But what is Clark's? This store seems to have slipped from the mists of memory for many. It wasn't the only Clark's in town either. There was one on Panet Road at Regent/Nairn.
Clark's was the forerunner of Gambles and was owned by St. Louis-based Gamble-Skogmo which had a stable of stores under many brands. They also owned MacLeod's Hardware of Winnipeg.
Clark's actually went all the way to the Supreme Court and lost to prevent further expansion of Grant Park Plaza in 1967. It was to prevent becoming an enclosed mall as well as stopping Woolco from coming in. Their legal challenge didn't work and eventually the mall was enclosed and Clark's became Gambles.
Eventually Gambles was purchased by Zellers and the Clark's and Gambles names were gone forever from Winnipeg. It would take decades but the Zellers name itself would disappear as owner Hudson's Bay Company would sell it to Target. Some stores remained Zellers but in 2019, HBC will close the final two stores in Ontario.
Grant Park Shopping Centre as one of the oldest malls in Canada has seen tremendous change but was never allowed to simply deteriorate as some malls have in Canada. It was innovative in getting a movie theatre of substance even before places like Polo Park. It became home to the first big box book store in Winnipeg which remains strong today. And it was one of the first to have restaurants in its parking lot.
After its most recent makeover, that added Canadian Tire and Goodlife, it seems the mall has settled into a format that is working for it even where some of its competitors have undone their enclosed concept.
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What was originally called Grant Park Plaza is still to this day, my "home mall".
I remember riding in the 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 (that was like a semi-luxury car, despite my Dad only having janitorial job), going to the Dominion supermarket and sometimes the Safeway supermarket (that space is now McNally's) on a Saturday morning with my Dad (b. June 1930 d. Sep. 2016) as a 2 year old in 1968. My Mom (b. Jul. 7, 1936 d. Jan. 3, 2010) stayed at home. I think she had anxiety issues. I don't remember the mall in 1967. I guess it was still being built. If my Mom went along, it would be Saturday afternoon.
A story I always like to recall is that in March of '69, my Dad took me to Grant Park Plaza to go grocery shopping. We entered thru the doors next to where the CIBC still is 50 years later (where the Liquor Mart was on the other side of the aisle). From what I gather, the enclosed mall itself had just opened. While still technically a baby at the time (2 3/4s years), I wasn't in a stroller like babies today, I had to walk alongside my Dad. ... I heard this organ music coming from further in the Mall. I had recognized the instrument because I had heard so much like that on 68 CJOB because they'd play The Doors. Saw 3 or 4 Yamaha organs on display and a man playing it. Saw the $1200 on the side of one and said to my Dad "can you buy one?" to which he replied "No, can't afford it". I bought a 1978-81 Yamaha bi-level organ one month before my Dad died.
Remember going to Pirates Den arcade in the mid-1970s to play that Sea Battle game and got a few free plays because the coin system was broken, pinball, etc...
Didn't really see any movies there in the 1970s, except "Grizzly Adams" (1970), "Star Wars" (1977), "The Goodbye Girl" (1977). I saw Grizzly Adams with my Dad, Goodbye Girl my Dad left me and my sister at I guess so he could do some Christmas present shopping. Star Wars I saw because Ari Shapiro (South Lake Tahoe, California since 1979) invited me to his birthday party in August '77 the day of that big t-storm with hail and we had a power outage later that day because lightning struck the pole on our street.
By the mid- late-1970s used to buy Mad and Cracked magazine at Metro Drugs, later on Popular Science, and still later on, Video magazine.
I remember Woolco having an ice cream station, but there was a miserable woman who ran it during the 1970s. The ice cream station was gone by the 1980s. I don't know who had the uglier cash registers, Woolco, Gambles, or Dominion. The best looking cash register were those from Safeway, to me anyways.
I remember the Malt Stop and used to get a chocolate malt there. That is now where the Sheffield's is now.
I remember walking with my family down the walkway past the Safeway and florist to go to the Gambles or Dominion. Just inside that Gambles entrance was a portable red and yellow popcorn machine. Then I'd look to inside the store and see a row of plastic pants on a rack in the store. That's probably around where the Liquor Mart is today.
I'm glad I was born in the 1960s. My other two siblings, one born Jan. '69, the other May '73, don't know what they missed.
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