Retail Forever

Welcome back to Retail Forever, and wow, it sure has been a while, hasn't it? While on vacation in Bermuda a few weeks ago, I managed to learn a bit about the Bermudian retail landscape (which, no surprise, is pretty much the same as here in the United States). Today, I'll be walking y'all through the history of The MarketPlace, taking you on a tour through two of their stores, and talking about other Bermudian stores they own, including the last Sears Hometown on earth! Let's start by exploring their history. History of The MarketPlace As you could probably guess from the title, The MarketPlace started out as Piggly Wiggly. The Crisson family opened the first store in 1939, and called it Piggly Wiggly Limited. In 1946 and 1950 respectively, the company was purchased by the Pimental family and Fernance Perry. By March 1979, Piggly Wiggly Limited had four stores, and was purchased by Alvin Ferreira, who owned the existing Modern Mart. It was in 1981 that the company was

Welcome back to Retail Forever, and wow, it’s been a while since I posted something (sorry…) Today, we’re going to take a look at the two proposed Rite Aid stores in Lancaster County which never came to fruition. Store 1: Rite Aid #36XX The first store we’ll be taking a look at today is located in southeastern Lancaster city. The store, located at 1003 East King Street, was built to become part of the rapidly expanding Drug Fair chain. At the time, Drug Fair already operated a store on Columbia Avenue in Columbia and was preparing to open another in the Stone Mill Plaza. Building started in 1986 and was completed by early 1987. But before Drug Fair could open, the chain was purchased by Rite Aid in 1987. Rite Aid announced that it would open a new store on the King Street property. Lancaster New Era via Newspapers.com - May 4, 1987 However, they never did. The property continued to sit vacant. In 1989, a Blockbuster Video store was pr