I feel like shopping malls and the whole shopping mall culture reached its peak in the 1980s, with arcades, the "mall rat" and "Valley Girl" thing, etc. They overbuilt malls in the '70s and '80s and so some have closed since then (see deadmalls.com), and they're not the vogue thing to build anymore, and since the advent of the internet and cheap home video games, they haven't been as important gathering spots. By the '80s, traditional downtowns were largely dead (this is before the '90s revival), and big box stores were certainly rising, but they hadn't become dominant yet, like they did in the early '90s. So malls were king in the '80s, the golden age of the suburban shopping mall.

I can still remember when the major shopping mall here was nothing but open land.  As soon as it was built in '84, every boy and his dog went there.  As of late, most of the stores that are downtown are relocating out to the mall (which is in the township).  Pretty soon, downtown shopping will cease to exist :o

I loved the malls in the 80's. It will never be like that again. From 1980-89. I was from five to fourteen years old. Some of my best memories are of the mall. The arcades, the great food, some cool stores, the pretty girls,etc. The mall had a much better atmosphere back then.

Malls have drastically changed. Smaller malls are almost the thing of the past, with larger and larger malls being built.

these days it's all about fakey "olde towns."

http://www.popmatters.com/features/tttp/3ward.shtml

these days it's all about fakey "olde towns."

http://www.popmatters.com/features/tttp/3ward.shtml


To quote a recent book/article on this very subject, it's "the geography of nowhere", which could also describe half of the Main streets in America. No matter where you go, there's a McDonald's, Wal-Mart and/or Best Buy.

As for the "fake olde towns", one of these is not far from where I live. If you haven't seen one, check out Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio:

http://eastontowncenter.com/

I guess if you can't have a "real" downtown, then you build a new one out in the 'burbs. That having been said, I have shopped there. There's no sense being a Luddite.

To quote a recent book/article on this very subject, it's "the geography of nowhere", which could also describe half of the Main streets in America. No matter where you go, there's a McDonald's, Wal-Mart and/or Best Buy.

As for the "fake olde towns", one of these is not far from where I live. If you haven't seen one, check out Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio:

http://eastontowncenter.com/

I guess if you can't have a "real" downtown, then you build a new one out in the 'burbs. That having been said, I have shopped there. There's no sense being a Luddite.
That transformation just overtook hunt valley, which is on deadmalls.com. I went there recently and it's been all redone, with little old-towney shops left and right and this piped in jazz music. It's rather spooky. It feels just like Bethesda, ballston, a million other places. The funny thing about these places is there's no community there, which is why the simulation of community needs to be so insistent.

I liked geography of nowhere, although that guy can get a bit strident sometimes. Jane Jacobs is awesome.

That transformation just overtook hunt valley, which is on deadmalls.com. I went there recently and it's been all redone, with little old-towney shops left and right and this piped in jazz music. It's rather spooky. It feels just like Bethesda, ballston, a million other places. The funny thing about these places is there's no community there, which is why the simulation of community needs to be so insistent.



How true. I can't help but wonder if some people mistakenly believe these places *are* the genuine item, but that's probably just the cynic in me speaking.  :)

This reminds me of something Billy Corgan said about nostalgia. The themed 50s/60s rock 'n' roll diners you see here and there aren't an accurate representation of an actual diner from the period. Maybe they're not meant to be, either. They're simply someone's "idea" of what diners might have looked like back then, even thought the architects likely never experienced the real thing. The Johnny Rockets diner mentioned in the Easton Town Center web site jogged my memory of this observation.

   

How true. I can't help but wonder if some people mistakenly believe these places *are* the genuine item, but that's probably just the cynic in me speaking.  :)

This reminds me of something Billy Corgan said about nostalgia. The themed 50s/60s rock 'n' roll diners you see here and there aren't an accurate representation of an actual diner from the period. Maybe they're not meant to be, either. They're simply someone's "idea" of what diners might have looked like back then, even thought the architects likely never experienced the real thing. The Johnny Rockets diner mentioned in the Easton Town Center web site jogged my memory of this observation.

   
Is geography of nowhere the one where kunstler gets into the Bauhaus? Those shopping malls of the 70s and 80s are very Bauhaus, forward-looking and futuristic (in that angular, non-ornamented way that indicated the future back in the 70s, like in sleeper and logans run) but they're also sorta like simulations of high schools -- built like high schools and with high school kids all hanging around in em all day. so that's their "community", that they imitate a public space but without any sense of responsibility or obligation to learn anything. Pauline kael sez movie theaters are similar; they're like classrooms (because everyone sits in a single room facing the same direction) but you don't have to learn anything. The trappings of community and purpose, in other words, placed into the service of consumption and leisure.

Anyway, the 70s and 80s malls being more futuristic, the olde town thing is more retro, backward-looking, trying to get at a small-town frontier mentality. I have a funny feeling it has something to do with the rise of political conservatism the last few years.

"Fast Times At Ridgemont High" defined the '80s mall as a remember '80s malls. 

A lot of these malls are now your "dead mall," which Kevin Smith defined in "Mallrats."  However, when I first moved here as a transfer to UMass in 1993, the "Mountain Farms Mall" built circa 1974 was universally referred to as "the dead mall."  There was a weird jewelry store, a Papa Gino's, an arcade, a sh!tty Chinese restaurant, a rancid AMC cinema, which we all went to 'coz it was cheap, and a few other crummy stores.  The big attraction, of course, was the weekend flea market, which grew like fungi on the carcass of the former Almy's dept. store.  Again, see Kevin Smith's "Mallrats."
Now "the dead mall" is gone and there's a plaza anchored by a Wal-Mart and a Whole Foods.  Of course, Wal-Mart now wants out of that location as they are fighting for one of their godawful "supercenters" up Route 9 a piece.
::)

fast times was a huge mall movie, yup.

funny, hunt valley is anchored by a wal-mart too. about the only thing unaffected by the whole deadmall-to-olde-townee conversion, that and the movie theater.

The way the malls look is the least of my problems... my biggest problem with the malls today is that I can't find anything I like in them anymore!  And back in the day, I saw things I wanted everywhere... but I couldn't afford them.  Go figure. ::)

Shopping malls were overbuilt through the '90s, now as a reaction to that mentality they build "old townes" left and right, but all the "old townes" are all the same. They build these developments left and right in the Northeast-condominiums, train station, Starbucks, "cutesy shops", yuppies, etc. They're trying to cover NJ with that and get rid of factories to do that, but so far they've been failing...thank God eminent domain isn't too popular here except with the NYC transplants. They failed in turning downtown Bloomfield, a funky multi-ethnic discount clothing shopping area, into a Starbucks condominium development. They said it was "blighted" because it was too "ethnic." And they built these massive condos in downtown Montclair by the new train station with names like the "Beaux Arts Mews", and it's right next to a place where you can here shootings every night. It's so classist and so, so stupid.

I think shopping malls are far superior to "power centers." They have social interaction and a sort of street culture unrivaled for the suburbs, I'd rather have shopping malls, which can be amazing, than endless sprawling big-box store developments in power centers and strip malls. Clifton Commons near me is sort of a compromise between an outdoor shopping center and a big box center. The anchors are all big box stores that share their buildings except for Barnes & Noble and Target, mixed in with some smaller chains and sidewalks. It's right next to a chemicals factory.

Malls still thrive in my area and pretty much peacefully coexist with strip malls and huge stores like Wal-Mart...the last mall built here in Atlantic County is Hamilton Mall which opened in 1987 and is humongous..and always draws the crowds. Why? Because there is a mix of stores that range from upscale(Macy's) to el cheapo(dollar stores), Sears, JC Penny, KB Toys, FYE, Claire's Boutique, Spencer Gifts....

The other mall here, Shore Mall, has been open since 1968...and got a huge 'shot in the arm', profitwise, by Boscov's, Value City, KB Toys, Burlington Coat Factory and TGI Friday's opening there in the 1980's...they also have a nice collectibles store called Beachcomber Collectibles, where I get most of my NASCAR collectibles and clothing.

I'm doing some research . . . does anyone know the name and location of a mall that had an upper deck secured by heavy duty cables but they gave way and the deck came crashing down and people lost their lives? Thanks for any info.

I'm doing some research . . . does anyone know the name and location of a mall that had an upper deck secured by heavy duty cables but they gave way and the deck came crashing down and people lost their lives? Thanks for any info.


   I'm trying to remember...wasn't that a convention center or ballroom?  It was filled with guests and the upper portion collapsed onto the lower, killing and injuring many.  I'm thinking it was somewhere in the mid-west - Kansas City or Omaha..?

  I remember seeing it on the news...

  This is the collapse I'm talking about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse

  This is the collapse I'm talking about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse


Ya beat me to it, but that's my first guess too.

Here in the Buffalo area our malls still do well for obvious reasons...Not much else to do when its always snowing out and no one wants to walk outside from store to store in blizzards!  :P

Here in the Buffalo area our malls still do well for obvious reasons...Not much else to do when its always snowing out and no one wants to walk outside from store to store in blizzards!  :P


My friend from Edmonton used to go out and unplug people's cars while they were spending they day at the gigantic mall up there. 
::)

Here in the Buffalo area our malls still do well for obvious reasons...Not much else to do when its always snowing out and no one wants to walk outside from store to store in blizzards!  :P


Do your malls have a lot of people?

1986 - The first North American Congress on the Holy Spirit and World Evangelization opened in New Orleans. It drew 7,000 leaders from 40 denominations, and stressed the part which the charismatic experience plays in evangelization.

I loved the mall atmosphere too, though by the time I was old enough to go on my own, it was pretty much over.  We lived about an hour away and the mall was like a twice a year trip, once for Christmas and once for school shopping.  I loved the design, the water fountain in the middle, the way the sounds and the music carried.  It was big enough to do what you wanted and not be crowded but small enough to have a comforting character.  The colors were white and stone, it actually looked pleasing.

In the early 90s they built a new massive mall at what was the end of town and I hated it.  Still do.  No fountain, no real character.  Just a massive building with a super high fake gold ceiling meant to house a crapload of people.  The amount of background noise was ridiculous and you couldn't hear any music if there was any.  Unlike the old mall which had wide variety of stores, this one was probably 90% womens clothes stores.  One of my papers I wrote for high school English was about how I hated the new mall compared to how I loved the old mall.  About 10 years ago they demolished the old mall but left the anchor stores at the middle and ends.  Then filled up the space with stores as a strip mall.  Seriously, what was the point?  Now it just looks like every other strip mall.  The character is gone.  I have never been able to find pics online.  I would love to have pics of at least the water fountain, but pics don't do it justice.

Malls, as far as I can tell, are no longer in existence.  There aren't any on the map.

Now, I remember back in the 80's the mall was so much fun!  I would go to the Concord Mall in Wilmington, DE.  We'd ride rocket ships to the moon and swim to the bottom of the sea.

Malls do exist, they're on the map, try google maps.

We still have a mall, but it's all clothes now and no toy, pet, or anything exiting.

Unlike the old mall which had wide variety of stores, this one was probably 90% womens clothes stores.


Maybe it's just foggy memories of days when arcades still existed.  My mallrat days were the early/mid-80s, but I, too, remember a time when there was more in a mall than shoe/clothing stores.  And the food court.  But food courts haven't changed much - and that's also not saying much :)

Not just the arcade.  I'm trying to remember what beside the arcade, but that's beside the point.  Once upon a time, there was at least one arcade, a couple of novelty stores (like Spencer's), at least one record store, and at least one or two nerd hangouts, typically one Radio Shack (back when they sold more electronic components than batteries) and at least one computer store (Micro Center, Compucenter, or some independent computer stores) where you could fiddle with whatever computer you could get your hands on, and/or shop for games.  Those were the places that kept Dad and I out of Mom's hair while she shopped. 

I remember needing at least an hour or two to wander through a mall alone.  Your post has reminded me that that the last time I went to a large enclosed mall was a couple of years ago.  I went to the place that had what I came for, and then went for a quarter-mile stroll through the entire length and breadth of the thing, and didn't enter a single storefront out of curiosity beyond a few minutes in a kitchen supply store.  All I remembered of the "hmm, it's a mall, I'm in no hurry, I wonder what else there is here" part of the day was casually strolling past a never-ending stream of stores for women's clothes, and realizing I'd done the whole trip in about half an hour. 

If you've got any old pictures, printouts, or memories of mall layouts - what entire categories of retail have ceased to exist over the past few decades?

(Edit: Ooh, I know one!  Bookstores.  It's been so long since I've set foot in a bookstore that I forgot that I used to spend hours in bookstores, and there used to be at least two or three in every mall.  They all sold mostly the same books, and if one bookstore didn't have it, one of the others probably did, which was the funny part... or not, because that's why Amazon ended up eating their lunch.)

Outside North America, the mall scene is still thriving. I find the top search result shows that young shoppers in Turkey are choosing malls, and the next one shows that a Chinese mall developer's profits rose 29 percent last year.

But in the US, things are different. Part of this I feel is do to technological/social change. People would only come to a brick-and-mortar store if they really want to buy something. Basically, I'd just say malls will just continue their ever slowly but surely decline. You still have fitness centers in some malls since they came in the '80s, the food court remains a fine place to eat, and during the Christmas holidays remain a busy place and covered by media. Malls have simply taken a bit of a back seat to electronic shopping. I actually feel that malls peaked in the early 1990s, right before commerce on the Internet arrived, as there will still some arcades in malls then and you still had a solid variety. Open-air shopping centers, big-box stores, and a revival of Main Street and urban shopping have also cut into the share. Toy stores are another type of store I see less at malls; some only are found at a kiosk during the holiday seaon. But in reality, the mall is still upon us; it's just evolved over the years.

Malls were the social scene in the 80’s to early 90’s. For me in the early 80’s it was the arcades, Pac Man Fever to the limit. Games and pumping quarters into them was the thing to do.

I had Q*bert so rigged I could leave for lunch and give the game to someone and come back with extra lives left over.

Between the high school clicks and trying to find your own identity, the malls were it. For good and bad, it was the place to be…but it didn’t stay that way.

As the 80’s progressed and the goth, rap and other music scenes emerged, arcade video games got to be passé and we moved on to other parts of the mall to associate with.

I met two great ex-girlfriends at the local mall in Columbia, MD and had my first job (if you call a job as prep cook at Popeye’s a job) and next three jobs in the mall there.

As tacky as it seemed, I enjoyed the mall life, the people, the girls, the music stores. It was nothing to think of meeting a few friends at the mall, talking about the cool song you heard and heading over to the Harmony Hut (real store) to pick up some new tunes.

45’s (yes you could still get 45’s for 99 cents & up until ‘85 or so) of the new bands singles were relatively cheap.  I’m sounding like an old fart now, but much simpler times then. I bought many a 45 and my first LP, Prince’s Purple Rain for 8.99 there.

We shopped and bought Alexander Julian/Colours clothes and Hugo Boss back in the day when the names where fresh and new.

A lot of people will make fun of the suburban mallrat life back then, but I enjoyed it. Lot more fun than I can remember and a lot more interesting than the internet browsing world of today.

Hey, I had white “Members Only” jacket and was my treasured accessory. I brag about it without any shame. 8)

They still have enclosed malls out here in Canada except no new ones are being built as far as I know, and the smaller ones are being replaced by open-air malls or big-box stores.

In a way, I do prefer enclosed malls because I then don't have to expose myself to inclimate weather when I go to the next shop. I guess they've stopped creating new indoor malls to cut back on the costs of utilities or the loitering of highschool kids...

Malls were the social scene in the 80’s to early 90’s. For me in the early 80’s it was the arcades, Pac Man Fever to the limit. Games and pumping quarters into them was the thing to do.

I loved to go to the arcades all the time just spending $10 on video games for a few hours was so much fun.

We still have malls in the Phoenix area.  Metrocenter is a former shadow of itself.  Once the mall of malls in the Valley, now often referred to as "Ghettocenter".  Last time I shopped there was in 2005.  I didn't stay long.

Chandler Fashion Center is about the only indoor mall that I go to currently, if you can get me to go to the mall.  Most of my retail shopping is done at closer "outdoor malls".