A last look at Sears - Route 22, Watchung NJ (built in 1965)
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- Опубликовано: 16 окт 2024
- A quick exterior and interior tour of the landmark Sears store on Route 22 in Watchung, NJ, that was built in 1965 and closed on September 17th, 2017.
GoFundMe campaign to help save the store's mural: www.gofundme.c...
Corrections: The Sears logo changed to lowercase in 2004; this store has the slightly updated all-uppercase logo that was introduced in 1994. And the singer of the "Softer Side of Sears" jingle is Jake Holmes. en.wikipedia.o...
This was my grandfather's property during the forties and fifties till 1965. It was the location of the Windmill Driving Range. He sold the property to Sears and retired in Boynton Beach Florida.
I can't speak for the Sears experience in other parts of the US, but In the NY metro area, every time I was in a Sears in the last 15 years and had a question the answer was "I don't work in that department" Nobody could be bothered Now those people don't work in ANY department.
This mural and multiple others from different Sears locations were luckily saved and are currently in the process of conservation.
may i ask what is so special about the murals?
I remember when most Sears stores looked like this; I always associated that styling with Sears. Oh, and thanks, now I've got "The Softer Side Of Sears" stuck in my head for the next day and a half!
jaykay18 all Sears stores have the same smell too. Best I can describe it is wet cardboard, and vinyl glue smell. I wonder if it's a fragrance from corporate
I'm not sure why but with Sears closing and just seeing these once great stores I spent so much of my childhood in during the 70's and 80's coming to an end just makes me so sad. I still have very lucid memories of going there as a ten year old and being so excited to look at all the Atari/Tele-Games cartridges, Star Wars toys, bikes, etc., while my mother was shopping. It seems like yesterday and wish I could go back to that time just to relive that again. I can still remember how it smelled as you entered from the vestibule. Such silly memories that for whatever reason mean so much to me. Thanks for all the memories Sears.
That's the Sears store where I used to shop at, bought my tools and work cloths there back when I was a mechanic years ago. That store used to be in Plainfield, NJ, which is a neighboring town, and they moved to the current Watchung, NJ location in the early 60's. In the basement, they also had their optical (eyeglasses) dept. There is another free standing store in Middletown, NJ. Sad to see it go, they have been floundering financially for the last few years. When SEARS merged with KMART I knew things were going downhill.
A developer is going to knock down the stores, and build a mini mall and a movie theater I believe.
At least something is going there, and it won't just be a fenced off parking lot until the end of time. Hopefully.
sad seeing some of the old department stores close. Best memory of sears was the annual Wish Book at Christmas time.
This is not retail archeology but don't sell yourself short. This was good OwO
I did a quick inventory in 1997 of the appliances in my mom's house, they were all bought at Sears. She had such great faith in Sears products.
Thanks for posting this. My parents and I shopped there a lot in the 60's and 70's. Glad to have some images of it.
6:12: still lookin' handsome!
Yeah Kevin is indeed a good-looking guy. I really liked his coming out video.
I was going to say that too!
me too! I'm was VWestlife-O-holic :-)
Kev, ur 'dorable!!!
I am late to the comment party, but so glad I found this great video. This is like a tour of a house I used to live in. I recognize everything in this video.I grew up in Clark, NJ and my mom would always shop at this Sears. It was on the corner of Terrill Road and Rt. 22 East .I shopped there too until I moved out of that part of NJ. in the late 80's.
The Legend of Watchung mural to which you refer was stunning and I loved to stand and stare at it on the way down the stairs. The credit department was down there and a cafeteria at one time. I bought so many things there. Smiling as I write this as I still have the Sears X-Cargo shell that I bought to haul vacation gear with my kids in the early 90's. GREAT memories - thank you for posting this - wish I saw it sooner!!
LOL, you were there at the same time I was! I can see my car at 3:41! I've been trying to find any old pictures of the building when it opened or before the remodel in the 80's but so far I've come up blank.
Glad you filmed this, it's a bit of local history that's now archived.
I grew up in and live right down the road in Scotch Plains, NJ! I will miss the giant mural :) wherever it may be today! Cheers from a fellow local 🥂
I get that the world is at your fingertips in the internet era, with your web browser you can access or buy just about anything. But I wouldn't trade my childhood experiences of the sheer excitement at the arrival of the new Sears catalog, especially the holiday wish book! The Montgomery Ward catalog, too. That was our version of 'online shopping', lol. Oh, the countless hours, pouring over the pages of those catalogs, especially anything related to toys, audio/video, computer technology (such as it was), etc... Good times!
There's still a freestanding Sears in North Brunswick, NJ on Route 1 South. AFAIK its not slated to close any time soon. It is also a 2 floor Sears, with several canceled entrances as well, and a still open Sears Auto Center. Unlike the one you showed, there are 2 restaurant outside in the massive parking area (Houlihan's and On The Border). It was among the more crowded Sears locations, but of course in more recent times, attendance dropped off. I still go there for shoes and dressier clothing since its cheaper than Macy's and the like.
Great video, I remember that mural so well it was wonderful seeing it ! Thank for sharing
I remember going to the Sears in Manhattan Town Center in Manhattan, KS back in 99/2000. They still had computers on display in the electronics department and I'd always go and play around with the iMac and iBook demo units they had. This location also had a Super Nintendo demo unit set up where the video games were. Much time was spent there as well.
so sad, I used to go there all the time, I loved that mural.. love the layout of that store. i would buy tools, clothing, appliances..... so many memories.... thanks for the upload.
My grandma used to love going there and I would ofc always go with her cause I lived with her,I remember getting lost there All the time cause I’d wander off,my grandma died December 21,2017 so she went down with her favorite store it seems
I just took a quick stop in there a few hours ago. Not much left. What was interesting was the small crowd (15 or so) near the mural stairway who seem to have been employees through the years, having a meetup of sorts.
There are so many places on 22 that I miss. This Sears, the K-Mart that you briefly covered in another video, the Hess station, one of my favorites, 6th Avenue Electronics because they had a Pioneer Indy Car and a super custom yellow Chrysler Crossfire, and Liquidators. At least with Liquidators the building is still occupied by Unique, which I go to on a very regular basis along with 2nd Ave Thrift that's up the road from there. And although it's not on 22, Vintage Vinyl Records. What a tragic loss of an amazing record store. At least the sign is preserved at Factory Records in Dover. It's one of my favorite record stores next to Scotti's In Summit because it's local to me, and Station 1 Books and Vinyl in Pompton Lakes.
Wow, amazing! I grew up in Scotch Plains in the 60s and early 70s and my parents used to shop in this store all the time. I remember when there was a coffee shop down in the basement that used to serve breakfast and lunch (it closed in the late 60s, as I recall). I also remember the mural. I hope they managed to save it!
I wish that circuit city was still around
Yeah, Sears is soon going to be a thing of the past. I don't remember going to Sears all that often, but it'll be sad to see it go. This is now making me want to go to one of the 6 remaining Sears stores in my state just to look back on what was once considered a flourishing business.
VWestlife. Thanks for the stroll down memory lane. During college I worked at the Watchung Sears location in 1982. It's sad to see what's it's become but all retail has changed. If you are familiar with Watchung, you may remember the Lockheed plant which was on the North side of Route 22. I worked there after college until it closed down and was eventual turned into a Walmart, Target and Shopping mall.
I do remember that Lockheed plant. Even after they did an environmental cleanup, the ground under the Wal-Mart and the condos next to it is still contaminated today. The opening of that shopping center hastened Sears' demise, by having so many competitors so close by.
Contaminated with what?
Remember the sketchy Watchung Market Place flea market? Today its a boring BJ's Wholesale club.
I assume the "muzak" was still on because they have XM Radio and ARE GONNA USE THEIR SUBSCRIPTION GOD DAMN IT! :P
They probably didn't even have that. They just probably used one of their employee's cable logins for Music Choice's modern "muzak" channel(s).
I actually worked at Sears. I asked just about everyone where the music came from. Nobody could give me an answer.
Thank you for documenting this. This is historic
Just to give you an update, I got bad news. Sears is closing at the Hudson Valley Mall in Kingston, NY soon. What a shame to see it go.
About two months ago, I was at the mall making a video of a POV tour of Sears, but I can't do it, because one of the security guy told me I'm not allowed making videos inside of Sears. What a disappointment, so I abandoned the whole project. It's just a bit of a history. Sears was a great store to go to. I missed the store a lot. Hate to see it go.
BTW, thanks for putting the Sears commercial at the end. I used to love this commercials since I was young, and it was shown on TV during prime time including sitcoms, action and movies where they had Sears commercials popped up all the time.
This isn't Retail Archeology, but this video is way more interesting - with your relaxing voice that never lets your fans down. Continue to make new (and interesting videos) for all of your VWestlifers. This is what i call ａｅｓｔｈｅｔｉｃ! Keep it up!
Both my parents know of that store from when they were kids, and I've been in there more than once in my youth. Nowadays it's just the landmark on the way to the Watchung Unique, but in its heyday it was quite the place to shop. when I found out about the closing sale I was in there early August, got some shirts and pants, and a new wallet as they were letting them off for a steal of a price.
I have a nice high-res pic of the mural, because my mother requested I take some stills of it. This was sometime before the GoFundMe went live for it and the sheet of paper underneath was put up telling people about it. I wish I had gone down to the lower level; that clear chair was sweet looking.
Thanks for documenting this.
At 6:08 in the video, that transparent plastic chair is a "Louis Ghost" chair (or a decent knockoff) by famous designer Phillippe Starck; those are very modern and elegant designer chairs that I have always liked the look of. Not something you would expect to see in a Sears - they're often seen at places like MOMA or the Guggenheim! If that Sears is still open for one more day (until tomorrow the 17th), I would suggest you go back and see if you can grab that chair for a song -- they still sell for a decent money, and are a nice classic design.
You sound like Bryan Ropar. He'd have a field day in that basement.
The Starck chairs used to be $500 each (or more); it seems you can get them for less now. They're different than the lawn furniture Bryan seems to be famous for.
Urgh, why would someone pay 500$ for an awful looking chair?! I wouldn't even put this in my house if I got it for free...
I noticed that as well although didn't know the make. Just before VWestlife said there was "nothing interesting" he pointed the camera at the chair, which would look perfect on the set of a 1970s Sci-Fi program. In the 1970s they thought all 21st century furniture would be that style.
I noticed that chair as well. Second hand versions can be had for around £85... still, it looked new.
In Brazil we had Sears stores from 1949 to 1990. It was a pleasure to walk by the departments ( particularly the stereos and computers). I still miss that time...
How sad. Grew up in that area and almost every appliance/TV/etc our family bought for decades came from this store. Half my tools were bought there as well. I also vaguely remember that mural - definitely remember the stairs and the creepy lower level. Thanks for letting me see it one last time.
Thank you for making this, I live by this and shopped there many times. Sad it's gone, the new world we live in. Oh, and the famous native american mural over stairs, I believe it was moved and preserved.
Brilliant video Sir, and so sad about retail great names that are disappearing worldwide, sadly this video will become very nostalgic. Thank you for sharing your video Sir.
Nice video, thanks for sharing! It was kind of eerie feeling when you were walking around in the basement and it was so dead down there!
i went to a Sears in San Diego like 8 years ago, because i saw a product advertised over and over on TV at a Decent Price, so i went to the Store, asked one of the Employees about the Product and they had no Idea what i was talking about, so i had to look for it myself, once i found it among the mess they called shelves i showed the employee "this is what you are advertising on TV" just in case anyone else asked for it.
Those cash registers would be the updated version of the IBM 4690 series, which where originally introduced in the early 90's. Each register can run autonomous in a smaller store situation, but in a larger system like in a Sears or J.C. penny store. The register would be connected to a "Store server" in this case probably an IBM iSeries model 270 running OS/400, the registers connect to the server through a redundant network called "Store Net" which is based on TokenRing.
I picked over the bones of my local Sears recently too. I actually drove by that area (from this video) on Thursday, even though I live in RI.
Never shopped here, but the Route 22 drew me in. We'd always go to Woodbridge Mall when I was a child.
My father used to work in the Allstate booth in that Sears in the early 70s. I remember visiting him when we lived in North Plainfield, NJ. Sad to see it go but maybe something nice will go up in its place.
This is an awesome store. One thing that I have noticed about Sears is that, at least the older stores have several exterior entrances. This is a cool store specifically because of the basement retail space (how long has it been since stores built a basement for retail space?). I think it is such a shame the nosedive that is happening to Sears and Kmart.
The Sears back where I came from pre-1978 (when the local mall was built) was downtown and had two stories and a basement, along with a big staircase that led up in the middle and down on the sides; later it was converted into an antique store and the last time I visited in the basement there were still the signs showing the automotive and garden supply departments on the walls. Another neat thing was the mosaic tiles on the sidewalk in front of the doorway that spelled 'Sears'. I wish I could have visited there in its heyday.
22408aaron Target and Walmart are the better stores than Sears and Kmart. Next to Walmart, they're closing Toys 'R Us. That's sad. I used to go to Toys 'R Us once in a while and it was a good store. I missed both stores.
A little taste of #ThisIsDanBell. Excellent video!
You beat me to that comment! Discreet camera, vintage commercials; "Ladies and Gentleman, we present Danwestlife!" (Granted, there was vaporwave, but I can live with that) :)
weasel2htm xD
Needs more ｖａｐｏｒｗａｖｅ ａｅｓｔｈｅｔｉｃ
Another fantastic channel
We had a SEARS downtown and it too had a lower level shopping area only accessible by stairs,it was a three level store. It shut down decades ago.
Before the last Sears near me closed, I think it was 2019 before they started tearing down the mall, I went through it one last time, and they had vacuum cleaners where they used to have computers back in the 1980s. I miss Sears, and Montgomery Ward. So many stores are gone.
Thanks for posting this. Wanted to go see the mural again, but you saved me the hassle of 22.
Surprisingly, the Sears in my area at the Northwoods Mall in Peoria, IL is still around and oddly enough, it currently doesn't have plans on closing down soon. In fact, the same exact Sears in my area used to be a Montgomery Ward before that (Sears later took over after when Montgomery Ward closed down around 1998 or so and had been there ever since). Even JCPenney is still at Northwoods too.
Is it just me or does the 1984-2004 Sears logo look like the SEGA logo?
Ok Been a fan for a long time now. Love your stuff as always sir! I work retail...Best Buy (10 years) for those wondering. NO Best Buy is NO WERE NEAR this state at all..we are doing very well..but that being said sure Sears was a competitor to us but it does make me sad to see a store...a brand that was SO strong in the past. If only they adapted to the market and times like BBY did...shame. - raises glass to sears - Cape Cod, MA
I think the standalone Sears on US-1 in New Brunswick is still open. Yet again it has a HUGE parking lot. The merchandise pickup at that store was extremely depressing, complete with burnt out lighting, broken chairs, and an order confirmation scanner that didn't scan anymore.
The Route 1 Sears is staying open because Sears owns the property: newbrunswicktoday.com/article/why-new-brunswicks-sears-may-not-be-likely-closing-target
So are you implying that Sears don't own this store that's closing, only rent it?
I work at Sears in California and we have those same damn registers and let me tell you they are from the mid 90’s at least!
IBM built hardware to last
Thought this was from Retail Archeology at first glance, then saw your name! Always cool to see others get inspired to explore their local dead mall/store and document it for us!
Meanwhile, the closest Sears where I live (in Janesville, WI) is still open and running, for now.
Every time I go there, it's empty as a ghost town. It's just a matter of time before they close.
This makes me sad :( I wish these big retail stores weren't replaced by online shopping.
The Sears in my local mall closed down a few months ago with seemingly no notice. I didn't even hear anything about a clearance sale. Now there's just a giant drywall facade in front of the entrances. It's very odd. I had no clue that Sears was essentially going out of business, lol.
Kind of sad. I've been planning on eventually picking up a Craftsman impact driver for brake discs. I used to buy all of my tools at sears. I have so much Craftsman stuff. This video made me think I should get out and get it soon, don't know how much longer even our anchor store Searses will be around. But then I thought, I could just get a cheaper higher quality one made in Taiwan from Amazon. And that made me even sadder.
I think the sears on our mall here might be closing soon.. I hear that's the case but as of yet have not seen any signs saying so. Sears is one of the few remaining original stores to our mall since it opened in 1981, 2 months after I was born strangely enough. Like this one, ours shut down the automotive center. One sign is their inventory is very scarce compared to what it use to be, especially noticeable in the clothing department where I am use to the racks being so close to one another you could barely walk between them. I find the Shop Your Way discount points to be actually worth it, saved quite a bit on a LI-ION battery charger for my drill. As for this building and it's parking lot, it all looks more like a mall, just without the rest of the mall attached.
Nice review on this Sears store, despite not being a "retail archaeology" video. The Kmart store in Mantua Township, NJ, by the way has also closed sometime this month. I've made a multi-part video on the trips to Kmart, but like your inside review, they too are shaky because of avoiding getting caught so don't feel bad. Also I hope that painting gets saved or put in an art museum.
The last Sears store here in Akron, OH was at the Chapel Hill Mall and it closed last March. It first opened in 1967 and had a very similar layout to this store. The mall is struggling badly and it lost its first anchor store last year which was Macy's. The last anchor store left is JCPenney.
very interesting building. very surprising to see that mural in there. the sears up my way would also use merchandise pickup to pickup items to big to bring to a register.
even if it's not my country, these videos make me really nostalgic. maybe because i used to travel a lot and i remember how nice was going to a mall or shop and look all the new stuff that came out. all that stuff is fading from everyone's memories and that sucks. log in and recieving stuff from a delivery van is not my type of buying stuff. it's a shame really
After all those year. I've watching your videos I finally can put a face on your voice 06:12
Oh, wow. Not only was this not too far from me, but closed on my birthday last year.
Today me and my dad went to inspect and do maintenance on a company trailer that has been behind a Sears that has closed in Kenosha Wisconsin for a month almost abandoned like. Sears its self and i found that really interesting.
Very sad what has happened to Sears, and kmart. An amazing legacy being crapped on by corporate big wigs who only care about making a quick buck, even if that means driving the company into the ground. My heart weeps.
Looks very similar inside and out to the Sears in Saskatoon, which was built in 1970, but it's part of a mall. Ours still has the upper case logo too... in fact you can still see where it used to say "SIMPSONS-SEARS". Ours is staying open for now, but there's a LOT of Sears locations across Canada that are closing. It's a shame, Sears used to have such fantastic customer service, and excellent warranties on their products. It was THE place to go for a lot of items.
Yep. My parent's lawnmower is from Sears Canada
both sears and kmart are going under. here in south jersey we are losing one of the tri state's busiest kmart's (Moorestown). This weekend I went through to see the markdowns and walked out empty-handed. Even marked-down stuff is marked higher than nearby supermarkets ($1.69 for a box of kraft mac cheese - a ripoff). The funny thing is they still have a standup sign advertising kmart jobs and we're hiring flyers by the checkouts (someone isn't keeping up with signage duty)
I hate how stores close. In my country, hundreds of Sears stores are closing. What an epic of bad management.
My parents bought most of their appliances from our local Sears over the years, but even still I'm surprised our store is still open because it's never even busy and the only cars in the lot look to be the employees. shame you didn't post this earlier, I would've loved to check their closing sale out. Got a really nice uninterruptable power supply from my local BlockBuster when they went under.
Entertaining and informative channel...many interesting topics
Amazon is putting everyone out of business
No, Sears, for years, have been essentially going out of business for over a decade in all but name.
Amazon just put the final nail in the coffin.
Agreed
Let's not allow ourselves to give Amazon a monopoly over retailing.
They would have to fight Walmart (who has since doubled down on online shopping, especially after hiring a former Amazon executive) if they were to do that.
Toys 'R' Us could be next
I got my Atari 2600 there.... used to love that store as a kid! Sad to see that store go. Lot's of memories!
Retail is dead, as much as it pains me, but that train has left the station long ago. We had a huge Karstadt next to a huge Quelle in Essen, Germany, which both had everything and then a stack more on their many floors. I miss them, browsing trough them for hours and having stuff in my hand, testing it on the spot. But maybe we will get that back when online retailers get a good grasp at VR tech.
The technology is there, the graphic prowess has finally arrived, all we need now is someone to make a VR shopping center that doesn't look like Second Life but more on a tech level with Half Life 2 and Fallout 4, graphics-wise.
I live in the UK so we obviously don't have Sears but I still find it somewhat sad that stores like this are closing as it's much the same here at times
I live in Germany; and basement retail space is totally common here. On the contrary, it's uncommon for a department store to have none.
here in Germany we still have a few stores like this, at least from the outside they look pretty similar. But the inside is much newer, looking "cleaner" then the brown/beige floor in this one.
The sell-out of this reminds my of a semiconductor company called "Quimonda" here in Dresden, which got bankrupt 10 years ago (at least their factory at this location), they had many old office futniture, and at the day they closed, there was a huge crowd of people who wanted their old stuff (They also had many computers, e.g. hundreds of thinkpad T60/61 laptops) for basically nothing. Those sell-outs of old stuff are quite rare here
May I Please use this clip as the general manger did not allow me to film in the store I was at there about a week go and I even contact Sears Holdings to get permission to film in this store which they never picked up and If you do give me the video I will put a link to your channel in the description below just let me know as soon as possible as the store is closing today
Sure, you can use clips from this video.
Is there a way you can send me the entire clip and I'll even give your channel a shout out
Use a RUclips downloader such as www.clipconverter.cc/
It's good to have some HTC RE camera. They can pose for an asthma inhaler and seem to be quite unnoticeable by others. My brother got one few months ago and no one bothers him while filming.
I've been to this Sears many times. There's still the freestanding one on Route 1 in New Brunswick. I'm not sure how much longer that one will be open.
Cool video!Thanks for sharing.
We have Sears at the Hudson Valley Mall, but it remains open until it will close down by sometime at the end of this year. Over in Brooklyn, on Flatbush Ave. Sears remains the same and it is part of a landmark. They're not going to tear them down, no way. Not on Flatbush Ave. I hope more Sears will be closing soon.
Wow never seen a standalone sears or basement in any store. This is cool. Hope they reuse it for another store but most likely it'll be leveled.
Its sad to see online stores sell these out.
We had a big mall by our place when i was a kid and there was so many stores with lots of people. Now days the whole mall, inside and out is a ghost town with few stores and barely anything is maintained.
That mural on the steps is imprinted in my mind from when I was a kid 30 years ago - I wonder if they were able to save it...
They did.
Retail tech stores in Germany like media Markt in Heilbronn are very much constructed and built in this style and Also here it is just normal to have stairs in Shops cause you dont have that much space so built upwards
It really is a shame to see retail stores dying. For some reason I find it funny just to see all the products on sale and have a place to hang out for fun. However things have changed
I almost (ALMOST) took a job with Sears Auto Center until they tried to short change me hourly. I knew they were going under and I'm glad I didn't take it, because 6 months later I got a much better job with the Geek Squad fixing TV's.
In America Kmart is nearly dead.But in Australia it's one of the biggest retailers
in japan, K mart is a convenience store
That I would guess, is because if you order online in Australia if the seller is not based in Australia, the shipping fees are outrageous but that's just a guess.
SplayEmperor2 corporations are still alive just not in America everyone seems to forget there is a world outside America.
i know right?
In Houston there's a huge Sears store closing that was built in the nineteen sixties or seventies not sure but it used to be apart of the mall by the mall closed down in the nineties since the sharps town area become really ghetto the mall was called wast wood but the Sears store remained open but unfortunately it's now closing sadly
was looking good the other day when passed by, the one on rt 208 has the OLD look. Willowbrook is separated I believe.
3 of the 4 Sears retail locations have closed or are closing within the next month here in Nova Scotia, with the final one set to close in 2019. I looked up and there they were, gone.
Was that the Panasonic HM-TA2 you were using? I watched your review when I bought one, but I have just realised it could be quite good for covert filming.
The Sears Outlet east of Atlanta is still there and has the old uppercase sign. Looks a lot like the one in you area.
It is a shame that most of these stores are going out of business. I used to shop there when I was younger.
Things sure are changing up here..
Damn that commercial was right on the money!
there's 2 sears in my city. both are part of a mall but one was there before the mall was. one is kinda modern inside had has 2 stories while the other has a basement and is rather dated. there's also a Kmart in my city too. it was rebuilt from the ground up in the 90s. did you know Kmart owns Sears?
Hard watching those large comfortable looking chairs at 7:58 just sitting there since I can't find such a thing here in Europe.
Thanks for this.
well the whole escalator thing in seattle is that when one breaks it stays broken and unuseable till its fixed. lots of the escalators in the transit tunnel in seattle break all the time and then they make people have to use the stairs cause they then block off the broken escalators till they can be fixed which could be a few weeks to a few months before they are fixed.