Wakefield Mall: One of the Smallest Malls in New England

If you drive too fast through Wakefield, you will no doubt pass the Wakefield shopping mall, one of the smallest malls, less than 200,000 square feet, I have ever been to.

In contrast, some Wal-Mart supercenters are usually between 150,000 and 2000,000 square feet.

Much of the mall has stores only on one side with large glass windows looking out to the parking lot.

Void of any discount or department stores, the mall is anchored by Shaw's Supermarket on one side and Staples Office Supply Store on the other.

While a small passageway in Shaw's next to a shopping cart return area leads out to a small entry way corridor of the mall, it is not a pronounced entrance.

My friend used to work at the deli counter of this Shaw's and told me that although in the summer Wakefield and the Shaw's, which is an average size supermarket, experience a lot of traffic from summer residents and tourists, many do not walk out into the mall.

One could imagine that Staples has little appeal to tourists and summer residents, however I could see how stores like FYE and Waldenbooks could benefit those looking for rainy day activities.

I and my girlfriend went to the mall in the middle of the summer on a Saturday night but the numbers of customers we saw were what you would expect for the middle of the week.

Maybe if the mall had decent anchors, it would attract more shoppers.

The grocery store component to the mall is nothing new, a Stop and Shop used to occupy the Staples location in the late 70's and early 80's.

After a Super Stop and Shop was built on Point Judith Road in nearby Narragansett, the old Stop and Shop became an NHD Hardware, a regional hardware store chain, similar to True Value.

NHD Hardware chain was acquired by Ace Hardware in the 90's and the spot was filled by Staples in 2000.

While one can see the Staples sign and windows looking into Staples from the mall hallway, it is a tease because the windows do not include a door or passageway into the store even though the registers are near those windows.

One must leave the mall, go outside, walk about 10 feet and go through the outside entrance of Staples.

This is a nice Staples store and restrooms here are clean and modern unlike the mall's restrooms near Shaw's which my girlfriend reported were unclean, had old fixtures, and were quite small.

The Shaw's entrance from the parking lot at the other end of the mall is much more visible than the mall entrance.

Those using the mall entrance near Shaw's see a small directory sign listing the few stores in the mall and shoppers are
forced down a small hallway and make a sharp left turn into the mall.

Those walking down the mall hallway see the end of the hall but a blank white wall greets them rather than a connection to Shaw's, which probably would have made more sense since it would have been more pronounced.

The Shaw's location was the former home of Woolworth's and it was in the mall for many years and featured a lunch counter, seats that spun all the way around, and a few booths along the side wall.

This lunch counter was near where the store's front met the mall and the smell of popcorn and milkshakes attracted shoppers into this five-and-dime discount store an 80's version to Wal-Mart.

After Woolworth's closed in the mid-90's, Rich's department store moved in.

Rich's is a discount department store which was part of a small New England chain of stores founded by Jerry Rich.

It was similar in size to other discount stores in New England such as Bradlees and Ames.

It was not related to the Rich's Department Store chain which is a division of Federated Department Stores.

Rich's, like its predecessor Woolworth's, had a direct connection to the mall.

The entire chain went out of business but based on research, this was Rich's only Rhode Island location and the store was
not in the mall long at all.

One of the small mall's newest tenants is Panera Bread.

This eatery is owned by the Cumberland-based Howley Bread Group, which operates Panera cafes in southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut.

Other Rhode Island Panera Bread shops include Smithfield, Newport, East Greenwich, and Cranston.

The Wakefield Mall Panera Bread is the first time in years that the mall has featured an eatery.

Old 80's style fixtures at the other end of the mall include wooden tables and chairs obviously seating provided to an eatery, possibly pizzeria Papa Gino's which closed in the 80's.

Panera Bread has its own 140 seats, in 4,500 square foot of space, formerly occupied by a bargain clothing store.

Outdoor seating is also provided and mall management believes the visibility of Panera Bread from the main road will attract more to the mall.

Other stores in the small mall include a Payless Shoe Source, an old style Waldenbooks, an old style GNC, a fairly modern Dress Barn and Dress Barn Woman, a newly renovated FYE, a Kay-Bee Toy Store (a location which still exists despite the chain closing stores in much larger malls), Epraim Durmato jewelers which replaced a previous jewelry store, a candy kiosk, and Olympia Sports.

The mall also has a fairly-new Matthew's Hallmark store, occupying the former space of a CVS drug store which has since moved further down the street in a stand-alone building with Subway and a drive-thru prescription window.

The FYE is a former Record Town store which used to have a huge neon "record" on the ceiling with mirrored panels.
The Hallmark shop is conveniently located in the center of the mall near the center mall entrance.

The shop includes cards, Precious Moments, other collectibles, stuffed animals, Yankee Candle products, and a lot of other seasonal merchandise.

The mall's long history has included stores such as Cherry & Webb, formerly known as Cherry, Webb and Touraine, a women's clothing store closing in the mid-90's, the Weathervane, another women's clothing store closing in the mid-90's, as well as Poore Simon's, a family discount clothing store, which opened in the 90's and closed a few years later.

Several local businesses also closed such as Sweet Nut Shoppe, which sold fudge and candy and closed around 1989, as well as a dollar store.

The mall's parking lot features a new People's Credit Union, a freestanding building that opened in 2003 and McDonald's which has been in the mall's parking lot as long as the mall has been open.

Some claim the mall has existed as long as it has because South County, Rhode Island is an expensive place to live.
Nearby competition to the mall includes the Providence Place Mall, Warwick Mall, the slowly dying Rhode Island Mall, and the Emerald Square Mall.

Sources:

Retailers from Woolworth to Walmart
http://www.geocities.com/zayre88/index.html

Dead Malls: Wakefield Mall: South Kingstown/Wakefield, RI
www.deadmalls.com/malls/wakefield_mall.html

"Panera Bread to set up shop in Wakefield Mall" The Providence Journal.
www.projo.com/southcounty/content/projo/20060120_skpan.1d325480.html

Labelscar: The Retail History Blog
http://www.labelscar.com/category/rhode-island/