Pics from malls in the 80's

[I Saw OJ]

The actual mall doesn't look all that different from ones around my area to be honest. Pretty neat memory recall though looking at the pictures.

 

[destrekor]

God I miss those days. My kids are just teens and even they say they'd like to live back then

I experienced part of it. The mall phase was still strong in the early-mid-90s - Northtowne Mall? Grew up not fall from there.

The mall, Ohio Skate (skating rink), etc... oh jesus, the 90s were... comical.

I don't know if I'd want that - BUT, it was a better nurturing event compared to the childhood of those today. Too much technology too soon, I'm afraid. I had the chance to be eased into it.

I was, I think, in late elementary school when VirtualBoy and ilk were getting the press. So, that gives you a frame of reference for the tech that gained momentum as I grew up.

 

[luv2liv]

people were skinnier back then?
wow

 

[Wreckem]

I go to a movie theater in one of those dead malls on that deadmalls website. Its actually a pretty good theater.

$3.50 for matinees, $5.75 for evening , $6.75 for 3D. Add in coupons for concessions, and ya I am a cheap bastard.

 

[foghorn67]

I had that copenhagen hat and those shorts....holy crap

 

[mmntech]

I experienced part of it. The mall phase was still strong in the early-mid-90s - Northtowne Mall? Grew up not fall from there.

The mall, Ohio Skate (skating rink), etc... oh jesus, the 90s were... comical.

I don't know if I'd want that - BUT, it was a better nurturing event compared to the childhood of those today. Too much technology too soon, I'm afraid. I had the chance to be eased into it.

I was, I think, in late elementary school when VirtualBoy and ilk were getting the press. So, that gives you a frame of reference for the tech that gained momentum as I grew up.

We're probably around the same age then. I used to love going to the mall in the 90s as a kid. All sorts of cool stuff there. Unless your mom wanted to go clothes shopping. Then you couldn't go home when you got bored.

Now as an adult, I actively avoid going to the mall. Worst are the outdoor ones made of big box stores. It's anarchy in those parking lots all the damn time.

 

[zinfamous]

Thank god that's not true at all. Porn is slightly more accessible.

pfft. you had to use your imagination to interpret a nipple through the squiggly lines.

kids these days--they got it easy. everything spoon fed to them!

 

[thefordmccord]

I'd say a large percentage of the people in those pictures are dead.

 

[nageov3t]

I don't get the arcade nostalgia at all.

my friends took me to one for my birthday this year, and after the novelty wore off (15 minutes later), it was like, why am hunched over these machines with uncomfortable controls when I could be playing a better game in the comfort of my living room with friends from all across the country.

although, the pinball experience is definitely something that consoles can't emulate.

 

[crownjules]

I don't get the arcade nostalgia at all.

my friends took me to one for my birthday this year, and after the novelty wore off (15 minutes later), it was like, why am hunched over these machines with uncomfortable controls when I could be playing a better game in the comfort of my living room with friends from all across the country.

although, the pinball experience is definitely something that consoles can't emulate.

Generally to experience nostalgia you need to have experienced it in the heydey. Arcades these days are shadows of what they were back in the 80-90s because they went out of style once home consoles caught up and overtook them.

 

[irishScott]

Makes me glad I grew up in the 90s.

 

[Mixolydian]

good old days... when you didn't have to look at people's underwear every time to went to the mall

You're the one who's looking...

The time period or the smoking? If it's the latter, FUCK THAT!

The latter. People weren't such pussies like they are today.

 

[Blintok]

well also missing is everyone face is not buried in a smart phone. Also if the early 80's we would be on BBS's at 300baud.

 

[Triumph]

Superstores mainly... Walmart allowed people to buy just about anything you could buy in a mall from electronics to kitchen stuff to automotive to clothes to groceries.

Sears and Montgomery Ward were selling what Walmart is selling, long before Walmart was even a national chain, and these two were common anchor stores for malls. Additionally, malls were always a place you could go for boutique stuff that the regular department stores didn't carry.

 

[who?]

Sears and Monkey Wars didnt have full supermarkets in the stores of course Wal-Mart didn't either back then. I think it was the late 80s or early nineties when Wal-Mart bought the Food-4-Less supermarkets from the Phillips company of Fort Smith Arkansas and turned them into the WM grocery sections. At first they had problems like moldy cheese but then they bought McLane grocery distributing to deal with the perishables.

 

[dank69]

pfft. you had to use your imagination to interpret a nipple through the squiggly lines.

kids these days--they got it easy. everything spoon fed to them!

The night the Playboy channel wasn't scrambled put my dick out of commission for a week. Okay, maybe 2 days but that's like a week to a 13yo.

 

[dud]

Thank god that's not true at all. Porn is slightly more accessible.

Have you considered a real woman?

 

[iamwiz82]

Why did they all have that terrible brown tile?!

 

[mmntech]

Indoor malls are still very popular. All the ones around here are slammed most weekends. People like the boutique stores. I think they went on the decline for a couple of reasons though.

From a property owner's perspective, an indoor mall is costly to maintain. They have large communal areas that need to be heated/cooled, cleaned, and maintained. Areas which are non-revenue generating. By contrast, shops at an outdoor mall typically pay their own utilities on top of rent, and do most of their own general maintenance. A property owner just needs to maintain the building structure and parking lot.

The other reason is anchor stores. Traditional department stores have been in decline for a long time now. Up here in Canada, both Simpsons and Eatons closed their doors in the 90s. Long before Walmart became all consuming north of the border.

Walmart though is a big reason why this continues. Why go to Sears? Wally World sells the same stuff for cheaper. Plus they also have a full grocery making it true one-stop shopping.

 

[HeXen]

Notice the difference before cell phones. Everyone is actually aware of their environment.
I don't remember guys wearing half length shirts though unless they were gay. Must be a region thing. Great times though, people didn't have so much entertainment at home like today so they actually went out more, hanged out..etc.
We still have our indoor mall but everything can be had so much cheaper elsewhere, I guess it's only the people that enjoy the atmosphere of it that keep it open. You don't see the groups of kids hanging out chlllin with slushies or anything of that sort of course, I just go there to eat at MCL's, everyone else just seems to shop at one particular store and leave, I do miss the days when it was the place to go.

 

[dank69]

Have you considered a real woman?

That sounds expensive

 

[TheSlamma]

80's was amazing fun, the last decade Americans had freedoms.. once the 90's came along it's just been a slow erosion with every new law passed.. But hey at least Gen Y gets a new Call of Duty and smart phone they can upgrade to each year to keep them thinking they live in good times.

 

[Cerb]

so what exactly killed malls? and don't say online shopping. still plenty of strip malls being built. they're just not indoors.

Among other things, the increased connectivity we have, today. Online shopping by itself only killed off the likes of dedicated consumer appliance stores and service centers that were mixed in with major retail outlets, IMO. So much of mall time was loitering and socializing, that were gradually made redundant with small cheap cell phones, and internet technologies. What died wasn't the shopping, but the event of, going to the mall. All the chit-chat, all the catching up, all the competitive egging, can be done from home or sometimes anywhere. People still go to malls, but it's not the same thing. I'm not so nostalgic, however, to call it much better back then, except for our average health.

Several major stores that used to be at the indoor malls around here have moved to the larger outdoor malls, which are just strip centers connected together. The big department stores are around the periphery, and rarely busy. 12-year-olds can still pretend to not be paying attention, whilst ogling the airbrushedphotoshopped underwear models on the window posters, just from the open outdoors.

Nostalgic thought: remember when the posters on the sides of those stores occasionally had some bush showing through (nostalgic thought 2: remember when you were so hormone-addled you couldn't help but pay attention to that sort of thing? )? I've seen enough of those models nekkid on the interwebs to know they don't all shave and wax smooth...damn you, photoshop!

 

[darrontrask]

Tape World! got kicked in the face with memories after seeing these. i'm a 70s kid but the 80s were the best times of my life. i'd trade everything to go back

THIS!

 

[who?]

Indoor malls charge both per square foot rent and a percentage of sales. What do outdoor malls charge?