Rocky Mount, NC
Hastings, NE
Artesia, NM
Poughkeepsie, NY (South Road)
Rochester, NY (Greece)
Ashtabula, OH 2
Eaton, OH
Englewood, OH
Fremont, OH
Lancaster, OH
Lima, OH
Lorain, OH 2
Springboro, OH
Beaver Falls, PA
Pittsburgh, PA (Braddock Ave)
Pittsburgh, PA (McIntyre Square)
Philadelphia, PA (Frankford)
Reading, PA (5th St)
Uniontown, PA
Quakertown, PA
Camden, SC
North Augusta, SC
Orangeburg, SC
Huron, SD
Yankton, SD
Athens, TN
Bristol, TN
Knoxville, TN (Broadway)
Maryville, TN
Sweetwater, TN
El Paso, TX (Montwood)
Mission, TX
Sweetwater, TX
Draper, UT
Price, UT
West Jordan, UT
Chester, VA      
Christansburg, VA              
Hartford, WI
Bluefield, WV

Footnotes:
1. Final Green & Grey prototype store.
2. Supercenter location.
3. This is, soon to be was, the oldest operating Sears store in the chain. This store's auto center, which      is separate from the store, will still continue to operate despite the store closing.

Giving Aid to a Former Eckerd

Continuing on our with our Rite Aid decor posts, this post features a former Eckerd location. From my experience, it would appear that Rite Aid kept the Eckerd decor at these locations unless of course they've remodeled....

I'm going to have to get used to a roundabout being at this intersection soon enough....

Drive-thru sign from Eckerd

Entryway

Moving into the store itself:

Checkout Area

Ironically you also have to ask for the stop smoking supplies which are right next to the cigarettes....

Previously this would of been a giant counter for photo services which took up the entire corner here. The overhead circle sign is 1 of possibly 3 signs that are new which Rite Aid installed.

Batteries are located under the reading center. Apparently books and magazines used to have twice the amount of space as they do now.

Left side of store.

Center actionway. Notice the mini drop ceiling in the back.

Peeking Home Care sign

Greeting Cards in the center of the store.

Restrooms

Pharmacy. This is the possible third sign that Rite Aid put up.

2 Cosmetics signs from different eras.

Eckerd stripes remain

Only a few decor packages remain....

A Classy & Fancy McDonald's

It's a shame that all McDonald's does these days is build boxy eyebrow locations. I wouldn't complain so much if they at least tweaked the design from location to location, but you pretty much except everything to be the same at these styles whether you are on the California coast or in the middle of Kansas. Fortunately, I was able to track another non 'eyebrow' location that is VERY unique in the town of Lewisburg. Not to mention the fact this location also has a playground in the tower guarded by the dragon. 1

Road sign along US 15. Notice that the specials sign is actually unconnected to the McDonald's sign.

There's even a dragon on the roof of the playground! 1

Double lane drive-thru that customers must walk through.

The skylight is for a special interior feature which is seen below:

A close up of the 'tower' playground with its guard.

Green arches Entrance.

Let's move into the interior:

Wide open entryway.

Looks like someone else is fascinated by the interior as well.

Fancy tile in addition to the classic McDonalds tile!

Fake book covers used as decoration.

Ronald's playplace....

....even has a separate restroom within it.

Footnotes:
1. The dragon on the roof is here due to the fact that at the time these pictures were taken, McDonald's was offering happy meal toys for one of the How to Train A Dragon movies.

Kmart #7187

For the month of April we dive into one of Erie's three Kmart stores, this one being the newest of them.1 But don't let that title fool you, this location opened in the late '70s when Kmart took over a good number of former Grant City locations. This store still has that dated feel, but it does make it unique compared to Erie's other two stores which were both built as Kmart in the 1960s. Being a former Grants, I would imagine this location would of had a restaurant, but there is little evidence suggesting this is the case other than a mysterious exterior door.2

Erie, PA Kmart located on East Grandview Blvd.

Former PENSKE auto services

Kmart did still install these vintage garden signs at former Grants locations as you can see.

Here's a look at the store's map before we move inside for an interior look.

Notice some missing roof tiles in the upper right of this picture.

Taking a peek back at the girls dept, entrance and checkout area.

Restrooms on a blank wall. Possible there was once a restaurant here in the Grant City days.

Scrubology leases space as store within a store at this Kmart. Another Sears Holdings thing to try to get more value from their stores.

Back Actionway

New sign blocking old signs. 

Furniture

For some reason this portion of the store gets florescent lights where the rest of the store, other than the garden shop, does not.

White-out windows from Grant City remain.

We've been apologizing for over 12 years!

Greeting Cards

Now for a quick look at the garden shop:

Flickr user RetailPhotos2014 also visited this same location about a year later than I did taking some pictures as well. All photos shown below are courtesy of her Flickr photostream.

Electronics view courtesy of Flickr user RetailPhotos 2014.

When I visited back in July 2014, this was not here. Flash forward a year and this sight was seen. Picture courtesy of Flickr user RetailPhotos 2014.

The newer red Layaway sign is removed for some reason.  Picture courtesy of Flickr user RetailPhotos 2014.

Furniture courtesy of Flickr user RetailPhotos2014.

Store Rating:  7 out of 10. With no immediate nearby competition, it seems to hold its own. this location is kept up for the most part rather well. It is clean and organized and its actionways were easy to navigate.

Is this Store in Danger of Closing?  Could go either way, but I think it is safe at the moment.

Footnotes:
1. There was previously a '90s location on Peach St but that store closed in 2010 therefore making this the newest operating Kmart in Erie, PA.
2. For this reason, I left out a former restaurant space out of the store's map. It could be possible there was once a restaurant in the lower right of the store at one time or Kmart may simply had removed when they took over this location. Either way, a non-emergency exit door still remains on the exterior which suggests something.