Here’s a sign of the times, a shopping centre that’s seen better days. The term “dead mall” is often heard when discussing retail, with many such places (even before the Corona shutdown) becoming literal ghost towns due to a lack of shops. Losing a tenant is bad, but if an anchor it can be devastating. Here at the Town ‘N’ Country (T&C to those who know and love it) in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan, they’ve seen two big department stores shutter in the last decade. Ouch!
First to go was Zellers in the early 2010s, a budget chain dating back to the 1930s that succumbed to the one-two punch that was Walmart and the Internet. The US firm Target came in to take their place, but they crashed and burned and soon retreated back to home territory. The Moose Jaw store was never to be part of that Canadian expansion, by the way. The space has since had a new tenant move in, a government social services outlet. Will it mean more people in the mall, yes I suppose, but doubt it’ll mean more business for those stores left.
Sears in Canada dates back to the 1950s, operating for many decades as Simpson-Sears. This chain was more upscale and for years a retail juggernaut. While still operating in the US (but on shaky ground), the independent Canadian operation closed in 2018. Online shopping claims another victim.
We’re reminded, there’s some retail lessons here. They’ve been witness to a retail apocalypse here and we ponder the long term chances of the mall surviving.
The Town ‘N’ Country dates back to the 1970s (first reference we could find was ’78). We happened to be passing through town, returning from our epic Summer 2019 SK adventure (articles to be published post Covid) when a wrong turn lead us here. And we just had to snap a couple pics and reminisce.
Short Subjects: reports that for any number of reasons are brief in nature. They might be updates to older articles, previews of posts planned or not yet published, brief snippets of things that don’t fit in anywhere else or subjects that are so obscure that information on them can’t be found. Or sometimes we just ramble on about Lord knows what.
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Date of adventure: August, 2019. Location: Moose Jaw, SK.
They’re a dying breed but most seem to be hanging on for now (I hear it’s pretty dire in the States). We live by one of Calgary’s original malls and it’s about a quarter empty. But it still has two anchor tenants, so it’s doing better than some.
We used to do something called the "pointless challenge" 🤪 and miss those days. It was so much silly fun and often frustrating as heck. In these we'd invite people to send in random photos of obscure locations, but not give any information, and then we'd track where it was and shoot something similar.
Most of these came from old family collections, as was the case here. Anyone up to resurrecting the series?
In hindsight, why didn't we pose someone in our shot?
Pointless: “Devoid of meaning (or) senseless” Merriam-Webster.
If you like what we do and want to support this ongoing project (12 years now), go here: https://www.BIGDoer.com/help-the-society/ Thanks to Connie for making this post possible.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: ca1970 and 2014. Posted by Connie.
Captured on a cold, cold day many years ago. We've been passing this old house for decades and it's little changed in that time. At some point we expect to drive by and it'll be gone.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
When retired old railway cars usually get cut up for scrap. Sometimes, however, they find their way into the hands of the general public or whomever. Flat cars make good bridges, and boxcars can be transformed into storage buildings and the like. Case in point here. We see them used like this often enough and in this case, it's part of a corral.
Incidentally, this boxcar dates from 1950 and this was found by tracing the old road number, which is still visible.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
This central Alberta racetrack was never a commercial operation but instead just a fun place for car enthusiasts in the area to get together. Early '70s or thereabouts and it only lasted a few years. Even thought it's been abandoned for that long, there is no doubt what was here.
You know we like the the obscure stuff and this one fits the bill perfectly. Found by accident while backroad cruising and the history comes thanks to local car guy Mike.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.
On top of little Myrtle Mountain in the Kimberley (BC) Nature Park.
There's some good wilderness fun to be had here and nice views as you can see, but the real reason we came is mining history. The whole area near the ski hill was extensively worked over a century ago and we were looking for evidence of this. We didn't find much in the area searched, but it's a big chunk of property and we hope to return to cover more ground again soon. Of all the subjects we cover, mining related is a favourite.
Still, it was a good hike and that can't be bad. Look to the comments for more info 👇.
Exploring nature and history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.
It's a strange curiosity in south Kananaskis, there on a hillside and we have no idea who created it. We asked around and no one's completely sure about its history. In the past it showed the Canada 100 logo from 1967 but in 2017 someone changed it to reflect the country's 150th.
That's our friend Emily from DanOCan.com having a look.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
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Everything starts with Z.
Haven’t heard that slogan in like a million years!
Lunch with my mom at the Zellers lunch counter after one of her legendary shopping marathons! That was bliss.
A stop at the lunch counter was mandatory.
Losing two anchors must have been quite the blow.
You’d think a death blow, yet the mall is still open. The clock must be ticking though.
Miss those stores!
Times in the retail biz are changing and the old guard has been swept away.
My Mom & Aunty used to take me to Zellers when I was little. Such fond memories!
Everyone’s Moms shopped there!
There’s a lot of malls like that in Canada. I’ve been in that mall in happier times.
They’re a dying breed but most seem to be hanging on for now (I hear it’s pretty dire in the States). We live by one of Calgary’s original malls and it’s about a quarter empty. But it still has two anchor tenants, so it’s doing better than some.