[Brian Lutz]

Just a couple of days ago, Westfield Southcenter (formerly Southcenter Mall) in Tukwila WA (about 10 miles south of downtown Seattle) officially opened up a $240 million expansion of the mall to the public. Yesterday I got a chance to go over there and check the place out. One of the things that was included with the new addition was a new mall entrance to the mall's Sears (former Fredrick and Nelson) store, pictured below.



The part that strikes me as being odd was the fact that even though this entrance to the store is brand new, they opted to use the old "uppercase" logo here. I'm guessing that this was done to match the other signage on the building, which has not yet been updated to the new "lowercase" font (in fact, only a couple of the area's Sears stores have had their signage updated at this point,) but it still seems a bit odd. Has anyone else seen them do this elsewhere?

There are more pictures and info on the Southcenter expansion can be found at this post

[Jeff]

That is weird.

When Whittwood Mall was torn down and the Sears slightly remodeled, they put up the new Sears logo.
Same goes with the Sears location in the South Bay Galleria (Carson). I noticed that they put up the new logo, even without remodeling the store at all.

[Super S]

For what it's worth, I recently visited Clackamas Town Center south of Portland, Oregon, which has undergone a major remodel. Among other things, a new multi-level parking garage was constructed on the north side of the Sears store, and has the old Sears sign at the top of the structure, as well as Nordstrom's current signage.

I have yet to see Sears update to the new signage in this area. In fact, as recently as two years ago, I noticed a Sears in Aberdeen, Washington which still had the late 70s-early 80s signage in use.

[MikeRa]

Out here in the Philadelphia area, only the Cottman Avenue Sears (Former Gimbel Brothers) location has the current lowercase Sears logo. The Neshaminy Mall Sears has the Upper Case logo. The Oxford Valley Mall and Upper Darby location (both former Gimbel Brothers) have the 1980's Upper Case logo. The Vineland, NJ still has the red Times New Roman Upper Case logo.

[hojos]

A mall near me in Atlanta was recently redone and Sears put that exact same logo back up. We have a Sears nearby testing the retro Sears signage, so I'm wondering if they are considering doing this whole market in that signage instead of the lower-case signage and so put the logo old back up until a decision is made.

[buckhead]

A mall near me in Atlanta was recently redone and Sears put that exact same logo back up. We have a Sears nearby testing the retro Sears signage, so I'm wondering if they are considering doing this whole market in that signage instead of the lower-case signage and so put the logo old back up until a decision is made.

I take it you are referring to the Cumberland Mall Sears. That particular signage and the update inside make it look less dingy than before.

[Jeff]

The biggest oddity for Sears stores is the 3-decades of different signage for the dingy East Los Angeles store.

It has the 1920's sign on the top of the tower
The main store front was remodeled in the 60's and the 60's cursive is on the building.
The auto center had to have come at a later time as it has the 1970's font.

[Ephrata1966]

The Sears in Vineland, NJ (near Philadelphia) still has the 60's block letter logo! And there also is a Cumberland Mall in Vineland, named after Cumberland County! That whole town is like a time capsule. In fact, the nearby Shore Mall used to have an identical Sears, and has a time capsule in the ground!

The cursive logo is actually 50's, not 60's. I saw a postcard view from 1966 of the Sears in Norristown, PA. This one had the script logo, but it was built in 1955. Then came the block letter logo, which I only know was being used in 1968. But in 1969, they introduced the lowercase "rectangle" logo. This was used into the early 80's and the rest they say is history.

[MikeRa]

The now-demolished Sears that was at 63rd and Market Street, in Philadelphia, PA and Millbourne, PA, had the cursive logo on the very top of the building, so it can be seen from the PRT/PTC/SEPTA Market Frankford Line that next to it.

[jamcool]

Sears likes to play around with different logos...in the 70s their bags had the Sears name in script with a stylized "S" logo(while still using the rectangle)...in the 80s came the short-lived "sears" euro-block lettering (usually at the top of the ads). Today they are playing around with a lower-case "sears" in thin helvetica font (why are they copying JC Penney?) in TV ads selling clothing and on the front of their weekly ad inserts - the current Sears logo is still on the back of the ads.

[Super S]

Just wanted to mention that I drove by Southcenter yesterday and noticed that the new Sears logo is now on the outside of the building (plus a very obvious rectangular space of new paint where the old signs were). My guess is that the inside has probably been redone as well, but I had no extra time to stop and take a look.