Friendly Center & The Shops at Friendly

[jasoniman24]

We'll have to come up with a nickname for the new Harris Teeter, since the new one will be bigger than the current "Taj-ma-teeter".

Edited October 1, 2005 by jasoniman24

[DigitalSky]

We'll have to come up with a nickname for the new Harris Teeter, since the new one will be bigger than the current "Taj-ma-teeter".

Buckingham Teeter

[StevenRocks]

Buckingham Teeter

Versailles Teeter?

[DigitalSky]

Versailles Teeter?

maybe

but neither Buckingham Teeter or Versaillers Teeter have the ring of Taj-Ma-Teeter

[jasoniman24]

How about Grand Central Teeter?

[DigitalSky]

I think the funny thing is that Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro all have a Harris Teeter that people collectively call the "Taj-Ma-Teeter"

[NCMike1981]

Which 1 is the Raleigh "Taj-Ma-Teeter"?

[StevenRocks]

Which 1 is the Raleigh "Taj-Ma-Teeter"?

I think it's the Cameron Village store.

[DigitalSky]

I think it's the Cameron Village store.

yea

[StevenRocks]

That store's had an interesting history. It started out as a Sears, turned into a Thalhimers, and then became HT back in the mid '90s.

[DigitalSky]

That store's had an interesting history. It started out as a Sears, turned into a Thalhimers, and then became HT back in the mid '90s.

Wow. That's very interesting! Never knew that, assumed it was always a grocery

[StevenRocks]

Wow. That's very interesting! Never knew that, assumed it was always a grocery

Cameron Village is so old (1949) that just about everything there used to be two or three other things.

[DigitalSky]

Cameron Village is so old (1949) that just about everything there used to be two or three other things.

haha makes sense.

[StevenRocks]

Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh all got large regional shopping centers in the midcentury period. Charlotte has Park Road, Raleigh has Cameron Village, and Greensboro has Friendly Center.

Friendly Center is the newest of the three, but easily the most competitve. It's still a regional mall, while the others are more like community centers these days.

[DigitalSky]

Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh all got large regional shopping centers in the midcentury period. Charlotte has Park Road, Raleigh has Cameron Village, and Greensboro has Friendly Center.

Friendly Center is the newest of the three, but easily the most competitve. It's still a regional mall, while the others are more like community centers these days.

yeah, i remember reading Park Rd Shopping Center was home to Charlotte's first JC Penney store

[StevenRocks]

yeah, i remember reading Park Rd Shopping Center was home to Charlotte's first JC Penney store

And Cameron Village was home to Raleigh's first JCPenney store.

Believe it or not, JCPenney didn't come to Greensboro until 1974 when it opened at Four Seasons.

[DigitalSky]

And Cameron Village was home to Raleigh's first JCPenney store.

Believe it or not, JCPenney didn't come to Greensboro until 1974 when it opened at Four Seasons.

and still today, it's Greensboro's one and only JCPenney.

[StevenRocks]

and still today, it's Greensboro's one and only JCPenney.

It's the biggest JCPenney in the state, not suprisingly.

Penney's growth in NC was hampered for many years by Sears. Sears employed thousands of people in Greensboro and grabbed the best locations in other cities. Sears had massive stores in every major NC city, while Penney's only had small stores scattered about the state.

JCPenney was considered for SouthPark but was passed over for Sears; At Crabtree Valley, they were never in the running.

They finally picked some momentum in the mid '70s, scoring Eastland, Cross Creek, Four Seasons, Hanes Mall and South Square in one fell swoop. They never looked back from there.

[DigitalSky]

I can understand them never being in the running for Crabtree with their North Hills store so closeby. And i know Ivey's wanted JC Penney to be the 3rd anchor at SouthPark but Belk preferred Sears due to what they sell..

But i didn't know JCP at Four Seasons was the state's largest... always learning something new.

[StevenRocks]

i didn't know JCP at Four Seasons was the state's largest... always learning something new.

Yep. It's 217,000 square feet on two levels. If they expanded onto their third level, they'd be considerably over 300,000 square feet, but there's not enough business at that store to make that work out.

JCPenney was building its largest stores ever in the mid '70s, trying to compete with Sears, whose stores were almost as large and had as many departments. That store and Gastonia's were about as big as they got in NC. When Dillard's wanted to expand in Gastonia, JCPenney dumped their huge store there and built a smaller one in the mall there. but Eastridge is an entirely different ballgame than Four Seasons...

Right there at the grade change at JCPenney Four Seasons, they had one of the biggest, ugliest auto centers I''ve ever seen. It was a perfect match to the store in design and scale and a major white elephant. They ended up tearing it down when the roadways around that part of the mall changed in the late '80s.

The Sears at Friendly Center is only about 10-15,000 square feet smaller than JCPenney Four Seasons, though it looks a lot smaller. Same era and similar design ideas though.

[ILoveCallingNCHome]

Friendly Center is the newest of the three, but easily the most competitve. It's still a regional mall, while the others are more like community centers these days.

And the land it is built on at one time(before it was built) was considered "wasteland" of Greensboro....no one thought any good could come of it or anything being built there....Just look at it now..

...and interesting JC Penney trivia....Has anyone here visited their surplus store south of Washington DC? It has been a while since we've been there-Im assuming it is still there. Made me homesick for Sears Surplus that used to be on Lawndale....

Edited October 13, 2005 by ILoveCallingNCHome

[StevenRocks]

...and interesting JC Penney trivia....Has anyone here visited their surplus store south of Washington DC? It has been a while since we've been there-Im assuming it is still there. Made me homesick for Sears Surplus that used to be on Lawndale....

You mean the one at Potomac Mills? Yeah I've been there. It does have a "Sears Surplus Store" vibe to it, but there's no arcade or funky contemporary posters on the walls (sigh)

We used to go to the Sears Surplus Store every year for school clothes. It was an adventure! I miss it sometimes, too.

[richthofen]

Was the Sears Surplus on Lawndale right next to that gigantic brick building? I think I remember going school shopping there too...

[DigitalSky]

So there used to be a Sears Surplus store where Target is today?

[otherstream]

Was the Sears Surplus on Lawndale right next to that gigantic brick building? I think I remember going school shopping there too...

Yup. The gigantic brick building was a Sears catalogue sales distribution center. There was also, as I remember, a Sears Surplus at Freedom Mall in Charlotte. I think they used to call them Sears Employee Stores too, although I'm not sure whether or not they were open to the public at that time...