That was very interesting, even if the guy’s green bow tie was distracting. I never really liked to go out shopping, but still have many memories of days in a mall with my wife and our kids; including that same Flagstaff Mall the guy mentioned at the beginning of the video.

One of my favorite memories was with my daughter when we were working on a ranch N of Wickenburg, Arizona. We were in Phoenix shopping and went to a mall there, probably Paradise Valley Mall, if that’s the one at I-17 and Bell Rd. Clare was only about 3 and had never seen an escalator before. She giggled and squealed with joy riding it like it was a carnival ride. I remember the other shoppers around us smiling at her.

Then she was HS age and we were at the mall in Grand Junction, Colorado. We’re all walking through the mall, Clare walking next to me. A young guy approaches us walking in the other direction. He had piercings all over, neck tattoos, black, torn jeans hanging in the middle of his butt, with chains hanging all over them, spiked hair or some shit like that.

“See that guy there?” I said to her as he passed by looking at her.

“Yeah,” she responded.

“If you ever come home with a guy that looks like that,” I said, “I’ll smother you at night with your pillow.”

quote:

Originally posted by TMats: ...We were in Phoenix shopping and went to a mall there, probably Paradise Valley Mall, if that’s the one at I-17 and Bell...

PV mall was at Tatum and Cactus and has been at least partially demolished for new development. Mixed residential and commercial. Supposed to happen in phases but since moving to Surprise 4 years ago nothing in my life takes me near there so no idea where they are in the process. Ditto the previous for Metrocenter Mall at I-17 and Dunlap (5 miles south of Bell Rd.)

I think Arrowhead Towne Center at 75th Ave. and Bell is still doing okay. Most (if not all) of the commercial development has been toward open air shopping/dining. Norterra, Kierland, etc.

Dan

Years ago, we were fairly frequent shoppers at the Altamonte Mall. The past ten or fifteen years, I have only been there on the rare occasions that I had to go to The Apple Store for service on an iThing.

I don't mind malls at all, I have been going to them since the mid 70s. In fact, I was just at one yesterday, went to Sees Candy to get a gift. Easy to find parking, air conditioned, they're OK by me.

quote:

Originally posted by KBobAries:

quote:

Originally posted by TMats: ...We were in Phoenix shopping and went to a mall there, probably Paradise Valley Mall, if that’s the one at I-17 and Bell...

PV mall was at Tatum and Cactus and has been at least partially demolished for new development. Mixed residential and commercial. Supposed to happen in phases but since moving to Surprise 4 years ago nothing in my life takes me near there so no idea where they are in the process. Ditto the previous for Metrocenter Mall at I-17 and Dunlap (5 miles south of Bell Rd.)

I think Arrowhead Towne Center at 75th Ave. and Bell is still doing okay. Most (if not all) of the commercial development has been toward open air shopping/dining. Norterra, Kierland, etc.

Dan

Dan, looked it up. The mall I was referring to is closed now. It was Metrocenter, on the west side of I-17 (SW if memory serves). It was big, and there was an extensive ring of restaurants and other businesses surrounding it. I believe there was an El Torito Mexican Restaurant that was pretty good, albeit far from the best Mexican food in Phoenix.

I have been to PV Mall, it’s close to where my wife’s parents lived. My wife went to Shadow Mountain HS.

When the Mall Of America in Bloomington, MN opened, I vowed I would never go there...
We went to a Thanksgiving Dinner at a family member's home very near by and were staying the weekend with them, I ended up there on Black Friday! (peer pressure, wife and SIL)
Never saw 1/2 of it, and have never been back.

Re: Phoenix
On central
South of Camelback
West side of the street

Their 1st mall used to be there
Is it gone now or still there ?

Park Central

As a youth I was never a mall rat though I knew plenty of kids who were. Instead the clique I hung around with were the downtown type, so we'd catch a bus and later on as we got our licenses drive into downtown Seattle and just hang out. There were some pretty cool shops at the time--Warshal's was my favorite, combining guns and cameras among their other big boy toy store gear. Nowadays I'd never consider going down there for fun, just because there's enough odds that something bad is going to happen. Same is true with at least a couple of the eexisting local malls; their parking lots if not the stores, food courts and concourses have too often become 9mm shooting galleries. Now, I can deal without that BS.

The biggest mall closure locally was the old Northgate Mall, which frankly was on life support for at least three decades before its owners finally called it. Some of it has been torn down, parts have been converted to smaller retail chunks of strip mall size stature, and one big section redeveloped into a training facility for the NHL Kraken hockey team. Can't say that I miss the old place, but I do still frequent the Barnes and Noble store that survived the makeover.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
The mall by me The Woodlands Mall stays pretty consistently busy, helps for the area its in. Same for The Galleria in W Houston.

Conversely, malls like Greenspoint, empty except for a gym, Sharpstown Mall & the one whose name I can't recall off 290/I610 are gone or practically finished.

The key reason is that the Woodlands, the Galleria are affluent areas that can financially support the high overhead.

Definitely a major factor.
I don't get out to the west side much, so I don't know how Katy Mills has fared.
Greenspoint has been a no-go since I moved back to metro Houston in 2011 [and longer], they at least had a couple dept stores still there, but it's whittled down to just a gym over the years. It seems to stay busy, bit the rest is sliding into a dilapidated shell.
I vaguely remember going to Sharpstown mall as a kid [early 90s] with my grandmother that lived in the area.

Malls will continue to decline over the years for a variety of reasons, many cited in other posts. Movie theater chains--which are often part of malls-- are in financial trouble due to loss of audiences during COVID and difficulties in getting the audiences to return. Financial pressures continue for a variety of reasons: interest rates on loans for commercial property, high price of tickets and goodies at the concession stand and hiring difficulties. Locally, people object to the high cost of tickets and concessions, lack of cleanliness. (A local woman I spoke to mentioned that when she and her girlfriends went to see "Barbie" during a matinee showing, there were only about five people in the theater!) Cheaper and easier to watch movies on widescreen TV at home, just need to wait a couple of months before popular movies available via streaming. Of course, some individuals will want the "experience". And some malls will continue to exist but likely the exception.

TMats,

Small world, right?

Metrocenter was nice when I moved to Phoenix a little over 30 years ago but it was on its way downhill a few years later. It got so bad I'd only go in daylight and that was just to Sears. I'd go in the north door, head directly to the tool department, then leave. Wouldn't even go in the mall even though the main anchors were still there.

Rather a shame as the mall and all the stores/restaurants on metrocenter pkwy (the loop you're referring to) had pretty much anything anybody wanted.

bendable,

Park Central stopped being retail many years ago. Office space now. I don't remember that one being an indoor mall but maybe it was before my time.

Mall of America is still going strong I guess. Pretty amazing place when I visited it probably 15 years ago on a work trip. I also went and saw the house I was born in.

This really really is just a thread drift, but mall related. One of the owners of the Mall of America owns a house across the street from my mom. The house is amazing and he gave it to one of his daughters. He owns many homes throughout the world and gave each of his kids a home. For about a year now the house only has dogs in it. Someone comes once in a while to feed the dogs. I can’t imagine what the inside of that beautiful home looks like.

I don't mind malls. It was something to do. Walk down the walkways. I think Covid hastened the decline. We went to the mall near Anthem Park, AZ. it was maybe 2 or 3 stores open out of many vacant shops. Parking lot was deserted. It was sad to think about the people who used to work there.

In a nearby mall, there's only Dillard as the remaining store plus a small uniform outlet maybe. There's only one open stall in the food court. When we went there, there was just a couple of tables used by old people to play cards on one table and mah jong on another.

I have a shopping mall near me, and the only time I go there is Christmas shopping. Really only when I need the present in hand immediately.

There was a pleasing ambience to indoor malls- before the roving gangs of juvenile thugs turned them into little Mogadishus, that is.

I can remember a pleasant Fall Saturday, sitting on a bench outside one of a mall's anchor stores, waiting for my girlfriend- now my wife- to go into that store and make a purchase. The sound of splashing coming from a water fountain a few feet away. Midday sun streaming though a skylight. Reading the first few pages from a book I just purchased. The sound of laughing children echoing down to me. A lone shopper gliding out of a store, and nothing else around but serenity in the air.

That's how I'll remember these venues that, if you had told me twenty years ago, they would be in danger of disappearing, I would have not believed it.

I spent many a weekend in the 80's chasing girls at the mall in Fayetteville AR. Good times. 40 years later, most that I've been to have been sad affairs.

One surprising bright spot, Boise ID. I visited my brother and his family, and they wanted to go to the mall. I was pleasantly surprised. Hardly any empty space. Clean, bright, lots of anchor stores, fun stores, and nice people. We had a really nice time.

Fond times in my youth. Bookstores, movie theaters, and a store that sold nothing but hot caramel corn. OMG. My favorite place to eat was a place called "Tacos-n-spuds". Huge baked potatoes and giant tacos.

At the Southlake Mall they had a store called Cutlery World. It had all kinds of neat knives, swords, even a suit of armor. I bought a couple of SOG knives there in the late 1980s. I too have fond memories of malls back in the 70s and 80s.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
There was a pleasing ambience to indoor malls- before the roving gangs of juvenile thugs turned them into little Mogadishus, that is.

I can remember a pleasant Fall Saturday, sitting on a bench outside one of a mall's anchor stores, waiting for my girlfriend- now my wife- to go into that store and make a purchase. The sound of splashing coming from a water fountain a few feet away. Midday sun streaming though a skylight. Reading the first few pages from a book I just purchased. The sound of laughing children echoing down to me. A lone shopper gliding out of a store, and nothing else around but serenity in the air.

That's how I'll remember these venues that, if you had told me twenty years ago, they would be in danger of disappearing, I would have not believed it.

This is well said. I really miss mall book stores!

quote:

Originally posted by Ogie:
At the Southlake Mall they had a store called Cutlery World. It had all kinds of neat knives, swords, even a suit of armor. I bought a couple of SOG knives there in the late 1980s. I too have fond memories of malls back in the 70s and 80s.

We had a Cutlery World in Crossgates Mall when I was a kid as well. I think ours might have also had a suit of armor too. I remember drooling over their selection of Swiss Army knives!

As a kid in the 70's and a teen in the 80's, I've got nothing but good memories of malls. The 90's were great and still into the early 2000s things were still pretty OK.
It's weird that that so many of these huge, happening places are completely gone. Like they were never there.

I don't go to malls or movie theaters.

Congregated miscreants contemplating various nefarious activities raise my blood pressure.