wnetmacman wrote:Also in Shreveport is Uptown Center on Line, whose pylon is shown here:
Brookshire has been in this center for over 35 years, having recently expanded their store over half of the center. Brookshire claims to be the original tenant here, which would substantiate my claim that they were the death of Big Chain; a simple buyout.
Big Chain's Distribution Center is shown here:
This site is currently a U-Haul storage center.
If you look in this next picture, although it's of a Cities Service station, it shows in the background a Big Chain store on Youree. This would be further down than the Broadmoor store that was so fantastic.
After Big Chain, this store became K&B Drugs, which now is a Rite Aid.
A bit more digging here....
The site that currently houses Brookshire's on Line was indeed originally Big Chain, but it didn't go directly to Brookshire. This was one of FIVE sites Kroger bought up when Big Chain folded. The others included the store on Lakeshore, the Distribution Center/Store on W. 70th, the Youree Drive store and Heart O'Bossier. Each of these five stores were later replaced with a Kroger Superstore: Lakeshore was rebuilt just down Jewella Avenue and was last a TV station; the DC store on W. 70th was part of a Woolco shopping center (and the first Superstore in Shreveport) a few blocks further west. Youree was replaced with a store in Eastgate Shopping Center and Heart O'Bossier was replaced with a store on Benton Road there.
Line avenue was combined with Youree; when that happened, the store was sold to Weingarten, who operated it until its sale to Safeway in 1983 or so. The store operated as Safeway until that chain fully departed Shreveport (and Dallas) in 1987. It has been Brookshire's ever since, with a massive expansion taking place about 15 years ago, and a full remodeling happening a few years ago.
The Youree store, as I mention above, also spent a good amount of time as Kroger before they moved down the street to Eastgate. It was then sold to K&B, who kept the store until Rite Aid closed it last year.
W. 70th and Jewella both closed in the 80's. Heart O'Bossier's Superstore replacement was relocated to the area's first Kroger Marketplace a couple of years ago. Eastgate moved across the street to a Signature-type store in 1997. I say Signature-type, because the store isn't listed as a Signature store, but has all the elements of one. A new Marketplace was built a few miles south last year.