Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Granelli was the last surviver of the Vince Guaraldi ensemble who recorded this classic for A Charlie Brown Christmas:

I've got a note from Godaddy that they will be upgrading my host soon, so there may be some downtime ahead for the site.

Or it could all go perfectly.

Folks, with today's Forest Acres redevelopment announcement, I thought I would go ahead and throw up a Richland Mall post, even though I don't have anything prepared, so we can discuss it here rather than in Have Your Say.

So have at it!

(Hat tip to commenter John for the heads up).

UPDATE 10 November 2022 -- A question from commenter Russell below reminded me that there commenter Dennis worked of a map of the original open-air mall, and I got the tenant lists for 1926, 1975 & 1985 here. (Also changed to post title to add the word 'Redevelopment' at the end, added the street address and added the map icon.)

Also a note to folks popping in for the first time due to this post -- If you will go to Alphabetical Closings, you may find your favorite vanished spot in the site index.

But it's worse than I thought!

Many of the shelves are bare, though, at the Kmart in Avenel, New Jersey, picked over by bargain hunters as the store prepares to close its doors for good April 16.

Once it shutters, the number of Kmarts in the US — once well over 2,000 — will be down to three last holdouts, according to multiple reports, in a retail world now dominated by Walmart, Target and Amazon.

But it wasn't inevitable:

“It’s a study in greed, avarice and incompetence,” Cohen said. “Sears should have never gone away; Kmart was in worse shape, but not fatally so. And now they’re both gone.

“Retailers fall by the wayside sometimes because they’re selling things people don’t want to buy,” he continued. “In the case of Kmart, everything they used to sell, people are buying, but they’re buying it from Walmart and Target.”

Roadtrip?

Kmarts continue to operate in Westwood, New Jersey; Bridgehampton, on New York’s Long Island, and Miami.