Eckerd Drugs, Richland Mall: Early 2000s 7 comments
This space, to the right of Barnes & Noble on the lower level of Richland Mall was the mall's drugstore, Eckerd Drugs.
I'm trying to remember if the original Richland Mall had a drug store and I don't think it did. Eckerd's came in with the enclosed Richland Fashion Mall stage, and may have ended there. I don't think it made it to the Midtown at Forest Acres stage, but I'm not sure exactly when that started, and I refuse to call the mall that anyway.
It certainly did not make it as late as the Rite-Aid buyout of Eckerd's. I'm not sure exactly when it closed, but I think it was the early 2000s. By that time, Eckerd's had already seen the writing on the wall which required corner stores, and had moved the Trenholm Plaza store to the current corner-equivalent location that RIte AId on Forest Drive now occupies. The Richland Mall store had no drive-through, and could never have one, and while the parking was as close to strip-mall parking as Richland Mall gets, it still wasn't as good as a real strip-mall.
UPDATE 10 August 2020: Add map icon, update tags.
7 Responses to 'Eckerd Drugs, Richland Mall: Early 2000s'
Subscribe to comments with RSS
-
Mike
12 Sep 09 at 7:43 am
-
The original open-air Richland Mall had a large Eckerd's on the north side (facing Forest Drive & Beltline) almost on the northwest corner (there was a dry cleaners on the actual corner).
This Eckerd's looms large in my memory because it was one of the very few places open on Sundays in the 60s. They had a lot of not-really-a-medicinal-necessity merchandise, like model kits and model supplies which were very important to me on Sunday afternoons. Also had a very busy lunch counter immediately as you went in the north door.
The store was sandwiched between the Colonial/Big Star grocery in the middle of the mall, and a row of very small businesses on the other side at the western end of the mall. They included the dry cleaners I mentioned, a coin laundry, a Merle Norman's, and Gerald's Shoe Service (which actually faced the center of the mall.) I think there were one or two more I'm forgetting. A wig store maybe?
Dennis
12 Sep 09 at 9:16 pm
-
Ohh, ooh -- I just remembered -- one of those stores was a very small Russell Stover candy store, before they built their own standalone building up the slope in the parking lot of the original mall.
Dennis
12 Sep 09 at 9:23 pm
-
Somehow I had forgotten the original Eckerds. I guess whenever I think of Richland Mall and lunch counter, I always think of Woolworth's. And I did not recall the original Russell Stover at all -- I only remember the freestanding one (and how good it always smelled inside).
ted
12 Sep 09 at 10:53 pm
-
According to someone I know who worked for Eckerd, the Columbia Mall location and the "new" Richland Mall locations were not profitable and when their leasees came due, Eckerd/Rite Aid chose not to renew them.
Tom
14 Sep 09 at 10:19 am
-
re: Eckerd Drugs, Richland Mall
You are quite right. On Sundays in the 1970s, it was the only place to get stuff for school projects.
Or, in my case a 8 track tape of Pink Floyd's : Meddle released in in Nov 1971.jim faulk
21 Apr 20 at 8:10 pm
-
I remember the .10 cent scoopes of ice cream
Johng
21 Apr 20 at 8:33 pm
Eckerd's also tried operating a store at Columbia Mall which didn't last very long. After a while they tried operating without a pharmacy and then just closed the whole place.