Savannah Mall: Savannah, GA

Savannah Mall exists to prove that karma does exist. Conviently moving into a city with only about 500,000 people, the mall opened in 1990 poised to just crush and unravel Oglethorpe Mall, which had been there since 1969 and was showing its age. Oglethorpe still had the prime spot, but Savannah Mall opened with a promising anchor line-up: J.B. White, Belk (also at Oglethorpe), Montgomery Ward and Parisian. Parisian was new to the market when the mall opened and J.B. White was expanding into the market with the new store. According to a contributor on Deadmalls.com, the mall was supposed to be even more upscale with Jordan Marsh as an anchor, but consolidation resulted in the Montgomery Ward.  If Jordan Marsh had anchored the mall, this would have spelled the end of Oglethorpe.

Savannah Mall is quite an attractive two-story mall with the typical late 80's design combined with coastal design features to make the mall modern and pleasant to look at. Problem was, three of the anchors at Savannah Mall were not doing well from the start, and Oglethorpe Mall was not about to lay down and die. At Oglethorpe, Rich's had opened on the site of a former Maas Brothers and the mall also had Belk, Sears and JCPenney.  The mall also undertook a costly and major renovation project in 1992 shortly after Savannah Mall opened in hopes of bringing a grand new style to a formerly simple mall.  Savannah Mall would have likely put Oglethorpe in the retail graveyard had they lured away any of Oglethorpe's other anchors such as Jordan Marsh, JCPenney or Sears but they chose instead to bring in three unfamiliar tenants while duplicating Belk, which already had two other locations.  Jordan Marsh was planned at the mall, but consolidation in 1990 into Burdine's put an end to those plans.  That leads us to Savannah Mall from 2003 to today.

The court between former Montgomery Ward and Dillard's.  Montgomery Ward (closed here) is straight ahead with Dillard's off to the right.  The first photo is looking at the elevator in the center court with the food court behind it.  All photos here were taken in late 2003.

A view from the second floor of the main mall.  It looked empty and definitely like a B-mall at this point.  Note the trees on the lower level were far larger than the 2009 photos.

In the late 1990's, Savannah Mall began to show signs of fatigue. Flagging Montgomery Ward left the mall early, closing there in 1998. By 2003, the mall was in trouble. Belk consolidated its glut of stores to Oglethorpe, eliminating a weak duplicate anchor at Savannah Mall as well as its original suburban location in Thunderbolt on Victory Drive. Parisian failed to enthrall the market and simply left Savannah. J.B. White also was bought out by Dillard's, effectively removing all the original anchors to the mall. Even before, the mall was leaching tenants. It was a similar scenario that later took down Century Plaza Mall in Birmingham, but the situations were different.  This was because later that summer, Bass Pro Shops moved into Parisian and Target announced that it would replace the Belk (tearing it down).  Steve & Barry's University Sportswear also took up the lower level of the old Montgomery Ward in 2004.

Dillard's mall entrance in 2003.  Nothing has changed since then.

Closed Belk mall entrance, now entrance to Burlington Coat Factory.

A look along the lower level.

While today the mall has all but one of its anchor spaces filled, it is definitely no longer the threat to Oglethorpe it was.  While I find it a bit disappointing to look at these days with many national chain stores gone and a sundry offering, I am glad it pulled through and seeing how it seems to be making it, I think it definitely deserves to be taken off of deadmalls.com.  However, I do think it would be nice if the mall could be renovated.  However, in all I wish that the original developers had not overstated the market and built such a large mall.  A smaller mall with anchors J.B. White and Parisian was much more sensible, and at that size it could have complemented instead of threatened Oglethorpe.  Of course, if that was done would Oglethorpe be what it is today?

Inside the vacant Montgomery Ward on the upper level.  It had been sitting empty for five years when this picture was taken.

Outside view of former Montgomery Ward.  The labelscar was still visible in this photo.

The front side of the vacant Belk Beery store.  This has since been demolished and is now the outside entrance to Target.

Outdoor World, then newly opened in the old Parisian.

Note: the original post had formatting errors, and the write-up needed some revision.  Some revision was made to the original text, but all photos from the original post are available here with a few additional.  All photos were from a 2003 visit.

Rose's Discount Store

Rose's in Blue Ridge, GA. Additional photos of this store will come in the future. This was an original PH Rose location, completed in 1985.

For those of you disgruntled by Wal-Mart, Rose's was once poised to be serious competition to Wal-Mart here in the southeast. Problem was, as it was preparing for the fight it instead lost its footing and now barely holds on in a few places as a glorified dollar store. In Georgia, Rose's used to be a much more significant chain found in many locations including Lake Shore Mall in Gainesville (now a Belk Men's, Home and Kid's store). Today it is less than half the size it was at its peak in the late 1980's. Like Wal-Mart, Rose's expanded from a five and dime concept originally known as PH Rose. It was headquartered in Western North Carolina.

This location is located in the Mars Hill area north of Asheville on US 25/70 off of Future I-26. It appears to have been built in the 1990's.

The only one I personally know in Georgia still to be operational is a store in Blue Ridge located next to the Ingles, but your comments have alerted me that quite a few exist still across the state. Note the Blue Ridge store pictured above. It was built with the center in 1985 and has never been expanded or updated. Prior to 1995, it was more of a regular discount store, even including a video rental area. The store still gets decent business, though, because Wal-Mart has yet to expand to the city. This is about to diminish, though, as a new Wal-Mart opening in Blairsville will reduce the market area for Rose's.

The Sylva location uses a slightly modified all red logo vs. the older white logo. It is not known if this store is original, but it is off of US 74 (Great Smoky Mountain Expressway) on the exit named simply "Sylva".

While there is not a lot of information aside from the explosively popular Wikipedia article about it (complete with user-submitted locations), Rose's is today apparently part of a collection of dollar stores on steroids. These stores include Maxway (a staple in blue collar neighborhoods), SuperValu, Bill's Dollar Store and others. The company that has owned them since 1995 is SuperValu, and they run them today as sort of a hybrid concept. Basically, imagine Fred's, but run more like Wal-Mart in the 1980's or Big K in the 1970's. I'm amazed they are still around with so much competition on both the dollar store and discount store fronts.

Columbus Square Mall: Columbus, GA

The photo above shows what's left of Columbus Square mall...a vacant Sears which formed the western anchor of the mall. To the left is the demolished footprint of it. In all, fans of Dixie Square unfortunately missed a good chance with this one. Similar in age and basically decayed but opened to the public, Columbus Square Mall originally opened in 1965 as the first mall in the city and one of the first enclosed malls in Georgia. Originally I-shaped, the mall had Sears and JCPenney (Penney's) as the two anchors. In 1979, Kirven's - Columbus' major local department store - added onto the mall.

The problem with Columbus Square is that its anchor lineup was not exactly stellar and they faced competition too soon to be able to adapt. Even worse, the mall was too close to a crime-ridden area full of public housing and urban decay. In 1976, Peachtree Mall opened further up the Lindsay Creek By-Pass (S.R. 1, later I-185), effectively puncturing Columbus Square. Nevertheless, Peachtree Mall didn't start out so harmful. Originally, they co-existed peacefully as Peachtree Mall had just Montgomery Ward and Gayfer's as the anchors while Columbus Square had the Sears and Penney's. The death knell was when JCPenney split for the newer mall and Parisian opened at Peachtree. Slowly the mall started bleeding out tenants made worse when Kirven's went out of business in 1993. Only one of the three department stores was left, and the mall was then on life support. Columbus Square also got the reputation as the ghetto mall by that point, and in the mid-1980's it was already pretty much dying out.

What was peculiar was that Columbus Square sat in moldy squaller for nearly 20 years beyond the time the mall was basically dead. Sears owned its own building at the mall, and it wasn't interested in going anywhere for a very long time. The structure continued to deteriorate while remaining open until finally the city purchased it in 2003 and tore down the mall all except for the Sears. The leaving of the Sears caused an uproar, because the plan was to make it the library when ultimately they left it and built a new library next to it. Just to show how much time has passed, now Peachtree Mall is getting the same reputation that Columbus Square had with an open-air center leeching away its customer base and anchors bleeding away from the mall.

It is hoped in the near future that possibly the living descendents of Kirven's (notably Hal Kirven who corrected me on the Kirven's closure date) or others who took photos of this mall will contribute photos or information regarding this mall. I personally would love to add a piece on Kirven's to this blog as soon as anything comes available.

Here is an interior shot of the mall from this blogsite.

North Dekalb Mall: Decatur, GA

It is always interesting when a long-outmoded mall somehow survives over 50 years showing that the local community loved it as long as it could. North DeKalb Center, as it was originally known, opened in July 1965 as Atlanta's first enclosed mall followed very shortly by Columbia Mall on Memorial Drive to the south. As a mall that once advertised its year-round perfect weather, it indeed weathered many new malls opening while even outlasting malls of similar vintage like Columbia and Cobb Center. In 2024, the end arrived as demolition began of what was left of the interior mall that itself was closed in 2020. 

The original configuration of the mall was an H-shaped center with Rich's on the east end and three anchors on the west end: a Storey theater on the south, Woolworth's in the middle facing the main mall corridor, and Colonial Stores on the north end. Inline junior anchors included high-end Regenstein's department store (their only mall-based location) and Henderson Furniture (which also had a location at Town & Country Shopping Center in Marietta). I was unable to determine exactly where these two stores were located in the mall, but I am assuming at least one was adjacent to Rich's on the south side due to the building jutting out more compared to the rest of the stores along the south block. The land for the mall was originally purchased by Rich's earlier in the 1960's, and the mall was developed by D. Scott Hudgins who was famous for developing many of Atlanta's major malls.

Its early years were successful serving the growing suburbs from Decatur northward, but it quickly lost its regional status when other bigger, better malls were built in the region including direct competition from Northlake Mall, completed in 1971. Historicaerials.com has a photo of the mall in its original configuration. Architectural drawings and outside aerial photos show that the mall had about three court areas with arched high window skylights and smaller overhead skylights with the court in front of Rich's reaching two stories high to allow patrons of the Magnolia Room to overlook the east mall court from the second floor. A similar design was employed at Greenbriar Mall, which opened one year after North DeKalb.

The first and second photos both are of the east court, featuring this big clock. The corridor to the left (original mall) in the first photo heads to the Macy's (former Rich's). In the second photo, Macy's is to the right. The second photo is one of the two Ross mall entrances.

What was remarkable is that North DeKalb lasted as long as it did, but Hudgins still owned the mall in the 1980's and wasn't content to let it die. With its then very dated design (because back then 20 years might as well have been 100), small size, and maintenance issues plaguing the center, Hudgins partnered with Cadillac Fairview to restructure the entire mall with both a new design and new layout to better compete with what was by then four other malls within a relatively short distance. The update also would add 200,000 square feet increasing it from just under 450,000 square feet to just over 650,000 square feet. Although I cannot confirm when they left, it appears that Colonial Stores (by then Big Star) and Regenstein's both left sometime in the early 80's with Regenstein's still there as late as 1981 [1]. Woolworth would close for the redevelopment, but it did not appear that they chose to reopen after initially claims that they would [2]. However, it cannot be discounted that having Rich's as the primary anchor when the nearest competitor did not have one really made a difference: Northlake had Sears, JCPenney, and Davison's...but not Rich's. If not for Rich's continued success, North DeKalb would likely have been demolished and redeveloped by the late 1980's or early 1990's most likely into a strip center. In fact, Cadillac Fairview officials were quoted as saying that the success of Rich's was the primary reason they worked to save the ailing mall [3].

First photo is looking back down the main corridor to the Macy's mall entrance (Rich's mall entrance shown below). Second photo is looking out on the longest (east) wing with Macy's behind me. Last photo is of the mall corridor extending from the east court to south court.

In 1986, the renovations and reconfiguration of North DeKalb Mall were completed with the mall renamed "Market Square at North DeKalb". This renovation reconfigured the H design into T-shape with a central diamond where the mall could maximize space, fit in a food court inside part of the diamond, and add anchors all largely within the existing footprint. Shoppers who originally could walk straight from Rich's to Woolworth would then have to navigate around angular corridors to do so. The renovation brought with it new anchors that were also new to the market as well: Mervyn's, and Lechmere. At the time both Mervyn's and Lechmere were divisions of Dayton-Hudson with one being a clothing store similar to JCPenney while Lechmere focused largely on electronics and sporting goods. As Dayton-Hudson began its evolution into Target, it would shed stores like Mervyn's and Lechmere in the process resulting in these stores eventually fading away. Eventually Burlington Coat Factory would replace Mervyn's after they left the market in 1996 while Rhodes Furniture would replace Phar-Mor that itself had replaced Lechmere. The mall's original cinema was also replaced with a 16 screen AMC theater. Ross and Stein Mart would also take up inline space by the 2000's. The timing of the mall's update was critical considering that the nearest Rich's at Belvedere Plaza, the only location not in an enclosed mall, closed in January 1986. Had the mall not gotten the huge boost it did, Rich's might have relocated that store to another mall - most likely Northlake.

It should be pointed out that the update of North Dekalb Center into "Market Square" followed a typical pattern of older first-generation malls in the late 1980's that were taking drastic measures to survive with limited options due to lack of available land to expand and locations that had become less ideal due to since-completed interstates removing traffic from them. This was less of an issue for this mall given that US 78 remained a major through route and that the Stone Mountain Freeway was later extended to end right at the mall giving it easy access to I-285, Atlanta's beltway that would be completed a few years after the mall opened. As to these early mall redevelopments, they would frequently accept anchors that were unknown to the market, were less popular, or were not traditional (such as big box stores), would massively renovate the interior (or enclose a strip or open-air mall), and often would change the name to attempt to shed any negative perceptions of the mall. Cobb Center had a similar makeover/renaming in 1987. The updates almost always added more light to the mall by putting in larger skylights, adopting brighter, softer materials and colors, and in some cases adding neon lighting as well. 

Saved 2009 directory from the mall's now defunct website showing the odd configuration of the mall.  It was this design that made me really want to see this mall for myself considering that I had never seen it prior to 2004.

By then, malls were beginning to saturate their markets, and the older malls really were not positioned to survive against demographic shifts, new mega malls, massive bankruptcies and consolidation in the department store industry, and increased competition from off-mall category killers that did not exist when the malls first opened. These older malls also lacked the land to build larger malls without great expense, and it would take the attracting of upscale stores to justify that cost. North DeKalb did well to attract Mervyn's and Lechmere, but these were both stores that did not need malls as much as the malls needed them. By the 1980's, the most popular malls were anchored by established chains or higher end stores, and these older malls usually only had one or two stores like that, in this case Rich's. Although the mall never regained its destination status, the change did buy the mall over 30 more years! That's not bad considering that North DeKalb 2.0 outlasted 1.0 by more than a decade.

Photos include view of south court, view looking down the southeast wing and view looking down the south wing. The southeast wing is really strange: it is part of the mall itself but also a store. While it has a pseudo entrance, the walkway through it is mall while the stuff on each sides is the store. This was a Rhodes Furniture when I visited in 2004. Today it is a local furniture store. The south wing (last photo) is the wing to AMC Theaters that originally opened as a Lechmere.

In the early 2000's, "Market Square" was quietly renamed back to North DeKalb Mall. By the middle of the decade, North DeKalb was also becoming very troubled. It's once exciting roster of new anchors was constantly being shaken up by bankruptcies/liquidations such as Lechmere in 1989, Mervyn's in 1995, and Rhodes Furniture in 2005. With time, the mall was looking more and more like a regular strip center with an enclosed walkway, and small tenants were fading away while its anchors began exploring their nearby options as well. It also didn't help when Rich's merged companies with Macy's in 1995 then consolidated the two stores into one 2005. The Macy's (former Rich's) at the mall was then in direct competition with the Macy's (former Davison's) at Northlake resulting in both stores cannibalizing each other for sales weakening both malls further. The construction of the Mall at Stonecrest in 2001 also took shoppers away leaving both malls to very slowly die. A plan by Hendon Properties in the early 2000's involved adding a Costco as an anchor to the mall with a parking deck, but that fell through after nearby neighborhoods fought the plan over flooding concerns. Eventually, Hendon would give up on the mall and sell the property.

The Food Court makes up the west court of the mall. The first photo is approaching it from the side and the second features the huge domed skylight over the main seating area. The last is looking back from the food court to the west (rear) entrance. Note the Applebee's on the left. This is approximately where the original Woolworth's was located.

It was fairly obvious when I first documented this mall as early as 2005 that it was terminal. What I did not know is how long it would take. It wasn't until 2016 that (the rather run down) Macy's finally closed their store, but that legacy Rich's was a keystone to the mall. Hollywood would use the mall as a filming location during that time for dystopian flicks, but Hollywood could not revive the ailing center which would finally close in 2020. However, that closure should not be seen as completely sad given that the mall managed a very long life for a second-tier center. It lasted 55 years when in its early configuration it might not have even lasted 30 years. My own system of mall success has tiers, and a "50-year mall" is generally a huge success while a "30-year mall" is a mall that never quite caught on. North DeKalb found its niche, and it worked for a long, long time.

The redevelopment plan will be yet another mixed-use urban village, and rest assured it will be as inspiring as a box of store-brand corn flakes. Unfortunately, times have changed in ways that are pretty miserable, and an expansive B-mall catering to a broad middle class living in single family homes with disposable income has been edged out of the modern paradigm consumed by corporatism and its associated depressed wages and sky-high living costs. Nearly every facet of the mall had become outdated and outmoded as decades passed, and the land it was sitting on likewise became way more valuable than the mall itself. While I'm pretty sure the new development will do fine, this full circle back to the bad old days of overcrowded, overpriced urban living vs. the expansive suburbs with nice malls full of nice stores is why so many felt their eyes tear up as the wrecking ball tore into this tarnished palace of retail. 

First photo is view of the north court followed by photos of the north wing to Burlington Coat Factory (former Mervyn's) and northeast wing to parking lot (Ross comes off of this wing as well).

This photo is looking from east court (at the clock) to north court.

And now for a look back in time to late 2004 and early 2005 at Rich's just prior to the changeover:

Rich's mall entrance prior to the changeover.

Two views of the south entrance to Rich's. This was the best preserved part of the original facade. Note the letters mounted on poles!

Rich's north entrance falls short of original, but luckily the green signs were retained in the 1986 renovation. Note that the display windows next to the door were covered up as well as the original arched awning. That is still visible underneath the ugly stucco cover.

The east side features two entrances. The one-story wing entrance was completely original. The second photo focuses more on it.

The last daytime shot of Rich's focuses on the auto center. It, too, was completely original from 1965.

Now for some night shots:

Rich's southeast entrance at night. Note the lightbulbs under the arch.

Rich's east entrance at night. The lower sign is in better shape because it is newer: note the forementioned stucco awning.

One more look at the south entrance: this time at night. This is my favorite angle of the store. The Macy's sign that is here now is in a big white box in lieu of these poles.

* Original post dated July 2, 2006, updates on January 6-7, 2025*

[1] The Atlanta Journal; Sunday, April 26, 1981, Page 104

[2] The Atlanta Journal; Friday, December 27, 1985, Page 9

[3] The Atlanta Journal; Thursday, September 11, 1986, Page 155

Richway: The Discount Division of Rich's (Updated February 15, 2018)

"Everything under the sun" could be found at Richway if you believed the ads.  In the 1960's, discount stores were an explosive trend across the United States, and this was not lost on department stores.  These new discount stores were making a hit on department stores with their lower prices and wide selection of merchandise, but a few department stores saw an opportunity to expand their footprint and operations by diversifying into this then-new concept.  In 1968, Rich's decided that it, too, needed to enter the discount store business by opening its namesake Richway stores.  Like other similar stores, Richway was an "upscale" discount store that operated more like an actual department store with general merchandise than a discount store.  Their slogan in the 80's was "Richway doesn't look like a discount store, but our price tags give us away".  Richway would last until 1988 when the store was sold to Target.  At its peak, Richway had 31 stores.  While Richway had an interesting history, it was not the first of such "discount divisions" of their parent department stores.  Others included:

• Ayr-Way
• A division of L.S. Ayres in Indianapolis founded in 1961
• Purchased by Dayton-Hudson in 1980 and reopened as Target in 1981
• Target
• A division of Dayton's in Minneapolis founded in 1962 and the last of its kind today
• Almart/J.B. Hunter
• A division of Allied (Department) Stores founded in 1962 and liquidated around 1975
• Treasure Island/The Treasury
• A division of JCPenney founded in 1962 and liquidated in 1981
• Gold Circle
• A discount division of Lazarus/Federated Department Stores founded in 1967 and liquidated in 1988
• Most stores sold to Hills and some to Target
• Prange Way
• A division of Prange's founded in 1965 and dissolved in 1992 when parent company Prange's was sold to Younker's
• Venture
• A division of May Department Stores also founded in 1968 and liquidated in 1998
• Many locations became Kmart
• Clover
• A division of Strawbridge & Clothier founded in 1971
• Liquidated in 1995 and 1996 as part of sale to May Department Stores
• Jefferson Ward
• Purchased by Montgomery Ward in 1973 (originally Jefferson's in Florida)
• Divested and liquidated around 1988

This slide shows the very first Richway store opened located on Covington Highway in Decatur, GA.  (Photo by Stevens & Wilkinson used by permission)  

Richway opened its first stores in 1970 with four locations in Metro Atlanta: all near an interchange with the recently completed I-285.  These original stores were large for their time featuring very distinctive architectural detail with eight large alternating green and orange wedge skylights on the roof.  Inside, the ceiling featured canned sodium vapor lights giving the store an ethereal tone to match the unique effects of the skylights, which were positioned in every direction on the roof.  The store also featured high ceilings making the store feel more spacious.  The original stores also featured a Richway Foods, which was operated by Big Star (formerly Colonial Stores).  Richway Foods was notable for delivering groceries to customers on a conveyor belt for outside pickup.  The original stores also had an auto center in or next to every store, and they were larger than later stores.  The four original locations were located at:

• Decatur: 4000 Covington Highway (Opened in 1969)
• Store #1
• Now Peace Baptist Church
• Store was not replaced when Target vacated the site
• Smyrna: 2201 Cobb Parkway SE (Opened in 1970)
• Still operational as Target
• Last Richway operating as Target
• Richway Foods was later Big Star, A&P, then CompUSA
• Sandy Springs: 235 Johnson Ferry Road (Opening date unknown, probably 1971)
• Operated as Target until 2007
• Demolished in 2013 for Sandy Springs City Hall and Downtown
• Richway Foods was later successively Big Star, A&P, Harris Teeter, and Goodwill
• College Park: 5025 Old National Highway (Opened 1971)
• Operated as Target from 1989-1998
• Target roughly replaced by store at Fayette Pavilion 11 miles south
• Abandoned ever since

This bag carries the original Richway logo that was used from approximately 1970-1977.  Note that the sunrise is far more detailed with the logo in a mixed-case font in a pill shape.  The stores built with this logo had the signs accommodated to fit this logo.

Scan from an original credit card

Richway in Sandy Springs showing the updated logo in a the original pill shape, Richway Foods as Big Star, and the Richway Auto Center on the right.  This undated photo was most likely taken in the late 1970's.  (Photographer unknown)

The success of those four locations led to expansion across the Atlanta region, although the growth of the chain occurred mostly after Rich's was sold to Federated Department Stores.  The next stores that were constructed after the original four in 1970 within the Atlanta area were:

• Atlanta/Forest Park: 3650 Jonesboro Road SE (Opened 1974)
• Never re-opened as Target, now Atlanta Expo Center North
• Atlanta/Druid Hills: 2400 North Druid Hills Road (Opened 1974)
• Reconstructed in 2002 as Target Greatland, now Target
• Land still owned by Macy's/Federated
• Jonesboro: 6525-B Tara Blvd (Arrowhead Mall, Opened 1974)
• Target (now closed) relocated to Mt. Zion Road in 1996
• Was Burlington Coat Factory, now Southside Discount Mall
• Roswell: 610 Holcomb Bridge Road (Roswell Mall, opened 1974)
• Target closed store and relocated to Super Target on Woodstock Road in 1999
• Was a Value City up until chain liquidated
• Presently Home & Decor
• Tucker: 4136 Jimmy Carter Blvd (opening date unknown, probably 1975)
• Torn down in 2001 for Home Depot
• Replaced by current Target at I-285 and LaVista Road
• Doraville: 5766 Buford Highway (opening date unknown, probably 1977)
• Originally a Grant City location (opened 1968)
• Was later a Value City
• Currently a Burlington Coat Factory since 2013

The Atlanta Expo Center North on Jonesboro Road stands as the best preserved former Richway.  Because it was the only former Richway that did not reopen as Target, the skylights were not covered up with the original architecture left largely unchanged.  The orange exterior is original to when it was Richway.

This interior shot of the Atlanta Expo Center shows how all of the original Richway stores appeared inside.  Note the "canned" lights in the ceiling in the backgroung (Photo by J. Fillow).

All of the early Richway stores had an auto center just like Rich's suburban locations did (Photo by Stevens & Wilkinson used by permission)

Expansion of Richway in the 1970's did not, however, include just Atlanta.  Before the sale to Federated Department Stores, four Richway locations opened in the Carolinas.

• Charlotte [Northwest]: Freedom Mall [offsite link] (Opened 1974)
• Converted to government offices
• Charlotte [Southeast]: Independence Blvd (Opened 1974)
• Target relocated to Matthews in 1995
• Torn down for BJ's Wholesale in 2001
• BJ's that replaced it is now Hendrick Automotive Group
• Columbia: Woodhill Mall (Opened 1974)
• Redeveloped with Target on site

Image of Richway in Charlotte after the location closed as Target.  It is assumed this is the Independence Blvd location.  (Photo by J. Fillow)

The curious thing about Richway's expansion outside of the Atlanta metro area is that it did not tend to open in markets that its parent Rich's was located.  While Columbia did gain one Rich's location, Richway never opened a location in Greenville (where Rich's was located).  Likewise, neither Charlotte nor Gastonia ever had Rich's.  Of even greater curiosity is why Richway avoided Birmingham entirely.  A total of three Rich's operated in the Birmingham market, but no Richway ever opened in the city.  Memphis was also overlooked, which contained Rich's sister store Goldsmith's.

SALE TO FEDERATED DEPARTMENT STORES AND FURTHER EXPANSION

Richway was sold along with parent company Rich's to Federated Department Stores in 1976.  This sale resulted in several changes.  For one, the company got a more streamlined logo with a more simple sunrise and the same Helvetica font that was already in use on the Target logo.  In addition, an orange theme was employed throughout the store including orange fiber glass shopping carts, and orange smocks for employees.  Richway Food stores were sold off to Big Star, and new stores were smaller with less emphasis on hard lines.  The distinctive skylights were also dropped from eight to six then dropped altogether by 1980.  Auto centers, which were on all the stores built under Rich ownership, were dropped on newer stores.  However, growth of Richway was already in the works with four mall-based stores that opened in 1977 co-anchored by Kroger Sav-On.  These locations included:

• Columbia [Dentsville]: Decker Mall
• Closed in 1998 when Target relocated, now a storage facility
• Columbia [West]: Bush River Mall (twin store and mall to Decker)
• Closed in 1998 when Target relocated to Harbison Blvd.
• Mall and site demolished and rebuilt as Wal-Mart in 2004
• Charlotte [Northeast]: North Park Mall 
• Closed in 1998 and has since operated as Kimbrell's furniture
• Adjoining mall is abandoned and will soon be demolished for expansion of Charlotte transit lines
• Charlotte [Southwest]: West Park Mall (twin store and mall to North Park Mall)
• Target relocated to Carolina Pavilion
• Store and mall demolished around 2000
• Costco is currently on site today

The last store opened in the Carolinas opened in Gastonia in 1978.  Interestingly, it was not mall-based:

• Gastonia, NC: Akers Shopping Center
• Operated as Target until 2011 when Target relocated to Gaston Mall site
• Now subdivided between Gabe's and Conn's

Image of the Gastonia store prior to closure.  Photo is from 2010, and store closed/relocated in 2011.  The store was built in the parking lot of a previously established shopping center with Akers Shopping Center behind me in the photo.

Additional Georgia locations opened included:

• Marietta: 805 Sandy Plains Road
• Opened in 1980
• Closed in 1998 when Target store relocated to current location on Cobb Place Blvd
• Has since been offices for Wellstar Medical
• Mableton: Austell Road (GA 5) & Hurt Road
• Opened in 1980
• Abandoned after Target closed in 1998 and relocated to East West Commons Shopping Center
• Snellville: Main St (US 78) & McGee Road (Fountain Square)
• Opened in 1983
• Target relocated in 1994 to current location at Presidential Market
• Conyers: 1618 GA 138 (free-standing)
• Opened in 1983
• Target relocated to Conyers Commons in 2006
• Part of store torn down for LA Fitness with about 1/3 of original building standing open and vacant
• Athens: 3505 Atlanta Highway (Clarke Crossing Shopping Center)
• Opened in 1984
• Now Academy Sports

Former Richway on Austell Road in Mableton

The Richway in Snellville featured an updated look that resembled 1980's Wal-Mart stores.

EXPANSION TO TENNESSEE AND FLORIDA

Federated Department Stores was seeing that they had a big success in Richway, so they sought to expand the chain elsewhere.  In Florida, Federated already had a presence with their ownership of Burdine's and the Gold Triangle chain.  In contrast to what was said before on this blog, Gold Triangle stores were not replaced by Richway.  However, they did go out of business in 1981 prior to the entry of Richway into the market in 1982.  It was curious that Richway was chosen considering that Rich's was never located anywhere near Florida, but it still functioned as the discount division of Burdine's, which had been part of Federated Department Stores since 1956.  The list of Richway stores that opened in South Florida in 1982 included:

• West Palm Beach: 1760 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd
• Operated as Target until 2008 when store was demolished and rebuilt as a two-story Target on the same site
• Plantation: 8201 SW 3rd St
• Original address was W. Federated Roadway
• Original store was torn down and rebuilt as Target on same site according to aerials
• Sources claim the store was located elsewhere
• Deerfield Beach: 1200 S. Federal Highway
• New store built just to the south with parking deck on site of original store
• Tamarac: 8399 N University Drive
• Now Renaissance Charter School at University
• Palm Springs: 1941 Military Trail
• Now Sunshine Flea Market

An additional location opened in 1983 in a former Woolco:

• Oakland Park: 5091 North Dixie Highway
• Originally constructed in 1973
• Partially demolished and subdivided with Publix the primary tenant currently
• Was the largest South Florida location for Richway

Richway in Florida had an updated look, but some of their stores featured this interesting sloped front look in lieu of the design used on the store shown in Snellville, GA.  This the Palm Springs location.  (Image from Google Street View, June 2017)

This 2007 Google Street View capture shows the West Palm Beach Store, which was identical to the Palm Springs Store, but it was demolished and rebuilt on site the following year.

Map of South Florida locations using Google Earth

Additionally, Richway saw an opportunity to enter the Tennessee market by acquiring two former Gibson's stores in Chattanooga that had opened originally as Jubilee City.  It is not certain when these stores opened, but it is believed to have been 1982.  These locations included:

• Chattanooga [Brainerd]: 5600 Lee Highway
• Store was torn down for expansion of Chattanooga's airport, but the parking lot remains
• Chattanooga [Hixson]: 600 Northgate Mall Drive
• Located on an outlot of Northgate Mall
• After Target closed and relocated, store was subdivided between Ross and T.J. Maxx

This was the Richway on 5600 Lee Highway in Chattanooga.  Since this store looked new in the image, apparently the front of the store was gutted and rebuilt when it was taken over from Gibson's.  (Image by Stevens & Wilkinson used by permission)

Map of Chattanooga locations using Google Earth

CONVERSION TO GOLD CIRCLE AND SALE

Federated Department Stores changed their corporate strategy and decided that they no longer wanted to operate their two discount stores separately, so the decision was made to merge Richway and Gold Circle in 1986.  In 1987, work began slowly to convert stores to the Gold Circle name.  However, things were not going well with Federated Department Stores as part of the Campeau takeover.  The debt that had been created from frenzied acquisitions and mismanagement by the French-Canadian financier's parent company had left Federated with a tough decision: save the department stores or save their discount stores.  The decision was made to focus on the department stores, thus the combined Richway-Gold Circle would have to be sold to a competitor.

These 1987 photos from Hank McNeely show the conversion of the Independence Blvd Richway in Charlotte to Gold circle.  The Richway logo was in a pill-shaped sign in an ice cream cone shaped support in some of their earlier stores supporting the older logo originally.  Target would again use this sign.

During the conversion from Richway to Gold Circle, tags in the stores began to display Gold Circle logos, but only a few stores actually got the new name.  All seven of the stores in the Carolinas (Columbia, Charlotte, and Gastonia) were converted to the Gold Circle name, but the other stores remained Richway.  Gold Circle seemed like a strange fit at the time considering that the name was not known in the Southeast.  Gold Circle was primarily located around Pittsburgh, Northern Kentucky, Ohio, and New York.  However, no other Richway stores would ever see the Gold Circle name.  In fall of 1988, all of the Richway and Gold Circle stores would be liquidated.

Map of Charlotte area locations using Google Earth

Target, then part of Dayton-Hudson, was in aggressive expansion mode having already expanded massively in the Midwest, and the sale of Richway was the primary vehicle for their growth into the Southeast.  However, it was not Campeau Corporation via Federated Department Stores that sold Richway to Target.  Instead, the entire chain was sold to Kimco Development Corp. who then sold the chain in two chunks.  31 stores were sold to Target.  This included all of the Richway stores, including those converted to Gold Circle.  The most likely reason that the entire 67 store chain was not purchased was probably due to the fact that Target was a much smaller company then and was not capitalized to purchase that many stores.  The risk was great for a chain that was unknown outside of the Midwest at the time.

Maps of Atlanta area locations and Athens location using Google Earth

The remaining 35 Gold Circle stores, all located in the North, were leased to Hills Department Stores, a now defunct chain that had very little overlap with Richway.  Hills had two locations in the Chattanooga market, but nowhere else did they compete.  However, they were a major competitor to Gold Circle in Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky, and Ohio giving them at the time a greater share of the market.  Had Target not purchased Richway, it is questionable if they would have expanded into the national chain they are today.  It is notable that nearly every major discount store we have today grew rapidly through a major acquisition or takeover of stores from a defunct chain.  This is true with both Wal-Mart (Kuhn's Big K/Edward's) and Kmart (Grant's).

Target reopened all the former Richway and Gold Circle stores it acquired in May of 1989 after extensive remodeling.  In the end, Target proved to be the perfect fit for Richway.  Like Richway, it was a division of a major regional department store, and it marketed to the same demographic.  Their acquired stores proved to be highly successful for them, thus allowing them to expand and modernize throughout the 1990's.  However, Target did not share the same love for the distinctive feel of Richway.  Green and orange skylights were painted black and boarded up with ceilings in the store dropped.  The canned lights were covered up and replaced with regular tube lights.  The orange decor was replaced with the usual Target red, and storefronts repainted with a dull gray cast.  Target had the stores in body, but not in soul.  A celebrated division of Rich's in Atlanta had likewise become a soon to be nationwide corporation operated by a distant company in Minneapolis.

One of the former Richway locations in the North Druid Hills community of Atlanta was rebuilt on-site as Target Greatland in 2002.  Target Greatland is a now canceled concept that was larger than a regular Target, but smaller than a Super Target.

RICHWAY FADES AWAY

As Target has grown, the company proved to have outgrown the old Richway stores.  One by one, the stores were either replaced with a newer location or rebuilt with the bulk of those stores relocated to newly built locations.  The last few stores still operating as Target in 2005 were in Gastonia, Sandy Springs, West Palm Beach, and Smyrna.  By 2011, only one original Richway was left operational as a Target: the Smyrna store.  That same store received likely its final renovation and update around 2009.  Even then, the store is likely on borrowed time as the area around it is rapidly urbanizing since the construction of the new SunTrust Park.  It is believed that Target is looking to relocate to Cumberland Mall at some point in the near future where Sears is currently.

The last operational Richway.  Photo from 2006.

Pictures of the same Richway store after Target updated it in 2009.  The update made the store look more in sync with its original design with the clean lines and large glass front than the rounded stucco.  Note that the wedge skylights are still there painted white.  This store had the distinction of having its auto center in an outlot (now demolished).

RICHWAY REMEMBERED

When this post was first written, almost nothing was available online about the once venerable chain.  As the first post ever written on Sky City, much has been learned about the store since then including former locations and events in the store's history.  Because of that, the original post has been completely rewritten and replaced with this much more detailed post that more accurately depicts the history of a discount store that started as an extension of Georgia's most famous store.  This rewrite includes extensive photos that were not available at the time with better information about former locations.  Hopefully this post this time gives an accurate and complete history of one of many stores that Sky City has not allowed to have been forgotten since this post and blog was first published in 2006.