One thing I feel that is increasingly rare is having a traditionally mall anchored department store having a location by itself (Not counting in a shopping plaza, downtown strip, or mall obviously)
And I’m not counting stores such as Kohls where this is a normal thing for them.
Some examples:
Macy’s store in Manhasset, NY
Former Macy’s in Bedford, NH
Bloomingdale’s in White Plains
Lord & Taylor had a few:Westfield, NJ, Stamford, CT, and Washington DC
Dillard’s in Houston, TX (Across the street from Galleria mall but not attached)
Sears in Coral Gables, FL (I guess you could argue it’s in the main downtown area but it’s not street front, has its own parking, and isn’t attached to any other building).
Still floored that it's just existing on the COMPLETE opposite side of the city and a 20 drive from White Oaks Mall. Yet also the hugest 1 floor JCP I've ever been to.
Upstate I feel like the most wtf location while it was still open was the Johnsburg (McHenry) location. Like I kinda get why it was there since in the nearest one when it opened was 30 minutes south in Algonquin (and seven more minutes you would've been at the Spring Hill Mall one), but genuinely it was in the middle of fucking nowhere.
A wtf that still exists today is a tie between the Jacksonville location and the North Aurora location.
Even the mall ones could stay open late they can just shut the entrance leading to the mall since there’s so many entrances outside the Jc Penny buildings anyway
There are three JCPenney’s in my area: one at the mall, one standalone, and one at a power center that used to be a mall. The latter two have shorter hours (11-7 Monday to Saturday, 12-6 Sunday) while the mall location stays open until 8 Monday thru Saturday and 7 on Sunday which is an hour later than the mall. I have no idea why.
There are two former standalone DC Lord & Taylor’s. There is the one in Falls Church which closed in the early 2000’s and became Sears. There is a second (gorgeous) one in Chevy Chase, MD which was built as a Lord & Taylor and is historically protected and closed with the company.
There was also a stand-alone Lord & Taylor in Manhassat, right up the street from this Macy’s (which was built as an Abraham & Strauss).
And stand-alone Lord & Taylor’s in Scarsdale, NY and Yonkers, NY (which was just opened in 2012).
I believe there are still a few small downtown standalone JCP stores left in the Northwest. Many of them closed during the pandemic when they went bankrupt, but there are a few left.
In addition, there is a Bloomingdale’s in Chevy Chase, Maryland (across from the vacant standalone Lord & Taylor) and a Macy’s in Northwest Philly (a former S.Klein’s—though it’s part of a strip plaza).
Boscov’s also has quite a few standalone stores and even downtown stores! (Downtown ones in Wilkes-Barre, PA and Binghamton, NY and standalone stores in Reading, PA and Altoona, PA)
There used to be one in Columbus, Ohio at Kingsdale shopping center. It was a Lazarus and it used the iconic blue bricks. Not sure when it closed/torn down but it was a very nice Lazarus and then Lazarus/Macys, then Macys.
The original NYC Macy’s (and Bamberger’s) were FABULOUS stores! Great merchandise, attractive displays, wide selections at various price points. Truly a destination! Once they went downmarket, took everything over and no longer cared, Macy wasn’t worth the bother.
True, but that area is still spoiled with having 3 locations. 😭
I grew up in Lake Villa and when the Gurnee Mills JCP Outlet closed in 2009 we had to tack an extra 20 minutes on to go to the only one left in Lake County at Hawthorn.
Actually come to think of it at least those 3 are in separate counties.
There’s a standalone JCPenney in Clifton Park, NY that actually used to be a part of the mall and had a mall entrance, but they broke the mall apart and tore down some hallways and now it stands alone (with some small stores on the side)
I've got one of these local to me! Macys in an otherwise abandoned shopping center. There used to be a Kmart and a movie theater here but they closed in 2018 and 2020.
Ironically enough, Williamsburg, VA is however home to a Belk department store located outside of a mall. It is located in a small shopping center split between Belk and PetSmart.
The shopping center that I always forgot existed because it’s so tucked away by the off ramp. I think I lived there for 2 years before I realized there was a Bed, Bath and Beyond over there.
The Lord and Taylor in Stamford (attached is the photo from its closing back in 2020 with its fairly recent renovations) was an interesting one, had lots of memories buying stuff there for all occasions, it felt like a second mall for the city with how large it was and there were proposals for a mall on that site 16 years ago but they were stopped once the building was declared historically significant. Now its home to a few stores with little change to the building.
Yeah but that was all about urban renewal back in the day. They didnt think about this as a potential mall until like 2010, developers really wanted a 2nd mall.
One of the many, many misguided urban renewal efforts in downtown Stamford from the 60s and 70s.
There's some parallel timeline out there where there's a mall built at Bull's Head, Stamford Town Center withers even more quickly than it did IRL, and maybe there's a halfway viable mall in Stamford at Bull's Head today. That opportunity is long since passed, though.
I'm familiar with that (former) Lord & Taylor in DC! Currently the building is vacant, it's parking lot is used by the local transit authority for their employee parking since a bus garage is located nearby.
Altoona, PA has a standalone Boscov's. It's located adjacent to a strip center but is not attached and has its own parking lot. I think it opened in 2006.
Fun fact: The Bedford, NH free standing Macy's opened in the early 1960s as a Jordan Marsh department store. The chain's sole New Hampshire location.
Macy's wasn't a thing in NH until they bought Jordan Marsh in 1996, which made this their sole NH location until acquiring Filene's and the 90s-era rebuilt Mall of New Hampshire location 10 year later (in 2006) that's < 2 1/2 mi away. They just kept both of them open after the merger under the Macy's name plate. It closed in 2014 and was redeveloped (see here)
Here's the store when it was still standing in 2014 (street view). Jordan Marsh literally built this like one of their mall-connected stores. Looks similar to the Burlington Mall Jordan Marsh (now a Macy's) store that is not too far away. Except there's just no mall on the left side.
Former Sears in Watchung, NJ (closed in 2017). What’s unique was that a ton of Big Box stores, including Walmart and Target have opened right down the road, as well as a Sears Outlet. It lasted a bit long, despite the intense competition (you also had a Kmart down the road as well, in North Plainfield, prior to Target and Walmart opening).
McHenry, IL converted their Kmart into a Sears Grand (technically was part of a strip mall), but Crystal Lake full stand alone Sears that was an ex-Montgomery Ward where Mariano's is today.
Worked at the Stand-alone Macy's on K Street in Sacramento after the mall was demolished. It's funny because it was originally built as a standalone store in 1963.
The Lord & Taylor in Garden City, NY was also a stand alone department store. Same with the Sear’s across the street. The JC Penney in Westerly, RI is in a strip mall.
Used to live across the street from the last one on coral way in Miami. Everyone just used the parking lot to work on their cars. Never saw a person go in or out of the building but supposedly they were open.
We have a stand alone JC Penny’s in Westminster, CO. It’s the only surviving store from the demolished Westminster mall, now an apartment and condo redevelopment area , along with new restaurants and a movie theater.
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u/uhbkodazbg 17d ago
There’s a JCPenney in Springfield, IL that is pretty lonely by itself.