What Was Your Last Trip to the Mall Like?

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

I had to take someone to Burlington Mall last week. It’s a surprisingly still vibrant and healthy mall not too far from Boston (though if you’re a tourist it’d be a pain in the ass to get to).

Macy’s is the biggest store there. I’m not sure how some of the other stores stay in business. Especially things like the toy stores where a lot of space is taken up by big stuffed animals that cost like $15. For some reason one nondescript stuffed turtle made me ponder this. I mean there was just so many stuffed animals. Some of these unimpressive ones, how long have they been sitting here for?

Anyway, the toy stores can’t be doing too bad. After all with property value in MA renting one small store has to be thousands a month. There was one focused on Japanese toys and one focused on more American stuff. I don’t know how mainstream the latter one was since I couldn’t identify a lot of the toy lines though I did see some GI Joe knockoff toys. Also, the Japanese one was definitely more popular. It wasn’t packed, but it had some foot traffic. By contrast we were the only ones other than the store owner in the other store.

We also stopped at Newbury Comics. For those outside of New England it’s a chain of entertainment stores. The one in Harvard Square used to be my go to store for CDs. Unsurprisingly the CD selection was very scarce there. Surprisingly though they still sell an even smaller selection of cassette tapes.

[DichEvans]

I live in a city and our two biggest malls are always packed. I always heart this narrative that malls are dying, but I've just never visually seen that

[darbus alan]

One of the malls near me recently shut down and is being converted to a town center thingy. Outside of restaurants and a Barnes & Noble it was pretty dead.

Few other malls near me are doing alright except for the big anchor stores that are emptied husks like Lord & Taylor, Sears, etc. One other, not so much.

[Ultimo Gallos]

Last trip to one that wasn't half dead,think it is in Pearl MS but might be iin Jackson>

Two story,fairly packed with people for a Wednesday in spring. Only went in two stores,Spensers and some shoe store.

But saw a vending machine that sold weave by the inch. I need to find the pics I took of that.

Now 20 minutes south of me is a dying mall. Like Hobby Lobby and Aldis are the anchor stores now.

Dead dead dead dead. Kiosks are all full but the employees look like they rarely see a custoomer. There is a gamestop that I still haave no clue how it stays open. Might still be a cookie shop in it. I only saw the inside causse I had to piss and refused to go into Hobby Lobby.

[fw91]

Theres a mall by me, that's fairly young (less than 10 years) and I went to the nike clearence shop. There's no food court or major restaraunts (they had an applebees but it didn't last) But it's still pretty vibrant. Idk, I feel like "the death of the mall" has some merit, but is a bit overstated.

[HMARK Center]

It's a mixed bag around here - I'm in northern New Jersey, mall capital of America, and some are doing just fine while others are kinda eeehhhh...

I honestly think the last one I walked through was American Dream, the huge one in the Meadowlands, and while plenty of it is doing fine, it has some big stretches with no tenants, since the place was made too big and opened right as the pandemic was coming in. Meantime I used to spend a nice bit of time at Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, NJ, and while it has a nice movie theater and opened a couple solid chain restaurants/bars, its stores aren't doing as great. As mentioned above, it's really the fall of anchor stores that are bringing a lot of malls down at this point.

The one I'm interested in keeping an eye on is Garden State Plaza; it's one of the bigger malls in New Jersey, still gets plenty of business, but they're opening up a bunch of housing and parks around it and kind of making it sort of a small community. Malls in the middle of sprawling suburban areas are probably doing the worst right now, so just turning them into housing and walkable areas feels like such an improvement...and, frankly, closer to what Victor Gruen, the father of the modern mall, wanted them to be in the first place.

[Natural Born Farmer]

Girl and I went for dinner at a pseudo fancy restaurant/ Italian market on the outside of a mall in Dallas.  Restaurant was packed, good vibe.

After dinner she wanted to go into the mall proper to get a pair of jeans.  Place was almost empty even on a Friday night, and like 80% of the stores were closed.  Very depressing vibe.

[Ultimo Gallos]

Growing up I had 4 within an hour drive.

The one I went to the most,and was the closest,closed 2014ish. Got razed to the ground. And last I heard every spring and fall the city sets up a temporary free drive in theater in that parking lot.

[MiLB Fan]

I visited the mall last week. It was fun, but largely unremarkable.

I don’t think I’ve bought something in a mall since the days of Media Play and Suncoast Video. The ones near me are now mostly comprised of upscale clothing stores, and there’s no true entertainment-type store unless you count the Barnes & Noble that’s on the mall property, but not accessible from inside.

I mostly go to the mall for a change of scenery, when I want to get out of my apartment and get my steps in when the weather is less than ideal. I know that mall walking is generally associated with older adults but hey, it works for me too.

[chrom]

Went there last month before we went to Kansai for my Birthday.

Bought some Jean Shorts and some Manga

[darbus alan]

Aug 2, 2024 13:11:55 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

It's a mixed bag around here - I'm in northern New Jersey, mall capital of America, and some are doing just fine while others are kinda eeehhhh...

I honestly think the last one I walked through was American Dream, the huge one in the Meadowlands, and while plenty of it is doing fine, it has some big stretches with no tenants, since the place was made too big and opened right as the pandemic was coming in. Meantime I used to spend a nice bit of time at Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, NJ, and while it has a nice movie theater and opened a couple solid chain restaurants/bars, its stores aren't doing as great. As mentioned above, it's really the fall of anchor stores that are bringing a lot of malls down at this point.

The one I'm interested in keeping an eye on is Garden State Plaza; it's one of the bigger malls in New Jersey, still gets plenty of business, but they're opening up a bunch of housing and parks around it and kind of making it sort of a small community. Malls in the middle of sprawling suburban areas are probably doing the worst right now, so just turning them into housing and walkable areas feels like such an improvement...and, frankly, closer to what Victor Gruen, the father of the modern mall, wanted them to be in the first place.

I used to work in Garden State Plaza and that place could be an absolute madhouse. Especially since it still gets a ton of business from well-to-do New Yorkers and... whatever you call people from Connecticut because of the lack of sales tax on clothes in NJ. Interesting that they're doing that, though I can imagine it will make traffic on 17 and 4 in that area even more fun lol.

One of my local malls converted the former Sears into a Primark on the upper floor and is splitting the lower floor into a Dave and Busters and a gym. Guess that's one thing to do with those empty anchors.

[tirtefaa]

If I have to go to a mall, I typically tune out the environment entirety. I don't even window browse like I used to when I was a kid.

And really, outside of when I was a kid, I typically don't enjoy malls. Back then I at least had a reason to go. There was Kay Bee Toys, Suncoast, Borders, Montgomery Ward and a really cool arcade/laser tag arena. Unfortunately all those places shut down and nothing really replaced those levels of enjoyment for me. Malls have been rather shallow for me for the last 25 years.

[J. Hova]

There are two proper malls where I live. One is Southpark, one is Northpark. Northpark does alright, nothing like it was 25 years ago, but still can draw a crowd for anchor stores or during the holidays. Southpark, which is closer to me, looks like something out of a post-apocalypse movie. I stopped in there about 2, 2.5 years ago to grab some shoes, completely forgetting that Dick's Sporting Goods is on the other side of the mall from where I parked. I walked through the entire mall at like 6pm on a midweek day (not exactly prime time for malls in this or any era) and I swear I could have rolled a bowling ball from one end of the corridor to the other and not hit a god damn thing or person.

I hadn't been inside the mall for about five years prior to this and it amazed me still how much had changed. Stores that were there from the time I was a kid are gone, they demolished the food court about 10 years ago, and a lot of the kiosks were gone and replaced with vending machines or massage chairs. I've also been in closets that are bigger than what they call the arcade now.

I keep hearing scuttlebutt online that the mall is going to be demolished and redeveloped into a multipurpose site.

[DiBiase is Good]

There was some strange man raging about a sailboat and how there was no Easter Bunny.
I’m too scared to go back.

[Dead2009]

It was like 4 months ago. The mall around my way is half empty due to stores leaving every so often. Hell, we still have the vacant Sears at one end, the vacant JCPenny's at the other. Plus the only real reason to go was because of the Disney store and those disappeared too. Now it's some overpriced sports store.

[Bo Rida]

I saw a lego dragon so it was much better than it usually is.

[Talent Name]

I live on Long Island and we have a few malls still going but I prefer going to this one and just people watching its thriving, the Newbury comics there still has comics I'm looking for variant wise so it's my main go to

[Celexa Bliss]

We still have the Braintree South Shore Plaza around here. Seems like they do OK, at least based on the parking in front of Target and Nordstroms. I haven't been inside in years.

I've been to Hanover Crossing (formerly the Hanover Mall) a few times, mainly to see movies. My dad works over there at Macy's and they seem to do OK.

[HMARK Center]

Aug 2, 2024 14:41:11 GMT -5 tirtefaa said:

If I have to go to a mall, I typically tune out the environment entirety. I don't even window browse like I used to when I was a kid.

And really, outside of when I was a kid, I typically don't enjoy malls. Back then I at least had a reason to go. There was Kay Bee Toys, Suncoast, Borders, Montgomery Ward and a really cool arcade/laser tag arena. Unfortunately all those places shut down and nothing really replaced those levels of enjoyment for me. Malls have been rather shallow for me for the last 25 years.

What's honestly sad about the state of malls right now is how, especially for younger people who weren't old enough yet to go to bars or whatever, they used to be a place where people from all different interests and high school/college cliques could go and find something that appealed to them: fashion, movies, books, comics, arcades, whatever the heck, a little something for everybody, but yeah, it really isn't that way anymore, a lot of them are just much more homogenous now.

Some of it is the fall of physical media in the areas of movies and video games, and even books to some degree, but it's just kind of sad to see the move away from people going to spaces where they, y'know, interact with other people...but, then again, it's the ultimate flaw with a place that's designed around having to be driven to, for the most part, since it's an inconvenience to get there. I've got one mall near me that's on the light rail line for my city, but that's not how most were designed.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Aug 2, 2024 13:11:55 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

Meantime I used to spend a nice bit of time at Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, NJ, and while it has a nice movie theater and opened a couple solid chain restaurants/bars, its stores aren't doing as great.

I spent a week visiting friends in NJ back in 2002, and we spent a lot of time hanging out at Willowbrook Mall. I remember it being a pretty nice mall, and malls were still pretty healthy back then, so it was pretty busy.