A Weis Connection Between Two Brands

While all of the Binghamton area Weis stores were former Giant locations, this one on the southwest side of the city stands alone as being even extra special. It has a CVS connected to it! This connection is not like how CVS exists in Target stores, since CVS actually has a proper store here. And the funny thing is that more than likely some items are sold at both Weis and CVS. Price matching, if offered here, may be a lot of fun for customers with how this setup works.

It may be hard to tell, but both CVS and Weis have exterior entrances. They are both behind the glass breezeway as seen below. But this is not the unique connection point I refer too....

....This is:

A connection like this where two different brands who have similar products- unless being a part of the same company- is something that I'm not aware of anywhere else. 

Well, we're already here. Might as well take a look around the Weis....

One thing to note about some of these Binghamton area Weis stores is that some of them have multiple entrances. You can see where the corridor to a second entrance is behind the bread sign.

A look down the corridor to the south entrance....

....and a look to the north as we make our exit.

Binghamton's University Plaza

Once again, I must start this post off with a disclaimer of not knowing a lot about the history of this particular mall nor can I find a lot of information about the mall. So some of the maps below map have anchor placement in the wrong spot.

I can definitely say that this place was once a mall thanks to past Google Earth satellite imagery. (see below) I believe the anchors to have been Kmart and Ames. I was able to confirm that Kmart operated a store here thanks to a local news article. 

Similar to how both the Camillus Mall and Fairmount Fair Mall were redeveloped, this mall too was repurposed but instead by other means. Thanks to its proximity to Binghamton University, the mall be would ultimately wind up being a site for student housing with a small strip mall to serve the students. But some changes did occur before the housing project would occur. While it is a little change, it is worth noting that the Kmart store closed in 1999 and was used as a call center for various companies. I believe the Ames and perhaps even parts of the mall would be used for the same purpose for bit too.

In this 1994 satellite view, we can see a building design that is hard to deny being a mall:

Flash forward to 2002, we can see things are so lively based on this view:

You can definitely see some cars clustered around the south end of what was likely the Kmart.

2006's view shows some changes seeing some parts of the mall being demolished.

2011 brings very little change to the property, though it is evident that at least a few shops must be open to attract the amount of cars seen. Planet Fitness also opened at some point in the lower right.

The next change for 2017's view is a major one. This change caught me off guard at the time when I visited the property in person because satellite view hadn't showed any changes from the 2011 view but now does. The pictures that follow the satellite view are my own and come from 2017 while construction was occurring.

I don't believe this clock tower is a leftover from the mall, but I can't dismiss the possibility.

This view would basically be the mall corridor.

Construction

A special thanks to Google Earth and its historic satellite views for being able to provide some information on this property.