Abandoned Sam's Club in Manchester, Connecticut

Hey! Welcome back to Retail on the Thames! I'm Simpsonfan311, and I'll be your travel guide as we go across Eastern Connecticut in search of interesting retail sights! Today we're going to be looking at an abandoned Sam's Club in the retail mecca of Manchester. Let's get into it!

INFO: Located just outside of The Shoppes at Buckland Hills, this Sam's club was formerly one of three in the state when it was open. However, this location, along with the Orange location closed on January 26th, 2018, As of this post, there's only one Sam's club left in Connecticut. The remaining location is in Newington, which is next to former Toys "R" Us, as well as a Stew Leonard's that was Formerly a Caldor. Despite it's current vacant state, the Manchester Sam's Club will soon have a purpose. Local outlets just released articles saying that the Sam's Club will be used as a warehouse for supply storage. So the future won't be a long, grim, vacant one for this location.

I'm honestly not surprised this location closed. When it comes to wholesale clubs, Walmart's attempts aren't very popular in the state. BJ's dominates in Connecticut with around 13 locations, and Costco has a bit of prominence in the state with 7 warehouses. Sam's Club currently has 1 mere location. I can understand why it's like this. I've always associated BJ's with this area, not Sam's Club. I mainly picture Sam's Club in the Southeast, and I bet many Connecticut residents either think the same thing, or just don't care. Alright, let's look at some pictures!

I'm pretty proud of these far away pictures, but it wasn't without hard work. This vacancy is huge, and I had to run to the back of the parking lot to get some good pictures of the entire property. It paid off though, since I really like these results. These shot give you an idea of how large the property is.

Heading up to the facade of the building, you see a small labelscar of the Sam's Club diamond, and not much else.

Looking at the inside, it's completely empty. There's nothing to see outside of light fixtures and the building's floor and walls. The entrance and exit signs are super cool though.

Here's the other side of the store, which also required quite a walk to get to.

To give you an idea how hard it was to get those first shots, here's a picture of the parking lot to end this post off.

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

-Simpsonfan311

The Norwichtown Dunkin Donuts Suddenly Closes

Hey everybody. Welcome to another addition to Retail on the Thames. Today we're looking at a newly abandoned Dunkin Donuts in Norwichtown.

As I was running errands today, I drove past this location and was shocked to see that there was a brand new closure in the Norwichtown area. I was pretty excited to snap some pictures of this, since this closing is brand new. I got a few really nice pictures as a result and I also get to show you guys a recent retail vacancy.

INFO: Not much is known about when this Dunkin was opened, but it was around since at least late 2007, as seen in this picture taken by The Caldor Rainbow. The plaza it was a part of was built in 1935, and it's known as the James Plaza, due to the only other tenant being a James Laundromat. This location closed within the last month. This is because right after Hurricane Isaias hit the area, this location appeared to be closed, but it still retained branding and fixtures. At the time, this could have been a temporary closure, but this is now a permanent closure. I do have some pictures of this plaza pre-closure, so I'll show those as well.


Before the Closure:

Taken 5-17-20

Taken 5-19-20

After the Closure

All post-closure photos were taken on 9-19-20

It's really odd to see this Dunkin close. I used to go to this one a lot around 9-10 years ago. Even though I never really went to this one in the past couple of years, I still have a lot of memories from going here. When I took photos of this place, the memories associated with this location started flowing in. I remember waiting in a line around 3 customers long to get chocolate munchkins and whatever else was being ordered that day. I remember wanting to get a Gatorade out of the vending machine while waiting in line no matter what time of day it was. I remember the comfort of sitting in Dunkin's cushioned chairs while eating hot hash browns. Going up to this place feels like it's 8:00 A.M on a fall morning in 2011, and I kind of love that. It's kind of crazy how many memories can come from walking up to an abandoned restaurant, and that makes this vacancy even more fascinating to me.

Despite it being small, seeing the sign Dunkin used without their logo was really cool

The interior was completely empty when I approached it.

 Fun Fact, the houses you see in the reflection are getting demolished for a Burger King. I would tell the story behind that, but I'll save that story for when Burger King opens.

Here's a for rent sign, which is obviously new to the space.

That's it for this one! I hope you enjoyed this post, as I really had fun writing this one. I'll see you all next time!

-Simpsonfan311

Abandoned KFC in New London, Connecticut

Welcome to another edition of Retail on The Thames! Today We're going to be looking at a Twice abandoned KFC near downtown New London. Oh and before we start, a fun fact about this location is that it's across the street from a Former Blockbuster.

INFO: According to property records, This KFC was built in 1967 on US 1 just outside of downtown New London. It opened in 1970 and stayed in business for over 40 years. Here's what it looked like when it was open. KFC closed the location in 2011 for a reason I do not know. By 2015, a local restaurant called Crown Chicken & Grill opened up shop. In addition, they removed the tip of the roof and added a new coat of paint. Just a few years later, Crown Chicken closed, and the building is vacant once again.


PICTURES:

Crown Chicken repurposed the sign instead of adding a new one. When KFC was open, they had used the 2006 logo on the sign.

As you can tell this is an obvious recycle. The fact that it's abandoned makes it even more fascinating. The plants have been overgrowing for the past year, most likely due to a lack of maintenance after Crown Chicken's closure. This made it hard to get a window shot from the front, so I just got those shots from the side.

Heading towards the back, there isn't much to note, but what do you expect? It's the back of the building, which is usually the most boring part. (at least for me)

Heading towards the other side of the building, we can see that there's no drive-thru, but parking instead. To me it's weird that this location never had a drive-thru, but this could be because it's an older building. It could also be because KFC was leaning towards a sit-down environment back then.

Here's the interior. Although I'm unsure of Crown Chicken renovated it or not, I'm guessing they did, since I haven't seen a KFC with this style of interior.

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

-Simpsonfan311

Construction, Demolition, and Renovation

Welcome to what I'm going to be calling a Retail on the Thames newsletter. Over the past month, I've discovered a few retail-related changed across eastern Connecticut. After quite a bit of procrastination, I'm ready to show these changes!



1. Norwich Chipotle Begins Construction

Plans for Norwich to get a Chipotle have gone back to late 2019, and the construction process has now started. The construction of this Chipotle led to the demolition of four houses, which is sad to see, but hopefully the Chipotle will bring in some business. According to the article I linked, Chipotle will be opening in the fall.

2. The Waterford Toys "R" Us Has Been Demolished

This is something I discovered beck in late July, but never took pictures of until August. When I went here back in late May, The property was still abandoned, but it was gated off. I predicted that the structure was going to be demolished, due to chalk writing hinting at it, and I ended up being right. I have no Idea what is going to be built on the space.

The Old Saybrook McDonald's Gets Renovated.

I'm pretty sure we all saw this coming. I was looking forward to getting a photoshoot of this recently converted McMansard, but I got a nasty surprise when I drove by the property. The building had gotten an ugly, uninspired EotF remodel. What interests me about this remodel is how they kept the roofline, but still managed to box it. My guess is that Old Saybrook has a code that caused the roofline to stay.

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

-Simpsonfan311

Taftville's Completely Vacant Plaza

Welcome to another edition of Retail on the Thames! Today we're going to be looking at one of Eastern Connecticut's largest and most interesting retail vacancies. Not a single tenant is open, and the entire plaza has sat abandoned for almost 2 years


INFO: Built in 1959, this plaza is located on Route 12 in the Taftville neighborhood in Norwich, and is one of the smaller ones in town. It only had 5 tenants at the end of it's life. These were Starrwood Market, Gary's Wine and Spirits, Annie Lee's Southern Cuisine, Subway, and Core Plus Federal Credit Union. Starrwood closed in in the summer of 2018, and Gary's and Subway closed later in the year. Annie's and Core Plus had already been closed for a bit before the other tenants. Now let's get to the pictures.

PICTURES:

Starting off the plaza is Starrwood Market. I was surprised to find out this used to be an A&P a long time ago. I don't know exactly when A&P opened or closed but I'm guessing it opened circa 1959 when the plaza was built, and closed sometime before 2003. This is due to an article reporting on Starwood's closure stating that Starwood's former owner bought the building in 2003. The article also states that the property had some issues while it was open, such as some electrical problems in 2015. By July of 2018, the market had closed.

I couldn't see much of the interior due to materials blocking my view, but it looked quite empty.

Some more interesting sights here included dirty fluorescent lights and a USPS mailbox.

Now let's check out the plaza's smaller tenants.

Next up is Gary's, a typical liquor store that closed in either late-2018 or early-2019.

The interior looked gutted and gross, but that drink cabinet looked cool.

Here's Annie Lee's, which was open for a very short amount of time, and by that, I mean a few years at the most. Beforehand, this space was home to a restaurant called Open Rice.

The interior was going through renovations, but I'm unsure whether it's for Annie Lee's or a new tenant.

Subway closed around the same time as Gary's, and it wasn't a huge loss, as there's two others in Norwich. One is at the forgettable Salem Plaza, and the other is at an unnamed plaza in Norwichtown.

The interior looked like a typical Subway, and we can't ignore the random shopping cart in there.

(former Core Plus sign) 

Lastly is Core Plus, which closed in the mid-2010's. Besides the branding in the back  entrance, there isn't much to see here.

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

-Simpsonfan311