Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Before & After | Thalhimers / Hecht's; SouthPark, Chalortte, North Carolina

Updated with "real" Hecht's picture and additional text. (4/17/08)

Thalhimers (later Hecht's and Macy's), SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Mall entrance, 1991. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

Hecht's (former Thalhimers, later Macy's), SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Mall entrance with "photoshopped" Hecht's signage, 1992. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

Hecht's (former Thalhimers, later Macy's), SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Mall entrance, 1994. (scanned from SouthPark directory)

Two of these photos were taken approximately three years apart, and one of them is a placeholder created by SouthPark mall in the interim as a placeholder. Can you spot the fake? Several LiveMalls posters have.

In 1990, Thalhimers, the Richmond, Virginia-based unit of Carter Hawley Hale Stores, was purchased by the May Department Stores Company which operated the chain (which included the above location at SouthPark, opened in 1988) as a separate division until 1992, when it was folded into May's Hecht's division, which was based in Washington, D.C.

Previously on LiveMalls

Macy's (Thalhimers/Hecht's), SouthPark

9 comments:

  1. Looks like they didn't change a darn thing in the store. ha.

    That sign looks like the Hecht's logo if the typesetter forgot to "bold" it.

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  2. It's a pre-PhotoShop Photo Shop job. You can see that the letters in Hecht's don't quite line up, not to mention that the people pictured inside the store entryway are in the same position wearing the same clothes.

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  3. Anita: Yeah. How strange :-)

    Actually, depite the second picture being obviously photshopped, the rendering of Hecht's logo in the thinner font is correct. It didn't change to the thicker font until 1991 or 1992.

    Brian: I wasn't trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. The second picture looked funny, and the sender acknowledged as much, but it's part of the history of SouthPark and this store, so I went with it. I think the additional picture added today accurately shows the store as Hecht's.

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  4. I didn't figure you were, just thought maybe you hadn't noticed. Used to proofread for a living when I worked in sports information in college, so details like that jump out to me.

    Could have been something the mall put out.

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  5. I think this was a mock-up the mall did, but they certainly could have done a better job.

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  6. Did Thalhimer's have a different, non-script logo near the end of its life? I seem to remember something different during Thalhimer's short life at Cary Towne Center.

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  7. Thalhimers did change their logo in 1990. It looked good and modern, though not as regal.

    They used it on signs at Hanes Mall and Cary Towne Center, the last two Thalhimers locations, and I think it made an appearance on the Downtown Richmond store.

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  8. More great mall interiors! love the benches and plants!

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  9. SouthPark was really cool in this era. The interior plants really made the difference.

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