What was your local mall like when you were a kid?

[cthc89]

Malls in the 80's and 90's were fantastic places, absolutely crucial to the local social scene.  They seem vestigial today by comparison.
I took an Uber to my local mall (Westfarms) yesterday while my windows were getting tinted and killed about 3 hours there, it was pretty sad. Most of the stores were open but dead, except for Hollister and PacSun, which had long lines to get in, and the Apple store, which had their own private security to manage the crowd. Only saw 1 or 2 bums/mental patients who were just trying to sleep and get out of the elements, I figured there would be more. Did some people watching from the soft chairs, amongst the other old men waiting for their wives. The only other people who seemed like they were also people-watching were the 2 security guards on duty: 1 of which was a young girl, the other was a silver-haired old man. Weird scene, nothing like bitd.

[leftbeef]

I just saw a facebook post from my hometowns dead mall, good luck to them I guess:

🚨🚨6 + MONTHS FREE RENT!🚨🚨
The Fort Steuben Mall is under new ownership and we are rolling up our sleeves and looking for new amazing businesses to fill our available spaces!
If you have a business, or a business idea, message us!
We have units set up for
✅salons
✅restaurants
✅boutiques
✅arcades
✅shoe stores
✅bargain stores!
and more!
Free rent to start off with, NO security deposit, and reasonable rent afterwards. If you have an idea, we want to hear it!
100 Mall Dr, Steubenville, OH 43952

[boundforgloryhole]

I remember going to the mall with my friends on a Friday night in my early teens. I literally live like 2 minutes from it.

[toddparker]

It was so fun back in the day. The arcade was such an event back in the day. Spencer's was exciting and fun. The food court was a hit.

[landoftalk]

I work in the best mall and I love it lmao I’ve worked in this mall for over 12 years straight 🥲

Malls are still bumpin here bc of the 40 below winters. We aren’t going outside in between stores no thx

[landoftalk]

I want them to add more like event based stuff like a skating rink/arcade.

Also a daycare centre exclusively for mall employees that’s open 30 mins before the mall open and 30 mins after the mall closes. If they want people to continue working retail as managers that’s kind of necessary… lol

[keepitreal]

can't say i have frequented malls in quite a long time, but i think since 2020 i've been to two malls and both of them were really barren/lacking stores and there weren't many customers. it felt fucking weird trying to find an employee at a department store to find a shirt.

the days of meeting up at the mall to hang are long gone.

won't be suprised if they start going extinct within 15 years.

sidenote: i worked at a "ghetto" mall electronics store for a few months like 12-13 years ago, and it was one of the hardest customer service jobs i ever had. due to the location, a large base of the customers were either ex cons, family of cons (prison across the street), meth heads, and shady af people trying to figure out how to steal refurbished el cheapo electronics. i quit when i got a glowing performance review, it really was an awful place to work. solidarity to anybody still working at a mall. I should add, I myself got hustled by some fools selling me a PS3 for like $100 cash. Of course it was broken, and my boys at the pawn shop sorta laughed at me when they explained they had to get that guy out of there. Ended up costing me like another $150 to fix lol. I was fucking cheesed by the audacity of those scammers, but also ashamed that I got scammed.

[gaygay]

Jul 17, 2018 9:45:18 GMT -5 brc74 said:

white and safe

[pmagic]

Malls were the shit. Even better, the arcades and food court.

[Cloud chasing the Ben diagram]

I worked at a few malls. I worked at the zombie mall and I worked at the now defunct century 3 mall. I used to love going to the mall. It was something to do without having to spend money or drive around a bunch of places. But I quickly grew into extreme social anxiety and weird anti consumerism that just regurgitated into an online shopping addiction. Something about wanting the instant gratification but having to wait for it.

Anyway

[vie et mort]

Mar 16, 2022 10:24:20 GMT -5 toddparker said:

The arcade was such an event back in the day. 

I remember going into the arcade when I was like 9-10 and seeing a crowd formed around this dude who was just dominating fools in Mortal Kombat. 

[emerald_wizard]

Jul 17, 2018 9:52:07 GMT -5 F.F Woodycooks said:

you know that movielife song where he says "Leave your fuckin' friend at the Smithtown mall where she belongs"? That was my local mall growing up. It was pretty much just a mall. Fun fact: its is actually called the Smith Haven Mall.

This was my mall as well. Spent many hours there from 5th thru 9th grade.

[Bussy Drippens]

growing up in suburban nowhereville circa 2000's meant lots of hours spent at the local mall, loafing, shoplifting, getting kicked out of stores, occasionally getting banned by security, going to the 2 dollar movies to get your tube sucked by a girl with too much eyeliner on a dirty-ass floor, buying dense nuggs of fat buds, etc.

wen't back as of late and it was mostly empty save for a few stores like this:

[SUN HIT FACE]

I grew up in a small semi-rural town so visiting the huge mall that was pretty much next door to my grandparents’ house in suburban Melbourne was a huge deal. I remember I stayed with them one summer when Killer Instinct on the SNES dropped. They had the game setup outside a games/electronics store in the mall and you could just line up and battle other kids for free, with the winner getting to play on and the loser going to the back of the line. I remember my cousin and I playing from open to close every damn day. Probably pretty irresponsible parenting considering we were only like 7 or 8 but whatever.

The record stores were also a huge deal for me given my home town only had one record store that was run by a conservative Christian who refused to stock anything he considered “distasteful”. I remember him writing a big rant article in the local paper about Bodycount’s Cop Killer when it dropped.

[Tstigz]

Who all remembers getting a pretzel and slushee at the mall haha fuck that was dope

[landoftalk]

Mar 16, 2022 20:15:19 GMT -5 Tstigz said:

Who all remembers getting a pretzel and slushee at the mall haha fuck that was dope

I’m gonna have this for lunch today lol

[Tstigz]

Hell yeah