It seems like every day there’s a new article online about a ghost mall somewhere; a former shopping mecca decimated by changing consumer habits and demographics and left to decay into something that looks like the setting of a zombie film.
(Side note: How long before someone makes Ghost Mall, a winking low-budget horror movie about an abandoned mall that was built on an unmarked graveyard and is actually haunted? Or a film called Retail Apocalypse, about the survivors of a cataclysmic war holed up inside an abandoned Neiman Marcus? Wait, why am I giving these great ideas away for free?!? I’m an idiot.)
Kids these days (shakes fist) have no idea what they missed out on when these ghosts malls were alive and well. I’ve seen things you young people wouldn’t believe. Hot Topics on fire off the shoulder of the arcade. I watched Spencer’s Gifts glitter in the dark near the Sears gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
A younger generation might think it it is time for these malls to die. They may be right. But those of up who grew up haunting spaces that are now considered ghost malls have intensely fond memories about them. In the 1980s and ’90s, malls were where you went to hang out with friends, to socialize, and to buy stuff you didn’t need but desperately wanted. (I take it back, I definitely needed those Z Cavaricci’s pants.)
In this piece, we look back at 20 of the now-defunct (or almost-entirely defunct) mall chains we’d love to visit one more time. Grab yourself an Aunt Annie’s pretzel and an Orange Julius and prepare yourself for a trip down memory lane … or maybe the memory food court, in this case.
20 Vintage Mall Stores We Wish We Could Visit One More Time
If you spent a lot of times in malls in the ’80s and ’90s, you definitely visited some these classic and now non-existent (or barely existent) stores.
READ MORE: Once-Beloved Fast Food Items That No Longer Exist
Forgotten ’90s Movies You Need to See
These movies weren’t hits. They’re not considered ’90s classics. But more people should watch them.
