County Fair Mall - Fort Erie

After savaging Fort Erie's downtown, known as Bridgeburg Station, County Fair Mall thrived through the 1970s and 80s as being the single largest shopping destination in town. Zellers, Food City, Radio Shack, Shoppers Drug Mart and even a movie theatre were housed in a an attractive, convenient-to-all-roads location, not too far from the Peace Bridge for those who needed to pick up some Smarties or Red River Cereal before crossing the border.

Alas, the trend toward outdoor plazas and an explosion of growth along the adjacent Garrison Road (old Highway 3) led tenants to leave one-by-one. The movie theatre barely made it to 1985, Radio Shack moved across the street, Food City became IGA, then it and Shoppers Drug Mart left for the International Gateway Village plaza about 1km west at Concession Street and Garrison. Giant Tiger briefly occupied the old Food City/IGA space, but Walmart, which moved into town in the late 90s, took most of the town's discount dollars for itself, leaving Zellers the sole original retail tenant. Recent visits to the store show more staff than customers, with the exception of the pharmacy, which appears to be one of the few attractions for American shoppers.

Whether Target's expansion into Canada will even include this location is a big question. Whether this piece of near-dead retail real estate will survive if it doesn't is an even bigger one.

Photos taken on June 11, 2011 at Garrison Road and King Street in Fort Erie, Ontario.