Arrowhead Mall: A Funky Little Dead Mall | Retail Archaeology
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ธ.ค. 2020
- Arrowhead Mall: A Funky Little Dead Mall:
In this week's episode of Retail Archaeology we take a look at Arrowhead Mall in Peoria, AZ.
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This looks like a mall out of time. Forgotten to the world, but remembered by a few.
People need to start taking care of these places.💚
I definitely remember this place from childhood. Went to a barber shop in here and right on one of the inside parts, there was a pet shop that I would always go to as well. I think this is where my brother also took guitar lessons but I'm not sure. Can't remember the name of the music shop but I think it was in this location.
I never realized Arizona was 30% malls by volume.
Unfortunately with the closure of Metro center, Paradise Valley Mall and Christown next, it will be down to about 20% malls per volume.
I was wondering why you were going to classify arrowhead (town center) as a dead mall but then I realized this is another one
Same I was like arrowhead town center is not dead
This looks like the kind of place I would expect to find vague modelling agencies that are human trafficking front operations.
You were allowed to be in there. I’m assuming they had all the doors locked except for one because there’s a Day Program (Next Level) for mentally and physically disabled adults. I know that area because I’ve visited this place when I was a Social Worker for Division of Developmental Disabilities
I've lived in Peoria for over a decade, and never heard of or saw this shopping center !
Oh wow. Makes since why the malls in decline then lol
It’s close to sun city. Spent years delivering into sun city and this was alway a dead mall.
99th ave and peoria
Social distancing to the max in a Peoria mall.
6:40 Mall cat
Holy crap, I didn't even see him all the way back there 😂
@@RetailArchaeology There's a person sitting on the bench too, their leg is moving.
Saw that.
This needs to become a movie.
Mall cat.
Pretty certain that’s a dog
Dead malls are like the embodiment of dreams that died. Money and effort to build it, businesses that dreamer of greatness fallen by the way side, others hanging on until the landlord sells it off to build a gated community forcing the business relocate.
This is so crazy u posted this. When you said arrowhead in Peoria, I was like ,what, isnt the first arrowhead mall he showed in peoria? Then i started thinking, no, i guess thats glendale .Then I started realizing omg I think this is the actual arrowhead my dad took me too when I was a kid in 94! We would go visit his girlfriend in peoria, and I remember it being really far from where we lived in dwntwn phx, and I remember him taking me to Arrowhead mall ,because thats what was out there. Normally we'd go to christown ,that was the closest mall to us. Then when I got older, i always shopped at metro, sometimes christown, but I was further north. Eventually i started hearing of arrowhead mall as I live in northeest phx now and would go there now and then. I kinda remember thinking it doesn't seem as far or complicated to get to arrowhead like it used to be ,and even told my son that my dad brought me here a couple of times as a kid, they made me try coffee for the first time here. All these years (until now) I thought arrowhead towne center was arrowhead mall! But i do remember kinda thinking as an adult this mall (arrowhead towne center) seems way to yuppie for something my dad would have gone to. Even I dont really like going there now, due to like the vibe and type of uppity up snobby rich people that shop there, I always preferred shopping at metro. Now im pretty darn sure this is the Arrowhead my dad brought me to! Omg now i wanna go out there to see for myself! Thanks for this video!
At one time I worked about 3 miles from here and used to drop in every now and again. The tenant behind the fancy wood doors on the West end of the property was a very good Mexican restaurant. The stand alone building near the main entrance was a Chase Bank - I used to cash my paycheck there. Inside one of the interior courts I remember a dance studio (like Arthur Murray - or one of those chains). It was probably there because 99th Ave is the west border of the mall and this is on the edge of one of the oldest segments of the Sun City area. Way in the back of one of the interior mall sections was a good German deli-restaurant (can't remember the name). There was a women's fashion store that I think was called Sunburst something-or-other. There is a second location of that somewhere else in the NW valley area. Don't recall what years were involved, but eventually major tenants began leaving and were replaced by a Laser Tag type center and for a while there was a DES type office for filing for unemployment, job training, etc. There was one of those "schools" that will train you to be a security guard or other low skill job for a while too. I probably started dropping in there around the mid-80's and it seemed old then.
I worked across the street at Goodyear from 83 to 90. That corner restaurant (with the fancy Tetris doors) was called Earls. The bank was Valley National Bank before Chase. The grocery store started out as Lucky's (I think) then became Alpha Beta, then ABCO. In the time I worked across the street, it was a decently busy place. Not too sure why it all went downhill. I do know that Earls moved further east about a mile in the 90's. Maybe after that, nobody went to that mall anymore.
That place is so interesting. I agree, there is no way it’s from 1987. It’s not nearly over the top or tacky enough. I definitely get a 1960s and 1970s vibe from the older part. I would love to see what it looked like when it was happening. It looks like a place you would go to buy a waterbed and some earth shoes. And maybe pick up an awesome macrame plant hanger.
Wow. This place is a little younger than me but it looks like it's had a much harder life. 😅 Thank you for documenting these forgotten malls!
P.S. I still rollerblade! Well... I try because we don't have an ice rink here.
I grew up on 91st Ave & Peoria in the 80s and I got all my hair cuts at that barber shop my whole life growing up. The restaurant is really good too.
I think that was the same barber shop I went to as a kid from the late '90s. Didn't there used to be a pet store in the inside section of the mall or right next door to the barber?
Also, that shopping center with the Home Depot in it near 91st Avenue and Peoria is nothing but deadville as well. Went over there earlier this year just to check it out and poke around.
I grew up in that area in the 90s, that shopping center at 91st and Peoria was always packed. There used to be a Kmart and I don't remember what else was in there though.
Wasn’t the place with the wooden doors a Mexican food restaurant? We used to eat there when Peoria was still a drive from “town”.
I've passed by here many times and had no idea what was inside haha! It's a real shame that it's so rundown. The layout and those overhead signs were so cool
I passed it today and immediately realized what it was, I pulled in and took a look around - how could I not?!?!?!
‘Electric Elevator’ is such a sick album !
So tax records have this "mall" split up under 2 different parcel numbers. The western side with the consignment shop says it was built in 1969 and the discount store in 1974. And the eastern side is 1987 like you found. :)
Here's the earliest mention in the Arizona Republic newspaper: www.newspapers.com/clip/76865516/lucky-opens-new-store-at-arrowhead-sh/
Is that a cat in the mall at 6:36? It’s funny because the sign says “no animals” but then there’s like a cat or a Pomeranian in the background.
interesting how there's also a guy on a bench inside that area
Well that's because the signs in English, cat can't read it. Needs to be in catsylvanian.
Wait how did they get in?
@@crowmigration8245 exactly!
@@crowmigration8245 hired by security... Escaped the pet store... Biggest spending customer so they turn a blind eye to it?.. all sorts of options.
I use to live right down the road from this area, worked at Mercer's in the mid 90's, and my older sister worked at the German restaurant in the late 90s- early 2000's, that was in one of those locked areas. The Die Hard gym relocated, thanks for the video! Nice little walk down memory lane.
Damn, had no idea there was a second Arrowhead.
same
I was born in phoenix 35 years ago and this is the first time i have learned about it.
I was thinking the same I was born here in 1982 and never seen this I’m curious now. I might go
There's an Arrowhead Mall in Muskogee, OK that is also dead. I was in there a couple of months ago, and it seemed like I was in Landmark Mall or Owings Mills Mall from a Dan Bell video. All the anchors were gone, and there were fewer than 10 stores left in the entire mall.
Didn’t it close permanently recently???
Edit: It didn’t lmao
Yup, Laser tag was one of those magical things for our age group, I'm 38 and was lucky enough to experience a few awesome laser tag systems, best was the inflated space ship, you bounced around inside an inflated ship with black lights. Super fun to have no hard surfaces and jump around into walls and stuff!
There used to be a great German food restaurant in the indoor mall part.
Never heard of this place! Obscure would be an understatement.
Love the "Electric Elevator" soundtrack playing in this video.
No way is that old part from 1987. More like 1967. It probably got bought added onto in 1987 and everything prior had the records lost or something. The new part has that 80's style though.
I was about to suggest pretty much the same thing. Like what they did with the Colonnade and Tower Plaza around the same time.
Yeah I came in here to say the same thing. Shame really.
Lucky was in the old part of the shopping center closer to 99th Avenue. Then they opened a new store in the newest portion in '87. ABCO bought Lucky's Arizona stores not long after that.
Something about this makes me nostalgic. Like I just want to sit on one of those benches and take it all in.
This is some nostalgia. I would say the first section of the indoor mall you looked at is closed recently. The intern place had a covid mask required to sign so id says it was open recently at least and the salon look open. On the roof of the first part of the mall, the ACs are old but on the second part you went into the ACs are newer and there are businesses registered on google maps there.
Love your videos! I grew up here in Phoenix and spent my youth at Metrocenter so was glad to see that video. Your videos are fun to watch although they do make me a bit sad with nostalgia. 😊
R.I.P. Metrocenter
7:35 Straight up Backroom vibes
Oooo, A funky dead mall, I must watch
I recall randomly taking the kids to the laser tag place once a few years ago. The inflatables were giant balls the kids got into and ran into each other.
I drive by this mall frequently, on my way to my mother in law’s house in Sun City. I had no idea it was called Arrowhead Mall. I bought a pair of lamps from a store inside the mall in the early 2000. As I recall it was the only store open at the time. Had lunch a Mercers, it was pretty good, guess they still are since they are still in business. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
I was thinking " man what a lively looking mall for a dead mall" you got me at the start.
But man are you sure that arrow head mall isn't dead? I mean all the doors locked any everything closed it screams dead to me. But may be just in Sunday's?
Perfect set-up. The bass player can donate some plasma every five years or so to get some cash to change their strings. :)'
That place has been there since the 70 s that I can remember. I used to drive by it everyday coming from litchfield to drive my mom to work at kmart at 83 and grand.
My parents lived a couple blocks away and I remember going here in the early 1980's when it was still vibrant. I am pretty sure it was built in the late 70's or very early 80's. It had a full sized grocery, a CVS and other retail stores. Inside the little mall area were a bunch of small shops like a shaver store, barber, newsstand and a couple small boutiques and salons for the Sun City crowd.
6:38 kitty ignoring the no animals allowed sign
Lol! I had to replay Your timestamp 3 times to see it
Starting the weekend with your videos is the best way to start a weekend! :D Also, those cool ancient wood doors are incredible, hope they keep them in good shape. And the inside of the mall gave me massive Sims 1 vibes, I just wanted to decorate it lol
Sending good vibes from Argentina!
Your channel is always filled with amazing and cool content! You never disappointed me once!
Around 1995 I helped install a new tile floor for the old German Bakery. Was hoping to see it still alive, it was in the area with the old marquees over each shop. Would love to get the name of that place and see if they moved.. Good find, brings back lots of memories! My grandparents used to take me there in the 80s as well to have lunch and Shop.
I want to revive it so bad, but I really don't know how at this moment. These little places are so cozy and neat
We sort of had one like this in Washington, it ended up mostly being used for card shows, like Magic the Gathering or such. But that was many years ago. I have to say, I would have LOVED to see the inside of the parts that were locked. Those looked really cool!
Great video as always.
That's crazy! I never would've known this existed here in Phoenix. Great video as always!
Wow these videos are fascinating and kind of sad at the same time. I just think about all this empty, unused, abandoned space littered about urban and suburban areas
It was interesting to hear you talk about how you thought it was a strip mall at first, I was just thinking about how many strip malls have this same fate, and is even more of a blight on the landscape. I think really the only thing booming now is warehouse/distribution center building, which look even more bland that strip malls or malls lol.
I lived in Peoria from 1994-2004. It's been a while, but I seem to recall an ABCO Foods in that mall.
I miss ABCO stores and Suzanne Sommers' husband doing the TV ads.
@@JW...-oj5iw Hal&joni
Super stoked to see this mall!
I'm geeking out right now because I never see your videos so early and you where near my home that's so crazy! Lol
@@michaelrosato7683 do you ever go to this mall Michael?
@@KaremakerI visit the cvs in front all the time lol. Buy the actual mall it has probably been a few years. Last time was actually for lazer tag with my little cousin.
Hey there. I got the subscription alert for this video and I’m like “arrowhead isn’t dead” so we watched the video. My son (15.5 yrs and daughter 14 next week) watched some. My son was complaining the sign for the laser tag is all wrong and the actual tag area was further back in the place. The kids summer programs when we lived in surprise used to do field trips to Wazee’s world. Now we live just east of 101 in Peoria at cactus, one mile north of Peoria rd. Wife and I go to Mercers for dinner now and then. I just turned 50 and we are almost always the youngest, including the wait staff. :) it was really dead on Sunday as (I think) most people who would go there come from Sun City that is right around there to west and northwest and the snowbirds are not back yet. Thanks for the videos on the Phoenix area. And around in other places.
Thanks for the vid, it brought me back. Peoria’s Theatre Works used to rent a space there for a few years in the 90s and I did tons of shows there as a kid. It was at the west end in the Zumba space. The furniture consignment at that time was an Osco drug store and there used to be a really awesome German restaurant in the mall space. The sun city area around there has a lot of great gems, but has definitely grown quiet over the years.
There is a mall in my area that reminds me of that. It is primarily a strip mall, but has some indoor spaces. I shopped there a lot as a kid and it was poppin'. I went for a walk around it a few months ago, and it was very quiet and largely abandoned. It has non traditional "anchors" too, the busiest ones being Nike and Carhart. But there were THREE churches in that mall. All the same Christian denomination and all the fanciest looking places in the whole mall. I found it fascinating.
LOOOVE your vids and it's nice to see they are local. New sub.
Another awesome video! You’re reaching Dan Bell heights man!
Cool Tetris dood and background music ;)!
Pass by this everyday I have to go in to the office, never really gave it a look before...
I had no idea the name of that place!
I remember going to a barber shop in that mall as a kid and there was a pet store right next door. That was around 1997 to 2001 that I used to go there.
Thanks for making a video of this, that's really awesome! I'm going to have to go here hopefully soon and check it out. I will make sure I don't go on a Sunday though. Hopefully more things will be open during the middle of the week.
This is so sad yet very calming.
Isn't there a space available sign there? Wonder if they'd give you a tour?
Your videos are really great.
I grew up very close to this place and went once or twice. There used to be a small scrapbooking store near the door you entered. I also remember a few beauty salons but not much else as I was a little kid when I went. I don’t remember ever being in either of the two closed wings, so no clue when or if those closed. The laser tag place closed a few years ago I believe, I went in 2011 for a teen volunteer event for the Peoria Public Library and it was kind of gross and sticky even then. I used to work in Youngtown and often drove past this place, the CSL plasma has been there a while but I think the Family Dollar is new-ish.
I love your channel, I get a kick out of seeing these weird places I half-remember from growing up in Arizona!
This is super interesting! I had no idea this place existed, but I'm almost never in the West Valley. I also have been thinking about buying some rollerblades lol.
What a hidden gem thanks for sharing
Those display cases are awesome and one of a kind. Never seen something like them in a retail setting. Those kinds of thing were In Style back when people still dressed up to fly.
I seem to recall back in the 80's that many building designers went for many of the architectural aesthetics of previous decades, particularly the 1950's.
What a cool hidden spot!
Love your channel 👍
This mall also was the home of local theater troupe "Theater Works" from about 1995 until 2004-05, when they moved to the Peoria Center for the Performing Arts about two miles east of there. Prior to that, they were housed in a barn at 67th Avenue and Thunderbird (now "The Stock Shop"). I saw a few shows there.
"Theater Works", haven't heard that name in a while! I grew up by "The Stock Shop" and knew the family that ran it. I remember watching that area transform quite a bit.
I used to work at the purcell's auto shop across the street. Also lived down 95th ave. That mall has to have been built before 1987. At 6:00 into your video you look through the door to the inside of the mall. There used to be a great german store/deli/ small restaurant in there. Great food.
10:34 you just helped me resurface a childhood memory of wazee's world
yea it had that "dying" vibe even in the early 2010s when I came there, compared to the one at 35th and... Peoria or Dunlap if i remember correctly.
they didnt have trampolines or bouncy castles if I remember correctly, the trampoline place is like a mile northeast of the mall.
seeing that wazee's laser zone place made me miss arcade spots... also my mom's office looked like that mall and i loved running around in it when i was wee boy...
You really wound me with that 1970s is old comment...lol
I first thought it was Arrowhead California. Love your videos!
There was a lil restaurant on the east side of the strip that we used to go to when i was a kid. lol, you make some fun videos man !
HAHA Mercers is still there ! I went there as early as 93 lol
I use to go see plays located in a community theater in that mall back in the late 90's early 2000s.
That single open door may have been for the Church located in the space. The sign is on the left at 8:44, but I cannot read the service times.
When I was a kid there used to be a restaurant on the corner of the building called Earls. They had really good breakfast, once a week on a Saturday morning we would go there.
That building actually housed county government offices in about 2006 or so, before the county shut down its job services aid program.
Reminds me of Seminole Mall in Seminole, FL
i was visiting my sister in Marshall, MN and my parents and I where driving around town when we came across a really odd dead mall that was extremely hard to get to and was just forgotten about. Tt was called Market Street Mall.
I wasn't aware that Arizona had a Peoria. The only one I'm familiar with is in Illinois. I wonder if every state has a Peoria?
Your customers must be broke af if you're offering 90 day payment plans on secondhand furniture. (3:15)
The casio keyboard background music was a nice touch.
The bass place is great. Bought my bass cab there. Although, they were bigger and better when they were out near Tempe
I bought a Sandberg p bass there last summer. The guys running the place are pretty cool.
This place had the best German resturant back in the day. I used to work there 20 years ago and it was a dead mall then. I worked a call center 411 information. 5 years ago I married a couple at the event center it was a mexican food resturant back in the day. This place reminds me of the old Maryvale Mall or Park Central. Mercers is original.
I find the layout of malls is the South of the US fascinating. As a Canadian all malls are built roughly the same due to the cold winters, a fully enclosed building. Down south things are so much more open.
A FUNKY LITTLE DEAD MALL!!!!!!!!!!!
I 1st went to the arrowhead 'shopping center' in 1995 when I 1st moved to Peoria. After seeing your video, nothing changed. I would classify it as a fossilized mall. Looks the same as in 1994.
There used to be a Domino's pizza just two buildings north of there (10845 N 99th Ave). During the 90's my girlfriend used to work there, so I passed this place all the time to pick her up after work. Never new that was in there, just thought it was another empty big box store.
Dude I work at the smoke shop right on the other side of the river there at 95th Ave and Peoria.
Stop in, say hi, ask for Brad.
Regardless, seeing the gym section at night is pretty cool, there's several classes usually in session and it's just so weird seeing so much in such a small area. Plus the aesthetic of that section is so cool.
How do you find lease records lol? My mom and I have been trying to figure up what opened when and what closed when in the town she grew up in.
Edit: I was asking about it bc he said he found things about finding lease listings in 1987 at 2:00
I’m guessing he went a real estate site for renting commercial space. That would make sense since it looks like they are leasing. What exactly are they leading though? Hopes and dreams? 😂
@@matinmehdipour7327 lol
Try the city directories for Peoria dating back to that time. They issue one every year. I don't know if Covid has kept the library shuttered there.
The office area seemed clean & well maintained.
I looked up Die Hard Gym and it's still in business, but closes at 1pm on Sundays. It seems like a serious hardcore gym.
Never knew this existed. West of the Loop 101 is pretty much no-mans-land unless you live in Surprise or Sun City... So did you sell some plasma?
The first time I heard of Krispy Kreame was when the Peoria Sports Complex opened and the Mariners announcer noticed the long line that place always gets. I wanted to research the place more recently, and found it had closed. In my current browser, if you search for Krispy Kreame on Google Maps, it will flash the old locations for less than a second before taking them away. There used to be three locations near the stadium and another one to the north, and none of them lasted.
I think it's really interesting how dollar stores in the states have refrigerated food. Here in Canada dollar stores just have cheap plastic items and shelf stable products. The only thing refrigerated are some beverages near the cash register.
What great small mall and I have seen it going to the other arrowhead mall.
I live in NJ, which supposedly has more shopping malls per capita than any other state. I remember going to some shopping malls as a kid and driving past them years later, seeing them in a run down condition like this mall. One or two malls were given a makeover, giving the place new carpeting and paint, re-doing the store fronts, giving the place a MODERN look to an older mall. I've also seen it where they leave malls like this the way they are and build a new mall next to it (or across the highway from it), people would prefer to go to the new place, so whatever stores are left in the older mall close up of move. They end up with a dead mall next to a new mall. They should've renewed the older mall, or turn it into something else, like a senior center, or doctor's offices.
6:37 CAT!
What'z up guys?... Thought I was watching an episode of Abandonded.
Hahaha! I was watching one of Jake's videos from Bright Sun Films and one of Retail Archeology's videos popped up as a suggested video. That's how I discovered retail archeology.
Both channels are awesome and I always try to watch the videos as soon as they get released. The Proper People is another top favorite, and if you haven't seen any of their videos, you should check them out.
I deliver chinese food to the church store on the 3rd phase of the mall about 2 times a month. When you go inside you feel like your going back in time. Its been like this for 10+ years. 3rd phase of the mall is where most of the mom and pop shops are.
I don’t know if it’s been said but you can look up historical areal views of the area and ballpark when it was built
Wow would love to get in the two old areas, seems like it would have a lot of nooks and crannies.
One level malls never do very well compared to multi level malls do. Manor East Mall in Bryan, Texas had an add on with a new movie theater, called Manor East 3 with three threaters, and I remember seeing Star Wars, 10, Caddy Shack back in the 1970s. In addition to the new wing, Walmart built on to it. Shortly, it started declining in the 1980s, after a new Mall was built in the neighboring town called Post Oak Mall in College Station, Texas. Sadly, Manor East Mall was torn down, except for Manor East 3, with the new Tajas Shopping Center. The movie theater part was taken over by a live play show group. I have taken photos of Manor Eas Mall, but I could not get inside to take photos of the insides.
I been inside once or twice. There was a paper shop there. -I still rollerblade (lol)