McDonald's: Colchester, Connecticut

Welcome to a new series here on Retail on the Thames! In this series we take a look at older McDonald's Restaurants in eastern Connecticut. The fist one we will be looking at is the Colchester location.

INFO: Located on Route, 85, this McDonald's is not only one of the few fast food options in Colchester, but it's also one of the last Mansard-Style McDonald's in New London County. This location was built in the mid-80's as a regular McD's. The PlayPlace was added on after this location's opening, but has been here for a while

PICTURES:

The entrance side of the restaurant

The PlayPlace

The Drive-Thru

An interesting thing about this location is that some of the branding consists of what I like to call the "skateboard logo", which is pretty uncommon.

Back to the entrance

The main sign

Drive-Thru signs

"Thank You" signs

McD's logo on doors.

That's it for this blog. There's going to be a lot to look forward to in the next couple of weeks. I'll see you guys tomorrow for a "June Preview"!

-Simpsonfan311

The Sign Has Been Removed

Even more changes have occurred at the Norwich Benny's. The sign has finally been removed, and parts of the exterior are being redone as well. Here's the pictures. I don't have too many to show this time around.

That's it for this blog. This one was so short because I was not expecting an update this soon. The next post will be on Sunday, where we explore an old McDonald's. I'll see you all then!

-Simpsonfan311

The Norwich Benny's Undergoes Some Changes

A view of the abandoned Benny's on March 8th, 2020.

Things are about to change when it comes to New London County retail. Anyone in the area who's lived here for more than a couple of years is familiar with Benny's, a former chain of stores in Southern New England that sold a variety of items. The chain ceased operations in 2017, and this location has remained abandoned since, until possibly now.

Last week I was driving around Norwich, and I was shocked to see the Abandoned Benny's gated off. It had looked like a construction or demolition project had begun. I'm not sure what's happening, or what's going to happen, but things are definitely going to change here. Here's some pictures documenting what I saw.

That's it for this entry! I'll see you all soon!

-Simpsonfan311

It Used to be an Ames: Tractor Supply, Ocean State Job Lot, Dollar Tree in Griswold, Connecticut

The Plaza as it stands today.

This is the start of a blog sub-series called "It Used to be an Ames", where we look at stores or plazas that used to host an Ames Department Store. For those who don't know, Ames was a New England based discount department store chain that ceased operations in 2002. While some stores are still abandoned, most were turned into other stores. The first one we're going to look at is this plaza in Griswold that used to solely be an Ames.

INFO: Located off of exit 22 on Interstate 395, This Ames closed with the rest of the chain in 2002. It sat abandoned for a couple of years before some tenants took up the vacant space. According to some photo albums on The Ames Fan Club website, Ocean State Job Lot opened up for business here in either late 2004 or early 2005. I don't know exactly when the other tenants opened up here. I find it interesting that this three store plaza used to be home to only a single Ames.

PICTURES: 

The plaza in it's entirety.

A better view of the whole plaza

Tractor Supply and Ocean State Job Lot, which takes up a good chunk of the plaza.

Tractor Supply on the far left.

Ocean State Job Lot, Which is most likely the main attraction here, although Tractor Supply does get a fair amount of customers here. Dollar Tree usually is the least busy of the three tenants, which is probably due to the fact that there's two Dollar Tree's in nearby Norwich.

Here's a link to some photo albums of this plaza when it was an abandoned Ames, and when the plaza was new on Ames Fan Club. A fair warning, the albums are pretty hard to access, because most of the time you get an error screen when you try to actually open the album. I  you can get to the photos though, they're pretty cool!

LINK: http://www.amesfanclub.com/getstore.php?ID=43

That's it for this blog. I'll talk to you all soon!

-Simpsonfan311