111-639: The Country Club Plaza (often called The Plaza ) is a privately owned regional shopping center in the Country Club District of Kansas City , Missouri . Opened in 1923, it is considered to be the first planned large outdoor suburban shopping center in the United States and among the first regional centers to accommodate shoppers arriving by car. Planned in 1922 by J. C. Nichols and designed in Baroque Revival and Moorish Revival style echoing
222-540: A May Company California . Two of the largest shopping centers at the time were both in the San Fernando Valley , a suburban area of Los Angeles . They each consisted of one core open-air center and surrounding retail properties with various other owners, which would later hasten their decline as there wasn't a single owner, but rather a merchants' association, which was unable to react quickly to competition in later decades. Valley Plaza opened August 12, 1951. In
333-486: A shopping mall with leisure amenities oriented towards upscale consumers. Theme or festival centers have distinct unifying themes that are followed by their individual shops as well as their architecture. They are usually located in urban areas and cater to tourists. They typically feature a retail area of 80,000 to 250,000 square feet (7,400 to 23,200 m ). An outlet centre (or outlet mall in North America)
444-517: A town centre ) is typically larger with 400,000 sq ft (37,000 m ) to 800,000 sq ft (74,000 m ) gross leasable area with at least two anchor stores and offers a wider selection of stores. Given their wider service area, these tend to have higher-end stores ( department stores ) that need a larger area in order for their services to be profitable. Regional centres have tourist attractions, education and hospitality areas. Indoor centres are commonly called Shopping Malls in
555-435: A "shopping center". By the 1940s, the term "shopping center" implied — if not always a single owner — at least, a place sharing comprehensive design planning, including layout, signs, exterior lighting, and parking; and shared business planning that covered the target market, types of stores and store mix. The International Council of Shopping Centers classifies Asia-Pacific, European, U.S., and Canadian shopping centers into
666-412: A "special committee" to explore the sale of Kenmore. On September 24, 2018, the retailer's CEO warned that the company was "running out of time" to salvage its business. Sears Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018, ahead of a $ 134 million debt payment due that day. On November 23, 2018, Sears Holdings released a list of 505 stores, including 266 Sears stores, that were for sale in
777-751: A coming of age, financially, of the consumer sector. The company traded under the ticker symbol S and was a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1924 to 1999. In 1906, Sears opened its catalog plant and the Sears Merchandise Building Tower in Chicago's West Side . The building was the anchor of what would become the massive 40-acre (16 ha) Sears, Roebuck and Company Complex of offices, laboratories, and mail-order operations at Homan Avenue and Arthington Street. The complex served as corporate headquarters until 1973 when
888-401: A farm household could desire. Sales continued to proliferate, and the prosperity of the company and their vision for more significant expansion led Sears and Rosenwald to take the company public in 1906, with a stock placement of $ 40 million ($ 1.4 billion today). They had to incorporate a new company to bring the operation public; Sears and Rosenwald established Sears, Roebuck and Company with
999-636: A four-alarm fire that caused the restaurant's complete destruction as well as damage to surrounding buildings. JJ's returned in November 2014 to a new location, still in the Country Club Plaza area. In 2016 Highwoods announced plans to sell the retail complex for $ 660 million to a 50-50 joint venture of Taubman Centers and The Macerich Company . On February 2, 2018, Nordstrom announced it would be moving from Oak Park Mall in Overland Park, Kansas to
1110-461: A large explosion destroyed JJ's Restaurant on the Plaza. Believed to be caused by a gas leak, the blast left at least one person dead and sixteen injured. According to a statement from Missouri Gas Energy , a contractor doing underground work struck a gas line. Witnesses had reported a strong odor of natural gas in the area most of the afternoon. The initial explosion happened shortly after 6 p.m. and led to
1221-417: A major flood of Brush Creek caused severe damage to the Plaza and resulted in a number of deaths. The flood prompted a vast renovation and revitalization of the area that has allowed it not only to survive but to thrive. In 1998, the J.C. Nichols Company merged with Raleigh, North Carolina -based real-estate investment trust Highwoods Properties, which now runs the Country Club Plaza. On February 19, 2013,
SECTION 10
#17328442997271332-470: A new concept store called Sears Grand. Sears Grand stores carried everything that a regular Sears carries, and more. Sears Grand stores were about 175,000 to 225,000 square feet (16,300 to 20,900 m ). On November 17, 2004, Kmart Holdings Corporation announced it would acquire Sears, Roebuck, and Co. for $ 11 billion after Kmart completed its recovery from bankruptcy. As a part of the acquisition, Kmart Holding Corporation, along with Sears, Roebuck, and Co.,
1443-544: A new mail-order firm, again selling watches and jewelry, with Roebuck as his partner, operating as the A. C. Roebuck watch company. On September 16, 1893, they renamed the company Sears, Roebuck, and Co. and began to diversify the product lines offered in their catalogs. Before the Sears catalog, farmers near small rural towns usually purchased supplies, often at high prices and on credit, from local general stores with narrow selections of goods. Prices were negotiated and relied on
1554-515: A new space on the Country Club Plaza expected to open in fall 2023. The plans were cancelled in 2022. In July 2024, HP Village Management acquired Country Club Plaza in Kansas City from Macerich and Taubman Centers. The basic design of the Country Club Plaza reflects classic European influences, especially those of Seville, Spain , yet it does not include a traditional open plaza. There are more than 30 statues, murals, and tile mosaics on display in
1665-537: A number of modern features including central heating and cooling, a large outdoor parking area, semi-detached anchor stores, and restaurants. Later that year the world's first fully enclosed shopping mall was opened in Luleå , in northern Sweden (architect: Ralph Erskine ) and was named Shopping ; the region now claims the highest shopping center density in Europe. The idea of a regionally-sized, fully enclosed shopping complex
1776-560: A primary trade area of 5 to 10 miles (8 to 16 km). A retail park , in the United Kingdom and Europe, is a type of shopping centre found on the fringes of most large towns and cities in the United Kingdom, and some (but not all) other European countries. In Europe, any shopping center with mostly "retail warehouse units" (UK terminology; in the US the term is " big-box stores "/superstores), 5,000 square metres (54,000 sq ft) or larger
1887-461: A publicity role. Sears offered Roebuck's half of the company to Chicago businessman Aaron Nusbaum , who in turn brought in his brother-in-law Julius Rosenwald , to whom Sears owed money. In August 1895, they bought Roebuck's half of the company for $ 75,000 ($ 2.7 million today), and that month the company was reincorporated in Illinois with a capital stock of $ 150,000 ($ 5.5 million today). The transaction
1998-485: A retail area of 100,000 to 350,000 square feet (9,300 to 32,500 m ) and serve a primary area of 3 to 6 miles (5 to 10 km). Local-scale shopping centres usually have a retail area of 30,000 to 150,000 square feet (2,800 to 13,900 m ), and serve a primary area in a 3-mile (5 km) radius. They typically have a supermarket as an anchor or a large convenience shop and commonly serve large villages or as secondary centres to towns. Car-dependent centres in
2109-455: Is Strøget in Copenhagen, Denmark . In the U.S. chiefly in the 1960s, some cities converted a main shopping street (usually several blocks of one street only) to pedestrian zones known at the time as shopping malls (i.e. the original meaning of "mall": a "promenade"), but now referred to as pedestrian malls . A shopping arcade is a type of shopping precinct that developed earlier and in which
2220-405: Is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collections of retailers under one roof are public markets , dating back to ancient times, and Middle Eastern covered markets, bazaars and souqs . In Paris, about 150 covered passages were built between the late 18th century and 1850, and a wealth of shopping arcades were built across Europe in the 19th century. In
2331-469: Is a retail park, according to the leading real estate company Cushman & Wakefield. This would be considered in North America either a power center or a neighborhood shopping center , depending on the size. A lifestyle center ( American English ), or lifestyle centre ( Commonwealth English ), is a shopping center or mixed-used commercial development that combines the traditional retail functions of
SECTION 20
#17328442997272442-820: Is a type of shopping center, a North American term originally meaning a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s began to be used as a generic term for large shopping centers anchored by department stores, especially enclosed centers. Many malls in the United States are currently in severe decline (" dead malls ") or have closed. Successful exceptions have added entertainment and experiential features, added big-box stores as anchor tenants, or are specialized formats: power centers , lifestyle centers , factory outlet centers, and festival marketplaces . Smaller types of shopping centers in North America include neighborhood shopping centers , and even smaller, strip malls . Pedestrian malls (shopping streets) in
2553-495: Is a type of shopping centre in which manufacturers sell their products directly to the public through their own stores. Other stores in outlet centres are operated by retailers selling returned goods and discontinued products, often at heavily reduced prices. Outlet stores were found as early as 1936, but the first multi-store outlet centre, Vanity Fair , located in Reading, Pennsylvania , did not open until 1974. Belz Enterprises opened
2664-420: Is about 4 miles (6.4 km) south of downtown , between 46th Street and Brush Creek to the north and south and between Mill Creek Parkway and Madison Avenue to the east and west. The Kansas state line is one mile (1.6 km) to the west. The neighborhoods surrounding the Plaza consist of upscale apartment buildings and mansions, especially those of the Country Club District built along Ward Parkway on
2775-399: Is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald , with what began as a mail ordering catalog company migrating to opening retail locations in 1925, the first in Chicago . Through the 1980s, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States. In 2005, the company
2886-615: Is not used in the U.K. The term "mall" is used for those types of centers in some markets beyond North America such as India and the United Arab Emirates . In other developing countries such as Namibia and Zambia , "Mall" is found in the names of many small centers that qualify as neighborhood shopping centers or strip malls according to the ICSC. The suburban shopping center concept evolved further with larger open-air shopping centers anchored by major department stores. The first
2997-481: Is over 800,000 sq ft (74,000 m ) of gross leasable area. These have three or more anchors, mass and varied merchant trade and serves as the dominant venue for the region (25 miles or 40 km) in which it is located. Note that ICSC defines indoor centers above 800,000 square feet (74,000 m ) net leasable area in Asia-Pacific as mega-malls . A regional-scale shopping centre (commonly known as
3108-522: Is situated at the northern terminus of Ward Parkway , a boulevard known for its wide, manicured median lined with fountains and statuary that traverses the Country Club District. Nichols selected the location carefully to provide residents with a direct route to the Plaza along Ward Parkway. Nichols began acquiring the land for the Plaza in 1907, in an area of Kansas City that was then known as Brush Creek Valley . When his plans were first announced,
3219-582: The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico . In 1997, Sears sold 85% of its Mexico affiliate to Grupo Carso . Sears Holdings continued to produce specialty catalogs and reintroduced a smaller version of the Holiday Wish Book in 2007. In 2003, Sears sold its U.S. retail credit card operation to Citibank . The remaining card operations for Sears Canada were sold to JPMorgan Chase in August 2005. In 2003, Sears opened
3330-904: The Discover credit card in 1985. However, these actions have been said to have distracted management's attention from the core retail business and allowed competing retailers to gain significant ground, culminating with Walmart surpassing Sears as the largest retailer in the United States in 1990. In the 1990s, the company began divesting itself of many non-retail entities, which were detrimental to its bottom line. Sears spun off its financial services arm, which included brokerage business Dean Witter Reynolds and Discover Card. It sold its mall building subsidiary Homart to General Growth Properties in 1995. Sears later acquired hardware chain Orchard Supply Hardware in 1996 and started home improvement store The Great Indoors in 1997. The cost of distributing
3441-457: The High Street (street – pedestrianized or not – with a high concentration of retail shops), and retail parks (usually out of the city centre, 5000 sq.m. or larger and anchored by big-box stores or supermarkets, rather than department stores). Most English-speakers follow a mix of the United Kingdom's and United States's naming conventions. In the U.K. a "centre for shopping" is commonly
Country Club Plaza - Misplaced Pages Continue
3552-484: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, higher-end restaurants, and upscale retailers including Gucci , Polo Ralph Lauren , FAO Schwarz , Saks Fifth Avenue , Bally , and Swanson's. Today, the Plaza is home to a number of high-end and unique-to-market stores including Tiffany & Co. , Michael Kors , Kate Spade New York , Eileen Fisher , Indochino , Free People , Tommy Bahama and Vineyard Vines . On September 12, 1977,
3663-663: The Sears Archer 600 typewriter as a rebranded Silverette model, manufactured by Silver Seiko Ltd. of Japan. The success of Sears outdoor products raised the attention of the Federal Government and the antitrust laws. Sears purchased David Bradley to manufacture farm and lawn equipment. Its success was broken up in 1962 as they sold more plows than John Deere. Sears sold half of the David Bradley factory in Bradley, Illinois to
3774-489: The Sears Tower was completed and served as the base of the mail-order catalog business until 1995. By 1907, under Rosenwald's leadership as vice president and treasurer, annual sales of the company climbed to roughly $ 50 million ($ 1.6 billion today). Sears resigned from the presidency in 1908 due to declining health, with Rosenwald named president and chairman of the board and taking on full control. In 1910, Sears acquired
3885-787: The 13th century, these covered walkways housed shops, with storage and accommodation for traders on various levels. Different rows specialized in different goods, such as 'Bakers Row' or 'Fleshmongers Row'. Gostiny Dvor in St. Petersburg , which opened in 1785, may be regarded as one of the first purposely-built mall-type shopping complexes, as it consisted of more than 100 shops covering an area of over 53,000 m (570,000 sq ft). The Marché des Enfants Rouges in Paris opened in 1628 and still runs today. The Oxford Covered Market in Oxford , England opened in 1774 and still runs today. The Passage du Caire
3996-602: The 1890s. Historic and/or monumental buildings are sometimes converted into shopping centers, often forming part of a larger city center shopping district that otherwise consists mostly of on-street stores. Examples are the former main post office of Amsterdam, now Magna Plaza ; the Stadsfeestzaal [ nl ] in Antwerp , Belgium, a former exhibition "palace"; the former Sears warehouse, now Ponce City Market in Atlanta ;
4107-522: The 1920s to the 1950s, Sears built many urban department stores in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico (apart from, but not far from, existing central business districts ), and they overshadowed the mail-order business. Following World War II, the company expanded into suburban markets and malls. In 1959, it had formed the Homart Development Company for developing malls. Many of the company's stores have undergone major renovations or replacements since
4218-460: The 1980s. Sears began to diversify in the 1930s, creating Allstate Insurance Company in 1931 and placing Allstate representatives in its stores in 1934 (Allstate was also used as a house brand on a range of motorized vehicles sold by Sears). Over the decades, it established major national brands, such as Kenmore , Craftsman , DieHard , Silvertone , Supertone , and Toughskins — and marketed widely under its private labels , e.g., marketing
4329-533: The 19th-century Al-Hamidiyah Souq in Damascus , Syria , might also be considered as precursors to the present-day large shopping centers. Isfahan 's Grand Bazaar , which is largely covered, dates from the 10th century. The 10-kilometer-long, covered Tehran's Grand Bazaar also has a lengthy history. The oldest continuously occupied shopping mall in the world is likely to be the Chester Rows . Dating back at least to
4440-632: The 2018/2019 season, 8 year-old Kansas City resident Hazel Laurie suggested that if the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl , the lights should remain up the rest of the year. Shopping center A shopping center in American English , shopping centre in Commonwealth English (see spelling differences ), shopping complex , shopping arcade , shopping plaza , or galleria ,
4551-744: The David Bradley Plow company. This acquisition would lead to the manufacturing of riding mowers, chainsaws, tillers, etc., in the Bradley Illinois factory. The company was badly hurt during 1919–21 as a severe depression hit the nation's farms after farmers had over-expanded their holdings. To bail out the company, Rosenwald pledged $ 21 million ($ 358.7 million today) of his personal wealth in 1921. By 1922, Sears regained financial stability. Rosenwald decided to shift emphasis to urban America and brought in Robert E. Wood to take charge. Rosenwald oversaw
Country Club Plaza - Misplaced Pages Continue
4662-685: The Newark Ohio Company that was shortly acquired by Roper Industries. Sears reached its pinnacle in the 1970s. In 1974, Sears completed the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago, which became the world's tallest building , a title it took from the former Twin Towers in New York. Upon moving out of Chicago, Sears sold the Sears Tower in 1988. In the sale contract of the tower, Sears retained its naming rights to
4773-414: The Plaza combined some higher-end shops, such as Harzfeld's , with a mix of more mid-level retailers such as Sears and Woolworth's , as well such quotidian enterprises as a bowling alley, movie theater, and a grocery store to serve the daily needs of residents of the district.. From around 1970, competition from newer suburban shopping malls led management to reposition the Plaza with luxury hotels such as
4884-499: The Plaza for the local entertainment/performances and to watch the switch-throwing to initiate the Christmas season . A special guest or celebrity "flips the switch" each year. The Plaza's "Season of Lights" is one of the city's oldest traditions. The lights are turned on Thanksgiving evening and shine overnight through mid-January of the following year. The one or two-hour ceremony is broadcast live on local television station KMBC . During
4995-420: The Plaza was designed and built to accommodate visitors arriving by automobile, it is unlike modern shopping malls with sprawling parking lots: parking is concealed in multilevel parking garages beneath and behind the shops, or on the rooftops of buildings. The Plaza was also the first shopping center to use the percentage lease, where rents are based on a percentage of the gross receipts of tenants. This concept
5106-513: The Plaza's southern and southwestern side. The buildings are arrayed along a collection of streets at the northern edge of the Country Club District, which leads the center to blend in with the apartment and office buildings and houses that surround it. The Country Club Plaza was named for the associated Country Club District , the neighborhood developed by J.C. Nichols which surrounded the Kansas City Country Club (now Loose Park ). It
5217-704: The Prairie Stone campus. The Sears catalog became known in the industry as "the Consumers' Bible". The company began selling to foreign customers after the American occupation of Greenland in World War II and the Philippines, among others, when locals ordered from catalogs left by soldiers. Novelists and story writers often portrayed the importance of the catalog in the emotional lives of rural folk. The catalog also entered
5328-440: The R.W. Sears Watch Company. That year, he met Alvah Curtis Roebuck , a watch repairman. In 1887, Sears and Roebuck relocated the business to Chicago, and the company published Richard Sears's first mail-order catalog, offering watches, diamonds, and jewelry. In 1889, Sears sold his business for $ 100,000 ($ 3 million in 2021 dollars) and relocated to Iowa, planning to be a rural banker. He returned to Chicago in 1892 and established
5439-576: The Sears Essentials format, only to change them later to Sears Grands. The combined company's profits peaked at $ 1.5 billion in 2006. By 2010, the company was no longer profitable; from 2011 to 2016, the company lost $ 10.4 billion. In 2014, its total debt ($ 4.2 billion at the end of January 2017) exceeded its market capitalization ($ 974.1 million as of March 21, 2017). Sears declined from more than 3,500 physical stores to 695 U.S. stores from 2010 to 2017. Sales at Sears stores dropped 10.3 percent in
5550-600: The U.K. and Europe, if larger than 5,000 square metres (54,000 sq ft) can be termed a small retail park , while in the U.S. and some other countries it is known as a neighborhood shopping center . Convenience-scale centers, independent of other centers are known as strip malls or as shopping parades. These centers are less than 30,000 square feet (2,800 m ) of gross leasable space and commonly serve villages or as parts of larger centers commonly called small squares, plazas or indoor markets. They are also called strip centers or convenience centers. Strip Malls, despite
5661-568: The U.S. or Shopping Centres in Commonwealth English . Community-scale shopping centres are commonly called Main Streets , High Streets or town squares in wider centres or in English-speaking Europe as retail parks for certain centres. These offer a wider range of goods and has two anchor supermarkets or discount department stores. They may also follow a parallel configuration, or may be L- or U-shaped. Community centers usually feature
SECTION 50
#17328442997275772-485: The United States have been less common and less successful than in Europe. In Canada, underground passages in Montreal and Toronto link large adjacent downtown retail spaces. In Europe shopping malls/centers continue to grow and thrive. In the region distinction is made between shopping centers (shops under one roof), shopping precincts ( pedestrianized zones of a town or city where many retail stores are located),
5883-450: The United States, the widespread use of the automobile in the 1920s led to the first shopping centers of a few dozen shops that included parking for cars. Starting in 1946, larger, open air centers anchored by department stores were built (sometimes as a collection of adjacent retail properties with different owners), then enclosed shopping malls starting with Victor Gruen 's Southdale Center near Minneapolis in 1956. A shopping mall
5994-793: The architecture of Seville, Spain , The Plaza comprises numerous, large city blocks of high-end retail establishments, restaurants, and entertainment venues, as well as offices. The Country Club Plaza is named in the Project for Public Spaces ' list 60 of the World's Great Places . It encompasses a 14-block area, and includes 40 statues, fountains and sculptures; 12 towers; carriage rides and sidewalk cafes; and at one time, 180 shops and restaurants. As of 2020, there were more than 70 stores and shops in 18 separate buildings representing 784,000 square feet (72,800 m) of retail space and 219,000 square feet (20,300 m) of office space. The 55-acre (22 ha) site
6105-512: The area, as well as major architectural reproductions, such as a half-sized Giralda Tower of Seville (the tallest building in the Plaza). The Plaza also includes reproductions of San Francisco's Path of Gold streetlights. Other works of art celebrate the classics, nature, and historical American themes such as westward expansion , and a magnificent fountain featuring four horses rearing up on their hind legs, designed by Henri-Léon Gréber . Although
6216-519: The bankruptcy process, while all others would hold liquidation sales. On January 16, 2019, Sears Holdings announced it would remain open after Lampert won a bankruptcy auction for the company with an offer to keep about 400 stores open. On February 7, 2019, a bankruptcy judge approved a $ 5.2 billion plan by Sears's chairman and biggest shareholder to keep the business going. The approval meant roughly 425 stores, including 223 Sears stores, and 45,000 jobs would be preserved. In April 2019, Sears announced
6327-400: The brand's huge popularity helped attract customers. Sears retail stores were pioneering and broke the conventions of the time in three ways: Many stores at this time were designed by architect George C. Nimmons and his firms. The architecture was driven by merchandising needs rather than the desired outer appearance. This made the stores excellent examples of the modern architecture of
6438-476: The building until 2003, but the Sears Tower retained the name until early 2009, when London-based insurer Willis Group Holdings, Ltd. was given the building's naming rights to encourage them to occupy the building. Sears moved to the new Prairie Stone Business Park in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, between 1993 and 1995. The Sears Centre is a 10,001-seat multi-purpose arena located in Hoffman Estates adjacent to
6549-413: The centre for a settlement. More recent shopping dedicated areas outside the main centre are known as "shopping centres" (with understanding of the synonym shopping mall) "shopping villages" or "retail parks". According to author Richard Longstreth, before the 1920s–1930s, the term "shopping center" in the U.S. was loosely applied to any group of adjacent retail businesses. A city's downtown might be called
6660-650: The company announced that Transform Holdco would acquire Sears Hometown & Outlet Stores . As per deal, it might need to divest its Sears Outlet division to gain approval. On August 6, 2019, it was announced that 26 stores would close that October, including 21 Sears stores, among them the last Sears stores in Alabama and West Virginia , at Riverchase Galleria in Hoover and at Huntington Mall in Barboursville , respectively. The announcement also included plans to "accelerate
6771-417: The company was looking to focus on becoming a more tech-driven retailer. Sears's CEO and top shareholder said the sell-off of key assets in the last year had given the retailer the money it needs to speed up its transformation. Sears Holdings had lost a total of US$ 7 billion in the four years to 2015. In part, the retailer was trying to curb losses by using a loyalty program called Shop Your Way. Sears believed
SECTION 60
#17328442997276882-688: The connecting walkways are not owned by a single proprietor and may be in the open air or covered by a ground-floor loggia . Many early shopping arcades such as the Burlington Arcade in London, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, and numerous arcades in Paris are famous and still functioning as shopping centres, while many others have been demolished. In Russia , centuries-old shopping centres
6993-507: The current Ford line ]). By 1895, the company was producing a 532-page catalog. Sales were over $ 400,000 ($ 12 million in 2021 dollars) in 1893 and over $ 750,000 ($ 20 million in 2021 dollars) two years later. By 1896, dolls, stoves, and groceries were added to the catalog. Despite the strong and growing sales, the national Panic of 1893 led to a full-scale economic depression , causing a cash squeeze and large quantities of unsold merchandise by 1895. Roebuck decided to quit, returning later in
7104-498: The dense, commercial downtowns into the largely residential suburbs. This formula (enclosed space with stores attached, away from downtown, and accessible only by automobile) became a popular way to build retail across the world. Gruen himself came to abhor this effect of his new design; he decried the creation of enormous "land wasting seas of parking" and the spread of suburban sprawl. Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. , commonly known as Sears ( / s ɪər z / SEERZ ),
7215-661: The design and business plan, a place built according to an overall program that covered the target market, types of stores and store mix, signs, exterior lighting, and parking. In the mid-20th century, with the rise of the suburb and automobile culture in the United States, a new style of shopping center was created away from downtown . Early shopping centers designed for the automobile include Market Square , Lake Forest, Illinois (1916), and Country Club Plaza , Kansas City, Missouri , 55 acres (220,000 m ), opened 1923. The Bank Block in Grandview Heights, Ohio (1928)
7326-511: The design and construction of the firm's first department store, built on land within the Sears, Roebuck, and Company Complex. The store opened in 1925. In 1924, Rosenwald resigned the presidency but remained as chair until he died in 1932; his goal was to devote more time to philanthropy. The first store opened on February 2, 1925, as an experiment in the North Lawndale Sears, Roebuck and Company Complex . Despite its remote location on
7437-558: The earliest public shopping centers is Trajan's Market in Rome located in Trajan's Forum. Trajan's Market was probably built around 100–110 AD by Apollodorus of Damascus , and it is thought to be the world's oldest shopping center. The Grand Bazaar of Istanbul was built in the 15th century and is still one of the largest covered shopping centers in the world, with more than 58 streets and 4,000 shops. Numerous other covered shopping arcades, such as
7548-721: The expansion of our smaller store formats which includes opening additional Home & Life stores and adding several hundred Sears Hometown stores after the Sears Hometown and Outlet transaction closes." On August 31, 2019, management announced that Transform would close an additional 92 stores, including 15 Sears stores, by the end of 2019. Near the end of 2019, Sears sold the brand name DieHard to Advance Auto Parts for $ 200 million. A total of 100 more stores closed by January 2020. 51 Sears stores were closed in February 2020. More stores continued to close throughout 2020 and 2021, including
7659-568: The family fortune in a speculative stock deal. Sears moved across the state to work as a railroad station agent in North Redwood , then Minneapolis . While he was in North Redwood, a jeweler refused delivery on a shipment of watches. Sears purchased them and sold them at a low price to the station agents, making a profit. He started a mail-order watch business in Minneapolis in 1886, calling it
7770-674: The final Sears in Maine at The Maine Mall. In September 2021, the company's website listed 35 Sears stores. That month, Sears announced that it would close more stores, including the last Sears store in New York City. The New York City Sears closed by November 24, 2021, with the potential to be redeveloped. Transformco announced in December 2021 its plans to sell the 2.3 million-square-foot Sears headquarters in Hoffman Estates, which includes 100 acres of undeveloped land. On January 19, 2022, Sears shut
7881-520: The final quarter of 2016 when compared to the same period in 2015. Sears spent much of 2014 and 2015 selling off portions of its balance sheet; namely, Lands' End and its stake in Sears Canada , one of the biggest e-commerce players in Canada, with Can$ 505 million in sales in 2015—more than Walmart and others who had begun pushing aggressively into online sales, such as Canadian Tire . Sears stated that
7992-481: The first enclosed factory outlet center in 1979, in Lakeland, Tennessee , a suburb of Memphis . A shopping precinct (U.K. term) or pedestrian mall (U.S. term) is an area of city centre streets which have been pedestrianized, where there is a concentration of " high street shops" such as department stores, clothing and home furnishings stores, and so forth. They may be part of a larger city-centre pedestrian zone , as
8103-1028: The first of its Christmas catalogs known as the " Sears Wishbook ", a catalog featuring toys and gifts, separate from the annual Christmas Catalog. From 1908 to 1940, it included ready-to-assemble Sears Catalog Home kit houses. Sears opened a small store in Downtown Havana , Cuba in 1942. Sears opened its first store in Mexico City in 1947; the Mexican stores would later spin off into Sears Mexico , now owned by billionaire Carlos Slim 's Grupo Sanborns , which in 2020 operated more than 75 stores across Mexico. Sears had sales of US$ 78 million in other territories in 1953. Over time, Sears expanded into all Central American countries, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, and Spain. Currently Sears operates in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Puerto Rico. From
8214-560: The first suburban center with common management and tenant selection, and the first with unified architecture. New Urbanist land developer Andres Duany noted in Community Builder: The Life & Legacy of J.C. Nichols that the Country Club Plaza has had the longest life of any planned shopping center in the history of the world. One of its oldest retailers is the Jack Henry Clothing company, founded in 1931. While
8325-470: The following types: Abbreviations: SC=shopping center/centre, GLA = Gross Leasable Area, NLA = Net Leasable Area , AP=Asia-Pacific, EU=Europe, Can=Canada, US=United States of America does not apply to Europe a.k.a. large neighborhood shopping center in US, Can A superregional-scale center is commonly called a city centre. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers it
8436-555: The former Emporium-Capwell department store in San Francisco , now San Francisco Centre ; Georgetown Park in Washington, D.C. , and the Abasto de Buenos Aires , formerly the city's wholesale produce market. Shopping centers are not a recent innovation. One of the earliest examples of public shopping areas comes from ancient Rome , in forums where shopping markets were located. One of
8547-439: The language, particularly of rural dwellers, as a euphemism for toilet paper, as its pages could be torn out and used as such. In addition, for many rural African-Americans, especially in areas dominated by Jim Crow racial segregation , the Sears catalog was a vital retail alternative to local white-population-dominated stores, bypassing the stores' frequent intention to deny them fair access to their merchandise. However, as
8658-530: The late 19th century and early 20th century, including the Cleveland Arcade , and Moscow 's GUM , which opened in 1890. When the Cleveland Arcade opened in 1890, it was among the first indoor shopping arcades in the US, and like its European counterparts, was an architectural triumph. Two sides of the arcade had 1,600 panes of glass set in iron framing and is a prime example of Victorian architecture . Sydney's Queen Victoria Markets Building , opened in 1898,
8769-419: The legal name Sears, Roebuck and Co. , in the state of New York, which effectively replaced the original company. The current company inherits the history of the old company, celebrating the original 1892 incorporation, rather than the 1906 revision, as the start of the company. Sears's successful 1906 initial public offering (IPO) marks the first major retail IPO in American financial history and represented
8880-456: The liquidation of the 115 largely owner-operated Hometown stores. As of November 2024, there are nine Sears stores remaining, with eight in the mainland U.S. and one location in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Richard Warren Sears was born in 1863 in Stewartville, Minnesota , to a wealthy family which moved to nearby Spring Valley . In 1879, his father died shortly after losing
8991-567: The membership scheme would enhance repeat business and customer loyalty in the long term. CEO Eddie Lampert also concluded an arrangement that sold the Craftsman brand to Stanley Black & Decker Inc. for approximately US$ 900 million. In October 2017, Sears and appliance manufacturer Whirlpool Corporation ended their 101-year-old association, reportedly due to pricing issues, although Whirlpool continued supplying Sears with Kenmore -branded appliances. In May 2018, Sears announced it had formed
9102-614: The mid-1950s, it claimed to be the largest shopping center on the West Coast of the United States and the third-largest in the country. The first part of the Panorama City Shopping Center opened as on October 10, 1955, and would grow until the mid-1960s, it claimed to be the first shopping center with four major department store anchors, even though the "center" was in fact a marketing association for multiple adjacent properties. Northland Center near Detroit , built 1954,
9213-437: The name, are not considered "malls" in North America. Power centers , in North America, are open-air single-level shopping centers that almost exclusively feature several big-box retailers as their anchors (although newer urban power centers have adopted enclosed and/or vertical formats while retaining the strong big-box emphasis). They usually have a retail area of 250,000 to 600,000 square feet (23,000 to 56,000 m ) and
9324-404: The nation urbanized, Sears's catalog business faced competition from city department stores. Rural America's population was slow-growing and possessed far less spending power than urban America. In the 1980s, the company began to diversify into non-retail entities such as buying Dean Witter and Coldwell Banker in 1981. In 1984, it launched Prodigy as a joint venture with IBM , and introduced
9435-515: The once highly influential general merchandise catalog became prohibitive; sales and profits had declined. The company discontinued the catalog in 1993. It dismissed 50,000 workers who had filled the orders. In 1992, the company posted a $ 3.9 billion loss, the largest ever from an American retailer. In 1992, California successfully sued the company for falsely finding things wrong with automobiles in for repair for other reasons. In 1997, criminal charges were made. In 1998, Sears announced it had sold
9546-509: The opening of three new stores with a limited set of merchandise under the name Sears Home & Life. Also that month, Sears closed its store at Windward Mall in Kaneohe, Hawaii , and its store at Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook, Illinois (which was razed and already rebuilt as a 1-story store), making it the first post-bankruptcy closure for the brand since being bought by ESL. On June 3, 2019,
9657-513: The outskirts of Chicago, its success led to dozens of further openings across the country, many in conjunction with the company's mail-order offices, typically in lower-middle-class and working-class neighborhoods, far from the main downtown shopping district. This was considered highly unconventional at a time when shopping was concentrated in city centers, but through World War II , there was an extensive streetcar network in Chicago and other U.S. cities. However, rapidly increasing car ownership and
9768-428: The positive contributions that Nichols made to Kansas City and urban development are undeniable, there is a dark history of how his influence impacted marginalized communities within Kansas City. Nichols is responsible for " redlining " and residential covenants that kept Blacks , Jews , and other marginalized people from purchasing homes and living in the more desirable areas of Kansas City. For its first four decades,
9879-578: The project was dubbed 'Nichols' Folly' because of the then seemingly undesirable location; at the time, the only developed land in the valley belonged to the Country Day School (now the Pembroke Hill School ), and the rest was known for pig farming.. Nichols employed architect Edward Buehler Delk to design the new shopping district. The Plaza was opened in 1923. It was the first regional shopping center designed with parking for automobile access,
9990-612: The remaining 15 Sears Auto Centers in the United States with a message on the Sears Auto Center website stating: "Auto Centers have closed for business. We appreciate your patronage over the years. If you have any questions concerning warranty claims, please visit us at Sears Help." In May 2022, it was announced that roughly 100 more Sears Hometown stores, including the last four in Michigan, would close permanently. On December 13, 2022, Sears Hometown filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It
10101-640: The remnants of Western Auto (which it had acquired in 1998) to Roanoke -based Advance Auto Parts . The business deal was not what experts in the after-market automotive industry expected: Sears, Roebuck became "one of the largest shareholders" after obtaining a 40% stake in Advance Auto Parts and merging their two store networks, which included Western Auto's wholesale and retail operations. The existing store network of Advance Auto Parts, comprising 915 stores in 17 U.S. states, merged with 590 U.S.-based Parts America Stores in addition to 40 Western Auto stores in
10212-526: The size of regional malls still operate, consisting of multiple arcades. They developed from previous so-called "trading rows", which were essentially markets where traders could obtain space to sell their goods. Great Gostiny Dvor in Saint Petersburg in its present buildings dates back to the 1760s. With a total area of 800,000 square feet (74,000 m ), GUM in Moscow, opened in its present buildings in
10323-422: The storekeeper's estimate of a customer's creditworthiness. Sears built an opposite business model by offering in their catalogs a larger selection of products at published prices. By 1894, the Sears catalog had grown to 322 pages, including many new items, such as sewing machines, bicycles, sporting goods and automobiles (later produced, from 1905 to 1915, by Lincoln Motor Car Works of Chicago [no relation to
10434-487: The time—styles made famous by Bertram Goodhue and Eliel Saarinen . Its stores were oriented to motorists. Set apart from existing business districts amid residential areas occupied by their target audience, they had ample, free, off-street parking and communicated a clear corporate identity. In the 1930s, the company designed fully air-conditioned, "windowless" stores, such as Sears-Pico in 1939 in Los Angeles , which
10545-756: The twentieth century" by Malcolm Gladwell . The first retail complex to be promoted as a "mall" was Paramus, New Jersey's Bergen Mall . The center, which opened with an open-air format in 1957, was enclosed in 1973. Aside from Southdale Center , significant early enclosed shopping malls were Harundale Mall (1958) in Glen Burnie, Maryland, Big Town Mall (1959) in Mesquite, Texas, Chris-Town Mall (1961) in Phoenix, Arizona, and Randhurst Center (1962) in Mount Prospect, Illinois. Other early malls moved retailing away from
10656-615: The word "mall", that is, a pedestrian promenade (in U.K. usage a "shopping precinct"). Early downtown pedestrianized malls included the Kalamazoo Mall (the first, in 1959), "Shoppers' See-Way" in Toledo , Lincoln Road Mall in Miami Beach , Santa Monica Mall (1965), and malls in Fort Worth and in Canada's capital, Ottawa . The downtown Urbana, Illinois mall , converted from a city street,
10767-558: Was a center in Ardmore, Pennsylvania later named Suburban Square , when the Philadelphia department store Strawbridge & Clothier opened a four-story, 50,000 sq ft (4,600 m ) branch there on May 12, 1930. A much larger example would be the 550,000-square-foot (51,000 m ) Broadway-Crenshaw Center in Los Angeles built in 1947, anchored by a five-story Broadway and
10878-459: Was a collection of stores under one roof aimed at the workers in the company town of Morgan Park , in Duluth, Minnesota . Before the 1920s–1930s, the term "shopping center" in the U.S. was loosely applies to a collection of retail businesses. A city's Downtown might be called a "shopping center". By the 1940s, "shopping center" implied — if not always a single owner — at least, comprehensive planning in
10989-603: Was also an ambitious architectural project. Shopping Centers built before the 20th century ; Notes: *based on current ICSC shopping center type definitions, **center opened in 1926 without department store, which was added in 1930 Early examples of "stores under one roof" include the nine-building shopping arcade Dayton Arcade in Dayton, Ohio (1902–1904), primarily built to rehouse the public food markets in more sanitary conditions, but which added retail clothing and household goods stores. The Lake View Store , opened July 1916,
11100-509: Was an early strip mall or neighborhood center of 30 shops built along Grandview Avenue, with parking in the back for 400 cars. Uniquely for the time, it had multiple national grocery store tenants Kroger , Piggly Wiggly , and the A&;P Tea Company. The Park and Shop (1930) in Cleveland Park, Washington, D.C. was an early strip mall or neighborhood center with parking in the front. It
11211-498: Was anchored by Piggly Wiggly and built in an L shape. Other notable, large early centers with strips of independent stores, adjacent parking lots, but no department store anchors, include Highland Park Village (1931) in Dallas ; and River Oaks Shopping Center (1937) in Houston . In the late 1950s and into the 1960s, the term "shopping mall" was first used, but in the original sense of
11322-475: Was based in the Sears Tower in Chicago from 1973 until 1995, and was later headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois from 1993 until 2021, the year when it announced that it would be selling its Hoffman Estates headquarters complex. On December 12, 2022, Sears Authorized Hometown Stores, LLC, and affiliated debtor Sears Hometown, Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and on December 26 announced
11433-514: Was bought by the management of the American big box discount chain Kmart , which upon completion of the merger, formed Sears Holdings . In 2018, it was the 31st-largest. After several years of declining sales, Sears's parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018. It announced on January 16, 2019, that it had won its bankruptcy auction, and that a reduced number of 425 stores would remain open, including 223 Sears stores. Sears
11544-399: Was enclosed, designed by Victor Gruen . Although Bergen Mall (opened 1957) led other suburban shopping centers in using "mall" in their names, these types of properties were still referred to as "shopping centers" until the late 1960s, when the term "shopping mall" started to be used generically for large suburban shopping centers. The term "mall" for regional enclosed shopping centers
11655-518: Was handled by Albert Henry Loeb of Chicago law firm Loeb & Adler (now Arnstein & Lehr ); copies of the transaction are still displayed on the firm's walls. Sears and Rosenwald got along well with each other, but not with Nusbaum; they bought his interest in the firm for $ 1.3 million in 1903 ($ 44.1 million today). Rosenwald brought to the mail-order firm a rational management philosophy and diversified product lines: dry goods, consumer durables, drugs, hardware, furniture, and nearly anything else
11766-605: Was novel when Nichols invented it, but it is now a standard practice in commercial leases. Several companies are based in the Country Club Plaza area, including American Century Investments , Russell Stover Candies , Inergy , Gates Bar-B-Q , Lockton , Polsinelli , and Block Real Estate Services. In 1925, a single strand of 16 colored-lights was placed above a doorway in the Country Club Plaza to celebrate Christmas . The number of lights increased annually, inspiring an official lighting ceremony that first took place in 1930. On Thanksgiving night, tens of thousands of people visit
11877-541: Was opened in Paris in 1798. The Burlington Arcade in London was opened in 1819. The Arcade in Providence, Rhode Island introduced the retail arcade concept to the United States in 1828 and is arguably the oldest "shopping center" in the country. The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan , Italy followed in the 1870s and is closer to large modern malls in spaciousness. Other large cities created arcades and shopping centers in
11988-661: Was pioneered in 1956 by the Austrian-born architect and American immigrant Victor Gruen . This new generation of regional-size shopping centers began with the Gruen-designed Southdale Center , which opened in the Twin Cities suburb of Edina, Minnesota , United States in October 1956. For pioneering the soon-to-be enormously popular mall concept in this form, Gruen has been called the "most influential architect of
12099-591: Was the first of 4 centers that Victor Gruen built for Hudson's ( Eastland Center , Southland Center , and Westland Center were the others) At launch, Northland Center was the world's largest shopping center. The enclosed shopping mall did not appear until the mid-1950s. One of the earliest examples was the Valley Fair Shopping Center in Appleton, Wisconsin , which opened in March 1955. Valley Fair featured
12210-428: Was the first to have an open plan selling floor (instead of breaking up the floor into discrete sections). Sears was also a pioneer in creating department stores that catered to men and women. The stores included hardware and building materials. It de-emphasized the latest clothing fashions in favor of practical and durable clothing and allowed customers to select goods without the aid of a clerk. In 1933, Sears issued
12321-565: Was transformed into the new Sears Holdings Corporation . The new company started trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange as SHLD; Sears sold its single-letter ticker symbol 'S' in the New York Stock Exchange that it had held since 1910 to Sprint Corporation . The new corporation announced that it would continue to operate stores under both the Sears and Kmart brands. In 2005, the company began renovating some Kmart stores and converting them to
#726273