Fingerlakes Mall

Bass Pro Shops, the last thing going at Fingerlakes Mall

 Fingerlakes Mall on NY 5 & US 20 in Auburn is a classic textbook example of a small town dead mall. The easternmost city of a wine-growing region which the city itself is best known for a prison, Harriet Tubman and John Walsh. The mall opened in 1980 and once had JCPenney, kmart, Sears, Radio Shack (one of the very last was across town, but that's for another day), CVS/pharmacy, Rex, Friendlys, Great Outdoors RV, FYE, TCBY and Chappells. Bass Pro Shops came in 2003 and was thought to be the catch of the day, but it is the one holdout as one of the few in Upstate NY; the one other in CNY being in Utica around the former Montgomery Ward in Riverside Mall in Deerfield off NY 8 & 12 in proximity to the Mohawk Valley, Adirondacks and Catskills. I used to go to the Auburn one now and again, but not in a few years since they had less of what I needed and is less convenient for me today.

In recent years, local events are held at the mall, but being the de facto event center for Cayuga County is not enough. It could be a real mall again. It could have Target, Ross Dress for Less, Barnes & Noble and Hobby Lobby. FYE could come back, and there could be a combination of local and national smaller stores in the hallway. Not everyone can go all the way to Syracuse or Rochester. The potential is right there in front of them, even with inflation and online shopping looming over all of us. Auburn isn't as tight a squeeze as other smaller communities. The sister plaza across the street could also have spots left. Auburn is not just another Rust Belt former factory town. Fingerlakes Mall is ready for a renaissance like their competitors in the next county.

BiLo Foods

Former Butler County store; was also kmart (montage)

    BiLo Foods, no relation to BILO in the Mid-Atlantic (Tops' former sister chain, which we covered already), were P&Cs sister chain in Pennsylvania (except the Northwest in the Erie and Bradford areas where Penn Traffic had Quality from WNY, or P&C in Sayre). Some are closer to Pittsburgh, while others were across the Keystone State in the Northeast, mainly in Twin Tiers. Three former locations became Tops, the Renovo store is now Lingles (previously A&P and Weis), and Kens BiLo in Northern Cambria and Patton just retired their use of the BiLo name. A few other BiLos don't have their own sites, nor is their one for all of them. There is also a BiLo in Iberia Parish in Louisiana unrelated to either chain. One former store in Centre Country is now an Ollies Bargain Outlet. Numerous examples are scattered around and it can take all day to list them all since I'm not as familiar with this chain or state myself, and it's only because of the former parent company's ties to my area that this counts here, as well as the events of the 2010s tying the two BiLos together somewhat with the Tops purchase or the Ahold Delhaize merger in the Benelux and US East Coast (the Carolinas one survives through ALDI)..

    The Pennsylvania BiLo are chiefly in small towns and are affiliated with Best Yet/C&S. I know I saw one off I-81 in Susquehanna Valley around Hallstead like the one I had a photo of in Canton with the '50s/'60s architecture. Maybe it was the one I saw. Anyway, BiLo and P&C are the last surviving remnants of Penn Traffic (not counting the Atlanta Big Bear or Krogers QFC for Quality). It's also another case of two or more things having the same name before the Internet was around to check (I just learned that bilo is a type of Filipino dish, and no I won't use that stupid catchphrase).