A "dead" home town mall featured on You Tube

Marie5656

Marie5656

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Location
Batavia, NY
There is a You Tube channel I kind of like which explores old dead malls. Well, Batavia made the cut. I can see the mall from my building. The big draw now is the Farmers Market held every weekend in the parking lot. And the occasional craft show as well as Mall Walkers . JCPenny has since closed.

 

There is a lot of financial "overhead" involved with operating and maintaining a big shopping mall...and those costs are ultimately passed to the consumers who shop there. That's why, in the past couple of decades, Walmart, Target, the Dollar stores, and online shopping have largely made these places obsolete.
 
This mall is close to me. I had been a regular there for over 40 years. It is totally demolished now and they are building luxury apartments in it's place. Everyplace here is being torn down for luxury apartments. Very sad but times do change.

 
Jules said:
It’s a quandary what to do with all these malls that have closed. Or closed part of them when anchor stores like Sears moved out. Once I heard a suggestion of converting the space upwards for apartments or senior housing. They often are in a prime location.
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The mall near me sits right between two senior apartment buildings...one across the street//and my own. I kind of wish the movie theaters were still open, as it would be walking distance. Oh well. I am guessing movie theaters are getting fewer..due to streaming
 
It’s sad that so many of the malls are closing. I was a real mall rat in the 1980’s, and going to them on a Saturday was an entertainment, almost a way of life. It wasn’t just the shopping; you’d have lunch at the food court, and maybe catch a matinee movie. You’d hoof it around the mall, getting exercise and perhaps a bargain or two, and maybe snag some pizza! Then go into Sears to look at their tools, and later visit an honest-to-God book store, all under one roof. It was all climate controlled, so winter cold wouldn’t faze you. I miss the mall age. Shopping on line just ain’t the same as the brick-and-mortar stores, where you could handle and try stuff on… 😕
 
A mall story from my youth. Back when I was younger, before malls were a real thing, Downtown Rochester NY had a mall..called Midtown Mall. I lived here in Batavia at the time. Back when Trailways bus had a depot here n Batavia, they would have a run between here and Rocheter, with the station being attached to the mall. So, I remember being in my later teens (and the central city area being safer) I would take the bus to the mall to do my Christmas shopping. There were two floors of stores, a small food court and a couple anchor stores, and a nice big store across main street as well. I would spend the day wandering the mall.
There was a neat clock in the center of the mall, known as the Clock of Nations. Each hour, one of the nations would be featured. Here are a couple videos


For this..give it a few seconds for "show" tp start"

 
Nice memories, Marie, I have similarly mall memories.
Big Town Mall, Mesquite Texas was one of the first malls built in Texas...1959, I was 19 years old, just graduated from high school and just married, I was going to Beauty School and we lived about 3 miles from this new mall. I have great memories of walking the isles of Woolworth and eating lunch there.
 
RadishRose said:
I've seen one or two other videos like this one. Some years ago there was talk of converting some of these malls into homeless shelters. I don't think it ever happened anywhere.
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I think a guy with a lot of money could build one heck of a model railroad layout in one of those abandoned malls. Actually, just the JC Penny section would do.
 
JustDave said:
I think a guy with a lot of money could build one heck of a model railroad layout in one of those abandoned malls. Actually, just the JC Penny section would do.
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Sounds like a neat idea. I would go see it. Your comment reminds me of my one uncle who had a model train layout that pretty much filled his basement. Us kids, when young were not allowed to handle it..but he was always cool about going down with us to show us new things, and run it for us
 

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