The Sears at Barnes Crossing

I don’t really have a set theme for this week’s Wolfchase Sears teasers… instead, these will basically be just six random photos strung together. But hey, that works too :P

 

We’re starting off with this look at not Wolfchase, but the Tupelo, MS, Sears, specifically its mall entrance as seen from the corridor of The Mall at Barnes Crossing. I was in town on September 7th, 2018 – later than my usual, annual summer visit, for reasons you’ll find out eventually :P While there, I made sure to get this photo of the Sears, knowing that the company’s plummet was gaining intensity (and indeed, they would wind up declaring bankruptcy just over a month later, on October 15th – note that the photo I used for that announcement was taken at this store as well, but these two are the only ones I took; I didn’t explore the store any further). Of particular interest at this Tupelo store is the fact that it carried the, shall we say, “less polished” version of the familiar Sears logo, which predated the version seen more commonly across the nation. (To see what I’m talking about, compare these two images.)

 

Sears is not the first anchor to close at the Mall at Barnes Crossing, but it is the first one to be sitting vacant without any new tenant lined up just yet.* Dennis Seid, reporter for the Daily Journal, writes in this article that a majority of shoppers who participated in a Twitter poll he conducted would like to see Dillard’s take over the space, but again, we’ll all just have to wait and see on that one. In his original BizBuzz article announcing the closure, he also noted that the state’s lone other Sears store, located in Meridian, got the axe in the same closing round, “bringing an end to the department store’s presence in Mississippi.” The state’s final Kmart, in Gulfport, would close during the bankruptcy as well… so not only did the company exit Mississippi entirely, it also wound up leaving the Mid-South region as a whole, with the closure of its stores in Memphis at Wolfchase Galleria and Southland Mall, and in Jackson, Tennessee, at Old Hickory Mall. Sad, but the day was bound to come :( Of all of these, again, I only visited Wolfchase. But l_dawg2000 made it to the Whitehaven store, and you can check out his ongoing album here. (He also made it to Wolfchase – see that album here.)

 

* – Okay, so the mall’s anchor history is as follows, per Wikipedia: The Mall at Barnes Crossing opened in 1990 with anchor stores Sears, JCPenney, Kmart, Belk, and McRae’s. Kmart closed in 1996 and quickly became McRae’s Men’s, so no extended vacancy there. Belk closed at some point and became Parisian – this one may have involved a longer vacancy, but it’s the only one. Belk acquired McRae’s – and, thus, both of its stores at Barnes Crossing – in 2005, and as such returned to the mall. It then also acquired Parisian in 2007, so here in Tupelo it obviously chose to shutter that store lest they have three of five anchor buildings :P In 2008, that space became Dick’s Sporting Goods, so again, the vacancy there wasn’t very long. The current Sears vacancy, on the other hand, may well last a good while, if other such vacancies around the country are any indication…

 

Sears (at The Mall at Barnes Crossing; now closed) // 1001 E Barnes Crossing Road, Tupelo, MS 38804

 

(c) 2019 Retail Retell

These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)

 

Done