Sears Department Store at Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso the last in Texas and one of 5 left in the United States of America (February 24 1982 - present)
The mall itself originally opened on November 13th of 1974 and is now home to the last Sears in the state of Texas. Located near the US Mexico Border, this location later had the beige tile storefronts and the double decker version of this storefront up until Primark took over the 2nd floor but this Sears still has the 2nd floor just like Coral Gables and Orlando, the last 2 in Florida. This store still also has a 2nd floor entrance and its [top floor penthouse that the freight elevator / goods lift served was a giant mechanical room] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRyiORtbq8E&t=98s). As for the store layout, it was nearly identical to the Century III Mall location (r/deadmalls) that opened on October 6th of 1980 as its fifth anchor to that dead mall that was built in 1976 and opened in 1979-1980 and closed down on December 7th of 2014, followed by the Macy's in 2016, and the entire structure has since been demolished after the rest of the mall closed down in 2019, with its JC Penney closing in 2020.
This store has been Sears the whole time, unlike the [Sunland Park Mall location that originally opened as The Popular in 1988] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3MSNc5UZX4). Both elevators (passenger and freight) here are Montgomery G&P (Globe and Parallelogram). The passenger lift is a Montgomery G&P hydraulic that was modernised sometime in the 2000s and serves 2 floors and the goods lift is a Montgomery G&P hydraulic with buttons replaced by Emco / EPCO sometime in the 1990s and serves a total of 3, including the penthouse.
This location is still open and one of 5 left in the 140-year-old retailer's 250-year-old home country, the United States of America. Unlike the Concord location in California (1966-present), where the watch repair guy came back to clear out everything and has since retired in India, this store in El Paso still has a watch repair shop that is in operation. Despite Primark occupying the 2nd floor mall entrance and half of that floor, the other half of floor 2 is still Sears and the stairwell is still available and they still have a 2nd floor entrance where they recently updated the logo.
Link to the video of this store from 2012 by elevatortimes on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBwDp5ezDgQ
Credits:
Michaela Hudson (Google) June 14 2016
The Louisiana and Texas Retail Blogspot (June 20 2019)
Christian Villa (Google) January 8 2019
Kariina M.R. (Google) May 29 2018
Jose Ismael Escamilla (Google) February 1 2018
Thomas Comptois (Google) December 28 2017
Manuel Gutierrez (Google) October 24 2017
The Louisiana and Texas Retail Blogspot: Cielo Vista Mall El Paso Texas June 2019
https://southernretail.blogspot.com/2019/11/cielo-vista-mall-el-paso-texas.html
Today there are 5 Sears left in all of America, including this one and the retailer also has the Sears.com online store and a [few functioning distribution centers left] (https://transformwo.com/) located in Arvin / Tejon Ranch CA, Lawrence KS and the sold off but leased back Ocala FL warehouse
- Coral Gables in Miami Florida (October 27 1954 - present)
3655 SW 22nd St, Miami, FL 33145
- Sun Valley Shopping Center in Concord California (October 19 1966 - present)
1001 Sunvalley Blvd, Concord, CA 94520
- South Shore Plaza in Braintree Massachusetts (October 6 1980 - present)
250 Granite St, Braintree, MA 02184
- Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso Texas (February 25 1982 - present)
8401 Gateway Blvd W, El Paso, TX 79925
- The Florida Mall in Orlando Florida (March 12 1986 - present)
8001 S Orange Blossom Trail, Orlando, FL 32809
