sandman260085772
69198
1116
22
Wish I could have experienced it
Jan 2, 2024 12:52 PM
sandman260085772
69198
1116
22
Wish I could have experienced it
enotrevo
I'll just wander around Sharper Image not buying shit.
Misteree8
You missed hot topic, Claire's, and auntie annes pretzels
westPAguy
BehGehBeeeehh
"Welcome to the Sizzler, I love you!"
moreSaucePlease
Things Remembered, indeed
SingingMeAndCthulioDownByRlyehFhtagn
This comment just engraved itself into my brain
dpidcoe
It's missing the mall ambiance. That echoey sound of lots of people talking in a place with terrible acoustics, punctuated by the screams of toddlers who are long past their limit for the duration of a shopping trip.
FoxyToast
Its weird but the "mall acoustics" was absolutely a special thing.
Idontneedrealfacts
Now I want an Orange Julius
doctorId
PlankTableGo
Still not sure what inputs that guy playing MK3 was trying to do.
ryushi5
That's the dick twist
GlenL
Where's the fountain? You can't have a 90's mall without the fountain
Snooj
We had a carousel in ours for decades but it disappeared during COVID. Nothing remains but the Pokéstop.
OnlyByMoonlight
90's malls were the best. Friends worked at American Cookie Co. and the pretzel place and would hook you up. Gold Rush arcade games were only a quarter (or less at special times). The record store would have sound booths where you could listen to whatever you wanted for free. We were kings and queens and didn't know it.
spittinfacts
I can smell that arcade. They all smelled the same.
mham7611
Is Dillard's still around?
frankmanhattan
We have at least one in Wichita, ks.
JerBearington
It was alright
SUNGZU
Geek13
{Heads to the back of Spencer's to look at the posters}
Successlessness
Spencer's has sadly been closed down in my neck of the woods.. Really sad 😔
TeeweeAndSmashboy
Back when all the top tech was at RadioShack.
Tossacoin2witcher
The music reminds me of the underwater levels on donkey kong country
Macadaynu
Daytooonaaaaaaaaa
Sennox
Alright Shane😂
nero4ty2
*could have
sandman260085772
My bad
oldguyexlurker
Thanks. I hesitated to be 'that guy' but happy someone took it and glad to upvote. That one bugs the hell out of me when the it's speaker's native language, as this appears to be.
nero4ty2
I make plenty of grammar mistake, but the of in place of have really gets to me.
dasklaus
This is a mistake that practically only native speakers make, because they internalized it as a phrase before they learned basic grammar, as small kids. Nobody in their right mind who learns words when already able to think could make that error, but people that never thought about it because they grew up with the language do.
NuclearGradeIrony
What makes me wonder is how people read the phrase countless times and still don't correct their mistake. Or do these people just never read anything?
oldguyexlurker
Sadly, almost certainly the latter. My mom tells a story of when my older brother was in 1st grade (about '66) when he had a classmate who told his teacher his name (Guy) was pronounce 'Gooey.' It was exactly the OPPOSITE. His mom had only ever READ the name Guy and thought it was pronounced 'Gooey.' Props for reading at least! But that was a LOOOONNGG time ago.
richiWebKing
Keystonelight
The 90s mall scene was lit
TheKoolEagle
oh hey thats the mall of america in minnesota! I went to starbase omega for one of my birthday parties when I was a kid!
Snooj
I've been there a couple times, it's huge. Roller coaster rides, big Lego store, indoor go-karts, and a movie theater.
CoachMDBeast
MoA for the Starbase Omega clip. Burnsville Center for the food court shots. Nice little trip down memory lane.
Mehdals
Maybe its nostalgia but It feels like all the stores at MOA had some cool interactive or big display back in the day like this to draw people in. I went the other day and most shops just seemed bland and nothing out of the ordinary. We walked through the M&M shop and they seemed to have it right, it was all interactive, with lights and marketing for one of the most well known candies out there. That interactive mall experience seems to be missing from a lot of the mall shops these days.
TikiScott
And that is Games By James! I knew that looked so familiar!
WaxyNips
I had my birthday party there too! I vaguely remember them showing us a video about how your friends might morph into aliens during the round and being very disappointed that my friends in fact did not
thesnow
Man I do not remember Dillard’s at all, it must not have lasted long?
Squirtle51
Dillard's still has stores in some malls, but it is dying like the rest of them.
westy211
I thought so! My first thought was the Mall of America still looks a lot like that!
cbale2000
I thought that food court looked familiar.
orangeyougladididntsaypoop
Meh. It was fine. Arcade was fun
Drakknfyre
Arcades were a magical place back then. All the lights, sounds. The black carpeting with bright neon decorations. You can hold a controller in your hands, but it pales in comparison to the experience of playing a racing game while slid into an enclosed cockpit with realistic controls and force feedback, or piloting a ship while sitting in a huge chrome machine with huge monitors and joysticks. Or just the good old upright cabinets where you stacked your quarters and called next game.
ValamirCleaver
http://www.timeoutarcades.com/ https://arcadeblogger.com/2017/0des.com/">http://www.timeoutarcades.com/ https">8/18/tim">des.com/">http://www.timeoutarcades.com/ https://arcadeblogger.com/2017/08/18/time-out-arcade-amazing-classic-arcade-pictures/ http://mirrors.arcadecontrols.com/timeouttunnel.com/home.htm
Smartbombwnya
Not to mention that at the time, especially until about 1995 or so, arcade machines could not be matched by home systems (with the exception of those rich kids who had a NeoGeo or something). There was something actually impressive about arcade games that you could not replicate at home. Even once home systems became the norm, they could not quite emulate the sheer scale of games like the multi-monitor X-Men beat-em-up.
ValamirCleaver
3D-Arcade https://youtu.be/mGYevPjfx">evPjfxrM">https://youtu.be/mGYevPjfxrM https://www.mameworld.info/3darcade/
ValamirCleaver
https://arcadeblogger.com/2017/11/17/space-port-arcade">-videos/">https://arcadeblogger.com/2017/11/17/space-port-arcade-employee-training-videos/ https://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Number=337656
2good4hisowngood
When the employees don't get paid enough to shop at the mall they work at, a lot of economic force gets lost which further reinforces the losses across the board. Greed based death spiral.
drunkpanther
Malls used to be lit, but a lot of shady shit went down in malls a lot.
bygondust
Yea watching the Dead Mall series by Dan Bell on Youtube where he covers some of the history of the malls he visits is interesting. It's easy to handwave it all as the internet era's fault but there's a variety of reasons why malls fall into decline, including outbreaks of gang violence. But also some of them were badly managed, some of them set up in areas that never should've had a mall in the first place and barely kept afloat even in the 80s and the loss of "anchor" stores to draw crowds in.
bygondust
Though all that said while the other reasons lead to gradual declines, for the malls Dan has covered in his series when he lists violent incidents they pretty much ended the malls overnight. It's a tipping point right off a cliff when people no longer felt safe in the mall.
drunkpanther
I remember growing up there was a pretty huge mall (this was not in the US) that almost crashed a few months after open because women were getting assaulted in the bathrooms
wetsocksinflipflops
Where's the sabarros pizza and KB toys ?!?!
DontCommentWhenDrunk
It was 30 years ago. Of course it was a different world! It was a world in which the dream of the internet vastly surpassed its reality. It was a time when the moon landing was still aspirational, and not a "WTF! Why did that go nowhere?!" moment. It was a time when optimism was high, and cynicism had yet to become the pravailing attitude to the potential of any one person's life.
YeastInfectedWhiskerBiscuit
Hey, the mall of America! For those that don't know, there was an entire theme park in the center. Yes, a full blown park with full size rides, including a roller coaster.
PlankTableGo
The first episode of WCW Monday Nitro was also done in the middle of the mall - right near PastaMania
Mehdals
Still is, its just nick themed now rather than snoopy themed.
KingORedLions
Berjaya Times Square in Kuala Lumpur still has a theme park in the middle!
Bluefasa
That soundtrack sounds really familiar, what is it?
aCoolBreezeOnAHotSummerDay
Sounds like a cheap Chinese knockoff of Blade Runner.
DemogorgonDog
I recently commented this but I think it's reminiscent of the Aquatic Ambience music from DKC
Emjayen
It reminds me of the music during one of the later dungeons in Zelda (SNES one, I think)
PhilthyCasual
Donkey Kong 64
Smartbombwnya
Scizzie - Aquatic Ambience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP3rDP02lE0
Bluefasa
Ay, thanks!
Like2Fox
A preset on every synthesizer ever made
Raziel420
They banned teenagers from hanging out, which made it stop being cool for kids. The kids stopped begging their parents to go cause they couldn't go anymore. Parents who didn't want to deal with the crowds in the mall and the traffic that was inevitable around them avoided them except when the kids wanted to go. Parents trying to entertain their kids was most of mall business and they did everything they could to get rid of them.
Raziel420
They learned the wrong lessons from market research. Sure people were visiting 10 or 20 stores and only buying from 2 or 3. They were doing that 3 or 4 times a week which wasn't accounted for, they only cared about per visit. So they pushed out all those teenagers, they visited the most stores and spent the least. Now people come once a week, or month. Their teenager isn't window shopping or hanging out at the arcade, no reason to stop in. They killed their traffic.
Copperbrat
One of the last times I visited a mall the main hangout was the food court and the corridor to the toilets. The mall piped in super loud boomer music trying to discourage loitering. If you tried to get to the restroom, the kids would intentionally block your way, panhandle, throw insults. I was maybe 30 at the time, but remember thinking how annoying mall rats were and soon stopped going to malls altogether. Maybe malls closed because they discouraged kids, but also maybe the kids took part?
aCoolBreezeOnAHotSummerDay
Well, a small percentage of teens causing problems (fights, stealing, etc) ruined it for everyone else. Now there’s no more music stores, arcades, bookstores or anything else mildly entertaining to bring people to the mall.
Raziel420
Pretty much
HogWashDiddler
You missed one very important stop. The record store.
echonite
There were no record stores, you had CD stores with records.
TicoMachi
Don't know why you're getting downvoted. I mean sure, there would be SOME record stores, but I imagine the 90s would have been when record sales/production was at its lowest. Cassettes and CDs were the big thing of that time. Probably wouldn't find records for sale in the mall.
LerryV2
And the poster stores
creamcheezus
But good thing we got all that beautiful corn dog b-roll.
fknbastard
I saw it more at the D roll
MyOldUserNameMeantUndeadCocaineButNowItsThis
I got Dangio, Ghost in the Shell and Akira VHS tapes with a KoRn and Limp Biskit CDs at our local Sam the MusicMan store in our mall. That same xmas Ocarina of Time had just came out. I had received like $200 in cash that year and it was enough to buy all of this. No one saw me in the week between xmas and NYE. It was fucking GLORIOUS.
Imalwaysready
Ree coe ards?
Headcase444
It's mandatory to stop and grab a couple cassette singles on the way out of the mall.
LazyUsername99
I just miss the smells man. Food Court Chinese, walking by the cigar place with the wooden indian statue, the coffee beanery, Bath and Body Works, whatever Abercrombie saturated their mannequins with and whatever the weird middle eastern dudes at kiosks kept spraying people with. Honestly, more than anything I just remember malls being a bizarre mix of strong smells.
pareidoliaperson
My most fond memories are through smell of dye and perfume of malls and school and office supply shops and a very wealthy family we used to visit in 90s. Not US.
DALLASLAVOWNER
mmm bourbon chicken...right next to sbarro
Aeonika
Was just at the mall of America around Christmas, definitely smelly.
JerBearington
Where you'd buy CDs!
NuclearMonk
for absolutely obscene prices!
TheRidg
flip through all the posters
JerBearington
Yepper
pianostacatto
And listen to the demo stations using those cheap headphones that have been on God-knows how many other heads. But you didn't care! No one cared!
SirDigger13
where you could listen to cd´s/vinyl befor you buy them, and if you bought enough you got acceess to the VIP room with the comfy seats and coffee/tea .. and they had sales ppl that loved music too, so they hand you an album from a band you didnt know and said "check this out"..
linweelle
And VHS tapes
TheSlouchOfBethlehem
next door to the place you got your indonesian cigarettes
UsedCarSalesChick
And cassette tapes, for us old fucks
canyouflyyousucker
And 18+ Anime!
echonite
I have a memory where I was at like EB games and tried to buy a manga, and being told it was 18+ only. It wanst even that "adult" of a manga. But either way, that memory sits in my head now making me question everything I attempt to buy 20 years later.
canyouflyyousucker
Same. I remember buying Sailor Moon and the cashier thought it was Hentai...but to be fair, it did look like it on the cover
echonite
I was trying to buy Love Hina. Which likewise is fair, lol.