re: Our Favorite Dead Mall Tour Guide Takes to Esplanade Mall

quote:

---

I've been following Sal for years. I haven't seen him mention Southland. He did do Northshore Square.

---

I really like his series because he goes into detail telling you a history of each mall, and tells you why it is failing or succeeding. He even throws in some historical commercials or photos of the malls he features.

Southland and Houma would be a good retail archeology story as it shows how a mall moved downtown Houma chain stores like Woolworths, JCPenny’s, and Sears from downtown to the mall. Then Kmart and then Walmart started to impact the mall but not kill it.

Then Walmart and Service Merchandise build new store fronts on a new road called Martin Luther King Boulevard. Lowe’s moves in. Home Depot moves in. Lowe’s builds another store to expand the store they just built.

Meanwhile, downtown dies a slow death as department stores like Duponts get shuttered by the late 90s. I was surprised Earl Williams Men’s Clothing store finally closed up shop just after the start of the new year.

There are a few other stores that I can barely recollect that would be a great history of retailing in the Houma area. Another part of the story is how some local businesses have been able to fend off the national chains like Rouses and become a retail growing giant in their own right.