Eckerd Lives On At Rite Aid

Over the past few years, I've done my best to capture the various decors used at Rite Aid stores. So when I saw a couple of pics from fellow blogger NY Capital Region Retail about a Rite Aid still using a decor package from Eckerd, I knew I had to visit in person. This location is in Auburn, NY along Grant Avenue and it was quite fun to see for me in person.

An older photo of the location I had to dig out from my photostream vault. I was thinking I already had an exterior picture, so I didn't bother taking a new one.

Slap on the Rite Aid logo and call it a day.

While I know some may say it is lazy on Rite Aid's part for doing little work to change the store from an acquisition, I'm a fan of preserving history in a subtle way like this. 

Fingerlakes Mall

Serving the community of Auburn, NY and surrounding areas, the Fingerlakes Mall opened in the early 1980s with the anchors of Chappels, Kmart, Sears, and JCPenney. The mall was another shopping center developed by Pyramid out of Syracuse. 

It suffered a some major losses in the early '90s with both Kmart and Chappels pulling out. The mall was able to recover in the early 00s, thanks to Bass Pro Shops opening their first New York store here. Because this was Bass Pro's first entry into New York, it became a mini-tourist destination. Sears, having relocated to the old Kmart space to allow for Bass Pro to open at the mall, closed their store here in early 2015.

The mall itself is full of unique and fascinating architecture; some of which I've never seen elsewhere. To see what I mean, I'll just let the pictures do the talking:

Sears in the old Kmart.

Kmart''s entrance is still intact after 20 years.

JO-ANN's exterior entrance.

The mall's interior was rather dark compared to other places I visited. For this reason some pictures may look a little weird.

Deb is obviously long gone.

A ramp made of brick leads you into the food court.

Roped off stairs that would lead you to the balcony areas.

One of the few businesses actually open.

Spirit here on the right was where Chappell's, and a brief Peebles store, was.

Back to the food court.

Bass Pro's mall entrance leads to the food court. Sorry about the blur here.

Many, many opportunities are available here.

Despite the loss of Sears, the future of the mall looks okay, as JCPenney seems to be committed to the community. JCPenney has made a publicly available comment that this is one of their top performing stores after losing competition from Sears. 

While Bass Pro has opened another location near Utica, NY, that location is considerably smaller. I'm uncertain how the plans for the Victor, NY store will effect this location however.