After 10 Years, a former Kmart Finally Sees New Life

Welcome to Bradford, PA. Home of, well, not much.... There is however a lot of retail history in this community located only 5 minutes south of the New York/Pennsylvania border. There is a dead mall (which I mentioned in the Warren Mall post) and a couple of other interesting things to see, but most of the action actually is in the suburb of Foster Brook which is where the dead mall is located. This post will focus on the former Kmart that sat next to the mall property, but did not have any mall access. The Bradford Mall will be covered in a separate post.

The abandoned Bradford Kmart back in 2013. It closed as a part of the 2003 wave of bankruptcy closings.

As time moved on, I finally came to understand why the property sat vacant for so long. The mall never owned it, it had been owned by others. Last year the Bradford mall owners bought it and the next thing I know is this happens:

A bit of work is done on the old Kmart.

Then Dunham's announces it will be opening in half of the former Kmart.

This kind announcement actually kind of took me by surprise, as it all happened rather quickly. With it now being open as of this post, I recently decided to check out the interior to see if any Kmart remains could be seen.

Dunham's kept the Kmart style of entrance.

I don't believe these restrooms were here when this store was a Kmart. If they were they were here, they weren't accessible to the public. I want to say Layaway would of been more to the left of this area, but I don't know for certain.

That's A LOT of guns....

Now I leave you with some pictures of the former garden shop area which still sits empty to this day.

As you can tell, in the actual Dunham's store they completely remodeled the store. The only evidence remaining that this was once a Kmart is on the outside. That's it for now, see you in the next post!

History of Random Retail and the Milestone of 5,000 Pictures

Well, this is quite the achievement. Today, I officially reached 5,000 pictures on my photostream and though I am no pro when it comes to taking pictures, I have seen where I have drastically improved from where I was when I first started back in 2012. And what a ride it has been, I've seen many 'faces' come and go on Flickr and I've also seen a bunch of newcomers recently hop on to the retail photography bandwagon. I also remember seeing two fellow bloggers on Flickr for the first time. Ironically, it was these two that inspired me to create a retail blog of mine as a celebration of my 5,000 picture milestone. 

And its no wonder why so many people joined on the fun since 2015 has definitely been a historical year in retail when you think about it. First, Deb announces bankruptcy, followed by Radioshack. Then Target announces CVS will take over its pharmacies. Now A&P, the historical supermarket chain, is the latest victim of bankruptcy. Not to mention the fact that Kmart and Sears keep closing stores, and will likely continue to do so until they cease to exist. 

Here's a little story of how I became interested in retail. The first ever pictures I ever took was of my local Kmart in Olean, NY. I soon followed about a week or so later by visiting the Wellsville location. Eventually, I found myself going a little further and further to take pictures. (It should be noted though that I had visited some of these further away places before I took pictures.) I remember reaching the 200 picture limit for non-pro members that was in place at the time and I was a little frustrated because I would delete pictures to allow for the newer ones I had taken. Thankfully, it was around that time that Flickr gave 1 terabyte of picture space to everybody for free. That encouraged me to take more pictures.

As I've said before it was because of the dead Warren Mall that got me interested in pictures outside of Kmart. I thought it was weird to see such an empty mall and the pictures I took got the attention of fellow Flickr users at the time. I only had maybe two or three people following me at the time. After a couple months of no pictures, I returned with a bang. Pictures from Williamsport, PA and surrounding areas gave even more of a boost in attention. Then came parts of Erie, PA and Jamestown, NY on a separate trip. 

Eventually I started to get more and more followers and soon enough I became one of the people to expect retail photos from on a regular basis. I got to thank I_dawg2000, MJBarnes and Nicholas Eckhart for being with me for quite some time now. And though Bradley Memphis isn't active on Flickr, I still have to thank him as well. And if you are new or a longtime viewer that I didn't mention, thanks for taking an interest in my pictures! I got lots more to come, so don't go anywhere!

Unless any news happens, the next blog post should occur on the first week of August.

Former Kmart #9529 (Dead Warren Mall Part Two)

One of the hardest things to take as a fan of Kmart is to see one of your local stores close. (Which might start to become a little more common if the 'missing' stores do end up closing.)

This store was probably one of the top 5 stores that I most frequented, but obviously this is now longer the case. It was rather special to me because it was located as a part of a mall, something of which you don't see a certain competitor doing. There are still a few mall Kmart locations left, but they are becoming a bit more rare. This Kmart opened as a smaller store and anchor to the Warren Mall and it saw a major remodel and expansion in 1992 for the 'Big K' format. It hung on for a couple years after the mall itself lost pretty much all of its tenants. Although its lease was until 2015, Sears Holdings ultimately made the decision to close by late 2014 citing the usual 'costing-cutting measures.' This was the first major closing after the Sears/Kmart merger to affect me directly. Although the Kmart bankruptcy did close a few stores in my area, one in particular being the Bradford store, I was to young to remember it like I would today. Don't get me wrong though, I do remember going to the Bradford Kmart a few times and stopping by once during its liquidation sale, but it was mainly toys that I remember.

Kmart in 2012.

Mall Entrance back in 2012.

I took pictures of this store before its closing in 2012, but you can find them on Flickr photostream here. These pictures may not be of the best quality though. All photos from this post can be found on Flickr via that link as well. Here's a few more pictures I took literally just 2 weeks before it was announced that this store would be closing.

The typical curtain used to cover up space that Kmart uses when they do not want customers in an area anymore. This was previously a Little Caesars pizza station.

You're not fooling anyone, Kmart.

Pretty cool Kmart balloon. Ironically, it says 'Now Hiring' on the other side as you will see a later picture.

The garden shop was added on when this store expanded in 1992. You don't normally see this type of signage for a Kmart garden shop.

Nice little vintage bench still being used before the store closed.

The following pictures are during this store's liquidation. I can't guarantee that I will visit all of the liquidation sales for Kmart and/or Sears in my area, but I'll try to do what I can. This store was special to me, so I had to visit at least once before it closed forever.

This Kmart was hiring even though it was closing.

Ironically, a smiley-faced balloon was at this Kmart's store closing and it was not here before. I imagine the Warren Walmart must be pretty happy.

Former cafe tables for sale.

Former Cafe/Little Caesars. The curtain was removed.

Former Pharmacy.

The obligatory signage for no new layaway contracts.

Mostly empty or empty aisles.

Referring customers to shop online at shopyourway.com and/or Kmart.com.

Goodbye, Warren Kmart.

We regret having to close your store. It's because our CEO doesn't know how to run a retail chain like a business. It's more or less his personal pieces of real estate.

Well, that finishes up the dead Warren Mall pictures, for now. I may return in the future and get some shots of the now closed Kmart as well as some of mall itself.