Another local mall looked very different to me when I visited yesterday. Of course I really wasn’t there to shop, because I am saving for an upcoming vacation. This particular center is one of the last ones to have a multi-screen movie theater inside, and I went with a friend to see a feature and have dinner.
In the good old days of indoor shopping experiences, the mall was a hub of social activity. In its prime back in the 1960s and 1970s, the interior walkways were populated with small bridges over ponds of ducks, huge aviaries housing exotic birds, and an assortment of greenery and fountains. This particular mall was also known to contain about a dozen shoe stores, which neighboring malls didn’t have. The anchor stores were well-known favorites including Sears and Philadelphia staple John Wanamaker’s.
When a fire destroyed the interior in 1992, the owners rebuilt it better than before, modernizing the indoor experience and refurbishing the store fronts. It may have looked less like a zoo with stores, but it was filled with light from skylights overhead, and it was pleasant. The shoe stores didn’t all stay, and by that time the anchors were becoming Macy’s and Lord & Taylor. Now, the only store remaining of the big department store chains is Boscov’s.
Last night I did manage to sneak in a visit to one of the smaller retailers still remaining which I do use, and I noticed a few more changes had happened since I was there last. First, Hallmark pulled its last store out of the mall, and in its place was an unopened boutique displaying signage but nothing else. A major clothing store also vacated; next door to it was a new business featuring Black-owned products, with the proprietor standing outside the door waiting to hob-knob with another tenant. Nobody was shopping inside.
Because my friend and I could not wait an hour for seating at the sports bar, we went to the grill restaurant instead, and noticed that it wasn’t 7:00 yet, but the jewelers had closed and locked up. The mall was looking more like a ghost town, which cannot be good on a Friday evening. The remaining food court eateries were sparsely populated, though the water ice stand seemed to be doing well.
Our restaurant was doing well, we were seated immediately, the food was the best I’d had out in weeks, and we enjoyed a fun movie. I admit it would have been more fun if the theater had been filled with viewing patrons. I guess there may have been around 20 people there for the feature, which was in its second weekend. With current events as they are, it was nice to just be able to sit in a theater seat. Or walk in part of a mall, however sad it may have looked.
It’s sad at my age to see that the world is modernizing and retooling itself out of its own existence.
Susan's Scribblings the Blog 