Centre Desolation
Today I walked through St. Louis Centre, possibly for the last time.
It's not a pretty picture. Several escalators claim to be under repair, but obviously no work is happening.
Miraculously, a few stores are still open! Among them, that sad little St. Louis souvenir shop on the Washington end ground floor, the Footaction USA and several gold jewelry dealers on the 2nd floor. I guess there's also Gold's Gym in the former Office Depot space on the ground floor at 7th and Locust.
Most notably, way up on the 4th floor, there seems to be one open stall in the food court - Teriyaki something - and of course, Walgreens.
That particular Walgreens, despite the out-of-the-way location, is certainly quite busy. I see no evidence of a closing sign there, although perhaps one will appear in a couple weeks.
In fact, yesterday about 5:40 PM, when an out-of-towner asked me where there was "a CVS or something", I pointed him in the direction of the Centre. Of course, I told him they close at 6, so you'd better hustle!
After all, their nearest 24 HR store is way out at Lindell and Whittier.
Off-hand, I couldn't think of anyplace else with a pharmacy downtown. I haven't been in the downtown Globe Drug in years, but I think it's just a (rather trashy) warehouse store.
There was a Medicine Shoppe located in the Jefferson Arms a few years ago, at the corner of Locust and Tucker, but even it closed at 5. Now it's out on Hampton somewhere.
City Grocers has a very limited selection of personal care products and drugs. So it's not the first place I'd suggest.
When the 4th floor Walgreens closes, I hope somebody fills the gap quickly. I've heard they'll be reopening in a ground floor space at the Centre location. I hope that happens with a minimal gap in service.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
As much as I dislike places like Walgreen's or CVS they do have their place and one of those places is a 24-hour downtown streetl level location.
BTW, the 7-11 on 16th/17th just South of Olive would have been a place you could have suggested.
Sure, I've been to that 7-11 at 201 N 17th St and Pine, but it's kinda creepy at times. And I don't think their selection of such items is any better than City Grocers. Plus, from where he and I were on Locust, that 7-11 is about a 3/4-mile walk. (The guy was on-foot.)
Post a Comment