Indian Hill Village

Indian Hill Village is a former shopping mall in Pomona, California. It has been redeveloped into a multi-use retail, commercial and educational facility and is now known as The Village @ Indian Hill, comprising on .
History.
The original, open-air mall was built in the mid-1950s as Pomona Valley Center. Its anchor store, a Sears, had been dedicated in November 1954. Inline stores included Long's Drugs, F.C. Nash and J.J. Newberry. Between 1967 and 1969, the mall was expanded westward. A Zody's discount store opened in June 1969, as the center's second anchor. One year later, the F.C. Nash store was sold to Roberts Department Store.
In 1974, the mall was renamed to Indian Hill Village, a name chosen by the mall owners in a contest. An enclosing renovation was completed in September 1982. The project was described as "the largest single commercial development in the city's history". In 1985, Sears moved to the Montclair Plaza Mall.
In 1995, part of the property was acquired by the Pomona Unified School District, which created the nonprofit Pomona Valley Educational Foundation to manage it; the foundation was dissolved in 2010. The conversion of the failing mall into an "impressive" educational facility has been cited as one of the chief accomplishments of then-school superintendent Patrick Leier.
The expanded property now houses multiple educational facilities which serve more than 2,000 students in grades pre-Kindergarten to 14. An eight-screen movie theater formerly in the mall was closed in September 2005, prompting the theater owner to sue the school district, alleging that the lease had been improperly terminated.


Janesville Assembly Plant

Janesville Assembly Plant is a former automobile factory owned by General Motors located in Janesville, Wisconsin. Opened in 1919, it was the oldest operating GM plant when it was largely idled in December 2008, and ceased all remaining production on April 23, 2009. The demolition of the plant began in April 2018.
The plant covers 4,800,000 square feet (446,000 m³). It employed around 7,000 workers at its peak in 1970, but was down to about 1,200 when it ceased production of GM vehicles in December 2008.
Samson Tractor Division.
In 1918, the Samson Tractor division of General Motors was formed from the merger of Samson Tractor of California and the Janesville Machine Company, a farm implement manufacturer. A Samson Tractor Division plant employing 3,000 workers was opened in Janesville in 1919, with the first tractor produced on May 1, 1919. A farm depression that started in 1920 forced Samson to curtail production and lay off more than 1,000 workers. Samson eventually went bankrupt. Although General Motors wanted to abandon the Janesville plant, its general manager, Joseph A. Craig, convinced the company to stay, and in 1920 GM transferred its truck production from Flint, Michigan to the Janesville plant.
Chevrolet plant.
Chevrolet began producing automobiles at the plant in 1923. In the same year, an adjacent Fisher Body plant began construction. Production at the factory was halted during the Great Depression for about a year. In 1937 union organizers led a sit-down strike, part of a nationwide series of strikes at GM, which quickly resulted in a national contract. During World War II, the Janesville plants were taken over by General Motors' Oldsmobile Division, and produced artillery.
Production of automobiles resumed following the war. In 1953, a second shift was added to both the Chevrolet and the Fisher Body factories. In April 1967, the 100 millionth GM vehicle was produced at the Chevrolet plant.
In 1969, the Chevrolet and Fisher Body factories joined to form the General Motors Assembly Division. Peak production at the Janesville Assembly occurred in 1977, when there were 7,100 employees, and 274,286 cars and 114,681 trucks were produced.
In the 1980s General Motors moved large car production from Janesville and started making subcompact J-cars, such as the Chevrolet Cavalier. In 1987 the company moved Janesville's pickup line to the Fort Wayne, Indiana assembly plant. Local efforts resulted in GM moving medium-duty truck and full-size sport-utility production from plants in Michigan to Janesville. By 1992 it was the only GM plant manufacturing large SUVs. In 2002 GM returned Janesville's medium-duty truck production to Flint, Michigan.
Most recently the Janesville Assembly built full-size SUVs. It was one of three plants producing the GMT900 trucks, such as the Chevrolet Suburban. It began building the next-generation short-wheelbase GMT900 trucks in January 2006 and the long-wheelbase GMT900 trucks in March of that year and an overtime shift was added to meet demand. From 1994 until 2009, the plant also produced medium-duty trucks for Isuzu under its partnership with GM.
In 2006, the Janesville GM Assembly plant achieved a milestone of producing more than 500,000 full-size sport utility vehicles with E85 FlexFuel capable engines. The Janesville employees were recognized in a ceremony at the plant that included Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle (D).
In 2007, discussion of greenhouse gas fuel emissions regulations sparked a dialogue about the future of the Janesville GM plant. That same year United Auto Workers Local 95 participated in a strike at the facility.
Decommissioning.
In 2008, fuel prices, the related slow sales of SUVs, and the economy resulted in GM cutting back full-time production at the Janesville plant to a single shift. Combined with an ongoing employee buy-out program, layoffs totaled around 750 jobs in July 2008. During GM's annual shareholder meeting on June 3, 2008, CEO Rick Wagoner announced that the Janesville assembly plant would close by 2010, along with three other GM factories, and could close sooner if the market dictated. The cutbacks announced, along with other changes, were expected to save the North American division $1 billion per year starting in 2010. GM extended its annual summer shutdown an additional two weeks and planned another ten weeks of shutdown for the remainder of 2008 because of excess inventories of SUVs made at the plant.
In October 2008, GM announced that the production of SUVs at the Janesville Assembly would end December 23, 2008. On that day workers gathered at a ceremony with a banner reading "Last Vehicle off the Janesville Assembly Line". The last GM vehicle produced, a black 2009 Chevrolet Tahoe, was donated to the United Way of North Rock County, which raffled the vehicle off.
57 production employees continued assembly work at the Janesville Assembly until April 23, 2009, completing the GM/Isuzu light truck partnership and then an additional 40 to 50 "skilled trade employees" worked to decommission the plant.
2015 and beyond.
General Motors placed the factory on standby until at least 2015 when the company and employee unions negotiate a new contract. The factory was one of three — along with Orion Assembly and Spring Hill Manufacturing - that General Motors kept on standby during their bankruptcy. It was the only one still on standby status in 2014. The factory can only be completely closed by agreement of both General Motors and the United Automobile Workers.
As of January 2016, GM had signed a new contract with the United Auto Workers that cleared the way for selling the Janesville plant. Water or ground contamination on the north and south sides of the plant have delayed the sale of the plant. GM was working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to clean up that area. As of February 2016, GM was working with CBRE Group of Los Angeles to market the 250 acre site (excluding the contaminated area on the north side of the site) on a global market, hoping to have a buyer by 2017.
Demolition of the plant began in 2018.
See also.
List of GM factories


L. L. Berger

L. L. Berger was a high-end Department Store based in Buffalo, New York. The family owned store was started by Louis L. Berger in 1905, at 500 Main Street. The company grew through the next two decades and opened its flagship store at 514 Main Street on February 4, 1929. The first suburban branch opened in 1953, at Thruway Plaza (later Thruway Mall) in Cheektowaga, New York, followed in 1960, with a location at Sheridan Plaza, in Tonawanda (Town), New York. At the death of its founder in 1967, the L. L. Berger company was "compared in fashion retailing to Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord and Taylor in New York, I. Magnin in San Francisco, and Neiman Marcus in Dallas." Expansion continued with stores opening in 1969, at the Seneca Mall, in West Seneca, New York and 1970, at the Northtown Plaza in Amherst, New York. Additional stores opened in 1975, at the Lockport Mall, in Lockport, New York; in 1982 at the Transitown Plaza in Clarence, New York; in 1988 at the McKinley Mall, in Hamburg, New York; and in 1989 at the Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga, New York. A second Buffalo location opened at 510 Elmwood Avenue in the early 1980s. The company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991. In the early 2000s the flagship store was renovated to be upscale apartments and commercial space.


John Thurber

John Thurber (1649–1717, last name also Churcher) was a pirate trader and slaver active off Madagascar. He is best known for his role in introducing rice to America as a staple crop and export commodity.
History.
Thurber is primarily known for what may be an apocryphal event. In 1685 he was on a return voyage from Madagascar when his ship was damaged in a storm and blown off course. He put into Charleston for repairs where he met local doctor and explorer Henry Woodward. In exchange for Woodward’s hospitality and assistance, Thurber gave him a bag of seed rice from Madagascar. Woodward planted the rice, which flourished so well in the marshy Carolina soil that its production astounded the colonists. Within a few years rice became the colony’s primary crop and remained so into the modern era. Historians debate whether the story is true and point to other earlier introductions of rice to the area (“This has sparked the popular misconception that pirates brought Malagasay rice to the Americas.”), as well as analyses of rice cultivars pointing to West African rather than Malagasay origins. The story of Thurber’s involvement persists, and sparked a dramatic fictionalized account involving a stowaway and a doomed romance.
In 1687 near Campeche he encountered pirate John Coxon, who forced him to take aboard several Indians, whom he ferried to New Providence until they could be returned to Jamaica. Thurber was named among other pirates such as Christopher Goffe and Thomas Woolerly who used islands in the Bahamas for water and supplies. His name also appears as a witness on New York merchant Andrew Browne’s deed that same year. Continuing his slave-trading voyages to Madagascar, he worked with another New York merchant, Frederick Philipse. He made a supply run in 1693 in Philipse’s 200-ton, 10-gun, 30-man brigantine "Charles" to Adam Baldridge’s pirate trading post at Ile ste Marie off Madacasgar, bringing in general goods and returning with slaves.
Baldridge kept extensive logs of his trade deals: “August 7th 1693. Arrived the Ship Charles, John Churcher master, from New York, Mr. Fred. Phillips, owner, sent to bring me severall sorts of goods. She had two Cargos in her, one Consigned to said Master to dispose of, and one to me, containing as followeth: 44 paire of shooes and pumps, 6 Dozen of worsted and threed stockens, 3 dozen of speckled shirts and Breaches, 12 hatts, some Carpenters Tools, 5 Barrells of Rum, four Quarter Caskes of Madera Wine, ten Cases of Spirits, Two old Stills full of hols, one worme, Two Grindstones, Two Cross Sawes and one Whip saw, three Jarrs of oyle, two small Iron Potts, three Barrells of Cannon powder, some books, Catechisms, primers and horne books, two Bibles, and some garden Seeds, three Dozen of howes, and I returned for the said goods 1100 pieces 8/8 and Dollers, 34 Slaves, 15 head of Cattel, 57 bars of Iron. October the 5th he set sail from St. Maries, after having sold parte of his Cargo to the White men upon Madagascar, to Mauratan to take in Slaves.”
The "Charles" itself would go on to serve under other captains, notably John Halsey during the War of Spanish Succession.


Lionel Robbins

Lionel Charles Robbins, Baron Robbins, (22 November 1898 – 15 May 1984) was a British economist, and prominent member of the economics department at the London School of Economics (LSE). He is known for his leadership at LSE, his proposed definition of economics, and for his instrumental efforts in shifting Anglo-Saxon economics from its Marshallian direction. He is famous for the quote, "Humans want what they can't have."
Early life.
Robbins was born in Sipson, west of London, the son of Rowland Richard Robbins (1872–1960), known as Dick, and his wife Rosa Marion Harris; his father was a farmer, a member of Middlesex County Council involved also in the National Farmers' Union, and the family was Strict Baptist. His sister Caroline became a noted Professor of History at Bryn Mawr College.
Robbins was educated at home, at Hounslow College (a preparatory school), and the nearby grammar school, Southall County School. He went to University College London in October 1915, beginning an Arts degree and attending lectures by W. P. Ker, the medievalist Francis Charles Montague, and A. F. Pollard. Wishing to serve in World War I, he began training in early 1916 at Topsham, Devon. He was in the Royal Field Artillery as an officer from August 1916 to 1918, when he was wounded by a sniper on 12 April in the Battle of the Lys and returned home.
During the war Robbins became interested in guild socialism, reading in G. D. H. Cole and by personal contact with Reginald Lawson, a connection from the Harris side of the family. Through Clive Gardiner, an artist commissioned by Dick Robbins in 1917 to paint his son's portrait, Robbins met first Alfred George Gardiner, Clive's father, and then his ally the activist James Joseph Mallon. After his convalescence and 1919 demobilisation from the army, Robbins was employed for about a year by the Labour Campaign for the Nationalization of the Drink Trade, a position found with Mallon's help. The campaign was an offshoot of the State Management Scheme set up during the war, and Robbins worked in Mecklenburgh Square, London for Mallon and Arthur Greenwood.
Robbins resumed his studies in 1920 at the London School of Economics (LSE). There he was taught by Harold Laski, Edwin Cannan and Hugh Dalton. He graduated B.Sc.(Econ) in 1923 with first class honours. Dalton's biographer Ben Pimlott wrote that Robbins was the "most promising student of his generation at the L.S.E."
Academic.
After graduation, Robbins found a six-month position as a researcher for William Beveridge, via Dalton. He had applied successfully to New College, Oxford for a fellowship in economics, with references from Alfred George Gardiner (shortly to be his father-in-law), Theodore Gregory and Graham Wallas. It was a one-year lecturing position, and he returned to LSE in 1925, again with Dalton's backing, as assistant lecturer, shortly becoming lecturer.
In 1927, Robbins was back at New College, as a Fellow, but continued to teach at LSE, lecturing on a weekly basis. After the death in 1929 of Allyn Abbott Young, Professor of Economics at LSE, Robbins replaced him in the chair, and moved with his wife to Hampstead Garden Suburb. During the 1930s he built up the economics department, hiring Friedrich von Hayek, John Hicks and Nicholas Kaldor.
Contra Keynes.
Robbins clashed with John Maynard Keynes in early October 1930, on the Committee of Economists of the Second MacDonald ministry. It was a small working group chaired by Keynes, apart from the Economic Advisory Council, to consider economic policy in the Great Depression conditions, comprising also Hubert Henderson and Josiah Stamp from the Council, with Arthur Cecil Pigou and Robbins representing academia.
Robbins refused to sign a draft by Keynes of proposals including tariffs, and wanted the chance to submit a minority report. Keynes as chair would not grant the request, given that Robbins was in a minority of one. Robbins, who had compared the protectionist views to those of Lord Rothermere and Lord Beaverbrook, walked out of a meeting, and briefed Philip Snowden against the report that contained a version of his criticism, considered himself poorly treated. Bad feeling persisted for years between LSE and Cambridge economists.
Initially, Robbins was opposed to Keynes's 1936 "General Theory". His own 1934 treatise on the Great Depression is an analysis belonging to that period of his thought. Later, he accepted the need for government intervention.
World War II period.
Robbins joined the British government's Central Economic Information Service in summer 1940, from Cambridge to where the LSE had moved. The Service was split into the Central Statistical Office and the Economic Section, which Robbins headed as Director from September 1941. The points system devised in 1941 for rationing of clothing, footwear and household goods, by Robbins with Peggy Joseph and James Meade, is considered a successful policy.
From 1942 Robbins worked largely on planning for post-war reconstruction, with Meade. When John Boyd Orr and Frank Lidgett McDougall successfully lobbied to put food security on the agenda of the United Nations, Robbins attended the resulting 1943 conference at Hot Springs, Virginia. He represented the United Kingdom also at the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944, and took part in the negotiation of the 1946 Anglo-American loan. Over this period he became fully reconciled with John Maynard Keynes.
Post-war, Robbins wrote:
I grew up in a tradition in which, while recognition was indeed given to the problems created by the ups and downs of the trade cycle and the fluctuations of aggregate demand, there was a tendency to ignore certain deep-seated possibilities of disharmony, in a way which, I now think, led sometimes to superficiality and sometimes to positive error. I owe much to Cambridge economists, particularly to Lord Keynes and Professor Robertson, for having awakened me from dogmatic slumbers in this very important respect.
Later life.
The Robbins Report of 1963 advocated substantial expansion of higher education in the United Kingdom, taking the line, often called now the "Robbins principle", that demand from those suitably qualified should drive its development. There was background at the LSE for the view taken, in work of Richard Layard and Claus Moser, and it drew also on recent ideas of Jean Floud and A. H. Halsey. Robbins became the first Chancellor of the new University of Stirling in 1968. He also advocated major government support for the arts, as well as universities.
In later life, Robbins turned to the history of economic thought, publishing studies on English doctrinal history. His LSE lectures, as he gave them in 1980, were later published.
Views.
Robbins is noted as a free market economist, and for his definition of economics.
Influences.
As an undergraduate, Robbins felt he had gained much from Philip Wicksteed's "The Common Sense of Political Economy" (1910). Within the earlier British tradition, he admired William Stanley Jevons's mastery of statistical evidence, and for theory which he thought had abiding relevance. Skidelsky takes Robbins to be a possible but in any case rare example of a British continuator of John Neville Keynes and his "Scope and Method of Political Economy" (1891). He corresponded with the American Frank Knight from 1931 until Knight's death in 1972.
"An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science" (1932).
The definition appears in the "Essay" by Robbins as:
After contention in the 1930s, this definition reached some general acceptance among economists. The book has six chapters, and the second half remains controversial.
The "Essay" was influenced by Nathan Isaacs, a close friend from the army, and a paper he had given to the Aristotelian Society in June 1931. The same month, Robbins sent Isaacs a copy of his inaugural lecture, commenting (in relation to business cycles) that its content was out of date through not taking account of work of the Austrians Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. Hayek's cycle theory, and Jacob Viner's work on the balance of payments for Canada, both developments of the 1920s, were used as contrasting examples, respectively of new theorisation and the checking of existing theories. Part of the intellectual framework was the insistence of Isaacs on the importance of inductive reasoning, where Robbins relied more naturally on deductions.
Collectivism.
Robbins came to dislike collectivism. His early interest in Samuel George Hobson and G. D. H. Cole as proponents of guild socialism led him to join the National Guilds League, but did not last beyond 1920, though he continued longer with socialist views. He became involved in the socialist calculation debate, taking the side of the Austrian School.
Honours and awards.
Robbins was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1944 Birthday Honours. On 16 June 1959 he was created a life peer as Baron Robbins, of Clare Market in the City of Westminster. In the 1968 New Year Honours he was appointed a Companion of Honour (CH).
Robbins received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1967. The Lionel Robbins Building at the London School of Economics is named after him. Since 2009 that building has had on the exterior of it an installation art work, "Blue Rain", by the American artist Michael Brown. There is also a Lionel Robbins Building at Nottingham Trent University.
Works.
The early paper "The Representative Firm" (1928) has been considered Robbins's most celebrated article. In its origins a talk to the London Economic Club, it attacked a major concept of Alfred Marshall. Ralph George Hawtrey of the Club defended Marshall's ideas in a letter to Robbins, who within weeks submitted a version to Keynes as editor of the "Economic Journal".
Robbins' 1966 Chichele lecture on the accumulation of capital (published in 1968) and later work on Smithian economics, "The Theory of Economic Policy in English Classical Political Economy," have been described as imprecise.
Family.
On 2 August 1924, Robbins married Iris Elizabeth Harris Gardiner, one of the daughters of the journalist and editor Alfred George Gardiner. They had a daughter and a son; Ann and Richard. His daughter married Christopher Louis McIntosh Johnson in 1958. His son was an artist and sculptor; the LSE has a bust of Lionel Robbins which was made by his son.


Slipped Disc Records

Slipped Disc Records (which closed in 2008) was an American record store located in Valley Stream, New York, on Rockaway Avenue – owned/operated by Mr. Mike Schutzman – and was one of Long Island's longest running record stores. Specializing in heavy metal, punk, and hardcore CDs, records, DVDs, shirts, posters, pins, books, and other accessories, the store had also featured in-store autograph signing sessions with some of rock's biggest acts over the years. The store was featured in the documentary "Get Thrashed", and an official website was launched for online shopping. Sip This (a coffee house) is now located where Slipped Disc Records used to be.
History.
Slipped Disc Records opened in 1982, and according to an article in "Metal Edge" magazine, Schutzman reflected upon the store's early days, "There weren't many stores then that were specializing in metal, hardcore, and punk. We hit it at the right time, even though people told us it wasn't a good time." The store flourished by selling a wide variety of domestic and hard-to-find import albums and accessories as well as a large catalogue of used CD's and albums. Sadly, Slipped Disc closed its doors on April 19, 2008, after being open for over 25 years. Schutzman is still known to sell vinyl at record shows that cater to collectors and enthusiasts. Dream Theater drummer and veteran Slipped Disc shopper Mike Portnoy had some nice words and memories to say about the store in a posting at the Blabbermouth site the same day it closed. As of 2015, Schutzman organizes and oversees an ongoing record show in various locations in the northeast of the U.S., called Vinyl Revolution Record Show.


Rackhams

Rackhams was a British department store that opened in Birmingham, England in 1881. The business became part of the Harrods group in 1955, before Harrods was purchased by House of Fraser in 1959. As part of the Harrods grouping in House of Fraser, during the 1970s the Rackhams name was selected to be used as the Midlands brand name and several stores were added to its portfolio. In 2000 the Rackhams name was retired and replaced by House of Fraser.
History.
In 1881 a new retail drapery business was opened by a partnership formed by William Riddell and Henry Wilkinson at 78 Bull Street, Birmingham, which by 1863 had expanded to a wholesale business based in Temple Row. During 1861 two apprentices joined the company, John Rackham and William Matthews who by 1878 had become buyers for the company. In 1881 the retail store was transferred into Rackham and Matthews ownership and became Rackham & Co.
The business was acquired in 1890 by a trader called Charles Richards. In 1898 Richards expanded the business into the North Western Arcade and within two years had added a Dressmaking department. During 1907 Richards daughter, Hettie married Frank Matthews, the son of former owner William Matthews and one of his workforce, and Matthews was made manager.
The business was incorporated, along with Richards other business, Beehive a discount clothing warehouse, into Charles Richards Ltd in 1913, with Richards and his two daughters owning a third share. In 1914 the frontage on Bull Street was rebuilt and the store had expanded into Temple Row, as well as the Windsor and North Western Arcade. During 1921 Frank Matthew was replaced as manager by Richards nephew, Charles Phillips. Under his management the store was vastly expanded in Temple Row.
In 1927 Maurice Clutterbuck took charge of the business, but it was struggling due to the economic climate and the store was made available for sale, though no bids were accepted during the 1930s. The business took a big hit during World War II when bombs destroyed a third of the store in 1940.
The business however recovered and in 1955 was purchased by Harrods to add to their other stores, and purchased a site for a new store building which work started on in 1957. However before the store could be completed, House of Fraser completed the purchase of Harrods and did a phased opening of the new store between 1960 and 1966.
During the 1970s, Harrods group were selected to be the constitute grouping for Midlands House of Fraser stores, with the Rackham name being chosen to be the branding. The stores re-branded to Rackhams were:
In 1982 Rackhams Birmingham store became the first to be refurbished under the new plans of House of Fraser. The ground floor completed between 1984 & 85 was expanded at the cost of £6 million. However the Sheffield store was rebranded in 1987 under the House of Fraser brand, and by 2000 all stores were rebranded under House of Fraser or had been closed.
In popular culture.
To the rear of the Birmingham store was a red light district. As a result, going to the 'Back of Rackhams' became a euphemistic phrase used locally for any involvement in prostitution.
The song "Big Store" by The Devils is set in Birmingham's Rackhams.


Ford Piquette Avenue Plant

The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant is a former factory located within the Milwaukee Junction area of Detroit, Michigan, in the United States. Built in 1904, it was the second center of automobile production for the Ford Motor Company, after the Ford Mack Avenue Plant. At the Piquette Avenue Plant, the company created and first produced the Ford Model T, the car credited with initiating the mass use of automobiles in the United States. Prior to the Model T, several other car models were assembled at the factory. Early experiments using a moving assembly line to make cars were also conducted there. It was also the first factory where more than 100 cars were assembled in one day. While it was headquartered at the Piquette Avenue Plant, Ford Motor Company became the biggest U.S.-based automaker, and it would remain so until the mid-1920s. The factory was used by the company until 1910, when its car production activity was relocated to the new, bigger Highland Park Ford Plant.
Studebaker bought the factory in 1911, using it to assemble cars until 1933. The building was sold in 1936, going through a series of owners for the rest of the 20th century before becoming a museum in 2001. The Piquette Avenue Plant is the oldest purpose-built automotive factory building open to the public. The museum, which was visited by over 31,000 people in 2018, has exhibits that primarily focus on the beginning of the United States automotive industry. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, became a Michigan State Historic Site in 2003, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006.
History.
Ford period.
Henry Ford, Detroit coal merchant Alexander Y. Malcomson, and a group of investors formed the Ford Motor Company on June 16, 1903, to assemble automobiles. The company's first car model, the original Ford Model A, began to be assembled that same month at the Ford Mack Avenue Plant, a rented wagon manufacturing shop in Detroit, Michigan. The company quickly outgrew this facility and, on April 10, 1904, bought a parcel of land off of Piquette Avenue in Detroit to accommodate a larger factory. The land was located in the Milwaukee Junction area, whose name is derived from a railroad junction within it. The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant's construction started on May 10, 1904. The company moved into its new factory the following October.
The Detroit-based architectural firm Field, Hinchman & Smith designed the Piquette Avenue Plant. It is an example of late Victorian-style architecture and was modeled after New England textile mills. Designing factories based on this type of mill was common practice in the United States at the time. The building is three stories high, wide, and long. Its load-bearing exterior brick walls contain 355 windows, and its maple floors, supported by square oak beams and posts, cover . The Piquette Avenue Plant contains two elevator-stairwell combinations, one located on its northwest corner and the other located on its southwest side. Recalling a fire in March 1901 that destroyed the Olds Motor Works factory in Detroit, Henry Ford and the architects included a fire sprinkler system in the building's design, a rare feature for industrial buildings of the period. This and several other original safety features in the factory, such as its firewalls, fire doors, and fire escapes, are still present. Water for the sprinkler system was supplied by a wooden water tank located on the building's roof. A brick powerhouse, measuring wide by long, was the original electricity provider for the factory, and was located near its northwest corner. The water tank and powerhouse no longer exist.
From October 1904 to the end of 1909, Ford Motor Company assembled car models B, C, F, K, N, R, S, and T at the Piquette Avenue Plant. Ford models B and C were the first car models produced at the factory starting in late 1904, and production of the Ford Model F began the following February. The vast majority of factory tasks were done by men, except for magneto assembly, which was done by women. Hand tools were used for the assembly work at fixed stations, and the completed components would be brought by hand to the chassis for final assembly. Completed cars were shipped to the company's distributors and dealers by rail using a spur line behind the building, which connected to a Michigan Central Railroad main line. Due to variations in demand and car model changeover, the number of employees varied constantly, ranging from as low as 300 to as high as 700. The company did not recognize labor unions at the factory. Ford Motor Company was a member of the Employers’ Association of Detroit, an organization that prevented most of the city's factories from unionizing until the 1930s.
In 1905, Ford Motor Company was the fourth-largest car producer in the United States, behind Cadillac, Rambler, and Oldsmobile. In the company's early years, most major components in its cars were manufactured by outside companies, including the "running gear" (the chassis, engine, transmission, drive shaft, and axles), which was supplied by the Dodge Brothers Company. That began to change in early 1906, when the Ford Manufacturing Company, a new, separate company created by Henry Ford and some Ford Motor Company stockholders, started to make engines and transmissions for the upcoming Ford Model N. The Ford Manufacturing Company was located at the Bellevue Avenue Plant, a leased factory off of Bellevue Avenue in Detroit. The Bellevue Avenue Plant was used until 1908, by which time almost all manufacturing of major components for Ford Motor Company cars was taking place at the Piquette Avenue Plant. Model N production began at the Piquette Avenue Plant in July 1906. That same month, Henry Ford bought the Ford Motor Company shares owned by fellow company co-founder Alexander Malcomson. While Malcomson was with the company, he and Henry Ford disagreed over the type of car that the company should produce. Malcomson preferred expensive cars, like the Ford Model K; Henry Ford favored inexpensive cars, like the Model N. Once Malcomson was no longer part of the company, Henry Ford, now with uncontested control, focused the company's efforts towards making cheap cars exclusively. The success of the Model N made Ford Motor Company the largest automaker in the United States by the end of 1906, a distinction that it would hold for twenty years.
In January 1907, in a room located on the Piquette Avenue Plant's third floor in the northeast corner, the design process began for the Ford Model T, the car credited with starting the mass use of cars in the United States. Much of the design and experimental work for the new car was done by Henry Ford, draftsman Joseph Galamb, engineer Childe Harold Wills, and machinist C.J. Smith. Vanadium steel, an alloy lighter and stronger than standard steel, which was first used sparingly with the Ford Model N, R, and S, was used extensively with the Model T. The company revealed the plans for the Model T to its dealers on March 19, 1908.
During July 1908, a few months before the Model T's introduction, a group of Piquette Avenue Plant employees experimented with the concept of using a moving assembly line to make cars, where the chassis would be moved to the workers for components to be installed. This effort was led by Charles E. Sorensen, the assistant to Peter E. Martin, who was the factory's superintendent. Sorensen believed that a moving assembly line would make car assembly faster, simpler, and easier. The experiments consisted of tying a rope to a Model N chassis and pulling it across the factory's third floor on skids until its axles and wheels were added. The chassis would then be rolled across the floor in notches, where specific components would be attached. At least one Model N was completed at the Piquette Avenue Plant using this process. Although Henry Ford encouraged these experiments, he did not implement a formal moving assembly line at the Piquette Avenue Plant, as all of his attention was focused on getting Model T production started on time. Despite not having a moving assembly line, the Piquette Avenue Plant, aided by the usage of interchangeable parts and other production improvements, produced 101 completed cars in a single day on June 4, 1908, an auto industry record at the time.
The first production Model T was completed at the Piquette Avenue Plant on September 27, 1908. On May 1, 1909, due to overwhelming demand, Ford Motor Company stopped taking Model T orders for two months. To satisfy the unprecedented demand for the Model T, the company moved most of its car production activity to the new, larger Highland Park Ford Plant in Highland Park, Michigan, by January 1910. The company completely vacated the Piquette Avenue Plant by October 1910. The concept of using a moving assembly line to manufacture cars would be fully implemented at the Highland Park Ford Plant, starting on October 7, 1913. Over 15 million Model Ts would eventually be built, and the first 14,000 made in the United States were assembled at the Piquette Avenue Plant.
After Ford in the 20th century.
The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant was sold in January 1911 to Studebaker, a major maker of various horse-drawn road vehicles since the 1850s. That same year, when the railroad spur line serving the factory was raised above street level, the loading dock behind the building was replaced with an elevated platform, level with the second floor. Also in 1911, Studebaker acquired the E-M-F Company, which owned a different car manufacturing complex on Piquette Avenue. Studebaker began to put its name on the cars formerly produced by the E-M-F Company in 1912. In 1920, Studebaker built a four-story, reinforced concrete building, known as the "Studebaker Detroit Service Building", immediately west of the Piquette Avenue Plant. In 1926, the elevator-stairwell combination on the Piquette Avenue Plant's southwest side was moved slightly northwards. This enabled the Detroit Service Building to be connected to the Piquette Avenue Plant's southwest corner on the second and third floors, which created a ground-level, drive-through access point to the court between the two buildings. Also in 1926, the machinery for both of the Piquette Avenue Plant's elevators was replaced. Studebaker used the Piquette Avenue Plant for car production until 1933.
In 1936, Studebaker sold the Piquette Avenue Plant to the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M), a producer of rubber auto parts and non-adhesive paper tape. Around 1937, the powerhouse and several other small buildings previously built by Ford Motor Company west of the factory were demolished. The Cadillac Overall Company, a work clothes supplier, purchased the building in 1968. The Heritage Investment Company bought the building in 1989 and owned it until 2000. Since the early 1990s, a company named "General Linen & Uniform Service" has occupied part of the Piquette Avenue Plant's first floor. The Detroit Service Building next door is now used by Henry Ford Health System to store medical records. The openings that previously allowed direct access between the two buildings on the second and third floors are now sealed. The Piquette Avenue Plant still stands in spite of the decline of Detroit, which began in the mid-20th century.
Model T Automotive Heritage Complex.
The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant was sold to the Model T Automotive Heritage Complex in April 2000. Model T Automotive Heritage Complex is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has run the building as a museum since July 27, 2001. The Piquette Avenue Plant is the oldest purpose-built automotive factory building open to the public. The museum, located north of Midtown Detroit at 461 Piquette Street, attracted 31,018 visitors in 2018. It contains over 40 early automobiles built by Ford Motor Company and other Detroit-area car makers, as well as recreations of Henry Ford's office and the room where the Ford Model T was designed. One of the cars on display is Model T Serial No. 220, which was built at the factory in December 1908, and is one of the oldest surviving examples of that car model. Although the museum's regular operating days are Wednesdays through Sundays from April through November, it has been open on select days in January in the past. These January open days coincided with the annual North American International Auto Show, which takes place at Cobo Center in Downtown Detroit.
The Piquette Avenue Plant was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, designated as a Michigan State Historic Site in 2003, and became a National Historic Landmark in 2006. The building has also been a contributing property for the surrounding Piquette Avenue Industrial Historic District since 2004. The factory's front façade was fully restored to its 1904 appearance and revealed to the public on September 27, 2008, the 100th anniversary of the completion of the first production Model T. On August 11, 2011, Model T Automotive Heritage Complex membership chairman Tom Genova was honored with a ROSE Award from the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau in the Volunteers category. On May 18, 2012, the Model T Automotive Heritage Complex won a NAAMY Award from the National Association of Automobile Museums in the Films and Videos category for Division I (museums with budgets less than $300,000). On November 10, 2015, the Window Restoration Team at the Piquette Avenue Plant received a MotorCities National Heritage Area Award of Excellence in the Preservation category. Around 2016, the National Park Service considered adding the Piquette Avenue Plant to a list of places in the United States eligible for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. It was ultimately not added, because it did not have enough of its original factory equipment, and because of recommendations that its nomination be expanded to include other Detroit-area Ford Motor Company sites, such as the Highland Park Ford Plant and the Ford River Rouge Complex.


British Home Stores

British Home Stores, commonly abbreviated to BHS and latterly legally styled BHS Ltd, was a British department store chain, primarily selling clothing and household items. In its later years, the company began to expand into furniture, electronics, entertainment, convenience groceries and fragrance and beauty products.
The company was founded in 1928 by a group of U.S. entrepreneurs, and had a total of 163 stores mainly located in high streets or shopping centres by the time of its closure in 2016, as well as 74 international stores across 18 separate territories.
BHS was previously a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, but was bought by Sir Philip Green in 2000 and taken private. The company became part of Green's Arcadia Group in 2009. Following a number of loss-making years, the company was sold to the consortium Retail Acquisitions Ltd led by the serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell, in March 2015 for the nominal price of £1.
In April 2016, 13 months after the purchase by Retail Acquisitions, the company entered administration following unsuccessful attempts to continue trading. It was eventually wound down, and all stores were closed by late August 2016 following failed attempts to find a buyer. The overseas franchises and digital business were sold during the administration period to Al Mana Group, who closed down the website in June 2018.
History.
Origins.
British Home Stores was founded in 1928 by a group of U.S. entrepreneurs who wanted to follow the successful model set by Woolworths. They did not want go into direct competition with Woolworths, so set their highest price at a shilling. The first store opened in Brixton, and by 1929 the price limit had been lifted to five shillings to allow the business to offer more goods.
The business expanded by opening further branches, all offering small cafeterias and grocery departments, and in 1933 the business went public. After the war, the business continued to grow, and by the end of the 1960s had 94 stores nationwide.
Expansion.
The company expanded in the 1970s and 1980s, including the opening of stores in the newly-developing wave of indoor shopping centres (such as Broadway Shopping Centre and Lakeside Shopping Centre). A joint venture was launched with supermarket retailer Sainsbury's to create hypermarkets using the SavaCentre brand. Sainsbury's took full control of SavaCentre in 1989, and later converted the stores to the Sainsbury's branding.
A downturn in business in the early 1980s was fought with a revamp of the stores and the selling of goods with higher profit margins. The company closed its only overseas store, in Dublin, Ireland, during this time (although there was a rapidly aborted re-entry in 1996 via a franchise store in Dublin's Jervis Centre). In 1985, the first overseas franchise store opened in Gibraltar. Such stores, not directly owned by the BHS company itself, have operated over Europe and the Middle East.
In 1986, BHS merged with Habitat and Mothercare to form Storehouse plc. Soon afterwards, the British Home Stores registered company name and branding across its shops was replaced with "BhS" (later "Bhs", and since reverted to the all-caps "BHS", which the company used in addition to the full British Home Stores name prior to the full rebrand) and a new corporate logo. The exception was in stores that displayed a "historic" fascia, such as that in Edinburgh's Princes Street, which continued to feature the British Home Stores name in its original Roman type etched into the granite shop front.
British Home Stores, like many other major retailers, followed a trend of opening stores at out-of-town locations since the 1980s. One of these was the two-level store at Merry Hill Shopping Centre in the West Midlands (which formed part of an Enterprise Zone). This store opened on 14 November 1989, ultimately replacing the store in nearby Dudley, which closed in June 1990 after a directly related sharp fall in turnover. The nearby West Bromwich store closed around the same time, its fortunes also affected by the Merry Hill development and smaller developments around nearby Oldbury, which had begun with the SavaCentre hypermarket in 1980.
Takeover by Philip Green.
In the mid-1990s, the brand saw a further reinvention under guidance from retail design house '20:20'. The new look was showcased with the launch of the "millennium concept" shopfit, initially at the Grafton Centre, Cambridge during 1995. With its softer "Bhs" "signature" logo and warm interior lighting, the concept attempted with varying degrees of success to meet the needs of the modern, more sophisticated (female) shopper. During the late 1990s, the stores which formed Storehouse Plc fell on hard times; BHS and Mothercare were the worst affected. Following a number of years of tough trading, Philip Green bought BHS from Storehouse Plc in May 2000 for £200 million. He then changed the company from public (Plc) to private (Ltd). In 2002, Green went on to acquire the Arcadia Group of high street retailers, which included Topshop, Burton, Evans, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis among others, to form Britain's second largest clothes retailer, after Marks and Spencer. Alan Smith, chairman of Storehouse at the time of the Bhs sale, commented, "He [Philip Green] had a crystal-clear vision and strategy. He had the guts to do the deal, to make it work when nobody else thought he could."
Return to British Home Stores.
In May 2005, Green, owner of BHS, purchased Etam UK from its French owner, Etam Développement. The Etam UK brands included Etam, Amelie May, and Tammy. The girls' fashion retailer Tammy was the strongest brand in terms of sales and consumer recognition. For this reason, and to help improve girls' perception of BHS as a whole, from September 2005 stand-alone stores were closed and the brand integrated into BHS stores.
In 2005, BHS resurrected its British Home Stores fascia, more than 20 years after it had disappeared from the UK high street. The move followed the purchase of several former Allders at Home sites from the department store chain. These projects were designed to build upon the success of the homewares and lighting that BHS stores currently offered and to tap into new areas of business such as furniture, curtains, rugs, and wall art. Brands sold included Denby, Maxwell Williams, Typhoon, Brabantia, Terence Conran and Jasper Conran.
In 2005, Green's wife, a Monaco resident, received a £1.2 billion dividend from Arcadia.
On 27 February 2009, it was announced that the company would be integrated into the Arcadia Group. Central support functions were merged and selected BHS stores housed selected Arcadia brands; for example, in July 2009, BHS stores in Solihull in the West Midlands and Bexleyheath in South London both opened Evans and Wallis concessions. In August 2009, the Canterbury branch opened Wallis and Evans concessions within the store. Other stores with Arcadia insertions included Tunbridge Wells, Oxford, Peterborough, Watford, Kilmarnock, Nottingham, Camberley, Norwich and Aberdeen.
Leadership changes.
Mike Goring was appointed managing director to the chain in May 2009, and in July, Jacquie Gray was appointed Creative Director. In 2010, BHS changed its logo, resurrecting the uppercase form of the abbreviation that had not been used since the Storehouse rebrand and the later rebrand in the 1990s. A new e-commerce website was launched, and a new store design was gradually introduced across the estate.
Goring left BHS in 2012 to take up the position of Retail Director for Debenhams. After he left, former Marks and Spencer Menswear Trading Director, Richard Price was appointed managing director. Gray left in 2014.
In January 2015, Green confirmed that he was considering selling the company following sustained losses, and that he had received a number of approaches.
Sale and restructuring.
On 12 March 2015, it was announced that BHS had been sold to Retail Acquisitions for a nominal price of £1. It was also confirmed that Richard Price had left his post as managing director for a position with the clothing arm of Tesco; former BHS Chief Operating Officer Darren Topp was confirmed as the interim Chief Executive. Shortly after the takeover, 51 of the company's 171 stores were reported as being under threat of closure.
In September 2015, BHS owners Retail Acquisitions announced another rebrand, as part of a £60m rejuvenation plan, which resulted in the full British Home Stores name being resurrected on the high street for the first time since 1986. A programme of modernising stores with the new branding was announced, while plans to roll out food halls were to continue.
By early 2016, periodic store closures had seen the company withdraw entirely from several city centres including Bath, Cardiff, Carlisle, Oxford, Reading and Southampton. Plans were also being made to reduce the size of the flagship Oxford Street branch by leasing excess space to other retailers.
In March 2016, the company sought a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) to allow it to restructure the business. As part of its application, it revealed a deficit in its pension scheme of £207 million, and sought to transfer its schemes to the Pension Protection Fund. A consortium led by the banker Nicholas de Scossa was involved in negotiations to buy the company.
Administration and closure.
On 24 April 2016, Dominic Chappell (owner of Retail Acquisitions) announced that administrators would be appointed the next day. It was announced that the chain had entered administration on 25 April 2016, putting 11,000 jobs at risk. Duff & Phelps were appointed administrators and sought to sell the business as a going concern. It at this point had debts of £1.3 billion including £571 million in pension liabilities, meaning either individual assets (such as stores) would have to be sold or the chain would be in new ownership. UK sports chain Sports Direct was reported to be in talks to buy a number of BHS stores, but no buyer was found for the company, resulting in the closure of BHS stores. Head office staff were made redundant on the announcement that no buyer had been found, with stores expected to last up to 8 weeks selling the remaining stock. On 23 July 2016, the administrators Duff and Phelps shut 20 stores, and the next week another 30. Closure of the final outlets was on 28 August 2016. The insolvent part of the company finally went into liquidation on 2 December 2016, with the remainder of winding up proceedings commencing on that date.
The Qatari Al Mana Group purchased the company's international franchise stores and online operations in June 2016. The group formed a new business, BHS International (UK) Limited, based in London. It launched a website, bhs.com, under the new brand name "The British Home Store" in September 2016. Al Mana announced that the website would close by 27 June 2018, shifting focus to their international franchise business.
Successor.
, the bhs.com website is operated by Litecraft Group Limited, using the BHS logo and "BritishHomeStore London 1928" brand name under licence. The website sells lighting and selected homewares only.
Products.
Clothing.
In December 2014, New Zealand-based childrenswear brand Pumpkin Patch was introduced into larger stores and online.
Furniture.
The company had an independent furniture website, bhsfurniture.co.uk.
The stores and website sold a number of leading brands including Italsofa, G-Plan, Relyon and Silentnight. Larger homes stores, such as the Barton Square branch in the Trafford Centre, Greater Manchester, also sold the Welle cabinet range and had Sharps showrooms.
Electrical goods.
In its stores, BHS sold a mixture of basic electricals based primarily on kitchen products such as kettles and toasters. Latterly the range had begun to increase, particularly in the designated Home stores and larger high street branches. Ranges introduced included Breville, Russell Hobbs, De'Longhi and Vax. In addition, BHS began to sell larger electrical items through a separate website, bhsdirect.co.uk. The service was run through a third party company, Buy it Direct, and was not directly controlled by BHS. This allowed the company to expand its product range to laptops, tablets, large kitchen appliances such as fridge-freezers, TVs and air-conditioners.
Food store.
In January 2014, it was announced that the chain would sell branded food products; the service was to be trialled in 50 stores with the intention of making this a permanent addition in up to 150 stores. The first of three trial stores opened in Staines in March 2014, and was shortly followed by another in Warrington and a third in Romford.
International franchises.
The BHS brand has been franchised since 1985 to stores around the world and, although they are not directly owned, products and support were supplied by BHS. The Tammy brand was available as a separate franchise. In early 2006 a new franchise, "Bhs Kids", was launched in the Middle East, carrying many best-selling children's lines from BHS stores.
In 1995, BHS was the first high street retailer to open a branch in Moscow. The £3 million venture was the largest in the international portfolio and was quickly followed by the opening of a second store in St Petersburg. Further stores opened in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in 1998, and there were stores in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Dubai, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. By 2000 the chain also had stores in Greece, Tenerife, Gibraltar, Malta and the Far East. In 2011, a store in Armenia opened. In 2013, a franchised concession opened in the Falkland Islands and a store was opened in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.


Kennards

Kennards was a small department store chain that was started in 1853, founded on the principle of selling reliable goods at low profit margins. Its main Croydon branch was notable for the full-length windows which ran the length of the store. The shop was bought out by Debenhams in 1928 but not rebranded until 1973. The site was later obtained for development for the new Drummond Centre in the 1980s and the original store was demolished. The new store was sited on some of the original footprint and anchored the Drummond Centre, which was later expanded and renamed Centrale. This store continued to anchor the centre until Debenhams announced its closure in 2020.
History.
Kennards was started in 1853 by William Kennard for £100 in the North End of Croydon. The store within a year of opening had served 8,000 customers, which was attributed to the new railway stations that had opened in the area. Allders and Grants of Croydon were the competition.
In 1887, William Kennard died and the business was renamed Kennard Brothers and managed by his son's William & Arthur. At the start of the 20th Century the store expanded, taking over local rival Messrs Buckworth, and opening a second branch in Staines, which brought with it a new rival in Johnson & Clarks which was directly opposite.
Two of the unique selling points of the store was the use of full-length windows running the length of the store, a unique feature at the time, and an arcade (added during the 1930s) inside the store that linked different departments and showcased goods from around the world.
In the 1920s the business grew again, with motor vans replacing the horse drawn delivery carts, and the store being rebuilt with a new entrance and a second floor being added. In 1928 a third floor was added. In 1928, Kennards was purchased by the Drapery Trust around the time that Debenhams had acquired Drapery Trust.
The store kept with the founders principle for selling reliable goods at very low profit margins, which along with aiming its goods at women meant that the store was popular with working class women.
The store was famous for many publicity stunts. However, after the war the business declined, and in 1973 it was rebranded as Debenhams. The original Kennards store in Croydon was knocked down and replaced by a new Debenham store. The closure of this store was announced in 2020, bringing to the end of a period of more than a century and a half of trading from the site as either Kennards or its direct successor while Debenhams are still located in the old Staines store.
Publicity.
Kennards were one of the first UK business to use publicity to sell its goods. In the 1920s Kennards introduced Pony rides for children in store, which continued to run until 1966.
The success of this was followed by opening of a small zoo. This originally hosted some monkeys, a camel, a peacock, some birds and other small animals. This attracted many children with their parents, so they decided to expand the zoo further with more exotic animals. In 1930 two lions were introduced, along with a Hyena and a porcupine. Later these were joined by a temporary exhibition of cheetahs. During the mid thirties to bring even more publicity to the store the cheetahs were displayed in the store's restaurant. The zoo closed when the building was refurbished.
The store was also famous for its Christmas grotto. A big procession through the town followed by the opening of the grotto with a big gold key took place. The grotto had a big display with Father Christmas workshop with real elves on display. One year Kennards claimed to have the largest Father Christmas in the world, 46 stone.


Alexander Tarasov

Alexander Nikolaevich Tarasov (; born March 8, 1958) is a Soviet and Russian left-wing sociologist, politologist, culturologist, publicist, writer, and philosopher. Up until the beginning of the 21st century he referred to himself as a Post-Marxist alongside István Mészáros and a number of Yugoslav Marxist philosophers who belonged to Praxis School and emigrated to London. Since in the 21st century the term Post-Marxism has been appropriated by Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and their followers, Alexander Tarasov (together with the above-mentioned István Mészáros and Yugoslav philosophers) stopped referring to himself as a Post-Marxist.
Early political activity and arrest.
In December 1972 – January 1973 together with Vasily Minorsky, Tarasov has founded a clandestine radical left group called the "Party of New Communists" (PNC) (Russian: Партия новых коммунистов (ПНК)), and became the group's informal leader in the summer of 1973. In 1974 PNC merged with another clandestine radical left group called “Left School" (Russian: Левая школа) to form the “Neo-Communist Party of the Soviet Union" (NCPSU) (Russian: Неокоммунистическая партия Советского Союза (НКПСС)). Tarasov has become one of the NCPSU leaders and theorists, writing the party program, The Principles of Neo-communism (Russian: Принципы неокоммунизма) in 1974. The KGB arrested him in 1975. Upon preliminary imprisonment and a yearlong confinement in a special psychiatric hospital he was released because the NCPSU case was never brought to trial. In the psychiatric hospital Tarasov was subjected to cruel treatment and (de facto) to torture (beatings, ETC – electroconvulsive therapy, induced hypoglycemia, injection of large doses of neuroleptics) all resulting in severe somatic disorders, which A.Tarasov has been suffering from since his release, leaving him virtually disabled (Hypertonia, Ankylosing Spondylitis, liver and pancreas diseases). After his release, Tarasov participated in restoration of NCPSU, which he had led until its self-dissolution in January 1985. In 1988, two State Psychiatric Commissions examined Tarasov and found him completely psychologically healthy. ("Also read": Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union)
Education and professional activities.
Tarasov held many different jobs: he worked as a draughtsman; laboratory assistant in a design institute; graveyard warden at Vagankovo Cemetery (Moscow); machinist; boiler technician; librarian; editor; feldsher; gas boiler operator; bookkeeper at the Central Warehouse of Mikoyan Meat Processing Plant Corp.; light board operator at Moscow Hermitage Theatre (located in Moscow Hermitage Garden); research associate at the Centre for Scientific Analysis (Russian Academy of Sciences); university teacher; consultant for the Ministry of Education and Science; political columnist; expert at Information Research Centre "Panorama" and Moscow Human Rights Committee; etc. He got a degree in Economics from All-Russian State Distance Learning Institute of Finance and Economics and a degree in History (started at the Moscow State Pedagogical University and finished at Lomonosov Moscow State University). When "perestroika" started, he soon firmly positioned himself as a professional sociologist and politologist.
Publishing and literary activity.
In 1984 Tarasov started publishing his works (under a pseudonym) in the USSR ("samizdat") and in foreign press. In 1988, his articles started appearing (under pseudonyms) in independent press and from 1990 he has been publishing his works in independent and official press under his own name.
In 1988 he founded the "Independent Archive" (from 1990: "Independent Archive – Independent Sociological Service") and in 1991 he became an associate at the Centre for New Sociology and the Study of Applied Politics "Phoenix" (Russian: Центр новой социологии и изучения практической политики "Феникс"). In 2004, he became a co-director of "Phoenix" and, in February 2009, its Director.
In the first half of 1993 Tarasov was one of the three editors of a monthly magazine called "The House of the Unions", published by the same team as "Solidarnost" (Russian: "Солидарность" (Solidarity), the newspaper founded by the Moscow Federation of Trade Unions (MFP) (currently the newspaper of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia). The magazine had a circulation of 30,000. In his address to the readers of the first issue A.Tarasov has noted that "The House of the Unions" makes it its mission to "update Socialist thought" and "create a theory that matches current reality." After just five issues the magazine was closed down by Andrey Isaev, Editor in Chief of "Solidarnost", for non-conforming to the political line of MFP, i.e. for "excessive" radicalism.
In the second half of 1993 Tarasov was a member of the editorial board of the newspaper "The Working Class Action"; in 1993–1994 – a member of the editorial board of a counterculture magazine "Vugluskr" (Russian: "Вуглускр"); in the mid-1990s – political adviser for a radical student union "Students’ Advocacy".
Tarasov has penned more than 1100 publications in sociology (mainly on youth studies, education issues and conflict resolution); politology
(current politics, political radicalism in Russia and abroad, mass social movements); history (history and theory of revolutionary movement and guerrilla warfare); culturology
(popular culture issues, intercultural and inter-civilization contradictions); economics(comparative research). He is also a literary and movie critic (modern literature and cinema, popular culture and politics, history and theory of the cinematography of the 1960s and 1970s). He has been the first to study and describe Nazi-skinhead subculture in Russia. A.Tarasov is the author of the first profound research on the influence of far-right ideas and organizations on the subculture of football fans in Russia (November 2009 – January 2010).
In 2002 he was one of the founders, compilers and a scientific editor of a book series "Zero Hour: Contemporary World Anti-Bourgeois Thought" (Russian: ""Час "Ч". Современная мировая антибуржуазная мысль"" – “Gilea” Publishing House). He followed this with two additional book series: "Class Struggle" (German: "Klassenkampf"; co-edited with Boris Yuliyevich Kagarlitsky – "Ultra.Culture" Publishing House) in 2005, and "The Rose of the Revolution" (Russian: "роЗА РЕВОлюций") in 2006 (“Cultural Revolution” Publishing House). These series include modern left-wing socio-political literature (mainly foreign).
In addition to contributing to compiling and editing of these series, Tarasov takes on the role of a science editor and commentator on the works of famous left-wing thinkers: Leon Trotsky, Alain Badiou, Cornelius Castoriadis to name a few.
As a target of violence in post-Soviet Russia.
On November 4, 1995, Tarasov was the victim of an unprovoked assault near his house: after calling him by name, unknown attackers beat him so severely that he lost consciousness (although he tried to defend himself). The attackers escaped with his passport, but did not take a large sum of money and valuables. Police opened a criminal investigation into the assault, but the attackers have never been found.
In 2008, neo-Nazis included A. Tarasov on the list of their enemies who must be physically exterminated. The list was published on radical right-wing sites.
In 2011, the Russian pro-Kremlin group "Nashi" named Tarasov among "168 most loathsome enemies" of the group's leader Vasily Yakemenko and of Vladimir Putin's regime.
Political differences with contemporary dissenters.
Tarasov is known among Russian anarchists as a consistent critic, primarily of the practice of anarchism as fruitless and unpromising, and, to some extent, of its theory as outdated and unscientific. Tarasov's criticism has caused open animosity towards him among anarchists.
Tarasov's reaction to 2011–2012 Russian protests was negative. He criticized the protests from the left, considering them to be the movement of petit bourgeoisie and "consumers' rebellion" alien to the goals and objectives of left-wing forces in Russia and irrelevant to the revolutionary struggle against capitalism.
Between 2002 and 2012 Tarasov actively participated (behind the scene) in publication of the "Scepsis" journal (Russian: "Скепсис"), also contributing to its online version (from May 2003). He was responsible for some of the publications on the journal's website, collaborated with authors and translators as an editor and a curator. He had a noticeable influence on the political and theoretical stance of the journal, which is evident in the journal's and the website's mission statement, documenting some of Tarasov's theoretical ideas, such as: defining the bureaucrat-bourgeoisie as the ruling class of modern Russia; characterization of Russia as a society of degrading peripheral capitalism; distinguishing between the concepts of "intellectuals" and "intelligentsia"; recognition of the rudimentary level of the left movement in Russia, etc. In addition, the mission statement of "Scepsis" contains references to five of Tarasov's writings. It is also known that A. Tarasov was one of the authors of the "Scepsis's" manifesto entitled "Do Not Fall into the Same Trap!" and dedicated to the "Bolotnaya" protests of 2011. His input into the manifesto was the idea of the necessity to organise grassroots "clusters of resistance… at work, at school, and in the neighbourhoods".
In 2012 A. N. Tarasov left the "Scepsis" due to ideological and political differences with the majority of its Editorial Board members, most of whom were the students and followers of Yuri Semenov. Tarasov's departure was preceded by his public polemics with Semenov.
Recognition and awards.
Tarasov is an accomplished prose and poetry writer (since 1992). He is also a translator from English and Spanish (since 1997). Tarasov's works have been published, apart from Russia, in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Spain, Greece, Finland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Serbia, India, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Argentina, Cuba, Panama, South Africa, Morocco, Réunion, New Zealand, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, as well as in unrecognized Transnistria and Donetsk People's Republic. He is a laureate of the prizes of several literary magazines: “Druzhba Narodov” ("Fraternity of Peoples", Russian: "«Дружба Народов»" (2000), “Yunost" ("Youth", Russian: "«Юность»" (2001) and "Oktyabr'" ("October", Russian: "«Октябрь»" (2011).
Since 2014 Tarasov's profile has been included in annual editions of Marquis Who's Who in the World.


The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment

The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment is a Primary Reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Army. The regiment is part of 33 Canadian Brigade Group, one of four brigade groups of 4th Canadian Division. The regimental headquarters and one company (A Coy/Assoro Coy) are located at 187 Pinnacle Street in Belleville, with additional companies in Peterborough and Cobourg. The Peterborough Armoury houses what was traditionally "B Company" or "Moro Company", and "C Company" or "Cassino Company" is housed in an industrial mall unit on Willmott Street in Cobourg. Normally, the regiment deploys as a composite, Ortona Company, while the HQ/Admin forms Somme Company.
The Commanding Officer is LCol Roy van den Berg, who took over from LCol Chris Comeau in March, 2020. Commanding officers normally hold the position for a term of three years. The Regimental Sergeant Major is Chief Warrant Officer Dean Stokes. The Colonel-in-Chief is Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex; who visited the regiment in June 2005 and received a guard of honour from the regiment during his visit to Old Fort Henry in Kingston in June, 2008.
Perpetuations.
War of 1812.
Prior to the War of 1812 Upper Canada passed the Militia Act of 1808 in anticipation of threats coming from the Americans.
Operational history.
The Fenian Raids.
The 15th Battalion Volunteer Militia (Infantry), Canada was called out on active service during the 1866 raids by the Fenian Brotherhood on 8 March 1866. The Battalion was removed from active service on 27 March 1866 at the conclusion of the emergency.
North West Rebellion.
The 15th Battalion Argyll Light Infantry, the 40th Northumberland Battalion of Infantry, the 46th East Durham Battalion of Infantry and The 49th Hastings Battalion of Rifles mobilized a company each for active service with The Midland Battalion on 10 April 1885. The Midland Battalion served in the Alberta Column of the North West Field Force until it was demobilized on 24 July 1885.
The Great War.
The 9th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, CEF, was authorized on 20 January 1916 and embarked for Great Britain on 15 February 1916. The Brigade arrived in France on 14 July 1916, where it fought as part of the 3rd Canadian Divisional Artillery in France and Flanders until the end of the war. The brigade was disbanded on 1 November 1920.
The 39th Battalion, CEF, was authorized on 7 November 1914 and embarked for Great Britain on 17 June 1915. It provided reinforcements to Canadian units in the field until 4 January 1917, when its personnel were absorbed by the 6th Reserve Battalion, CEF.
The 80th Battalion, CEF, was authorized on 10 July 1915 and embarked for Great Britain on 20 May 1916. It provided reinforcements to Canadian units in the field until 30 September 1916, when its personnel were absorbed by units of the 4th Canadian Division.
The 155th (Quinte) Battalion, CEF, was authorized on 22 December 1915 and embarked for Great Britain on 17 October 1916, where it provided reinforcements to Canadian units in the field until 8 December 1916, when its personnel were absorbed by the 154th (Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry) Battalion, CEF. The 39th, 80th and 155th Battalions were all disbanded on 17 July 1917.
The 136th (Durham) Battalion, CEF authorized on 22 December 1915 and embarked for Great Britain on 25 September 1916, where its personnel were absorbed by the 39th Reserve Battalion, CEF on 6 October 1916 to provide reinforcements to Canadian units in the field. The 136th Battalion was disbanded on 22 May 1917.
The 139th (Northumberland) Battalion, CEF, was authorized on 22 December 1915 and embarked for Great Britain on 27 September 1916 where its personnel were absorbed by the 36th Reserve Battalion, CEF on 6 October 1916 to provide reinforcements to Canadian units in the field. The battalion was disbanded on 21 May 1917.
The 254th Battalion (Quinte's Own), CEF, was authorized on 1 May 1917 and embarked for Great Britain on 2 June 1917, where its personnel were absorbed by the 6th Reserve Battalion, CEF, on 10 June 1917 to provide reinforcements to Canadian units in the field. The battalion was disbanded on 15 September 1917.
On 12 March 1920 the 16th Battalion Volunteer Militia (Infantry) Canada was amalgamated with the 49th Regiment Hastings Rifles to form The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment.
The Second World War.
The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment, CASF, mobilized for active service on 1 September 1939 and was redesignated the 1st Battalion, The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment, CASF, on 7 November 1940. The unit embarked for Great Britain on 22 December 1939, and on 13 June 1940 it went to France as part of the Second British Expeditionary Force, reaching a point beyond Laval before being ordered back to the United Kingdom. It landed in Sicily on 10 July 1943, and in Italy on 3 September 1943, as part of the 1st Infantry Brigade, 1st Canadian Infantry Division. On 10 March 1945, the battalion moved with the I Canadian Corps to northwest Europe, where it fought until the end of the war. The overseas battalion was disbanded on 15 October 1945. On 1 June 1945, a second Battalion of the regiment was mobilized for service in the Pacific theatre of operations as the 2nd Canadian Infantry Battalion (The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment), CASF. The 2nd Battalion was disbanded on 1 November 1945.
Details from The Midland Regiment were called out on service on 26 August 1939 and then placed on active service on 1 September 1939, for local protection duties under the designation The Midland Regiment (Northumberland and Durham), CASF (Details). These details were disbanded on 31 December 1940. The regiment then mobilized The Midland Regiment (Northumberland and Durham), CASF, for active service on 24 May 1940 and was redesignated the 1st Battalion, The Midland Regiment (Northumberland and Durham), CASF, on 7 November 1940. The 1st Battalion served in Canada in a home defence role as part of the Prince Rupert Defences, 8th Canadian Division. The Battalion embarked for Great Britain on 10 January 1945, where it was disbanded on 18 January 1945 to provide reinforcements to the Canadian Army in the field.
The 34th Field Battery, RCA, and the 32nd (Kingston) Field Battery, RCA, mobilized the 32nd/34th Field Battery, RCA, CASF, for active service on 24 May 1940. This unit was subsequently reorganized as two separate batteries on 1 January 1941, designated as the 32nd (Kingston) Field Battery, RCA, CASF, and the 34th Field Battery, RCA, CASF. On D-Day, 6 June 1944, it landed in Normandy, France, as part of the 14th Field Regiment, RCA, CASF, which fought as a unit of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division in North-West Europe until the end of the war. The overseas battery was disbanded on 2 November 1945. The battery later mobilized the 2nd/34th Field Battery, RCA, CAOF, on 1 June 1945 for service with the Canadian Army Occupation Force in Germany. This battery was disbanded on 28 March 1946.
The Cold War.
On 4 May 1951, the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment mobilized two temporary Active Force companies designated "E" and "F". "E" Company was reduced to nil strength upon its personnel being incorporated into the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion for service in Germany with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It was disbanded on 29 July 1953. "F" Company was initially used as a reinforcement pool for "E" Company. On 15 May 1952, it was reduced to nil strength, upon its personnel being absorbed by the newly formed 2nd Canadian Infantry Battalion for service in Korea with the United Nations. "F" Company was disbanded on 29 July 1953.
In 1953 the 2nd Canadian Infantry Battalion became the 4th Battalion, The Canadian Guards.
War In Afghanistan.
The regiment contributed personnel to the various Task Forces which served in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2014.
Battle honours.
In the list below, battle honours in capitals were awarded for participation in large operations and campaigns, while those in lowercase indicate honours granted for more specific battles. Those battle honours followed by a "+" are emblazoned on the regimental guidon.
The War of 1812.
Honorary Distinction:
Customs and traditions.
Fallen members of the regiment are said to have transferred to the White Battalion.
The regiment's mascot is a wooden Indian named Chief Petawawa-Much, who was taken on strength to replace Little Chief, a massive pewter Indian taken from the roof of a canning factory in Picton prior to the regiment's departure for England in 1939. Little Chief was lost during the Battle of France while the regiment evacuated. An unknown individual, in the interest of securing Chief Petawawa-Much's future, got him a Social Insurance Number.
The regiment celebrates Pachino Day on 10 July every year with a spaghetti dinner, traditionally served with the cheapest red wine available. This is to commemorate the unit's participation in the landings in Sicily on 10 July 1943 as part of Operation HUSKY.
In the Warrant Officers' & Sergeants' Mess in Belleville, the footprints of commanding officers can be found on the ceiling of the games room. After a change of command, a pyramid is formed with junior officers on the bottom to hoist the new CO up to the ceiling to make his mark.
The former regimental colour was stolen from its case in the Belleville Armouries in 1960. The staff for it was laid up with the queen's colour at Saint Mary Magdalene Anglican Church in Picton on 4 October 1964. The CO at the time, Lieutenant Colonel Angus Duffy, refused to wear his cap badge after the theft up until his death, as the colours were his personal responsibility. The former regimental colour has never been located. The current colours were granted to the regiment in 1970.
Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment Museum.
The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment Museum is located in the Belleville Armoury in Belleville. The museum preserves the history of the militia, specifically the
Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment, through the collection and preservation of military artifacts and documents of historical significance to the Regiment and its antecedent units.
The museum displays and illustrates in an appropriate manner the dress, weapons, and military equipment, and customs of the Regiment's heritage. It serves as a training medium to teach regimental history and to provide a scholarly basis for those studying the history of the militia, the Regiment and its antecedent units, and their historical significance in the Midland District of Ontario. The museum fosters in the local community an interest and sense of pride in the Regiment and its accomplishments.
The museum focuses on the history of the regiment, its activities in different wars, and the effect on area counties. Exhibits include uniforms, weapons, medals, equipment, photographs, and other military and regimental memorabilia. The museum is open several days a week.
The museum is affiliated with: CMA, CHIN, OMMC and Virtual Museum of Canada.


South Platte Trail

South Platte Trail was a historic trail that followed the southern side of South Platte River from Fort Kearny in Nebraska to Denver, Colorado. Plains Indians, such as the Cheyenne and the Arapaho, hunted in the lands around the South Platte River. They also traded at trading posts along the route, as did white travelers. Travelers included trappers, traders, explorers, the military, and those following the gold rush. The trail was also used by the Pony Express.
Stage stations provided fresh horses and food. Simple buildings of sod, logs, or adobe, the stations were located about every 10 to 15 miles apart along the trail. In some cases, they also offered lodging and supplies for travelers.
History.
Julesburg, established in 1850, was a supply hub for Denver via the South Platte Trail. It became an important station on the Overland Stage Route for the delivery of passengers and mail between Atchison, Kansas and Salt Lake City. The Overland Trail followed much of the South Platte Trail to and from Denver, before heading north to Wyoming. Julesburg was also near the connection to the Oregon-California Trail at the North Platte River.
It is estimated that the Pike's Peak Gold Rush drew about 100,000 people to Colorado. There were three routes, the safest of which was the South Platte Trail, the others were Smoky Hill Trail and the Oregon Trail to Fort Laramie and then south to Denver.
In 1859, a branch of the trail away from the South Platte River was established in the wilderness near the present day city of Fort Morgan during the gold rush to reduce the length of the trip to Denver. Fort Morgan and Fort Sedgwick were established in the mid-1860s as a defensive measure against the threat of attack by Native Americans. Fort Sedgwick was built on the south side of the South Platte River and one mile west of Julesburg.
A number of Cheyenne north of Denver on the South Platte Trail were killed by soldiers of the First Colorado Cavalry in the spring of 1864. Julesburg was attacked on January 7, 1865 by about 1,000 Cheyenne and Sioux men in retribution for the Sand Creek massacre (November 29, 1864). At Fort Sedgwick, several Native Americans and some soldiers were killed, and there was so much food looted from Julesburg that it took three days to remove it to their village at Cherry Creek or Sand Creek. After that, three groups of Native Americans, the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Sioux, engaged in an attack on stage stations and ranches along the South Platte Trail over a period of six days. They killed more people than were killed at the Sand Creek Massacre, burned building, tore down telegraph lines, and looted horses, 2000 cattle, and wagon trains, one of which had 22 wagons. There were further attacks in 1865 between Julesburg and Fort Morgan, including burning down the town of Julesburg in February. The town was rebuilt.
A group of 120 men of the newly formed Colorado militia was tasked with guarding the trail beginning about 1865. In 1866, George Armstrong Custer drove the 7th Cavalry Regiment to South Platte. There were other conflicts near the South Platte Trail in the later 1860s.


The Great Mall of the Great Plains

The Great Mall of the Great Plains was a shopping mall located in Olathe, Kansas, United States. It was the largest outlet mall in the state of Kansas, and boasted over 150 stores and 10 anchors, laid out in a half-mile racetrack pattern. Burlington Coat Factory is the mall's last remaining anchor store; amenities included indoor glow-in-the-dark miniature golf course, a food court, a Game Zone arcade, and a Dickinson Theatres movie theater with sixteen screens. Great Mall of the Great Plains was owned & managed by Glimcher Properties Trust until January 2009. The mall closed on September 18, 2015, although Burlington Coat Factory remained open. Demolition on the mall began on July 11, 2016 and was finished in January 2017. As of January 2017, the Burlington Coat Factory Store is the only store still open on the site. In January 2018, developers announced that a redevelopment called Mentum would replace the old mall.
History.
Great Mall of the Great Plains was co-developed by Glimcher Realty Trust and Jordan Robert Perlmutter & Co. The mall was intended to feature a "value oriented megamall" with a mix of outlet stores, traditional mall stores, big box retail, and entertainment venues, comparable to malls developed by the former Mills Corporation. Construction began on the Great Mall of the Great Plains in 1996. The mall was originally slated to open in March 1997 but did not open until August 14 of that year due to leasing issues with several tenants. When the mall opened, it had a total of 150 stores including 11 anchor stores: Burlington Coat Factory, Dillard’s, DSW (Designer Shoe Warehouse), Eddie Bauer Outlet, Foozles Bookstore, Group USA Clothing Company, Kitchen and Co., Linens 'n Things, Marshalls, Old Navy, Oshman’s Supersports USA, and a Jeepers family entertainment center which became Zonkers in 2007. In addition to the anchor stores, the mall had a 12 restaurant Marketplace food court and a 16 screen Dickinson theater. All of the malls stores were arranged in a half-mile racetrack pattern and organized into four theme courts: Fashion, Home and Hobby, Sports and Adventure, and Techtainment. A corridor at the northwest portion of the wall was left as a dead end in anticipation of an expansion that would feature additional restaurants and entertainment. This expansion would have brought the malls total area to over a million square feet, but it never happened.
Decline and closure.
Despite a highly successful opening that attracted more than 1.5 million visitors, some analysts' assert that the Great Mall of the Great Plains saw its success waning with time, due in part to a retail saturation in the market.
The first anchor store to close at the mall was Kitchen and Co., which closed in November 1998 and was replaced with Off Fifth Saks Fifth Avenue Outlet in April 2000. The DSW closed next in 1999. To help increase foot traffic at the mall, the Olathe School District opened an alternative high school inside the mall. Dillard's, which converted its store into a clearance center, closed in 2001 and was replaced with VF Outlet three months later. Old Navy also converted their store into an outlet store that year. Both Oshman's SuperSports USA and Old Navy closed in January 2003. Later in 2003, Cosmic Mini Golf opened in the former Oshman's SuperSports USA store, but Off Fifth Saks Fifth Avenue closed in February 2004. Shortly after that, Sportibles opened. Linens 'N Things closed at the end of 2004 when their lease ended. In June 2005, Steve and Barry's opened in the former Oshman's Supersports USA store and Cosmic Mini Golf relocated to the former Off Fifth Saks Fifth Avenue Store. Also in 2005, Marshalls relocated to a nearby strip center on the north side of Olathe. In 2006, Hibbett Sports opened in the former Old Navy store and Jeepers was renovated into Zonkers amusement center. In 2007, Famous Labels opened in the former Off Fifth Saks Fifth Avenue store and Cosmic Mini Golf relocated for the last time to the former DSW store. In 2008, the Foozles Bookstore closed and was replaced with Book Warehouse. Also in 2008, Monkey Bizness opened in the former Linens N’ Things store. In late 2008, Steve & Barry's filed for bankruptcy and closed in early 2009. Both VF Outlet and Famous Labels also closed by the end of 2009. VF Outlet was replaced with Treasure Hunt soon afterward.
In an early 2008 Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Glimcher Realty Trust expressed a desire to sell the Great Mall of the Great Plains.
In September 2010, Olathe approved a 1.5-cent sales tax increase at all of the mall's stores to help improve the conditions of the mall. At that time, the mall was at 63% occupancy. A Driver License Bureau opened in the center of the mall in June 2011 to help bring more customers into the mall. Group USA closed and moved to Oak Park Mall in July 2012. Both Hibbett Sports and Treasure Hunt closed in mid-2014.
On Monday, February 16, 2015, the mall announced that it would be closing in the fall of 2015. By that time, the mall's occupancy dropped to around 35%. In April 2015, the remaining tenants were given 60 days to close or relocate. Monkey Bizness and Book Warehouse closed in April 2015. The Marketplace Food Court was emptied and shut down on June 7, 2015. Cosmic Mini Golf closed on June 13, 2015. By July 2015, only 5 stores were still open: Burlington Coat Factory, Dickenson Theatres, which was recently renamed B & B Theatres, Sportibles, Zonkers Family Entertainment Center, and the Kansas Driver License Bureau. Zonkers Family Entertainment Center closed on August 2, 2015. B & B Theatres closed on August 17, 2015. About a week later, Sportibles closed. The Driver License Office moved out on December 16, 2015, leaving only Burlington Coat Factory.
Demolition of the mall was announced in April 2016 and began on July 11, 2016. By January 2017, the mall was completely demolished except for the Burlington Coat Factory store.
On January 2, 2018, developers announced redevelopment plans that called for a small town center that would include a 4,000- to 5,000-seat arena, an ice rink, interactive golf, and rock climbing in addition to stores, restaurants, hotels, and office space.
As of May 2021, the only remaining tenants are 54th Street Grill And Bar Restaurant, Burlington Coat Factory Department Store, Chili's Grill And Bar Restaurant, Days Inn And Suites Hotel, La Quinta Inn And Suites Hotel, and Taco Bell Restaurant.


Golden Mall

The Golden Mall was a pedestrianized mall in downtown Burbank, California from 1967-1989. It consisted of San Fernando Boulevard from Tujunga Avenue to Magnolia Boulevard, immediately south of the present Burbank Town Center.
Origins.
The Golden Mall was built at a cost of $915,000 and opened in November 1967.
Success.
During the mid-1970s one source stated that the mall was still considered an important retail hub in Burbank. However, another source stated that already by 1970, only three years after opening, new businesses stopped coming in to the mall, and customers starting coming less and less. The reasons given for lower customer traffic were firstly, because of the difficulty of parking away from the stores (instead of in front as previously), and secondly, that the store windows were not visible from any major street, so people driving by were not inspired to stop and shop there.
Attempts at revitalization as a pedestrian mall.
By the late 1980s, the mall had deteriorated. Overgrown landscaping and deteriorating vegetation were a haven for vagrants, according to the Los Angeles Times. Unkempt storefronts and vacant stores were also putting off customers. Revitalization efforts focused on an empty parcel adjacent to Golden Mall, now the site of the Burbank Town Center mall. Ernest Hahn didn't follow through on plans to build a $140 million "Towncenter" there - plans that included transforming Golden Mall into a themed " village street" that would feed into the new development. In April 1988 Walt Disney Co. abandoned plans to build a $611 million shopping and entertainment center there.
Reintroduction of vehicle traffic.
The city decided in the end to revitalize the area by reintroducing automobile traffic to the street. A multicinema opened in the late 1980s as well, helping bring traffic to the mall.
The plan to return vehicular traffic to the mall was proposed in 1985. 1987, the block from Tujunga to Olive were opened to vehicles. In June 1988, the city council studied the opening of the remaining three blocks from Magnolia to Tujunga.
Burbank Town Center finally opened at the north end of the former Golden Mall, built by European mall developer Haagen Co, in 1991, with IKEA moving in earlier in 1990.
Today this stretch of San Fernando Road forms part of the "Burbank Village" district.


Presto (UK supermarket)

Presto Foodmarkets was a chain of supermarkets and convenience stores in Great Britain, which first appeared in the early 1960s. While the fate of most of the chain's stores was conversion to Safeway, the final stores still trading as Presto were either closed or sold in 1998.
History.
Early years.
The company was established in the north of England and in Scotland in the early 1960s where its primary base remained but for some years Presto did have a nationwide presence. According to the Institute of Grocery Distribution the name derives from the town of Prestonpans, the location in which the first Presto store was opened. A store also opened around the same time in the Preston Grange Estate in Preston, Tyne and Wear.
Presto was a division of Allied Suppliers which also operated 500 Lipton supermarkets in England and Wales as well as the brands Galbraith and R & J Templeton with around 85 supermarkets in Scotland. Allied also operated a discount chain, Lo-Cost as well as Cordon Bleu, a chain of freezer centres. Presto was the most significant brand, operating primarily large supermarkets and superstores throughout the country. In 1979 it purchased the south east based chain Cater Brothers and incorporated them into the Presto brand.
Acquisition by Argyll Foods.
In 1982, Presto and its 136 stores transferred, together with the rest of Allied Suppliers to Argyll Foods. Allied Suppliers was sold by its then owner James Goldsmith for £101 million. For some time Argyll continued to operate the brands as it had acquired them.
The brand re-launch.
In 1985, Argyll began a major re-organisation of its food store division. In Scotland and Northern England, the Hintons, Lipton, Galbraith and Templeton stores were either re-branded as Presto stores or closed. For some time, Hintons' direct marketing magazine "Going Shopping" continued with the Presto name including the headline "Presto - Our Heart's in the North". Liptons stores in the rest of England and Wales were either closed or converted to Presto (larger stores) or Lo-Cost (smaller stores).
Argyll also launched a new slogan in 1985 moving from "for the best, best go to Presto" to "You'll be impressed in Presto". To complement the new slogan, a new logo was also launched featuring yellow, blue and red as well as, for a short time, a shopping basket. The new logo was used on all converted stores while original Presto stores retained the old logo on their exterior signage throughout their life. A number of new Presto Superstores were also opened featuring the new logo.
In 1986, the conversion programme was complete and Argyll was set for expansion and new Presto regional distribution centres in Bristol, Wakefield, Bathgate and Welwyn Garden City were planned.
Initial conversion to Safeway.
In 1987, Argyll Foods purchased the UK operations of Safeway, which resulted in seven Presto stores (including Farnham, Morden and Chandlers Wharf, Stockton-on-Tees) being converted to Safeway on a trial basis. In 1988 a further 57 Presto stores (including the store at Sedgley, West Midlands, which had opened only a year earlier) had been converted to Safeway. Argyll began phasing out Presto's own brand range, replacing it with the Safeway own-brands throughout the estate. However, some Presto brands remained: pre-packed bread continued to be sold as a Presto own brand in Presto stores.
While most (but not all) of the Presto superstores were converted to Safeway during this period, the smaller stores located in Scotland and the north of England continued to trade as Presto.
Revival of Presto.
The first new Presto store to open since 1987 opened in Kirkwall (Orkney) in 1991. This was shortly followed by another new store in Lockerbie.
In March 1993, Argyll split its retail operations into two divisions, Safeway Stores, and Presto and Lo-Cost Stores. Super Marketing reported that Sir Alistair Grant stated in a memo, "The creation of Presto and Lo-Cost divisions is an important move which signifies our commitment to these important businesses and our wish that their direction and management should be given a strong specific focus." When Argyll had acquired Safeway, it had planned to phase out Presto, but these stores were expanded because of strong customer loyalty in the north.
In 1993 Argyll also acquired 4 supermarkets from Norco in Scotland. Three of these stores were converted to Presto (in Banchory, Ellon, and Westhill) and one larger store (Elgin) was converted to Safeway.
More new stores opened over the next couple of years as well as replacements for existing Presto stores such as the new build Presto store at Springfield in Stokesley, North Yorkshire which replaced an older former Hintons location.
A limited range of Presto own-label products was also re-introduced on more popular lines as can be seen on the image on this page. Safeway brands continued to be used on other lines.
Disappearance.
In 1996 Argyll announced it was changing its name to Safeway and would be converting the remaining 110 Presto stores to Safeway. While Presto branded products, and even carrier bags, were quickly replaced with Safeway, the conversion of the stores was not complete until mid-1998 when the final Presto (mainly smaller) stores which were not to be converted to Safeway were sold on to other retailers including convenience operator Bells Stores.