Metrocenter Mall: A Dead Mall Eulogy | Retail Archaeology
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- Metrocenter Mall: A Dead Mall Eulogy:
In this episode of Retail Archaeology we return to Metrocenter Mall for the first time since its closure.
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Of all the dead malls, Metrocenter seems like the saddest, because of how good it looks and the history of it. :(
Another great video I was wondering ? in one of the stores had a bunch of fire extinguishers in it.
For me metro center is the last of what remains of my childhood in phoenix Arizona. First it was the indoor swap meet then it was metro center being a shell of what it once was in the 80s and 90s to closing down.
This was what I consider what made coming to Phoenix Arizona worth wild but I no longer look at the city the same way anymore. Now to me Phoenix is just depressing to me don’t get me wrong az mills is a great mall but metro center had that charm to it.
I use to work there around 2002/2003 for my first job, a clown who walked around and sold balloons. It's so crazy to see this so run down. So many memories.
Did you work for Heidi? She was our balloon clown at Christown and I know she spent a few years at Metrocenter at that time.
Was there on its last day. Was a huge turnout. Metro Center went out in style!
I hope malls still exist when I get old. I hope they don’t go away completely. Thank you so much for documenting all this. Saddens me to think there is a whole new generation that doesn’t know that toy stores once existed.
I’m glad that we have a toy store chain down in Texas that is starting to open locations at malls. It seems like it’s a newer chain, it’s called Jayden’s Toys I think.
Edit: KB Toys will always be better tho lol
That African American security officer wishing you a good day as you went out the door at the end was Officer Stringer. He's been a security guard at Metrocenter since the 1970s and he was there almost as long as the mall was open, through multiple owners and multiple regimes. He put more than 30 years into being security in that building. (I worked security with him for five years). I was waiting to see if he was still around, and I'm not surprised he was. He's a solid fella.
I was expecting to see a GNC still open when you rounded a corner.
and a Bed and Bath
@@cpgone You mean Bath and Body Works. Also, surprisingly GNC has closed a lot of stores lately since the pandemic.
Vitamins are a scam.
Goog...... Vitamin Industrial Complex
@@markvolpe2305 Right.. Thanks for the correction. Vitamins are a scam. BTW.
Google Vitamin Industrial Complex
And victoria secret,dollar general,foot locker
Growing up on the west side, this was the THE mall as a kid. This was the rich upscale mall you went to for holiday shopping, unlike Christown where you went to get stabbed.
When I was a kid the ice rink was gone but they had a massive underground arcade under the food court. That was amazing.
I played in a massive roller hockey tournament one year in the parking lot, they took over half the lot with inflatable roller hockey rinks. That area is a Walmart now.
Used to ride the bus after school up to Metrocenter when I was in high school, just to hang out and check out Hot Topic, Suncoast, Babbage's, the skate shops and wander around in general. Times that will never be again.
"There is a Japanese term: Mono no aware. It means basically, the sad beauty of seeing time pass - the aching awareness of impermanence. These are the days that we will return to one day in the future only in memories."
Cripstown rocked in the day.
Come on Christown wasn’t that bad
@@opheliavalentine6058 in the late 90s? It was pretty bad
@@jeffp3495 I remember when there was a shootout in the middle of Christown Mall in 1992. I remember seeing it on the news. The video of it is here on RUclips.
First time I went to Christown was in 1991. It started really getting bad over there in 95-96. I always loved the giant sand sculptures they had throughout the mall.
Now metrocenter is the place where you would get stabbed nearing it's end
air soft gun tournament, in a dead mall, during a pandemic is like....the most 2020 shit ever
I would have totally cos-played up the Zombie apocalypse theme for that one.
I cant even imagine how surreal that mustve been to be there for that....under 30s they wouldnt have quite had the same feeling, but to have seen the mall in its heyday, to have had all those memories there and then to be treading thru its ruins like that, stalking out.... im imagining it dark as hell and blacklit....thats too much...its too much to even call it closure, its too poetic. I dont even know what i would call that.
@@frnkvat2722 I was actually there for the 2 airsoft events in the mall. So odd considering when I was younger my family used to go there regularly in the early 90s.
They should have gone full lethal... real TDM or nah?
I kept waiting for zombies to come running!
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Damn that’s deep
RIP Rutger Hauer 🇦🇹 ....
That's a song 🤔
This and Fiesta Mall were my childhood.
I had posters of Rutger on my wall, too.
There is a season for all things🙏
Yes, I can’t believe they closed such a good mall, my favorite spot was the main food court, but I hope they don’t tear it down or else my memories and heart will shatter.
When we moved to Prescott in 1985, Metrocenter was the first landmark we visited on our way into Phoenix for a day of fun, back when the city started at Bell Rd. My wife and I had our first date at Castles & Coasters next door, in 1993. Two of my HS friends were extras in the Bill & Ted scenes filmed in '87 and that period is how I remember this fantastic place, especially that elevator where they put a platform over the fountain (next to Waldenbooks lol) and Joan of Arc led aerobics. I even have a photo at the old timey photo booth that Abraham Lincoln used, just off the food court. I haven't lived in AZ since 1997 but these Metrocenter memories slap hard. Thanks for your channel and I really appreciate this tour down memory lane.
Those 80s chicks called Sigmund Freud a geek right near the top of that escalator by the old Hot Dog On A Stick
I remember Bell Rd when it was mostly dirt. Union Hills and Beardsley where the boonies.
Many memories
So many memories made here. It's so sad that it's closed.
I remember running a race around the mall years ago.
I just wish our kids today could have the memories we do with hanging out with our friends at the mall on weekends waiting out front for our parents to pick us up
Since I'm still a kid, I enjoy going to the mall but i can't go out because of the pandemic.
I’m 18, and we still do. nothing has changed around here. I still have about 6 or 7 malls within an hour of me to go to. And 2 outlets
It’s a tragedy to see a mall fall apart like this.
"And there used to be a tattoo & piercing place back here."
(Low guttural voice): "There still is."
My step grandfather who has been passed away for over 2 decades was one of the architects for this mall when it was originally built. I went here many times w family, then on my own as a teenager and young adult. The mall was awesome in the 80’s and 90’s.
Wasn’t there a skate park in this mall at some point?
@@flankman9385ice skating
I think my overwhelming feeling after watching this sadness. I can remember as a kid how much fun I had in malls. And then you see this one in such a shape and the fact you’re selling it all piece by piece. As you walk through this mall I kept thinking of how many families and walk the same quarters and got in the same stores. How many teenagers killing a Friday or Saturday night being a mall rat. How many burgers and fries and soft drinks have been sold there.? If you think about all the memories and time that was spent in that mall. Not to mention the fact that it was famous from a movie. It’s extremely sad to see it like this and you know that it’s going to be gone forever. Thank you for sharing the video. It’s sad to watch a piece of americana die one mall at a time.
Nostalgia can be painful.
What do you mean by "mole rat"?
@@whitespyder9 it’s supposed to read mall rat. It’s a name that was given to kids who hung out at the mall on the weekends with her friends just killing time back in the day.
I was one of those teenage mall rats at this mall, me and my friend when we were 13 would go into stores and get to know the employees so we could say what’s up to them every weekend. And we had crushes on the girls who worked at guess
Oh and my friend was kicked out of the mall because he was bouncing a little ball on the upper level and it went over the railing and hit someone’s shoulder
It's funny. When I was a kid, we'd sometimes drive past certain areas and my dad would point to some dusty old building or area that had been developed into some strip mall and say, "This used to be where I worked." or "This is where your grandpa worked" or " This is where I used to hang out after school as a kid." I'd just nod my head and not say anything because all I could see was what I saw: nothing of importance.
Now that I'm around my dad's age when he used to do that, I find myself doing the same thing. Looking at the spot where my local mall used to sit and remembering all the time I spent there with my friends, all the fond memories, and I realized then what my dad must have felt and what he tried to convey to me. All the landmarks and signs that your past was real fade away along with your memories of those places until you, too, leave this world. It's sobering to think that my children will never know the world I grew up in or really have any idea of what it was like. Theirs will be different. Hopefully happier. But different nonetheless.
Seeing videos like this serve as a reminder to cherish what time you have because all things, with time, will disappear.
The store by Sears that was curtianed off back in the 80's was a nurse uniform shop.
There was also a Curtis Mathes TV store at that end and next to KB's was originally a Walgreens.
I remember the uniform store! mid 2000s
I used to buy a lot of computer games at Babbage's in that mall.
I spent many hours “hanging out at the mall” at Metrocenter. So sad to see it closed.
The Cinnabon. I can remember strolling in through the Sears entrance next to the loading bays. My parents and I would walk the mall in the weekend mornings and head to that corner. My parents would order a Cinnabon and we would pull it apart while watching the old fountains that reached up to those glorious off center skylights. I can still remember the smell of the water drying on polished stones, steaming due to the old halogen bulbs. Ahhh, love it.
I remember this mall when it was fairly
new then living in Phoenix in 1976, and
visiting it again in 2003 when I returned
to Phoenix. It amazing how the years have passed and what is gone now.
The ice skating rinks
It's so weird seeing these malls shut down. In Australia, malls are still bustling all the time. They still have late night on Thursday, and they stay packed into the night.
I’m in the liquidation business myself, specifically the retail closing and tear down side, and its like entering a time machine when we start tearing down. I lead one of the teams that was clearing out all the Rite-AIDS throughout the country and we often found things from the 90s and earlier. Some pretty awesome stuff and some pretty nasty stuff lol. It’s a lot of work but based on your content, you might appreciate the business.
Always wanted to get one of those powered security screens to put at the end of my carport.
Sir, thank you for this video. Moved from Phoenix 13 years ago. Metrocenter was my favorite mall. Went there from the time of the ice rink, to the huge downstairs arcade, to the remodel, it was my favorite place. Thank you for letting me see it one last time and say goodbye to a place that feels like I'm losing a friend. RIP MetroCenter, we'll always have Bill and Ted's!
San Dimas Mall🤣
Who remembers Miller’s Outpost?
There was one in my local mall, in CA.
I do! they were in all the malls in AZ in the late 90s- Metro, Christown, Fiesta, etc. Became Anchor Blue later on before they went out of business.
Your source for Vaurnet France t-shirts!
I loved Miller's Outpost before it turned to Anchor Blue
Wow.. it's heartbreaking to see it like that. I worked at the Gold Mine arcade in '86, and I don't think there was a single empty spot in the mall. The arcade was upstairs in the food court area. It was small, but we had some of the latest and greatest games, including ride-ons, to compete with Golf N' Stuff (now Castles N' Coasters). My absolute favorite was the ride-on Space Harrier!! I practiced and practiced and finished the game many times in free mode. :-D You could look down at the ice rink from the food court. The ice rink was replaced by a bigger arcade sometime after I quit the Gold Mine, and now Harkins is there.
Thanks for posting this! The last time I was at Metrocenter was 2 ro 3 years ago and it was too late to be open, but I did go into the Walmart and saw that unfortunately it didn't open out to the mall, and then I drove around the mall afterward. It was looking pretty abandoned even then. :(
It is sad to see it go. I took the bus to work from the metro transit center in the 90’s. There was a Carl’s Jr. in the mall that allowed runaway teens to get unlimited drink refills and smoke all day. I was there as a kid in the 80’s when they were filming bill and Ted and saw some of the actors in the food court area.
This mall was built just around the time of the first Energy Crisis. I remembered that when I visited that mall in the 70's, there were no skylights, but there were what appeared to be concrete partitions dangling from the ceiling. The floor had terrazzo tile laid in a circular pattern with very thick grouting. There was a skating rink and a very large fountain. In the early 80's, I would frequently visit the Spencer's to look at the gag gifts and have a few chuckles.
Former Al Bundy here; that pouch was probably a weight used to ground shoes while they're on display.
Perfect comment!
"In one of the dressing rooms, there was a hole in the dry wall so I thought it would be a good idea to take a peak" brave man
A hole in the wall, where the boys can see it all!
Was thinking the same thing...who was looking through that hole?
I lived only 5 miles away in the 80's and we would cruise every Friday and Saturday nights around what was called "Golf N Stuff". Those were the good old days 😢😊
Update 2023. This site will be redeveloped for mixed use residential and retail. Used to live in the Metrocenter loop during the late 90's. This was a vibrant mall with an ice rink at one time. The mall started to take a different turn during 2008 and on. The area around the mall is not safe at this time. The recruiter office had been there for years even when it was thriving.
Thanxs a lot AMAZON ! U manage to take down American Icons, that was so much fun and enjoyable for everyone.
i remember when the mall was built and opened it was corn fields before.
The mauve store at about 22:00 minutes was Fredrick's of Hollywood. The skylights in the mall ceiling were added around 1993 as part of the massive remodel.
Sonofabitch I helped with that remodel when I was in high school!
I have fond memories of this mall. I can remember going to this place and it was full of people. It's so sad seeing this place as a dead mall.
Metro center was my favorite mall growing up, I used to love going there to hang out with my friends in middle school. It was always so lively, it’s sad to see it like this
Thank You so much for this man. Metrocenter was a part of my childhood.
It was literally only 10 years ago I lived down the street from Metro and ran around there with my friends during college. It was dying then too but the architecture is something else. I always loved the natural light and the elevator!! Such beautiful design. It was even more beautiful during Christmas when they had all the decorations up. I learned about the ice rink later and it still boggles my mind that there was even a rink there LOL
This is very sad to see abandoned malls where it was once filled with people and life
That would be awesome to get into the old Sears anchor store and the Dillard's anchor store. I would call in sick from work the day that they open that up for the auction preview.
Dillards is still open on the second floor as a clearance center.
There's something to be said about that HUGE brand new American flag in the middle of a desolate, abandoned mall. A place dedicated to the american consumerism.
It's definitely a worldwide phenomenon by now, having originated in the courts of Europe I'd think.
Its kind of a strange memorial to the cycle of American life, and maybe thats what haunts us the most about all these dead malls....its a foreshadowing of our own fate.
@@frnkvat2722 Great Observation! So true. I feel that way too when seeing so many malls and businesses shutting down for many years now. 😔😞😔
Its symbolic of the declining empire, and the beauty of its past
The store near Sears was originally called “The Wrapper”. They would gift wrap items you bought in the mall.
Entrance 2 , first floor was the Recruitment Office Tenant Space across from Altered States alteration and cleaners.
So thrilled you could make it over during that auction preview. I am floored by the amount of dust. I moved to the Valley in 2001, so I have only seen the mall on a slow decline. My friends though all share stories of the mall from the 80-90s and how it was their place to go. My friend’s father had a old time photoshop that you dressed up in Victorian clothing to take the photo at MetroCenter. I live near by, so I had taken to using the mall to walk in the summer months, I always wondered what was behind the black curtains of some of these storefronts. Covid really was the finally thing to take it down. I know the owners do care about the property and have been actively working with the city to redevelop it. The city even proactively changed the zoning to assist in options. Its tough when the anchors are not owned by the mall though. Thank you for covering this. I upped my monthly donation in hopes that you could go over on the auction preview day and you didn’t disappoint.
That Deb store was a total time capsule! It reminded me of how teen stores looked when I was in middle school. Love the KB sign. It's cool they are doing auctions, but it's sad to see everything falling apart.
I think the KB Toys store is what stung the most. I have so many memories of KB Toys at the mall, seeing it like that was like they closed all over again.
Omg this is amazing, what a send-off. Nice you got in during the auction, I know how tough the timing on that can be!
Air Force here, this is the mall I went to to get through the final recuitment paperwork. I joined the delayed entry in late 2011, processed through in early 2012 and it was very apparent that the mall the struggling. My recruiter and his recruits were moved to a Chandler location shortly after. With locations like these, they simply close up shop and move the recruiters to other locations. The bulk of recruiters meet their quota's in malls so this was a small blow to the military to lose this spot.
My wife worked here in 2012 as well, at 21:46, that store was a Fredricks of Hollywood.
20:26 across from the Deb was a Things Remembered where my wife worked.
Nice memories. Switzers was close to Frederick's. Was awesome mall!
I grew up in North Phoenix from '77 to '91 and Metro Center was the place to be on the weekends, at least until Paradise Valley Mall opened in '79. Metro Center closed forever on my 50th birthday.
I miss Metrocenter... some of my fondest earliest memories were in this beautifully designed mall... this mall was a huge draw of the west valley for decades.... so sad that it ended up dying. :(
Thank you for the video! I was at Metrocenter mall in 2006 and it was rockin'! Great memories.
Metro Center was THE place to hang out when I was a teenager in the mid 1970s. My girlfriend in the 1980s worked at the Metro Lounge which was above the ice skating rink and across the food court, it was shaped like the fuselage of a TWA airliner. I can go on and on with the memories, it's sad to see the empty skeleton of a once iconic mall every time I drive by on I-17.
A lot of that mall's interior reminds me of Star Trek TNG for some reason.
A mall in space would be neat.
That would be the curved edges of the Art Deco Style, probably. Like if you look at all of the overhead walkways, the bottoms are smooth and rounded like you see a lot in TNG. It always makes me wonder how much dead, unused space is inside of them, lol.
darker colors and you could probably mistake it for DS9's promenade.
So much of my memories and life events I have from that mall. I had my first college breakup there.. saw my first 4+ hour movie there.. First ice skated below the Wright Flyer model hanging over the rink by the Airport Bar. Still has the Harkins and a few other stores open it seems. And the outer rings are still active. Hoping they may reface and save this mall one day. Almost makes me cry.
Omg Deb!!!! My friends and I from '08-'11 went to Deb almost every weekend at the now closed Silver City Galleria in Taunton MA! So crazy to see the inside of one all abandoned.
Sad to see malls slowly dying. I liked going to them back in the 90's when I got my first jobs and spent my paycheck.
There were just too many built, this course correction will allow the better ones to thrive
Lol the doodle face mannequin...
Someone went ham with a Sharpie everywhere.
Grew up about a mile from Metro and spent a lot of time there. Miss the 70s decor done away with in the 90s/2000s remodeling. Lots of funky concrete and huge fountains full of change in the circular areas where the halls change direction. Of course the ice rink, Farrell's, the arcade, Sears, Orange Julius, and on and on.
A toy or video game collector should scoop up that KB Toys sign. I lived close by from 2006-2019 and saw the decline of the mall. Shopped at the attached Walmart a few times.
I expect Spectrum/Christown Mall will meet the same fate soon.
I recently moved back to AZ and I was sad to see it closed :( but not unexpected. It was already pretty dead when I first left AZ.
Loving the walk-throughs of Metrocenter! The Cinnabon was my first job back in 1996-97ish. I went to Moon Valley High School so it was easy to hop on a bus after school and head to the mall. I was hoping you'd go in the back room there so I could see it, but I have plenty of memories of it anyway!
what a beautiful mall, art deco, 80-s styling, it's a shame to lose it, thanks for the tour
Oh man this has me all kinds of emotional
I would buy a repurposed condo unit there I love the idea of plenty of parking spaces and a large common area.
I was thinking the same thing. Square foot lease rates would work the same... have some bean counter crunch the numbers and see what the speculative scenarios are. Just for fun.
Would really like too see this done too, if it is viable (should be)
This is EPIC, I left phoenix in 1987, in the 80's this was the place to buy everything current in terms of fashion💔
"Joy!"
"Merry Christmas!"
"PLEASE PAY"
Used to go to this mall all the time as a kid in the 80's.
There were tons of people shoping there back then.
Never thought it end up like this.
Loved this mall. So sad it closed before I was aware it was closing, I would have shopped there one last time and taken some pictures before it closed. Last time we went was February or March this year. I miss that huge shoe store, shoe encore? it smelled so good! So many memories from the 90s and early 2000's. This was such a nice mall then. I would take my son here for nostalgia and tell him stories. Anyone remember the Lubys there? Was it down that dark hallway he showed us? Used to buy all my clothes at Robinsons May, used to go with my parents they loved to mall walk and never really bought anything. I so preferred this mall over Arrowhead, but now we're just left with Arrowhead (northwest phoenix). Miss you Metro!
Lubys yes! My wedding ring was from there.
Lol...not from Lucy's!
I have very fond memories of Christmas shopping here, always felt like home
The shopping experience of the mall was always secondary to the large scale social interaction. Fashion. music and ideas were openly and freely exchanged in face to face encounters. Shopping online is in many ways superior to the mall experience. Socializing online however has been divisive, impersonal and phony. Shopping malls aren’t coming back so our society desperately needs to find a replacement for the community interactions that occurred there. This is especially true once we come out of the relative isolation caused by the pandemic.
You could really hear the emotion in your voice in this vid. This was a very pretty mall, sorry it closed.
Best video ever!! Spent so many years coming to Metrocenter. Good memories and so sad. I remember the water fall art in the center.
Oh wow, so sad to see it this way. I grew up visiting this mall starting with vague memories of seeing it with the ice skating rink. But I do remember going to the underground arcade when I was a kid, then as a teen I frequently hung out here with friends. One of my first jobs was at the Harkins Theatre. It was always hopping and was the place to be for the teens.
My first job was Harkins metro too
man, malls are so fun, I really hope they’ll still be around in the future.
exploring dead malls like this is also so.. well, surreal.
Crazy how some of those larger stores had been closed for years when the mall finally closed. It shows that it struggled for a long time.
So many memories from Metrocenter, growing up in the 90s. We used to hang out in the food court and peoplewatch for hours
Say no more, an airsoft event in a dead mall? Sounds incredibly fun! I would have picked up afterwards but sounds something I would do.
Also, great vid as always!
Its hosted by these event
organizerswww.oplionclaws.com/
@@seigennn9978 Thabk you!!
The Airsoft game here was amazing! Got a ton of video on my channel
@@bowser484 Good video, looked like you had fun!
My favorite mall in the Phoenix area. So sad...
Incredible scenery! Really love the interesting sensation you get from this tour! Thanks so much!
Soo SAD!! Alot of great memories with Metrocenter for the past 40 years before it shut down completely!! Whether it was the ice rink, the Midway games, the Bill&Ted scenes or just hangin out at the food courts with friends and/or family and walking the mall remembering the old school store and what new stores took there place. Keep the memories alive Phoenix 👍😎
Wow, those skylights! Such beautiful architecture just sitting there abandoned. Imagine some archeologist finding this place a thousand years from now. They'd probably assume it was some grand temple we built to worship our gods. The parthenon of consumer capitalism.
Went on Yelp and saw reviews for that deb shop 😂 looks like it was opened 7 years ago
The DEB shop closed around 2015 I went there regularly because it was the closest plus size shop since I moved to paradise valley area. Sad it closed
It was a really big deal when I got to go to Castles and Coasters with my friends, since we grew up next to Fiesta Mall... and Metrocenter seemed like it was on the other side of the world! My friend's parents would make a day of it, dropping us teens at the park, and then shopping the mall without being bugged by whining children. In the mid aughts, a few of my retail coworkers and I were tapped to go help out with a remodel of the store we worked at out at Metrocenter (when our store desperately needed it more!). We bitched the whole time, but we made out with base double time, mileage, paid breaks and catered meals. That was the last time I was there...
This was so nostalgic to watch for me. My 2nd and 4rd jobs as a teenager were in this mall. I worked in the back of Sears then a supervisor at Spencer's Gifts that you showed with the black windows under the escalator. Sad to see how much it's changed but also the same.
The deb store was originally a lerner. The problem with identifying is that many stores moved around in the mall. But I the spot because I grew up here.
That ws my mall!!! ditched alot of classes in HS to go hang out at the mall all the time
I'm surprised to see that this took such a collapse, as I have watched so many of your blogs, and despite the many design changes that you have shared with us I had hope for this ability to endure. Great display of what it looks like now.
I also really like those skylights! Thanks for the video! Happy Christmas!
The Arcade at 29:01 - I remember a much bigger video game arcade that used to be on the top level across from the food court and back in the 1980s you could walk in or walk by and hear all those sounds of the popular video games people were playing back then, like Pac Man and Donkey Kong. :-)
Yeah I think that one closed down in 2006.Was right next to the Ruby Tuesday.
we loved that mall when we were little ... the ice rink and the best arcade
I haven't been there in 20 years or so. I didn't see it in your video, but it looks like "The Alley" is long gone. That was one of my favorite parts of the mall growing up. Sad video, but times are changing.
Amazing what gets left behind sometimes. Of course, there are situations where a tenant will vacate in the middle of the night but to leave all those watches and parts during an orderly move shocks me a little. I am also amazed that so many people are willing to shop online rather than to actually see and touch items they contemplate owning.
At that location, the registers were under the KB signs. One side had the glass cabinets of games
This is the best video documentary of my favorite mall as i was growing up here in Phoenix, Arizona. I was there when it open in 1973. I was 11 yrs old and remember how excited i was about this new mall opening. Alot...alot of fond memories of
Meterocenter as a kid and as a teenager. Jr high and high school i remember come Friday nights us guys use to to hang out at the mall to check out the babes and hopefully ask one out for a date. I did get lucky at times. I now miss those stores i use to check out in the mall. One of those stores was " Bill's Records and Tapes " on the lower. I use to check out the newest audio gear from Pioneer in their audio showroom. I miss the food court above the ice skating ring etc...etc. It wasnt until the early 90s I saw the beginning of change I didnt like in the mall. From that point forward the changes were bringing down Meterocenter. And I was right. The growth of diversity of people
I didnt like is a small partial reason in my personal belief is the down slide of growth and demise of Meterocenter.
You did an outstanding job of your documentary of this great mall once at its peek in the mid-70s. Now I hope someday in the future Amazon will look like Meterocenter closing down with abandon warehouses Amazon once occupied. And hoping someone in youtube land with their cameras will film these abandon warehouses Amazon once occupied.
There seems to be a lot of malls named Metrocenter. The one in Mississippi is also dead.
No its not they reopened it recently, its hilarious lol
I was last there in 2001 before I moved out of the area. It was so full of life even then. I first moved to the Phoenix area ten years prior in 1991 and i was immediately taken with it. The Imaginarium, Natural Wonders, Babbage's, Suncoast Motion Picture Company, The Tinder Box, See's Candies, and, yes, the KB Toys. I missed out on seeing it when the ice rink was there, but I fell in love with the arcade that replaced it. I'd never seen an arcade in a pit before with the food court overlooking it. I thought it was great. How the mighty have fallen.
Thanks for this video, I use to work at Oshman Sporting Goods in the mall there back in 92-93. Your vid definitely brought back some memories for me.
My very first job was at Liberty House in Metro Centre. That was around 1977. I also worked at Sears. I used to love the Black Angus Steak House that was located around the perimeter of the mall. Lots of fond memories of my teenage years. ❤️
Good memories! That Chinese Food in the food court was THE BEST. I remember the huge arcade and being a Hot Topic fan. And the CD shop!!
my mom had alot of crazy stories from this place, she was always too poor to buy anything from the mall here but she always talked about the trouble she used to get into at this place
Spent many a weekend there in the late 90s and early 2000s playing Dance Dance Revolution in their great arcade then swinging by the Dairy Queen for a Blizzard in the food court. RIP.