Downtown, Uptown, Crosstown, Towne Centre — the terms are all connected to retail environments. As the premier business advocacy vehicle for the North Country, we at Strictly Business find ourselves creating connections between our region’s past, present and future. At breakfast this month, Herb and Mike “walked the beat” of Plattsburgh’s retail history...
Mike: What was retail like when you came to Plattsburgh Air Force Base in 1958?
Herb: Downtown Plattsburgh was the center of the universe. You could buy anything on Margaret Street. Large national retailers — JC Penney, Montgomery Ward, Kresge’s, F.W. Woolworth’s and Fishman’s did business alongside upscale department stores, Sharon’s and Merkel’s, and dozens of smaller businesses.
Mike: I remember Woolworth’s. It had a long lunch counter. You took me there and had to lift me up on the stools. There were so many people waiting to be served, they would line up two and three deep behind us, just waiting for us to get up and leave. When did the makeup of the retail market in downtown change?
Herb: By the late 1950s, shoppers had begun to think of the traditional downtown stores as relics of the past. A desire for something new led to the heyday of the strip mall. In 1959 the North Country Shopping Center opened on Route 9, north of what is now the new Bailey Ford. As I recall it had two department stores, an A&P grocery, a liquor store and a bunch of small and medium sized shops.
Mike: Then what happened?
Herb: By the next year, another shopping area – Plattsburgh Plaza — opened at the intersection of Broad and Cornelia Streets. Its anchor store, Grand Way, was the city’s first big box store. Business was so good, they hired me to direct traffic on my off hours at the Police Department and then promoted me to Store Security a few weeks later.
Mike: And so, by the 1960s there was one strip mall north of the city and one in the city. I don’t remember either of them, but I do remember Skyway Plaza in the south end. Its anchor was King’s Department Store. They sponsored my Little League baseball team and I remember shopping for my cleats there.
Herb: The opening of Skyway in the early 1960s completed a retail ring around the city – north, west and south — and the migration of businesses out of the traditional downtown area was well underway. For more than a decade, retail remained relatively stable, but then, driven in part by travel on the Northway (completed in 1967) there was a new place to shop. Pyramid Mall opened in 1975 on Route 3 in the area now occupied by Lowe’s, Market 32 and Runnings. Anchors Montgomery Ward and K-Mart, were joined by dozens of small retailers.
Mike: I remember the first mall. I was just getting into my teens and hanging out at the mall was a favorite pastime for our group — we were Mallies. It was an exciting place to be. I remember the huge numbers of Canadians who visited. On the weekends, it was tough to just walk through the mall because of the crowds.
Herb: That first indoor mall was so popular, the Pyramid Company decided to come into the area in 1987 with a second mall, renaming the two Champlain Centres North and South. By then it was clear the Route 3 corridor would own retail growth in the region. Consumer Square, anchored by Walmart and Sam’s Club, opened in 1994, and is now the largest shopping area in the region.
Mike: But there was another chapter in the story of retail just around the corner, wasn’t there? Online shopping started small, but by the 2000s, as Amazon and eBay became household names, people began a love affair with easy shopping, low prices and quick turnarounds. The idea of going to the mall to shop and socialize was no longer as popular. But, despite the changes, let’s remember retail has been around for hundreds of years and, as with most things, the face and experience has changed. Right now, no one can envision a world without Amazon as we know it, but if history tells us anything, twenty years from now, things will likely look different.
Comments