I read somewhere that the malls started dying in 1987. That makes a lot of sense, as the first to go were the bookstores. Anyone remember B. Dalton bookstores?
Proud GENE-Xer here!!! I still get so nostalgic about the beautiful memories and times during my 80s childhood. Going to the mall was one of the sweetest places in the world. The food courts and shops were so amazing. Forever blessed to have been a 80s kid.
The 80's was the last fun decade. Everything seemed fun, the music, movies, fashion, TV etc. One of the things that usually come to mind when I recall the 80's is the 80's color palette, pastels.
It continued on into the 90s, but the good pop culture was no longer omnipresent. Kid and teen-centric pop culture was what defined the 80s. Cinton-era politics and Karen policing started to eat away at the fun of the 80s.
Parents born in the 40’s Siblings born in the 60’s Me: 70’s Son: late 90’s I mention this because NONE of them got to experience what gen x did. Not even close. Am I saying I was born in the best generation? Maybe not. But pretty much everything people enjoyed in generations previous to mine, even things you would think were outdated by then (places to “park”, street drag racing, cruising, etc) were still going on. I’d say most were still going on until the early ‘00s. I honestly can’t imagine any generation that had it better than mine.
Blessed to have experienced living life in the 80’s. Movies, music, simplicity of life and the entire vibe of the 80’s were epic!Malls we’re definitely a huge part of it. You basically nailed all of the things we loved about the mall with the exception of the in-mall movie theatre. I sure miss those days! 😢
Yes I met my first girlfriend at the mall when I was 13. That was my first kiss. She went on to become Miss [State] when she was 24, and she was even prettier when she was 13! She was one of the cool kids in our middle school, so other pretty girls quickly liked me too, so life was good. But all good things must come to an end. And they did.
I think for a lot of people in their 40s and older it was a place where you go to actually be a real little adult as opposed to you just some kid you are a young Shopper at the mall it was our kingdom on the weekends and for some it was a refuge from their home lives
Afternoon matinee Waldenbooks(or B Dalton) The Gap Food court Arcade -My Saturday itinerary in the 80s..made sure to get home in time for Star Search,Airwolf etc.
Yes! Spencer gifts, Kaybee, Waldenbooks, Barnes and Noble, Musicland, Heroes World. Those were our favorite stores in the White Plains Galleria, New York 😊
80’s, 90’s and early 00’s could never be replaced and kids will never know what I was like. We actually socialized and met new people. It was the best way to pick up a date or go on a date. Nothing makes sense anymore unfortunately.
I’m 57 and just went to the mall today, went to Spencer’s for old times sake. Also got a Cinnabon too. But the book, record, toy store and movie theater are long gone.
Malls were always filled with people. Old people would just sit there and people watch, women were busy shopping. Teenagers would hang out. If you didn’t want to shop, you could watch movies as well. I bought concert tickets at the department store service department. There was something for everyone. There was somewhere for kids to play.
In many ways, strolling through the mall was our version of scrolling through social media. We caught up with our friends, caught up on the trends, and were basically a "captive audience" for consumerism.
We were so poor growing up we could never afford much of anything, but the mall was free entertainment. I remember sitting on the floor at Camelot Music when they would play Star Wars in laser disc since we couldn't afford one. I loved Walden Books and sitting in there for hours reading. And Radio Shack...
I remember being in high school and get my varsity letter was so important so I could walk in the mall with my high school letterman's jacket so I could look cool. Now high school athletes don't wear those jackets anymore and the malls are ghost towns.
As a mall rats, we used to sneak up on top of the roof of the mall and look through the skylights at all the people in the mall thinking how about the zombie movie Day of the dead.
I wish we still had a mall but greed destroyed our mall. 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 Now it's just an empty space. A lonely old empty space where back in the day we all had a place to go. Now it's just trashed.😢😢😢
We had a Time-Out arcade in our mall in the northeast. A dark dingy hole in the wall where all the scary high schoolers with their pubestaches would menacingly glare at an 8 year old me who was certainly not welcome in their Saturday night hangout spot 😬
Born 1970. The closest mall was far enough away that I only got to visit maybe a half dozen times a year. It was one of the most anticipated events outside of the county fair, going to the shore for summer break or going to another town an hour away to hit Hills or a few other department stores.
There’s a direct line between the modern world and the 80’s mall. In almost every competitive arcade game there was a “top score” list where kids would enter their three initials with their highest score. You had to work hard to make that list! EVERY time I see a comment online today, a thread, a message board, anything - I remember seeing that as an 80s teen! This was the very FIRST time a publically displayed digital tally was held of US, that WE could affect ourselves (with some quarters and skills!). We all wondered who those mysterious top scorers were, didn’t we? We all DREAMED of even making it to that short list (I only did twice). 🛸🚀👽✨ “Tempest” was my arcade game! Thanks for the memories.
Fond memories of dropping a bunch of quarters into the video game slots at the arcade, exchanging numbers with the girls we would meet there (pre cell phone era), walking around for a while, grabbing a bite in the food court, and catching an 80’s movie at the theater next to the mall. Great times. Much simpler times until the responsibilities of adulthood start to manifest and we realize how much fun it was just to be a teenage kid with a limited scope of responsibility. The part time after school and weekend jobs weren’t going to cut it anymore. Youth (and life in general) is fleeting. Embrace, enjoy and try to savor every moment and memory.
Been there! Yes, I literally spent a whole day in one of those 6 level, mammoth airport size malls in Chang Mai. My flight was delayed a day. Amazing how it just goes on and on.. Lol! I saw "Saw" in the theater there which was like a fake drive-in full of 50s cars that were tables. No subtitles though. It's quite the scene over there!
Elder Millennial here. My parents both worked at the same mall from the 1970's through the 1990's. That mall is currently being torn down. I have so many memories of hanging out at the mall when I was a kid/teen. Woolworths. The arcade. K B Toys.
Baby Boomer, our Eastfield Mall, an enclosed mall, was demolished. We still have Holyoke Mall, pretzels, Apple Store, Coffee, Chocolates, electronics(Best Buy), Different decades.
The mall was the place to hang out with friends, an escape from your parents. Buy clothing, eating junk food at the food court, getting the latest album of your favorite rock group and playing games in the arcade.
Music shopping, bookstore visits, browsing Spencer's, having a bite in the food court....I can remember when Chick-Fil-A was ONLY at the Mall, before they had free standing restaurants. Arcades were great, went to them a lot in the 1980s....they were a big selling point for places like Showbiz Pizza and Chuck E. Cheese, too. Dragon's Lair was fun but frustrating.
One of the moms from our group of friends would drop us off in the morning and then pick us up at night. We would spend all day browsing stores, eating, and playing video games. Good times.
I have fond memories of all of these, I'd pick up my girlfriend from school, head to the mall in White Plains eat some Sbarro, shop here and there, head back to my house, bang off a quick piece or two, take her home, sometimes we'd skip the mall altogether, damn those were the days! 😃😃😃
Mallrat and proud! These were some of my favorite years I've yet lived. Food courts and arcades, first jobs and first dates. Book stores and games stores, this was heaven and we had no idea then... I only wish my memories were clearer of those days.
Ahh! K.B toys is where I purchased all of my G.I.joe and transformers toys and I miss buying dinosaur books at waldenbooks. I miss hanging out at the mall in the 1980's.
As someone born in the mid 80s that lives in a small parish in Louisiana that had a small mall across the river in Mississippi it was a treat to go to a bigger mall on a Saturday in a city about 2hrs away. Go to the mall with my mom and go to whatever store it was before Gamestop and looking at Gadzooks and Hot topic and getting to eat at a restaurant
I miss the 80s lol! The malls where definitely where you found me many days lol! Arcades where the best! Malls were more of a social gathering point then a shopping epicenter lol.
Beef tallow French fries, dates were exciting and meant something, movies had lines to get in, hard to find parking, mall pizza for the win, toy stores had aisles and aisles of toys to collect, arcades, red lobster, Roy Roger’s, music store with movie posters, footlocker
I was a 90’s to early 2000’s Mallrat. Not much difference in malls then from the 80’s. I went to malls to shop with my parents in the 80’s tho. My parents even owned a store in our mall for abit. It’s an experience I would give anything to go back to. I miss it every day. The stores, the arcade, the friends, no cellphones, the decorations and music at Xmas time. Just living in the moment. Online shopping is what’s killed malls. It’s our own fault and I’m guilty of it as much as everyone else.
I was a a teenager when the 80s hit. We would always make a stop at Spencer's, me and my friends rarely purchased anything but couldn't wait to see awesome new products that came out. The real draw for me was to hang out with friends, the food court and most importantly the vinyl records shops.
I remember the nature themed store, fantasy themed store, health food store and carts full of animal figurines in every 80s mall. Who else remembers those?
I spent about 5 years between junior high school and high school saving all the lunch money I got every week from my parents and spending it at our local shopping mall arcade on Friday evening after school with three close friends.
LOL Radio Shack (Geek Heaven). truer words have never been spoken. Since I turned 20 in 1980, my 80's mall experience was a bit more on the mature side, mainly because it was a great date spot as well. For me, it was Sam Goody's, Perry's Pizza (this was exclusively in L.A. area malls) a movie then a bit of window shopping. The mall (in my case the Del Amo Fashion Square in Torrace, CA) was always my first date choice.
I live next to a mall now, that has a movie theater, a book store, a record store, a toy store, a food court, spencers, the irony is so many stores have 80s throwbacks. I still love going, it's packed and full of people. The weekends are awesome. The only thing it's really missing is an arcade, I don't know why those aren't still popular. There's a couple of novelty arcade machines in random stores, like Pacman or something.
I was born in 1991 but I remember going to the Mall as a kid in the mid to late 90s and into the early 2000s before the malls started declining. it was still fun and just an experience you cant recreate today. out of all the Malls I went to as a kid 1 is currently being Torn down that still looked the way it did when it was built in the 80s. 2 are in decline 1 newer mall still havent leased all their spaces out and 1 mall is always packed and new stores are still opening up in it to this day. Thats the one I still visit because it's the only place that still have that Mall Feel.
As Star Wars collector you bring back so many memories for me. Would get trading cards at the mall pharmacy store, latest books at Waldenbooks/B.Dalton, check out the Star Wars toys at Circus World and KB Toys. Even JCPenney and Sears had Star Wars toys at the time. Ahhh the 80's. I need a time machine.
From 1983-1984 we had an under 21 nightclub across from our mall, so all the teens would hang out and socialize at the mall for a couple of hours until around 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. and then head over to the club. Those were great times! I made lots of friends and met lots of cute girls.
Spencer's Gifts, Gold Mine Arcade, Kaybee Toys, Babbages, Camelot Music, Sbarro Pizza and Walden Books...that was pretty much my mall experience. I would also throw in Morrison's Restaurant, Sears and JC Penny's.
A Baby Boomer here, I will miss Eastfield Mall, which was demolished in 2023, on Boston Road, Springfield, MA. Radio Shack, Friendly's Ice Cream, Waldenbooks, a food court, "Mood Rings" in Spencer's Gifts Orange Julius, Steiger's, The Flaming Pit, the two-screen theater, Christmas 1973, "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory", hot buttered popcorn, soda and snacks. Yum!
I miss Borders Books in the 1990s.....so many foreign language books....they were largely stand-alone stores though....only a few were connected to Malls in my experience.
My local shopping mall used to be more fun. We used to have a Toy R Us, not actually in the mall, but along that road, going toward it. It's currently an Ocean State Job Lot. In fact, most of the more well-known stores at the mall went defunct, over the years: Bradlees, Caldor, Macy's, Filene's, Sears, etc. There used to be Trick or Treating, at Halloween time, Santa Claus, for Christmas, and the Crayola Bunny, for Easter. We used to have a smaller version of Kay B Toys, Kay B Express, in the 80s and 90s, and even during the 00s, before it went under. There used to be a Child World, in the 80s, plus Woolworth's and other long-forgotten stores. There used to be live entertainment, for the kids, like The Jetsons show. These days, the mall's pretty dead. There's still an Old Navy, but the space was downsized, to make room for Famous Footwear. Best Buy is more of an outlet store, now. No more CDs, no more DVDs, just beat-up appliances. I don't know why people bother. Ah, the good old days!
Playboy and hustler was on the public corner magazine stands. I remember buying video games from KB toy store and going to the Arcade with the homies. It was the hangout while the security used to be on us for gang affiliation harassing us just because we was hanging as a group literally. We never caused trouble at the mall but they used to harass us anyway
I read somewhere that the malls started dying in 1987. That makes a lot of sense, as the first to go were the bookstores. Anyone remember B. Dalton bookstores?
@@MikeFarnhamGalaxysEdgeGroup n the last 7 years 1/3 of mall stores have vanished where I am at. JC Penny's was bought by a major mall real estate holder to keep their malls open and make them seem busier! Otherwise, JC Penny's would be gone.
Sbaro was the best pizza ever before it began to give in to competition and inflation. Similarly, Russell Stover's stand alone stores that sold fine chocolates by the pound. The stuff now sold in boxes at retailers like Walgrreens is mass market junk. The casual grandeur the mall experience that existed in the 70s and 80s is long bygone. Once again, a very nice treatment of the 80s phenomenon by 80s Vault. In the context of modern American shopping, THOSE WERE THE DAYS.
You pretty much nailed it! It is crazy to see how things have evolved and all the malls are ghost towns now. It makes me sad to think our kids wont get to experience it.
Have y’all been to the mall lately? Mall culture is alive and well in Arizona (where 5 months of the year you literally cannot be outside during the day). Packs of teens roam the malls every weekend. Teen girls are still obsessed with Pink at Victoria Secret and bath and body works. They still huddle together to gossip and laugh at the food court Starbucks or boba shop. Teen boys flock to the JD Jordan store, Lids, Footlocker and collectibles store. All of our malls still have movie theaters attached that are always packed. The arcade is jumping. Sure, there aren’t any toy or book stores, but the bleak picture of loner teens the internet tries to paint is just not the whole picture. At least not in metro Phoenix, the fifth biggest city in the United States.
Totally agree. But I think this video is touching on more so the culture than anything else. Here in SoCal the malls are about to be PACKED for the holiday season, but the hangout factor just isn’t there anymore as it was. Not to the same degree at least.
Shout out to Cutlery World. Which, for those not familiar, was a dept store that sold kitchenware. Along with ninja stars, shuriken, katanas, machetes. You could walk in with $20, and walk out with four ninja stars. Also shout out to Champ's Sports and their half basketball court.
Our mall didn’t have a food court. But there were food stores and restaurants. There was a steak restaurant at one point, then a BK and an Arbys and some other local restaurants in the mall as well as ice cream, etc.
College days! Holyoke Mall and the former Eastfield MA, Western Massachusetts, great reads! Then get lunch or snack, "Friendly's Ice Cream", McDonald's. Radio Shack was where I goofed off after classes and labs at Holyoke Community College or Springfield Community College. Elms College, too! No need to cook dinner! Just a whole day in retail wonderland! Food Court ruled!
I was too embarrassed at my young age to buy anything at Spencer's. Only thing I ever got was a Kathy Ireland poster (which is still on my wall in my man cave).
I think we liked the mall because a lot of us had earned spending money. Back then when you turned 16, you went on the rounds filling out applications to get a part time job.
No cell phones, no social media, just arcade games, fun toys and great places to shop. I was a mall rat and miss those days !!
The best!
Yes the best miss those days
I read somewhere that the malls started dying in 1987. That makes a lot of sense, as the first to go were the bookstores. Anyone remember B. Dalton bookstores?
I wasn't a mall rat, but went often enough to get what I needed and wanted, an afternoon or night's entertainment, mornings, too!
The Motorola DynaTAC came out in the early 80's.
kids today have no idea how amazing mall life was for kids in the 80s and 90s. it really was the golden age to grow up
I'd go back to the 80's in a heartbeat!
Pick me up in your DeLorean on the way
Long live the 80s !
Proud GENE-Xer here!!! I still get so nostalgic about the beautiful memories and times during my 80s childhood. Going to the mall was one of the sweetest places in the world. The food courts and shops were so amazing. Forever blessed to have been a 80s kid.
Just posted how we had everything previous AND later generations had, other than technology.
The 80's was the last fun decade. Everything seemed fun, the music, movies, fashion, TV etc. One of the things that usually come to mind when I recall the 80's is the 80's color palette, pastels.
Totally agree with you! Thanks for sharing your thoughts
It continued on into the 90s, but the good pop culture was no longer omnipresent. Kid and teen-centric pop culture was what defined the 80s. Cinton-era politics and Karen policing started to eat away at the fun of the 80s.
@@the_gilded_age_phoenix8717safety started it all to change the perspective of cheap life
Radio Shack "America's Technology Store" 1992, former Eastfield Mall, Springfield, MA. Computers and software, batteries: a lot of fun!
Parents born in the 40’s
Siblings born in the 60’s
Me: 70’s
Son: late 90’s
I mention this because NONE of them got to experience what gen x did. Not even close. Am I saying I was born in the best generation? Maybe not. But pretty much everything people enjoyed in generations previous to mine, even things you would think were outdated by then (places to “park”, street drag racing, cruising, etc) were still going on. I’d say most were still going on until the early ‘00s. I honestly can’t imagine any generation that had it better than mine.
Take me back!!!
We also had the movie theater that was built inside the mall, so it really could become an all day thing!
Yep we had them in a lot of Malls here in NYC too.
@@iamharrynelson my mall was too small for that, that must have been awesome!
My childhood mall that my parents worked at had 2 theaters. An 'inner' one...and a 'connected' to the outside one.
The former Eastfield Mall, Springfield, MA, two-screens, 1973. "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory" and sweets, popcorn, soda and chocolate!
Blessed to have experienced living life in the 80’s. Movies, music, simplicity of life and the entire vibe of the 80’s were epic!Malls we’re definitely a huge part of it. You basically nailed all of the things we loved about the mall with the exception of the in-mall movie theatre. I sure miss those days! 😢
Amen!
American privilege. The world was terrible for many people in the 1980s for Americans to pretend life was perfect.
Great memories RIP malls
Eastfield Mall is a memory, but Holyoke Mall is stil a reality! Western Massachusetts.
@@jackilynpyzocha662 wow might have to go there! Thanks for the info!
I lived at the Holyoke mall, it’s the inspiration for this video!
@@80sVault my mall was the South Shore Plaza in Braintree
girl watching was a big reason for going as well .... being 15 in 1985
cisgender girls? 🤔
Yes I met my first girlfriend at the mall when I was 13. That was my first kiss. She went on to become Miss [State] when she was 24, and she was even prettier when she was 13! She was one of the cool kids in our middle school, so other pretty girls quickly liked me too, so life was good. But all good things must come to an end. And they did.
@@jamessteele7102 but she was a biological female right?🤔
@@jessihawkins9116 I sure hope so! Yikes!
@@jessihawkins9116 lol
I think for a lot of people in their 40s and older it was a place where you go to actually be a real little adult as opposed to you just some kid you are a young Shopper at the mall it was our kingdom on the weekends and for some it was a refuge from their home lives
80's where people discover credit card debt.
Afternoon matinee
Waldenbooks(or B Dalton)
The Gap
Food court
Arcade
-My Saturday itinerary in the 80s..made sure to get home in time for Star Search,Airwolf etc.
@@TTrigg omg, Star Search I forgot about that! Now I have to do a video on that…
Having experienced that decade, I can confidently tell you that the 80’s was the BEST. In the 70’s and 80’s, Radio Shack was my 2nd home. lol
Yes! Spencer gifts, Kaybee, Waldenbooks, Barnes and Noble, Musicland, Heroes World. Those were our favorite stores in the White Plains Galleria, New York 😊
Sam Goody was in my local mall. We also had Suncoast.
Arcade, Bookstores and of course SamGoody where I worked were my 3 top stops in our mall.
Yeah malls were magical places to spend time in those days. They were cool in the 90s too.
80’s, 90’s and early 00’s could never be replaced and kids will never know what I was like. We actually socialized and met new people. It was the best way to pick up a date or go on a date. Nothing makes sense anymore unfortunately.
I’m 57 and just went to the mall today, went to Spencer’s for old times sake. Also got a Cinnabon too. But the book, record, toy store and movie theater are long gone.
Yeah,so many places went out of business,some malls aren't a mall,just a mish mash of places with some hold overs
I’ll bet it looked a little different demographically, too … right?
@@jamessteele7102 Since I went on a weekday at 10:30am, the place was mostly empty.
I Wanna Go Back! Sooooooooo much better than now days. You could actually live in the mall!
Malls were always filled with people. Old people would just sit there and people watch, women were busy shopping. Teenagers would hang out. If you didn’t want to shop, you could watch movies as well. I bought concert tickets at the department store service department. There was something for everyone. There was somewhere for kids to play.
Such a good memories, right
In many ways, strolling through the mall was our version of scrolling through social media. We caught up with our friends, caught up on the trends, and were basically a "captive audience" for consumerism.
That’s an excellent way of putting it into perspective, thanks for that comment.
We were so poor growing up we could never afford much of anything, but the mall was free entertainment. I remember sitting on the floor at Camelot Music when they would play Star Wars in laser disc since we couldn't afford one. I loved Walden Books and sitting in there for hours reading. And Radio Shack...
I remember being in high school and get my varsity letter was so important so I could walk in the mall with my high school letterman's jacket so I could look cool. Now high school athletes don't wear those jackets anymore and the malls are ghost towns.
Mine was nearly escaping those laser shooting security robots! Never do i want to be locked inside a mall again!
Hahaha! "Chopping Mall". Awesome flick!
@@QuinStifler Love that movie too!
I loved the record store always looking for a new CD.
I loved Camelot Music and another that I dont remember the name.
@@hipidipi20157max Peaches?
Sam Goody. I can't believe cassette singles were ever a thing but I bought my fair share of them.
As a mall rats, we used to sneak up on top of the roof of the mall and look through the skylights at all the people in the mall thinking how about the zombie movie Day of the dead.
You mean Dawn of the Dead?
The smell the sounds oh yeah loved the 80 s.
I wish we still had a mall but greed destroyed our mall.
😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
Now it's just an empty space. A lonely old empty space where back in the day we all had a place to go.
Now it's just trashed.😢😢😢
Now we have strip malls, which are inferior shopping districts. If you have bad weather, don’t suggest going there
Online destroyed your mall.
I'm a millennial and I loved the malls near me growing up
We had a Time-Out arcade in our mall in the northeast. A dark dingy hole in the wall where all the scary high schoolers with their pubestaches would menacingly glare at an 8 year old me who was certainly not welcome in their Saturday night hangout spot 😬
Born 1970. The closest mall was far enough away that I only got to visit maybe a half dozen times a year. It was one of the most anticipated events outside of the county fair, going to the shore for summer break or going to another town an hour away to hit Hills or a few other department stores.
Omg remember all these places!
great times.... wish I could go back in time
There’s a direct line between the modern world and the 80’s mall. In almost every competitive arcade game there was a “top score” list where kids would enter their three initials with their highest score. You had to work hard to make that list!
EVERY time I see a comment online today, a thread, a message board, anything - I remember seeing that as an 80s teen! This was the very FIRST time a publically displayed digital tally was held of US, that WE could affect ourselves (with some quarters and skills!).
We all wondered who those mysterious top scorers were, didn’t we?
We all DREAMED of even making it to that short list (I only did twice). 🛸🚀👽✨
“Tempest” was my arcade game! Thanks for the memories.
Aargh... those were the days of innocence and discovery. And we thought it would last forever.😢
Fond memories of dropping a bunch of quarters into the video game slots at the arcade, exchanging numbers with the girls we would meet there (pre cell phone era), walking around for a while, grabbing a bite in the food court, and catching an 80’s movie at the theater next to the mall. Great times. Much simpler times until the responsibilities of adulthood start to manifest and we realize how much fun it was just to be a teenage kid with a limited scope of responsibility. The part time after school and weekend jobs weren’t going to cut it anymore. Youth (and life in general) is fleeting. Embrace, enjoy and try to savor every moment and memory.
If you love malls. You have to go to South East Asia. Places such as Thailand. They got some huge brand new modern malls.
Been there! Yes, I literally spent a whole day in one of those 6 level, mammoth airport size malls in Chang Mai. My flight was delayed a day.
Amazing how it just goes on and on..
Lol! I saw "Saw" in the theater there which was like a fake drive-in full of 50s cars that were tables. No subtitles though.
It's quite the scene over there!
Everywhere in the late 80s and early 90s had amazing magazine racks too. You'd find comic books and magazines on every subject.
I love Toys R Us, the mall and new items and later worked at Fair Oaks Mall in VA, I like the 80's I was a teenager.
I do miss Toys R Us
These were the days. 😊😊
Spencers was great but I loved Camelot Music , Walden Books, Toys R Us, Service Merchandise and the food area for a burger. Thanks
Totally agree!
Northridge mall in Salinas, CA for me in the 80s ❤
Elder Millennial here. My parents both worked at the same mall from the 1970's through the 1990's. That mall is currently being torn down. I have so many memories of hanging out at the mall when I was a kid/teen. Woolworths. The arcade. K B Toys.
Baby Boomer, our Eastfield Mall, an enclosed mall, was demolished. We still have Holyoke Mall, pretzels, Apple Store, Coffee, Chocolates, electronics(Best Buy), Different decades.
The mall was the place to hang out with friends, an escape from your parents. Buy clothing, eating junk food at the food court, getting the latest album of your favorite rock group and playing games in the arcade.
Music shopping, bookstore visits, browsing Spencer's, having a bite in the food court....I can remember when Chick-Fil-A was ONLY at the Mall, before they had free standing restaurants. Arcades were great, went to them a lot in the 1980s....they were a big selling point for places like Showbiz Pizza and Chuck E. Cheese, too. Dragon's Lair was fun but frustrating.
My arcade was The Dream Machine. Thousand’s of quarters lost but don’t regret one second of it.
One of the moms from our group of friends would drop us off in the morning and then pick us up at night. We would spend all day browsing stores, eating, and playing video games. Good times.
What time in the morning and what time at night we're talking?😮
I have fond memories of all of these, I'd pick up my girlfriend from school, head to the mall in White Plains eat some Sbarro, shop here and there, head back to my house, bang off a quick piece or two, take her home, sometimes we'd skip the mall altogether, damn those were the days! 😃😃😃
So many different kinds of stores, many high quality. Constant new fashions and fads. New music, new technology, things were constantly changing.
Mallrat and proud! These were some of my favorite years I've yet lived. Food courts and arcades, first jobs and first dates. Book stores and games stores, this was heaven and we had no idea then... I only wish my memories were clearer of those days.
Ahh! K.B toys is where I purchased all of my G.I.joe and transformers toys and I miss buying dinosaur books at waldenbooks. I miss hanging out at the mall in the 1980's.
K.B. Was where I bought all my Atari games
I was the guy at the arcade everyone was watching complete Dragon's Lair on one credit. Good times...
Ah HA!
So it was YOU! 🍻
As someone born in the mid 80s that lives in a small parish in Louisiana that had a small mall across the river in Mississippi it was a treat to go to a bigger mall on a Saturday in a city about 2hrs away. Go to the mall with my mom and go to whatever store it was before Gamestop and looking at Gadzooks and Hot topic and getting to eat at a restaurant
Walden books was my place to hang out at
Nothing like getting a bite to eat, with a cold soda pop, at the food court! 🍔🍟🥤😋
I miss the 80s lol! The malls where definitely where you found me many days lol! Arcades where the best! Malls were more of a social gathering point then a shopping epicenter lol.
The arcade was definitely My Hangout a five dollar bill and the skill I had in my nimble fingers was my escape from the pains of everyday adolescence
Beef tallow French fries, dates were exciting and meant something, movies had lines to get in, hard to find parking, mall pizza for the win, toy stores had aisles and aisles of toys to collect, arcades, red lobster, Roy Roger’s, music store with movie posters, footlocker
I loved all those stores. I miss the mall culture back in the day.
I was a 90’s to early 2000’s Mallrat. Not much difference in malls then from the 80’s. I went to malls to shop with my parents in the 80’s tho. My parents even owned a store in our mall for abit. It’s an experience I would give anything to go back to. I miss it every day. The stores, the arcade, the friends, no cellphones, the decorations and music at Xmas time. Just living in the moment. Online shopping is what’s killed malls. It’s our own fault and I’m guilty of it as much as everyone else.
Guilford Mall had a big pond, with stairs that went up beside it. Seemed so amazing to a kid in 1981.
I was a a teenager when the 80s hit. We would always make a stop at Spencer's, me and my friends rarely purchased anything but couldn't wait to see awesome new products that came out. The real draw for me was to hang out with friends, the food court and most importantly the vinyl records shops.
Fantastic footage, even if some was from the 90s.
I remember the nature themed store, fantasy themed store, health food store and carts full of animal figurines in every 80s mall. Who else remembers those?
I remember that but in kiosks in the aisles.
I spent about 5 years between junior high school and high school saving all the lunch money I got every week from my parents and spending it at our local shopping mall arcade on Friday evening after school with three close friends.
LOL Radio Shack (Geek Heaven). truer words have never been spoken. Since I turned 20 in 1980, my 80's mall experience was a bit more on the mature side, mainly because it was a great date spot as well. For me, it was Sam Goody's, Perry's Pizza (this was exclusively in L.A. area malls) a movie then a bit of window shopping. The mall (in my case the Del Amo Fashion Square in Torrace, CA) was always my first date choice.
Great comments really appreciate you leaving them here. Thank you.
All of the above. Some of the best times of my life. 😎
I live next to a mall now, that has a movie theater, a book store, a record store, a toy store, a food court, spencers, the irony is so many stores have 80s throwbacks. I still love going, it's packed and full of people. The weekends are awesome. The only thing it's really missing is an arcade, I don't know why those aren't still popular. There's a couple of novelty arcade machines in random stores, like Pacman or something.
That’s awesome that you still have that available to you!
I was born in 1991 but I remember going to the Mall as a kid in the mid to late 90s and into the early 2000s before the malls started declining. it was still fun and just an experience you cant recreate today. out of all the Malls I went to as a kid 1 is currently being Torn down that still looked the way it did when it was built in the 80s. 2 are in decline 1 newer mall still havent leased all their spaces out and 1 mall is always packed and new stores are still opening up in it to this day. Thats the one I still visit because it's the only place that still have that Mall Feel.
As Star Wars collector you bring back so many memories for me. Would get trading cards at the mall pharmacy store, latest books at Waldenbooks/B.Dalton, check out the Star Wars toys at Circus World and KB Toys. Even JCPenney and Sears had Star Wars toys at the time. Ahhh the 80's. I need a time machine.
You nailed it! Miss all of this so much. I sound like my dad now, but things used to be so much better back then.
From 1983-1984 we had an under 21 nightclub across from our mall, so all the teens would hang out and socialize at the mall for a couple of hours until around 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. and then head over to the club. Those were great times! I made lots of friends and met lots of cute girls.
It was everything.
Aliddan's Castle Arcade was the joint! Packed every Saturday mid morning. Great times!
Spencer's Gifts, Gold Mine Arcade, Kaybee Toys, Babbages, Camelot Music, Sbarro Pizza and Walden Books...that was pretty much my mall experience. I would also throw in Morrison's Restaurant, Sears and JC Penny's.
oakland mall in Troy mi....those were the days hudsons...harmony house movie theater...man we had it good.
Man, I miss those days!
A Baby Boomer here, I will miss Eastfield Mall, which was demolished in 2023, on Boston Road, Springfield, MA. Radio Shack, Friendly's Ice Cream, Waldenbooks, a food court, "Mood Rings" in Spencer's Gifts Orange Julius, Steiger's, The Flaming Pit, the two-screen theater, Christmas 1973, "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory", hot buttered popcorn, soda and snacks. Yum!
It was so easy to spend hours at the mall back then. It used to be an exciting experience. Those were the days
80’s were the Best!
I miss Borders Books in the 1990s.....so many foreign language books....they were largely stand-alone stores though....only a few were connected to Malls in my experience.
Oh yeah Spencer s!
My local shopping mall used to be more fun. We used to have a Toy R Us, not actually in the mall, but along that road, going toward it. It's currently an Ocean State Job Lot. In fact, most of the more well-known stores at the mall went defunct, over the years: Bradlees, Caldor, Macy's, Filene's, Sears, etc. There used to be Trick or Treating, at Halloween time, Santa Claus, for Christmas, and the Crayola Bunny, for Easter. We used to have a smaller version of Kay B Toys, Kay B Express, in the 80s and 90s, and even during the 00s, before it went under. There used to be a Child World, in the 80s, plus Woolworth's and other long-forgotten stores.
There used to be live entertainment, for the kids, like The Jetsons show. These days, the mall's pretty dead. There's still an Old Navy, but the space was downsized, to make room for Famous Footwear. Best Buy is more of an outlet store, now. No more CDs, no more DVDs, just beat-up appliances. I don't know why people bother. Ah, the good old days!
Playboy and hustler was on the public corner magazine stands. I remember buying video games from KB toy store and going to the Arcade with the homies. It was the hangout while the security used to be on us for gang affiliation harassing us just because we was hanging as a group literally. We never caused trouble at the mall but they used to harass us anyway
There is Spencer's Store in my mall Danbury mall Danbury mall so if you were in Danbury Stop over. To the mall.
I read somewhere that the malls started dying in 1987. That makes a lot of sense, as the first to go were the bookstores. Anyone remember B. Dalton bookstores?
Totally remember Dalton
did you watch the video?
@@MikeFarnhamGalaxysEdgeGroup n the last 7 years 1/3 of mall stores have vanished where I am at. JC Penny's was bought by a major mall real estate holder to keep their malls open and make them seem busier! Otherwise, JC Penny's would be gone.
I grew up in the 90,s and we lived in the moment not in our phone's . Something i feel sad the next generation lost out on.
Sbaro was the best pizza ever before it began to give in to competition and inflation. Similarly, Russell Stover's stand alone stores that sold fine chocolates by the pound. The stuff now sold in boxes at retailers like Walgrreens is mass market junk. The casual grandeur the mall experience that existed in the 70s and 80s is long bygone. Once again, a very nice treatment of the 80s phenomenon by 80s Vault. In the context of modern American shopping, THOSE WERE THE DAYS.
Thanks for the comment, appreciate the insights
You pretty much nailed it! It is crazy to see how things have evolved and all the malls are ghost towns now. It makes me sad to think our kids wont get to experience it.
they haven't evolved...they've devolved.
I remember my sole purpose at Kay-Bee and Toys 'R Us was to play the Playstation and Dream Cast demos.
I so miss the mall there like like no longer alive. There s so many empty stores now.
There's a video series about that
Have y’all been to the mall lately? Mall culture is alive and well in Arizona (where 5 months of the year you literally cannot be outside during the day).
Packs of teens roam the malls every weekend. Teen girls are still obsessed with Pink at Victoria Secret and bath and body works. They still huddle together to gossip and laugh at the food court Starbucks or boba shop. Teen boys flock to the JD Jordan store, Lids, Footlocker and collectibles store. All of our malls still have movie theaters attached that are always packed. The arcade is jumping.
Sure, there aren’t any toy or book stores, but the bleak picture of loner teens the internet tries to paint is just not the whole picture. At least not in metro Phoenix, the fifth biggest city in the United States.
Totally agree. But I think this video is touching on more so the culture than anything else. Here in SoCal the malls
are about to be PACKED for the holiday season, but the hangout factor just isn’t there anymore as it was. Not to the same degree at least.
Shout out to Cutlery World. Which, for those not familiar, was a dept store that sold kitchenware. Along with ninja stars, shuriken, katanas, machetes. You could walk in with $20, and walk out with four ninja stars.
Also shout out to Champ's Sports and their half basketball court.
Our mall didn’t have a food court. But there were food stores and restaurants. There was a steak restaurant at one point, then a BK and an Arbys and some other local restaurants in the mall as well as ice cream, etc.
College days! Holyoke Mall and the former Eastfield MA, Western Massachusetts, great reads! Then get lunch or snack, "Friendly's Ice Cream", McDonald's. Radio Shack was where I goofed off after classes and labs at Holyoke Community College or Springfield Community College. Elms College, too! No need to cook dinner! Just a whole day in retail wonderland! Food Court ruled!
Believe it or not Holyoke mall was my mall…
Me and my friends liked Sharper Image.
I was too embarrassed at my young age to buy anything at Spencer's. Only thing I ever got was a Kathy Ireland poster (which is still on my wall in my man cave).
Well, you obviously have great taste with what you did buy!
It’s amazing how much time I spent at the mall without spending any money.
I think we liked the mall because a lot of us had earned spending money. Back then when you turned 16, you went on the rounds filling out applications to get a part time job.