Zahns department store Racine Wi.

This is how it all began for me Zahns. When I was a small kid my family wood go to downtown Racine every Friday night this was the only nitre the stores were open. i remember how dig Zahns was and how the large post were so big and round and the walkways lined with counters and tables. that look that feeling i knew that retail was for me. and 40 years latter here i am with my own blog on malls and stores who wood have thought such a thing wood be possible.

As for Zahns it began in 1898 with a small shop a move to a much larger store wood happen in 1916. that store at 436 main st. wood latter be come a part of Racine's woolworths.In 1925 the store wood move to 500 monument sq. it wood be its last home and its largest 4 floors and a full basement there wood also be a store next to the main store latter known as the annex it wood house the Zahns food store. the store wood have all the features of its big city revels including a restaurant and budget store in the basement. the store wood be remodeled several times through the years with the most extensive renovation hapening in the 1950s mr. Zahn wood sell the store to the Goldstine fammily. Thay wood then in turn sell the store to Chandlar Copp he wood remodel the store for one last time in the end of the 70s . he also wood eliminate several departments and close the basement and forth floor in 1981 with presher mounting for him to pay back lones to the bank mr Copp wood file bankruptcy and close for good just before Regency Mall wood open it was the start of the end for that era of downtown Racine retail.

Westgate Mall Racine Wi.

The story of Westgate Mall con not be told without talking first about Turn-Style discount department stores. The site of the mall Had been the Turnstyle store and the Westgate outdoor theater. Turn Style and a Jewel food store were built in front of the theater in 1962 . jewel food stores owned Turn- style and racine was the first store in the mid west for the co. It also had a Osco drug store in the Turn- style store. It wood be Remolded in the early 1970s and the Jewel wood Be converted to Big E foods a Test concept for Jewel in 1978 Jewel wood sell the Turn-style division to Venture stores of stlouis . Venture did not want to enter the Wisconsin market and sold the store to Shopko stores of Green Bay the theater was not doing well by this time and was kind of odd to be right in the middle of a city so the property owner and Shopko decided to build Westgate Mall. shopko wood anchor one end and Sentry Foods the other. in the middle wood be local women's retailer Eitles witch wood move from downtown. the first problem arose when sentry pulled out with no reason given then Eitles decided to relocate to Regency Mall that itself was just being built westgate also had problems finding tenants do to Regency being only two miles away. sentry wood be replaced with Randalls county market.
shopko opened first in nov of 1979 the mall wood open the next spring with only one in line store and Randalls wood soon open the Eitles spot wood be taken by a retailer called the Gamut it was a sportting good art supply store with some clothing in the mix a vary odd first big box type store. during the next few years the stores wood come and go with the peek occupancy being about 70%. the Gamut wood close and Randalls wood take that spot but wood not have a mall entrance and that killed that end of the mall. it just went down hill from there. Then Randalls closed just as a wal-mart super center opened mall dies and closes . now it is being de malled and converted into a strip mall with dollar stores and junk like that but one store remains from the beginning and does well that is shopko thr retailers are now moving farther west or by Regency Mall so time will tell how this story ends i hope thay can find stores for the strip and clean it up a bit it is a good neighborhood and dose not need this type of blight.

Steve & Berrys

Just heard that Steve&Barrrys may close 100 or more stores, and may even close all together. This is the Old Orchard store in the chicago aria. will have to see what happens to them . maybe thay grew to fast we have all seen it before.