South Shore Mall/Shoppes At Riverside, Aberdeen, WA

Super S
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South Shore Mall/Shoppes At Riverside, Aberdeen, WA

Post by Super S »

I took a drive up north within the past week, to Aberdeen, WA. While there, I paid a visit to the South Shore Mall, a mall I last visited about 15 years ago. At that time, nothing seemed abnormal about the place. Well, now the mall looks like it is very close to death. The JCPenney store closed last year, and remains vacant. Outside signs have been removed, but one JCPenney sign remains inside. The Kmart store closed at some point in the last 10-15 years, and has since been torn down, and there is a big empty space where Kmart used to be, which has trees growing in it. I would say about 3/4 of the inner stores in the mall are closed. Some former tenants I could identify were Maurices, Bath and Body Works, Foot Locker. There is a Dairy Queen still open in the food court, as well as a Regis hair salon, a movie theater, and a GNC store which has a very short-lived logo that they used in the 90s. There are also several local businesses, and that's pretty much it. All of the mall directory signs were completely blank, which was odd. One thing that I also noted was that the floors throughout the mall are not level in spots, making me wonder about structural issues.

There still is a Sears open in the mall, and the outside still has the Times New Roman logo in white letters, although the inside entrance has a 90s era logo. The Sears itself looks typical of a 1980s vintage Sears and probably has not had much in the way of remodeling, but the store looked clean and organized. Sears apparently owns their building.

I did a Google search and discovered that the mall was owned by GGP until 2012, when a New York investor named Mike Kohan took over the mall for $1 million, which is WAY below assessed value. Further reading shows that this is the same individual that took over the failed Woodville Mall in Toledo, Ohio, which deteriorated to the point it was ordered closed, and Sears, which was the last remaining store, is also now closed. It doesn't help that GGP did very little in upkeep over the years (which seems to be the norm for small-town malls that they once owned. Kelso's Three Rivers Mall is in the same boat). This does not bode well for South Shore.

The future of Sears is uncertain, due to their own troubles. However, since many of their locations that have been closing are leased instead of owned, that could work in this store's favor. It is safe to say though that if Sears closed, this mall will probably close unless the movie theater can keep it afloat.
Last edited by Super S on January 2nd, 2022, 3:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: South Shore Mall, Aberdeen, WA

Post by Super S »

https://kbkw.com/aberdeen-sears-store-t ... d-of-2019/

The Sears is finally closing. It will be interesting to see what happens here next. The mall, now called Shoppes at Riverside, just seems out of place in a town such as Aberdeen and has struggled for years. However, it is under local ownership now.
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Re: South Shore Mall, Aberdeen, WA

Post by storewanderer »

The JCP space filled with some kind of a fun center. Tough to say how much Sears was really helping the mall; Sears had little traffic and had its door into the mall closed most of the time due to theft concerns (amazing to me they did this given how empty the mall was... almost like they were trying to bleed away the mall and clearly a decision made by hostile local management that did not have the best interests of the mall or customers in mind).
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Re: South Shore Mall, Aberdeen, WA

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: August 31st, 2019, 9:44 pm The JCP space filled with some kind of a fun center. Tough to say how much Sears was really helping the mall; Sears had little traffic and had its door into the mall closed most of the time due to theft concerns (amazing to me they did this given how empty the mall was... almost like they were trying to bleed away the mall and clearly a decision made by hostile local management that did not have the best interests of the mall or customers in mind).
Interesting move considering that, at some point, the inside entrance was updated to a 1990s era logo while the outside kept the old signage.

A similar situation occurred at the Lewis County Mall in Chehalis when Sears was closing that location. However, the Lewis County Mall is mostly offices now. So there would not have been much foot traffic.

Apparently the mall was purchased by the owner of the movie theater.
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Re: South Shore Mall, Aberdeen, WA

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: September 1st, 2019, 9:23 am
Interesting move considering that, at some point, the inside entrance was updated to a 1990s era logo while the outside kept the old signage.

A similar situation occurred at the Lewis County Mall in Chehalis when Sears was closing that location. However, the Lewis County Mall is mostly offices now. So there would not have been much foot traffic.

Apparently the mall was purchased by the owner of the movie theater.
I would guess when the inside entrance got that 1990's era logo, the store got some basic cosmetic work at the same time (new carpet, counters, etc.). The stuff in there looked dated, but it does not seem original to 1980.

Also things that may impact that mall is GNC seems to be planning a lot of store closures and I think the hair place in the mall is a Regis operation and Regis is supposedly moving to a 100% franchise model, so it is unclear what impact if any those two things could have on that mall.
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Re: South Shore Mall, Aberdeen, WA

Post by Super S »

I think Regis and GNC were the only national chain stores left in that mall besides Sears. I am not sure if this would have a big impact with the mall having already lost what national chains it had.

This seems like a spot where Fred Meyer might do well though.
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Re: South Shore Mall, Aberdeen, WA

Post by Super S »

I wasn't aware of this until today. It appears that this mall, which became The Shoppes At Riverside, permanently closed last year after snow in February caused some roof issues.

https://www.thedailyworld.com/business/ ... eir-shops/

This mentions the permanent closure:
https://graysharbor.org/business/the-sh ... an-update/

This doesn't surprise me as there were spots inside the mall where the floor was uneven, and from what little information I know, this led to why the Kmart building was demolished. It just doesn't seem like it's feasible at this point to make repairs, and the economy in the immediate area has struggled for years so it's hard to say if a redevelopment would happen.
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Re: South Shore Mall/Shoppes At Riverside, Aberdeen, WA

Post by SamSpade »

Malls really have changed over the decades. Looking back, even with only 19 stores at opening, this center had a lot of diversity and interest to all kinds of ages/family members. It seems the last 10-15 years, centers have really lost diversity in mix for whatever reasons. I won't try to list them all here.
Among the 19 businesses opening that day were a General Nutrition Center, Kay-Bee Toy and Hobby, Picadilly Pet World, Westfield’s Jewelers, Ralph’s Hallmark, an arcade, Maurice’s women’s apparel, a t-shirt shop, Radio Shack, Jay Jacobs, JCPenney and Sears.
  • JCPenney, Sears, apparently later KMart - bringing a department store assortment to these coastal communities, and a place to pick up catalog purchases from two of the nation's leading catalog stores, relocated from downtowns?
  • GNC, Kay-Bee Toys, Picadilly Pet World - niches, probably some new items
  • Westfield's Jewelers - good markup in this field, still seem to hang on in malls today. Chain jewlers were in downtowns too, though. There is still a Kay in The Dalles, Ore. for example.
  • Maurices - still in business, though mainly in strip centers now
  • T-shirt shop - screen printing was a BIG deal at one point
  • Radio Shack - probably relocated from a downtown
  • Jay Jacobs - fashion brands for late teens, 20somethings, regional (?) store
  • Ralph's Hallmark - people still sent cards and gifts back then
  • arcade - no Nintendo even in 1981
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Re: South Shore Mall/Shoppes At Riverside, Aberdeen, WA

Post by veteran+ »

Yet some malls are thriving like, Dadeland in Miami, Beverly Center in Los Angeles as well as The Grove, to mention a few.

Anyone have an hypothesis as to what characteristics within their demographics are keeping these centers healthy?
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Re: South Shore Mall/Shoppes At Riverside, Aberdeen, WA

Post by Super S »

SamSpade wrote: January 3rd, 2022, 11:41 am Malls really have changed over the decades. Looking back, even with only 19 stores at opening, this center had a lot of diversity and interest to all kinds of ages/family members. It seems the last 10-15 years, centers have really lost diversity in mix for whatever reasons. I won't try to list them all here.
Among the 19 businesses opening that day were a General Nutrition Center, Kay-Bee Toy and Hobby, Picadilly Pet World, Westfield’s Jewelers, Ralph’s Hallmark, an arcade, Maurice’s women’s apparel, a t-shirt shop, Radio Shack, Jay Jacobs, JCPenney and Sears.
  • JCPenney, Sears, apparently later KMart - bringing a department store assortment to these coastal communities, and a place to pick up catalog purchases from two of the nation's leading catalog stores, relocated from downtowns?
  • GNC, Kay-Bee Toys, Picadilly Pet World - niches, probably some new items
  • Westfield's Jewelers - good markup in this field, still seem to hang on in malls today. Chain jewlers were in downtowns too, though. There is still a Kay in The Dalles, Ore. for example.
  • Maurices - still in business, though mainly in strip centers now
  • T-shirt shop - screen printing was a BIG deal at one point
  • Radio Shack - probably relocated from a downtown
  • Jay Jacobs - fashion brands for late teens, 20somethings, regional (?) store
  • Ralph's Hallmark - people still sent cards and gifts back then
  • arcade - no Nintendo even in 1981
Yes, this mall had good variety when it was at its peak. But this mall, even 15-20 years ago, always seemed out of place and too big when considering the location and the area it served.

The economy has remained stagnant in the area, and I always wondered if at least part of the idea to put a mall in Aberdeen came about due to the Satsop Nuclear Plant which was being constructed just to the east, a plant that was 75% complete but never finished, and never brought the higher-paying jobs typically found at nuclear plants. This mall was not well-known outside of the immediate area. It's hard to say if the mall would have done any better had the nuclear plant opened though. The mall was under GGP ownership for a while and they did not seem to understand smaller markets well, and many of those malls struggled.
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