Borders

Palo Alto, CA (Bay Area) in former cinema

 When I had my Barnes & Noble tote the other week, someone confused it with Borders when it was in town (which B&N bought out remaining assets of, but that's not the point). Borders closed in 2011, and was followed by Waldenbooks. Even the few chains and indies can't all stay open and compete with Amazon. Borders had some items that the other place didn't have. I even remember Eileen Fulton of As the World Turns doing a book signing. Her character is my sisters namesake and Fulton is from where my other sister now lives (small world). The photo I took sadly has disappeared like the stores. Here's a selection of some of them:

Syracuse - Carousel Center (now Destiny USA), now canyon section/Dicks wing

Watertown - Salmon Run Mall, NY 3

Albany (Guilderland) - Crossgates Mall, US 20

Rochester - Hylan Dr, now Homegoods

Buffalo (Cheektowaga) - Walden Galleria

New York (1) - 122 5th Ave

New York (2) - 461 Park Ave

Orchard Park - NY 179 (other WNY store)

Wappingers Falls - US 9 (forgot it was there when I lived up the road)

Arlington, VA - Hayes St (last one I remember going to after mine closed during DC hols. Only non-NY one I'm putting since we're focussing on NY)

Tomato Pie Day

Spanos (now New York Dough) Tomato Pie sold at Hannaford. They usually competed at Tomato Pie Day.

CC0, Link

 Tomato Pie Day in Utica, NY is a unique family event that draws hundreds every April, even from outside the Mohawk Valley as several local restaurants compete to be voted as the best one in town. However, I'm worried they're pulling a Glastonbury (the UK music festival has fallow years) because there has been no announcement yet as to whether or not they'll have it this year at the rec center on Memorial Parkway. They would have announced it by now. The last time it was cancelled of course was COVID, when it was not held for three years in a row, and it was brought back last year and I went. The crystal ball said it would be 27 April, 52 weeks after the last one, but we can't really confirm that. It could be called off again with rising food costs, staffing shortages, the challenges of running a small business in a small town, and the economy overall. It's just I can't plan until I know for drop dead sure that it's on so I can clear my day so I don't go that way during the week for other things because I can't afford to go out of town twice a month or every week anymore, even in warmer months, let alone to the same place a couple times. Lucky I can do it once or at all these days. Like a real journalist, I reached out to I Love Utica and New York Dough (which absorbed Spanos), but have not heard back from either. I may not even have regular pizza all the time, but tomato pie we call our own. Not the same kind as in Mercer County (NJ Capital Region) or the South. If I do hear anything official, I will update this post straight away. Tomato, tomahto, let's not call the whole thing off yet.

Bakery Outlets

Entenmanns outlet in Georgetown downstate (not Leatherstocking or DC)

 Freihofers Bakery Outlets had just closed stores suddenly in the Northeast, including CNY, the Finger Lakes, Mohawk and Hudson Valleys, Capital Region, New England and the Tri-State. The employees themselves had the rug taken off from under them. While stores big and small worldwide have been suffering the past few years, even these did not make it. Bimbo Bakeries USA, well known to Pati (Jinich, who heard of the parent company in Mexico) and based near Patti (laBelle, who lives in Wynewood and has to limit carbs) made the decision to close them. I put sister brand Entenmanns in Brooklyn since that was the closest thing I could find (one of several former sister brands to Loblaws that Bimbo bought), although Freihofers were headquartered in nearby Totowa, NJ, yet Bimbos acquisition brought them back to the Philadelphia area in some way, where Freihofer's were founded in the Victorian era in the city proper. You can always just go to any big store to get it now.

Rivals Wonder Hostess (now part of Flowers Bakeries) used to have their own outlets in Syracuse on Court Street Road, East Molloy Road (likely not at the same time since it's a mile away) and South Bay Road in North Syracuse. The first two are a short drive from Freihofer's Lyncourt store, which had Bimbos brands, as well some lesser known ones, plus institutional packages, store brands like Price Choppers PiCs and Big M (formerly made by Penn Traffic division Penny Curtiss around the corner), and some non-baked items. Those stores are quite small and you'd be lucky to fit a cornershop in them.

Best Buy Outlet

Brockton, MA location (Boston area)

 Best Buy is the latest big box to branch out into the outlet scene, passing down more savings on inventory they're trying to offload. The regular chain has closed stores in CNY, WNY and the Capital Region in recent years however. The Syracuse one at Destiny USA, which had been Lechmere in Carousel days, is now a Going, Going Gone Dicks Warehouse Outlet (renamed after a Bob Dylan song supposedly because the Times They Are a-Changin'!). On a Facebook group, one had opened in an old Borders (another chain from pre-Destiny years).  Best Buy Outlet could go in both former locations of the parent company and other stores.

Syracuse - Destiny USA; former Forever 21 (as of 31/3/24)

Williamsville - NY 78*

Liverpool - NY 31*; later Value City Furniture

Henrietta - NY 252; former Christmas Tree Shops

Albany - US 20; Crossgates Mall* (previously Caldor)

New Hartford - NY 5 & 5A; Sangertown Square; former Macys

Auburn - NY 5 & US 20; Fingerlakes Mall; former JCPenney

*former store

DG Market

New Syracuse store in the Valley

 While Dollar General only came to CNY in the late '90s, subsidiary DG Market is even more late. Syracuse.com merely mentioned one of the two that opened on the south side, which is one of far too many food deserts across the country affecting vulnerable populations, much of whom lack personal transport (you know how it is). The one the site mentioned on S. Salina St. (US 11) and E. Brighton Ave. turned out to be the former Big M (closed in the '90s) and Factory Direct Furniture Outlet (competed with Dunk & Bright across the street and thus just moved to Shop City) and nothing at this writing just yet on the other one only a few miles away at the corner of W. Seneca Tpke. and Valley Dr. (NY 173 & 80; pictured) in the former Eckerd/Rite Aid/Walgreens. While many would like the old A&P/P&C/Tops in Valley Plaza down the street from the former and around the corner from the latter to become a DG Market as well, it may be too close to both and DG proper is there now and would close (although in an older, smaller space). Across town in Mattydale, the Walgreens there is on the way out, and there hasn't been a grocery store there in thirty years time since P&C (previously Tops until 1986, where Big Lots is today) moved up Brewerton Road (also US 11) to the former Channel Home Center in Airport Plaza in North Syracuse (now Tops as well). Regular DG is at the corner of E. Molloy Rd. where arch-rival Family Dollar (currently about to close 1,000 stores, including Dollar Tree) had been. We all know these chains are all over the place these days, and as for DGs competitors, it's a classic case of too many stores along with recent events, yet DG have been thriving when much of the public hasn't. DG Market offers items that the main chain or even DGX (the downtown division; mine in the old Woolworths/Rite Aid) doesn't. Even Trafalgar, IN is getting a DG Market (which I discovered whilst trying to do my research), as well as the North Country back here (albeit at the expense of a nearby small town mom-and-pop). Now we should come up with the usual list of locations of where to put one, even though it may be a copout and sellout at the same time with a big name like this.

Binghamton - NY 7, former Giant/Weis

Greene - former Great American BK Five

Sidney - CR 23, former Great American BK Five

Syracuse (Westvale) - NY 5, former P&C/Tops, Westvale Plaza (even with Family Dollar up the block)

Chittenango - Tuscarora Rd. (new NY 5 location just opened, while this store could just be converted)

Jordan - 9 Mechanic St, former Big M/Tops; current Dollar Tree/Family Dollar (just in case)

Renssalaer - US 9 & 20; former Aldi

Schenectady - NY 5 & 7; former Aldi/Grand Union

Troy (Lansingburgh) - US 4; former Price Chopper

Liverpool - NY 31; former Price Chopper (as of 19/4/24)

Taylor, PA - former Price Chopper (as of 19/4/24)

Utica - Genesee St.; former Fays/Eckerd/Rite Aid

Fulton - NY 481; former kmart, River Glen Plaza (regular DG in last surviving CNY Woolworths downtown up the street)

Hubbard, OH - former Save-a-Lot (closed due to right rent rise and roof row)

Albany (Delaware Area) - NY 443 & US 9W; former Save-a-Lot/Fays?

Former Price Chopper locations

My usual store on Syracuses east side before being done up

Here's where Price Chopper used to be (all NY unless indicated): 

Framingham, MA 

Schenectady (Sheridan Plaza) 

Watervliet*/** (NY 32, now Dollar Tree)

Albany*/** (earlier store)

Oneonta* (NY 7)

Albany (New Scotland Ave.; Mini Chopper only; main store now Market 32) 

Mechanicville*/*** 

Pittsfield, MA*/*** 

Glens Falls*/*** 

North Troy */**

Lansingburgh (US 4)

Green Island*/** 

Poughkeepsie (South Hills Mall) (US 9) (now ShopRite)

Shrewsbury, MA* Oneida - later Herb Phillipsons* 

Oswego (near Fort Ontario)* (now medical building)

Saratoga Springs* (earlier store)

Saratoga Springs (Price Chopper Limited downtown; now indie store)

Northampton, MA 

Baldwinsville? 

Fulton (NY 3)* 

deWitt (Hechinger Plaza) - NY 5; later Big Lots and Stickley Clearence Centre; now Spectrum* 

deWitt (kmart plaza) - NY 5; later OfficeMax, now Dicks* 

Liverpool* (CR 57, Seneca Mall)

West Boylston, MA 

Willowbrook 

Colonie* (original store; current Colonie Plaza store to close when Market 32 reopens in former ShopRite down NY 5)

Plattsburgh* 

Scranton, PA 

Syracuse (Western Lights)* (original store)

Liverpool (NY 31 as of 19/4/24); may become furniture store (name TBA)

Taylor, PA (as of 19/4/24)

New Hartford* (NY 5A)

Albany (Westgate)* (current store to close when Market 32 reopens in former ShopRite down NY 5)

Camillus (became Hills in 1982, then Ames in 1999 until chains demise in 2002; building and most of old mall and plaza demolished; Walmart Supercenter opened in 2005) 

*moved

**As Public Service Market

***As Central Markets

More locations TBD

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.