Retroguy 76's blog

 On April 30,1995 was Abraham and Straus final day. The store founded in Brooklyn, NY was no more after 130 years in business end of an era in NY department store history. Most stores were converted to Macy’s and Stern’s immediately when the first day of May came while one converted to Bloomingdale’s which was their newest store at Roosevelt Field mall which opened in 1992 and  extended their sales to clean house before the Bloomingdale’s touch came to that location. Meanwhile the  Woodbridge store would be sold to Sears and opened later that year.  What exactly happened??!! Macy’s merger with Federated department stores  in 1994 meant changes where going to happen as that chain saved themselves from bankruptcy. As the new millennium was approaching, Macy’s got bigger knocking off regional chains of the Federated family such as Jordan Marsh and after 2000 Stern’s, Liberty House, Burdine’s, Rich’s, Lazarus, Filene’s and others and another big merger in the mid 20...

The Manhattan Mall or A&S Plaza whatever happened to this mall?? As my first encounter in NY checking out shopping malls this was a brand new mall it all formed from a gutted out Gimbels NYC Flagship that closed in  1987. On September 14, 1989, After the Gimbels closure in 1987, Abraham and Straus (A&S) opened its store in the borough of Manhattan even though their main flagship in Brooklyn was across the bridges leading into that borough. The building was renamed to A&S Plaza which contained 8 floors of the A&S store plus a upper floor food court and mall stores on every floor. The plaza had a opening night gala before the store opening with Tony Bennett performing and celebrating the stores 125th year in business which didn't last too long. A cast of the longtime Broadway play A Chorus Line participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony the following day. By year 130, A&S succumbed to its rival a block away which was Macy's who retired the A&S branding af...