My most cherished memory as a 11 year old was my birthday on February 14, 1971. My mother had left my father and my brothers. My grandmother came up from Long Island to Westerlo NY to help my father. There was a snowstorm that day ,the day my grandmother and I was getting picked up by a neighbor who worked by the Albany State Museum. Luckily he still came and we went to the museum and afterwards to Colonie Center Mall. 2 stories with water fountains and plants. We ran into a lady with a pet shunk . We ate at Friendly's and I had a hamburger and fries 🍟 and a coffee milkshake. She bought me a pair of black high top sneakers and a blue Volkswagen Hot Wheel. I'll never forget that day with my grandmother and it's one of the only days around that time that I can recall. If you read all of this , hopefully you have a day like that , that you cherish too.
When I was a kid, the local mall was blessed with two book stores (Waldenbooks and B. Dalton). I liked the difference in selection between the two. Good times.
I worked at a Waldenbooks in Exton, PA and had the worst manager I've ever dealt with. The level of ineptitude was staggering. We had a couple of kiosks on the other side of the mall and as he hated me, I was always exiled to the calendar one, where I would happily read and talk to people. Waldenbooks was part of the Borders group, so when Borders went under, so did Waldenbooks. I miss them both, and B. Dalton too.
@@catjudo1 Whenever my mom (deceased) went to the mall and took me, she would either find me at Walden Books or B. Dalton. She'd just shake her head and laugh..
@@lynnmcclure1103 Shake her head? Why? I would be proud to have my kid spend all of his or her time in a mall's book store rather than a clothing store.
Online shopping will never ever replace the excitement, surprise & pure joy that a trip to the mall shared with family & friends would bring. How terrible it is that younger generations may not get to enjoy that happy experience.
As someone born before malls, I watched them come and go, but enjoy shopping in my local downtown (2 blocks long) a great deal more. Malls became endless repetition, and havens for poorly made and overpriced items. I'm glad they are a dying breed, and am happy to see our locally owned stores and downtown shopping areas become popular once again. It's nice to shop with the family in stores where they remember you, know your name, and live in your community.
I loved the malls, and later on they opened early for people to go walking in before the stores opened, this was a great air conditioned place for people to get their morning walk in.
It's hard to overstate what an enjoyable atmosphere the malls were in the 1980's. They were kind of a world of their own. Even if you didn't buy anything, it was still fun to kind of lose yourself for a little while and just browse the different stores. I have a lot of fond memories of my late dad and myself looking through Craftsman tools section in the Sears anchor store of the mall that we went to frequently. We would usually walk into the mall from Sears.
I worked for Sears for seven years during high school and college. It’s not just Sears, but I miss malls so much. You made friends at all the stores in the mall and it was fun getting off work and hanging out with people that otherwise I probably wouldn’t have known. Going to eat, movies, etc. after work as a group was always fun and it was all at the mall.
@@oldgoat50 Wow - I thought those machines went out in the 40s! They were x-ray machines that were supposed to diagnose sizes and conditions. Too dangerous because of the radiation doses, and were subsequently banned.
Radio Shack in the 80's and 90's could be found in just about every mall but they are no more. KayBee Toys are also another that are no more. Sears as well.
Remember Lerner, Foxmoor, and Jean Nicole? All 80’s Ladies Fashion Stores. I miss being a child in the 80’s and marveling at all the cool stores in the mall.
There were three malls I used to spend time in when I was younger. All three are now ghost towns. I recently went to Jordan Creek in Des Moines, and it's just like the old malls we all used to hang out at. Tons of stores, a great food court, and a beautiful multiplex theatre.
I loved Waldenbooks! There was also my favorite, The Little Professor Book Store, which was the size of a small walk-in close While my mom would head into the history section, I would sneak to the teen section, which was in the back and find the sex parts of Judy Blume's "Forever." One time mom caught me and I got into trouble and was so embarrassed.
Yes, music stores were good for hours while waiting for Mom to come and get you. Also book stores....we had one at the old Bucks County Mall that was a chain store before it became WaldenBooks. Can't remember the name of it. Outside of Philadelphia we had Sam Goody, and before that, Franklin Music and then Wall-To-Wall Sound.
Actually, I watched this video because I'm trying to remember the name of a specific store that was in all the malls in the 70s. It was aimed at teens, it sold posters, and the lighting inside was black light. It also always smelled like patouli. Does anyone remember that? Never mind, I just remembered. It was called Spencers. Does anyone else remember that store?
@@teresawilliams2158 YUP! Spencers! Thanks! We just HAD to go to Spencers every time we went to the mall. I was always fascinated to see the lint on my sweaters in the black light. I wonder when they closed.
We also didn’t have to worry about so much gun violence 😢 We spent weekends just parading around the mall dreaming about clothes we wanted, boys we saw, and food we wanted to buy 🤗
Yeah I miss going to the mall in the 1980s and all the fun stores. I remember shops called 5,7,9, Sears, Montgomery Wards, Foleys, The Nuthouse, and Palais Royal.
In smaller towns they're dying but here in the Chicago area many are doing fine, better than I expected. I've started doing more mall walking to get out of the cold and thought they would be struggling, Sure there are some vacancies notably the empty Sears stores but the slowest mall I'd way was about 70% occupancy. Our dog died April 2022 and we decided to walk around a mall we hadn't been in for years and to our surprise this mall allowed leashed dogs.
I am watching Malls go the way of the dinosaurs. Many still left have only one anchor store left filled with empty former stores. One major reason is strip malls have less crime and much easier for police to check for vandals 24/7. Malls were a great place for seniors to walk with no weather temperature issues.
@@glennso47 Correct, 2023 is a vastly different american landscape than the 80's / 90's. What changed? How are we letting the country slip away? The fall of Malls is a sign of MUCH bigger problems.
Florsheim was considered a very good shoe in the fifties and sixties and all my dad would wear along with Hart Schaffner & Marx suits and a Dobbs hat. He owned a small business and if he went to town, especially to the bank he always dressed up.
I was in Medellin, Columbia a few months ago and visited the Santa Fe Mall. The wave of pleasurable nostalgia as we walked around the fully packed mall reminded me of how enjoyable the social mall scene was in this country.
Ooooo.........lets see if I can remember some stores in the malls when I was younger............. Payless, Morrows Nuthouse/Morrows Nuts, Farrells (ice cream, food, games), Kaybee Toys, Bakers Shoes, Wicks N Sticks, Aladdins Castle (video arcade), Things Remembered, Coach House Gifts, Camelot Music, Peaches Records and Tapes, Walden Books, Sam Goody, Hickory Farms .......................uh, yeah...........I was a mall rat. LOL
oh hell yeah. i was an electronics nerd when i was younger and id spend a week figuring out what i needed for my projects just to spend an entire saturday browsing thru their stuff and getting what i needed and more. when they closed it almost broke my heart because all i had now was cold online shopping. i knew the staff and we spent alot of time just hanging and talking about things going on. i guess this is just progress. still sucks.
@@Mick_Ts_Chick Smack’s used to be fast food joint. You’d buy the hamburger or cheeseburger and all the fixings and condiments were on a bar and add whatever you like. Their mascot was a seal!
I grew up in southern California in the 1980s. All the kids bought their Levi’s from Millers Outpost. We all wore 501s, OP shorts and Van’s tennis shoes!
There used to be a Hallmark store, sears, auntie anne’s pretzels, lazarus, and ace hardware in every mall in the 80s/90s. Now most don’t exist or only have a few stand alone stores like Hallmark and ace hardware.
Since you mentioned Lazarus, you must be from central Ohio. Or at least Ohio in general. I don't think Lazarus was much outside of the Columbus region.
@@dougmurray7684 we had Lazarus stores in Indianapolis and Evansville. They were great. Loved their restaurant which had the best broccoli-mushroom chowder. I bought their cookbook but in a fit of decluttering I gave it away.
@@jillengel4124 I was not aware the Lazarus had a footprint outside of Ohio. I'm from Central Ohio, where the Lazarus roots were located, and for many years it was always a pleasure to shop at their flagship store in downtown Columbus, Good memories.
It has been a very long time since I've been to a mall... It was not uncommon to see pet stores in most malls. I recall Miller's Outpost being popular with us teens in the 80s. B. Dalton had a computer software store offshoot that lasted till about the mid 90s. Hickory Farms was the best and I recall the samples they gave out. Though I no longer remember the name, there were one hour photo developers that had a machine in the front window displaying people's photos as they were developed.
Payless shoe store. And here in FL in the FL mall there is still a Florsheim store open. Michael Jackson wore their shoes till the day he died. He never wore anything else but Florsheim penny loafers.
The Fashion Bug, Bradlee’s, Hetch’s, Proffits, Walden Books, Border’s Bookstore, K&B TOYS, Hoffheimer Shoes, Leggett Department Store, Up Against The Wall, Piccadilly Cafeteria, Morrison’s Cafeteria - Some were Southern and East Coast stores.
The nearest mall to where we live is about a 2 hour drive away, so it was a real treat to get to go there maybe once or twice per year when I was growing up. The last time I was there it was mostly jewelry stores and high priced specialty clothing stores. Today it's all about big box stores and online shopping.
I still get sad that Toys R Us is gone; it was so fun to take my daughter to the store; it was a family outing. My husband and I loved looking at legos, and my daughter loved sitting in the ride-on toys. It was a staple for us to go to that store because there was almost always a birthday party we needed to buy a toy for every weekend between my daughter's friends and our family. So many wonderful memories in those stores; so weird that I get so nostalgic for that store.
i used to love the barbie section at toysrus. so many barbies and clothes and furniture and accessories. back when the stores had long aisles and it was easy to look at everything in that long massive barbie aisle. that is before they made small little areas everywhere instead which i hated. and the selection went way down.
When I started seeing Toys R Us outlets in malls I couldn't believe it. Toys R Us tand-alone stores were big--40,000 square feet or so, and aside from the anchor stores mall stores are a fraction of that. Toys R Us,was a volume retailer, with room to stock large items (bicycles!) and there was no way mall outlets could support the quantity and foot traffic to justify the rent.
One of my favorite mall stores in the 80's and 90's was Buy the Weigh. They sold practically every kind of candy by the pound, plus they had a really good selection of spices and seasonings. My mom always bought their taco seasoning, it was the best and I've yet to find one that's as good!
When I was little we went shopping on a particular street full of stores in town. This was before malls became a thing. I’ve watched the small stores on the street move to the mall, and the street decline to nothing. And now I’m seeing the decline of the malls.
Babbage's. That's the one I will never forget. Back when video game/software places were EB (the fancy one), Funcoland (the weird quirky one), Babbage's (the cheap one), and Software Etc (if you were lucky). Oh, and this little upstart called Gamestop, but that place wasn't going to last.
First place I applied to work at when moving to Denver for trade school after graduating High School was musicland in the mid 80's, they didn't hire me so I got a job next door at Circus World toys. Miss those days! After work we would go to Orange Julius, then hang out at the arcade or see a movie.
I love to shop online. No crowds, no check out lines, no driving around looking for an empty parking spot, and it's easier to search for the lowest price.
@@au_barb I agree with some products, but I prefer getting shoes and clothes in person. The sizes are so nonuniform now, it's maddening when stuff doesn't fit.
We had a Camelot music, pocket change arcade, disc jockey music, radio shack, dollar tree, jc penny, sears,kaybee toys,foot locker,railroad bazaar in our mall years ago.
Thanks for the walk down memory lane. I especially miss the bookstores... seems like everything is online now. Call me old fashioned, but I like to try on clothing before buying. Good times indeed.
Other things that no longer exist: My dark brown full head of hair, my 30inch waist, my sunny outlook on life, and my favorite childhood dog named Enchilada.
I remember the mall I grew up going to was Southlake Mall in Morrow, GA. I remember some of the stores like Swiss Colony specializing in cheeses and crackers, the Record Bar, KB Toys, and Reeder McGahee specializing in sporting goods.
Wow! Flourshiem Shoes...I bought a pair of wing tip Stacy Adams for my prom there. Back in 1990 those shoes cost me $90 leather and alligator skin, beautiful shoes. Ill never forget that...
My dad got my mom one of those Glamour Shots in 1995 as a birthday gift to her. She spent all day there taking photos of different clothes. She said she loved it.
Nothing beats the convenience of ordering stuff from your couch and it showing up 1-2 days later at your door. But I miss the window shopping at the mall, probably a weekly experience in the 80s and 90s whether with family or just myself. From Penney's to Radio Shack to a music store, to wherever, and don't forget that DQ milkshake! All that walking was good for you too! Today, even when going out shopping, its just driving from one big box store to another.
One thing that put the final "nail in the coffin" for brick-and-mortar stores, when they were struggling to survive, was people who would go into these stores to look at something, then they would order it from Amazon.
A lot of these stores (and malls in general) would be going by the wayside even without the rise of e-commerce. They were simply overbuilt, and built for a middle class that is slowly vanishing.
I remember working for Musicland when I was in high school. Fun memories. Have you done a segment on cafeterias? There always seemed to be a Luby’s in the mall too.
Florsheim Shows were considered really good shoes. Gallenkamps and Thom McAn were the less expensive but stylish shoe stores, especially for teen boys in the early 60's .I know because that's where I got the latest styles when I was 15 ! I miss the malls. At least the way they were. I went to WESTFIELD FASHION MALL this past Chrisrmas in Sherman Oaks, CA . Pretty sad. Hardly any Christmas Decorations and hardly any customers and back in the 60's, 70's 80's and even 90's, when it was BULLOCK'S FASHION SQUARE. this mall was always packed. Those days are gone.
Do you remember Buster Browns shoes? We went to get a pair almost every school year. Our clothes came from Sears or Penny's. Sometimes we shopped at Montgomery Wards.
As a young child I always loved visiting the Buster Browns shoe store! They had a fancy electric train set on display behind the window that I loved to watch, and the manager had a pet myna bird that was so fun to talk to. He was kind of a butt though, sometimes he would repeat what you said to him, but he would often look at you disdainfully and say something entirely different.
I have fond memories of myself and my friends going to the Musicland Store and the two young ladies that worked there Would always be playing the latest albums that had just been released. This is during the 70s when there was so much Variety in modern music! My friends and I would enjoy listening to all that good music!
I worked at a shoe store in 1987 (first job) that sold Florsheim Shoes, and we had this electronic kiosk provided by the company for customers to order shoes. The kiosk was about the size of an arcade game, and had a touch screen. As I recall, a customer could peruse through several pages of shoe styles to pick a style, size, and color, they liked, and place an order. I think the customer could pay at the kiosk using a credit or debit card. I also remember seeing one of these machines at a mall. Wonder how long Florsheim kept this ordering system in their stores?
The mall I frequented in Wisconsin in the 70s had "Orange Bowl" where you could get an O-Joy - a small cup with delicious slush-like orange ice. They sold pizza and hot dogs, ice cream and other stuff. It looks very 70s in my memory!
The stores I miss are Ups & Downs, Foxmoor, Petries, The Wild Pair, Baker's shoes, Merry-go-Round, and even Kaufmann's had a good juniors section back then. When you quit making cute clothes you won't last long. Of course, the food court was a must and hanging out by the water fountain if your mall had one.
NW Indiana, Merrillville (now Hobart) - Southlake Mall: wasted many hours and $$ here in the 70s & 80s. I remember candle stores, a tobacco store with a walk-in humidor, and York Steak House (besides Penny's, Sears, Carsons and Ayre's.)
I always enjoy RR vids. I was dtr of a 30+ year USN retiree and mostly shopped on military bases. They carried everything in several stores. Goods were of good quality, pretty good selection, and low priced. Shoes, clothes, drug store, housewares, liquor, toys, tools. Some bases even had a commisary (grocery store).
Musicland! Thank you. I was actually trying to remember the name of the old record store at the mall a few days ago. My father has weird feet (which I inherited) and it’s difficult for him to find comfortable shoes. Florsheim had a style that worked for him. I remember the look of mild panic when he found out the store was closing. He came home after work a couple days later with three shoe boxes and looked much more relaxed. lol He was the sort to take his shoes for repair, so those three pair meant years worth of shoes for him.
For the next video, you need to talk about Natural Wonders. It was a popular store in the 90's that sold science and nature related gift items. It was basically museum gift shop type stuff. You almost felt like you were visiting an interactive science museum every time you went in there. They always played meditation music and showed time capture videos in the stores. No visit to the mall was complete without a stop there.
I looked for this reply. Natural Wonders was BY FAR my most favorite place to visit in the mall as a young child with my mom. The music, the rain sticks, the lighting... I'll never forget it 💜
@@ashlynndemorrow1037 Yeah, I know, right? I've been to some museum gift shops recently that are very similar, but they still seem to be missing something. I guess the only thing we can do is basically build our own little private Natural Wonders store in our homes by getting a bunch of the kinds of things they used to sell and decorating a room with them. Maybe even play the music and the time capture videos in there, and everything, lol. It'd be a great idea for a meditation room or something. Hopefully you have the extra space. I'm seriously thinking about doing something like this in my basement.
Check out this mall video too th-cam.com/video/P58aXju87-o/w-d-xo.html
Sam Goody Radio Shack Musicland all caused to close.
Eventually Walmarts put malls out of business they complained later.
Our mall now doubles as a Apartment Complex.
@@MichaelBoyce-tm2vwpetite sophisticated casual corners
My most cherished memory as a 11 year old was my birthday on February 14, 1971. My mother had left my father and my brothers. My grandmother came up from Long Island to Westerlo NY to help my father. There was a snowstorm that day ,the day my grandmother and I was getting picked up by a neighbor who worked by the Albany State Museum. Luckily he still came and we went to the museum and afterwards to Colonie Center Mall. 2 stories with water fountains and plants. We ran into a lady with a pet shunk . We ate at Friendly's and I had a hamburger and fries 🍟 and a coffee milkshake. She bought me a pair of black high top sneakers and a blue Volkswagen Hot Wheel. I'll never forget that day with my grandmother and it's one of the only days around that time that I can recall. If you read all of this , hopefully you have a day like that , that you cherish too.
😊
That's a great story. Your grandmother sounds awesome.
You’re very lucky to have those memories. Grandmas are the best ❤️
Were hamburger/fries/shake a special treat for you growing up? They and pop were for me.
@@samanthab1923 Yes I am.
When I was a kid, the local mall was blessed with two book stores (Waldenbooks and B. Dalton). I liked the difference in selection between the two. Good times.
Same.
I worked at a Waldenbooks in Exton, PA and had the worst manager I've ever dealt with. The level of ineptitude was staggering. We had a couple of kiosks on the other side of the mall and as he hated me, I was always exiled to the calendar one, where I would happily read and talk to people. Waldenbooks was part of the Borders group, so when Borders went under, so did Waldenbooks. I miss them both, and B. Dalton too.
@@catjudo1 Whenever my mom (deceased) went to the mall and took me, she would either find me at Walden Books or B. Dalton.
She'd just shake her head and laugh..
@@lynnmcclure1103 Shake her head? Why? I would be proud to have my kid spend all of his or her time in a mall's book store rather than a clothing store.
@@lynnmcclure1103 Remember doing the same, while my wife (deceased) would shop browse elsewhere.
How I miss the shopping mall, with its special stores, arcades, food courts & a movie theater (if you're lucky). 😔
Kinda' like Fast times at Ridgemont high.The movie is still a classic.
We used to shop, get something to eat, and hit the movies all in the same mall. Those were great days before social media. 🤗
@@momof4kids735 Exactly! Good times and we didn't realize it.
Our mall still relishes in all those things! 😊
Online shopping will never ever replace the excitement, surprise & pure joy that a trip to the mall shared with family & friends would bring. How terrible it is that younger generations may not get to enjoy that happy experience.
I agree
What killed the mall was the decline of the middle class
Millennials and Gen Z do not have a disposable income their parents had
As someone born before malls, I watched them come and go, but enjoy shopping in my local downtown (2 blocks long) a great deal more. Malls became endless repetition, and havens for poorly made and overpriced items. I'm glad they are a dying breed, and am happy to see our locally owned stores and downtown shopping areas become popular once again. It's nice to shop with the family in stores where they remember you, know your name, and live in your community.
I have memories of X-Mas music on in the malls and always having trouble finding parking.
I loved the malls, and later on they opened early for people to go walking in before the stores opened, this was a great air conditioned place for people to get their morning walk in.
I loved Bombay Company. It sold home decor imported from India and other East Asian countries. I was soooo sad when it closed
It's hard to overstate what an enjoyable atmosphere the malls were in the 1980's. They were kind of a world of their own. Even if you didn't buy anything, it was still fun to kind of lose yourself for a little while and just browse the different stores. I have a lot of fond memories of my late dad and myself looking through Craftsman tools section in the Sears anchor store of the mall that we went to frequently. We would usually walk into the mall from Sears.
I worked for Sears for seven years during high school and college. It’s not just Sears, but I miss malls so much. You made friends at all the stores in the mall and it was fun getting off work and hanging out with people that otherwise I probably wouldn’t have known. Going to eat, movies, etc. after work as a group was always fun and it was all at the mall.
@@oldgoat50 Wow - I thought those machines went out in the 40s! They were x-ray machines that were supposed to diagnose sizes and conditions. Too dangerous because of the radiation doses, and were subsequently banned.
@@oldgoat50 I heard Florsheim Shoes had such a device in many of their stores. Great idea, except for the dangers of X-rays.
I worked at Sears and worked in the Automotive section.
J.c penny
Radio Shack in the 80's and 90's could be found in just about every mall but they are no more. KayBee Toys are also another that are no more. Sears as well.
Sears Tower in Chicago was also sold as well......long ago.
I remember always shopping for clothes at Casual Corner. Another store that is gone is Radio Shack.
Remember Lerner, Foxmoor, and Jean Nicole? All 80’s Ladies Fashion Stores. I miss being a child in the 80’s and marveling at all the cool stores in the mall.
I still have a bag I bought at Jean Nicole in Livingston NJ ❤ it's a fabric bag, Asian design, beautiful
I miss malls! They are a shadow of their former selves now.
Agreed. Kind of sad. 😔☹️😟😭😭
There were three malls I used to spend time in when I was younger. All three are now ghost towns. I recently went to Jordan Creek in Des Moines, and it's just like the old malls we all used to hang out at. Tons of stores, a great food court, and a beautiful multiplex theatre.
They will become history in the future !!
Not here in Florida. Always packed with tourists everywhere
@@bextar6365 and we only have Walmart and Amazon to blame
Chess King’s was a mall store in the 70's where I bought my silk shirts and bell bottom jeans.
I bought clothes from them too but it was the mid 80s for me.
I remember fanning through all the albums for what seemed like hours. Oh that was the good old days.
This is how I spent my teenage years hanging out at the mall - great memories
I used to spend hours in both Musicland and Sam Goody stores. The other two stores I used to haunt were Kay-Bee toys and Waldenbooks.
I loved Waldenbooks! There was also my favorite, The Little Professor Book Store, which was the size of a small walk-in close
While my mom would head into the history section, I would sneak to the teen section, which was in the back and find the sex parts of Judy Blume's "Forever." One time mom caught me and I got into trouble and was so embarrassed.
Not to mention the Warner Bros. Studio Store!
Record Town was prevalent in Michigan malls.
Yes, music stores were good for hours while waiting for Mom to come and get you. Also book stores....we had one at the old Bucks County Mall that was a chain store before it became WaldenBooks. Can't remember the name of it.
Outside of Philadelphia we had Sam Goody, and before that, Franklin Music and then Wall-To-Wall Sound.
Waldenbooks was awesome!
I just miss the Old Mall we use to have.
Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor
Actually, I watched this video because I'm trying to remember the name of a specific store that was in all the malls in the 70s. It was aimed at teens, it sold posters, and the lighting inside was black light. It also always smelled like patouli. Does anyone remember that? Never mind, I just remembered. It was called Spencers. Does anyone else remember that store?
Was it Spencer's? Hope you find the name, Susan Schultz. Have a good one 🥰
Spencer’s?
@@teresawilliams2158 YUP! Spencers! Thanks! We just HAD to go to Spencers every time we went to the mall. I was always fascinated to see the lint on my sweaters in the black light. I wonder when they closed.
@@susanschultz1762 They had cool gag gifts too😁 it was always fun to go in and see some unique stuff lol 😆
@@teresawilliams2158 I just googled them, they're still around! I must not be going to the right malls. LOL
It was such a simpler life back then...I was happier and more at peace back then.
One 100% true...the last 2 years have done huge damage to the US !!
Ignorance was bliss.
@@derek20la Oh ok Biden !!
Also having fewer responsibilities and body recovering quickly helped 😊
We also didn’t have to worry about so much gun violence 😢 We spent weekends just parading around the mall dreaming about clothes we wanted, boys we saw, and food we wanted to buy 🤗
Yeah I miss going to the mall in the 1980s and all the fun stores. I remember shops called 5,7,9, Sears, Montgomery Wards, Foleys, The Nuthouse, and Palais Royal.
@Scott Marlott awesome 👍🏻
I miss malls as well 💜
In smaller towns they're dying but here in the Chicago area many are doing fine, better than I expected. I've started doing more mall walking to get out of the cold and thought they would be struggling, Sure there are some vacancies notably the empty Sears stores but the slowest mall I'd way was about 70% occupancy. Our dog died April 2022 and we decided to walk around a mall we hadn't been in for years and to our surprise this mall allowed leashed dogs.
I am watching Malls go the way of the dinosaurs. Many still left have only one anchor store left filled with empty former stores. One major reason is strip malls have less crime and much easier for police to check for vandals 24/7.
Malls were a great place for seniors to walk with no weather temperature issues.
Funny in the 80's and 90's malls were FAMILY FRIENDLY and there was minimal crime. Getting a job as a "Mall Cop" was the easiest gig in the world.
Or you could watch dinosaurs go the way of shopping malls.
@@KentKaliber The "social climate" of the nation began changing in the early 90's.
@@KentKaliber It ain’t so easy now. The malls have minimal family friendliness and lots of crime.
@@glennso47 Correct, 2023 is a vastly different american landscape than the 80's / 90's. What changed? How are we letting the country slip away? The fall of Malls is a sign of MUCH bigger problems.
Florsheim was considered a very good shoe in the fifties and sixties and all my dad would wear along with Hart Schaffner & Marx suits and a Dobbs hat. He owned a small business and if he went to town, especially to the bank he always dressed up.
I've watched all of the Old Mall Stores videos. I haven't seen you mention United Colors of Benetton. Used to be very popular in the 80's and 90's.
I had the perfume--yikes :)
I was in Medellin, Columbia a few months ago and visited the Santa Fe Mall. The wave of pleasurable nostalgia as we walked around the fully packed mall reminded me of how enjoyable the social mall scene was in this country.
Ooooo.........lets see if I can remember some stores in the malls when I was younger.............
Payless, Morrows Nuthouse/Morrows Nuts, Farrells (ice cream, food, games), Kaybee Toys, Bakers Shoes, Wicks N Sticks, Aladdins Castle (video arcade), Things Remembered, Coach House Gifts, Camelot Music, Peaches Records and Tapes, Walden Books, Sam Goody, Hickory Farms
.......................uh, yeah...........I was a mall rat. LOL
Radio Shack 📻 😢
oh hell yeah. i was an electronics nerd when i was younger and id spend a week figuring out what i needed for my projects just to spend an entire saturday browsing thru their stuff and getting what i needed and more. when they closed it almost broke my heart because all i had now was cold online shopping. i knew the staff and we spent alot of time just hanging and talking about things going on. i guess this is just progress. still sucks.
I remember these stores in the 80’s: McCrory’s, Hickory Farms of Ohio, Radio Shack, and Smack’s !!
I remember the others but what was Smack's?
@@Mick_Ts_Chick Smack’s used to be fast food joint. You’d buy the hamburger or cheeseburger and all the fixings and condiments were on a bar and add whatever you like. Their mascot was a seal!
Correction on the spelling. It was Smak’s Hamburgers
@@Cucuy_Rojinegro8326 That sounds like Fuddruckers used to be.
Remember All These Store’s ..
Thanks for The Memories !!
Love Your Videos
There's also Thom McAn, Kinney Shoes and Casual Corner that no longer exist as well.
I do believe RR made a companion video to this one where he included both Thom McAn and Kinney Shoes.
Just Pants was one of my favorites .
Contempo Casuals and Judy's were my faves.
I grew up in southern California in the 1980s. All the kids bought their Levi’s from Millers Outpost. We all wore 501s, OP shorts and Van’s tennis shoes!
Thank you !
There used to be a Hallmark store, sears, auntie anne’s pretzels, lazarus, and ace hardware in every mall in the 80s/90s. Now most don’t exist or only have a few stand alone stores like Hallmark and ace hardware.
Since you mentioned Lazarus, you must be from central Ohio. Or at least Ohio in general. I don't think Lazarus was much outside of the Columbus region.
gosh i think my boyfriend and i back in the 90s kept hallmark in business with all the cards we used to get each other back then.
@@dougmurray7684 we had Lazarus stores in Indianapolis and Evansville. They were great. Loved their restaurant which had the best broccoli-mushroom chowder. I bought their cookbook but in a fit of decluttering I gave it away.
@@jillengel4124 I was not aware the Lazarus had a footprint outside of Ohio. I'm from Central Ohio, where the Lazarus roots were located, and for many years it was always a pleasure to shop at their flagship store in downtown Columbus, Good memories.
It has been a very long time since I've been to a mall... It was not uncommon to see pet stores in most malls. I recall Miller's Outpost being popular with us teens in the 80s. B. Dalton had a computer software store offshoot that lasted till about the mid 90s. Hickory Farms was the best and I recall the samples they gave out. Though I no longer remember the name, there were one hour photo developers that had a machine in the front window displaying people's photos as they were developed.
OMG Millers outpost..I recently came across a store bag with tiestrings
@@airtiki2374 That was a local place to go for Levis, OP (Ocean Pacific), and parachute pants while in high school😆
As a teen, I always wanted to go to Miller's Outpost for all my Levis, even the acid washed ones.
I loved looking at the puppies in the storefront. Who wouldn't go in w/ those cute puppies to entice you.
I actually miss the Dress Barn. Today, sexy has replaced pretty for the most part.
Today's women's fashion is designed for the Skanky 25-cent Street Ho.
It's possible to be both but, it's more likely to be neither.
We still have a Dress Barn in So Cal. It's in La Habra or Brea, SE of LA.
I also really miss dress barn! Though I always thought the name was quite strange. Are you calling me a cow or pig? 😂
Payless shoe store. And here in FL in the FL mall there is still a Florsheim store open. Michael Jackson wore their shoes till the day he died. He never wore anything else but Florsheim penny loafers.
The Fashion Bug, Bradlee’s, Hetch’s, Proffits, Walden Books, Border’s Bookstore, K&B TOYS, Hoffheimer Shoes, Leggett Department Store, Up Against The Wall, Piccadilly Cafeteria, Morrison’s Cafeteria - Some were Southern and East Coast stores.
The nearest mall to where we live is about a 2 hour drive away, so it was a real treat to get to go there maybe once or twice per year when I was growing up. The last time I was there it was mostly jewelry stores and high priced specialty clothing stores. Today it's all about big box stores and online shopping.
I still get sad that Toys R Us is gone; it was so fun to take my daughter to the store; it was a family outing. My husband and I loved looking at legos, and my daughter loved sitting in the ride-on toys. It was a staple for us to go to that store because there was almost always a birthday party we needed to buy a toy for every weekend between my daughter's friends and our family. So many wonderful memories in those stores; so weird that I get so nostalgic for that store.
Toys 'R' Us is now located in Macy's so far. Hopefully they'll continue making a comeback.
We still have Toys R Us in Canada
Toys R Us and Babies R Us remained in Japan.
i used to love the barbie section at toysrus. so many barbies and clothes and furniture and accessories. back when the stores had long aisles and it was easy to look at everything in that long massive barbie aisle. that is before they made small little areas everywhere instead which i hated. and the selection went way down.
When I started seeing Toys R Us outlets in malls I couldn't believe it. Toys R Us tand-alone stores were big--40,000 square feet or so, and aside from the anchor stores mall stores are a fraction of that. Toys R Us,was a volume retailer, with room to stock large items (bicycles!) and there was no way mall outlets could support the quantity and foot traffic to justify the rent.
One of my favorite mall stores in the 80's and 90's was Buy the Weigh. They sold practically every kind of candy by the pound, plus they had a really good selection of spices and seasonings. My mom always bought their taco seasoning, it was the best and I've yet to find one that's as good!
Spencer’s Gifts was a favorite of mine in the ‘70s
Spencers gifts lives, they operate the Halloween pop up stores as well each year
We had Camelot music stores in Michigan years back
I remember that!
I grew up in Minnesota and remember that name as well.
We had them in NC too. Loved it and also Record Bar. Did y'all have that one?
Record Town
When I was little we went shopping on a particular street full of stores in town. This was before malls became a thing. I’ve watched the small stores on the street move to the mall, and the street decline to nothing. And now I’m seeing the decline of the malls.
Babbage's. That's the one I will never forget. Back when video game/software places were EB (the fancy one), Funcoland (the weird quirky one), Babbage's (the cheap one), and Software Etc (if you were lucky). Oh, and this little upstart called Gamestop, but that place wasn't going to last.
First place I applied to work at when moving to Denver for trade school after graduating High School was musicland in the mid 80's, they didn't hire me so I got a job next door at Circus World toys. Miss those days! After work we would go to Orange Julius, then hang out at the arcade or see a movie.
I remember B Dalton and Walden books in malls
Payless shoe stores, Chess King,
Sharper Image was another mall staple.
I miss going to the mall. I miss the 80's. I don't miss high school though!! 😄
Mall restaurants- Swenson’s, Luby’s, the one (name?) w deep fried cheese and the employees wore blue, white, and yellow tall hats and uniforms. 😂
Millers Outpost? Or was that too regional to the west coast?
As always, a great video! I grew up in the 60's and 70's and the Mall was a huge part of my life. Especially ad a teenager. Great memories!
I loved going in these stores to purchase things.... I hate that I have to now shop on line..
That's just what is destroying the malls.
I know how you feel as we age we can't get around that Good it's just easier to shop online, and safer
I love to shop online. No crowds, no check out lines, no driving around looking for an empty parking spot, and it's easier to search for the lowest price.
@@au_barb I agree with some products, but I prefer getting shoes and clothes in person. The sizes are so nonuniform now, it's maddening when stuff doesn't fit.
We had a Camelot music, pocket change arcade, disc jockey music, radio shack, dollar tree, jc penny, sears,kaybee toys,foot locker,railroad bazaar in our mall years ago.
Loved taking my pre-teen into Limited Too in the late 90’s early 2000’s, so much fun. Miss those Mother & Daughter times.
Florsheim still has mall stores in Australia. There’s one in my nearest mall. The only other brand I recognise is Esprit.
In Oz too and they were the only stores we had. I live in the country now so miss a proper mall.
Thanks for the walk down memory lane. I especially miss the bookstores... seems like everything is online now. Call me old fashioned, but I like to try on clothing before buying. Good times indeed.
Other things that no longer exist: My dark brown full head of hair, my 30inch waist, my sunny outlook on life, and my favorite childhood dog named Enchilada.
Very heartwarming!-the 1980's was one of the hippest and best times to be alive!!!❤💯👏👍!
The Hudsons department store in downtown Detroit was an amazing place to go to,especially during the Christmas season
I loved the Limited and literally almost cried when they closed. I had been buying my clothes there since high school
This is really enjoyable, thanks. I miss Camelot Records, Walden books, Borders, etc.
Millers Outpost, KB Toys, Chess King, Hickory Farms, Wilson’s Leather and Payless Shoes.
I remember the mall I grew up going to was Southlake Mall in Morrow, GA. I remember some of the stores like Swiss Colony specializing in cheeses and crackers, the Record Bar, KB Toys, and Reeder McGahee specializing in sporting goods.
Wow! Flourshiem Shoes...I bought a pair of wing tip Stacy Adams for my prom there. Back in 1990 those shoes cost me $90 leather and alligator skin, beautiful shoes. Ill never forget that...
Thank you for this wonderful episode!!!!! I remember it all!!!!!!
My local mall opened in 1985 and is still thriving today. Most of the original stores are no longer there such as Linens' and Things
"heavy eye shadow, white satin gloves and contemplative poses". That was hilarious. I laughed my ass off.
My dad got my mom one of those Glamour Shots in 1995 as a birthday gift to her. She spent all day there taking photos of different clothes. She said she loved it.
Nothing beats the convenience of ordering stuff from your couch and it showing up 1-2 days later at your door. But I miss the window shopping at the mall, probably a weekly experience in the 80s and 90s whether with family or just myself. From Penney's to Radio Shack to a music store, to wherever, and don't forget that DQ milkshake! All that walking was good for you too! Today, even when going out shopping, its just driving from one big box store to another.
One thing that put the final "nail in the coffin" for brick-and-mortar stores, when they were struggling to survive, was people who would go into these stores to look at something, then they would order it from Amazon.
A lot of these stores (and malls in general) would be going by the wayside even without the rise of e-commerce. They were simply overbuilt, and built for a middle class that is slowly vanishing.
I miss Media Play and Woolworth's a lot along with all the well known book stores that are gone, too. 😔
I have to say that one of my favorites was always Kay-Bee Toys! That and Hot Sam Pretzels.
I remember working for Musicland when I was in high school. Fun memories.
Have you done a segment on cafeterias? There always seemed to be a Luby’s in the mall too.
There was a Piccadilly cafeteria in the Johnson City mall. My family missed it after it left the mall.
@@tabithamashburn8786 That IS a blast from the past! I totally forgot about Piccadilly cafeterias!
Just found this channel. And I love it. So many good memories
Don't recall when my last visit to a mall was.
Remember buying concert tickets at the music store because they were a Ticketmaster agent.
On the west coast, we had The Wherehouse, B Dalton Books, Walden Books and Crowne Books.
Thanks RR🖤
Florsheim Shows were considered really good shoes. Gallenkamps and Thom McAn were the less expensive but stylish shoe stores, especially for teen boys in the early 60's .I know because that's where I got the latest styles when I was 15 ! I miss the malls. At least the way they were. I went to WESTFIELD FASHION MALL this past Chrisrmas in Sherman Oaks, CA . Pretty sad. Hardly any Christmas Decorations and hardly any customers and back in the 60's, 70's 80's and even 90's, when it was BULLOCK'S FASHION SQUARE. this mall was always packed. Those days are gone.
Do you remember Buster Browns shoes? We went to get a pair almost every school year. Our clothes came from Sears or Penny's. Sometimes we shopped at Montgomery Wards.
My favorites were the Arcades, The game hut and Tilt.
As a young child I always loved visiting the Buster Browns shoe store! They had a fancy electric train set on display behind the window that I loved to watch, and the manager had a pet myna bird that was so fun to talk to. He was kind of a butt though, sometimes he would repeat what you said to him, but he would often look at you disdainfully and say something entirely different.
I have fond memories of myself and my friends going to the Musicland Store and the two young ladies that worked there Would always be playing the latest albums that had just been released. This is during the 70s when there was so much Variety in modern music! My friends and I would enjoy listening to all that good music!
I worked at a shoe store in 1987 (first job) that sold Florsheim Shoes, and we had this electronic kiosk provided by the company for customers to order shoes. The kiosk was about the size of an arcade game, and had a touch screen. As I recall, a customer could peruse through several pages of shoe styles to pick a style, size, and color, they liked, and place an order. I think the customer could pay at the kiosk using a credit or debit card. I also remember seeing one of these machines at a mall. Wonder how long Florsheim kept this ordering system in their stores?
Anyone notice the similarity between the Brookstone story & Sharper Image?
The mall I frequented in Wisconsin in the 70s had "Orange Bowl" where you could get an O-Joy - a small cup with delicious slush-like orange ice. They sold pizza and hot dogs, ice cream and other stuff. It looks very 70s in my memory!
The stores I miss are Ups & Downs, Foxmoor, Petries, The Wild Pair, Baker's shoes, Merry-go-Round, and even Kaufmann's had a good juniors section back then. When you quit making cute clothes you won't last long. Of course, the food court was a must and hanging out by the water fountain if your mall had one.
Yes merry go round! Also lerners was one I frequented.
Ty so much for taking us down memory lane.
It's happening here in Hamilton Ontario Canada too
NW Indiana, Merrillville (now Hobart) - Southlake Mall: wasted many hours and $$ here in the 70s & 80s. I remember candle stores, a tobacco store with a walk-in humidor, and York Steak House (besides Penny's, Sears, Carsons and Ayre's.)
Is that mall still open? I only went there a couple times in the 80s/90s (I'm in Michigan City).
I always enjoy RR vids. I was dtr of a 30+ year USN retiree and mostly shopped on military bases. They carried everything in several stores. Goods were of good quality, pretty good selection, and low priced. Shoes, clothes, drug store, housewares, liquor, toys, tools. Some bases even had a commisary (grocery store).
In 1962 my folks took us to NYC. There we visited the Only Saks 5th Avenue and the Only Macy's.
Glamour shots! 🤣🙈 those are still
Hilarious!!
Musicland! Thank you. I was actually trying to remember the name of the old record store at the mall a few days ago.
My father has weird feet (which I inherited) and it’s difficult for him to find comfortable shoes. Florsheim had a style that worked for him. I remember the look of mild panic when he found out the store was closing. He came home after work a couple days later with three shoe boxes and looked much more relaxed. lol He was the sort to take his shoes for repair, so those three pair meant years worth of shoes for him.
Miss the Good Old Days 😞
When I was MUCH younger, I remember that the "Miller Hill Mall" (Hermantown, Mn.) had "Suncoast Video" and "Tape World"! GREAT STORES!
For the next video, you need to talk about Natural Wonders. It was a popular store in the 90's that sold science and nature related gift items. It was basically museum gift shop type stuff. You almost felt like you were visiting an interactive science museum every time you went in there. They always played meditation music and showed time capture videos in the stores. No visit to the mall was complete without a stop there.
I looked for this reply. Natural Wonders was BY FAR my most favorite place to visit in the mall as a young child with my mom. The music, the rain sticks, the lighting... I'll never forget it 💜
@@ashlynndemorrow1037 Yeah, I know, right? I've been to some museum gift shops recently that are very similar, but they still seem to be missing something. I guess the only thing we can do is basically build our own little private Natural Wonders store in our homes by getting a bunch of the kinds of things they used to sell and decorating a room with them. Maybe even play the music and the time capture videos in there, and everything, lol. It'd be a great idea for a meditation room or something. Hopefully you have the extra space. I'm seriously thinking about doing something like this in my basement.
Thanks for sharing!
Im in Australia and we had Florsheim and Esprit as stand alone stores. Yes and a glamour photos studio as well 😂