My childhood was here... I remember going to mccory's with my mother. I remember a small merry go round at one time here as well. I went to the arcade quite often... My grandmother shopped at this pathmark as well. Santa at Christmas time, The Easter bunny... I even remember seeing the Power Rangers here as a kid. This was a rough 1 for me... RIP Sunvet Mall...
My first job - ever - was working in this mall. There was an aquarium store just inside the westernmost entrance, and I started working there in 1979 as a 15 year old, and worked there through 1982. At that time the mall was fully occupied; and if a store ever closed another would open up in it's place within a few weeks. It was fairly crowded (especially on weekends) and was also kind of a local hangout for teenagers. Sun Vet was always kind of a second-class citizen, compared to larger LI malls like SmithHaven. It was only a single floor; there was no real "Food Court" (just Aegean Pizza - which was excellent! - and a couple of kiosks that sold hot dogs and pretzels)... and no real "Big Box" anchor stores like a Macy's or Abraham & Strauss. No movie theaters or dine-in restaurants, either. Original Sunvet anchor stores were Rickel's (hardware) on the west end and Pathmark (groceries) on the east end. It also featured a Radio Shack, a Record World, a Pancake Cottage, a Frankel's (bed and bath chain from the 1970s)... most of the rest were clothing stores, jewelry stores or specialty stores. The liquor store in the video is an original tenant (or at least was already there in 1979). There was an arcade called Subway that was tucked in the middle entrance, across from the security booth and the restrooms. I spent alot of my pay from the aquarium between the arcade, the pizza, and buying LPs at record World and Sergio Valente and Jordache jeans from the Men's Corner clothing store... Watching this video shows that wow, the decor never really changed. Those benches and tables are literally the same ones I sat on in 1979, eating a slice from Aegean's on my lunch break. The ceiling tiles are now all yellow and discolored. Even the flourescent tube lighting is the same. A real time capsule, but also sad. The video says it was only put up 3 weeks ago (that would be July 2023) but I suspect that this was actually shot in 2022 or even a little earlier. I visited Long Island in April of 2023 and Aegean was gone and I believe so was the liquor store (which are both open in this video). All 3 entrances to the inside of the mall were locked; and the only thing I saw open was a shoe store with its own outside entrance and the bank (again, with its own outside entrance)... I was dissapointed, as I wanted to stroll through one last time before the wrecking ball hit - but it wasn't meant to be.
Great video. 5:17 "Toys Were Us" classic. In its heyday in the 1980s SunVet (named for Sunrise & Veterans Highways) had a Rickel, McCrory, GAP, Radio Shack, a dentist, jewelry store, Suburban Sports, a hobby store w cool model trains, Record World, Fotomat, and even an arcade called The Subway. PathMark closing in 2015 was really the death blow to an already dying mall. They did have a great store in the McCrory/Dollar King unit that was essentially a giant yard sale. They'd occasionally host autograph signings of former athletes. Tuesday Morning & AC Moore were great stores that came later on. And Santa & Easter Bunny appearances were quicker & more affordable than the big malls. They briefly had carnival style rides in the mall circa 2012. Your description of Aegean is spot on, very generous w the cheese and garlic. Some good news: the fellas that worked at Aegean make similar pizza at a few area places: Carlo's in Holbrook, Valentino's in Patchogue and another place in Bayport I'm not sure of the name.
I'm only about five miles away. The mall is completely vacant and locked now, except for the Citibank branch which only has its exterior entrance, and there's construction fencing around part of the building. Some work is going on but it's inside the building and out of sight. Whole Foods will be the anchor of the open-air development that will be replacing the mall. Pathmark Supermarket was part of the A&P chain, which collapsed in 2015 due to an Unholy Trinity of greedy unions, comically inept management, and a crushing level of corporate debt. As far as I know Holbrook's always been decent, and to the south of the mall Sayville is quite upscale. It's not too far from Central Islip, however, which is pretty ghetto, a hotbed for MS-13.
OK so I live near that mall and they told another TH-camr that went there about it someone bought it and they’re going to take it apart so they can take off Toys “R” Us through the bank. The bank will still be opened. They’re gonna make a food court so they’ll be a McDonald’s Chick-fil-A Arby’s, I think more they just started the remodel so yeah, there was an actual merry go round like a really big one that shut down and I think that became like a clothing store but I’m not sure there was an actual arm kung fu place that shut down and became a spirit got discontinued and moved to a different plaza so that’s what you need to know about the mall
Not my favourite mall, but also not bad. I really like the navy blue on the ceilings wrapping around the stores. It makes the mall look better. I also hate hearing that a good Pizza place is closed down. That sucks. Really sad to see a mall like this. R.I.P ☀Vet Mall.😭🙁
When I visited they had an incredible resale shop with all kinds of incredible collectibles. The owner took me through the back room and it was like a Time Machine drug.
That place was great. It was like a giant yard sale. Old video games, comics, sports cards, toys, antiques. It was a cooperative with like 5 sellers. They hosted Dwight Gooden for an autograph signing once. I thought about buying an Aeagean gift certificate and leaving it with them telling them, "get Doc some pizza from one of his fans."
I retired last year but drove from Riverhead to work at McArthur and stopped in the mall at least once a week to pick up pizza for dinner and to check out these used collectible stores. Bought an antique Edison diamond disk player at this store that worked great with a little TLC for a couple hundred bucks.
Great video! I helped create the Wikipedia article about the Sun Vet Mall back in May since I was suprised not a lot of older information was archived for the place compared to other malls in New York. It's a shame that many of the anchor stores started to close starting 2018, since i've been going to that mall 8 years before that. Hopefully the new developers will fill the mall with more life, since in the past the same developer made the Deer Park Tanger Outlets.
Wow's this has been over 40+ years since I have seen the interior of this mall. I seem to remember the anchor stores being a PathMark Supermarket and a Rickels Hardware maybe.. but dont quote me on the latter anchor. I remember for sure there used to a very popular Pizza Shop in the mall that was ranked among the best on Long Island. I believe you are correct that the mall opened in the early 1970's. This was never a major regional mall, but rather a local community spot for everyday household needs.
my childhood mall. i still remember how it smelled, everything there, how it died slowly. thank you for preserving its final days... something i never had the opportunity to document, myself, as i moved to western new york a few years ago. thank you. i'll miss it. as someone who lived in the absolute middle of holbrook: it was a suburban nightmare. my neighbour across the street, only three years older than me, either hung himself at the country club on patchogue-holbrook or was hung there. it was awful. i lost friends to drugs, sex trafficking, military recruitment, poverty. an upper middle class cost of living, but full of poor residents. my family just sold our childhood home as they were going to lose it. we're also native american, and the racism... well, it's white suburbia, but the sun vet mall was my "third" place. it was safer and i loved it. thank you.
Thank you for this video. My mom worked at that Payless for many years up until they went bankrupt and we’ve done lots of shopping there while pathmark was still open. Everytime I drive by the mall these memories go through my head especially seeing the construction taking place. I wish I can walk through it one last time. And be able to salvage something from the construction
In its heyday, the SunVet mall had a celebrity appearance by David Cassidy. In the early 2000s, it was still alive with Blockbuster Video and Pathmark supermarket as big attractions, plus a record store inside along with the famous Aegean Pizza, which moved its operation into Carlo’s in Holbrook. In its final years, there was an interesting flea market inside the mall, selling used toys and collectibles, but that also ran its course. The latest news is that Whole Foods will be replacing a large part of the expired mall.
I hope you do a video on The Centre at Salisbury Mall in Salisbury, Maryland sometime. There is a wonderful little pizza place about 3 miles from there called "Ponzetti's" they have been serving great pizza since 1962. Another example of great pizza in a not-so-great looking building.
It's ok Doomie. You don't always have to have all the information of every mall. It's not the end of the world, but maybe if someone in the comments would have some information about their personal experience or mall history, that would also be wonderful.😊
My family predominantly went there for the Toys-R-Us when me and my brother were younger, but by 2019 me and my Dad made more frequent trips there together, for the Citibank and a few of the collectible stores. Once 2020 hit, me and him made regular trips just to hit the bank and to visit the flea market and the close-outs + liquidation store. Emerald City flea market eventually split up and left, Time Warp moved closer to the Smith Haven Mall (good for them, their current location is wondeful), and the CO+L store kept going until around October. Now... Dad passed back on the 26th of November, and the mall is finally being demo-d. All but the Citibank will be torn down. It's sad to know it'll be gone, since it was one of the few places I got to frequent with him in our final years together. We thought we'd have a little more time with him, at least. We knew Sun Vet was due to die any day... just not him. I just hope that whatever strip mall they do build in the area's a good one. Last thing I wanna see is an empty lot with a small chunk of the mall siting there with an awkward Citibank sign still bolted to it. Sorry if this got depressing, it's just sad to have seen the mall fall like this, and for a demo to happen at a time like this. I'm sure the strip mall will be good, it'll help breathe more life into the area.
By the way, I DO have good news about Aegean's Pizza. While they didn't reopen, they did partner up with Carlo's Pizza Oven and have some of their menu items over there now! I just looked it up, Harry (one of the guys from Aegean) brought over the recipes from Aegean when he partnered up! I'll post the address to Carlo's: 480-23 Patchogue Holbrook Road Holbrook, NY Enjoy, man. Hopefully they brought the Garlic Knot Pizza over, too!
Spent a lot of time here growing up in the 80s .. your killing me with your pronunciation.. it’s pronounced hole brook , I’ll let aegean slide.. mom and sis always went here for clothing while I hit the arcade and the hobby store and then we would go grocery shopping in pathmark ..my favorite store in that mall was consumers catalogue store.. you would flip thru a catalog, write down the item number of what you wanted, and they would put the product on a conveyor belt from the back stockroom..As a kid it was like what Amazon will become in a few years..sunrise highway wasn’t like it is now when I was a kid, instead it was 2 lanes each direction with cross streets.. right across the highway where target is was the Atias flea market , that closed like 10 years ago.. I don’t ever recall it being a dangerous area except for the highway though.. Btw you did the sunrise mall and the sunset mall but you missed the south shore mall which is right in the middle of them .. if you were here in the 80/90s there was also another mall in bay shore called the gardener manor mall .. my dad and uncles owned an amusement company at the time and every year for xmas they would put kiddie rides in the mall .. the great memories
My childhood was here... I remember going to mccory's with my mother. I remember a small merry go round at one time here as well. I went to the arcade quite often... My grandmother shopped at this pathmark as well. Santa at Christmas time, The Easter bunny... I even remember seeing the Power Rangers here as a kid. This was a rough 1 for me... RIP Sunvet Mall...
My first job - ever - was working in this mall. There was an aquarium store just inside the westernmost entrance, and I started working there in 1979 as a 15 year old, and worked there through 1982. At that time the mall was fully occupied; and if a store ever closed another would open up in it's place within a few weeks. It was fairly crowded (especially on weekends) and was also kind of a local hangout for teenagers.
Sun Vet was always kind of a second-class citizen, compared to larger LI malls like SmithHaven. It was only a single floor; there was no real "Food Court" (just Aegean Pizza - which was excellent! - and a couple of kiosks that sold hot dogs and pretzels)... and no real "Big Box" anchor stores like a Macy's or Abraham & Strauss. No movie theaters or dine-in restaurants, either.
Original Sunvet anchor stores were Rickel's (hardware) on the west end and Pathmark (groceries) on the east end. It also featured a Radio Shack, a Record World, a Pancake Cottage, a Frankel's (bed and bath chain from the 1970s)... most of the rest were clothing stores, jewelry stores or specialty stores. The liquor store in the video is an original tenant (or at least was already there in 1979). There was an arcade called Subway that was tucked in the middle entrance, across from the security booth and the restrooms. I spent alot of my pay from the aquarium between the arcade, the pizza, and buying LPs at record World and Sergio Valente and Jordache jeans from the Men's Corner clothing store...
Watching this video shows that wow, the decor never really changed. Those benches and tables are literally the same ones I sat on in 1979, eating a slice from Aegean's on my lunch break. The ceiling tiles are now all yellow and discolored. Even the flourescent tube lighting is the same. A real time capsule, but also sad.
The video says it was only put up 3 weeks ago (that would be July 2023) but I suspect that this was actually shot in 2022 or even a little earlier. I visited Long Island in April of 2023 and Aegean was gone and I believe so was the liquor store (which are both open in this video). All 3 entrances to the inside of the mall were locked; and the only thing I saw open was a shoe store with its own outside entrance and the bank (again, with its own outside entrance)... I was dissapointed, as I wanted to stroll through one last time before the wrecking ball hit - but it wasn't meant to be.
Yea they closed Aug 6th 2022.
Great video. 5:17 "Toys Were Us" classic. In its heyday in the 1980s SunVet (named for Sunrise & Veterans Highways) had a Rickel, McCrory, GAP, Radio Shack, a dentist, jewelry store, Suburban Sports, a hobby store w cool model trains, Record World, Fotomat, and even an arcade called The Subway. PathMark closing in 2015 was really the death blow to an already dying mall. They did have a great store in the McCrory/Dollar King unit that was essentially a giant yard sale. They'd occasionally host autograph signings of former athletes. Tuesday Morning & AC Moore were great stores that came later on. And Santa & Easter Bunny appearances were quicker & more affordable than the big malls. They briefly had carnival style rides in the mall circa 2012.
Your description of Aegean is spot on, very generous w the cheese and garlic. Some good news: the fellas that worked at Aegean make similar pizza at a few area places: Carlo's in Holbrook, Valentino's in Patchogue and another place in Bayport I'm not sure of the name.
You forgot consumers catalogue store .. it was in the far west corner
Another great video. Dont ever stop.
I'm only about five miles away. The mall is completely vacant and locked now, except for the Citibank branch which only has its exterior entrance, and there's construction fencing around part of the building. Some work is going on but it's inside the building and out of sight. Whole Foods will be the anchor of the open-air development that will be replacing the mall.
Pathmark Supermarket was part of the A&P chain, which collapsed in 2015 due to an Unholy Trinity of greedy unions, comically inept management, and a crushing level of corporate debt.
As far as I know Holbrook's always been decent, and to the south of the mall Sayville is quite upscale. It's not too far from Central Islip, however, which is pretty ghetto, a hotbed for MS-13.
OK so I live near that mall and they told another TH-camr that went there about it someone bought it and they’re going to take it apart so they can take off Toys “R” Us through the bank. The bank will still be opened. They’re gonna make a food court so they’ll be a McDonald’s Chick-fil-A Arby’s, I think more they just started the remodel so yeah, there was an actual merry go round like a really big one that shut down and I think that became like a clothing store but I’m not sure there was an actual arm kung fu place that shut down and became a spirit got discontinued and moved to a different plaza so that’s what you need to know about the mall
@1:59 - Blockbuster Video??? LOL
Kind of sad to see what was once a full huge parking lot so empty and neglected. A liquor store in a mall? Never seen that before!
I have. A drive-thru one at that.
Williamsburg KY. Cumberland Regional Mall.
In Canada they have lots
My childhood mall 😭
Que paso por que esta abandonado ?
Por que lo cerraron?
@@maritzamieles8924 El centro comercial ahora está cerrado y está siendo reconstruido
Not my favourite mall, but also not bad. I really like the navy blue on the ceilings wrapping around the stores. It makes the mall look better. I also hate hearing that a good Pizza place is closed down. That sucks. Really sad to see a mall like this. R.I.P ☀Vet Mall.😭🙁
When I visited they had an incredible resale shop with all kinds of incredible collectibles. The owner took me through the back room and it was like a Time Machine drug.
That place was great. It was like a giant yard sale. Old video games, comics, sports cards, toys, antiques. It was a cooperative with like 5 sellers. They hosted Dwight Gooden for an autograph signing once. I thought about buying an Aeagean gift certificate and leaving it with them telling them, "get Doc some pizza from one of his fans."
that's cool
@@haedyncavanagh
I retired last year but drove from Riverhead to work at McArthur and stopped in the mall at least once a week to pick up pizza for dinner and to check out these used collectible stores. Bought an antique Edison diamond disk player at this store that worked great with a little TLC for a couple hundred bucks.
Great video! I helped create the Wikipedia article about the Sun Vet Mall back in May since I was suprised not a lot of older information was archived for the place compared to other malls in New York. It's a shame that many of the anchor stores started to close starting 2018, since i've been going to that mall 8 years before that. Hopefully the new developers will fill the mall with more life, since in the past the same developer made the Deer Park Tanger Outlets.
Wow's this has been over 40+ years since I have seen the interior of this mall. I seem to remember the anchor stores being a PathMark Supermarket and a Rickels Hardware maybe.. but dont quote me on the latter anchor. I remember for sure there used to a very popular Pizza Shop in the mall that was ranked among the best on Long Island. I believe you are correct that the mall opened in the early 1970's. This was never a major regional mall, but rather a local community spot for everyday household needs.
Yeah this sounds about right. Aegean's menus said Est. 1974
my childhood mall. i still remember how it smelled, everything there, how it died slowly. thank you for preserving its final days... something i never had the opportunity to document, myself, as i moved to western new york a few years ago. thank you. i'll miss it.
as someone who lived in the absolute middle of holbrook: it was a suburban nightmare. my neighbour across the street, only three years older than me, either hung himself at the country club on patchogue-holbrook or was hung there. it was awful. i lost friends to drugs, sex trafficking, military recruitment, poverty. an upper middle class cost of living, but full of poor residents. my family just sold our childhood home as they were going to lose it. we're also native american, and the racism... well, it's white suburbia, but the sun vet mall was my "third" place. it was safer and i loved it. thank you.
Thank you for this video. My mom worked at that Payless for many years up until they went bankrupt and we’ve done lots of shopping there while pathmark was still open. Everytime I drive by the mall these memories go through my head especially seeing the construction taking place. I wish I can walk through it one last time. And be able to salvage something from the construction
5:19 “Toys Were Us” haha
In its heyday, the SunVet mall had a celebrity appearance by David Cassidy. In the early 2000s, it was still alive with Blockbuster Video and Pathmark supermarket as big attractions, plus a record store inside along with the famous Aegean Pizza, which moved its operation into Carlo’s in Holbrook. In its final years, there was an interesting flea market inside the mall, selling used toys and collectibles, but that also ran its course. The latest news is that Whole Foods will be replacing a large part of the expired mall.
I hope you do a video on The Centre at Salisbury Mall in Salisbury, Maryland sometime. There is a wonderful little pizza place about 3 miles from there called "Ponzetti's" they have been serving great pizza since 1962. Another example of great pizza in a not-so-great looking building.
Thanks for saying "ON" Long Island, not "IN" Long Island
Details matter. Sun Vet was IN Holbrook, which is ON Long Island. 😀
It's ok Doomie. You don't always have to have all the information of every mall. It's not the end of the world, but maybe if someone in the comments would have some information about their personal experience or mall history, that would also be wonderful.😊
Cool video I forgot I had visited here to document it about a year ago. I still have the footage in my backlog
My family predominantly went there for the Toys-R-Us when me and my brother were younger, but by 2019 me and my Dad made more frequent trips there together, for the Citibank and a few of the collectible stores. Once 2020 hit, me and him made regular trips just to hit the bank and to visit the flea market and the close-outs + liquidation store. Emerald City flea market eventually split up and left, Time Warp moved closer to the Smith Haven Mall (good for them, their current location is wondeful), and the CO+L store kept going until around October.
Now... Dad passed back on the 26th of November, and the mall is finally being demo-d. All but the Citibank will be torn down. It's sad to know it'll be gone, since it was one of the few places I got to frequent with him in our final years together. We thought we'd have a little more time with him, at least. We knew Sun Vet was due to die any day... just not him. I just hope that whatever strip mall they do build in the area's a good one. Last thing I wanna see is an empty lot with a small chunk of the mall siting there with an awkward Citibank sign still bolted to it.
Sorry if this got depressing, it's just sad to have seen the mall fall like this, and for a demo to happen at a time like this. I'm sure the strip mall will be good, it'll help breathe more life into the area.
By the way, I DO have good news about Aegean's Pizza. While they didn't reopen, they did partner up with Carlo's Pizza Oven and have some of their menu items over there now! I just looked it up, Harry (one of the guys from Aegean) brought over the recipes from Aegean when he partnered up! I'll post the address to Carlo's:
480-23 Patchogue Holbrook Road Holbrook, NY
Enjoy, man. Hopefully they brought the Garlic Knot Pizza over, too!
So sad 😢
Thanks for the video!
Thank you for a great video!
Request: dort mall, flint, MI
Spent a lot of time here growing up in the 80s .. your killing me with your pronunciation.. it’s pronounced hole brook , I’ll let aegean slide.. mom and sis always went here for clothing while I hit the arcade and the hobby store and then we would go grocery shopping in pathmark ..my favorite store in that mall was consumers catalogue store.. you would flip thru a catalog, write down the item number of what you wanted, and they would put the product on a conveyor belt from the back stockroom..As a kid it was like what Amazon will become in a few years..sunrise highway wasn’t like it is now when I was a kid, instead it was 2 lanes each direction with cross streets.. right across the highway where target is was the Atias flea market , that closed like 10 years ago.. I don’t ever recall it being a dangerous area except for the highway though..
Btw you did the sunrise mall and the sunset mall but you missed the south shore mall which is right in the middle of them .. if you were here in the 80/90s there was also another mall in bay shore called the gardener manor mall .. my dad and uncles owned an amusement company at the time and every year for xmas they would put kiddie rides in the mall .. the great memories
First