West Street Shopping Center; Keene, New Hampshire

It was only a month or so ago the discovery of the West Street Shopping Center came about. Located near the heart of the city of Keene, New Hampshire, shortly away from Keene State College, on West Street, this shopping center appears to be the town’s biggest throwback to earlier eras. The town itself serves as a home to thriving retail landscape most likely due a few key factors. For one, these smaller retail landscapes in New Hampshire survive due to the generally undermalled landscape of New Hampshire like no other to my knowledge in the mighty Northeast (with only about five or six actual malls in the entire state). The town also caters as a one-stop shop for many surrounding townspeople and college students of both Franklin Pierce College in nearby Rindge and nearby Keene State College shortly distant. Unless you head into the foothills of Route 2 / Massachusetts, most towns around it don't have as much as a Market Basket or Wal-Mart without a drive into scarse rural Rindge or here in college town Keene.

One of the few JCPenney stores located off mall grounds featuring decades of minor damage by the elements.


It's customary for JCPenney to not update stores past 1980, so this one matches perfectly within the company image.


From left-to-right: Vacant plaza anchor, Rent-a-Center, Hallmark, EMS, Hair Masters, Coconuts.

Bordering retail and mall juggernauts like New York, it's closest neighbor Massachusetts, and green-clad Vermont; New Hampshire’s tax-free incentive might explain the lack of shopping malls around, especially on the brink of it's state borders. Even the outermost portions of New Hampshire's bordering Massachusetts territory don't feature much more than a few rinky-dink gas stations, small town markets and restaurants. But for what ol' New Hampshire doesn’t have in two-leveled climate-controlled shopping centers, they have in shopping centers. In Keene, there are a few competitors near one another with all the familiar big boxers still short of their own Best Buy. The people live here because they don’t mind shopping in the virtually year-round nippy weather. Right?

We found a live one: a Coconuts Music and Movies store. Yes, that sign says "Open", perhaps to Michael Jackson case

Neighboring it is an equally dated “Video Headquarters” featuring wonderfully discothèque neon signage, and a Fashion Bug catering to that same era. The plaza has a few vacanies, not nearly enough to be considered struggling, as traffic flows heavily in this familiar old center.

The groovy Video HeadQuarters might still be a holster for BETA and VHS...



Jo-Ann Fabrics featuring a long-replaced 1980's signage against an equally matched facade.

West Street Shopping Center could be considered one of the earlier, ugly duckling, flashback plazas in Keene, date of origin unknown, almost masquerading for what seems to be a few decade as a mock, twilight shopping mall. The center anchors an array of shops typically found in a [older, dwarf] mall: a restaurant, supermarket, and a clothing department store and a small bunch of shops all under brown-shingled roofing harkening back to the 1970’s. As it stands today, the plaza hosts [to name a few] a Hannaford supermarket, JCPenney, Eastern Mountain Sports, Jo-Ann Fabrics, Friendly’s Restaurant & Ice Cream, Hallmark and a sought to be long-dead Coconuts Movie & Music Store as what seems to be a lone survivor from the recently phased out Suncoast and Sam Goody era.

Street-side features JCPenney on the far-left, and right down the space-time line from there.


Another appearent vacancy sits between Video HeadQuarters and Jo-Ann.

Apart from Hannaford, which was renovated to modern standars recently, the entire design of the plaza remains trapped in a brown-draped fantasy consisting of deteriorating and scarred old shingled roofing which once promoted a faux-village scape. Even more oddly enough, JCPenney exists as the plaza’s grandest anchor, atypically featured outside any mall grounds - a practical measure for shoppers looking for threads as there are no malls within an hour of Keene. On the street-side of the center lies a age-old multi-faced Jo-Ann Fabrics store which, in it’s most rare form, features original 1970’s signage from when upsidedown eyeglasses Estelle Getty wore in Golden Girls were fashionable.

Visible from your upsidedown glasses from the street: A flashback to the 1970's and long-phased retro company signage.

Aside from West Street Shopping Center, you've got a former Kmart now Sears Essentials plaza across the way, the newly built Monadnock Marketplace featuring a bevy of big stores further down Rt. 9, and the former Bradlees now Wal-Mart and Shaw's plaza the other side of town on Winchester Street. Sure, those plazas might have updated accordingly with the ages but does it have the character West Street has? For unknown reasons, this one doesn't want to conform anytime soon and stays comfortably where it is in time and space. As far as space goes, you can buy some and help live on the funky spirit of West Street Shopping Center.

Everything Must Go

Updates are currently in the making here at The Caldor Rainbow. At this time, we would like to reflect on a few things which have happened in our world at as well as our supporters.

One of our good friends, Marc Bramhall, had his website shut down yesterday morning by Shaw's corporate for displaying information they deemed unsuitable. Bramhall's page, which is a tribute to Southington's former Shaw's supermarket, which we spotlighted in our last update, has ubruptly been discontinued by Cease & Desist Order coming straight from the raider patrol at Shaw's.

To be fair, Shaw's cited some information on the website which was understandably unsuitable to be displayed as it forsaked the privacy of former employees who had worked at Shaw's. In addition to the list, Bramhall featured a series of photographs from the final months at Shaw's, which they further deemed unsuitable on the grounds of violating "trade secrets" (a popular argument retail establishments use for the prohibition of photography). While a partially understandable argument, it's also not enforced at many places as it is merely unwritten rule - giving the camera barer full right to photograph freely on (privately-owned) public property. As you know, there are many sources on the internet, including ours, which feature photographs of in's and out's of stores for non-profit use. We received shock, it opened our eyes to relative action, but we will troop on and keep on doing what we do for the love of retail.

Furthermore, Shaw's observed the harmless nature of his tribute site, but still condemned it demanding Marc remove the site content pending legal action. We all found it strange how the site was kaput, being targeted, after being active for a little over a month. We would like to extend our support to Marc with hopes this won't discourage his reporting on preserving moments in retail history.

Furthermore, we at the Caldor Rainbow would like to thank Jason Damas at Labelscar for him plugging our Westfield Meriden report in his own [out-of-state] take on one of Connecticut's first malls. We are currently working on future projects on revealing more malls across Connecticut so stick with us.

Caldor "Rainbow-Era" Trailer Sighting

BREAKING NEWS! (Southington) - Sighted Thursday afternoon on Route 10, Queen Street in Southington, parked behind Friendly's (Restaurant) and Goodwill, located in the neighboring Queen Bee Plaza was an initial shocker. Sighted by one of my pals, Marc Bramhall, who works on Queen Street, reported the sighting of a Caldor shipping trailer presumably temporariliy out-of-service delivering for the nearby Goodwill. Marc reports, without a camera at the time, believed he wouldn't get the chance to snag an elusive set of photos of the now-defunct department store's vestige in the form of a [rusty] trailer.

A vintage Caldor "rainbow-era" trailer elusive sighting; perhaps once or twice in a lifetime.


Confirmed and on the property of Price Chopper, presumably by neighboring Goodwill store.


"Where shopping is always a pleasure"

Thinking, The Caldor Rainbow may not get it's chance, Marc reported further the trailer was still there a day later, giving plenty of hope that I may be able to capture it before disappearing into time.

A blaring purple violation sticker: But it's for Goodwill... Tell it to the judge...

Flabberghasted, arriving on Saturday afternoon, there it was in all it's glory. Infinite thanks to the tip by our good buddy Marc, who has contributed greatly to The Caldor Rainbow. Marc, who recently worked at the now shuttered Shaw's supermarket in Southington has a small tribute page to the market I myself remember all too well as Finast before Edwards on Queen Street and has served people of Southington and surrounding towns well for over 20 years.

Almost Gothic

Since we (I) here, at the Caldor Rainbow, breached what became our (my) pre-Halloween story, we had something else in store (that's a pun, sonny boy) for such an event, a day where little children (and some questionably mental adults, too) dress up like ghastly figures and corporate incarnate in order to deceive people into setting an ultimatum of tricking or treating, in other words, recieving candy to facilitate the rotting of teeth (and increasing Dental visits/bills) and brains (contested; zombies already festering off those of the people over 12) of a continually gothic holiday of Halloween.

Just this Sunday, I and my Renee defiled ourself on the Holy day and created our own Pumpkin, not in the image of the Caldor Rainbow, but modeled after Nintendo's own Wario, who shares a special space inside my [dark] heart. She prefers Bowser, but we had restrictions revolving around time. Oh, precious time.

Yes, that's my copy, the one I paid about $40 for. Nightstalkers, you better beware...

It's between this digest and listening endlessly to [a "classic"] Castlevania rap with Perfection Selection Dracula until the little boys and girls cease from slamming their smelly [and questionably greedy] little figures upon my doorbell [in triplicate].

Norwichtown Mall; Norwich, Connecticut

Living on the far eastern side of Connecticut must’ve been tough for mall goers and shoppers alike. It’s a hastle, having to drive about a half hour on the highways to get to a decent mall if you're a native of Norwich and nearby towns. Located at the edge of CT-2, on the brink of I-395, comically near the Butts [Lane] of Norwich, the Norwichtown Mall has an excellent location for potential business located on the New London Turnpike directly off the highway.

But you’ve got heartier competition all around the compass...

The SIMON-owned Crystal Mall in Waterford, the New London Mall in New London: since reformatted to insipid, outdoor "lifestyle" (see: cringe) format, the equally dry East Brook Mall in Willimantic: formerly anchored by Ames now Kohl’s [vacuum] and about a lengthy drive to hit Connecticut’s more upscale Westfarms Mall at the other side of Route 2 on Westbound I-84 and Eastbound for the grandiose (and vastly improved) Buckland Hills in Manchester. It’s appearent that most shoppers won’t come to Norwichtown Mall to hit those typical mall shops - most of which this mall has none of. Needless to pronounce, Mystic area Connecticut won't be a destination if you're looking to go do some mall shopping.

Thanks or no thanks to Super Stop & Shop, a chunk of Norwichtown Mall traffic is able to exist today.

The Norwichtown Mall, owned by Eden's & Avant, opened in 1968, was a at heart a humble mall living close to the small-town image of sub-division Norwichtown; it's parent Norwich have in part today. At one time, Norwichtown Mall contained a few notable specialty stores; Style’s [local] department store chain, and a compact (early years) “rainbow-era” Caldor department store, and a bevy of small hometown shops; most of which are faceless with vacancy’s darkness today. For many years, beating hard after Caldor closed in 1999, the mall’s occupancy rate became ever more comparable to the [then] practically-dead (and now locked up) Bristol Centre Mall in the downtown of Bristol. Evidently, the town’s patronage became dependent upon on the now-departed Caldor to hold an otherwise troubled mall together, which it did for many Norwich and nearby natives.

Through Super Stop & Shop and Bob's Discount Furniture, Norwichtown Mall has survived a little more than before when Caldor left (also note the modern Stop & Shop "Mall Entrance" font).

Shortly after the Norwichtown Mall’s loss of Caldor, local entrepreneur, and owner of Bob’s Discount Furniture (known well for over 15 years in the northeast as the guy with obnoxiously corny, effective and humble commercials) took over the other end of the mall by completely refurbishing the former department store setting, cramming all possible merchandise into the already limited former Caldor space. Testimonies tell this location wasn’t exactly an optimal setting for a furniture store to the magnitude of Bob’s usual store measurements (sometimes double-leveled) but decided to conform to the mall’s decidedly home town persona.

Ever since mid-way (about May 2006) into this year, I had never heard of the Norwichtown Mall. Actually, I had never been to the town of Norwich before then either. I thought I had been to just about every significant Connecticut shopping mall, see as there aren't as many as surrounding states. As we went to the current resident of my friend's (Nick) girlfriend's (Kristina), my eye caught what I saw to be a shopping plaza across from Kristina's mother's restaurant, Irene's, directly across the mall divided by scrub-brush. Kristina told me the Bob's there now was Norwich's former Caldor thereby allowing me to identify a label scar on the former store's side and this is where the story began for me.

According to a source at Ames Fan Club, Dollar Tree was once original anchor "Style's". My how times have changed...

After Style’s closed, which took up a great scale of the mall’s space and prestige, super market chain Super Stop & Shop purchased a greater portion of the mall, reducing the anchorage space of a few indie stores and instituted a renovation plan to suit the supermarket’s revitalized image by building an expanded store opposite the former Caldor and into the mall space. Despite it‘s dissociative element with the mall by excluding a mall entrance, it looks all dressed up post renovation, albeit lacking stunning quality, but still as if it should be attracting more people (seemingly including an active management staff) looking upon plans to revitalize the practically dead state of the Norwichtown Mall.

Red and gray colors of 1990's-era Caldor after abandoning the "rainbow" look also give notion of an earlier anchor with grooved walls were windows might've been.

Vestige of Caldor and it's rectangular '90's logo remain scarred on the unrenovated half of Bob's Discount Furniture and possibly something before it.


The renovation focused on the frontal areas of the store leaving these side and back portions as evidence of an earlier (Caldor and beyond) era.

Yes, even those at Stop & Shop wanted very little to do with the mall’s dismal image as they’ve closed off their premises and any chance of a mall entrance and all identity from what the mall once had. Instead, a Dress Barn serves as the mall’s feeble opposing anchor to Bob’s, adjacent to a few independent restaurants Bee Bee Dairy (which had it's location downsized and moved upon Stop & Shop's expansion) and Golden Star which might be considered this mall‘s “food court“. Super Stop & Shop’s decision to sever connections with the mall has made their involvement with the uncertain future of the mall pretty grim, seeing as they continue their enormous success parallel the mall that does not.

When Stop & Shop renovated the Norwichtown Mall a few years ago, they didn't add much flair to a decidedly bland looking setting leaving some odd shuttered storefronts (like one pictured above) presumably from the late 1960's.

Like the Bristol Centre Mall, Norwichtown Mall features a long-phased out hair salon at many malls in the 1980's, Cutting Crew, rare and still in action.

Upon my trip on Thursday morning, the mall was occupied by the usuals seen in these troubled malls; elderly people (who must prefer quiter [sans the musak], youth-less environments), and those sketchy, middle-aged [males] people who you know have generally have no purpose being there (excluding the “mall walkers”) two of which I came encountered with as I used the restrooms down an almost entirely vacated wing of the mall practically owned by GNC, a recognizable health and vitamin store. There were some questionable attendants; “normal” looking folks, one of which I overheard saying [she] visited the ‘Waterford Mall’ (Crystal Mall) but failed to eavesdrop any longer as to comprehend why she and her party was here (my guess is that she was completely mislead).

Apart from the grand total of 10 people being in the mall at once, most of which walking the empty corridor(s) of the mall, were shopping at the minimalist parcels which still attract the least of people. Lastly, there were those who worked at the mall’s customer-less stores, one middle-ager who smiled at me, seemingly all by their lonesome. Somehow I suspected the [dire] state of this mall had very little to do with it being around 11 AM on a Thursday.

GNC, a thriving health and fitness store, lonely owns an almost dominantly vacant wing of the Norwichtown Mall today.

Apart from the heavy vacancy rate at Norwichtown Mall, there are some surprising shops here that probably shouldn’t be. The world’s most-void-of-people Waldenbooks (name slowly being phased out as part of the Borders [bookstore] group), Radio Shack, and lower-eschelon strip mall thriftier stores Dollar Tree and Dress Barn which are breathing any life that might be left here at the mall. Spattered more so than these livier stores were just dark, stripped-away parcels, cold bench seating, stray shopping carts belonging to Dollar Tree, and unrented bazaar carts (that have trendily clogged most major malls today) and store pilons which serve as literal obstacles than attractions.

Some of Norwichtown Mall's lasting stores are mainly those recognizable ones like Radio Shack while other more obscure small shops are shuttered from lack of patronage.

For a more extensive background on the Norwichtown Mall, Associated Content reporter Corey Sipe wrote up a fantastic in-depth piece about the mall, obviously knowing much more about it than I. He supplied the information, I’ll supply the visuals. The Ames Fan Club has plenty of more historical information posted there as well. As for the future of the mall, Sipe hints at yet more closures to add to the shopping list of ones already (non) existant at the mall. It’s now official that Bob’s Discount Furniture has announced closure as it sees itself moving out of the mall by year‘s end to a brand-new East Lyme location, forecasting a critical anchor space vacant once again. Surely there are ideas to save the mall, perhaps a luring discount anchor as Sipe suggests, but the ownership doesn’t seem up to the task of bring new life into an ill-fated and possibly finished Norwichtown Mall.