Historic Sears store in Stockton to close its doors. What's next for building?
STOCKTON — The Sears department store in Stockton, a longtime staple of the community, will be closing next month.
The once-retail giant only has 12 locations remaining in the U.S., but the one at the Weberstown Mall is a big reason the city of Stockton is the way it is today.
Historians say that if it wasn't for Sears deciding to move to Stockton, the city probably would've looked and expanded in a whole different way.
Now the question is: who is going to take the building over?
"It's a sad sight really because my family used to come here all the time," Stockton resident Jonathan Espinoza said Monday. "We came here one final time to check if there are any freezers or anything on sale."
Come August, the store where almost everything was sold must have everything gone.
"Sears was the place to go if you needed to get anything. Sears was the place to go," Phillip Merlo said.
Merlo is the executive director of the San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum.
He remembered growing up in Stockton making those same trips to Sears. However, now he sees the major role Sears played in growing Stockton over the last 60 years.
"In the '50s, there was a really significant movement in Stockton and San Joaquin County to develop north of the Calaveras River," Merlo said.
Merlo said the retailer's decision to move north opened the floodgates for expansion.
"You see this cementation over northern development as a long-term trend," he said.
So what's next?
"We need to look at the economy of Stockton as something that is evolving, expanding, retracting at the same time," said Carrier Wright, the director of economic development for the City of Stockton.
Wright is hopeful something will replace the one-time staple.
"We still like to see those big tenants and bringing in resources for the community and sales tax generation," she said. "Sure, it's a loss, but it's also an opportunity."
The Weberstown Mall is owned by the Washington Prime Group. The group did not say what was going to happen with the store's skeleton once its cleaned out, but Wright has some ideas.
"We're not in charge of what goes into that space, but we can make it attractive for businesses in that area," she said. "Whatever does go in there we want it to serve the residents."
We reached out to Sears for comment, but they did not get back to us by the time this story was published.
One fun fact Merlo shared is that the basement of the store was also built with the idea of being a bomb shelter because it was built during the Cold War. Because of Stockton's agricultural significance and waterways, it was considered a potential target.