Kmart / Caldor / Alexander's / TSS Seedmans / Korvette's, Bronx, NY
This 171,000 sq. ft. Kmart on Bruckner Boulevard in the Soundview section of the Bronx has a long history. It was built as Korvette's, then became a TSS-Seedman's (Times Square Store), then a second Bronx location for Alexanders, a Caldor and now a Kmart. Every transition was brought about by the bankruptcy of the previous tenant.
Korvette's and TSS-Seedman's were both members of the first wave of giant discount department stores like Two Guys, which were started in the 1960's.
Alexanders was a legendary New York/New Jersey institution, famous for enormous stores filled with off-price designer clothes. The stores catered to the working and middle-class Jewish, Irish and Italian consumers in the Bronx. It later followed its customers and built stores in the suburbs of NJ and Long Island. (My aunt was crazy about Alexander's and with 6 kids, she used to swear by its low prices)
The Bruckner store you see here was one of 6 Alexander stores in New York which were bid on by both Bradlees and Caldor after Alexander's bankruptcy in 1992. Caldor won the bidding, and the 6 stores.
The store opened as Caldor after a brief renovation in 1993, and closed with the chain in their 1999 liquidation. Kmart picked it up, along with many other stores and has operated here ever since. It still retains the trademark Caldor dual-entryway.
The store is a 2-level Kmart, complete with shopping cart escalators, and is a constant madhouse due to the lack of big-box competition in the city. Walmart has tried, for the past 10 years, to build stores in New York City, but the city council thwarts them every time due to the poor quality jobs they are infamous for. In 2010, Walmart secured a spot in a rare new big-box center in Brooklyn, but the city council forced the developers to lease to locally-owned ShopRite instead.
Kmart / Caldor / Alexander's / TSS Seedmans / Korvette's, Bronx, NY
This 171,000 sq. ft. Kmart on Bruckner Boulevard in the Soundview section of the Bronx has a long history. It was built as Korvette's, then became a TSS-Seedman's (Times Square Store), then a second Bronx location for Alexanders, a Caldor and now a Kmart. Every transition was brought about by the bankruptcy of the previous tenant.
Korvette's and TSS-Seedman's were both members of the first wave of giant discount department stores like Two Guys, which were started in the 1960's.
Alexanders was a legendary New York/New Jersey institution, famous for enormous stores filled with off-price designer clothes. The stores catered to the working and middle-class Jewish, Irish and Italian consumers in the Bronx. It later followed its customers and built stores in the suburbs of NJ and Long Island. (My aunt was crazy about Alexander's and with 6 kids, she used to swear by its low prices)
The Bruckner store you see here was one of 6 Alexander stores in New York which were bid on by both Bradlees and Caldor after Alexander's bankruptcy in 1992. Caldor won the bidding, and the 6 stores.
The store opened as Caldor after a brief renovation in 1993, and closed with the chain in their 1999 liquidation. Kmart picked it up, along with many other stores and has operated here ever since. It still retains the trademark Caldor dual-entryway.
The store is a 2-level Kmart, complete with shopping cart escalators, and is a constant madhouse due to the lack of big-box competition in the city. Walmart has tried, for the past 10 years, to build stores in New York City, but the city council thwarts them every time due to the poor quality jobs they are infamous for. In 2010, Walmart secured a spot in a rare new big-box center in Brooklyn, but the city council forced the developers to lease to locally-owned ShopRite instead.