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How did all that dirt get in the underground did the army fill it in? That's terrible

Oh man, spent so many hours of my adolescent life wandering those stores, riding those escalators and causing various kinds of trouble. Anybody remember the Alwilk Records??

I had no idea they came back. The last I saw of Bob's Stores was that location at Buckland Hills Dr and Slater St, across Slater from Best Buy and next door in the same plaza as PC Richard, which is where Circuit City was. When did Dick's move down to Tolland Tpke? I'm trying to remember where Dick's was before this, but I do remeber them relocating the store from wherever it was to the Buckland Mall, so they've been in three different locations in Manchester in just the last 20 years. When the Bob's at Buckland Hills and Slater closed several years ago, I thought that was it, the end, no more, buh-bye now, see ya wouldn't wanna be ya, we're out. That sucks that they weren't able to make it work this time around.

They used to have an amazing arcade back in the day when I was growing up it was huge!

They repainted the signage and got rid of the more vibrant details quite a while ago. I live in the area and I pass by it all the time. It was easily more than 10 years ago that they did it, not sure why though. I was always a fan of the original design, too. I wouldn't say its fully dead as of yet. There's still quite a few regulars and being located right on rt 1 is extremely beneficial, especially now thanks to the newer apartments that went up where the minigolf course used to be

The sears craftsman made in USA are awesome tools. They will be used for the rest of my life.

I used to work at the Natick, Massachusetts, Mall Sears as a Christmas help stock boy when I was in High School in the 1960's. Sears was a bustling Corinth of stuff back then.

I grew up in the 70's and 80's and malls were the place to be. I grew up right across from the Meriden Mall..so many stores and always busy..so sad to see the way malls are today.

Your videos remind me of the doom video game from the late 90s.

The rent was too high so the stores moved to the outlet mall down the road 1 exit. My mom told me stories that her and all the high school kids in surrounding areas use to walk for miles and miles on adventures just to get to aviation. She said the girls even walked there in high heels on train tracks and through woods. When I was growing up people always got dropped off out front then whoever drove had to find parking. The glass in the front on the left is all mall security. When you went inside to the right was the malls arcade. The smell was so nostalgic when entering the mall from the food court entrance. We would always eat first and there was barely enough seating so we would eat outside the Sears champs raidioshack payless shoes magic store and clairs. If I had to guess that mall seen more than 30k guests everyday up until Around 2004ish. People started to buy online but not as much as today because the price of shipping didn't justify skipping the trip to Aviation. So in 2005 Amazon announced free 2 day shipping with a membership. Following that the mall kept increasing it's rent which pushed some out of the mall. Gas prices began to rise so people justified buying online more and more. The cost of cigarettes jumped to over $10 a pack and gas was over $3 per gallon. Many stores bailed but stayed in the area just not at the mall itself due to rent from what I know. The atrium was where a lot of homework was done cool kids would smoke meet up for car races and stuff like that. Many times when i was a kid we tried skating it and the carpet ended those attempts. The Aviation is amazing and deff a ghost mall compared to the thousands that would be bussing throughout 20 years ago.

Such a fun place and spot up there in NH! Hoping to get back up there this Summer myself. Thanks for the vid/tour!

Hiiii!!! I never heard of this place, although I heard of Funspot which also is in Laconia, NH. I so want to visit both those arcades someday thanks to this video you made! ^_^

There used to be a claw machine in front of the Barnes and Noble that gave out rubber ducks I think i see it at the 5 minute mark the yellow machine. Boscov's is a nice department store there, Its as about as department store as you can get.

why wouldn’t people use this mall for walking or to take their kids here? when my kids were very young we’d go to the mall for a treat and to ride the rides. 😢

Hell yeah! I remember going to this as a child. It was awesome! So happy that you enjoy the wonderful adventures that our humble little state has to offer!

Worked at the Sears auto center at this mall for 11 years, many great memories. Met Louis CK and worked on his car there

There used to be 2 gamestops in this mall . So random !

As always great video 👍

I would have liked to see you play some of the really old vintage games, like the baseball or basketball. Even that newer chameleon game looked interesting.

I knew this place was done once the GameStop closed. In addition to the K-Mart, I think this place also had one of the last remaining FYE's. The theater is pretty decent. This place also had an Electronic Boutique and even a post office. Two different dollar stores, a hair salon, 3 or 4 jewelers, per store, and even a shop for custom tailored suits.

Despite the sign having the burnt out letters, the movie theater still does pretty well, especially last year during the barbie/oppenheimer release week, that was the busiest i had seen that mall in years. Otherwise it is definitely depressing seeing it in its current state, having lived near it my whole life. I wish it was the SIMON management group that bought it instead of this current other one, as the cape cod and braintree malls are managed by them and absolutely floursihing in comparison

This mall has been struggling for years. Newbury Comics pulled out of there early this year. They've lost quite a few stores over the years. I truly miss the old shopping center and movie theater that were originally on the site

I love these videos of abandoned locations!

No Mall :(

Cool, THANKS!

This arcade is awesome. Anything similar in my neck of the woods, it's a retro bar filled with legendary machines like Pac-Man, Outrun, Galaga, Terminator, NEOGEOs, X-Men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, some pinballs, and so on. Anyway, again a nice video, and thank you and be safe out there.

I remember I was around 6 years old or so and my sisters and brother walked to the mall to check it out while it was still being built. 1977,78 I think? So many cool memories, so many cool stores. It was a perfect little mall for those of us who grew up in the 80s.

You said “wood paneling with bed, Bath and beyond” but it’s actually Bath and body Works. Just wanted to put that out there so no one got confused.

I don't think that Dick's Sporting Goods was anything before, They built that as an addition specifically for Dicks, back to compete with the Sport's Authority that was where Hobby Lobby is now. There was certainly never a Steiger's at that mall. (Never even heard of them before.)

I wouldn't say it's dead yet, more like teetering on the brink of death, if it hasn't changed too drastically from when you posted this seven months ago. It's really too bad that shopping malls have come to this. I haven't been to a mall in probably close to 20 years now. I wonder if things pick up in the evening though. I can still remember how important going to the mall was as a teen. I mean, that was like THE slocial gatering point, but we did it withbout creating too many problems. Does mall security really have a problem with people recording? Are their lives really that meaningless that they feel like you're pulling off the crime of the century by rolling footage of some walkways and documenting what used to be? It isn't like you were following people around and shoving your camera in their faces, or engaging in some kind of retail consumer espionage, uncovering and exposing the behind the scenes dirty secrets of the mall's day to day runnings.

Wow !! Last time I was at Crystal Mall was summer 1997 and it was a thriving business mecca. !!!! What happened ?????

I got my first job there at Taco Bell. Back in 1997. Lots of memories in that mall. Who remembers when you could smoke cigarettes there.

Great video ! I have never been there but we love to some day. The flooring in the 2nd building looks like old bowling lanes wood to me. Thank you !

That Barnes and Noble was built as an addition specifically for Barnes and Noble. This was back when Borders was over by where the gym is now.

I used to go to arcade in early 90’s. 12/13 years old. We d get stoned outside, play arcade’s and the escalator, if you rode it to the top step then jumped hard on it the whole thing would shut down.

If you ever come around to do the Mall in Rockaway NJ, let me know. I know that place quite well.

So many different eras of the arcade reside in this place. Everything from 1950's to modern cabinets. It's almost overwhelming. I agree, this has to be the greatest arcade I've ever seen and I'm glad to see any place like this open nowadays.

This mall has been like this for years

Ok you reached your goal ! I’ll be waiting for the promised video lol. Let’s go