The Spirit of Pier1 Lives On!

 Welcome to Retail on the Thames' second Halloween post! Now it wouldn't be Halloween for a retail enthusiast without checking out a Spirit Halloween, so let's do that! Today, we're going to be checking out a recurring Spirit Halloween that's located in the ghost of a former Pier1 Imports.

This Pier1 was built in 2001 as a part of the first of two sections of the Lisbon Landing Shopping center. When Lisbon Landing was built, it was the first kind of major retail the small town of Lisbon had received outside of a few other places such as McDonald's and Better Valu. The center became a retail mecca for the general area, due to it being anchored by Home Depot, Kohl's, and most notably, a Wal-Mart Supercenter. This location was even more significant since the next closest Wal-Mart in Norwich was a smaller location built in the 90's that still remains today. The shopping center became even bigger when extension was added across Route 12 in 2010 that included Target, Lowe's, Aldi, and other smaller tenants. The center remains thriving, outside of the Pier1, which has been seasonally used by infamous chain Spirit Halloween.

As for Pier1 itself, it closed by 2015, and has been used by Spirit Halloween for at least the past two years. While Pier1 has been struggling for a while, it's somewhat odd to see a Pier1 that was abandoned before their current bankruptcy and liquidation, which has led to Pier1 locations closing left and right. 

I've been pretty lucky to be able to document this location a couple of times. Once on June 7th, 2020, when it was vacant, and once on October 12th, 2020, when the space was being used as Spirit Halloween. Let's look at the pictures I've took to see how the building has fared in different conditions.

Starting with the shots of it when it was vacant, the building felt out of place. It wasn't really the building itself that was weird, since it was attached to a basic 2000's looking mini-plaza. What felt off to me was the circumstances of the building. Lisbon Landing is one of the busiest shopping centers I've ever been to. There's always plenty of people and cars, and every store is busy (well, at least the anchors). The fact that there's a vacant space here feels bizarre, despite it looking pretty boring,

The interior felt a little off too. I think this is because I went here last year when it was a Spirit, but I never went into the building when it was a Pier1. I remember there being paths made of hardwood floor, and all of the tones were different. It's possible that this was all stuff Spirit added. but it still didn't feel right. It's also possible that Spirit used a different space in the plaza last year, but I'm fairly confident that they used the former Pier1 space.

Ah yes, that's the Spirit!

I don't have much to say about this part of the set, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves for the most part.

You just have to love Spirit Halloween's trademark "professional signage."

I did want to get some interior shots from the window, but the plethora of Spirit Halloween branding prevented me from doing that, and since I didn't want to go in the building, I just left with the shots I had gotten.

That's it for this one! The next time I'll see you all is on November 11th, where I'll be releasing an extremely special post that's been over three months in the making. This is the most work I've ever put into one post, and it's going to pay off immensely. Although there are some who know what this post will be about, it's going to be kept secret on my blog. So until then, I'll see you all next time!

-Simpsonfan311

Ghost Riding

Welcome back to Retail on the Thames! Today's post is going to be one of two Halloween themed posts (the second will be coming in a few days from now). While this first post isn't necessarily about anything related to Halloween, the general atmosphere when I photographed this building was pretty spooky, so I thought I would add it. Now let's get into it!

The building we're going to bee looking at is an abandoned Motorsports Nation in Plainfield, Connecticut. From what I understand, Motorsports Nation is a very small chain that only has 3 locations. Two of their locations are in Eastern Connecticut, with one being a new location in Plainfield, and the other being in Waterford. The third location is fairly far from the others in Seekonk, Massachusetts. They mainly sell different off-road vehicles, such as street bikes, off-road bikes, and ATVs.

As for this location itself,  it was built in 2005. The building used to have an Ace Hardware attached to it, which can be seen in an image from Plainfield's property records. Around late 2018 or early 2019, Motorsports Nation re-located down the road to a smaller location that used to host a bowling alley. I honestly don't see why Motorsports Nation re-located, unless it was for a financial reason, since I think their original building was much nicer. Now it's time for the pictures.

Remember when I said that the abandoned McDonald's in Westerly felt ghostly? Well this place had the same feeling to it. I think part of this was because the sun was setting when I explored this place, so it had a very spooky and unsettling vibe to it. Despite that, it was super fun to get pictures of this place, and I consider this to be one of my favorite photoshoots.

While this building doesn't look amazing, it had some sort of haunted appeal to it due to it being abandoned, albeit not for a long time. This place felt giant when I was walking back and forth to get shots, which added even more appeal. You could tell that a lot of work went in to this place, which makes this vacancy simultaneously impressive and sad.

This shoot was also fun since I was able to test out different shutter speeds at night, due to the shoot occurring just after sundown. The photo on top was done at a slower speed (around 1/40-1/80), while the second shot was done at a faster speed (around 1/125-1/200). While I prefer the photo on the top, I like how both of these came out.

The interior felt more like a small office or a warehouse due to the lights being off. I must admit that it did look a little creepy in there.

Lastly, here's a condemned elevator inside of the property. I wasn't able to tell what it was from the window, and this blurry zoomed-in shot didn't help either. I asked some other people if they could identify what it was, and the general consensus was that it was a ThyssenKrupp Aurora, which does fit when the property was built, since the Aurora was made throughout most of the 2000's.

That's it for this one. I'll see you in a few days for the second Halloween post!

-Simpsonfan311

The Son of the City

 

Hey! Welcome once again to Retail on the Thames! This post was originally going to put out a week ago, but laziness prevailed. So you guys are going to get two posts this week. The second post is going to be coming out on Friday, and it'll be about a fun explore I did earlier this month. But let's get to this post, which is about a former Circuit City (if you already couldn't tell by the title and thumbnail)

As we all know, Circuit City had became a name of the past amidst the Recession in 2009 as a result of their chainwide liquidation. Soon after that, a local New York electronics chain called P.C Richard & Son took advantage of the liquidation by expanding across Connecticut. This location had already opened by 2010 according to an article about another location opening up in Danbury. The chain had taken up quite a few former Circuit City locations, including ones in Newington (which remains untouched on the outside), Enfield (a former Media Play), and North Haven (PC remodeled the iconic "plug" facade Circuit City was known for on this one). Manchester's PC Richard also remains untouched like it's fellow Newington location, although the design of Manchester's is slightly newer than that on Newington's. Now that I've given some context, let's get to the pictures.

Approaching the building, you could see the hints of the building formerly being a Circuit City, such as the tall red entrance resembling an outlet plug. It feels kind of magical to see this place in person. This was the first former Circuit City I had ever visited, and I was in awe seeing a relic like this still being used, while maintaining a semblance that hints at what used to be. It makes us remember a time when video cameras took 8 millimeter tapes, and when photography cameras took 35 millimeter film. And where did you go for that video camera that captured those significant moments of your life? Circuit City. Where did you go to get those tapes that are sitting in a shoebox inside of a drawer located in your parents bedroom? Circuit City. There's almost a bittersweet type of feeling that comes with visiting place like this, and that's because it's a hint of the past of the modern world. 

PC did such a good job preserving this place from the outside, which is sort of surprising, since North Haven's was renovated after PC moved in the building. Although it could've not gotten a renovation due to company budget restraints, which is definitely possible since Newington looks to be untouched on the outside.

These signs look to be original to Circuit City. I say this because these mini-signs advertising what the chain sold were common on older locations. If so, this is a great discovery. I'm not surprised PC re-used this signage though, since they do sell many of the same things.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how amazing this entrance is? I know finding repurposed Circuit City's isn't uncommon but man I love seeing these in the wild.

Here's the side of the store. Nothing special here, but this was still a really cool shoot.

 See that building on the right side of the shot? That's another really cool find in this plaza. I'm not going to reveal what it is right now, but it's related to a chain that's not going to exist for much longer. A post will (eventually) be made about it.

That's it for this post! I'll see you all on Friday! (I promise)

-Simpsonfan311