What New England's Retail Future Holds...

[Zayre88]

I had the idea of creating this Topic when I saw the old Aerial Picture of Keene and the way TRJ22487 talked about how THIS was New England to him and that today's Keene is not.

So in this Topic, just post what is your view of what was the REAL New England retailwise, compared to what it has become today.

Originally posted by TRJ22487
I was at Fairfields repair center in Keene, NH yesterday when this amazing photo on the wall caught my eye.
They took it out of the glass for me and let me snap some photos of it. This is somewhere between 1983-1986 by my best guess.

I was amazed when I saw the photo. I've lived in Keene for 15 years and visited it for 5 more before that. Our town looks NOTHING like this anymore.

Almost nothing in this photo remains the same today.
Even the roadways have been entirely redone.
This was the small, quiet, Keene I moved to so many years ago.

THIS is New England to me.
The way Keene is today, IS NOT.  

Obviously, what is missing today is many New England discount store chains.  Back then, towns were different from each other, some had Bradlees, others Caldor, Rich's, Ames... whereas today, almost every town has a Wal-Mart. It's no longer fun to discover new places in New England as all of them have the same stores found everywhere else in the country.

[momof3]

My thoughts exactly, and you could go to a area the Berlin Berlin Turnpike and shop Bradlees, caldors and Ames on Sunday after looking at the fliers and get the best deal on what you needed.  Now its Walmart or target, even alot of the Kmarts are gone.

[Zayre88]

To me, this was New England retailwise, with some national names here and there with their old logos, joined with old favorite names that are now almost gone or completely out of New England.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Here's my prediction of what the retail landscape might look like twenty years later:

[jmcnamara96]

shopko valero battery plus cici pizza BP sonic meijer maynards and other i have no clue what they are?

[shakethis1234]

there were 2 battery plus stores in the syracuse area but they only last for about 2 years closed few months ago they sold every kind of battery they even fixed ipods/mp3 players.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Originally posted by jmcnamara96
shopko valero battery plus cici pizza BP sonic meijer maynards and other i have no clue what they are?

Menards - a Midwestern home improvement store similar to Lowe's, Home Depot, Hechinger, HQ, and Builders Square, they are found in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois.

Shopko - a discount store similar to Ames.

Cici's Pizza - a pizza buffet.

BP - a gas station which merged with Amoco in 1998, most Amoco-branded stations became BP in 2002.

Valero - a gas station based out of Texas.

Meijer - a hypermarket found in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.

Culver's - a fast-casual dining restaurant found in the Midwest and Texas. Most are found in Wisconsin.

Sonic - a drive-in restaurant.

Pamida - a rural discount store.

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As you can see, this is only a prediction, the retail landscape is subject to change. My prediction is based on what would happen if different retailers from different sides of the the United States would enter New England. I predict the retailers from the Midwest, the Northwest, the Southwest and the South might have an impact on Northeast retailing sometime in 2015-2020. That's my theory.