At Home

[retailisking]

The home decor retailer noted for repurposing vacant big boxes has opened their first New England store at a former Sam's Club in Warwick, RI - and a second outlet is coming to Seekonk, MA at the end of May
http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20170430/home-decor-retailer-at-home-opens-its-first-new-england-store-in-warwick

[jason83080]

At Home has some pretty nice things, if you can take the time to look through everything to find them. I used to work there and, while the store's HUGE, it's at least organized by department. From what I understand in visiting with my now-former coworkers, the organization's getting BETTER (when we opened our store, it was just pallets of stuff sorted by general department, and the orders were, 'it goes here, make it fit.' Hell Week, indeed!), which is a good thing.

Just keep this in mind when you shop there: The Christmas stock starts arriving in *June* (you'll see the Patio Cushions get pushed further and further toward the back - no, they don't all go on clearance, just selected discontinued patterns - to make room), while, after Christmas, you'll start seeing the Spring/Summer seasonal merchandise - including the reexpansion of Patio Cushions - come out in full force as the Winter Holidays stock is clearanced out.

As I referred to it back then, At Home is like a Pier 1 Imports on steroids. Picture your Sam's Club store (or, in my case, almost an entire Super Kmart) just filled with home decor goods, and you've got At Home. Our building was deceptively large - from the front, it looked smaller than it actually was, because Litehouse painted 1/3 of the space between Kmart's double entrances beige to easily line up with where the wall panels were instead of stopping right next to their entrance, where the boundary of their store ACTUALLY was. Also, because their store space didn't go all the way to the rear of the building, our store wrapped AROUND theirs, so we sat proudly at 105,000SF of retail space, with 18,000SF of Receiving/that weird upstairs loft that I think was Kmart's old layaway storage/odd back hallways from the old Kmart days/several electrical rooms/old Kmart front offices that were leftover from the renovation of the building... It was definitely an interesting layout, and it was always fun to take people on tours of the old back hallways. In fact, I wonder if that old Snapple bottle from who-knows-when is still on that shelf...

[giantsfan2016]

If they want to expand to Connecticut there's an empty Lowe's on East Main Street in Meriden. That's well over 100,000 square feet. They can also come to Burr Plaza in Manchester. There's a lease plan that says they're willing to move both Pilgrim Furniture and K&G Men's store. Both spots make up 100,000 square feet. Plus there are a couple smaller store fronts that are vacant next to Pilgrim they can use them as well. K&G Men's store can move to the other end of the plaza but I have no idea where Pilgrim can go.

I don't know how small they want to go down to, but there are vacant Walmart's in New Britain and Derby that are both under 100,000 Square Feet. New Britain is around 84,000. I also think there is a vacant Walmart in East Windsor. (Unsure of the size). There's also going to be 75,000 Square feet of the old KMART in Cromwell once Shoprite takes 20,000 Square feet plus the adjacent former X-PECT Discounts. It's too bad stuff is already occupying the old KMARTS in Waterbury and Torrington. (Waterbury is Ollie's Bargain Basement and Porter & Chester Institute. Part of Torrington is Job Lot). If The Golub's decide to close PC in Southington instead of converting it to Market 32 that would be a good spot as well. That's around 95,000 square feet. Too bad Shoprite in Waterbury won't want to move (again). If they could move into the old Caldor at the corner of Lakewood and Wolcott and Planet Fitness moves into the other building on that property - At Home could take Shoprite's Spot and the vacant TJ MAXX for a total of 95,000 Square feet. There's nothing remotely big enough in Bristol or Southington. If they ever could get into Southington Homegoods would s h i t their pants. LOL.

[giantsfan2016]

If they want to expand to Connecticut there's an empty Lowe's on East Main Street in Meriden. That's well over 100,000 square feet. They can also come to Burr Plaza in Manchester. There's a lease plan that says they're willing to move both Pilgrim Furniture and K&G Men's store. Both spots make up 100,000 square feet. Plus there are a couple smaller store fronts that are vacant next to Pilgrim they can use them as well. K&G Men's store can move to the other end of the plaza but I have no idea where Pilgrim can go.

I don't know how small they want to go down to, but there are vacant Walmart's in New Britain and Derby that are both under 100,000 Square Feet. New Britain is around 84,000. I also think there is a vacant Walmart in East Windsor. (Unsure of the size). There's also going to be 75,000 Square feet of the old KMART in Cromwell once Shoprite takes 20,000 Square feet plus the adjacent former X-PECT Discounts. It's too bad stuff is already occupying the old KMARTS in Waterbury and Torrington. (Waterbury is Ollie's Bargain Basement and Porter & Chester Institute. Part of Torrington is Job Lot). If The Golub's decide to close PC in Southington instead of converting it to Market 32 that would be a good spot as well. That's around 95,000 square feet. Too bad Shoprite in Waterbury won't want to move (again). If they could move into the old Caldor at the corner of Lakewood and Wolcott and Planet Fitness moves into the other building on that property - At Home could take Shoprite's Spot and the vacant TJ MAXX for a total of 95,000 Square feet. There's nothing remotely big enough in Bristol or Southington. If they ever could get into Southington Homegoods would s h i t their pants. LOL.

Continuing my thought from earlier. I went to sleep almost immediately after posting and this thought came to me. I know that a big store like that attracts customers from miles around, so I know there's no need for them to open in every location I suggested, but I was just listing locations I know are empty and might be big enough. And I just wanted to get some thoughts about some of the locations I suggested.

[AmesNewington]

If they want to expand to Connecticut there's an empty Lowe's on East Main Street in Meriden. That's well over 100,000 square feet. They can also come to Burr Plaza in Manchester. There's a lease plan that says they're willing to move both Pilgrim Furniture and K&G Men's store. Both spots make up 100,000 square feet. Plus there are a couple smaller store fronts that are vacant next to Pilgrim they can use them as well. K&G Men's store can move to the other end of the plaza but I have no idea where Pilgrim can go.

I don't know how small they want to go down to, but there are vacant Walmart's in New Britain and Derby that are both under 100,000 Square Feet. New Britain is around 84,000. I also think there is a vacant Walmart in East Windsor. (Unsure of the size). There's also going to be 75,000 Square feet of the old KMART in Cromwell once Shoprite takes 20,000 Square feet plus the adjacent former X-PECT Discounts. It's too bad stuff is already occupying the old KMARTS in Waterbury and Torrington. (Waterbury is Ollie's Bargain Basement and Porter & Chester Institute. Part of Torrington is Job Lot). If The Golub's decide to close PC in Southington instead of converting it to Market 32 that would be a good spot as well. That's around 95,000 square feet. Too bad Shoprite in Waterbury won't want to move (again). If they could move into the old Caldor at the corner of Lakewood and Wolcott and Planet Fitness moves into the other building on that property - At Home could take Shoprite's Spot and the vacant TJ MAXX for a total of 95,000 Square feet. There's nothing remotely big enough in Bristol or Southington. If they ever could get into Southington Homegoods would s h i t their pants. LOL.

Continuing my thought from earlier. I went to sleep almost immediately after posting and this thought came to me. I know that a big store like that attracts customers from miles around, so I know there's no need for them to open in every location I suggested, but I was just listing locations I know are empty and might be big enough. And I just wanted to get some thoughts about some of the locations I suggested.

If ShopRite in Cromwell turns out to be a nice store, we may shop there, even occasionally. To have a store like At Home next door, especially in the old Kmart, would be a dream come true for my mom. She likes those kinds of stores and since we only get to go to Kmart now every once and a while in Vernon, it would be nice to have this close by. She doesn't really care for Walmart, only if she needs something specific.

[giantsfan2016]

At Home is coming to Manchester, Connecticut. Plaza at Burr Corners.

http://www.courant.com/community/manchester/hc-news-manchester-at-home-20171009-story.html

[JimSawhill]

At Home is coming to Manchester, Connecticut. Plaza at Burr Corners.

http://www.courant.com/community/manchester/hc-news-manchester-at-home-20171009-story.html

Will it be going into the Caldor site....or the old Popular/Food Mart/Waldbaum's site...

[JJBers]

At Home is coming to Manchester, Connecticut. Plaza at Burr Corners.

http://www.courant.com/community/manchester/hc-news-manchester-at-home-20171009-story.html

Will it be going into the Caldor site....or the old Popular/Food Mart/Waldbaum's site...

Caldor is being used by Pilgrim Furniture, I think.

[giantsfan2016]

At Home is coming to Manchester, Connecticut. Plaza at Burr Corners.

http://www.courant.com/community/manchester/hc-news-manchester-at-home-20171009-story.html

Will it be going into the Caldor site....or the old Popular/Food Mart/Waldbaum's site...

It will be going into the old Caldor. The article states the owner of Pilgrim says it isn't a done deal, but as I mentioned in the Malls/Shopping Centers section of this board there was a listing on a retail real estate website that said 100,000 Square Foot redevelopment opportunity available.
http://amesfanclub.com/forum/index.php?topic=4472.0

[giantsfan2016]

At Home maybe be taking the former KMART space in New Hartford, New York.

http://www.uticaod.com/news/20171114/kmart-plaza-might-be-home-to-at-home

[BillyGr]

At Home maybe be taking the former KMART space in New Hartford, New York.

http://www.uticaod.com/news/20171114/kmart-plaza-might-be-home-to-at-home

Plus a good picture of a former Price Chopper next door (a Kmart/PC combo?  What a surprise ;)).

What might be more of a surprise is that the Price Chopper only moved 10 years ago (and apparently got renovated prior, with that "glassed in" arch trying to give it a look more similar to other PC stores prior to the current Market 32 conversion) - plus the words Super Center on the façade which I'm not sure I've seen elsewhere?

[giantsfan2016]

Plus a good picture of a former Price Chopper next door (a Kmart/PC combo?  What a surprise ;)).

The Price Choppers in Bristol and Southington , Connecticut (86,000 and 95,000 Square Feet respectively) were KMART's until 2003. KMART opened in 73 in Southington and was built from the ground up. In Bristol they opened during the summer of '99 after Caldor closed.