Who here remembers the "old mall"?

Every town has one by now-don't they. As Chris Rock once said the "old mall" has nothing but baby clothes and basketball shoes in it.

I remember the old mall in two different towns...it was basically the same mall.

There were the "anchor stores" (which we didn't call that because we had not been assimilated to business speak yet) with the big ass ground model fake wood TV's at the entrance.

We had an arcade that looked like the submarine in "20,000 Leagues under the Sea"

We had the hairplace with the really hot hairdresser in the front window...and the guy with poofy hair next to her:yoiks:

We had the organ store. No one was ever in there but there were always new people working there and offering us "free lessons". Looking back ----> :yoiks: and :scared:

No food court just the pretzel place and the oh my GOD awesome Orange Julius place that was always really messy but oh so good. Looking back I wonder what they were doing back there with all that confectioners sugar :think:

At one point we had the tacky t-shirt place where you could get YOUR PICTURE on a t-shirt right now.

We had the corner record store with the huge wall of singles (it was huge to us then) where we could check to see how our favorite record was doing in the weekly popularity contest. All the people who worked there looked really tired, wore black MollyHatchett t-shirts, and smelled like old wet cigarettes. :shrug:


We had the .........

Now it is a cool mixed use development (in progress).

Right down to the organ store.

:hi:

You just made me sad. :( :hi:

Wow - that was the mall I was picturing when reading that too! :pals:

when we moved to MI and the malls were so damned HUGH!!11!! you could get lost in them. :hi:

Yes, I remember the big Two Guys from Harrison department store. They were the first stores to break the "blue laws" in Pennsylvania that required stores to close on Sundays. They were from Harrison in North Jersey. There were rumors they were mob connected.

http://www.virtualnewarknj.com/memories/newark/newmantwoguys.htm

They closed their stores decades ago, when Alexander's closed in Paramus NJ. They evovled into real estate kings.

...when teenagers could actually "hang out" at the mall. Go to Carousel Mall (the big mall in Syracuse that ate the other ones), and the first thing you'll see is a big sign that says if you're under 18 you can't go there unattended. Too much riff-raff, they say.

Of course, if you're 18, you're probably too old to be hanging out in shopping malls anyway. What a country we live in :-(

to say "upstate" NY instead of just New York. To me Syracuse is in New York, not upstate NY. Not you, since that was necessary to keep people from thinking NYC, but the Penn Can website said "Cicero or North Syracuse in upstate NY". Once you have mentioned Syracuse, or even Watertown, or Rome, you should not need the qualifier "upstate". I just had to rant to somebody.

I grew up in the Finger Lakes...and even saying Upstate NY to most of the world isn't enough - they think you mean White Plains.

I have always found it hilarious that NYC makes up what 1/2% of the acreage of the State and yet there is NYC and NOT NYC (Upstate). That is funny to someone looking in from the outside.

there is Twin-town, and then there is "outstate" Minnesota. The whole world revolves around the rotten apples (the Big Apple and the Mini-Apple) doncha know.

it's silly. the whole state deserves a little respect. :thumbsup:

I see it firsthand here in NYC, and when I lived in Illinois it was always "downstate Illinois" since I never lived in Chicago or the burbs.

The entire rest of the state was "downstate" -- except for East St. Louis, that is.

Duh.

Geez.

Albany, Syracuse, etc. is way upstate, or more correctly, "above Westchester".

The whole state of NY exists ONLY in relation to NYC.

Sorry, that's just the way it is.

:evilgrin:

how could i have been so wrong?

and girls are dumm!

:dunce::dunce::dunce::dunce::dunce::dunce::dunce::dunce::dunce::dunce:

does that have anything to do with the size of any part of our anatomy? just want to make sure i am keeping up with the latest scientific research... :patriot:

Girls is dee-you-emm-emm dumm.

In fact, anything above the GWB, as far as I'm concerned.

outside Cicero. When I say Clay, NY nobody has any idea what I am talking about. :hi:

an outdoor shopping mall..mostly small places to eat..and a movie theatre. Only 1 dept. store is left of the original mall. Though wayy back it was an outdoor shopping mall once before..so I guess that mall has come full circle.

where you could buy 18 pairs of cheap silver hoops that would turn your ears green for $2.

The uber-tacky "gift store" (as though anything else purchased in the mall was un-gift worthy) that sold everything from wee crystal angels to enormous black resin dragons with gold talons and glittering red jewel eyes...(gift? x()

And SPENCERS! Where you would sneak into the **ADULT** section and giggle at the "massagers" and feel like dirty wee perverts. :D

Ahh...good times, good times... ;)

We didn't have "Adult" section in Va. but the posters were oh so close enough.

a throwback to Malls of old. One level and about 60 shops. :hi: I like shopping there over the bigger malls. :hi:

excuse me it isn't a Mall it is a Town Center or Town Centre

giggle....and pretty soon, we are getting..get this one, Partridge Creek Fashion Park. I mean, what the heck is that? :hi:

If so, I remember the Summit Place in Pontiac that used to be great. I hear they knocked it down to put a condo or something there. I lived in the Pontiac area in the early 80's and I remember a lot of great little "malls" that we used to shop in all the time. That doesn't even count the KMart Plazas.

:hi:

Christiana Mall. Still with a big Adult section. It amazes me that some people take their kids in there. LOL

Those were the bomb.

How about the lonely looking old guy constantly playing the organ in the organ store. I never saw anyone go into the store to buy an organ, but that guy just kept playing hoping he would entice a customer into it.

I did once ask him how many he sold in a month. He said that he needed to sell two a month. I was gunshy about being a salesman from that point forward-tried it a couple of times, not really "me".

Oddly enough, it has a Macy's. In Springfield, Ohio.

Who knew? :shrug:

Sangertown Square. You could say it's a "dying" mall.

We have a new cluster of big boxes up the street that's slowly sucking the life out of the mall, which wasn't really all that to begin with. It was built in 1980, and hasn't been updated since. There used to be a Bradlee's before they went belly-up. Target wanted the anchor location, so what did they do? They tore down most of that wing to make room for a brand-new Target.

The movie theater closed down last year and left a gaping hole in one wing. Took the arcade with it. We now have a shiny new movie theater where all the ticket windows face outside - in frigid, snowy central New York!

In the wing that Target ate, there used to be the Utica area's last remaining large bookstore. It closed a couple of years earlier and was replaced with a $1 store. Now we have a Barnes and Noble in the big box cluster which hosts central New York's only Starbucks (that I know of).

There's another mall in North Utica that used to have a BJ's on one end. Lowe's came along and ate that one (urp). What's left is an outdoor strip of small shops (mostly empty), and a Wal-Mart supercenter, which gobbled up what remained on the carcass of the old mall. Nice.

If any place has a practical use for shopping malls, it's the northeastern US. It gets DAMN cold here in the winter, and you don't want to walk from big box to big box in friggin' January. Most likely, you'll get in your car and drive to the other end of the cluster to continue shopping, so not only is your shopping experience diminished by the weather, it's diminished by the continuous box-to-box traffic as well. Real good in the era of $2.50 gas, global warming, and suburban sprawl.

it was the Meadow Glen mall in Medofrd Ma and it was quite the thing when it opened. I think it almost closed a few times and now the only things left are Spencers and Footloacker and a bunch of stores that i've never heard of.

Northgate Mall. They're tearing down the old theater (where I saw movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark, etc) and a hospital (why they had a hospital in a mall is beyond me) and have changed quite a bit of it already.

There's a great (and sad) website called www.deadmalls.com - I spent an hour one Christmas day looking at it. :D

On edit - I forgot all about Aurora Village! We used to go there because Frederick & Nelson (a dead dept. store) was there. They tore that down and redeveloped it with big-box stores.

pot pipes and lighters galore.

thankyouverymuchmister!

...in Hamilton, Ontario. The name of the mall escapes me, but the store was called "Hip to Hemp" and sold hemp clothing and other paraphenalia. :smoke::smoke::smoke::smoke::smoke:

I loved your thread about the Charlie Brown Christmas special, and now this!

My town is too small to have two malls, but the last several places I lived sure did. You have captured this rather bittersweet reality of consumerism and why-the-fuck-can't-we-just-leave-what-is-working-alone-for-once? PERFECTLY!

:hi:

even during Christmas, there was parking at the front door, hallways were empty, and half the stores ended up leaving.

They ripped it down and have a great mixed use area developing into something spectacular.

http://www.northhillsraleigh.com/

This was on the fly. The Charlie Brown one was really just the pic.

Funny you mention Orange Julius my GF at the time worked there....betchya didn't know what the "secret ingredient" was.....SUGAR!!!!

The anchors had moved out, and there were just a few small shops left- the place was on the verge of closing. A pity, since it was a large mall.

Then they put an off-ramp from the interstate (I-65) just down the street, and before you know it the mall was like it was new again. It filled back up, and they built a 30 screen AMC complex next to it, and all was good. I loved the theater because I just lived about half a mile away...

that would be in the Berry Hill area)

Good to know it came back.

A pity I had to move out of the area just as it got interesting again.

It had a Sears and a Woolworths. The Woolworths had a huge lunch counter and a pets section. My Nana bought me a big black goldfish there. His name was Harold and lived for three years. I loved Spencers Gifts and the Pier One Imports store. Out in the parking lot there were these signs on poles so you could remember where you parked. The signs had pictures of animal: rooster, pigs, sheep, cows, etc. We'd say "Mom! We want to park in the cow section!" :eyes:

The "20,000 Leagues" arcade was Nautilus, right near the Lowrey organ store.

Am I right? Do I win a prize?

mikey_the_rat

Yep that and Coliseum Mall in Hampton-we moved down there when I was 12.

Yep that was the arcade all right.

BTW_ someone once stole the floor model TV right out of the Sears at Newmarket (I knew someone who worked there).

There was a groovy clothing store call Mags. There was an electronics store (Trail TV), a Ben Franklin, a barber, a gift shop, and a pet store.

The anchor stores were replaced with thrift stores. Dollar stores replaced more upscale retailers. Thugs began hanging out. I took a date there once eight years ago, and she said "it's like the street vendors moved indoors."

More recently, a gourmet Giant grocery and a target have been added, and a recovery is in progress.

its become a scary place

I think PG Plaza seems to be on the rebound from scarey mall to decent though.

but I used to live within walking distance. About ten years ago, I saw a huge fight breakout in which about fifteen or twenty teenagers running, tackling, and piling on top of each other.

Universal Mall in Warren is a good example of a dead mall that's still open. I think Value City is keeping it alive. There used to be a Monkey Wards (it's an empty building) and the Mervyns is closing.

Wonderland Mall is closed, yet it is about to be transformed into a mega Wal-Mart. The people of Livonia are less than thrilled.

Northland is not very busy, but I think it is hanging in there because of Marshall Fields (soon to become Macy's). The old Penney's building there is vacant, but they do still have a Hot Sam's pretzel shop. I'm so old I remember when it was an outdoor mall, and we'd go to get our hair cut at Hudson's. They had a kids' salon where you sat on carousel animals while getting your hair cut. We'd eat out either at Hudsons' restaurant, Greenfield's cafeteria (across the street) or Brother's Deli, all of which are gone now.

I remember it from when I was a kid, and it was considered very modern back then.

Actually though, the "old mall" was more the "cool mall" as far as I was concerned. I worked one summer in the "new mall"...it sucked.

Every big box has been built up around it, but no one goes into the actual old mall. I did recently, and it's creepy as hell in there! Sad, lonely stores.

They have the guy who will put a picture on a mug for you.

There's a sad little magic store where all the nerdy kids hang out and probably play Magic the Gathering in the back.

There's a GNC with all of the vitamin supplements you'll ever need.

And I think there is a Burlington Coat Factory.

Meanwhile, outside the mall, everyone shops like mad at all of the giant box stores.

I never saw anybody buying, or even looking at an organ. Also, I have never known anybody who owned or purchased an old fashioned console elecric organ more recently than, say, 40 years ago. They must have been laundering money in those stores.

www.deadmalls.com

It was built in the late 1960's and I remember marvelling at its green and yellow stained glass, it's mexican tile floor, and the fact that it was ALWAYS dirty and smelled funny. By the early 90's, vacancies were popping up, people were predicting death, and most people began talking about building a new one.

Instead, a company bought it, gutted it, and turned it into one of the nicest indoor malls in Northern California. It's nowhere near the largest, but it's open, well lit, has high quality stores (though there's STILL an Orange Julius, hotdog on a stick place, and a pretzel place), and a waiting list for stores wanting to get in. They carpeted the entire second level to eliminate echoes and make it more comfortable to walk around in, and they also created a half dozen seating areas with big comfy leather chairs where people can just sit around and chat.

One of the problems with our society today is that when things get "old", we just want to throw them away and get new ones, and that applies as equally to malls as it does cars. Vintage Faire in Modesto is a great demonstration of how a little will, time, and elbow grease can bring an old business complex back to life. And they didn't even have to pave over any farmland to do it!

an old 1960s-era mall updated to present. It's now a hot spot.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the Florin Mall and Sunrise Mall.

The Florin Mall was the place to go in the late '60s and early '70s; it's now barely hanging on.

The Sunrise Mall was hot in mid-'70s; while still viable, it just doesn't have the allure and crowds that it once did.

Those malls bring back memories to Sacramentans of a certain age.

In addition to GNC, remember the Swiss Colony and J.K. Gill stores and the Liberty House department store?

I vaguely remember going on once before it was renovated, and it's definitely a much nicer mall now. My only complaint about it is that it's loud...it's like an echo chamber in there and getss deafening when it's crowded. Many malls are like that, and I've never cared for any of them.

Do you happen to remember the name of the mall in Stockton that used to be right down on the waterfront across from Weber Point? I remember that it was this old redwood clad thing, and it was closed and converted into an office complex long ago. Honestly, it's the only dead "mall" I can think of in this part of the state, and I can't remember what it was called for the life of me.

Weberstown Mall, but that can't be it because it's nowhere near the waterfront and, as you said, the mall whose name you can't remember was converted to offices. So, I couldn't say -- don't know Stockton that well.

I did go to Vintage Faire back in the '70s or '80s.

And the obligatory stores that were in between .....

Book store
Jewelry store(s)
Fabric store
Pet shop
Hallmark store
Organ store
Radio Shack
Import store
Ice cream store
Chick-Fil-Ay
Twin theater
Toy store

Dixie Square, Harvey IL

It had to be said

It even used to be uncovered.

Montgomery and White Flint Malls were never "Old"

1980, right?

in that area/time period

the mall you were describing in your OP.

mikey_the_rat

Yep-see above

The arcade reference was a little too specific huh?

second floor, overlooking Nautilus.

And Underpants, I am now scared because I know we're both in Richmond, and you used to be in the Tidewater Area.

So are you following me, or am I following you?

mikey_the_rat

oh okay there good now I can see.

:bounce:

the same everywhere in the u.s.: enter the front, customer service/register line to the right, clothes to the left, LUNCH COUNTER in the back, guns, ammo, wow.

Azalea Mall is nothing but an asphalt lot now - when I first moved to Richmond it was the hottest retail spot around! And Cloverleaf Mall is just gasping for air.

But Stony Point and Short Pump are - well - pumpin' and jumpin' - right now that is. Before long the malls will be running into the DC and Charlottesville burbs, I guess.

Thankfully Carytown is still alive and well, and it's primarily owned by independent small businesses - so it gets my vote every time. Although I do have to admit, I've been to Stony Point a couple of times and it has got some really snazzy stores.

not a town center or Town Centre or Towne Center or whatever the hell it is. We were the only ones who used to go there and we only went for the cheap jeans at A&N.

I have been told that Willow LAwn was one of the first MALLS in the south. Luckily they scrapped that design-crappiest mall I have ever seen but then I really don't like malls much.

I am going to leave comments about Regency for...no I'm not...Man that has to be the most screwed up place ever. Impossible to get in and out of and the attitudes of the people WORKING IN A F***ING MALL are crazy. Hell they have to import Arby's employees in from Croatia and Kenya because all the fat kids won't work there....see I am glad I didn't rant on that place.

Oh well I only go to the mall once a year anyway. Seriously could the people on Midlothian pull over ONE LANE so we can get off the damned Powhite????

But I had forgotten all about Regency (mainly because I've only been there once or twice and I've lived here since 1962). Man is that place ever screwed!!! If you get in and out of there without swapping paint with somebody/something, count yourself lucky.

I live just outside the city limits near Willow Lawn, so when I have to go malling that's usually it. But I seriously do prefer to spend my few bucks in Carytown whenever I can.

And by the way - outstanding rant!!!:rofl:

Carytown. I still go to Plan9 to get music* and used to always go to the crappy Kroger there but for the love of GOD would people please go faster than 10 MPH??? My god getting through there at lunch is a nightmare and that is when there ISN'T a truck stopped and unloading in the middle of the street.

BTW- all the shops in Carytown are connected by tunnels underground. Much like the Governor's Mansion connects to MCV via tunnels (this is no great revelation).

* what's funny is going out to the Tower Records at Willow Lawn my god talk about some FREAKS. You would think they would all be at Plan9 but the kids at the Tower actually worry me....that and the grown men openly going in to check out the XXX section-just an observation.

Also, used to love Digits in the Slip when I worked downtown. The Plan 9 out on Midlo is right near me, so I frequent that one a lot.

Carytown? Too narrow, two-sided parking (making it even narrower), and right near a major interchange (195). Bad, bad, and bad (I like walking Carytown, but not driving!).

mikey_the_rat

Went to Southside Plaza so my brother and I could get autographed sailor hats.

He was on the air here for years. He used to help raise lots of money for Easter Seals and the Association for Retarded Citizens.

It was an open air shopping center and just like Southside Plaza (I've heard was the largest shopping center in the south when it opened) it had an S&W cafeteria where I first encountered the strange rituals and accoutrements of the steamship round.

Eastwood Mall in Niles Ohio was MY old haunt. It still exists to this day, but it's just not the same. From 74 to 85, I had killer memories of that place. I saw fights, toy stores, great records, weird pets, Orange Julius, a suicide attempt (no shit, it was weird), my first crushes . . . and the arcades . . . OH the various arcades that came and went in that time span.

I can almost hear Shawn Cassidy in my Aunt's old station wagon now. Thank you.

Twin Center Mall...

.....the far anchor, I believe first was Disco Fair, then it was called Two Guys, then Federated, then J C Penney, then something else, maybe Builder's Emporium (?), now it's an Albertsons.

So Cal property is valuable so I don't believe it will run down completely....but someday, some kind of housing may stand there.



Tikki

and stores that sold Sewing Machines. Good luck with that these days.

See you tonight.

mikey_the_rat

See ya tonight!

Now the name is crap, like so many other names we knew the Chinese bought and have vandalized with cheap crap.

or a Walgreens? Remember Tie Bar, Lerner's and Foxmore Casuals? And what about Wilson's Leather?

I actually loved our Mall....spent many hours working and shopping there.

Oh cripes what was it called? It was something about Ohio or something. We used to go by there several times trying to get more free samples.

Still open, but filled with stores only someone in the thug-life would enjoy.

In Clarksville Tn it is Two Rivers Mall; in Evansville IN, it was Washington Square, and I guess in Ft Worth it is Town Center which is undergoing a cultural upheaval and is now called Le Gran Plaza.

North HIlls Mall would be the Old Mall in the North East section of the county and I guess 6 Flags is the old mall in Arlington.

Seaview Square Mall in lovely Ocean Township, NJ (right next to not-so-lovely Asbury Park, NJ). Two other malls in the area were already drawing decent crowds when it opened for business in I believe 1980. Ten years later the more upscale Freehold Raceway Mall opened up, and that pretty much killed it. They spent millions of dollars renovating it, and it closed about 3 years later. For a while the Ocean County Mall in Toms River was my old mall until they renovated and upscaled it recently. Out went the organ store, the Orange Julius, the arcade (great memories there), and the 3-screen movie theater, and in came the typical mall stores (Old Navy, Bath and Body Works, Victoria's Secret, etc.) A few days after the renovations were offically done, I went in there and almost killed myself on the new, ultra-polished tile floor.

Great thread, BTW.

'member that? Hickory Farms, I believe.

see my oooh oooh ooh post just above this one. Thanks that was the name I was looking for.

I got my first kiss at "Record Town"