Hey My Backlog's Exactly 3 Years Now!

Oddly satisfying coincidence here- my schedule lines up so that this post, which will be my last for 2020, also happens to be the last of my 2017 photos. For it, we're going 100% Delaware- first, we're finishing off that adventure we started to the state last post, then we're going to be getting into some stuff from Delaware County PA. Not that it was intentional or anything. I just happen to frequent both places.

ACME, Claymont, DE

This location opened in 1967 and closed after their other location in town expanded in the 90's. It was split up between 6 smaller stores, most of which were closed by 2013 when Aaron's moved into the right side and redid the façade. They closed earlier this year, pre-pandemic.

The gap between Aaron's and the smaller tenants on the left was gutted out, exposing the original ceiling. The blue beams aren't from ACME, so unless somebody opened up and painted the ceiling in a narrow slice of store like this, there must have been a tenant that took up the whole store in between ACME and whenever it was split up.

Eckerd/Rite Aid, Claymont, DE

Eckerd opened here in 1967 and was later sold to Rite Aid. The façade was redone in 2013, but aside from that Rite Aid's kept investments here to a minimum. With Aaron's next door now closed, I'm wondering if they will be relocating to the larger space.

Arby's, Claymont, DE

It looks like a newer restaurant, but this actually opened in the 70's and was heavily remodeled circa 2010. 

Kinney Shoes/Goodwill, Claymont, DE

This is one of the few instances where a side view is better than a frontal. Goodwill boxed out Kinney's front awning, though it is still there. The back angle and diamond-shaped cutout from the brick at the top remain intact. Usually I'm not too interested in shoe or clothing stores, but Kinney's design was so distinct I get excited when I find intact examples.

McDonald's, Claymont, DE

The rare green mansard! McDonald's opened this location in the early 2000's. Unfortunately, it didn't keep the look long after I got the picture. They McBoxed it in 2018. Interestingly, they left the existing brick walls completely alone, but didn't use brick on the new parts to match.

Flying A/Getty, Claymont, DE

This station opened as a Flying A in the 50's, and was taken over by Getty not long after. They stopped selling gas in 2015, but kept the auto center open. Notice how the plaster under the canopy is looking a little rough- it collapsed soon after. The auto center is still open, but the area under the now semi-open-truss canopy is fenced off.

Gino's/Boston Market & A&P/SuperFresh/Food Lion, Claymont, DE

This center first opened in the 60's, featuring an A&P supermarket anchor and a Gino's Hamburgers in the parking lot. Gino's became a Boston Market in the 80's. A&P expanded and remodeled in the 70's, converted to SuperFresh in the 80's, and relocated to the location seen last post in the 90's. Food Lion opened in the space in 2011 after a major renovation, finally removing the metal A&P façade. They remodeled in 2019. This sits close to the PA border, and since Delaware cuts into Pennsylvania, this is actually their second northernmost store (after Mercersburg PA, which sits 0.037 degrees [2.5 miles] north... and several more degrees west of here)

Wawa, Claymont, DE

One of the few remaining old logo stores, Wawa's been operating here since the 80's. They recently opened a new location on the other side of I-95 from here which I thought would have replaced this, but that does not seem to have been the case.

Tri-State Mall, Claymont, DE

There haven't been too many changes since my last visit here, but it's good to check in every once in a while. Levitz Furniture is still abandoned, and in a little worse shape than last time.

Large portions of the roof were missing last time, but now you can actually see it from the outside.

It looks like somebody has been cleaning up the pieces of roof that fall, probably for liability reasons. If I were to bet, I don't think there's any practical shot at saving this building.

I'd say about a third of it has fallen in, considerably more than last time.

The Wendy's next door is still vacant but not looking nearly as bad.

The stairway from the lower strip mall to the upper enclosed mall is locked now. Burlington, the one remaining tenant up top, moved to the old Sports Authority in Wilmington in 2017.

For as dead as the upper mall is, the lower part was actually still fully occupied at the time of my visit.

Between the vestibule and the sun glare, it was hard to get a good view inside the old Burlington.

There is something interesting going on with the old Kmart though- New Hudson Facades, a local startup formed specifically to make the facades for New York's Hudson Yards towers, has repurposed it and the parking lot as a storage and logistics center for the pieces they make in their nearby Linwood PA facility. It looks like a temporary use since there is still a long-term plan to redevelop the mall, but it's still making good use of an otherwise vacant building in the meantime.

They kept Kmart's interior intact, and even left the remaining decals on the doors. 

The only changes they appear to have made to the building itself was the addition of large garage doors on either side of the building. 

Eckerd/Rite Aid, Claymont, DE

Rite Aid sadly closed this location not long after my visit due to the proximity to a few larger and newer stores, but it kept Eckerd's 80's neon décor up until the very end. At the time of its closure, it may have been the last surviving example of the look. The few other unremodeled ex-Eckerds seem to all have their 2000's "Squiggles" décor.

The product signage appears to be original to the décor as well.

I had a few bad pictures in this set, but I figure they're still worth including. I did have a better one of the Pharmacy that I posted on Flickr the day of my visit.

Eckerd replaced some of the aisle markers more recently, but even the newer ones are a kinda rare find, as in most of the other unremodeled Eckerds, Rite Aid has put in their own aisle markers.

The food aisles didn't get any neon signage

Instead, they got blue stripes and product pictures. It's kinda reminiscent of an early version of the squiggles décor, with thick, straight stripes instead of thin squiggles. This end of the store also appears to still have the original aisle markers. 

The product imagery really helps date the décor. Getting rid of these would probably have modernized the store quite a bit, but I'm glad they didn't.

The store was pretty narrow. Between that and its age, I wasn't surprised to see them pull the plug on this one.

Home Depot, Claymont, DE

Home Depot opened as an expansion to the shopping center in 1999. Its addition alone more than doubled the size of the existing center, but in spite of that it isn't a terribly large location.

I noticed in the back rooms, one of the original mercury vapor lights survived (though it's not in use)! I vaguely remember when all their stores had that kind of lighting, but sometime in the 2000's they switched to fluorescents. 

Otherwise the store looks more or less like every other Home Depot inside.

Wawa, Chadds Ford, PA

Wawa opened up here in the mid-2000's. It was remodeled to current standards in mid-2017. Since it's a larger location and close to their headquarters, they tried something unusual- adding a pub so they could sell beer and wine. Some stores in other states sell beer, but as far as I'm aware, this is the only one in the chain that carries wine. They did try this in the 2000's at the larger one of their UPenn locations, but allegedly lost their license after getting caught selling to minors. More recently, they've opened two new locations in Philly with seating areas, making me wonder if they're anticipating expanding this concept in the future.

Bryn Mawr Trust, Paoli, PA

BMT opened here in the 80's, and underwent a massive remodel to this look in 2010. It received the current logo in 2016.

Saxby's/Verizon/Skinny Pizza, Paoli, PA

Like Quiznos, Saxby's coffee went on a massive tear of expansion in the mid 2000's and peaked at 51 locations nationwide before going bankrupt in 2009. Most locations, this included, closed during that time. They were bought out and their headquarters relocated from Denver to Philly. At that point, only a handful of stores in Philly, one in Georgia, one up in New England, and one in Georgetown remained open. In the past few years they've bounced back and opened a number of new ones, but all only in the nearby area. Sadly, they've taken a major hit during the lockdown- their website currently only lists 5 locations, compared to the 24 they had before. The good news is they don't look like they're giving up- last week they were in the news for doing a toy drive in south Philly, and I can only find one confirmed permanent closure (the Rittenhouse Square location). I'm holding out hope the rest are still just temporarily shut. Wow, that was a long sidetrack. So anyways, this became an independent coffee shop for a year or two after Saxby's bubble burst, before becoming a Verizon store. Verizon moved across the street a few years later, and it became a Skinny Pizza in 2017. They were another interesting chain- they were a company from NYC who started out selling frozen pizza in supermarkets. They opened their first 3 retail locations in 2014, and peaked in 2017 with eight locations (3 in NY, 2 in PA, 1 in CT, 1 in TX, and one in Saudi Arabia) open and another planned for Exton PA. That was the last time their website was updated. If Google Maps is right, currently they're down to two locations, both in NY. This one closed in 2018 and became Nom Nom, a local Japanese restaurant chain. This location didn't last long, but didn't go out of business either- Sushi Nami up the street from here was evicted from their building this year to make way for the Paoli Station expansion and bought this location so they wouldn't have to close.

Swiss Farms, Media, PA

Drive-thru dairy Swiss Farms started out in the 60's and quickly grew to 10 stores by 1972. It maintained that number for a decades, neither opening nor closing any locations. Then, in the 2000's, they tried expanding. They opened two new ones in Delco (where all of the original locations were), two in Chester County, and another in New Jersey. One of the Chester County ones and the NJ location failed quickly. The other Chesco location held on for a while, but became wholesale only in 2016 and closed altogether a couple years later. Interestingly, it reopened last year as a full-line location. The store pictured here was one of the originals and opened in 1969. I was shocked when it closed in 2019- it is the first, and so far only, Delco location or original location to close.

CVS, Drexel Hill, PA

CVS opened this location in 2015 on the site of an old Honda dealership. Honda had relocated the year before to a former GM dealership in Springfield, giving them a much larger lot. This site's barely big enough to hold a CVS, let alone a car dealership.

Food Fair/PLCB, Drexel Hill, PA

This building was originally home to a Food Fair, which opened in 1951. I'm not sure it made it to the Pantry Pride days, but seeing how they went under in the 80's and this space was subdivided circa 1990 I wouldn't rule out the possibility. Most of the space became local chain restaurant JB Dawson's, and the back part of the building became a State liquor store. Dawson's closed in 2012, and the space was quickly taken over by Chickie & Pete's, another local chain.

Evans/Thrift Drug/Eckerd/Tuesday Morning, Drexel Hill, PA

This opened in 1951 as Evans Drug, a small pharmacy chain Thrift Drug bought out in the 90's. It was swallowed up by Eckerd in 1997, but closed prior to the Rite Aid buyout. Tuesday Morning opened in the space in 2010, and got the new logo when the center remodeled in 2017. I'm pleased to report this location survived their bankruptcy despite locations in this area taking a heavy hit.

Return to the Springfield Walmart

Last time I visited this store, it had just remodeled to the Cheap Impact décor. I happened to catch it right after another remodel again, this time to the Black 2.0 look. The middle part of the façade was repainted from brown to blue, but the rest of it kept its original colors to fit the rest of the shopping center. With the record I currently have with this store, I'm guessing it will have the Airport décor by my next visit.

They didn't peel up the floor tile here! With the amount of changes they've made to this old Klein's building over the years, maybe they've decided it's better to keep the floor scars covered up.

Walmart doesn't like to recycle buildings very often, especially multistory department stores like this. They have the ground level, Burlington and Jo-Ann split the basement, and a Planet fitness sits on top. 

My favorite thing about the Black décor were the new spotlights they added to produce. They look sharp and really brighten the place up.

Otherwise, I really don't see much difference between Cheap Impact and Black aside from the change in color scheme. Perhaps that's why they were able to remodel this store so quickly.

While this store isn't a Supercenter, it does come equipped with a full grocery store. Because of the building constraints, it's on the smaller end for a Walmart of this era.

My usual Walmart, the 2003-built Exton location, isn't a Supercenter either and might actually be bigger than this, but it doesn't have any of these grocery service departments. I think this stands to show how Walmart's business model has changed over the years.

For this week, I'm leaving you with a catchy song from Foreigner that's been stuck in my head all week.

Happy New Years! Let's hope 2021 is a little less weird.