I was wandering through the mall, gawking at all the empty spaces. So many places had gone, filing for Chapter 11! The liquidation sales were over and all I could see were the shadowed hollows and the remains of slatwall fixtures.

Up ahead I saw a couple of workmen taking down the logo of one of the stores. Idly I wondered if anybody would recall that chain in 20 years. Then I thought of the Flickr Commons. Were there any people making sure that these places would be remembered, grabbing store shots and corporate identity before it all ended up in a 95% off bin?

I got out my (paper) notebook and started writing down the names of all the empty stores around me, vowing to check on the Internet for photo groups. My list got longer and longer, my notebook started running out of paper…

… the phone rang and I woke up.

Annoyed as I was to be awakened, I was glad to remember my dream because it was a good question. Are there Flickr groups or any other photo groups designed to retain the retail memories that will be dismantled this year? Some searches of Flickr revealed companies in tag names and photographs of store fronts, but are there any efforts being made to group and organize it?

Perhaps the Commons could add a function to help us retain the history we are living as well as the long-past history.