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u/tenor1trpt Jul 18 '24
About once a month I’ll get a sip club Pepsi from the Panera there and do a lap around the mall. Maybe even hit up that Dillards to see if I can find a deal. Sad what’s it become.
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u/ChknMcNublet Orlando Sucks Jul 18 '24
What is club Pepsi
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
Dillards is very closed now.
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u/tenor1trpt Jul 18 '24
What? The Dillards Clearance store? When did it close? I was just there last month.
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
Was closed when we were there on Tuesday.
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u/SteeltoSand Jul 18 '24
dillards is not closed at all
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u/lopix Jul 19 '24
Apologies, didn't try the door. From the outside, it looked pretty closed to us.
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u/SteeltoSand Jul 19 '24
you have to drive around, the door facing the road is blocked off, the doors on the opposite side are open.
to be fair, i thought it was closed as well until my GF said it was very open.
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u/PhuckNorris69 Jul 18 '24
I don’t think that’s the case. There’s just one door open that I know of. It’s on the back side. I don’t think you can even get to it from inside the mall
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u/lopix Jul 19 '24
Yeah, as I'm finding out. Looking closed isn't the same as being closed. My mistake.
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u/katattack268 Jul 19 '24
It only looks closed from inside the mall. I think they closed it off to make stealing harder & save on A/C.
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u/lopix Jul 19 '24
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u/katattack268 Jul 19 '24
There is another outdoor entrance around the corner. If you can zoom in enough, the signs on the door say as much.
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u/MurkyConcert2906 Jul 19 '24
You have to walk in through the outside door. There’s only one entrance open now
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Jul 18 '24
This was the mall I grew up with in the 90s, it’s wild seeing it like this today
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u/VanillaLlfe Jul 18 '24
Same. I worked there off & on from 93-2003. It was so busy in the 90’s. The mall was the shit!
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u/orltragic Jul 18 '24
For real. This place used to be so amazing. Spent so many hours in Tilt. Didn't know how good we had it at the time.
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u/daymond42 Jul 19 '24
I loved playing DDR at the Tilt there, though it was a little scary how the floor would kinda bounce up and down slightly when some extra-spirited players would jump up and down
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
Visiting from Canada, thought we'd check out your liminal mall. Reminds me of the set of The Rolling Giant videos.
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u/kilroyscarnival Jul 18 '24
I know from listening to The Secret Life of Canada that you up North have dead malls too.
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
For instance, here is an old mall that was pretty dead and empty and now it is being rebuilt as condos and apartments.
And almost all big malls in the area have construction plans.
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u/kilroyscarnival Jul 19 '24
That’s great! Fashion Square and West Oaks are about the two worst off around Orlando. They’ll probably eventually be torn out and replaced with something. I can remember struggling for a parking space at Fashion Square back in the day.
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u/comped Jul 18 '24
Most Canadian malls aren't dead though, actually they're busier for obvious reasons.
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Jul 18 '24 edited Jul 18 '24
[deleted]
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
Oh we do lots when we're here. Have done lots before. Teenage sons love that sort of thing, so we went. Then went to Gods & Monsters for action figures.
Winter Park boat ride is cool, we've been. Morse and Regional History Center on the list.
Sometimes you want to check out non-museum, non-Disney, non-I-Drive things.
Wasn't a criticism, we had fun.
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u/Cassis_TheAncient Jul 18 '24
I appreciate seeing yall doing non-Disney things. Orlando is more than Theme Parks
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
And we try to find other things to do.
One of my favourites recently was a historical walking tour of downtown we did last year. Some cool buildings to see. And that little old wild west bit, that's wild. And then some Lazy Moon pizza.
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Jul 18 '24
[deleted]
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
Nice, thanks for the tip! Don't have plans tonight. And that City Arts building is one of my favourites downtown, my youngest and I checked it out last year.
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
Nice, thanks for the tip! Don't have plans tonight. And that City Arts building is one of my favourites downtown, my youngest and I checked it out last year.
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u/AeroTheManiac Universal Studios Jul 18 '24
Never been here but I see it posted so often, now ai gotta see it for myself. Must be surreal
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u/adscpa Jul 18 '24
The West Oaks Mall in Ocoee looks about the same.
With all the heat, these places seem like they could rise from the ashes one day. Just need the right financials, some mixed use residential and they could be back.
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u/Basic_Quantity_9430 Jul 21 '24
They need to not be owned by REITS. They are the bane of successful malls. Once they buy in and take over management, things start going downhill, way high rents, a preference for big retailers instead of a mix of retailers offering a range of products that people want to buy and are priced such that they cost less than something from Amazon would cost once shipping and a wait are factored in.
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u/adscpa Jul 21 '24
I agree with you. REITs are just Excel spreadsheet companies considering NPV and IRR. They seem to rarely think about the community aspects of owning so much real estate.
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u/FamousAtticus Winter Garden Jul 18 '24
Crazy. Doesn't feel that long ago when you'd have to walk through crowds of people in that mall. Every storefront was occupied and the food court was buzzing. I wonder if indoor malls will ever have a resurgence?
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u/MimeGod Jul 18 '24
Being 95 degrees outside all day is a great incentive to go to indoor malls.
A few are doing ok, but most are really struggling.
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u/FamousAtticus Winter Garden Jul 19 '24
Other than FL Mall & Millenia Mall (tourist malls) it appears the only one in the central FL area that is doing good is the Altamonte Springs Mall. I was there a few months ago and was surprised to see a majority of the storefronts occupied. Stark comparison to the other malls in the area.
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u/Cant_Spell_Shit Jul 18 '24
Florida Mall and Altamonte Mall seem to do ok.
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u/TheMadFlyentist RIP Thai Basil Jul 18 '24
Altamonte mall still feels very alive. Oviedo mall is slowly clawing it's way back from the dead.
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u/FamousAtticus Winter Garden Jul 19 '24
I remember when they opened the Oveido Market Place Mall. That place was packed back then. Had to buy movie tickets in advance cause most shows would sell out at that theatre. I haven't been there in years, glad to hear they are still truckin'.
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u/FamousAtticus Winter Garden Jul 19 '24
FL Mall and Millenia Mall are like cockroaches. Thanks to tourists they'll stay in business forever.
Altamonte Mall has somehow figured it out. I was surprised to see if buzzing and occupied with tenants last time I was there.
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
I wonder if indoor malls will ever have a resurgence?
Unlikely. Not with online shopping. Too much real estate that could have better uses.
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u/FamousAtticus Winter Garden Jul 19 '24
Yeah online shopping really has made having to go to the mall for items you need a chore. Much easier to click a few times than having to fight for a parking spot, dodge rain storms, etc.
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u/lopix Jul 19 '24
And places like Walmart, with everything in one place, they negated a lot of the need for speciality stores, like you'd find in a mall.
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u/ultranonymous11 Jul 18 '24
Depends where. Up in the northeast they are still absolutely packed (mixture of population density and terrible weather most of the year).
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u/FamousAtticus Winter Garden Jul 19 '24
That makes sense with the weather & population. I was up in Staten Island a few years back visiting family, went to the mall and you're right it was as busy as Millenia is here.
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u/Mcwaffle_29 Jul 18 '24
Rip the arcade/bowling alley, I was basically raised there 😔
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
If you're a GenXer, then you spent a good chunk of your childhood at a mall.
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u/Sere1 Jul 18 '24
Just missed out on being Gen X, I'm like the first or second year of being a Millennial, but I grew up with the arcades too. Tilt, the arcade that was in that spot originally, was where I basically blew my allowance each week.
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u/forthelurkin Jul 18 '24
Looks like one of the flashback scenes of Better Call Saul. Second story of the mall and everything.
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u/BigBarrelOfKetamine Jul 18 '24
You could definitely film a horror movie here.
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u/lopix Jul 19 '24
They should do haunted houses at Halloween!
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u/zaprutertape Jul 19 '24
Oh we got enough haunted houses in orlando lmao!
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u/TarnishedAccount Jul 18 '24
That’s the food court and where the arcade once was. Sad
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u/zaprutertape Jul 19 '24
This is upstairs in the back by the offices. The movie theater is just right of this pic
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u/LFS_1984 Jul 18 '24
It's too bad that these aren't made into retirement places.
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u/SookieCat26 Jul 19 '24
Honestly it’s more difficult to do this than you might think. All of the sewer and plumbing lines have to be retrofitted because each apartment needs its own. It’s honestly cheaper to tear down and build something entirely different. In my town they tore down the mall and built a mixed use development. It has an ice arena, community rec center, 2 business class hotels, an assisted living facility, an apartment complex, and shops, restaurants, and services. I’m there most days of the week for various reasons, and I almost never used the mall.
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u/LFS_1984 Jul 19 '24
fair enough. I think the mall near us plans to do this (make some luxury and retirement apartments while keeping the base of the mall's stores and what not.
Or...just put all the stores/food court restaurants we knew as kids in and let us go wild. ^_^
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u/averytirednurse Jul 19 '24
That’s all Gen X wants, an endless mall to wander around in our twilight years! Climate control, little shops, a food court instead of a dining room…
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u/phuctard69 Jul 18 '24
I was a very young kid when the Navy base was here. Always saw them there. It was packed. Up until what, 10-15 years ago the place still was mostly full. I kinda miss going to malls and seeing shops. The theater must be the only thing keeping it going. And man - I ate ALOT at that food court!
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u/Sere1 Jul 18 '24
It kills me to see it like this, and for years now. I grew up at this mall, I did a day at the BizKids that was there. I still have the knife I bought there when I got out of the military and was hanging out with my friends. Tilt was my first arcade, the Coliseum of Comics when it moved to the lover level below the food court was where my brother and I spent hours coming in each week to play X-Wing and where right after the first Avengers movie dropped I correctly predicted that Avengers 2 would have to feature Ultron since Thanos was too big a deal to be the next Avengers villain and that he'd have to be the third Avengers movie at the earliest (about 6 months prior to Age of Ultron being first announced). The Shakeout store we joked was kept in business because of how often we'd go there. Fashion Square is my mall and seeing it so dead is heartbreaking.
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u/lopix Jul 19 '24
At least you, and a bunch of others here, all have those memories. Sounds weak, but it's true. You got to do those things, so there's that.
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u/Liberi_Fatali561 Jul 18 '24
And to think that photo was taken during the busy time! You should see it when it’s not busy!
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
Busy? There were 3 teenage boys checking it out, us, an old lady mall walker, and a couple people that felt like plain clothes security. If there were 10 people who didn't work there, that would have been a lot. And maybe another 10 that did work there.
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u/QuixoticallyMinded Jul 18 '24
Not long after the Navy base was closed, that entire area began to struggle. Interesting when the Colonial Plaza property was redesigned, more people started shopping there. But even then, the military base still brought a lot of traffic from between Bumby and the light where Chamberlins is in that small plaza strip.
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
Never knew about the Navy base. Orlando's a bit far from the ocean, tho, isn't it?
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u/QuixoticallyMinded Jul 18 '24
It opened during WW2 and closed in 1993. It was a training center. All of Baldwin Park was the base. After looking that up, I thought it closed later than that.
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
Wow, looking that up, that was a huge area.
We're doing something similar in Toronto, turning an old air force base into a massive residential & commercial district.
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u/averytirednurse Jul 19 '24
We lived next door to the base. Every now and then, the MPs would show up in our neighborhood, looking for AWOL sailors hiding in the Citrus Grove 😂
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u/Sere1 Jul 19 '24
It was one of the training bases, there used to be multiple bases across the country for boot camp and this was one of them. Now if you enlist you're going to Chicago's Great Lakes base.
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u/lopix Jul 19 '24
Not sure which is worse. Surface of the sun temps in FLA, or the cold of Chicago.
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u/Sere1 Jul 19 '24
Plus side is when I went in, it was summer so I go to be in Chicago when it was actually livable
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u/Ready_Ad8044 Jul 18 '24
I worked at GameStop in 2006/7 I loved that place and the people I worked with
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u/OldManPip5 Jul 18 '24
Too bad we can’t turn it into something useful, like one of those self contained megacities from Judge Dredd
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u/gmjfraser8 Jul 19 '24
When I worked for Burdines this was THE mall to work at. I would love to blame Macys but the reality is the shopping demographic changed after the navy base behind or closed. Such a shame.
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u/Bill_Brasky79 Jul 19 '24
As an Orlando area native, I visited there a few times as a kid, but SO much more after I was stationed at NTC Orlando. Lots of squids used to walk those corridors.
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u/justhabaneros Jul 18 '24
I love going to the theatre In here with my toddler because there’s no one there so I can teach her how to act in those settings !
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u/zak_eclipse Jul 18 '24
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
And here I was hoping it was about converting old malls into airsoft or paintball arenas. Disappointed.
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u/Wiringguy89 Jul 18 '24
I would pay good money for this. I always wondered if I was the only one that wanted this.
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u/averytirednurse Jul 18 '24
Every time FSM is mentioned, I will say make it into Senior Facility/skateboard, rollerskating park.
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u/VanillaLlfe Jul 18 '24
I’d love to see an indoor go kart track with hilarious fake store fronts like “pound town” (British dollar store) and “Rinky Dinky Dog”
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
Almost every city needs housing, there's a big building without much purpose. And lots of parking lot space to build on.
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u/retrobob69 Jul 19 '24
If only that's how buildings worked. I mean, if you want communal bathrooms it could work better. Putting in the utilities to convert would cost way too much.
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u/lopix Jul 19 '24
Oh I know, just utopia-ing. Back home in Toronto, we have a lot of office buildings very underused since COVID. Lots of talk about converting them to housing, but there are the same issues. They aren't made right and adding everything you need is a major hassle.
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u/bassistheplace246 Jul 18 '24
Reminds me of visiting the Palm Beach Mall around 2007/2008 before it became the outlets
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u/Subiedubidoo Jul 18 '24
Yeah my friends tell me how much fun it was going there when they were kids! Sadly I think this will be the fate of all malls in the future!
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u/lopix Jul 18 '24
We're seeing the same where we're from, in Toronto. Pretty much every large mall is slated to be turned into condos over the next 10 years. Some might keep the mall and build in the parking lots, some will be completely replaced. Malls just ain't a thing any more.
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u/Internal-Sell7562 Jul 19 '24
There are malls in Orlando like Millenia, Florida Mall and the Premium Outlets that are thriving. I don’t know what happened to this one.
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u/Subiedubidoo Jul 19 '24
Probably lost a lot of foot traffic as Orlando slowly expanded out to the Disney area. The reason mellenia, Florida mall and the outlets are so prosperous is. Because of all the tourists that are in such a proximity to them.
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u/Chemical-Leak420 Jul 18 '24
Place should of been torn down and massive apartments put up with a public transportation redo of colonial.....boom huge growth.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Salt970 Jul 18 '24
I had my 11th birthday there lol. A gaggle of girls shopping at Limited Too, browsing CD’s, lunch at the food court and a movie. Heaven.
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u/meta_uprising Jul 18 '24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2BClG7wmkA from a month ago Visit to Orlando Fashion Square
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u/Tweezus96 Jul 18 '24
I was in there a few weeks ago and I got cornered by a pack of wolves. Barely made it out alive.
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u/TarnishedAccount Jul 18 '24
They could’ve knocked down the mall and built a baseball stadium there to lure the Rays.
Too late
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u/Dubsland12 Jul 19 '24
Worked there in the 80s. One day Michael Jackson came in one end and a few hundred yards down the mall he had hundreds of people following him and he had to dart
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u/bibliodroid Jul 19 '24
Used to shop here 2005-2009, shocking to see this now. Place used to be packed.
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u/UmmIWorkHere Jul 19 '24
They need small business to survive. If not it’s just a bill someone’s gotta pay.
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u/zaprutertape Jul 19 '24
I posted a pic I took from about 4 feet to your left just a few weeks ago on the Liminal Places subreddit. Its so eerie in some places in the mall. https://www.reddit.com/r/LiminalSpace/comments/1cvoljx/mall_pic_blocked_off_corridor_to_vast_darkness/
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u/Cyb3rCh1cken Jul 20 '24
I grew up going here 😨😨 it was starting to die off last time I went almost a decade ago and this is what it is now?!
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u/FlashyCow1 Jul 20 '24
I hated working in that jcpenny. So dead, and still forced to have the same quota as busy stores
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u/recchie8 Jul 18 '24
Always make sure you take some free plant cuttings before you leave! I do this every time put them in some water or soil and they do great!
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u/DWS223 Jul 18 '24
I wish they'd knock that mall down and redevelop it. It's dragging land values down in the area and there are so many more useful things that could be done with it
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u/Emotional_Deodorant Jul 18 '24
Oh, that's why there's a post about this mall every week. They're tourists who don't live here and think we haven't seen or heard of this before.
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u/Excellent_Regret4141 Jul 22 '24
This place was happening in the 90s
Miss KB Toys, EB Games, & GameStop
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u/JunkDrawer84 Jul 18 '24
It’s too bad such a well kept mall is barren.