The Doomed McDonald's Rebuilt

It turns out that my very first retail blog post would prove true 2 years later. After a couple months of demolition and rebuilding, the Wellsville McDonald's is back open in a new modern building. Sadly, all of the former relics are no more. Before we get to the new building, I have a few one last visit pictures I took before the building came crashing down.

And the demo work begins:

Mcrubble

I was disappointed to see that the eyebrow style was being built.

And as the sign suggests, we enter the interior:

One of the new digital menu screens.

At least some sort of local touch is here, but its nothing compared to the awesome neon balloon.

The dining room felt a lot smaller then it was in the old building. 

That wraps up the look at this modernized McDonald's.

A Bon-Voyage to Bon-Ton?

One thing I personally hate seeing is more store closures. So many things lost: another shopping option, memories, and perhaps the most bothersome thing to me, a loss of jobs. So when Bon-Ton announced closures on top of the recent Toys R Us closures, it makes me rather upset. Understandably, Bon-Ton is another perfect example of a store failing to adapt with changing customer habits. But, on the other hand, I can't help but blame society for getting to lazy to go the store. I could go on about this, but obviously that is not what this post is about.

While this portion of news is late, Bon-Ton (and its family of brands) has announced 42 store closures on top of six that were announced last year in an effort to avoid bankruptcy. However, a new bit of news has announced today that that plan has failed and the Bon-Ton family of stores is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. With the latest piece of information, I've decided to take a closer look at the stores closing in the Twin Tiers coverage area and share my thoughts on the matter.

• Watertown, NY (Salmon Run Mall)
• The departure of Bon-Ton here should be concerning to the mall here. This will leave a second empty anchor space with Gander Mountain gone. (I have not seen anything to suggest that this store will or has reopened under the 'Gander Outdoors' name.) Sears is one of the remaining anchors to this mall so there's a worry as well. 
• Dubois, PA
• This store is in a plaza, so it shouldn't be to hard to replace, but that would depend upon the owner's ambition and if any new retailers would be interested.  
• State College, PA (Nittany Mall)
• Not looking good here. This leaves just Dunham's Sports and interestingly a Macy's store as anchors with Sears having closed up last month.
• Erie, PA (Millcreek Mall)
• While this will leave an empty anchor, I don't feel this should impact the mall here terribly. This space will be the only empty anchor.
• Selinsgrove, PA (Susquehanna Valley Mall)
• No doubt a death blow to this mall as it leaves just Boscov's as an anchor.

It's very possible that more stores could close now that they are bankruptcy though.

Kmart #9161

Another month means another Kmart tour. This month we take a look at a small town store in Berwick, PA which was a former Grants. 

At only 54,150 sq. ft., this store is among one of the smaller stores.

Time to go inside:

Excess merchandise finds a home in what was electronics

Rating: 10 out of 10. 
I honestly don't have a lot of complaints here. It was easy enough to navigate around the store, and while it is smaller and therefore carries less items, it offers enough of the basics to get you what you need. Given no immediate Walmart, this store seems to be doing rather well.