Saturday, September 8, 2018

Andy's Angles: The End

Burlington is closing its store in Eynon to be closer to Lackawanna County's retail center-- a shopping center relatively adjacent to the Viewmont Mall in Dickson City.  The sign in Eynon was coming down Tuesday morning.
At one time, this shopping center was a big deal.  My memory is a little fuzzy, but this opened as a discount department store in the 70's.  I could be wrong, but I think the name was Master's.  I do remember this is where I bought my first tube of that multi colored toothpaste, Aqua Fresh here.

It was really nice-- discount department store.  Off to the left of this photo was a Shop Rite.  I'll always remember it as the only place in town where you could buy Canfield's diet chocolate fudge soda.  There were a few smaller stores-- including a Radio Shack, Carvel, and a pizza shop.

After Master's moved out, it because a flea market type space, called the Independent Merchants Association.  That morphed in to factory outlets-- a concept I really liked.  It was not unusual to see several out of town license plates in the parking lot.  The factory outlets did increase traffic.  In came Burlington, and that brings us to today.

I do remember a deep discount, second run movie theater here.  It's where I saw "Dave," one of my all time favorite movies.  Movies for a buck, eventually increased to $1.50.  It was an interesting set up.  All seats were at the same level-- flat on the floor.  Small screens.  Hey, what do you want for one dollar?

Now, all that remains is a Big Lots and a Dollar General.  I don't know how a shopping center can survive with just two stores and a ton of empty face.  I wonder what happens next.