As a Gen-X, malls were our primary source of entertainment. If you weren't home watching MTV, you were out at the mall walking around all day long. It was guaranteed you would see several of your friends there. We would check out the latest clothes, snack at the food court, and usually catch a matinee at the movie theater, or check out the guys at the arcade or sports stores. You could literally spend a whole day there, socializing. I wish today's kids had malls to enjoy.

Do you guys remember the mall at Christmas time? All the lights and toy displays 🙂 And the smell of cookies, popcorn, pretzels and perfume and new shoes. It was magical.

We used to cruise the malls for chicks when I was in HS over 40 years ago and spent hours at the arcade. What fond memories. Wish I could live it all over again

A baby boomer here and I thought 'The Mall' was a great concept and I miss it terribly! One stop, park once, everything under one roof where it's warm, safe, and you saw ALL your friends! You didn't have to go outside in the heat or the cold and it was a festive atmosphere. I'll never understand why they fell out of favor.... but I betcha they'll be back one day :) It was particularly nice to go during the holidays.... always decorated and really fun. You could do ALL your Christmas shopping in one place, it was so much easier than today.

The internet killed the shopping mall. I remember stores such as Pass Pets, Hickory Farms, Spencer's Gifts, and Orange Julius. I miss the malls because it was a place for people to meet and greet one another.

I miss the old book stores terribly! Hopefully we won't lose Barnes & Noble and Books A Million

It’s so sad here in US that the malls look so empty nowadays compared to the malls in Asia and Europe. I’m glad I was a teen in the 80s and had so much fun in the mall shopping especially in Contempo casuals, wet seal, esprit, Benetton, rave, 5-7-9, petite sophisticates, express, Kinney shoes and etc.

The thing I loved about the mall is you could go there and not spent a penny and still feel part of something. Walking through with my friends as a teenager, being poor but could still feel cool just hanging out in a fairly safe environment. Sad those places no longer exist.

This was a heartbreaking walk through my teenage and adult years. It just reminds me that the America that I grew up in doesn't exist anymore.

I met my wife at a mall in 2002. She wrote her phone number on a Hot Topic receipt(still have it). We are still together to this day, happily married with 3 kids.

I LOVED Fashion Bug. It's so sad seeing all of these store chains go under. Going to the mall used to be great because you could visit multiple different stores at once and had such a variety of items to purchase. We'd spend hours at the mall shopping. If it was a rainy day, the mall was a great place to go for some fun. Everything today is online and it takes away from the experience of shopping.

My mom LOVED Casual Corner! She died suddenly in 1979. She liked the The Limited also. Very fashion conscious n business wear.

I grew up in the 80s. The malls were where I met friends and socialized. We'd spend hours there. We didn't just shop, we had pizza, saw movies, went to the arcade. My first 'real ' job was in a mall in the late 80s, all the way through the mid 90s. The mall was such a huge part of my teen and early adult life. It's so sad to see them go.

WalMart started the downfall. The Internet and Amazon finished the job. So sad. So many fond memories of our area malls.

the mall during the holidays was the place to be... the look.. the activity.. the vibe..... that was a great time in my life.. i miss that..

I’m 50 now but when I was 16 I worked at the store in the mall called Rave, I loved working there because I loved the clothes and I got a discount. Also Limited I loved shopping there . The 80’s were a great time . I hope they don’t start closing down malls I still love shopping in them . Great video .

Malls, Bowling alleys, Roller rinks, Drive in theaters.. It's so sad that it's all gone. It's like when you're having a really good dream then something wakes you up and you're totally bummed.

As a young girl in the late 1990s, I yearned so deeply to shop and wear clothing from Limited Too. That brand was worn by all of the cool, pretty, and popular All-American girls. My Mother and Father who are now both deceased 🥺 were exceptionally hardworking immigrants. They simply could not afford to purchase anything from Limited Too for me. I would sometimes receive their catalogs in the mail and would slowly turn each page, imagining myself in the clothes, pajamas, and surrounded by their incredible bedroom accessories. I was far too young to fully appreciate and be as profoundly touched in my heart and Soul as I am now for my dear Parents and all they did to provide me with an excellent education and quality of life. I may not have been the best dressed child, but I was blessed beyond measure and still am, because of their immense and admirable sacrifices.

One thing that was great about the mall that not many people mention, is that when you became of age to get your first job you could get hired. Go to the mall walk into any of the stores and ask if they were hiring. The bigger stores like Sears would have a personnel dept. You could walk into a mall and leave gainfully employed at your very first job that day! Nowadays they just refer you to the website. Back then some manager would take pity on you and give you your first real job.

The store I miss the most is Hello Kitty. Our mall had an entire store dedicated to Hello Kitty and Friends. You can find some stuff online but not the stationary that was once available.

I miss the malls. It's too bad so many are gone.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this! I miss the 80’s & 90’s! We’ll never see those days again! 😢

Malls need to make a come back! It's good mentally and physically to go out shopping seeing things first hand and socializing!

I’ll never forgot a store our mall had called World of Science. I was around 10 and they had telescopes, science kits, games, fossils, videos and other great things, and it was fun to look around. One year I spent Christmas money on a piece of amber with an ant inside and I still have it almost 30 years later.

My mall experience was 1980's when I was a kid, and 1990's when I was a teen. The malls were the best place on earth: Food court, clothing stores, Toys R Us, arcades, radio shack, music stores (which was my first job), video rental, furniture stores, they had everything. It was so beautiful around Christmas time. It was a great place to go for a job, and to meet girls. All my dates as a teen came from asking out girls at the mall. I miss being young and shopping at the malls. Honestly, I think malls made life so much happier.

My favorite memories of the Malls was between Thanksgiving and Christmas in the 1980’s. It was always elbow to elbow and walking along seeing all those wonderful Christmas lights and decorations. Santa Claus usually arrived by a helicopter when time came. I so miss those days and the Malls😢

Does anyone remember Contempo Casuals? This was a young women’s clothing store which specialized in preteens, teens, and young 20s, and sold complete outfits, including jewelry, mostly by color story. The quality and styles were fantastic, and in our mall this store appeared around 1976/77, and was ultra popular. Chess King for young men wanting a Friday or Saturday date night outfit, and Contempo Casuals for the middle schooler or high schooler wanting to wear the most popular clothes!

I’m a Filipino and a Gen Z. Its so odd but interesting for me to see Millennial and Gen X Americans reminiscing abt mall culture. Malls here are very alive and teens still hangout there.

I worked at KB Toys in the late 90s and it was one of the best times of my life. Working in a mall then was totally like the scenes in Fast Times. It was like a little community where everybody shared discounts and gossip from the early morning mall walkers to the food court workers and mall security. This brought back a lot of good memories 👍

Indoor shopping Malls were so special, especially if it had an indoor fountain, where you threw your change in. Thanks for the nostalgia!

I worked at Waldenbooks for a few years in college and it was a great experience. We could take the books home to read, got a great discount and it was cool watching people line up for new bestsellers. There was a B. Dalton at the opposite end of the mall and we would always joke around with them about our store's rivalry.

What a trip to the past!! I'm 51 now and I worked at B. Dalton Booksellers while in high school. I can still visualize exactly where it was located in my hometown mall and remember my lunch breaks most of the time consisted of a brief stroll through the Radio Shack and then to the food court for lunch. My favorite was Orange Julius. I still have many of the books that I bought with my employee discount lol.

I'm so glad I'm a 77' baby and got to experience all the 80's and 90's. I have so many memories cemented at the local Mall! Pizza after the movies, my 1st kiss behind Sears [ 🤭] and winning tons of tickets to spend when playing air hockey. I'm 45 and so glad I related to all that you shared! TYSM for sharing!

Don't tell anyone, but us Seniors remember the wonderful 5 and dime stores we loved to shop in. Kresge, Cunninghams, Ben Franklin. Woolworth. They were small but they seemed to have everything. Many had a place to eat and drink called a diner. Sometimes you waited a half hour to eat there while shopping around lunch time. Some had what we called soda fountains. A sandwich with soup (for a buck) really hit the spot!

I remembered all but a couple of these stores. There are certainly others that could be added to this list. 1. Payless Shoes 2. Radio Shak. 3. Suncoast Music 4. Electrioncs Boutique

The mall was also a great form of social introduction for young people. I was a young man, when I got a part-time job at Miller's Outpost. The holidays were very hectic and I learned how to deal with customers. Wanted to quit, but the Manager literally told me that he wanted me out-front, because I was a cute guy and the amount of young women coming into the store had increased, due to my presence! For a shy guy, that was a huge ego boost!

The purpose of malls was not just commerce. It was the town square. It was where people went to interact with others in their greater community. Yes, online shopping helped destroy the shopping part, but even worse has been the replacement of the "town square" by social media. We are seeing the repercussions in our society, especially in the younger generation. Something needs to change.

I live in a majority Hispanic town and our local mall still gets a lot of shoppers. In Mexico there's a plaza in the middle of town where people go to hang out and shop, in America there is malls. It's sad to see these 3rd places disappear. I feel like America needs malls and plazas more than ever, folks are so lonely in this country.

Was surprised you didn’t mention Lerner and Hit or Miss. Boy do I miss several of the stores you did mention: Merry Go Round, Casual Corner, Deb, Wilson’s, Fashion Bug. And they just got rid of Dress Barn where I live. But also other stores that were popular around here were: Jean Nicolé, Ups N Down, Winkleman’s. Our BIG mall was Randall Park Mall… it was the largest mall in the United States for a when it was first built. I miss it. The land is now the site of an Amazon Center. 😔😢

This made me very nostalgic for the 80s and 90s.

What I miss the most about shopping malls was when virtually everyone of them had arcades, which you hardly see anymore! They of which was what made them so great, along with the book & toy stores too. Granted malls are still around, even if they're nowhere near the amazing, magical places they once were during their heyday though.

I'm 53, im glad i got the chance to experience all of the great stores we had back then 70,80-90

The coolest thing I ever saw was a community that formed a cooperative and bought a dying mall in their neighbourhood. They renovated it in partnership with a few big players that liked the idea. They turned the mall into a farmer's market with some permanent local businesses, a consignment store, an arcade where you pay by the hour, 2 movie theaters (one for new releases and one for old), an indoor children's playground, a massive food court with 2 chain restaurants attached, a spa, doctor's office, some offices (I believe one was a law firm), and a few other things. They turned the mall into the kind of place you can spend an entire day with the family, on your own, or with some friends, have a good time, and not spend a fortune. The volume of people they had go through there was ridiculous. Being there on a weekend was like being at the mall in the late 80's and early 90's. When I went I was told to plan an entire day there, but I wasn't expecting much, so I didn't. I wish I had planned 2 days.

Loved the County Seat! 501 Jeans and those creamy yellow corduroys that we wore with our cludder boots - such a hit in the 70s ! 😊

I am an 80’s baby, and the mall was THE PLACE TO BE! You definitely saw at least 2-3 of your friends. It was the place your parents would let you go when you were fairly young to hang out and get a feel of freedom and independence. I loved Gadzooks, Spencer’s, etc.. malls are now such a nostalgic vibe (never thought I’d say that)!

I was born in 1972 so I was growing up right in the prime era of malls in the late 70s and 80s and it was always such a great social experience. I always remember walking around the mall and my mother letting me walk around alone with my cousins and friends and eating in the food court it just always gave you a sense of freedom as a kid. KB TOYS as shown here was a place I ALWAYS wanted to go in starting in 1981 to get toys. It was just a great time to grow up and I thank you for making this video.

Growing up in the nineties, KB Toys was one of the coolest places at the mall.

The good ole days, the malls in the 70s and 80s, what a blast.

I miss record stores. Shopping through the bins for new releases and old records recommended by friends.

We sure loved Borders! It was a favorite Sunday excursion. Our store had a living room area with comfy chairs and a fireplace. When they added a cafe it was nirvana! We spent hours browsing. Once we made our purchase (often near $100) we were relaxing with the NYT over gourmet coffee and scones. sigh.

I was born in 1972 and I was at our local mall at least 1-2 a week… we lived at the mall on the weekends… such good memories, hanging out with friends in the food court, going to movies and shopping!!

This really brings back some memories! Back in the 1960s, not everyone had air conditioning. Even in areas like south Florida, a day at an air conditioned mall meant giving you the respite you needed from roasting outside! Meeting with friends in a cool environment was everything! Thanks for sharing!

This made me smile but my soul cries for the old days, simple things, best days😊❤

As a kid of the 80s, my local mall was the first building in our state to have an escalator! Fond memories of buying Lisa Frank stickers in Spencers, shopping at Benetton & Lerners, buying Esprit at Dillard’s & waiting/running through Sears when it opened to buy Bon Jovi tickets before they sold out. All of this was done without parental supervision. Sigh.

Is it a sign of my age that I find myself massively disappointed with there not being as many successful malls any more? These places were such a prominent element of my life growing up, and somewhere into my mid thirties they just started to die off. So many of the malls I went to when I was younger are now either closing, closed, or torn down.

As a previous owner of a brick and mortar retail store, rental space is outrageous. It drove me to move my retail store to 100% online only which I currently still run. That is why malls collapse. All that is left are huge chains selling the same exact China goods. Very few mom and pop stores left.

Malls still run rampant here in Japan. I always say Japan feels like 90s America that is why I love it here so much partly.

One of the things I liked about Stranger Things Season 3 was the way they recreated the '80s shopping mall experience.

B Dalton is a big one for me. I was in my local store at least 2 twice a week! Yes, I've gone to the dark side and read most books on my phone but I'll never forget the excitement of new release day and the smell of a fresh, new book!

There is still a pretty decently functioning mall where I live in North Carolina. I live in a college town and lots of the kids go there. Thanks for the memories in this video! I’m 50 and loved going to The Mall when I was a teenager. We would spend the whole day there, trying on clothes and buying when we had money, eating junk from the food court, seeing movies and playing in the arcade. Good times!

I always loved going to the mall as a kid during Christmas time. The decor and the large tree in the middle of the building was my favorite.

Fashion Bug wasn't just plus size clothes. Half of the store was standard women's sizes and even some jrs sizes, and half was plus sizes, which meant it was one of the few places that plus sized girls could actually go with their friends and everyone could try on clothes together and not have someone stuck just looking at accessories while the others shopped.

Such a fun way to spend the weekend was at the mall!! I love to see and touch the products and try it on!! I miss the mall.

This is depressing... my fav thing as a kid in the 80's was visiting a mall I had never been to before... exploring it was so exciting.

I remember some of these. Window gazing was a tradition for malls near Christmas. Families would go to malls just to look at decor.

I miss malls. I didn't shop at a lot of these stores (and trust me, I've never been a size 5, 7, or9) but I do miss malls. They were someplace to go and a place where I could walk around and get exercise. I'll never understand the attraction of buying clothes online. I have to try things on to make sure that they're comfortable and that they look decent before I'll buy them. I don't care what the return policies are, it's inconvenient and downright disappointing.

My local mall in Alton, Illinois had a women's store called Jean Nicole that a love in the 80's. Also, the aroma from the Tinder Box tobacco shop was heavenly because of the cherry tobacco.

Ahh, the mall ❤️ Tons of memories! Born in ‘81, I feel like it was a huge part of my childhood 😅 We had two malls by us, but one was my fav. Wilson’s: my leather jacket was bought from my mom when I was 12 years old. It was a huge deal to me and I still have it! Limited Too was an obsession for me for my middle school years. KB Toys was a big memory for me….bright blue carpet with red and yellow decor. The food court was a favorite part of the mall - I always chose the baked potato, lol. My brother was absolutely obsessed with the arcade - Tilt - and we had to tear him away from it. He would stay in there BY HIMSELF while my mom and I would shop. He’s 2 years older. And it was not considered a big deal back then! Also the Disney Store was a fav. I collected all of the mugs and porcelain figurines for awhile. Still have all of them!

I miss the old school malls of the 80's and 90's.

Oh the nostalgia. I was so excited to see the mall scenes in Stranger Things. It brought back a lot of memories and they did a real authentic job in creating it. I know it's a long shot, but I hope that our society can go back to that kind of living again.

As a kid and teenager, I liked going to the mall. Now I hate the mall and don't go and will avoid going.

The Altamonte Mall in Orlando is still thriving with virtually no empty stores. It's busy on the weekends, lots of young people and during holidays and summer it is buzzing.

I’m a 70s and 80s kid and grew up in a small town with no malls. We would go to the “big city” to the malls and it was always MAGICAL 💜 ESPECIALLY at Christmas time, oh my gosh! All the decor, I remember being a kid and walking in and feeling that excitement 😀😀😀 In the 90s I worked at a mall and it was awesome. I made so many friends with people that worked in other stores. I miss those days 😢 Thank you for putting this vid together, it brought back so many memories!!

I'm old enough to have nostalgia, not for shopping malls, but for "going downtown" to shop. Woolworths was my childhood hangout. As suburbanization took hold, people fled downtown to go to these new shopping malls. Imagine how ancient I feel that these shopping malls that killed my beloved downtown have now died as well. Amazon is now the way most shop, but I avoid buying a product I can't feel ore see in person first.

I absolutely loved Wet Seal and Deb stores. I am now 46 but I was at a dance club every weekend in my 20's and those were the stores that I got my clothes. Another one that is no longer around is Charlotte Rousse. Another store that I could find cute tops to wear. I also bought alot of clothes at Fashion Bug and another store called Dot's. I worked at Casual Corner at my local outlet mall so I wore alot of their nice business casual clothes because they kinda wanted you to so customers could see them on and possibly buy them. The outlet mall near me at one time had about 100 stores and a food court. Now it has about 10 ( if that) stores and an emptiness that was the food court. I really miss the malls as they once were. There are still a couple malls around but the stores they have these days don't really interest me.

This channel makes me want to cry! Thinking back how life used to be and how the simple pleasures made you happy! 😢

Malls were absolutely great. So many memories

Who remembers 5-7-9? A store that catered to the petites? I was devastated when they closed

I’m in Cherry Hill NJ and the Cherry Hill mall does an amazing business. All the stores are open and crowded. It’s nice to still go to a mall and get a auntie Anne’s pretzel near water fountains.

Ahhh, yes. I worked for Petite Sophisticate in 1997 as an assistant manager. Our store closed within four months after i started, along with our sister store, Casual Corner. Somehow not very shocking!

Every time I watch a video like this my nostalgia meter goes through the roof! I was an 80s teen and the mall was always an awesome time with friends just hanging out and enjoying each other’s company, eating junky food court food, watching a movie… Man, those were good times!

Humanity is far less social than it ever has been before at least in-person. This is the reason malls are shutting down. Nobody wants to hang out, nobody wants to talk to each other. Each bit of socialization is met with pure hostility because people have become too accustomed to the use of the internet. If it had died, humanity dies with it. This is also part of the reason people steal from these malls now and are so used to violence and not caring if they were shot for doing so.

I miss me some Borders! The one near where I live in Long Beach CA was my go to place when I just wanted to get out of the house. They were the funky alternative to Barnes & Noble. Thankfully, we still have Barnes & Noble though. There is nothing like the touch, the feel, the smell, the human interaction, the discovery, the overall experience of an old-fashioned brick an motor store. I will always prefer brick and mortar to online. Brick and mortar provides an experience that online shopping will never replace. Another thing I like/liked about the mall experience ... ESCALATORS! I love me some escalators! 😃

Hanging out at the mall was my way of staying out of trouble.

Thanks for keeping our memories from the 70's to the 90's.

😳It's a shame about the malls because younger people today don't realize what they're missing but the internet is the main culprit in changing everything. It is so much easier just to buy things from home on your computer or even just on your phone instead of getting in the car and driving to a mall and parking and blah blah blah but the mall experience is what made buying whatever you bought, so much better. My friends and I would go and just hang out for a few hours and we had a blast. It's such a shame now to see so many malls empty. The one we would always go to was called Metro center Mall and that's where Bill and Ted's excellent adventure Mall scenes were shot. When you watch the movie full of people walking through busy stores and it wasn't just for the movie, it was always that way. Now, it's being dismantled and torn down and they're putting up low income apartment complexes on that land. Really sad.

The things I liked about malls where the cookies shops and bath and body works. I used to work at Dressbarn and they bought Limited Too or Justice.😊

We used to hit Hickory Farms for some samples. Also had a bookstore, an awesome arcade, toy store, Spencer’s… plenty to keep us busy for hours. I remember in the 80s the coolest thing ever was that Parisian put computers in the middle of the mall outside of their store before Christmas that you could answer questions and it would compare the person you answered the questions about to a celebrity and print out a sheet of gift ideas. Absolutely mind blowing stuff back then!

Malls should still be popular. I don’t get why they’re not because it’s so cool to walk into a building and have a variety of different types of stores, several food options and entertainment.

I remember going to the Warner Bros store for the first time. It was just awesome. So much work went into the decorations. It is hard to believe somebody would put so much work and money into designing a store. Nowadays, most stores are junkyards, and they literally just throw the merchandise on the floor (I'm looking at you, Ross).

I was born in 1994 and our local mall opened in 2000. It was the place to be and i spent every Friday night there as a teenager either at the movies, at the ice skating rink, or just walking the mall with friends. I still love going to malls for the convenience of being able to shop different places at one time no matter what weather is like. Stores i miss are F.Y.E, Wet Seal, Disney Store, Deb, Gap, Younkers, Payless, KB Toys, Kmart, and so many others

I loved Kay-Bee toy stores in the local malls. They were the best place to get all kinds of different slot cars and parts to make them faster. They were also great for all the new candy.

I was born in 1988, but I would give anything to see the malls in the glory days of the 80s. I bet it was just it!!

The mall was THE place to go on Friday nights! Going to the arcade, Record Bar, Spencer's.... Eating Sbarro pizza at the food court.... Great times! 👍

Boy, this video brings back a lot of memories. After growing up in the local malls in the 70’s and 80’s, I also worked in several from 1992-2003.

I grew up with malls, being born in 1969, and having one in my back yard. We could walk to our local mall for a movie or to just see what was happening. I loved the fountains and the art displays malls had, especially in the 70's. There is one just as close to me now, but it doesn't have the feel like when I was a kid and teenager.

Waiting for Mrs Field's to roll out a batch of fresh warm cookies was always on top of my list for mall activities. I also loved Walden Books. Spencer gifts was another great store. My parents shopped at Sears forever. Back in the day it was an outing to go to Sears in the Mall. Nothing was better than circling wish items in the Wish Book. I really took Sears' closing hard. Great video 🙂

Any movie filmed in the 1970's into the 1990's will forever remind us of these stores that once were once common names for us. The sadist part is that not only did these stores employ a lot of people in the stores (clerks, managers, stockers), but the behind the scenes people like maintenance workers, window designers, and people who printed up the advertisements that were in each window that attempted to attract the shopper in. And everyone of them advertised in the printed newspaper, which gave revenue to that industry as well.

1970 baby here. Glad to see the malls here in Portland Oregon location.. being busy.I was kicking some butt on the Pinball game at the arcade at Washington Square. I spent so many hours of my life there as a young teen. Those were the days you would bring the Boom Box and get a crowd watching you Break dancing..😆 Miss those days.👍❤🇺🇸💙✌✝️⚘🐶😊Ps.🙏 Bring back K-Mart for the blue light specials 😁🙃🍻

A lot of these stores I've never heard of before. I do remember another one called Wicks-n-Sticks, which was pretty much all candles. Not just candles in jars, but in all sorts of shapes and scents. I still have a unicorn candle that a friend bought me from that store. I remember Spencer, which had trendy items, gags, and a slightly racy section. When I was really young, we had a Woolworth's, and ever year they would have baby ducks in a display at the center of the store. One year we bought two and raised them. They also had an ice cream counter with the best ice cream I think I've ever had. A really delicious lemon custard ice cream, but my favorite by far was blue bubble gum, which didn't have pieces of gum in it. Instead the ice cream itself was sort of chewy. I still think about that ice cream! I remember that my mom loved Morrison's Cafeteria, where you got a tray and went down the line choosing from various options. Salads, meats, vegies, side dishes, desserts. I would usually choose fried shrimp or veal parmesan. Pecan pie or pudding or strawberry shortcake. We had Rich's, where every year at Christmas they had a new Richie Bear for sale. Of course there were always photos with Santa too. We had Dillards and Radio Shack. JC Penny and Belk.........both of which are still around in some places. There was Sears of course. Kirkland's was a pretty good store for inexpensive gifts. There was Build-A-Bear, which came a little later. And the mall picnic area with Sbarro Pizza, Orange Julius, Cinnabon, Gyro Wrap, Japanese Wok, and usually a Chinese place too. Oh...and Baskin Robbins! And The Original Cookie Company. (At least I think that's what it was called.) My favorite mall had water features, and it was two stories with lots of natural light. As a matter of fact, I think it's still open, though I haven't been in that city for a while. Ack. I'm feeling all nostalgic now. Maybe I need to find and visit a mall.