Ramona Plaza Shopping Center
Hemet, California - circa 1960s
Vintage '60s postcard featuring an exterior view of Ramona Plaza, a little shopping center nestled in Hemet, California, in Riverside County. It appears Ramona Plaza is still there today but I have no idea what year it opened, nor is there any website of note for this small strip mall center.
Some of the stores captured in this photo are: Thrifty Drug Store, Sears (so tiny! What kind of Sears store is this?), Ries Department Store, Sally's, and Kirby's Shoes, among a few others. And lots of really cool old cars, too! I dig this shot.
posted by Keith @ 2/16/2007
10 Comments:
Sears is probably a catalogue outlet, much like I had growing up. We used to pile into the car and head to Alcosta Mall in San Ramon to look through the catalogues and pick up the red Tough Skins we ordered. They also had a few appliances on the floor we could look through (like avocado green washers and dryers).
Scott
Thanks, Scott! A catalog outlet makes sense. Although that's still a foreign idea to me as we didn't have any of those around where I lived growing up. Just the standard large department store types of Sears.
Speaking of avocado green... I'm getting an original vintage '70s avocado green Poly Perk coffee maker soon, just like the one we had when I was a little kid. New in box so I hope it will still work OK. For some reason, being able to brew a pot of coffee in an old Poly Perk is something that's really exciting to me beyond reason. :D
Hmm. Now if I can just find a bag of actual genuine, unopened 1970s coffee to brew in it I'll be all set! I might die drinking it but what a vintage way to go! lol
I was going to say the same thing. We had a Sears Catalogue Store here too, and it was about the size of the one in the picture. My mom always ordered my roller skates from them, and my ice skates until I outgrew the level of skate they sold.
Did you have any S&H Green Stamp stores in your area? They were about the same, for a frame of reference.
We also used to have J C Penney Catalogue Stores, but they're long gone as well.
I kind of miss them in a way (any of the above mentioned). It was always fun when I was little to go in and wait for someone to bring your package out from the back room.
Stepping into sunny California! What a great way to do so.
At least now I know why that Sears was so tiny! BTW, they should bring back avocado colored appliances.
Having grown up in Riverside, I can tell you that it is indeed a catalogue store. My mom used to drag us down there to look through the catalogues for Christmas toys.
I have the distinction of actually working at one unloading the truck and stocking the bins. It payed for quite a bit of fun in college. They always had some appliances and furniture for sale in front that either had been damaged or declined delivery for some reason.
It's amazing how little has actually changed.
It still looks the same now.
Except Thrifty is now a Rite Aid, The Kirby Shoes is now Radio Shack I believe. The store to the left of that a Warehouse Music store. Dollar Tree is now in the location to the right of the Sears Outlet..
There were 4 versions of Sears
1. The "catalog merchant" franchises, which were often a catalog desk in an independent store
2. The company-owned "catalog store", the catalog desk plus a handful of TVs and appliances.
3. The small-city Sears with scaled down departments
4. The full-size Sears
I think the whole concept of a postcard of this is hilarious. If there was a better flea market here, I would start a collection of random postcards of unpicturesque locales just like this one. Maybe one day I will, and it could be my third blog! Love the site, BTW. Frequent visitor, first-time poster!
Have you seen Keith's MOTEL HELL blog? :-)
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