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Posts Tagged ‘Stores’

The Bucks Stop Here: 9 Closed & Abandoned Dollar Stores

25 Aug

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned closed Big Lots dollar store
Dollar Stores may be the new face of retail in post-9/11 America but when they close or are abandoned, that’s change we don’t want to believe in.

Big Lots? More like Big Lost, know what I’m sayin’? A big lot of credit goes out to Flickr user Andrew T…has left the building for capturing the forlorn state of the above former Green Bay, WI, Big Lots store in August of 2011. Good thing he did – by December of the same year, the store had been demolished and all that was left was an open field.

General Retreat

abandoned closed Dollar General Columbia dollar store 1a

abandoned closed Dollar General Columbia dollar store 1b

abandoned closed Dollar General Columbia dollar store 1c

abandoned closed Dollar General Columbia dollar store Radio Shack

It’s getting to the point where not much remains open in Columbia, SC… Columbia Closings’ alphabetical list goes on and on and on. Very few failed local businesses are dollar stores, however, which may say something about the city’s economy. Here’s a Dollar General that just couldn’t cut the mustard in early 2012 but if the strip mall’s landlord thinks he’s getting the last laugh, they’d best think again: the store re-opened as a Radio Shack.

Detroit Buck City

abandoned closed Detroit dollar store 2

abandoned closed Detroit dollar store 1

You know the neighborhood’s going downhill fast when the local dollar store accepts food stamps… and then closes… and then gets tagged. Such is the sad case of Y OLLAR TORE (formerly MY DOLLAR STORE), not part of a chain though it’s doubtful that would have helped save them. If you haven’t already guessed, this post-apocalyptic ex-business is located on Detroit’s east side, which is definitely not its best side.

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The Bucks Stop Here 9 Closed Abandoned Dollar Stores

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Nix Tape: 10 Closed & Abandoned Blockbuster Stores

Blockbuster Video’s torn-ticket logo once fronted thousands of stores worldwide. That was then, this is now… by late 2013, Blockbuster was officially busted.
Click Here to Read More »»


Game, Cassette, Match: 10 Abandoned Video Stores

Once as common as the VHS or Beta tapes they rented out, video stores are fading away faster than the images on a well-worn cassette someone forgot to rewind.
Click Here to Read More »»


Diamonds Aren’t Forever: 10 Abandoned Jewelry Stores

These 10 abandoned jewelry stores, designed to be secure oases of luxury retailing, are now as lonely as a busted ring that’s forever lost its sparkle.
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[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Bucket List: 12 Battered & Abandoned KFC Stores

16 Jun

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned KFC
There are nearly 20,000 KFCs worldwide but success isn’t guaranteed. Here are 12 that kicked the bucket when the financial chickens came home to roost.

The Bucket Stops Here

abandoned KFC bucket sign(images via: OldOhioSchools and The Morning News/Brian Ulrich)

No one symbol captures the essence of KFC like the spinning bucket sign, and likewise a discarded and decrepit bucket sign perfectly illustrates the downfall of a fast food fried chicken icon. The bucket above, which looks supernaturally spooky by night, merely appears sad when spied by day in a line of other such signs. You’ll find it outside the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Slippery Slope

abandoned KFC Park Slope Brooklyn NYC(image via: Here’s Park Slope)

According to its Wikipedia entry, “Park Slope is an affluent neighborhood in northwest Brooklyn, New York City.” Looks like this affluent area just caught a case of affluenza, however, with graffiti taggers moving quickly to blight the abandoned KFC outlet at the corner of 4th Avenue and Warren. Conveniently, the closed store posts an official sign directing curious (and hungry) taggers to their next nearest location.

Double-Down For The Count

abandoned KFC Hayes VA(images via: RetailByRyan95)

Is Flickr user RetailByRyan95 psychic or something? The intrepid photojournalist must have had a premonition when he visited a now-abandoned KFC restaurant in Hayes, VA in April of 2009. Just over three years later, Ryan was back to record the forlorn state of the abandoned outlet at 2413 George Washington Memorial Highway in the York River Crossing shopping center. Hope he packed a lunch on his return visit. According to Ryan, this KFC closed on October 21st of 2011 and the entire building was demolished in early November of 2013.

Chicken Rundown

abandoned KFC bucket Youngwood PA(image via: paper or plastic)

Somehow this old-style KFC big bucket escaped the fate of its store on Route 30 by the Westmoreland Mall and ended up outside the Antique Co-op store over on Rt. 119, according to Flickr user paper or plastic. KFC chicken buckets can run but they can’t hide, however, and after spending some time in this incongruous location it was hit by a car and completely destroyed. Police are seeking an elderly man dressed in a white suit and black string-tie, last seen licking his fingers and cackling gleefully.

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Bucket List 12 Battered Abandoned Kfc Stores

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Game, Cassette, Match: 10 Abandoned Video Stores

Once as common as the VHS or Beta tapes they rented out, video stores are fading away faster than the images on a well-worn cassette someone forgot to rewind.
Click Here to Read More »»


Nix Tape: 10 Closed & Abandoned Blockbuster Stores

Blockbuster Video’s torn-ticket logo once fronted thousands of stores worldwide. That was then, this is now… by late 2013, Blockbuster was officially busted.
Click Here to Read More »»


Diamonds Aren’t Forever: 10 Abandoned Jewelry Stores

These 10 abandoned jewelry stores, designed to be secure oases of luxury retailing, are now as lonely as a busted ring that’s forever lost its sparkle.
Click Here to Read More »»


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Diamonds Aren’t Forever: 10 Abandoned Jewelry Stores

11 May

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned jewelry stores
These 10 abandoned jewelry stores, designed to be secure oases of luxury retailing, are now as lonely as a busted ring that’s forever lost its sparkle.

Jewels Of Denial

abandoned Prada Marfa jewelry store(images via: Xaxor and Big Bend Now)

When is an abandoned jewelry store NOT an abandoned jewelry store? When it’s Prada Marfa, a so-called “pop architectural land art project” sitting all by its lonesome on the side of U.S. Route 90 between Valentine and Marfa, west Texas. Artists Elmgreen and Dragset set up the $ 80,000 faux luxury goods store on October 1st of 2005 with the intention it would be neither maintained nor repaired. Instead, the passage of time alone would slowly degrade the “store” back to its constituent materials.

abandoned Prada Marfa jewelry store(image via: StyleLinkin’)

A mere three days after the sculpture was finished (complete with an interior stocked with handbags and 14 right-footed shoes), vandals broke into the building and graffitied the outside walls after stealing the contents… hope they have 14 right feet. Subsequent acts of vandalism have further marred the exhibit and angered the artists (who really should have known better). Seems like Prada Marfa’s degradation is not going as slowly as originally planned.

A Pauled

abandoned Paule jewelry store(images via: baby cat)

As jewelry stores are usually owned by deep-pocketed individuals, extra expense is typically expended not only on security but on creating a luxurious first impression for potential buyers. The downside, of course, is when the stores are closed, abandoned and/or re-purposed as a successor business, the original embellishments are not easily changed. Such is the case with the former Paule Jewelry store in Burlington, IA, as photo-documented by Flickr user baby cat.

Hell’s Waiting Room

Fashion Square Mall Orlando abandoned jewelry store(image via: Kei Teay)

Orlando’s Fashion Square Mall has seen better days and more than a few of its stores have jumped ship for better prospects elsewhere. FSM is making the best of a bad situation, however, having converted the abandoned and unnamed jewelry store above into a waiting room. Waiting for what, we can’t say. Kudos to Kei Teay for the sad soft-focus photo above.

Hardly Working

abandoned Marsden jewelry store Stockport UK(images via: Peter Bartlett LRPS EFIAP and Stockport.co.uk)

Jeweler Ian Marsden established his jewelry store in 1969, according to the weathered old-style sign still affixed to the storefront. The sign also heralds the presence of a “Working Jeweler” inside… don’t believe it! Sometime before March of 2013, Marsden closed the Stockport, UK retail landmark and left anything not portable behind.

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Diamonds Arent Forever 10 Abandoned Jewelry Stores

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Game, Cassette, Match: 10 Abandoned Video Stores

Once as common as the VHS or Beta tapes they rented out, video stores are fading away faster than the images on a well-worn cassette someone forgot to rewind.
Click Here to Read More »»


Nix Tape: 10 Closed & Abandoned Blockbuster Stores

Blockbuster Video’s torn-ticket logo once fronted thousands of stores worldwide. That was then, this is now… by late 2013, Blockbuster was officially busted.
Click Here to Read More »»


Last Call: 11 Drunk Dry Abandoned Liquor Stores

These 11 abandoned liquor stores are hangovers, as it were, from an era when Mom & Pop stores sold the kind of products Mom & Pop forbade you from consuming.
Click Here to Read More »»


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Chicago-based Calumet Photographic closes U.S. stores

14 Mar

CALUMET_LOGO_1797381_10151985242408785_332556189_a.jpg

Calumet Photographic announced today on Facebook that the company is closing all of its U.S. stores and has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, effective immediately. According to the statement, posted below, European branches will continue to operate. Calumet’s website and Twitter account are no longer available. Learn more

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Nix Tape: 10 Closed & Abandoned Blockbuster Stores

06 Jan

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned closed Blockbuster Video stores
Blockbuster Video’s torn-ticket logo once fronted thousands of stores worldwide. That was then, this is now… by late 2013, Blockbuster was officially busted.

This Is The End

closed Blockbuster Video Hawaii(images via: 2 Oceans Vibe)

Blockbuster Video did not go gentle into that good night; it went loudly, painfully and messily. The final curtain (for all intents and purposes) finally came down at 11pm on November 9th of 2013 when a Blockbuster store in Hawaii became the last store to rent out a movie. According to Blockbuster themselves, the film was “This Is The End” starring James Franco and Seth Rogen.

Scots On The Rocks

blockbuster video Scotland storm sign(image via: Daily Record)

A vicious storm that struck Scotland in late 2011 only damaged the Blockbuster Video location above; it took a tsunami of red ink to sink the chain for good. It’s a pity the hapless owner above didn’t see the signs of impending doom while he was occupied in repairing the sign of his franchise store.

closed abandoned Blockbuster Video Dunoon Scotland(images via: Past The Pixels and Zoopla)

The Blockbuster Video location in Dunoon, on the scenic Cowal Peninsula in western Scotland, had little area competition but local success was meaningless in the face of global mismanagement on an epic scale. In the case of the Dunoon store, deterioration had begun even as the chain was in its final death throes… and rapidly accelerated once the store shut its doors for good. View more interior shots and learn more about this now-for-sale ex-Blockbuster at the Zoopla site.

That Socks!

Penarth closing Blockbuster Video socks(images via: Penarth News)

The last days of Blockbuster somewhat resembled the last hours on the Titanic – lots of rearranging the deck chairs for no discernible purpose and neglible useful results. Take the above doomed Blockbuster store in Penarth, Cornwall, UK. for example. With customers spending their hard-earned pence on internet-based entertainment, the desperate store began stocking socks instead. Evidently in Cornwall one cannot purchase socks online.

VA Means Vacant

closed Poquoson Virginia Blockbuster Video(images via: RetailByRyan95)

Flickr user RetailByRyan95 was in the right place at the right times when a Blockbuster store in Virgina’s Poquoson Commons shopping center closed in early May of 2009. Presciently documenting the store as it was before closing, Ryan returned almost exactly one month later, camera in hand, to observe what remained.

closed Poquoson Virginia Blockbuster Video(images via: RetailByRyan95)

Critiques of today’s supposedly disposable society ring true when the differences between an open and a closed Blockbuster are so evident after only a short time. Removal of stock, signage and branding also reveals the essentially sterile nature of modern retail-commercial McArchitecture, which is shown to have little if any appeal once tenants have flown the coop.

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Nix Tape 10 Closed Abandoned Blockbuster Stores

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Game, Cassette, Match: 10 Abandoned Video Stores

Once as common as the VHS or Beta tapes they rented out, video stores are fading away faster than the images on a well-worn cassette someone forgot to rewind. Click Here to Read More »»


Past Food: 10 Creepy Closed & Abandoned McDonald’s

I’m leavin’ it! You can bet your sesame seed buns these 10 closed and abandoned McDonald’s have swirled their last McFlurry and will bag burgers no more. Click Here to Read More »»


Last Call: 11 Drunk Dry Abandoned Liquor Stores

These 11 abandoned liquor stores are hangovers, as it were, from an era when Mom & Pop stores sold the kind of products Mom & Pop forbade you from consuming. Click Here to Read More »»


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Last Call: 11 Drunk Dry Abandoned Liquor Stores

26 May

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned liquor stores
These 11 abandoned liquor stores are hangovers, as it were, from an era when Mom & Pop stores sold the kind of products Mom & Pop forbade you from buying.

Broadway The Hard Way

abandoned Broadway Liquor Outlet Minneapolis(image via: Minneapolis StarTribune)

Minneapolis’ Broadway Liquor Outlet may be outta liquor but it’s not outta luck, at least not yet. The striking photo above was taken by David Toles of the StarTribune. Toles’ dramatically tilted composition features the store silhouetted against an ominously cloudy sky, though this year no tornadoes descended to finish their destructive work.

Greening Of Detroit

Detroit abandoned liquor store garden shed(images via: Click Click Click)

If a tree can grow in Brooklyn, an abandoned liquor store in Detroit can be reborn as a garden shed. Not just ANY garden shed, mind you, but a pastoral-ly repainted edifice emblazoned with environmentally friendly graphics instead of the graffiti one more typically finds in today’s Motor City. We’ll drink to that!

Detroit abandoned liquor store garden shed(image via: Click Click Click)

Andra Johnson in association with The Greening Of Detroit volunteered for the re-purposing project which took place on July 30th, 2010. It must have been thirsty work cleaning, prepping and painting the mid-century building under the hot summer sun. If only there was a store that sold cold, refreshing beverages nearby… oh.

Florida Dry

St. Mary's Liquors Nassau County Florida(images via: Southern Exposure)

The former St. Mary’s Liquors store on U.S. 17 in Nassau County, Florida, molders away quietly alongside the also-abandoned Riverside Motel about a mile south of the Georgia state border. Historically, Georgia generally prohibited the sale of alcohol on Sunday – counties could hold local referendums to decide the issue but until recently the results usually upheld the status quo. That attitude is beginning to change, however, and if the county just north of Nassau flipped from dry to wet Sundays, it could explain St. Mary’s Liquors’ sinking fatally into a sea of red ink.

Too Big To Fail?

massive abandoned liquor store(image via: Pete Jelliffe)

Bigger isn’t always better, just ask the owners of this ridiculously massive abandoned liquor store – if you can find them. Simply stocking the multistory edifice would cost a king’s ransom and if there should ever be an earthquake, the tsunami of spilled alcohol (cirrhosis of the river?) surging out the front doors would be enough to make even the sternest teetotaler weep… especially if it then caught on fire.

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Last Call 11 Drunk Dry Abandoned Liquor Stores

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Virtual Retail Stores Repurpose Unused Public Spaces

18 Apr

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

Virtual Retail Stores 1

Photos of products with codes that can be scanned by smart phones transform cramped spaces like the walls of subway stations into virtual retail stores, saving space and potentially adding function to disused city spots. PayPal is among the main companies pioneering quick and easy virtual shopping with QR codes plastered on billboards and ad spaces. Online grocery service Peapod already has virtual shelves on subway and commuter train platforms in Philadelphia.

Virtual Retail Stores 2

The concept is simple: you download an app to your smart phone, scan the codes of the products you want to purchase, and enter your payment information. The goods you buy are then delivered to the location of your choice. The process is streamlined when payment info is saved – just scan and confirm.

While brick-and-mortar stores with physical products won’t disappear completely, since there are plenty of times we just want to grab something and run, this concept could help meet the evolving needs of both customers and the cities they live in. Virtual retail stores could go up on the outside of abandoned buildings, or give use to areas that are under transition.

Virtual Retail Stores 3

Experts have predicted that shopping will change more in the next three years than it has in the past twenty, with more and more people choosing the convenience of mobile shopping and self-checkout. PayPal has expanded a portion of its ‘Shop and Pay on the Go’ services by adding QR codes to the exterior of physical stores, for those times when you need something and the store is closed. Another service, ‘PayPal Here’, enables customers to check in with their phones, grab their items and pay for them virtually without having to pull out cash or a credit card.

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Game, Cassette, Match: 10 Abandoned Video Stores

07 Apr

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned video stores
Once as common as the VHS and Betamax tapes they rented out, video stores these days are fading away faster than the images on a well-worn cassette someone forgot to rewind. These 10 abandoned video stores are caught between the night they closed and the day a more relevant tenant takes over the lease.

Terminal Virus

abandoned video store viral video(images via: Tattoed Steve’s Storage Unit Of Terror)

The store sign’s font absolutely screams “EIGHTIES!” but the name – Viral Video – presciently anticipates the advent of YouTube and the corresponding end of the rental video era. As the poster child for classic Mom & Pop video stores, Keansburg, New Jersey’s Viral Video exudes a folksy vibe even in its abandoned afterlife. Repurposed wooden bookshelves ironically hold video tapes organized by genre and the assortment of admonishing signs are only missing “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service.”

Twice Unlucky

abandoned video store Seattle theater(image via: Curtis Cronn)

Kudos to Flickr user Curtis Cronn for composing this cool color-infused capture of a now-nameless abandoned video store on Queen Anne Avenue in Seattle, Washington. The store was obviously a movie theater back in the days when video tape technology was the coming thing. Just goes to show you what comes around, goes around.

Movie Scene No Longer Seen

abandoned video store Movie Scene Savannah(images via: RetailByRyan95)

How many movies could a Movie Scene move if a Movie Scene could move movies? Quite a few, considering the Hayes, VA store was in business for almost 7 years before giving up the ghost in March of 2009. Full credit Flickr user RetailByRyan95 for immortalizing the former car garage, Jeff’s Cycle Center and Video Update (an SNL reference?) before it re-opened as an AutoZone.

Hurray For Hollywood (Video)

abandoned video store Hollywood Video(images via: j4349 and C-Bunny)

Chewbacca’s star on Hollywood Video’s walk of fame serves to date the era of video cassette rentals with pinpoint accuracy but while the empire might strike back, Hollywood Video is down for the count. Occupying the medium-sized niche between small strip-mall stores and large anchor stores like Blockbuster, Hollywood Video – at least, this location in Savannah, GA – just couldn’t survive the big squeeze.

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Game Cassette Match 10 Abandoned Video Stores

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