Another Sad Ending. Another Era?

 

On January 3, 2018, it was announced that our closest Macy's would be closing as part of a plan to close 11 stores nationwide. The store will close in March 2018. The liquidators have taken over the disposal of the existing inventory, with some employees retained to the end. Is this indicative of the general decline in "bricks and mortar" stores that we see all over North America?

History of Birchwood Mall, Port Huron Michigan.
The mall opened in April 1991, with Target, Sears, JCPenney, and Wisconsin-based department store chain Prange's as its anchor stores. Upon opening, the mall attracted Canadian shoppers, who crossed over from Sarnia, Ontario on the Blue Water Bridge.
The Prange's chain was acquired by Younkers in 1992, and all Prange's stores were re-branded. Three years later, Detroit-based Hudson's announced that it would add a store to the mall, and this store opened in 1997. Old Navy was also added in the Younkers wing in the late 1990s, followed by Dunham's Sports.

In 2001, Hudson's changed its name to that of its Chicago-based sister nameplate Marshall Field's. On September 9, 2006, Marshall Field's was one of several nameplates to be converted to the Macy's name. Old Navy closed in late 2007. The space was later occupied by Rainbow Shops and is now Planet Fitness.

In January 2013, the Younkers store changed its name again, this time becoming Carson's. On January 13, 2016, it was announced that one of its anchor stores, Sears was planning to close its doors after being at the Birchwood Mall since its opening in April 1991. There are no current plans for that particular retail space. In March 2016 Carmike Cinemas announced closure of the movie theater for remodeling. The remodeling would last two weeks. Upon first opening, the mall had neon lighting in some archways in the mall. Most of it was later removed or turned off.

On July 8, 2016, a Five Below (a dollar store type format) went in the former Chuck E. Cheese's.

Internet file photos at the abandoned Rolling Acres Mall in Akron, Ohio

Have we lived through yet another era? Is it the end of the shopping mall as we know it? Only time will tell. See more good photos of the Ohio mall, CLICK HERE.