Thursday, December 13, 2007

As Advertised Special! ~Wintry Mix Snowbound Edition '07~


Roll your carts back down the aisle! At this time, The Caldor Rainbow has a few pieces of news to divulge.

We're encountering nor'easter-style snowfall at this moment which includes rapidly falling snow and coarse-grade flakage resulting in whiteout conditions and cancellations galore. Here at the Caldor Rainbow, we appreciate and observe the wonderful happening (unless you have to transport in it)/ Especially, we like snow shortly before Christmas as its festive and cheery but not so much afterward. At that point, it's just terminal frost.



The Caldor Rainbow makes some old-fashioned circa-1995 corrections via MSPaint on a very fallable WikiPedia entry on Caldor.

We're in the process of doing clean-up on some older pages to make us all the better, better than other certain pages who borrow our images and sanction lots of shoddy misinformation. This includes some of our mall entries but most importantly in lieu of our Caldor Store Locator, we're going back -- that's right folks turning that clock back by correcting and expanding information on our previous Bradlees profile to make it tighter, firmer and more accurate. Stay tuned for the grand reopening of our Bradlees Profile and Store Locator.

Other pages that have faced modifications: the East Brook Mall page has had information added including original newspaper advertisements, factual errors corrected and even unearthing the original logo the mall had. The Caldor Rainbow has not yet revisited East Brook Mall since we did the entry last December 2006, but we hope you'll digest some of the new additions.

While we won't make light of every page modification, check back on some pages as they are often corrected or updated for accuracy. As always, keep the comments and feedback flowing on in.

We've heard word on the status of the currently languishing, vacant Bristol Centre Mall, and the plans for it to demolished which will be taking place any day now. Steve Collins, a blogger for the Bristol Press claims it has "no more than one month to live." Last month, we reported the closure of the mall's anchoring support and mirrored a story about The City hoping to raze the site by around this time so we're keeping a look out. We will be there in full force to document the dismantling with pictures even if it means your humble correspondent will have to freeze his hands off capturing this important event.

Daniel Fife, a fervent Toys "R" Us explorer and retail enthusiast has discovered yet another time-warped Toys "R" Us store, which against its originality has faced an egregious, disgraceful and lazy white paint job over the once colorful rainbow palette. This time, the store is in Saint Clairsville, Ohio. Since there's no satellite or birdseye imagery (a wonderful tool, thanks to Microsoft), only Dan could've found it by driving intense mileage. Go see what else he's found on The Ames Fan Club forums.

In time, everyone have a festive holiday and Merry Christmas!

EDIT (12/17/2007): Steve Collins blog report "Mall has no more than a month to live" added.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow Nick! Sorry about your personal items being copied without permission.

...But just to let you know, I have contributed on updating the Wikipedia Danbary Fair Mall page a few times. I haven't been on there lately though...

Nicholas M. DiMaio said...

It's all in good fun, really. I don't poo poo Wikipedia but on topics with lesser known audiences, information is spotty at best. That's the nature of Wikipedia.

Because I have this platform, I don't need to write or edit pages on Wikipedia.

MIKE said...

Nick,

Great piece in the Courant today!

As a 23 year former exec I have a lot of info about CALDOR. I'd like to know what kind of info you're looking for. For example, I can provide store numbers and some other Caldor "inside stuff" as I was in the corporate office for many years before they threw me and 40 of my closest friends out in May of 1995. That was the beginning of the end.

Best,

Mike Krauss Milford

PS Please use my yahoo address as well as my gmail address
to reply of you have any interest.

mkrauss@yahoo.com

CaLdOrBuFf said...

Dear Nicholas,

I have hundreds and hundreds of Caldor photos of the New Britain store...because I worked there from 1985 to my last day in 1999.
I was known as the Caldor photographer and retired taking photos after we shut down for good.

There are videotapes, 8mm film, slides, photographs (b&W color) newspaper articles, and even the "C" and the "O" which came crashing down shortly after we closed on March 15, 1999. That day is so vividly etched indelibly in my mind.

If you want to communicate with me..please let me know..if i can contribute any Caldor memoribilla.
Oh yes..even the newspaper of the first day of my Caldors opening..as well as a Caldor hat and drumsticks with the "Caldor" logo on it..as well as flyers.

There is so much that I would enjoy having my merchandise advertised on your site.

CaLdOrBuFf said...

Oh yes the New Britain Caldor store opened November 17, 1972 a day before my fourth birthday and I vividly recall going with my mom and getting a blue case to put my toys inside. In a way you could say that it was my 'birthday gift' the Caldor store because little did I dream that I would be working there for almost forteen years.

There have been burglaries, fires, intoxicated characters, robbers (who hid inside after we closed),
and strange assortment of characters inside that store.

But over all we had the best batch of customers who kept coming back every Wednesday..our beloved Senior Citzens whom we dearly loved and would take them to a desired item. That was something. To make the seniors day because Caldors was very convient for them to shop.

Nicholas M. DiMaio said...

Caldorbuff,

Absolutely get in contact with me. I have been searching tirelessly for photos of the store as I remember it. As you might know, the New Britain store was my home store and you know what? I'll be we met a long time ago because my mom, brother and I were in there sometimes bi-weekly from the early 90's until closure (but especially in the early 90's).

Send me an email and we'll talk further. XISMZERO@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

Hey Caldorabuff...I worked in Bristol and West Hartford from 1978 till 1999. I too was one of the last ones out! What ever happened to all those people we use to know so well?
Caldor closing was devistating!! As it turned out it was the best thing that ever happened to me! I would sill be there otherwise and would have missed out on a terrific job!
I too have photos and so many Caldor logo things in my attic that I can't seem to throw away!

MIKE said...

DOROTHY BENNETT, the "dor" of Caldor passed away on May 2, 2008 at the age of 82. She is survived her husband Carl Bennett, now 86 -- the "Cal" of Caldor, sons Mark, Bruce and daughter Robin as well as a number of grandchildren. She and Carl Bennett founded the company in 1951 opening the first Caldor store in Port Chester New York. Caldor was sold to Associated Dry Goods in 1981 and the Bennetts retired from the business in 1984.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
tom atterrato said...

My nane is Tom Atterrato,Iwas a store manager for CALDOR for 24 years. I trained many store managers,and I went through all the buyouts. Caldor was the most fantastic place to work at until ,Don Clarke,Mike Lynch and Don Cheseboro took over.Don Cheseboro used to come into my store in Vernon Ct. smelling of alcohol ,and eating PEANUTS. One day he calls me into his office and puts his finger in my nose, and says "LOOK FOR A JOB WHILE YOU STILL HAVE A JOB AMES IS HIRING". My district manager Bernie Gogolinski was SHOCKED he knew nothing about this.I had more tenure than ANY OTHER STORE MANAGER.To make this long story short,after 24 years I got an attorney worked out a severence package, and I left CALDOD August 15th 1992. My wife never sick a day in her life died of a massive heart attack August 17 1992. Any questions feel free to contact me at tom atterrato@ att.net