I’m guessing this picture is from around 1960, unless a sharp-eyed reader can spot a newer car. This is the San Antonio Shopping Center in Mountain View, California. I lived about a mile away in two different houses for over twenty years, and passed this parking lot twice a day on my commute for many of those years, though I never noticed a Fiat 600 there. I bought a lot of kids’ clothes, appliances, and of course Craftsman tools at that Sears. Maybe even a DieHard battery or two. In the mid-nineties a Walmart was added (the first and only Walmart anywhere close to where I’ve lived all my life), then Trader Joe’s, and the Sears and most of the other retail has since been shuttered and/or replaced with high density housing. Paul covered the Fiat 600 on Curbside Classic here.
Vintage Photo: A Lone Fiat 600 Among the Detroit Iron, Mountain View, California
– Posted on March 6, 2024
Oh, I grew up shopping at this Sears for many years! My mother worked for Allstate. which was owned by Sears, so we got a small discount on purchases. And we bought Craftsman tools, Kenmore appliances, too. As well as DieHard batteries and tires, too. My sister even worked in their photography studio as a high schooler.
Today, this has been repurposed as a mixed use development – with condos, a movie theater, restaurants, and retail. A giant Safeway takes up much of its footprint, and the Trader Joe’s is in back. So is the aforementioned Walmart.
Across the street, there was a Tower Records which I patronized very often.
My understanding is that the northeast corner of the shopping center, the former site of Mervyn’s and now Kohl’s, has been purchased by the Los Altos School District and will become a charter school. With the recent housing added there, it’s quite the walkable neighborhood for what was once a progressive car-oriented 1950’s development 😀 . Walmart, Safeway, TJ’s, Target and Whole Foods all within walking distance. Plus movies and a dog park. But no Tower Records 🙁 . And the independent Saab mechanic who used to be across San Antonio down by the lumber yard doesn’t seem to be there any more.
Thanks for the update, dman.
LASD has owned that piece of land since 2019 – they have been landlords to Kohl’s, 24H Fitness, Jo-Ann Fabrics among other shops for the last 5 years. Haven’t heard of future plans to repurpose the land since, though it’s possible they may move the existing Bullis Charter School, which is just down the road on San Antonio Road, ro the site.
Yup, no Tower Records, not in Mt View, nor in Campbell. Gotta go to Japan for that today – the Tokyo flagship store is a great place!
I visited the Tower in Shibuya/Tokyo recently, it was kind of like coming home, exactly like the US ones even after all this time, probably larger what with six stories and all…having spend a portion of my high school years evenings/weekends at the Sunset Strip location along with various ones in the Valley etc Tower is sorely missed. The last US one I visited was the San Mateo one when I lived nearby going on fifteen years now before it closed down.
For Tower Records fans there is a very good documentary currently on Amazon about the entire history of it “All Things Must Pass” chronicling the entire history from the early days in the Sacramento area to its peak and how/why the Japan outlets survived (and thrive to this day).
Jim, that’s indeed a great documentary. Thanks for the recommendation!
It’s funny, growing up in Berkeley, Tower Records, like REI when it came to town a few years later, was very un-cool among young locals. The small independent record shops like Rasputin’s or Rather Ripped Records, or the Ski Hut and Snow Lion for outdoor gear, were the places to shop. Or in my case, the used record stores and second-hand outdoor shops.
It even smelled the same inside…a heady combination of pressed vinyl and paper money. And a little bit o’ incense.
dman,
I know of all those places. As I said my parents moved to Orinda in 1972 after my first year at SDSU. While driving around to get a feel of the entire region that summer I, of course, stopped in Berkeley that Summer of 72. Yep, like it is with men from Mars, and women from Venus. That describes the dichotomy between SDSU and their surrounds versus UC Berkeley and their surrounds. At 18 I was unprepared for what I saw in Berkeley but was back at SDSU in late August. Little did I know I would end up at UCB (Cal) for grad school in 1977. I was way more prepared for that at 23 while Berkeley had hardly changed.
Funny there are those that denigrate Berkeley and Cal. I did when I first saw it. I changed my mind after 4 years there. Frankly everyone should have the chance to spend their first two years of undergrad at Cal. It was a real eye opener in more ways than one and I thoroughly enjoyed it as much as SDSU. Wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Here’s a picture of Sears from the same angle taken at around the time the store was closed in 2010:
So sad that most of the Sears stores in the U.S. have since closed. They were a big part of America for many, many years!
I was part of the Sears family from 1976-1992 as a part-timer through college and early career, mostly in the auto center selling tires and batteries. It was sad to watch the gradual decline of this once brilliant institution. “The Big Store” is a great read from the mid-80s as Sears began its long decline. They tried to take on K-Mart then Walmart in rapid succession, diluting their quality and image. As well, the consumer moved on, no longer attracted to malls but boutique, open air shops. But I’m thankful for my time with them, and my profit-sharing enabled me to buy my first house through Coldwall-Banker.
I also remember the old days when stores were only open a couple of nights a week and never on Sundays. That changed in the ’80s, and I recall getting time and a half for volunteering to work Sundays!
The last Sears in Houston closed a couple of years ago. It has a cool sign that I’d love to see preserved before the area is torn down for redevelopment….
Here is the Sears in Sunvalley Mall up in Concord where I am. I first visited the store the summer of 1972 after my parents moved up here. Anything tool related or auto related was bought from this store. Ironically, I always bought clothing attire from JCPenny and there is a JCP at the other end of this Mall. This Sears is still open as is the JCP. However, the Sears Auto Service Center has closed.
In fact my first credit cards in my life were Shell, Sears, and JCP.
My first credit card was from Sears. When I was in college they had a promotion where they would give you $5 cash or some item. They did limit it you to doing it once per month. So once a month my friends and I would go down fill out the application and have some beer money. This went on for many months until one day a letter and card showed up in my mail box. The first purchase was a proper floor jack for a whopping $89.99.
It appears as if the Fiat driver cares about their car. Wants no door dings from the big american iron…parked all the way to the edge of the spot. The other thing I notice is all the filthy oil on the pavement in the stalls. Thats the way it was folks. Pretty much a thing of the past.
I grew up there too. The side walks around Sears had glitter mixed in , and would dazzle in the sunshine !
The 600 was likely the most popular new/newish car in Innsbruck in the late ’50s. The 600 had a short half-life in the US. I don’t remember seeing one in Iowa City, but there was a young guy who had one in our neighborhood in Towson, circa 1965-1966. I was a bit surprised to find it, and I used to see him working on it not uncommonly. I think he was having a hard time keeping it going by then.
And that’s the way it should still be!!! When America was great!
I used to love the eclectic mix of European cars, seen on US and Canadian streets through the 1970s. A neighbour down the street at CFB Rockcliffe in Ottawa, drove a 1970 Mini Clubman estate. Another on Altair Avenue, owned an MG Midget.
Posted this pic here before. A Renault R16, roaming with the Buffaloes and Detroit Iron, sometime around 1970-72. At the former downtown Voyageur bus terminal on Albert Street in Ottawa.
Mini versus more Detroit Iron. Rideau Street, Ottawa 1978, at Hudson’s Bay Company department store. Plymouth Fury sedans in all black, were the default taxi cabs through the mid to late ’70s.
Former Carlingwood Sears store in Ottawa, erected in 1955, shortly after closing for good.
Now, the site of Canada’s largest Canadian Tire store.
That’s a lot of tires! Do you eat tires for lunch?
They sell a lot more than tires! They are probably Canada’s closest retailer to the Walmart model.
Here’s the sign….
That’s the first monochromatic ’56 Olds I’ve seen, probably my favorite mid 50s car, not just because we had one until ’92. From a distance, it looks less bulbous that way, but I don’t usually care for white cars.
Does anyone still do swept wheel openings?
Our ’68 mall Sears was torn down and rebuilt as a Publix supermarket, whose noise level I found annoying. The rest of the mall remains but is decrepit.
When I was kid in the 60’s, our next door neighbor owned one of these Fiat 500’s painted bright yellow. I remember that it leaked oil so badly that she always placed a big turkey roasting pan under the engine when she parked it in order to catch all the oil that leaked out of it. She finally replaced the Fiat with a new 1967 VW Bug in dark green.
500s, 600s and Multiplas were somewhat common in college towns, but not elsewhere. I’ve never seen the larger Fiat sedans (1100, 1400).
Wow, what a difference in size! Here in Australia we had way fewer American-size car, so the Fiat didn’t seem particularly small.
I miss SEARS and I hate eddie lampert
-Nate
I think I passed one of these parked near my son’s high school twice today. Have to see if I can manage a picture in the next few days as it looks like a regular. It is tiny.