Clarion Mall

Back in the day when many small towns were getting their malls, two anchors seemed to be commonplace: JCPenney and Kmart. This small little mall continues to hold on to these two as anchors despite both chains closing stores. Clearly they must do rather well in Clarion.

The mall itself is small, but has some really nice architecture to it. The main corridor has a slanted roof with windows on the top that face to the east. In my opinion, this mall is quite lively with a good number of stores to it. 

Enjoy these photos I took of this charming cute little mall.

A general exterior of the mall. Note that the main entrance uses a Kmart facade.

As is the case with most mall-based Kmart stores, you enter and walk down a hallway to enter Kmart.

 

We will take a closer look at this Kmart location in a future Kmart post.

Here you can see the mall's windows I mentioned.

Planters!

Looks like a former fountain has been covered over.

No jewelry store here

Another Hometown Tops

Formerly a Big M supermarket, Tops has once again taken over operations of this local supermarket. It is honestly quite nice and offers of course what a small community would need from it. A gas station is also here and appeared to be quite new when I visited last month.

Quite the little convenient gas station. 

Entryway area acts a seasonal area along with carts and other items.

Bread and rolls use the space in front of the checkout lanes. Customer Services is located in a little alcove to the left closer to the doors in the background.

 

Only 6 aisles and various baked goods are crammed into aisle 6.

Small little deli

To access the restrooms, you get a peak at the stockroom

A better look at customer services

I'm glad to see Tops expanding, especially now that it is no longer affiliated with Ahold. It instead is run as it's own company which seems to be focusing in on smaller locations. Can't say I blame them as Target is using a similar strategy to expand.  Overall, I'm glad to see Tops still covers the basics of what one would need.

Bluelight News Flash: More Closures for Summer

UPDATE: Added the 19 Sears stores announced on June 22.

I held off on posting this since the news broke about four hours ago, since there was only a few places suggesting the following stores would be closing by early September. Flash forward to now and there has to be at least 10 different places reporting it.

In addition to the ongoing closing sales, it appears that another 66 will follow in the same path. There is a notable one on this list!

Kmart:

Dothan, AL

Muscle Shoals, AL

Bullhead City, AZ

Blythe, CA

Manteca, CA

Sacramento, CA

Calhoun, GA

Fort Oglethorpe, GA

Iowa City, IA

Marshalltown, IA

Mishawaka, IN

Newburyport, MA

Elkton, MD

Cheboygan, MI

Traverse City, MI

West Branch, MI

Manahawkin, NJ

Mantua, NJ

Alamogordo, NM

Las Cruces, NM

Henderson, NV

Las Vegas, NV

Sparks, NV

Cortland, NY

Liverpool, NY

Malone, NY

Watertown, NY

Streetsboro, OH

Wooster, OH

Tulsa, OK

Roseburg, OR

Belle Vernon, PA

Butler, PA

Indiana, PA

Seneca, SC

Summerville, SC

Johnson City, TN

Madison, TN

El Paso, TX (Montana Blvd)

El Paso, TX (Zaragosa Rd)

Spanish Fork, UT

Virginia Beach, VA (Fordham Dr)

Virginia Beach, VA (Constitution Dr)

La Crosse, WI

Medford, WI

West Allis, WI

Lewisburg, WV

Sheridan, WY

SEARS:

Chico, CA

Dalton, GA

Biloxi, MS

Asheboro, NC

Minot, ND

Vineland, NJ

Columbus, OH (Eastland Mall)

Columbus, OH (Westland Mall)

Elyria, OH

Franklin, OH

Midwest City, OK

Columbia, SC (Columbia Mall)

Sherman, TX

Texarkana, TX (Central Mall)

St. George, UT

Richmond, VA (Regency Square)

You probably noted Belle Vernon, PA is on this list. That store holds the last Kmart sit-down restaurant ever. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, I highly suggest doing so.

Soon to Be Former Kmart #3047

In addition to last month's closing Kmart post, we too will feature another closing location in northeastern Pennsylvania. Dickson City, which is located just outside of Scranton. 

Because of the hilly terrain in this area, this Kmart was built on a hillside. This leads to some great views of the valley below:

One thing that is unique to this store is the fact that a wall was put up around what was likely the former cafeteria. Most stores of this age would of just turned the space into more sales floor, but not here. Also worth noting is that Layaway is on the side of the store which would usually be in the back of the store.

As you can see, this store did manage to get mannequins. 

Former cafe area was turned into team sports and and an expanded girls dept.

Here you can see what was likely the former cafeteria

Rating: 6 out of 10. While the store was well-stocked and kept clean, it ultimately likely didn't make it likely due to a lack of customers and visibility issues from the main road. Lease issues always play a role too.

In Danger of Closing? Obviously, as it is going through its liquidation sale as we speak. When I visited this store, I could tell it was definitely the weakest of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area stores. Combine that with the fact that its lease is up, a closing announcement was no shocker to me.