Pick Pockets Deli: Two Repurposed Yum! Brands Buildings

For some odd reason, Pick Pockets Deli, a small deli chain in Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut with 4 total locations, has 2 restaurants that were formerly Yum! Brands (or Pepsico) restaurants. The other 2 locations, located in North Providence and Middletown, Rhode Island, are located in plazas. Today we'll be looking at both of these obvious repurposed restaurants, and I'll try to put in some "history" while talking about them. Let's get started!

LOCATION 1: GROTON, CT

Towards the southern terminus of Route 12, next to the Groton Square Shopping Center, lies our first location of interest.This location is Pick Pockets first and only restaurant in Connecticut. Now I can't confirm if this was a Pizza Hut or not, but the exterior is exactly like an old Pizza Hut, without a rooftop. If this was a Pizza Hut, it hasn't been a Pizza Hut in a long time. Even before Pick Pockets was there, not one, but two restaurants had the space over time. First was Russell's Ribs, which was in the building up until around 2012 (I'm unsure when Russell's opened) Then in 2013, The Bayou Smokehouse opened up, where it lasted until around 2018, when Pick Pockets opened.

Now I do have a bit of a theory to why this was definitely a Pizza Hut. Look at Groton's Former Pizza Hut, This doesn't look like it was initially a Pizza Hut. In fact, it looks pretty similar to an older Taco Bell. The Taco Bell in Groton (Coincidentally across the street from Pick Pockets), was an '80s-'90s build that got a remodel by 2011. This means that Taco Bell possibly had to build a new location in the '80s or '90s after Pizza Hut relocated to their space. Hey, who knows? I'm probably just making stuff up. Oh well, let's got to the next location, and to do that, we're crossing the state line.

LOCATION 2: WESTERLY, RI

By the early 2010's Yum! Brands had no presence left in the Western Rhode Island town of Westerly. Taco Bell closed by 2010, and was demolished for a bank, Pizza Hut closed in 2012, and was demolished for Providence Coal Fired Pizza, and right next door to Pizza Hut was KFC, which Pick Pockets had moved into by 2012. Now Westerly residents have to drive to Groton if they have a craving for Colonel and Chalupas.

As for KFC itself, it was a 2000's build, but I'm not sure if was an original build or a renovation, as KFC phased out most of their older mansard-style locations in the early to mid-2000's. If it was an original build, it's likely that KFC lasted less than a decade in Westerly. As for Pick Pockets itself, I can't confirm if they did much to it on the inside, as I'm not too familiar with 2000's-style KFC interiors. However, the exterior remains almost completely untouched besides the changed signage.

To me, seeing repurposed fast food buildings is really cool, because even if a certain design is eliminated by a chain, you know that they still exist at a local Deli or Chinese restaurant.

That's it for this one! I'll see you guys tomorrow for another blog!

-Simpsonfan311

The Mansfield McDonald's Undergoes Renovation

This is going to be more of an update than a blog post. I am aiming to make 2 before the end of July though. Ok, let's get to the point.

On July 24th 2020,  I saw this shocking sight while driving to the East Brook Mall.One of the few Remaining McMansard's in eastern Connecticut was undergoing a remodel. Signs claimed it would re-open on August 3rd.

I'm pretty irritated with this unoriginal rebuild, but at least I got to photograph a few months before it's rebuild when it was still original. Let's get to some pictures.

I thought this sign was pretty cool, and it's kind of significant in a way. It shows the changing of what used to be, even If it's for the worst. It still appears that they're keeping it's original sign, which is a pretty unique one.

I'll see you all very soon!

-Simpsonfan311

Abandoned Eastern Mountain Sports in Waterford, Connecticut

Welcome to another edition of Retail on The Thames! Today we're exploring abandoned territory.

After photographing the Crystal Mall last month, I came across a small plaza with some abandoned retail space in it while driving home. I decided to drive back and photograph it and found some pretty cool vacancies.

Construction on this plaza started in 2009. Not much was lost to these buildings except for an old house which sat on the corner of Dayton Place and Route 85, which is where the plaza is today. The plaza contained Jared (which is still open), T-Mobile, and Eastern Mountain Sports, a small chain that sells outdoor gear. Later on T-Mobile would be replaced with a clinic called Miracle Ear. In late 2018, Eastern Mountain Sports closed their location in the plaza and by 2019, both EMS and Miracle Ear sat abandoned.

PICTURES:

Due to the bland exterior and me not knowing about the chain, I had no clue what I was exploring until I looked on Google Maps to find out what the space used to be. Nonetheless, it was still fun to explore the place

There was nothing left in the interior, making this 2 year vacancy look like a 20 year one.

Once again, I geeked out about the locking systems of an abandoned place. Not only was the door code lock still up, but on of the doors was padlocked with a newer Masterlock that I haven't seen before

 Now we're moving on to the other vacant tenant, Miracle Ear. I'm unsure if this is a local place or a chain because I don't care about clinics. At first glance, this looked like it could've been part of EMS, but the separate entrance and black cover show that not to be the case. There's not much to talk about when it comes to the interior due to only the waiting room being visible.

Here's a sign stating that the clinic has moved to the Waterford Commons, which is a thriving plaza with an abandoned Babies "R" Us, and nothing else interesting. I don't blame them for doing this, because this space is tucked back and pretty inconvenient due to the entrance not being on the main road.

That's it for this one. I'll see you all next time!

-Simpsonfan311

Interesting Sights at the Crystal Mall

A shot of the Macy's court

Welcome to another edition of Retail on the Thames. Today we're going to look at some of the more interesting sights at The Crystal Mall in Waterford, Connecticut.

Before we get to the pictures, I would like to say that this post is not going to be an oral history of The Crystal Mall. This post is going to be about some of the stores at the mall that have an interesting history to me. If you want a history of the Crystal Mall, go check out The Caldor Rainbow's post about the mall. Even though that post was made in 2007, there hasn't been any major changes since that post was written except for some interior renovations in the early 2010's, and the unsurprising closure of Sears in January of 2019. Speaking of Sears, let's take a look at it.

 Starting off, here's the main entrance. When you come up to the building, there's no clear labelscars that let you know that this was once a Sears, but just by looking at the building's facade, you can tell that Sears once occupied the space.

I found this unattended Bed Bath and Beyond shopping cart near one of the entrances. When I first encountered the cart, I was hoping that it was a Sears cart, but I was eventually disappointed when I read the label. Normally I don't photograph carts unless their of a chain of yesteryear, but I decided to take a picture of it because it was abandoned and out of the way.

When I was at this particular location, I decided to photograph some of the less looked at objects, such as the lighting and the handicap door opener. One of the things that fascinates me the most when it comes to abandoned places is when they have any extra signage. Even if it isn't store branding, seeing simple signs and stickers makes a vacancy even more fascinating to me

Another thing I'm interested in is locks. While I'm only really into padlocks, seeing this keypad door lock still up was pretty interesting to me

This is one of the side entrances, which almost looks identical to the main entrance. The only difference between the two is that this side entrance has a smaller corridor. As you may be able to notice, the windows here are blacked out. This is the case with all of the windows of this Sears, so I was unable to get any interior shots of it

Lastly for Sears, we have the Auto Center, as well as another side entrance. The Auto Center entrance is the only entrance that looks slightly different. While the store entrances have a slanted facade, the Auto Center entrance faces straight up.

That's it for Sears. Let's look at some more interesting stores

Here's the split anchor of Bed Bath and Beyond and The Christmas Tree Shops. This was originally a Filene's. As some of you may know, Macy's replaced almost all of the May Co. stores in 2006, and at the time, Filene's was recently acquired by Federated, who also owned Macy's. Most of the Filene's in the area were turned into new Macy's because these malls never had a Macy's. However the Crystal Mall already had a Macy's. This was a bit of a problem. Now Macy's could've opened up a Home and Furniture store like the one at the nearby Shoppes at Buckland Hills in Manchester, but for some reason that never happened. This wasn't a big deal because just a few months later, Bed Bath and Beyond and The Christmas Tree Shops each took a floor of the space

The exterior of this location is pretty interesting, because it doesn't look like the typical May Co. exterior that was built in the 80's and 90's. Instead of that basic and slim design, we have this large and bulky structure, with a giant solarium entrance. I was able to find an image of the Filene's at the Maine Mall with a similar exterior, so this build is not one of a kind. Despite that, this building is pretty grand for a former Filene's.

This is EbLens, which used to be a Tweeter, an electronics chain that closed all of their stores in 2008. Tweeter used to be a mini-anchor at the mall. Back when this store was a Tweeter, there was actually outdoor access to the store, but EbLens has since removed the outside entrance, making this tenant only accessible from the mall.

Here's Macy's, which was formerly a Jordan Marsh. For whatever reason I never did a full shoot of the Macy's despite it not being the original tenant. However this Macy's opened up in 1996, and has been a staple at the Crystal Mall for a long time.

JCPenney, which doesn't have any interesting history besides being the only original anchor at the mall.

I figured I would finish off this post by showing a picture of the mall entrance.

That's it for this blog! I hope you really enjoyed this edition, and I'll see you all soon!

-Simpsonfan311