Shopping center memories

[Cole D]

I guess this is the right section to post this in. :/

Anyway, I was thinking of some of my early memories of going to shopping centers or stores with my parents.

When I was about 3 or 4 is the earliest I can remember of going to the stores. There were two shopping centers across the street from each other.

The first had the grocery store we went to most often, which was Kash N Karry. When you walked in, you first came into the bakery/deli, which sort of
curved along the right wall, and became the dairy dept I think. The bakery/deli had lots of Hunter ceiling fans with four blades in white and brass.
I think they were Summer Breezes, either 52" or 48". The bakery used to give out a free cookie to kids, so it was usually our first stop as we'd
shop.

At the other end of that shopping center was a Walmart. It was very small by today's standards. I don't remember the ceiling fan department
in there much at all, and I can just vaguely remember the portables. But it had 56" industrials over the registers which I think were brown
and had a green sticker on the lower canopy. There was also a garden/nursery section outside with one register out there under a roofed area.
That regiester had a small brown and white box fan that I think was a Holmes. What fascinated me was it had a rotating grille. I remember
watching it spin.

Also in that center, there was a Little Caesars, which I can remember seeing through the windows had some kind of antique brass huggers.
There was a Bealls Outlet as well but I don't recall any fans. I have very little recollection of it, but I just remembered a Radio Shack
being there as well, can't recall if it had fans though.

The Kash N Karry got remodeled probably in the early 2000s and the bakery and deli were moved and there were no more fans.
Then it became a Sweetbay about 2004, then interestingly it became a Winn Dixie when they bought Sweetbay around 2014. But the FTC ruled
that there was not enough competition for Winn Dixie to have two stores there, so it closed. It got bought by an independent grocery
store but they ended up closing, and then Winn Dixie decided to close their other store and moved BACK IN. LOL

The Walmart was replaced by a SuperCenter on the other end of town by about 2002. It has been a Tractor Supply since.
The Bealls Outlet is still there, but the Little Caesars and Radio Shack closed long ago.

[Cole D]

Part II:

Across the street from the aforementioned shopping center, was another plaza.

This one had a Winn Dixie, which was from the 70s. It had the giant silver round HVAC vents. I seem to recall it may have
had some kind of ceiling fans in the bakery, which were antique brass. My mind thinks they were Originals, but it just doesn't
make sense to me. That store got replaced by a new store on the other end of town in 1996/97 era. The last time I remember
going there was with my grandparents just before that.

Also in this center, was an Eckerd Drug store. It had brownish terrazzo floors and silver square HVAC vents. I remember
vaguley that they sold Duracraft fans and I got a clip on battery fan there when I was a kid. It must've closed sometime
in the late 90s.

There was also a Dollar General and Family Dollar store next door to each other. The Dollar General store sold Aries fan,
and my parents got me a neon green clip on one there, after the hunter green Lasko they got me at Walmart broke its clip.
I recall for some reason over the registers there was a porcelain ceiling socket with a red bulb in it which fascinated me
as a kid. Still don't know what that was about.

Then at the far left there was a Goodwill store, which also had square silver HVAC vents. I think this was originally a
Sears catalog store, but it was before my time. The Goodwill went out of business at some point and the other stores
all moved into stand alone buildings since then.

In front of that shopping center, was a rather unusual Subway restaurant. It had a steep A frame shaped roof, with a covered area
outside with tables. Originally, it was a What A Burger, but that too was before my time. The building was badly damaged by all
the hurricanes we had in 2004, so it was demolished. By that point there was another Subway by the new Walmart anyway.

It got replaced by a Dunkin Donuts, which strangely sat vacant for a number of years before finally opening.

Across the street from that shopping center, was a Pizza Hut. I believe it likely had Hunter Summer Breeze fans, but
I can't recall. When I was in kindergarten, my school had a program called Book-It, where if you read books you got
stickers to put on a button, and when the button was full you got a free personal pizza. They also used to give
out K NEX toys for a while if you got a kid's meal, and I remember collecting all the toys. There was a windmill
set, helicopter, airplane, etc. Of course I loved all that because it had propellers.

An unusual part of that Pizza Hut was it actually had a drive thru. Which doesn't make sense because it would take forever
waiting for a pizza to bake. But I do remember we went thru it sometimes to get personal pizzas.

That Pizza Hut sadly got replaced with a new one across town about 2004 or so. Which is a little strange too,
because that's the only newer Pizza Hut I know of around here that is still the dine in/buffet style. All the
rest kept the older buildings, or have moved into strip malls.

[Tais]

One childhood thing everyone loved in burjuman, the 2nd mall in dubai opened in 1991.. gone after major renovation..

Luckily this video survived on yt:

[Cole D]

More memories, these all take place on Main Street:

Main street had a couple of businesses that we'd visit sometimes.
The first was an art store that my mom would go to for supplies. This store had plate glass front windows and very high ceilings.
The ceilings had the square paper tiles with pinholes in them. There were fluorescent strip lights and ceiling fans. I believe
the fans were polished brass and had four blades. They probably were typical builder fans and not very old at the time. There
was an old lady who helped run the shop that would sit in a rocking chair and crochet or something, and she would always have
a blue Galaxy oscillator on the floor in front of her chair.

About across the street from here, was a store called Ben Franklin. This was a sort of I think what used to be called
Five and Dime or Variety store. It also had very high ceilings, with the square paper tiles and huge round HVAC vents
silver in color and fluorescent strip lights. It also had a very old restroom with wooden paneled door and skeleton
key style lock and knob. I remember looking at toys pretty often in this store. The plastic shopping bags had pinwheels
on them which I thought was pretty neat. I don't remember them selling or using any fans here though.

At some point, I can remember going into another store front here. This storefront, I'm thinking may have been
a hardware store at some point. It was very musty smelling, and I think had tin ceilings and possibly schoolhouse
globe lights on chains hanging from the ceiling. Not sure what they were selling there, or if they were just
cleaning out the building.

Finally there was a small shopping center around the corner from there that had a grocery store called S&S grocery
that we shopped in sometimes. I don't remember anything too interesting about it, it was a small old mom and pop
style store. Also in that center was an office supply store and a hardware store called Sentry Hardware.
I remember the hardware store had a blue Lasko/Galaxy oscillator. I think the hardware store is still there
but now called S&S irrigation.