Sears is making a comeback to Cheyenne, but in a new format!

[A view of Cheyenne's new Sears Hometown with the signage up - Optopolis]

Who remembers when Cheyenne had a full-line Sears? It seems Sears is making a comeback to Cheyenne as a Hometown store, set to open in the Cheyenne Plaza!

History of Sears in Cheyenne

For those unfamiliar, Cheyenne's original Sears department store started in the space now occupied by 2 Doors Down, a local dine-in restaurant still thriving today in Downtown Cheyenne.

At the turn of the 1980s, Sears relocated to the Frontier Mall. Sears would open on October 8, 1980 as confirmed by a newspaper published that day from The Wyoming Eagle. This was several months before the mall opened in March 1981.

[Sears at Frontier Mall during 2017 when it was still open - Google Maps]

Unfortunately, that Sears announced it would liquidate toward the end of 2017, closing in January 2018, less than a year after Cheyenne's last Kmart closed.

The department store side of Sears has slowly been deteriorating, with founder Eddie Lampert closing hundreds of both Sears and Kmart stores over the last few years. On the contrary, it would seem the franchised Sears Hometown stores, a subsidiary of TransformCo since 2019, is thriving and not going anywhere anytime soon!

[A "Coming Soon - Sears Hometown" sign displayed in the window - Optopolis]

Sears Hometown and some background of its new space

On December 1st, 101.9 KING shared a post showing the brand new Sears sign being added to the front of one of the facades in the Cheyenne Plaza, specifically the one partially used by Absolute Flooring. As of the day of taking the Sears Hometown photos featured in this post (Dec 5th), Sears Hometown is beginning to stock the inside with various home appliances, one of the numerous products Sears Hometowns typically offer to communities besides tools and seasonal products.

At this time, it's not clear what business(es) were open in the space prior to the Walmart Recruitment Center and Absolute Flooring (established in 2011 according to their website).

The new Sears Hometown space was most recently used as a recruitment center for the Walmart Super Center that opened in August 2015 on Livingston Avenue (off of I-80). It has been vacant since that period, as seen in the below photo from the earliest official abandoned retail video on Optopolis which was filmed in 2019.

[Walmart logo still displayed in the back of the space in 2019 since it was used as a recruitment center for Walmart on Livingston - Optopolis (Not a Walmart Conspiracy?)]

At this time, it isn't known exactly when this Sears Hometown store will open to the public, but seeing products are already being stocked, it likely will not be long. Signs in the window indicate they are also currently hiring workers for the new store.

Will you visit this Sears Hometown when it opens? What are your thoughts of Sears Hometown making it to Cheyenne? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Originally published: 12/05/21 at 9:01 PM

Updated: 11/21/2023 at 6:10 PM to include corrected information regarding Sears' opening at the Frontier Mall.

Updated: 02/05/2024 at 5:53 PM to correct info about previous tenants. At this time, it's no longer clear if Staples was in this space, and the info has been retracted from this article.

Location: Cheyenne, WY, USA

Comments

Post a Comment
Get new posts by email:

follow.it Follow/Subscription feed is powered by follow.it.

Popular posts from this blog

Sprouts Farmers Market is coming to Cheyenne! First Wyoming location!

Image
Truck sits in front of Bed Bath and Beyond while construction work takes place inside - Optopolis Cheyenne is getting a new competitor in the grocery store market! Sprouts Farmers Market is in the process of setting up shop in the former Bed Bath and Beyond. The space has already been gutted! A glance at the Bed Bath and Beyond space If you've been following the journey here at Optopolis, you probably already know this story, so here's a quick run-down of the history of Bed Bath and Beyond as it relates to Cheyenne. Building built 2007 according to property assessor, part of the then-Cheyenne Marketplace Bed Bath and Beyond would be the original tenant of its space In the first week of February 2023, BB&B was silently announced to close Final day was on Apr 23, 2023, the same day BB&B filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Spirit Halloween set up shop for the 2023 season, opening in August and closing shortly after Halloween Spirit Halloween inside of Cheyenne's Bed Bath
Read more

Dutch Bros Coffee is coming to Cheyenne (for real)

Image
Dutch Bros Coffee sign on the North Lincoln Avenue location in Loveland, Colorado - Optopolis That's right, Dutch Bros Coffee is trying again, and it looks significantly more promising this time around! A Dutch Bros location is slated to be built along East Pershing Boulevard just west of the Pershing Marketplace. Previous events with Dutch Bros and Cheyenne Back in late 2021, site plans visible in the Cheyenne City Planning and Development website indicated the old Dell Range Rolando's Mexican Grill would be demolished and that Dutch Bros was planning to build a restaurant there. View of former Rolando's on Dell Range - Optopolis About a year later in late 2022, there was a "Building Permit Reimbursement" item added to one of the permits, requesting closure of the account and reimbursement of the building permit at the site of the former Fernando's. Not long after, the former Fernando's was put back on the market, and a temporary sign advertising the lo
Read more

Old Chicago closes Cheyenne restaurant!

Image
Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom sign illuminated after closing on the final day - Optopolis This was quite last minute, but it's true. Cheyenne's Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom permanently closed yesterday evening, at least an hour before their normal closing time of 10 PM on Sundays. A glance at the history of it According to Old Chicago's about page , Old Chicago dates back to its 1976 founding in Boulder, Colorado. They brag about their "tavern thin and classic thick crust pizzas" and their "110 local and legendary beers." Here at Optopolis, their pizza and broccoli-cheese soup (pictured below) were go-to items to eat in visits to the restaurant throughout the years. "I think this was the first place I ever tried the broccoli and cheddar soup," recalls Optopolis while recording a brief video clip. "I don't think I tried anywhere else before that, as far as I remember." The Laramie County Property assessor notes that Cheyenne'
Read more