Macy's closing later this month

The end of an era is near at West Park Mall.

After announcing in January it would close its mall anchor store this spring, a Macy's spokesperson told me last week the store's final day of business will be "approximately March 21," less than two weeks from now.

The store, originally known as Famous Barr before it was acquired by Federated Department Stores Inc. in 2005 and rebranded as Macy's, opened with the mall in 1981, two years after my wife and I married. And while our marriage continues, Macy's in Cape Girardeau will not.

Many of you may not remember, but in the 1980s, Famous Barr here carried a full line of electronics, including the top-of-the-line 25-inch, 200-pound Sony Trinitron console television we purchased around 1987, shortly before our first daughter was born. (She spent her toddler years watching a Raffi VHS tape on that television over and over and over again until she had every song memorized and the cassette literally fell apart.)

And then there was the gargantuan Sharp Carousel microwave oven I bought at Famous Barr around that time for what was then the "bargain" price of around $450 (Hey, microwaves were a huge investment 40 years ago) as a Christmas present to ourselves.

As a much younger man, I purchased several suits at Famous Barr, as well as many ties, some of which I still have in a dark corner of my closet, waiting for the day they come back in style.

Over the years, my wife and I bought everything from cologne and jewelry to shoes, winter coats and kitchen utensils at Famous Barr/Macy's. For decades, it was THE definition of "department store" in Cape Girardeau.

But shopping trends and consumer preferences have evolved, especially in the last decade or so. "Big box" specialty stores and online retailers such as Amazon, Target and Walmart now command the lion's share of the retail dollar, leaving Baby Boomers like me with fewer and fewer traditional "brick-and-mortar" department stores to choose from.

Who knows? Perhaps in the next generation or so, the term "department store" may become as outdated as "horse and buggy" sounds to us today.

Downtown development

Last week, I wrote a pair of news stories about projects intended to boost tourism and economic activity in downtown Cape Girardeau. One story was about plans to renovate an old warehouse on the south end of Main Street and the other was on the possibility of constructing docks on the banks of the Mississippi to help attract everything from small pleasure boats to river cruise vessels carrying hundreds of passengers.

After writing those stories, I heard from Cape Girardeau entrepreneur David Knight who told me about his vision for another downtown project, this one extending several blocks south of Century Casino between North Main Street and the downtown floodwall.

Knight, who has been a downtown developer dating back 47 years when he opened Port Cape Girardeau on the corner of Water and Themis streets, owns several parcels of property along the floodwall where someday he would like to build a two- or three-story multiuse building with unobstructed views of the majestic Mississippi over the floodwall.

The project's goals, he told me, would be to strengthen Cape Girardeau's connection to the river and to apply the "highest and best use of the property."

I'm sure there will be much more to report on this project as it develops.

Rally's in Cape opening soon

The new Rally's drive-through on North Sprigg Street next to Rhodes 101 and across the street from the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau is scheduled to open March 29. That according to Brent Anderson, vice president of operations and business development for PAJCO, which operates the Cape Girardeau Rally's along with five other Rally's locations in Jackson, Sikeston, Dexter, Poplar Bluff and Farmington.

As a prelude to the opening of the Cape location, the Rally's "Fry Love Express" will be in Cape next weekend distributing free servings of Rally's French fries. On Friday, it will be at Parker Field on the Southeast Missouri State University campus. On Saturday, the 60-foot food trailer will be parked at the Rhodes 101 at the intersection of Bloomfield Road and South Mount Auburn Road, and Sunday, the French fry mobile will be part of the tailgate before SEMO State's football game that afternoon at Houck Stadium.

On the move

According to a recent social media post, Busch Pet Products, now located at 1720 Kingsway Drive in Cape, will be moving in a few weeks to a new location a few miles away at 2031 Cape LaCroix Road, next door to Deer Creek Doggie Day Camp.

The target date for the move is April 1 ... no foolin'.

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