Archive for category Coon Rapids

Abandoned Target Store: Coon Rapids, MN

Jun 4

Posted by dumpystripmall in Coon Rapids | 21 Comments

I love Target way more than anyone should. I’m 100% Minnesotan and Target is in my blood. I do all my grocery shopping at Super T and I’m probably there twice a week. I even loved Target as a kid. Going to Target was much more special to me than going to Kmart, even though they sold the same thing. I much preferred getting my Barbie dolls, My Little Ponies, and coloring books from Target than Kmart. We didn’t have a Target store in Brooklyn Park/Center until 1986, so prior to that, we always had to shop at the Crystal Target. When I grew up, I got a job my senior year in high school as a Target cashier and worked my way into HQ & ended up working for the company for 7 years.

The solution is easy. Buy this Target store and bulldoze it. Hold on to the land until they decide to build a Cheesecake Factory next door (hope you're patient, it might be a while). Then, sell the property for millions! It's simple, really.

So, back in 1998, I heard it through the company grapevine that the Coon Rapids Blvd (store T-42) was closing, and I got a little teary-eyed. I didn’t frequent this store, but I did shop here once in a while. Prior to this, I had never heard of a Target store in Minnesota closing!

They didn’t arbitrarily chose to close this store to meet numbers or whatever. There was a rhyme to the reason they were shuttin’ this store down. And that reason was Riverdale, the latest and greatest North Suburban retail hotspot for the new millennium.

Riverdale is the reason why, 11 years later, the entire northern corridor of Coon Rapids Blvd looks like Chernobyl. This empty Target store is just one of many abandoned retail establishments along the Coon Rapids Boulevard of broken dreams.

The Coon Rapids store closed in the fall of 1998. At the time, Riverdale was newborn retail center, only consisting of a Rainbow Foods, a Green Mill, a Hollywood Video, a Panera Bread, and of course, a Target store. They area was very underdeveloped at the time, but big plans were in place for this new area dubbed “Riverdale.” It was going to be the next big thing for North Suburban retail and rather than give this store a makeover, they threw up a Target Greatland in the nearby Riverdale area and eventually closed old T-42. This also happened to the Rainbow Foods (where the Big Lots is now). Can’t say I miss that Rainbow store. It was one of the most incredibly disgusting grocery stores I’ve ever been in, ranking right up there with that Columbia Heights Rainbow Foods pigsty. I remember going in there, looking for O’Boises chips and walking out empty-handed (so disgusted I couldn’t purchase a sealed bag of potato chips) and feeling like I needed to take a shower.

: Old Target stores all had a distinct architectural look. Without me telling you this was a Target, you could probably figure that out on your own, you smart cookie, you!

This was a pretty rough-looking Target store anyway. This was store # T-42, and judging by its low store number, it likely opened in the late 1960’s or early 70’s and never had a remodel. This particular store was a good example of a Tar-GHETTO, not a Tar-jay. The former Target store (T-180) off of West Broadway in North Minneapolis was an even better example…that was a Target experience like no other!

The Coon Rapids Blvd/Crooked Lake store is from a lost era of Target. Even in ‘98, this store felt decrepit and passe. This store was from the pre-hipster days of Target. It’s from a time when Target sold only Cherokee, Chic Jeans, ProSpirit, and Honors. The popcorn smell from Food Avenue hit you the minute you walked in and wafted throughout the store. They had paper gift certificates. McGlynn’s bakeries were inside the stores instead of Starbucks & you could watch the bakers decorate cakes and cookies. They placed individual price stickers on all of their items. You could buy computers, cigarettes, and the StarTribune. They had an intercom up at the service desk and parents would request help from employees to round up their missing kids. SuperTargets were just being introduced (in 1995) and still very much a rarity and only found in Utah and Iowa. Target still put out a garden center every spring. You could get cash for returning things without a receipt. The checkout lanes had aluminum hand railings, and as kids, my brother and I would treat them as a jungle gym and climb all over the bars while Mom checked out, until the cashier yelled at us to stop monkeying around.

An old Target price tag

These things, for the most part, are all gone from today’s Target. McGlynn’s is plum out of business. Food Avenue (Food Express in some stores) has been replaced by a Pizza Hut/Taco Bell Express fusion. They don’t use the intercom system anymore. You can’t go five miles without finding a SuperTarget, and come hell or highwater, you will NOT be getting cash back if you don’t cough up your receipt.

Target was always considered more upscale than other discount mass merchandisers, but it pushed itself to a new level of chic with the introduction of the Michael Graves housewares collection, Caphalon cookware, and Mossimo clothing in 1999ish. Today’s Target sells Xhilaration, Converse, Menora, Mossimo, up-and-coming designer clothes made specifically for the store, and $80 100% cashmere sweaters. Sure, you can still find Cherokee and Honors clothing (ProSpirit is gone and Chic Jeans can be found at Fleet Farm if you really want them), but it’s not as prevalent as it once was.

Big Lots used to be Rainbow Foods.

Back in the day, Target selling food was a weird thing. Nowadays, every Target store — SuperTarget or not — has a mini grocery store inside of it. But back then, the only food you could buy at Target was candy, soda, and crackers.

Today, there’s a Goodwill store taking up part of the Target store’s old space — this is the new location of the Goodwill that was in the Springbrook Mall. There’s also a Big Lots. Oh joy.

The Firestone tire place is still kickin’ and the Arby’s is still here. The White Castle is boarded up and I believe there also was a Ground Round restaurant near the Target premises that burned down many, many years ago.

When I was up in this area to take pictures, I was quite surprised that the Target store was still standing. It’s been 11 years since it closed – you’d think the city would’ve razed it by now. The likelihood of retail redevelopment plans for this spot are pretty slim, since Riverdale gets all the shopping traffic.And what retailer in their right mind would want to be situated across from the fucking Coon Rapids Family Center Mall??

This entire area of Coon Rapids is absolutely depressing and miserable. It’s dirty, unkempt, empty buildings everywhere…and come nightfall, it’s very spooky. It’s like a mini Detroit, minus the automobile plants and Eminem. But go a few files up to Round Lake Blvd and everything changes into a bright, overdeveloped, sprawling shopping mecca. I’m not sure what the plans are for this area – if there are any. It’s been a hole for quite sometime, even pre-Riverdale days.

STOP!

All pictures of the outside were taken May 2009.

But I also have interior pics! YAY.

The interior pics are all screenshots taken from clips of the 1991 movie Career Opportunities. I picked out the best screencaps of the store from the movie, so you don’t have to comb through a bunch of video clips from this shitty movie. These pics are not from the Coon Rapids store, however, the CR Target floorplan CR was the exact same style as in the movie, so it probably didn’t vary much from these pictures. If you shopped at Target in the ’80s and ’90s, these screenshots will bring you back! It’s interesting to see what it used to look like – it almost looks like how Kmart looks today.

Enjoy all of the photos!

A typical interior of a Target store in the 80's and 90's

Another view of an old skool Target

The tape cassette display at Target. Holy FLASHBACK! I remember searching through these, looking for New Kids on the Block's Funky Funky Christmas!

The cassette display at Target. Holy FLASHBACK! I remember searching through these, looking for New Kids on the Block's Funky Funky Christmas at the Brooklyn Center store

This is how Target used to display CDs. (Yes, that's Jennifer Connelly)

This is how Target used to display CDs. (Yes, boys, that's Jennifer Connelly)

Old style Target checkout lanes

Target Food Avenue looks like a hospital cafeteria

Target Food Avenue looked like a stark hospital cafeteria

How the housewares section looked in the '80s and '90s. Those lamps are so fugly

Vintage Target service desk!

: Looking out from the Target parking lot, you can see Firestone

The bright lights of a Target parking lot spotlight.

All boarded up

I'm guessing this fenced off area was for the garden center.

I think it would be kind of creepy living across the street from an abandoned Target store.

The Goodwill is tacked on to the Target store. What used to be here, if anything? You'd think the GW would just take over the Target store, unless there was something here I don't remember

Target Store #42: Staying spooky since '98

For being abandoned for 11 years, this place has held up pretty well.

The nearby abandoned White Castle - just another Riverdale casuality.

Tags: 1990s, abandoned buildings, Big Lots, Coon Rapids, Goodwill, Jennifer Connelly, McGlynn's bakeries, Target, White Castle

Frank's Nursery and Crafts: Coon Rapids, MN

May 21

Posted by dumpystripmall in Coon Rapids | 12 Comments

Memorial Day weekend is practically here & with its arrival, summer unofficially kicks off in a few hours. The “growing” season has arrived in Minnesota and what better way to celebrate that than a blog entry about an eerie, abandoned garden center?

Dumpy Strip Malls visited the Coon Rapids store, located on a lonely plot of land amongst the dead mall/store/restaurant graveyard that is Coon Rapids Blvd. Long abandoned since 2004, time hasn’t been kind to this former nursery. It looks like something out of the movie I Am Legend. Very creepy – I half expected that dog from the movie to pop out at any second.

Frank's Nursery now looks like a scene straight out of I Am Legend.

Potting soil, hanging annual baskets, cedar chips, rose bushes — yep, Frank’s had everything to make your backyard look like a wilderness escape scene or a tropical oasis. Whether you were an aspiring Nancy Botwin looking for growlights, a gypsy looking to plant “magic beans”, a 10 year old blowing his allowance on a Chia Pet, a professional landscaper looking for a solution to zap broadleaf weeds, or just someone who wanted gussy up their backyard with plastic pink flamingos, Frank’s could be of service.

They also sold crafts, but their selection was nowhere near that of a Michael’s. Think more on the scale of the Wal-Mart fabric section or that of a Ben Franklin. Frank’s craft selection was serviceable – they sold things like silk flowers, spools of colorful yarn, glass beads, latch hook kits to make a shag rug with a design of an owl’s head. Frank’s also turned into Christmas Central during the holiday season. The nursery area would transform into a Christmas tree farm, conveniently bringing the old fashioned holiday family tradition of chopping down a coniferous evergreen pine straight to you without the hassle of lugging a dangerous axe out into the woods.

I always thought this store was owned by my uncle. No, not the crazy one I wrote about before, who bodyslides down bowling alley lanes and gives me “ghost shit” f or Christmas. That’s uncle Tim. Uncle Frank is normal, and apparently, I thought he was in the gardening and crafts business.

Even though he looks like Niles from Frasier, Frank’s a “guy’s guy” and probably the last dude you’d expect to find sprucing up a flowerbox or doing a Precious Moments needlepoint. Frank’s into hunting, big dogs, and camouflage dungarees. He’s the type of guy who can’t control himself in the Sportsman’s Warehouse. Get the picture? But when you’re a kid, that’s how your thought process works — you know a guy named Frank, you see a place of business with said name, and voila! Frank owns it! Simple logic, duh.

Who’s the real Frank? Some dude in Michigan who started a grocery store that quickly evolved into a nursery. Michigan, you say? Oh, that’s right. Did you think this was a local chain exclusive to Minnesota? Sorry to be a wet blanket, but think again. Don’t worry, I thought the same thing, until I did a little research. Turns out Frank’s was just another “evil big box store”, spanning 14 states. Want more detailed info on Franks? Read the memoir over at Wikipedia.

Franks went bankrupt and closed all of its locations in 2004. I don’t remember any sort of public outcry over the loss of Frank’s. It must’ve went away quietly in the night, without anyone noticing they were gone until, much like retirement of former Minnesota Viking Gary Anderson. You never notice he’s not here anymore, until you start reminiscing about the heart-robbing 1999 AFC Championship Game every fucking time the Vikes are trying to kick a goddamn field goal. Yes, I am bitter and it still hurts.

With Frank’s gone, Minnesotans would now need to reach out to Home Depot, Lowe’s, Menards, Bachman’s, Linder’s, Gerten’s, Wal-Mart, Fleet Farm, the Nicollet Mall Farmer’s Market, the mobile nursery in the Cub Foods parking lot, or the New Hope Kmart for our gardening needs. Oh no! With such few choices, how will clueless idiots like myself find more houseplanets to kill?

Wikipedia notes that many Frank’s locations around the country are still sitting abandoned because the strange structure of the building and lot. There might be more empty locations in Minnesota other than the Coon Rapids location. I know that the Roseville Frank’s was razed a few years ago and is now some sort of golf superstore.

I really enjoyed going to Frank’s – when we went here, it was always with Grandma at the location somewhere in South Minneapolis. I loved going here to look at all the pretty hanging baskets. Plus it smelled like SUMMER to me — meaning fertilizer and fresh cut grass. Yum.

My grandma had the most spectacular outdoor garden, thanks to Frances. She bought all kinds of annuals, bulbs, and hanging baskets. Her backyard even had a little retaining pond & she would plant marigolds all around it. The pond looked pretty, but in reality it was just a place for mosquitoes and other pesky bugs to breed.

I’d always beg grandma to buy morning glories whenever we’d go to Franks. I liked morning glories for no other reason other than they were blue. I had an unhealthy obsession for anything blue back when I was a tot. Especially blue food. Didn’t matter what it was; I just liked to eat and drink blue things. Damn good thing my parents kept the antifreeze on a high shelf in the garage.

So Grandma had a knack for outdoor gardening, but indoor plants were a different story. Grandma had a masochistic side to her. She would purchase unsuspecting spider plants, then lure them into the den, incarcerating them in one of the weirdest contraptions to come out of the ’70s since waterbeds and lava lamps — those blasted macrame houseplant holders. She’d stand on the davenport and hang (gasp!) the unsuspecting plants inside the crafty containers from the ceiling hooks, turning the room into a full-on botany torture chamber. Grandma, the crazy executioner she was, would either let them die of thirst and proclaim her innocence – “I watered them every day! How could this happen?” Or she’d stuff the soil full of plant food spikes and watch them OD on Miracle Grow, madly cackling away, seeing the ‘roided up plants crash ‘n burn. Who says the highlight of a senior citizen’s day is the 4pm seating at Perkins? When the plants would finally pass on, Grandma would be on the horn with my mom again, asking her to take her Franks to buy more spider plants. I’m surprised Grandma was never charged with several counts of first degree murder in the ruthless death of hundreds of innocent houseplants. I just think Grandma hated those fucking ugly spider plants and, like Bob Barker, just wanted to do her part to help control the population. Awww, lovable Grandma <3

Anyway, I never realized how much work a garden is until we planted one this spring. We started a beautiful flower and vegetable kingdom. We bought a bunch of flowers, bulbs, veggie plants, and Northrup King-brand seeds from Bachman’s nursery and planted them just this past Sunday. And here it’s Thursday, and the death count is already at two. (And I doubt it’s Bachman’s fault…) I should’ve just tried to find some magic beans to plant, a la Jack & the Beanstalk.

Weeding, watering, Miracle Growing. Nearly EVERY DAMN night after work. Holy hell, it’s a lot of labor for few bell peppers that I can buy for pennies on the dollar down at Cub. I could see how gardening would be fun and relaxing for some folks — especially retirees. They love puttering around in the backyard. For me, gardening is nothing but trouble and I’ll bet you that by mid June, the “beautiful vegetable kingdom” we have today will be turned into a compost heap, thanks to me. It does look lovely though. Could perhaps hire a gardener, but that’s a bit expensive, plus it often ends in tears –remember the time on Desperate Housewives when Carlos caught Gabrielle sleeping with the groundskeeper?

Whew. All this talk about gardening makes me feel guilty. Like I should be outside tending to the garden or at least sitting out on the patio sipping iced cold lemonade and looking at the garden.

What am I doing instead? Writing a bunch gibberish about some long-abandoned garden center that no one really cares about while watching the cat snack on the houseplants.

And now the Live Links ads are starting to pop up on TV. I think that means it’s time for bed.

Photos taken May 2009

Vandals must've needed the F and S off the Frank's sign for a special project?

Special delivery!

To my surprise, the trimmed topiary still looks decent

Tags: 1970s, 1999 AFC Championship Game, Bachman's, defunct stores, flowers, Frank's Nursey & Crafts, garden, gardening, greenhouse, killing houseplants, spider plants

Sportsman's Warehouse: Coon Rapids, MN

May 13

Posted by dumpystripmall in Coon Rapids | 5 Comments

I am NOT an “outdoors” girl. You will not find me hanging out in a tent waiting for bears or hiding behind cattails in the swamp, blowing on a duck call. Why, the last time I was in the Great Outdoors was when I was 17, working at Target, and made out with the cart boy in the woods behind the store during my 15-minute break.

Hell, I don’t even get the point of camping. So you go out in the woods with a tent, some sleeping bags, a bag of marshmallows, and a pack of hot dogs. Then what? Wander around the woods? Bathe with fish? Start a fire boyscout-style? Make love in the brush and then fall asleep on a pile of rocks? Sit around drinking beer? Not my type of fun. Knowing my luck, all I’d get out of a weekend of camping would be a backache and a nasty hangover. HOTEL, PLEASE.

But before this place turns into an empty, weed-strewn parking lot, Dumpy Strip Malls has a look-see. Let’s just say that I was dragged to this place by my “dear” (pun intended), and I needed a way to entertain myself other than making asinine jokes, like pointing to a large deer head mounted on the wall, saying, “Why, look dear! It’s Lawrence ELK!”

So I figured I’d make this trip worth my while — snap some pics and make a melodramatic blog entry about Sportsman’s Warehouse before it leaves Minnesota for good.

Why couldn’t the Sportsman’s Warehouse 3 locations (Woodbury, St. Cloud, and Coon Rapids) survive in Minnesota? I’m probably not the one to ask since I don’t frequent these types of stores, but I’m guessing it was a lethal combination of the economy (way to go out on a limb there, right?!), and a glut of big box sporting goods-type stores in the area. What, there’s Cabela’s, Joe’s, Gander Mountain, Dick’s, REI, Sports Authority, not to mention the random local bait shops, gun stores, and western-wear outfitters

: The exterior of Sportsman’s Warehouse is pretty generic. It doesn’t have the window-dressing and fanfare of a Cabela’s. Hell, this could be a picture of a Bed Bath and Beyond for all you know.

Damn. I remember when the only place to get tackle boxes and canteens was Burger Brothers or the Holiday Superstore. (So ahead of its time, ya know? Full-sized grocery store + mass merchandiser, liquor store, AND sporting goods store. This kind of store was unheard of in the ’80s. You could buy a a head of lettuce, vanilla extract, a Cabbage Patch ragdoll, and new Rapala lure all in the same trip. Pure MAGIC.)

Being true to its “Warehouse” name, the Sportsman’s Warehouse looks like a stockroom with its concrete floors and wood-splintery shelving. No need to make an afternoon here – this isn’t Cabela’s. There is no Titanic-style grand staircase climbing up to a restaurant selling wild game burgers, sickly sweet fudge, and chocolate mousse (tee he he!); Sportsman’s Warehouse has a couple creaky single-file staircases that lead up to a loft where they sell canoes and life vests. No restaurant here, but you’re really hungry you can buy some jerky, Brach’s chocolate covered raisins, and knock-off tootise rolls near the Menards-style, impulse-purchase candyland near the checkout lanes.

They’ve got everything you need for your next excursion into The Wild. Cast iron cookware, backpacks & coolers, clay pigeons, various weaponry, army-grade survival food, pamphlets to guide you on what do to if you stumble upon a meth lab in the woods while hunting, literature of the latest MN/WI hunting & trapping regulations to keep the DNR from kicking down your door, and an assortment of outdoor clothing for those times when Old Navy fleece just won’t do.

: I bet Dick Cheney shops at Sportsman’s Warehouse. I don’t think he’s the REI type.

Like Cabela’s, they have feats of taxidermy displayed throughout the store, but it’s nowhere near the Zoo Cemetery that Cabela’s has goin’ on. Don’t fret though — Sportsman’s Warehouse has plenty to see. Lots of deer heads, muskrats, walleyes, and other various prized wild game species mounted on the walls around the whole store, so you still feel like you’re on a shopping safari. I think the most memorable taxidermy display was this angry-looking, on-a-mission grizzly staged high on a platform near the duck decoy section, posed as if just woke up from hibernation and just spotted a pile of rotting food in a campground trashcan. Some may say that the mummification displays are disheartening and barbaric. Me? Nah. Some of it, like that blasted bear, scares the shit out of me. Where’s that happy-go-lucky Big Mouth Billy Bass when you need him? (Oh that’s right, he’s off starring in a singsong McDonald’s commercial).

I wandered around with my “dear”, as he looked at compasses and outdoor clothing. Prices were only 30% off — which I was thankful for — had the discount been greater, he would’ve walked out of the store looking like GI Joe.

The gun & ammo counter was busy, no surpise. So many nuts out there think that by the time Obama’s term is up, the only guns we’ll be able to shoot are freakin’ SuperSoakers. The two guys working behind the counter had on their Wild West standoff “I’m armed and dangerous so don’t fuck with me” faces, thwarting any questions anyone had about anything. Yeesh. So much for getting that new Uzi Tommy Gun I was planning on shooting some migratory waterfowl. I”m tired of all those damn geese and pigeons pooping on my deck and mating in my yard.

I checked out the women’s clothing section, in hopes of finding a discounted North Face jacket (Not because I snowshoe or go on winter hikes. I just need to stay warm in my luxury SUV…). No luck. The racks were pretty bare, except for a shit-ton of pink camouflage bikinis. For a liquidation sale, the store was still pretty organized and neat – it didn’t look like bomb went off in the place like the Maple Grove Circuit City did when I visited during their going out of business sale.

We walked out empty-handed — 30% off just wasn’t enticing enough to make a purchase. I’m sure they slashed prices even deeper, but we never made it back here before that happened.

So yeah, the Sportsman’s Warehouse really isn’t my thing (though those duck decoys are awfully cute!), but my lovely “dear” enjoyed this place and said he was sorry to see it go. And no, it didn’t pull a Circuit City on us; it just fled Minnesota. Sportsman’s Warehouse is based out of Utah and still has many locations, especially in the Western United States. Go West, young man, and you will find the Sportsman’s Warehouse if you so seek it.

Enjoy the rest of the photos! FYI, this place is already closed (shut the doors sometime in April) and a lot of my pictures from inside this place did not turn out well so that’s why there are so few.

Photos taken March 2009 & May 2009.

Soon, there will be 2 blank spots on the Riverdale sign. My guess is that the blank spot on top was a Linen's & Things

Yes, they sell shoes, but don't get too excited. No Jimmy Choos here, ladies. This is a OUTDOORS MANLY-MAN GUY'S GUY store.

Tags: Big Mouth Billy Bass, Cabela's, camping, great outdoors, guns, hunting, sporting good stores, Sportsman's Warehouse, taxidermy

Springbrook Mall: Coon Rapids, MN

Nov 18

Posted by dumpystripmall in Blaine, Coon Rapids | 8 Comments

I’m going to be very honest with you. I don’t know why I am writing about this place. There isn’t much here *to* write about. It’s just your run-of-mill strip center with a few vacancies, forgettable tenants such as a tobacco shop, a Great Clips, and a big box anchor to hold down the fort.

See what I mean? Nothing to see here...except some grass that needs mowing

But this little place holds a special place in my heart (and perhaps those of you who grew up around here) for ONE reason:

The old SPRINGBROOK 4 second-run movie theater!

Yeah, my parents were cheap. Even in the ’80s and ’90s, taking a family of 5 to the movies wasn’t easy on the pocketbook. In fact, our trips to a “real” movie theater were so isolated that I can name every movie we saw: ET, Jurassic Park, and Pinocchio (I know, WTF, right? I “get” ET and Jurassic Park but Pinocchio? Way to be random, mom!). Hey, I don’t blame them. I rarely see a movie in a theater these days anyway, and it’s mostly due to the price. I don’t know of any second-run movie theaters still around, except for that hellhole in Brooklyn Center.

So if we went to the movies, it was at a second-run theater – either the Springbrook 4 or the Terrace Theater in Robbinsdale (closed as well). On Friday and Saturday nights, this place would be PACKED. The lines would be wrapped around the building with thrifty people to see Wayne’s World four months after it was originally released for only $1. Schwing!

The Springbrook 4 opened in 1990 and closed in 2000. Perhaps their employees just couldn’t take all those annoying people walking out of the theaters & quoting lines from popular movies that have already assimilated their way into pop culture months ago. Can you imagine if this place was still around when Napoleon Dynamite came out? I can hear the never-ending citations now – “Your mom went to college!” “Vote for Pedro!” “I caught you a delicious bass” “Don’t be jealous that I’ve been chatting online with babes all day”.

*HEAD EXPLODES* Those poor, poor employees.

Or maybe it was the competition from the shiny new Kerasotes 16 theater that opened in late 1997 that put the nail in the coffin? The Kerasotes 16 opening was a BIG DEAL back in the day. It had – get this – STADIUM SEATING! What a concept! If you’re a “shawty” like me, going to the movies always meant wringing your hands with worry that Sasquatch would plop his rump down in the seat in front of you and block your view. Now that stadium seating is the industry standard, the fucking GREEN GIANT could sit down in front of me and I’d still get to see High School Musical 3 in all of its beautiful cinematographic glory. Well, I’m not sure if that’s such a good thing. I think I’d rather watch the brussel sprouts grow out of the back of the Green Giant’s head than watch Zac Efron and Ashley Tisdale yodel peppy songs and do the jitterbug in front of a bunch of lockers. These days, Kerasotes 16 is kind of a dump.

Today, the Springbrook 4 is now part of a Sears Outlet.

Sears Outlet - this section of the strip mall is where the Springbrook 4 Theater was located

Sears Outlet moved from its former location in Fridley, off of Moore Lake Road. Not sure when that happened, must’ve been sometime this decade. The old Sears Outlet location turned into a Petters Warehouse (or should I say “Front for a Ponzi Scheme”? tsk, tsk…) for a while, but it moved over to a strip mall in Moundsview. Now it’s some “Great Deals” place that’s open like every third Thursday of the month or something incredibly inconvenient.

Tom Petters, center. Those sawed-off little guys are ALWAYS trouble! (photo from StarTribune)

HOWEVER – I’m veering from the topic of this post. I’ll cover the closed Petters Warehouse store when I write about the Moundsview strip mall in which it was located.

Venture into Sears Outlet and youll probably find remnants of the VCR age

Walk into Sears Outlet and you'll probably find remnants of the VCR age

I didn’t venture inside of Sears Outlet. I only hope that this new location is a bit more organized and clean than it was when it was over in Fridley. That place was a fucking mess, especially the electronics section (its biggest draw). Think extension cords strewn about the aisles, exposed electrical wire half on the spool, and refurbished decade-old electronics with half of the parts missing.

But of COURSE there's retail space available! A strip mall isn't a strip mall without an empty storefront these days

Target Store #T-820.

Target Greatland opened in July 1992. Store # T-820. Yeah, I used to work for Target. I know this stuff. You don’t see too many Target Greatlands these days; most have been converted into SuperTargets.

Red and green awnings give this place a year-round holiday ambiance. I bet Family Denistry has some KILLER Black Friday specials...

Red and green awnings give the Springbrook Mall a year-round holiday ambiance. I bet Gentle Dentistry has some KILLER Black Friday specials...

Another former tenant worth mentioning is Autofun, which opened in 1998 and closed in 2001. This store specialized in aftermarket car accessories and was located near the Springbrook 4 end of the strip mall, though I can’t quite remember its exact location. You could find anything from musical sun visors to Elmer Fudd mudflaps to sub woofers in that store. According to a friend of mine (a former employee), it went under because the business model was dependent on having multiple stores, due to buying power. The financial backers pulled out before they expanded the company. They were very similar to Best Buy (in fact, the owner of Autofun was one of Best Buy’s founders) in terms of selling product at low prices, which could only work if you purchased in huge bulk to drop the price per unit. Since they only had one store, it was a loss with almost any product sold. Their original intent was to open 20+ stores within 6 months of opening, which would have dramatically lowered the price per unit since they would have been buying 20 times more than they were.

The colorful flags tell me theres a PARTY inside of the China Buffet! Why, I bet its booze-fueled sex romp where anything goes! Party up in here! I wonder if the DJ will play Willenium if I ask nicely?

The colorful flags tell me there's a PARTY inside of the China King Buffet! Why, I bet it's booze-fueled sex romp where anything goes! Party up in here! I wonder if the DJ will play "Willennium" if I ask nicely?

The rest of the stores aren’t really worth mentioning. There used to be a Goodwill in this shopping center, but I believe it closed in late 2005 or early 2006.

Even though video rental stores seem to be phasing out, I doubt this Blockbuster Video will go out of business anytime soon. This *is* Coon Rapids & there are a bunch of people still stuck in the 80s. Last time I was there, I saw some kid with a rat tail. I almost called social services.

Even though video rental stores seem to be phasing out, I doubt this Blockbuster Video will go out of business anytime soon. Remember, this *is* Coon Rapids & there are a bunch of people still stuck in the '80s.

There’s a few places that exist right around the Springbrook Mall. There’s a Blockbuster Video, Payless Shoes, Panera Bread, Caribou Coffe, and a Half Price Books. And of course, the biggest draw if you have a discerning taste for soggy seafood – Red Lobster.

The only thing this place has going for it is the cheesy bisquits

The only thing this place has going for it is its cheesy biscuits

All photos were taken in August, 2008.

Tags: Blaine, Coon Rapids, high school musical, movie theaters, Sears, strip malls, Target, tom petters

Kmart: Coon Rapids, MN

Aug 15

Posted by dumpystripmall in Coon Rapids | 6 Comments

A Big K and a Chuck E. Cheese still tarnish the Minnesota retail landscape well into the 21st century

There is simply no room for Kmart in today’s retail landscape. On one end, we’ve got Target. Target has become way too upscale and pretentious over the past five or ten years (but I love them anyway). Target’s gotten all haute couture on us – why, these days you can buy a $200 leather jacket at Target! Whatever happened to Honors, Pro-Spirit, and Cherokee?

On the other end of the spectrum, we’ve got Wal-Mart, where fashion knows “No Boundaries”, the floors are dirty and the merchandise is in utter disarry. But they offer cheap prices, so the masses flock to the stores.

And where does Kmart fit in? Simple answer – it doesn’t. It’s a lost relic of the days gone by. Everything in the store just screams 1985 to me, and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I haven’t stepped foot in a Kmart since then, and realized that not much has changed. I half expected the electronics department to be boasting VCRs as a great new technology. The merchandise might say “2008″ but the feel of the store says otherwise. It looks like an indoor flea market.

Shoppers are nowhere to be seen inside this local Kmart

We shopped at Kmart in the 80s because we did not have a Target store in our neighborhood until 1986. After 1986, all bets were off and shopping at Kmart became a big no-no. If you came to school and mentioned that you shopped at Kmart, you’d get your ass kicked.

The Pizza Shoppe has gone dark

Restaurants were in most Kmarts and were tucked away near the back of the store. I never understood the purpose of having a restaurant inside of a discount store. Did some people plan on making an afternoon inside of the Kmart store?

My memories are spotty about little cantina in Kmart, as my parents did not let us eat there because “We have plenty of food at home!!!” Thanks to Thrifty Mom, I will forever be deprived of the childhood experience of slurping an icee while walking through the Garden Center and removing all of the flower tags from the potted plants. I do remember that the eatery had yellow vinyl seating and brown brick walls which made it very dark inside. The restaurant was usually empty, with the exception of a lone grandpa inside, gumming on a donut, just waiting for the blue light to come on.

Later, most were converted to Little Ceasers Pizza (yum. I love Little Ceasers and miss it dearly). In the Coon Rapids Kmart, they couldn’t even keep the Little Ceaser’s name. “Pizza to Go” is the name of the game and it appears to be closed.

A neighboring Chuck E. Cheese is probably the reason why the Pizza-To-Go restaurant inside is closed

The most memorable aspect of Kmart is Blue Light Special, and I don’t even think they do that anymore. I didn’t hear or see one blue light in my entire visit to the store.

Kmart used to have a cart with a tall pole with a blue police light on top. The cart would be rolled into the aisle of the blue light special, a cattle-drive style announcement would be made over the intercom, the light would spin, and shoppers would stampede over to Aisle 4 to save 25 cents on Palmolive. Today, the Blue Light is a jolly cartoon character with bulging eyes that pops up in their TV ads, but I really don’t know its purpose. I think it’s their new mascot or something.

Kmart's got balls

As a kid, the checkout was the best part about shopping at Kmart. Even with a failed attempt at getting an Icee from the restaurant, we’d behave like saints as Mom trudged through up and down the aisles, shopping for various humdrum dry goods. It was all worth it because when we were finished, Mom would roll the cart up to the cashier and my brother and I would make a mad dash to the capsule machines! If we were well-behaved, we knew the odds were pretty good that Mom would pull a quarter out of her purse and let us gamble the coin away in hopes of a new superball or a slimy hand you could whip against the wall.

Kmart’s checkout was KID HEAVEN – rows upon rows of kiddie vending machines along the walls, filled with cheap plastic doodads. Clear balls filled with bouncy superballs, Runts candy, lucky rabbits feet, plastic charm bracelets, gum, jawbreakers, wacky walkers, sweet-tarts…and only 25 cents! The teaser card would draw you in with the promise of a gold wristwatch (which would no doubt turn your skin green), but most of the time, your bounty ended up being shitty plastic spider ring.

At this particular Kmart, I only noticed a few machines, but didn’t snap a picture. Kmart downsized the vending machine lineup to about 2 machines, not nearly the wall of dime-store baubles that I grew up knowing.

The coin-operated entertainment doesn’t stop at the checkout, folks. Outside, the spectacle continues with a musical carousel and thrusting dump truck.

A dump truck is great, but where is the mechanical bull?

It’s nice to see the ride-on toys still here. I’m quite surprised to see these mechanical eyesores still around; they look like lawsuits waiting to happen.

Kids these days can still beg their parents for a 25 cent joyride in a plastic helicopter

Kids these days can still beg their parents for a 25 cent joyride in a dirty plastic helicopter

At any rate, Kmart’s ship has definitely sailed. It’s probably only a matter of time before this place closes up shop for good. On my visit to this store, I saw maybe 6 cars in the Kmart side of the parking lot, all of which were probably store employees.

Enjoy the rest of the photos!