User:TheOptopolis

My name's Optopolis... or at least, that's what I typically go by on the web. I document history of the urban environment, especially regarding retail in the areas of Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska. My connection to Bluepages goes back to when it was mainly made up of a couple of Google sheets listing Kmart and Sears stores across the country. If you'd like to contact me with questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to me on my talk page.

Tools for wiki

Coordinates for info boxes

• GeoLocator - Geo-referencing and geo-tagging especially for maps in info boxes
• Google Maps - For getting coordinates to use in GeoLocator

Website research

• Internet Archive/Wayback Machine

Researching stuff that just works

• Google search for print newspapers
• Google search for online news
• Google Search for books
• Google Scholar
• JSTOR

Quick links on Bluepages (just for reference)

Cheyenne, Wyoming

Fort Collins, Colorado

Loveland, Colorado

Frontier Mall

More about Bluepages

• Reschultzed

Important notes (so you can know better when you edit articles in Bluepages)

• INFOBOXES: The "replaced"/"replaced by" sections in infoboxes is meant to be used for relocations; if a store (i.e. Kmart 4413) moves to a new location/is replaced by another store (i.e. Kmart 3891), this info goes into one of those sections. If you are adding information regarding the most recent tenant before or the next tenant/occupant following a business, use the "previous"/"next" sections in the infobox (i.e. The Bicycle Shoppe was the next tenant that followed in the location of Cheyenne's original Sears location.
• PAGE CREATION: You can create a page by searching exactly what you want the URL to be (i.e. Sears (1813 Carey Avenue, Cheyenne, Wyoming) or Dillard's 999 (West) (Cheyenne, Wyoming) as existing examples), then create the page from there. You can also just visit the link you want to create (i.e. https://www.bluepageswiki.org/wiki/Sears_(1813_Carey_Avenue,_Cheyenne,_Wyoming) or https://www.bluepageswiki.org/wiki/Dillard%27s_999_(West)_(Cheyenne,_Wyoming)) and create the page from there. If you have an account with Bluepages, one way I like to do it is create the link in my user page, save the edit, then visit the new red link and create the page. P.S. Please do not use theOptopolis user page (this page you are on right now) to create these pages.
• FALSEHOODS/BAD INFORMATION... & TROLLING: Sometimes, users of Bluepages decide to edit information on pages to say something that is blatantly and easily proved to be false. For example, a while back, a user set a Family Dollar located in Cheyenne, Wyoming to be located in Cheyenne, Ohio (which, by the way, there is no city in Ohio called Cheyenne). In doing this edit, the user also edited the Ohio page and the Cheyenne, Wyoming page such that those associated pages also displayed this incorrect information.
  • It can be helpful to catch this early so that it's easy to undo edits involving false information; to undo an edit, you want to visit the page affected by false information, go to the "View history" tab, then click the undo button at the end of each edit containing false information (note the next bullet point). If there are multiple edits, usually, it's best to undo one edit at a time, going from the top (most recent) to the bottom (oldest) until the edits containing false information are removed, then repeat this on other affected pages.
  • If new, good edits have been made since the time of the edits containing false information, you may have to manually correct the information at hand. To find the information that was present before an edit containing false information was made, go to the View history tab on the affected page, then click on the time/date of the edit directly before (below) the edit containing the false information. Obviously, it's ideal to also make sure to not remove the good information that was added more recently than the edits containing bad information.
• LOCATION NEVER EXISTED/SPAM: Sometimes, users of Bluepages will create a page for a location of a business or entity that never existed. For example, a user recently created a Kmart with a store number that never existed and set it to be located in Cheyenne, Wyoming on South Greeley Highway at the location of a Safeway... which, to no ones surprise, was never occupied by a Kmart. In other instances, some users will make random spam pages that don't ultimately help anyone using Bluepages. If you have rights to delete pages, visit the page of the place that never existed (or a spam page), click More at the top right of the page, then click delete. Select the reason that is appropriate and/or type an other/additional reason, then click Delete Page. Note that other pages may contain a link to the page you are deleting, and those pages may need dealt with accordingly.
• NAMING OF PAGES: Generally in the United States, the naming structure of a page for a business should be as follows: Business Name (#### Street Name, City, State), where all parts of the title including the street name, identifier, and state are spelled out/no abbreviations (i.e. Sears (1813 Carey Avenue, Cheyenne, Wyoming)).
  • If the page belongs to a store or other business that uses a store numbering system (such as Sears, Kmart, Hobby Lobby, KFC, Taco Bell, Maverik, Kum & Go, and many others), you typically will want to name the page using that number; for example, a Kmart with the store number of #4413 would be named Kmart 4413, and a Target with the number T-224 would be named Target T-224. If you don't know the store number, then use the former format, Business Name (#### Street Name, City, State) (i.e.Sears (1813 Carey Avenue, Cheyenne, Wyoming)); if and when you find out what store number belongs to the store, typically, the page for that store is to be moved to a page dedicated to Store Name ######, such that the old page will redirect to the new page.
    • Sometimes, there may be two or more stores with the same number designation due to relocation or otherwise being directly related to one another. In this case, typically, multiple info boxes should be used, one for each store. Generally, the current/most recent location goes on top, and the oldest location goes on bottom. For example, Natural Grocers 38 moved from its old location but kept the store number, and the same is true of Hobby Lobby 164. In this case, you'll only be able to add one set of coordinates to a page (else faced with an error), and as such, usually, the current stores' coordinates are used; the older stores just simply won't list coordinates since it conflicts with the wiki's design.
    • Other times, there may be two or more stores with the same number designation that are also unrelated from each other, such as Sears 2208 and Hobby Lobby 18, both of which have two locations each and which otherwise have zero relation between them. In this case, typically, the base page (ie Sears 2208) will serve as a directory page to each of the stores that used that number. Each store that used that number will typically use the format Store Name store-number (City, State), i.e. Sears 2208 (Santa Fe, New Mexico) and Sears 2208 (Salinas, California).
  • If you are naming a page for a shopping mall or shopping plaza, typically, the format of Mall Name (City, State) is used, such as Frontier Mall (Cheyenne, Wyoming). Vicinities like Downtown Cheyenne (Cheyenne, Wyoming) also use this format.
  • Street, Stroad, and Road names will typically use the format Street Name (City, State) such as Perry Avenue (Racine, Wisconsin). These pages can be good for explaining the history of said route and creating a rough sketch of a map using a table.
  • Specific address pages will typically use the format #### Street Name (City, State), such as 1840 Dell Range Boulevard (Cheyenne, Wyoming). These pages can be good for explaining the broader history of a specific street address.
  • Cities like Cheyenne, Wyoming in the United States should be named in the format City, State.
  • States like Wyoming in the United States should be simply named by the name of the state.

Locations lists

Lists of locations displayed here may not (and usually, probably don't) include all locations that ever existed. Some locations may exist that are not listed here. These lists do not include links on Bluepages as you can find those using the category system or other methods of searching Bluepages.

• America's Best Contacts & eyeglasses - All stores (no store numbers)
• Appliance Factory & Mattress Kingdom - Locations (no store numbers)
• Batteries Plus (aka Batteries+Bulbs) - Store Locator (see Browse By State)
• Buckle - Store Locator (Store number in URL of location)
• Chick-Fil-A - Store locations ~2012
• Chilis Grill & Bar - All US store locations (no store numbers)
• Claire's - US Locations (store number in loc URL)
• Crumbl Cookies - Locations (no store numbers)
• Dickey's Barbecue Pit - Locations (no store numbers)
• Family Dollar - Store Directory | Store Directory from ~2017, 2018 Wayback Machine
• Finish Line - All US stores (no store numbers)
• Five Guys Burgers and Fries - All US locations (no store numbers)
• Freddy's (Frozen Custard and Steakburgers) - Locations list (no store numbers)
• Frontier Mall - Current store directory | Archives... Stores in 2001 | Stores in 2002-03 | Stores in 2006 | Stores in 2010-13 | Stores in 2014
• FYE - Locations on a Google Map (no store numbers)
• GameStop - No "full list" but locations have store number in URL
• GNC - All US Stores (no store numbers)
• Hibbett Sports - All US Stores (store numbers in URL)
• Hobby Lobby - Store Directory | Locations in about 2006 Wayback Machine
• Jersey Mikes - Locations by State | Coming soon
• Kay Jewelers - Store locator (store number in title bar and URL bar)
• Kmart - Spreadsheet by Reschultzed | Kmart Store Directories 2002
• Kum & Go - All Kum & Go Locations in the US | Found on Web Archive Apr 2024 (Utah already removed from main pg) | Store locations ~2003 Wayback Machine (no store numbers); ~2005
• Macy's - All Macy's Stores
• Maurices - Directory (no store numbers)
• Maverik Adventure's First Stop - All Maverik Adventure Club Store locations in the US
• Men's Warehouse - All US Locations (store numbers included!)
• Natural Grocers - Locations in Excel with store numbers | Store Directory (no store numbers)
• Old Chicago - Current, no store numbers
• Patio Splash - Locations (no store numbers)
• Planet Fitness - All locations world wide (scroll down) (no store numbers)
• Pro Image Sports - All locations (no store numbers)
• rue21 - All stores (no store numbers) | See in site map form: https://stores.rue21.com/sitemap.html
• Sbarro - All locations
• Sears - Spreadsheet by Reschultzed
• Sinclair (oil and gas) - Sinclair locations table | Sinclair locations by state (no store numbers)
• Sleep Number - All locations (scroll down) (store number in emails)
• Spencers - Locator (store number in URL and title bar)
• Taco John's - Directory (no store numbers displayed) | Archived 2006 | Locations Archived in 2002 (no store numbers or addresses, only cities/states)
• Ulta Beauty - Store directory (store numbers in urls)
• Verizon - Stores by state (scroll down) (store numbers in url)
• Victoria's Secret - All US Stores (store number in URL)
• Walmart - Store_Openings.csv on GitHub | Store Directory US | Spreadsheet by Reschultzed
• Zumies - All stores (store numbers in urls)

Page/Article creation

DO NOT ADD ANY PAGES WITHIN PAGE/ARTICLE CREATION! ONLY OPTOPOLIS IS ALLOWED TO ADD PAGES HERE!

A list of some articles on Bluepages (oldest to newest)

These are pages Optopolis has created or been involved in creating. Expand the table to see them.

Looking for all of Optopolis' contributions on Blue Pages Wiki? Go here.

Templates

• Template:Infobox 7-Eleven
• Template:Infobox Batteries Plus
• Template:Infobox Jersey Mike's Subs
• Template:Infobox JAX
• Template:Infobox Kum & Go
• Template:Infobox Maverik
• Template:Infobox Old Chicago
• Template:Infobox Old Country Buffet
• Template:Infobox Sears
• Template:Infobox Sutherlands
• Template:Infobox Taco John's
• Template:Infobox Texas Roadhouse
• Template:Infobox arc Thrift Store

Tables

Bluepages:Tables

• Bluepages:Tables/7-Eleven
• Bluepages:Tables/Batteries Plus
• Bluepages:Tables/Jersey Mike's Subs
• Bluepages:Tables/JAX
• Bluepages:Tables/Kum & Go
• Bluepages:Tables/Maverik
• Bluepages:Tables/Old Chicago
• Bluepages:Tables/Old Country Buffet
• Bluepages:Tables/Sears
• Bluepages:Tables/Sutherlands
• Bluepages:Tables/Taco John's
• Bluepages:Tables/Texas Roadhouse
• Bluepages:Tables/arc Thrift Store

Random extra things of interest

• There's a different Hobby Lobby called Hobby Lobby International which is now known as Hobby Express Inc. [1]