Today's tour takes us to one of the many fully repurposed big-box spaces occupied by Runnings in the northeast. Welcome to Gloversville! Abandon all hope ye who enter here...
The only reason I took this picture and did a re-tour of this place is the rare Pontiac Torpedo 4-door sedan shown in the parking lot. Also note the newly renovated Hannaford attached to this building.
For some history, the site was home to a large Nichols Discount City which was demolished in 1990. The two spaces shown here were built in 1992 for Wal-Mart and Shop 'n Save (the latter of which was rebadged as Hannaford). Wal-Mart would stick around with little updating (including the original red/grey/blue paint job) for the next 21 years until moving to 329 South Kingsboro Avenue Extension in August 2013. Runnings filled the space in September 2014.
Vestibule. Despite otherwise being quite outdated, Wal-Mart gave the entry area the ceramic tile used in the mid 2000s (the new store also used the same tile until last year). There used to be a pair of ceiling fans on each end of the vestibule where the white cover plates are.
Cart bay, which was originally the location of the service desk for both Wal-Mart and Runnings. The cart bay and service desk were swapped within the past couple years. The front restrooms are behind that wall (SPOILER: neither the front or back restrooms have ever been renovated, neither by Wal-Mart or Runnings).
This section was originally home to the Wal-Mart Radio Grill, which was later a section for additional merchandise.
Apparel on the right-hand side of the store. Amusingly you can almost map out the original Wal-Mart layout based on where the tile scars on the concrete start and end. Those areas without tile scars denote the original Wal-Mart apparel areas.
