A look inside a Sears store in NJ that closed almost 7 years ago

Not that long ago, you would go to Sears to buy just about everything you could possibly need.

A new TV, school clothes, kitchen appliances, furniture, jewelry, a computer, weed whacker — if you needed it, thought you needed it, or might need it in the future, Sears had it. Oh, and if something was broken, you could get the parts to fix it at Sears, or they could even fix it for you. You could even get your eyes checked, book a vacation, get your taxes done, and have a family portrait taken all in the same day at the Sears right around the corner from your house.

And Sears stores were everywhere. Practically every mall in New Jersey had Sears as an anchor store.

Sears was Amazon (actually, a lot more than Amazon) well before Amazon existed. But sadly, that is a completely different story today.

At its peak, there were about 3,500 Sears stores across the country. Today, there are only eight.

Where is the nearest Sears to New Jersey?

Today, if you want to visit Sears and you live in New Jersey, the closest one is in Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. From Trenton to there and back would be a nearly 600-mile round trip.

That's a pretty far drive to get a weed whacker.

Things started to go from bad to worse for Sears in NJ

Back in the middle of 2018, Sears announced it would be closing four dozen unprofitable stores across the country, one of which was at Hamilton Mall in Mays Landing.

Sears has been at the Hamilton Mall since it opened back in 1987. Before that, the store was located at the old Shore Mall in Egg Harbor Township, which was called Searstown prior to a name change.

• LIGHTS: Check out this NJ mall parking lot light show

In November 2018, the Hamilton Mall Sears closed for good and that store has sat vacant since.

Here we are, nearly seven years later, and I believe Sears still owns that nearly 210,000-square-foot space (it's bigger than the Walmart across the street). What it intends to do with it, if anything, is anyone's guess. If it's for sale or lease, I can't find any information about it online.

So what does it look like inside? Let's take a look around...

NOTE: This property is not abandoned. Do not break in. If you think you're going to be the next great urban explorer on YouTube, don't even think about it. As the mall entrances to this store are walled off, all of these pictures were taken from the outside looking in from the sidewalk or parking lot.