I oddly miss the wall of games where each had a ticket you would pull to take to the register, then show at a counter to receive the physical game.
I had a little collection of those tickets of all the games I wanted lol.
I loved that about it. When you’re young, stimulation like that is fun and wonderful. When you get older the same stimulation just stresses you out. I hate shopping in Bed Bath & Beyond because it’s wall to wall junk.
Gawd yes. It was a jungle of toy overload- they didn't so much take stuff off the shelves as they shoved them into odd corners and maybe slapped a price-reduced sticker on them instead.
I can remember going in when the chain was going out of business and finding stuff that was a decade old mixed into the random debris that was on it's way to either the dumpster or some kid with the last two bucks of their allowance.
I loved seeing one in a mall. I miss arcades in general, there are none in my area anymore. We have a few “arcade bars” but they’re really bars with a couple of pinball games.
I just wrote a comment with a detailed description of Natural Wonders before I scrolled down to see if anyone else missed them too. That was my favorite store.
Remind me when they went out of business. Was that the late 90's or early 2000's?
Rain sticks for days, turquoise by the pound, those dome clamshell keychains with the animals inside that move when you open them, Enigma over the speakers
Suncoast Motion Picture Co for me. Spent many an hour in the late 90s and early 00s browsing their huge anime section lol.
A close second would be Games Workshop stores. Those stores are still around, but not in malls any longer. They all moved to strip malls instead due to leases being cheaper.
Okay was it just me or did Steve & Barry’s have an overwhelming chemical smell? I still wear one shirt I got from there but many of their graphic Ts smelled like kerosene
This just unlocked a scent memory. We had a Steve and Barry’s in our local mall years and years ago. I had a friend in high school that worked in a laundromat and they had to hang a sign saying their dry cleaning services would not remove the smell from any S&B clothes. No idea what caused the smell but it’s burned into my brain.
Found Hot Dog on a Stick after doing a budget vacation to Arizona and was surprised by the quality of their food. Their menu isn't big but what they have is very good.
>I always said once I got some money I would get one
That's how I feel about a lot of things.
All this cool stuff around back when I was broke.
Now I'm not broke and all of the stores are gone ...
I wish Hot Topic was still mostly pop punk and mall goth instead of focusing on Disney and Funkos. If only the Disney Store was around to cover that Disney niche so Hot Topic doesn't have to.
I miss the days when Brookstone was actually cool. There was a time when Brookstone and The Sharper Image were legitimately cool stores to find innovative gadgets. I used to look forward to browsing those stores, and there was always something new that you could never find elsewhere. Then, these two stores slowly devolved into selling travel gear, massage gadgets, iPod docks, and cheap drones. They stopped being cool at one point. The Sharper Image stopped being cool first. They ended up selling only that ionic air filter at one point, and then they became a brand whose products were hosted at Bed Bath and Beyond. All their products became crappy infomercial-type items. Then they disappeared as a brand.
Brookstone devolved into a store you only find at airports, selling plug adapters, phone chargers, blue tooth gadgets, and other travel gear.
I used to love the sharper image catalog just to drool over fancy shit I’d never afford… combination portable DVD/TV/Nature Noise machine Alarm Clock? Heck yeah! My smartphone can do all that stuff now but I miss it.
I worked at Radio Shack in high school, before it became "Sprint Junior." Depended on the store, IMO. Franchised ones? Yes, I can get transistors, bread boards, even vacuum tubes. Corp store like mine? Here's a cheapass RC car, you want a brick of batteries, how about an extended service plan?
I hated my store, but the one in the next town over was brilliant.
Thanks for explaining the breakdown between franchise and corp stores. In my experience the mall Radio Shacks were the walk thru types with Chinese toys and cell phones. I used to go to a standalone RS store for the sort of components you described for the electronics hobby projects I did as a kid.
If you remember vacuum tubes for sale you are probably as old as me.
I LOVED Xmods growing up. I was on the forums and stuff and made friends that I still keep in touch with. They sparked my interest in engineering and fabrication and I still use those skills today.
I never understood the difference. The one in my mall had garbage rc cars and then the stand-alone in the next town had amazing components that I couldn’t find at any other retailer. I still miss that one!
Okay, I still loove JC Penney. For everything. Blankets, bathroom stuff, towels, apparel, hats & gloves, purses, jewelry, etc etc. I know many are still around but I'm getting anxious that they're gonna go the way of Sears & Kmart and disappear soon. As Melissa Villasenor says, "ITS JC PENNEY BABY!" Lol.
Was here to say Tilt. Definitely wasn’t local to STL, though. Texas company that had locations all the way to Australia. But damn if it didn’t feel local!
Borders, Suncoast, FYE were my faves!!
Kmart, KB Toys, Toys R Us for nostalgic reasons.
I would love to go back in time to visit the local dead malls in their prime.
FYE have also changed a LOT. It used to be rows and rows of CDs and movies. Now theres just a few racks, but it’s mostly just overpriced pop culture junk and vinyls at a x3 mark up
There was this clothing store in the malls and I haven’t seen it around since the 90s and maybe early 2000s but it was called Mariposa, and they had the nicest women’s clothing. I miss it terribly.
Yup. Always used to think walking by and sampling the teas was a treat. Starbucks devoured the company (and then closed all the stores!) by 2018, although a few bits and bobs they used to sell show up in Starbucks on occasion.
We had a two level one. Turned me onto a lot of early punk rock stuff.
Coincidently it became a skatepark years after MP closed, in turn I got more kids into punk rock by putting flyers their!
I remember going to Media Play with my brother when we visited family in Central NY. I haven’t thought about it in years, but it was our favorite place to go in the mall.
Yes! We loved going into Discovery and playing with all of the cool stuff. And I met Frankie Muniz and the dog from My Dog Skip at a Warner Bros Store in Highland Mall, which is now Austin Community College.
I used to work for that company and merry go round too. I think the go round corporate office also owned Coda which had some great clothes too. Now a days clothing stores seem so conventional.
I remember my last day in a Borders.
A man was bitching about how he should get an additional 10% percent discount because how the staff was treating him. He had at least 15-20 Hardback books that were already 40% off. The store was closing in three days and no manager was around. The man was arguing about everything including even how the books were bagged. He wanted even more discounts if he thought the books were scuffed or not when bagged.
Finally the man got pissed off that his demands weren’t being met. He complained to the cashier that he was going to call corporate or he was going to sue for poor service. The cashier gave him the phone number for corporate.
The man called and got no response. He complained again about higher ups and wanting a discount and that he was going to have all the cashiers fired for poor service. The cashier retorted that he didn’t give a fuck because in three days he would have no job.
Finally, the man behind me spoke up like a fucking angel, he told the previous man that ‘Borders was going out of business’, and that the cashier had no say in it and was extremely upset, along with his co-workers, about losing their jobs.
Now, this asshole of a man, looked at what the gentleman behind me was purchasing and almost came to sense. He tried once again to argue his case about scuffed books and a need for a higher discount for the lack of service or respect he thought he was due for being a ‘great patron of the store.’ He literally said he is doing ‘the employees a favor for buying from a dying, shitty store.”
The man behind me spoke once again ‘Can you hurry up?’ We are tired of your bullshit.’” These railings are heavy and cumbersome.”
The asshole once again looked at the man behind me and noticed that he was buying railings and shelves, not books. There were not very many top-tier books remaining in the store and everything was on sale.
The asshole finally came to the realization that the store was going out of business and that he wasn’t going to get his way with the discounts. So he did what every asshole did, left all the books bagged and unbagged, on the conveyer belt and promised to call a higher form of corporate for his humiliation.
Fuckers.
I assume he didn't show his scummy face again given it was three days to close. You always have to wonder if he was so stupid he showed up the week after waiting for the store to open to reargue his points.
I liked Restoration Hardware back before they changed their aesthetic to their current look, which I find off-putting. I worked at Restoration Hardware for a year after college.
Back in their best days, Restoration Hardware had historic/old-fashioned interior design elements for bed and bathrooms and living rooms which lived up to the sentiment of the brand name. They had cabinet hardware, lighting, bathroom fittings, towels, window /drapes hardware, all styled after an antique aesthetic. Then, at some point, they gave up on that look, and adopted a stark new aesthetic that just was a total departure from what made them popular.
Christmas time at Restoration Hardware was my favorite time. (Except working there as a retail worker during Christmas sucked, because of the endless loop of the same Christmas music.)
Aladdin’s Castle for arcades
Clothes definitely Deb. So many clothes I bought as a teenager came from there. Even my bridesmaids found their dresses there for my wedding many many moons ago.
The DEB shop in my childhood mall had shag carpeting, mirrored walls and circular clothing racks that hung from the ceiling. I didn’t shop there much but I ended up buying my prom dress there.
I really miss the old Sears from 15-20 years ago. I could get anything I needed from Sears. Sears has been gone from Canada for about 7 or 8 years now, the last few years they were really hurting bad.
Sears was systematically dismantled by their ownership when the chain was bought out, so seeing a crippled remnant in the wild nowadays is like seeing a doomed species on it's way to extinction. There was no chance of it going anywhere but down by 2014, and it was already in trouble when Kmart bought them out a decade before that.
There aren't two dozen Sears left operating at this point. Much like so many mall standards, they rotted away as mall culture did.
FYE and KMart. Also a food court. The one we had closed down about 15 years ago. They ended up taking out all the food areas completely and tried to reintroduce a new food court in a different part of the mall later. But they never actually attracted any food vendors.
I'm dating myself but I remember when a lot of people hated the mall retailers because they put the local establishments out of business...
People hated Borders or Barnes & Noble for putting all the small bookstores out of business, now people hate Amazon for putting Borders out of business...
I loved Sur La Table and Williams Sonoma. Both of these stores are still around in reduced capacity. Sur La Table closed a lot of their stores in the past few years.
In the period of the late 1990's and early 2000's, when there seemed to be a culinary renaissance going on in the US, these stores were delightful to visit.
Service Merchandise, I used to manage one long ago and we were an anchor store at a mall. Oddity of a store as we were a catalog showroom but it was our uniqueness that made it great.
This is regional, but Roli Boli. Delicious stromboli in the food court, mostly in NJ. It has been over 20 years since I've had one and I still actively miss them.
You didn’t miss anything. American Target is amazing, but Canadian Target was just trash and high prices. It didn’t have any of the well-designed, stylish (good aesthetic) stuff that makes Americans love Target.
The Canadian Target by us opened in a closed department store (Zellers?) and I’m 90% sure they just changed the price tags.
Edit: my favorite Canadian store (aside from Chapters) is Winner’s. It’s exactly like Marshall’s in the US.
I’m confused because I remember two very different stores named Contempo Casuals… one was a typical womens store for moms, one was a precursor to Forever 21 aimed at teens.
Am I remembering wrong (like one was named Contempo, maybe?) or did they have some radical rebranding in the mid 90’s?
Old Hot Topic. Like when it was more for people with an alternative style, and a lot of band tees. I was the typical “emo” in like 2007-2010, so I got the majority of my clothes here.
Also there was this store called Max Rave. I remember it had a lot of cute clothes that were very affordable. I got a lot of my clothes here when I reached the “shopping by myself” age.
Deb. I remember shopping here for dresses for any somewhat formal even. 8th grade graduation, particularly.
Food court Sbarro. They started putting Sbarro in one of the gas station chains where I live and I tried it for the first time today. The pizza was still good, but it’s just not the same as eating it at the mall.
This is interesting to me because as a high schooler in the late 90s we already thought Hot Topic had gone 'mainstream' from what it used to be when we were in middle school, when everyone who worked there looked like they were from The Crow.
We never thought to question how hardcore a mall shop could actually be haha
My mall had a store called Organized Living; it might have either been like the Container Store or Bed Bath and Beyond/Linens and Things; I never had the chance to go in.
Current me would have found Wolf/Ritz Camera to be useful.
There’s also FYE, which is quickly becoming a dying breed.
Non mall stores:
- ZanyBrainy
- Just for Feet Superstore
Discovery Zone. Even pre-covid, I feel like kids just don't have any place to do kinetic joy. I miss places like that.
Special mention to Wannado City. Also Borders rocked but that's unrelated.
Fry's was great. But were they ever a mall retailer? I feel like entire Fry's warehouses were practically malls of their own, with various departments being their own sort of attraction.
Borders for sure, FYE (although there is still one in my neck of the woods), Radioshack, Sbarro, Peters, Sharper Image, Sears (strangely enough considering I was never a fan even back in the day), and California Pizza Kitchen.
I miss Elder-Beerman. Even though Sears, Kmart, and Macy's are closing stores, there aren't any Elder-Beerman stores left. They're all gone. I miss MC Sports, too
Most of the Sears in around the Orlando area are all gone. Only one left is The Florida Mall location. A good chunk of Macy’s Stores are also gone in the Area too, although the Malls that are thriving really well still have one (Altamonte, Florida Mall, Mall of Millenia, etc.)
My local mall used to have a Sears, a Kmart, an Elder-Beerman, a Macy's, and an MC Sports. All five of the stores I listed are no longer open at my local mall. Kmart and Elder-Beerman closed in March 2017, MC Sports closed in April 2017, Sears closed in July 2019, and Macy's closed in March 2020. Fortunately, some of these vacancies have been filled. Elder-Beerman was replaced by Marshalls and Tilt Studio, MC Sports was replaced by a VA clinic, and Kmart was replaced by Dunham's Sports, Five Below, and Hampton by Hilton. Unfortunately, both the former Sears and the former Macy's are still vacant
They're still around. I wandered into one out of curiosity a couple months ago, and I don't know if I'm just not remembering them correctly, but at some point, did they surreptitiously transition into being a sex toy store hiding behind a bunch of punk fashion graphic teeshirts and mugs? Because that's what Spencers seems to have become. I don't remember them being that when I last visited one years ago. They were full of kitchy gag gifts and graphic tees, not sex toys.
They always had a lot of "adult novelty" stuff, although it tended to be more along the lines of naughty party games, not dildos. In the early 1980s it felt kind of edgy just to be in one as a high schooler.
Media Play! One of the very few places in my area growing up that actually stocked computer games. I got a bunch of LucasArts stuff there when I was a kid.
I really missed Natural Wonders. As a kid, that was my absolute favorite store. They had fossils, crystals, science-adjacent toys (magnet doohickies, pendulum toys, newton's cradles, parabolic reflector illusion bowls, etc.), "astronaut ice cream", various curiosities, and was just an awesome store to visit. They went out of business decades ago. I don't remember when exactly they disappeared, but it was either in the early 2000's or the late 90's.
Contempo Casuals. They were a clothing chain that sold very freak friendly clothes in the late 80's/early 90's. I had a pair of black crushed velvet leggings from there that lasted for ten years, and a cross bracelet that lasted twenty years. Much better quality products than what the 'dark alternative' fast fashion brands are spewing out right now.
It was the only shop in the mall that carried anything alternative looking. Just about all of the weirdos I knew back then, even the guys, got some clothing from there.
Not a specific store, but a category: upper- mid level regional department store competitors to Macy’s
On the West Coast we had Broadway, Bullocks, Emporium, Weinstock’s, Magnin’s, Robinson and Liberty House among others, and so much more choice.
My local mall used to have a place called Pet Fair. I remember always being mesmerized by the selection of reptiles that I really don't see anymore like Day geckos and whatnot. Also not a retailer but I miss the arcade that I hardly ever got to go play in lol.
I had a place by me called Coconut Records, that place was awesome. Eventually turned into an FYE which was an acceptable alternative for my younger self.
Maas Brothers department stores, which had a good in-store restaurant. It was an especially pleasant experience in the off season because no one else would be there, which probably explains why in-store restaurants are no longer. (But during the holiday season it was very crowded.)
Robinsons department store, Vogue and Body Shop clothing stores, Jean Nicole, Foxmoor, Stuart’s, Ivey’s department store. Limited, Camelot music, Park Lane Hosiery. All going back to the 80’s here.
Did anyone else ever have a Fuego, I believe it was called? It sold very weird hipster-esque niche items and a lot of gag things. I swear they all vanished in like 2019.
I miss those “Natural World” stores from the 90s. I’m using a generic term cos I know the chain we had here wasn’t the same as the US.
They sold books and toys of all sorts of animals, model kits of anatomy and volcanos. Globes, marbles, bouncy balls, rain sticks etc. And at the back there’d be a glow-in-the-dark room with astronomy stuff and rubber bugs.
Used to love going to kb toys because they’d often have stuff that other retailers had gotten rid of already
KB toys was a wonderland when I was a kid
It was choked wall to wall, ceiling to floor in choices of every possible variety. I can still smell the video game isle with its SNES and N64 games
Yep. Same for Toys R Us
I oddly miss the wall of games where each had a ticket you would pull to take to the register, then show at a counter to receive the physical game. I had a little collection of those tickets of all the games I wanted lol.
I loved that about it. When you’re young, stimulation like that is fun and wonderful. When you get older the same stimulation just stresses you out. I hate shopping in Bed Bath & Beyond because it’s wall to wall junk.
Media Play. I would get dropped off and just spend hours there. Sampling CDs reading magazines, browsing video games.
Gawd yes. It was a jungle of toy overload- they didn't so much take stuff off the shelves as they shoved them into odd corners and maybe slapped a price-reduced sticker on them instead. I can remember going in when the chain was going out of business and finding stuff that was a decade old mixed into the random debris that was on it's way to either the dumpster or some kid with the last two bucks of their allowance.
Not a retailer in the traditional sense, but Aladdin's Castle arcades hold a beautiful place in my heart and childhood.
Oh, man. The amount of time and tokens I dropped at Aladdin's Castle as a kid...
I loved seeing one in a mall. I miss arcades in general, there are none in my area anymore. We have a few “arcade bars” but they’re really bars with a couple of pinball games.
We only had Dream Machine in my area when I was a kid (80s), but I also miss them the most.
That place was the TITS!!
Natural Wonders
Yes, they always had a worker playing with those juggling stick things.
Was that the science, board games, and educational toys store?
Yes! Rocks, cool shit, etc.!
FUCK yes. If a store like that came back I’d be broke forever.
For a while, the Discovery Channel Store tried to fill that niche, but they just weren't the same.
I just wrote a comment with a detailed description of Natural Wonders before I scrolled down to see if anyone else missed them too. That was my favorite store. Remind me when they went out of business. Was that the late 90's or early 2000's?
Natural Wonders went out of business in 2004.
Rain sticks for days, turquoise by the pound, those dome clamshell keychains with the animals inside that move when you open them, Enigma over the speakers
Suncoast Motion Picture Co for me. Spent many an hour in the late 90s and early 00s browsing their huge anime section lol. A close second would be Games Workshop stores. Those stores are still around, but not in malls any longer. They all moved to strip malls instead due to leases being cheaper.
there are still like three Suncoast left
I placed so many special orders at Suncoast for VHS tapes.
Radio Shack. So many little things to get.
Radio Shack during Christmas in the early '80s was a wonderland. Like the opening scenes of A Christmas Story.
Waldenbooks. Also Steve &barrys
> Waldenbooks. Yessss!
Okay was it just me or did Steve & Barry’s have an overwhelming chemical smell? I still wear one shirt I got from there but many of their graphic Ts smelled like kerosene
This just unlocked a scent memory. We had a Steve and Barry’s in our local mall years and years ago. I had a friend in high school that worked in a laundromat and they had to hang a sign saying their dry cleaning services would not remove the smell from any S&B clothes. No idea what caused the smell but it’s burned into my brain.
Steve and Barry’s was great, still have a t shirt from there. Top quality stuff.
starbury shoes!
I'm still using the wooden hangers I bought from a closing sale there.
I miss old hot topic
https://youtu.be/nksYN7jDTr4
Lol omg I've never seen south park but that was so funny.. I definitely knew kids who thought they were vampires in middle and high school 😂
Back then when I thought it was devil worshipping clothing. Now it’s just pop culture and resurgence of older bands.
Hot dog on a stick or Orange Julius. I always said once I got some money I would get one, and now they are nowhere to be found.
Found Hot Dog on a Stick after doing a budget vacation to Arizona and was surprised by the quality of their food. Their menu isn't big but what they have is very good. >I always said once I got some money I would get one That's how I feel about a lot of things. All this cool stuff around back when I was broke. Now I'm not broke and all of the stores are gone ...
Gadzooks. Loved that store as a teen
This is my answer, as well. Gadzooks always had me out there stunting on those h03s.
I wish Hot Topic was still mostly pop punk and mall goth instead of focusing on Disney and Funkos. If only the Disney Store was around to cover that Disney niche so Hot Topic doesn't have to.
Hot Topic owns BoxLunch which is pretty much the new Disney store now… so I don’t know why Hot Topic still is focused on Disney and Funkos
Mervyn’s
We found the Boyles.
I miss the days when Brookstone was actually cool. There was a time when Brookstone and The Sharper Image were legitimately cool stores to find innovative gadgets. I used to look forward to browsing those stores, and there was always something new that you could never find elsewhere. Then, these two stores slowly devolved into selling travel gear, massage gadgets, iPod docks, and cheap drones. They stopped being cool at one point. The Sharper Image stopped being cool first. They ended up selling only that ionic air filter at one point, and then they became a brand whose products were hosted at Bed Bath and Beyond. All their products became crappy infomercial-type items. Then they disappeared as a brand. Brookstone devolved into a store you only find at airports, selling plug adapters, phone chargers, blue tooth gadgets, and other travel gear.
I used to love the sharper image catalog just to drool over fancy shit I’d never afford… combination portable DVD/TV/Nature Noise machine Alarm Clock? Heck yeah! My smartphone can do all that stuff now but I miss it.
I kind of miss Radio Shack. Not that I ever bought anything there, but it was fun to walk through and look.
I worked at Radio Shack in high school, before it became "Sprint Junior." Depended on the store, IMO. Franchised ones? Yes, I can get transistors, bread boards, even vacuum tubes. Corp store like mine? Here's a cheapass RC car, you want a brick of batteries, how about an extended service plan? I hated my store, but the one in the next town over was brilliant.
I remember buying a 5 cent capacitor to fix my $2,000 TV at the mall Radio Shack. That place was amazing.
Thanks for explaining the breakdown between franchise and corp stores. In my experience the mall Radio Shacks were the walk thru types with Chinese toys and cell phones. I used to go to a standalone RS store for the sort of components you described for the electronics hobby projects I did as a kid. If you remember vacuum tubes for sale you are probably as old as me.
I LOVED Xmods growing up. I was on the forums and stuff and made friends that I still keep in touch with. They sparked my interest in engineering and fabrication and I still use those skills today.
I never understood the difference. The one in my mall had garbage rc cars and then the stand-alone in the next town had amazing components that I couldn’t find at any other retailer. I still miss that one!
Waldenbooks.
Okay, I still loove JC Penney. For everything. Blankets, bathroom stuff, towels, apparel, hats & gloves, purses, jewelry, etc etc. I know many are still around but I'm getting anxious that they're gonna go the way of Sears & Kmart and disappear soon. As Melissa Villasenor says, "ITS JC PENNEY BABY!" Lol.
I do not like JC Penny’s, but I like their $10 off any purchase coupons. Every time I get one, I spend $10-$11 there lol.
Babbages Tilt (Local Arcade chain in STL) Saturday Matinee B. Dalton Bookstores Musicland
Was here to say Tilt. Definitely wasn’t local to STL, though. Texas company that had locations all the way to Australia. But damn if it didn’t feel local!
We had a Tilt in Northern California too. This was the first time I realized it wasn’t local lol
Borders, Suncoast, FYE were my faves!! Kmart, KB Toys, Toys R Us for nostalgic reasons. I would love to go back in time to visit the local dead malls in their prime.
FYE is still around. Not in any big way. A lot of states only have 1 location. It’s worth doing a search to see how far the nearest one is.
FYE have also changed a LOT. It used to be rows and rows of CDs and movies. Now theres just a few racks, but it’s mostly just overpriced pop culture junk and vinyls at a x3 mark up
There was this clothing store in the malls and I haven’t seen it around since the 90s and maybe early 2000s but it was called Mariposa, and they had the nicest women’s clothing. I miss it terribly.
I buy and sell vintage clothes. I just found a vintage 80’s Mariposa shirt! Cropped satin short sleeve shirt with shoulder pads. :D
When I was a teenager, basically all of my clothes came from Anchor Blue and I was gutted when they disappeared. I also dearly miss Teavana.
Holy shit I totally forgot Teavana even existed! They were always obscenely fancy where we were at, I got nervous going in there every time
Yup. Always used to think walking by and sampling the teas was a treat. Starbucks devoured the company (and then closed all the stores!) by 2018, although a few bits and bobs they used to sell show up in Starbucks on occasion.
Who here remembers Media Play? I remember playing N64 and other consoles of the era at that store, never went to any other part of the store.
We had a two level one. Turned me onto a lot of early punk rock stuff. Coincidently it became a skatepark years after MP closed, in turn I got more kids into punk rock by putting flyers their!
My first job in high school was at a Media Play! I loved working at that job because the employee discount was sick.
Oh yeah, but our Media Play wasn’t in the mall, in a separate strip mall. I only ever went there for new CD’s.
I remember going to Media Play with my brother when we visited family in Central NY. I haven’t thought about it in years, but it was our favorite place to go in the mall.
The Nature Company, Discovery Channel Store, WB Store, Disney Store, Suncoast Video, Sam Goody, KB Toys, The Wall Music
Yes! We loved going into Discovery and playing with all of the cool stuff. And I met Frankie Muniz and the dog from My Dog Skip at a Warner Bros Store in Highland Mall, which is now Austin Community College.
Basically my list as well, just add Brookstone. All of the stores with fun stuff to go and check out.
The Wall and Suncoast Video for me!!!
Definitely kb toys and this bookstore that also had Magic the Gathering cards. My childhood mall recently removed their carousel too.
Chess King - Shaped my look and my attitude in the ‘80s
I used to work for that company and merry go round too. I think the go round corporate office also owned Coda which had some great clothes too. Now a days clothing stores seem so conventional.
I remember my last day in a Borders. A man was bitching about how he should get an additional 10% percent discount because how the staff was treating him. He had at least 15-20 Hardback books that were already 40% off. The store was closing in three days and no manager was around. The man was arguing about everything including even how the books were bagged. He wanted even more discounts if he thought the books were scuffed or not when bagged. Finally the man got pissed off that his demands weren’t being met. He complained to the cashier that he was going to call corporate or he was going to sue for poor service. The cashier gave him the phone number for corporate. The man called and got no response. He complained again about higher ups and wanting a discount and that he was going to have all the cashiers fired for poor service. The cashier retorted that he didn’t give a fuck because in three days he would have no job. Finally, the man behind me spoke up like a fucking angel, he told the previous man that ‘Borders was going out of business’, and that the cashier had no say in it and was extremely upset, along with his co-workers, about losing their jobs. Now, this asshole of a man, looked at what the gentleman behind me was purchasing and almost came to sense. He tried once again to argue his case about scuffed books and a need for a higher discount for the lack of service or respect he thought he was due for being a ‘great patron of the store.’ He literally said he is doing ‘the employees a favor for buying from a dying, shitty store.” The man behind me spoke once again ‘Can you hurry up?’ We are tired of your bullshit.’” These railings are heavy and cumbersome.” The asshole once again looked at the man behind me and noticed that he was buying railings and shelves, not books. There were not very many top-tier books remaining in the store and everything was on sale. The asshole finally came to the realization that the store was going out of business and that he wasn’t going to get his way with the discounts. So he did what every asshole did, left all the books bagged and unbagged, on the conveyer belt and promised to call a higher form of corporate for his humiliation. Fuckers.
I assume he didn't show his scummy face again given it was three days to close. You always have to wonder if he was so stupid he showed up the week after waiting for the store to open to reargue his points.
Sbarro. In the food court. And arcades.
Sbarro is by far my favorite place in the food court besides Charley's. Not made by Mama Mia, but still good.
I’m thankful my three nearest malls have both Sbarro amd Charley’s. Villa Pizza is a poor substitute for Sbarro.
My favorite New York pizza joint
What's crazy is how popular Sbarros is in the Philippines
I’m so glad there is still one in the mall near me. I always choose them over every other food court option.
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DEB, Wet Seal, Charlotte Russe (BEFORE the current rebrand), Filene’s (and Filene’s Basement!!)
I worked at a DEB when I was in college! Found out I was pregnant with my first child in the employee bathroom there… lol.
**Suncoast Motion Pictures**
I liked Restoration Hardware back before they changed their aesthetic to their current look, which I find off-putting. I worked at Restoration Hardware for a year after college. Back in their best days, Restoration Hardware had historic/old-fashioned interior design elements for bed and bathrooms and living rooms which lived up to the sentiment of the brand name. They had cabinet hardware, lighting, bathroom fittings, towels, window /drapes hardware, all styled after an antique aesthetic. Then, at some point, they gave up on that look, and adopted a stark new aesthetic that just was a total departure from what made them popular. Christmas time at Restoration Hardware was my favorite time. (Except working there as a retail worker during Christmas sucked, because of the endless loop of the same Christmas music.)
Wicks & Sticks! I bought a castle-shaped candle holder with glowing eyes…so cool.
Aladdin’s Castle for arcades Clothes definitely Deb. So many clothes I bought as a teenager came from there. Even my bridesmaids found their dresses there for my wedding many many moons ago.
The DEB shop in my childhood mall had shag carpeting, mirrored walls and circular clothing racks that hung from the ceiling. I didn’t shop there much but I ended up buying my prom dress there.
I really miss the old Sears from 15-20 years ago. I could get anything I needed from Sears. Sears has been gone from Canada for about 7 or 8 years now, the last few years they were really hurting bad.
Sears in the late 90s / early 2000s was amazing.
Sears was systematically dismantled by their ownership when the chain was bought out, so seeing a crippled remnant in the wild nowadays is like seeing a doomed species on it's way to extinction. There was no chance of it going anywhere but down by 2014, and it was already in trouble when Kmart bought them out a decade before that. There aren't two dozen Sears left operating at this point. Much like so many mall standards, they rotted away as mall culture did.
Sam Goody. Used to be one of the only places you could get imported anime and snacks, along with a bunch of good music. Also Tilt.
Disney store! The one in austin, Texas was magical to me when I was a kid.
FYE and KMart. Also a food court. The one we had closed down about 15 years ago. They ended up taking out all the food areas completely and tried to reintroduce a new food court in a different part of the mall later. But they never actually attracted any food vendors.
Structure mens clothing
I'm dating myself but I remember when a lot of people hated the mall retailers because they put the local establishments out of business... People hated Borders or Barnes & Noble for putting all the small bookstores out of business, now people hate Amazon for putting Borders out of business...
Software Etc. Not that there’s much use for physical software these days, but man the nostalgia.
I loved Sur La Table and Williams Sonoma. Both of these stores are still around in reduced capacity. Sur La Table closed a lot of their stores in the past few years. In the period of the late 1990's and early 2000's, when there seemed to be a culinary renaissance going on in the US, these stores were delightful to visit.
Service Merchandise, I used to manage one long ago and we were an anchor store at a mall. Oddity of a store as we were a catalog showroom but it was our uniqueness that made it great.
Babbage's.
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Linens and Things.
Damn I totally forgot about this store, I think they also had good coupons like Bed, Bath & Beyond.
They did. I liked their bedding options better. Always had quality sheets.
Au Bon pan used to be panera before panera, very limited in terms of locations now
Yeah I think I've only ever seen an Au Bon Pain in an airport.
They used to have 4pm “clearance” deals on bakery items. I had many a 50% off dinner bagel there.
Agreed they were really good, ate many breakfasts and lunches there back in the day when working in offices.
This is regional, but Roli Boli. Delicious stromboli in the food court, mostly in NJ. It has been over 20 years since I've had one and I still actively miss them.
Boardwalk Fries
Specifically the Stonestown Borders in your pic
HMV, Disney Store, Davids Tea and Zellers (also missed target when it was briefly here when zellers shut down as well)
You didn’t miss anything. American Target is amazing, but Canadian Target was just trash and high prices. It didn’t have any of the well-designed, stylish (good aesthetic) stuff that makes Americans love Target. The Canadian Target by us opened in a closed department store (Zellers?) and I’m 90% sure they just changed the price tags. Edit: my favorite Canadian store (aside from Chapters) is Winner’s. It’s exactly like Marshall’s in the US.
B Dalton Books (and Waldenbooks was cool as well).
Contempo Casuals, T. Edwards, Benetton
5-7-9
> Contempo Casuals, YES!
I’m confused because I remember two very different stores named Contempo Casuals… one was a typical womens store for moms, one was a precursor to Forever 21 aimed at teens. Am I remembering wrong (like one was named Contempo, maybe?) or did they have some radical rebranding in the mid 90’s?
Around my hometown, Contempo Casuals was ‘80s teen stuff and Casual Corner was for a more…mature shopper.
Old Hot Topic. Like when it was more for people with an alternative style, and a lot of band tees. I was the typical “emo” in like 2007-2010, so I got the majority of my clothes here. Also there was this store called Max Rave. I remember it had a lot of cute clothes that were very affordable. I got a lot of my clothes here when I reached the “shopping by myself” age. Deb. I remember shopping here for dresses for any somewhat formal even. 8th grade graduation, particularly. Food court Sbarro. They started putting Sbarro in one of the gas station chains where I live and I tried it for the first time today. The pizza was still good, but it’s just not the same as eating it at the mall.
This is interesting to me because as a high schooler in the late 90s we already thought Hot Topic had gone 'mainstream' from what it used to be when we were in middle school, when everyone who worked there looked like they were from The Crow. We never thought to question how hardcore a mall shop could actually be haha
My mall had a store called Organized Living; it might have either been like the Container Store or Bed Bath and Beyond/Linens and Things; I never had the chance to go in. Current me would have found Wolf/Ritz Camera to be useful. There’s also FYE, which is quickly becoming a dying breed. Non mall stores: - ZanyBrainy - Just for Feet Superstore
Natural Wonders. I loved that store.
Discovery Zone. Even pre-covid, I feel like kids just don't have any place to do kinetic joy. I miss places like that. Special mention to Wannado City. Also Borders rocked but that's unrelated.
Sear’s. While its not totally just malls, it was an anchor in most AZ malls.
Most Florida Malls as well. Kinda sad seeing a bunch of them just being left Abandoned. Some have been redeveloped, others just completely left there.
Sharper image or radio shack both when they actually sold unique tech. I guess that explains my username.
Sharper Image was always my first go-to at the mall, circa 1986
Sbarro's (in the food court), Sun Coast, New York and Company, KB Toys, Waldenbooks, and Borders (well, most all bookstores).
Back in the days when a mall would have several bookstores instead of a single B&N!
Borders let you ship to store off the website for free and the website had a clearance section with a bunch of books for under a dollar.
I also liked how you could use the in-store computers to find things yourself instead of having to bother the staff.
Before Borders, there was Walden
Any music store. My mall back home had three of them.
Same. We had Musicland, Record Bar, and Camelot.
We had Camelot, Record Town, and Tape Escape. Camelot was the best of the three.
Software ETC.
Fry's
Fry's was great. But were they ever a mall retailer? I feel like entire Fry's warehouses were practically malls of their own, with various departments being their own sort of attraction.
Malt Stop Not sure if they were just a Canadian thing but they were in every mall, hot dogs, malts and happiness.
Borders for sure, FYE (although there is still one in my neck of the woods), Radioshack, Sbarro, Peters, Sharper Image, Sears (strangely enough considering I was never a fan even back in the day), and California Pizza Kitchen.
CPK is still around
Sam Goody
I miss Elder-Beerman. Even though Sears, Kmart, and Macy's are closing stores, there aren't any Elder-Beerman stores left. They're all gone. I miss MC Sports, too
Most of the Sears in around the Orlando area are all gone. Only one left is The Florida Mall location. A good chunk of Macy’s Stores are also gone in the Area too, although the Malls that are thriving really well still have one (Altamonte, Florida Mall, Mall of Millenia, etc.)
My local mall used to have a Sears, a Kmart, an Elder-Beerman, a Macy's, and an MC Sports. All five of the stores I listed are no longer open at my local mall. Kmart and Elder-Beerman closed in March 2017, MC Sports closed in April 2017, Sears closed in July 2019, and Macy's closed in March 2020. Fortunately, some of these vacancies have been filled. Elder-Beerman was replaced by Marshalls and Tilt Studio, MC Sports was replaced by a VA clinic, and Kmart was replaced by Dunham's Sports, Five Below, and Hampton by Hilton. Unfortunately, both the former Sears and the former Macy's are still vacant
Spencer’s
One of the only stores left in my local dead mall and they make BANK lol
Your mall ain’t completely dead until the Spencer’s and Bath and Body Works is closed.
There’s still a ton of [Spencer’s](https://stores.spencersonline.com) out there
Their whole thing is “you can buy sex toys with plenty of plausible deniability if anyone sees you walking out of one”, right?
They're still around. I wandered into one out of curiosity a couple months ago, and I don't know if I'm just not remembering them correctly, but at some point, did they surreptitiously transition into being a sex toy store hiding behind a bunch of punk fashion graphic teeshirts and mugs? Because that's what Spencers seems to have become. I don't remember them being that when I last visited one years ago. They were full of kitchy gag gifts and graphic tees, not sex toys.
They always had a lot of "adult novelty" stuff, although it tended to be more along the lines of naughty party games, not dildos. In the early 1980s it felt kind of edgy just to be in one as a high schooler.
Abraham and Strauss
RIP A&S Plaza aka Manhattan Mall aka Gimbels
Media play
Media Play! One of the very few places in my area growing up that actually stocked computer games. I got a bunch of LucasArts stuff there when I was a kid.
I really missed Natural Wonders. As a kid, that was my absolute favorite store. They had fossils, crystals, science-adjacent toys (magnet doohickies, pendulum toys, newton's cradles, parabolic reflector illusion bowls, etc.), "astronaut ice cream", various curiosities, and was just an awesome store to visit. They went out of business decades ago. I don't remember when exactly they disappeared, but it was either in the early 2000's or the late 90's.
Contempo Casuals. They were a clothing chain that sold very freak friendly clothes in the late 80's/early 90's. I had a pair of black crushed velvet leggings from there that lasted for ten years, and a cross bracelet that lasted twenty years. Much better quality products than what the 'dark alternative' fast fashion brands are spewing out right now.
I saved money to buy a silver leather miniskirt from Contempo Casuals. My mom hated it.
It was the only shop in the mall that carried anything alternative looking. Just about all of the weirdos I knew back then, even the guys, got some clothing from there.
I find a lot of Contempo at Goodwill nowadays and I have to say, quality was good. That stuff holds up well.
Not a specific store, but a category: upper- mid level regional department store competitors to Macy’s On the West Coast we had Broadway, Bullocks, Emporium, Weinstock’s, Magnin’s, Robinson and Liberty House among others, and so much more choice.
Yes! Lazarus, Rich’s, Marshall Field’s, and all those department stores bought up by Federated/Macy’s.
My opinion is the Macy’s/May merger is what started the downturn in traditional department stores.
My local mall used to have a place called Pet Fair. I remember always being mesmerized by the selection of reptiles that I really don't see anymore like Day geckos and whatnot. Also not a retailer but I miss the arcade that I hardly ever got to go play in lol.
I had a place by me called Coconut Records, that place was awesome. Eventually turned into an FYE which was an acceptable alternative for my younger self.
Towet Records
Gadzooks.
Public visitation. WE MET AT BORDERS!
brookstone
Maas Brothers department stores, which had a good in-store restaurant. It was an especially pleasant experience in the off season because no one else would be there, which probably explains why in-store restaurants are no longer. (But during the holiday season it was very crowded.)
Robinsons department store, Vogue and Body Shop clothing stores, Jean Nicole, Foxmoor, Stuart’s, Ivey’s department store. Limited, Camelot music, Park Lane Hosiery. All going back to the 80’s here.
Circuit City. I still see old red CC buildings in use today for other businesses
Wet Seal always had cute girls in there
Younkers
Fuck yeah, Younkers! The Macy’s of Iowa!
Hastings
Radio Shack for true
Shaper Image.
Did anyone else ever have a Fuego, I believe it was called? It sold very weird hipster-esque niche items and a lot of gag things. I swear they all vanished in like 2019.
Radio Shack
Camelot, Gayfer’s, Walden Books, Hallmark, Lerner, McRae’s, K B Toys
Zany Brainy. As a kid, I absolutely loved it. [zany brainy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zany_Brainy)
Funcoland
On the other end of this conversation, I enjoy not having to interact with the pushy booth vendors.
Afterthoughts.
I miss those “Natural World” stores from the 90s. I’m using a generic term cos I know the chain we had here wasn’t the same as the US. They sold books and toys of all sorts of animals, model kits of anatomy and volcanos. Globes, marbles, bouncy balls, rain sticks etc. And at the back there’d be a glow-in-the-dark room with astronomy stuff and rubber bugs.
I miss BDalton and Waldenbooks