Nesconset Highway; Stony Brook (Lake Grove), Long Island, New York

A few years silent Big K (Kmart) along the Nesconset Highway.

Long Island and I have a very brief history that goes as far back as about five years. Since I’ve only visited my brother who lives down there, about three or four times since, I’ve just recently had a time to go see some of the troubled retail sites on the otherwise flourishing Nesconset Highway and Middle Country Road stretch next to Stony Brook University. Soon after visiting the vacant Caldor in East Patchogue, we swung down to Lake Grove (Stony Brook) to find food when a shadowy Big K struck me from right off the strip. While I knew Kmart stores were in financial trouble, I still wasn’t too surprised to see this particular site closed especially since there are no real shortage of Kmarts on Long Island.

Not just closed, but shuttered with a steel shell!

Plenty of relevant label scars, and the dilapidated Garden Shop which is host to other kinds of vegetation.

Across The Street; at SmithHaven Mall,

A familiar old site, Stern's, at the SmithHaven Mall is soon to be no more.

Across the street is, SmithHaven Mall whose veteran posturing is no stranger to locals, been host to a long vacant Stern’s, now, along with the mall, in the process of being overhauled into something else. Since I’ve never heard about Stern’s before, the rich 1960’s look from when I originally saw it, and the heavily 1980's look of the mall a few years ago, took be by surprise now that it's becoming no more. While the mall is finally in the process of revitalization, plenty around the mall still show some age like the nearby Bed, Bath & Beyond store which rose from a long-departed old-school Service Merchandise with completely visible label scarring and the mall's retro-looking Sears exterior.

Like most Sears, this one's also long overdue of renovations at the changing mall.

More kudos goes to my brother, Michael, who drove me places.

RAINBOW RADAR UPDATE: Kmart still vacant, SmithHaven Mall completely remodeled and expanded into former Stern's space.