Happy Halloween: Brings New Meaning to "Dead" Mall

          Happy Halloween from TTTM, the time of year that parents look back to the memories of not thinking of who possibly would think of putting razor blades and poison in there candy, a time no matter rain or shine, kids by the dozen walked there neighborhoods with paper bags and pillow cases of candy, and return home with the spirit of the season...and sugar, running through there bodies.

          In recent years, I notice more and more stores in the mall putting signs up saying there are out of candy, and "not participating in trick or treat", I find this to be appalling and not very traditional, who are you to say you don't want to particulate, if the store is in the mall, all stores should give out candy, or all stores should not give out candy, its not fare to the people that intend on going to the mall to trick or treat, and they do not get anything out of it.

          I also do not find it fair for the older kids to be in school during the day, while the parents take there babies and children under 5 out during the day to take advantage of all the candy giving, and the kids in school get out and go to the mall and cannot get anything because the people who are not even old enough to eat candy got it so the parents can eat it. And if the kids in school have younger brother and sisters, they are going out and no matter if they get candy or not, a bag full is waiting for them at home from the mom or dad's visit earlier in the day.

          All and all, I hope everyone enjoys Halloween 2015, I will be dressed in a dated store outfit I will post pictures of tomorrow, and Happy Halloween.

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Spring Hill Mall: 10/15 Updates.

          Some changes are finally noticeable at Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee, Illinois, not only a fence is put up, but the former furniture store, and original Joseph Spiess store is demolished now. The JCPenney store seen will be gone in the next few weeks and I will be back to see what has changed by November.

Here is my original article from 2014 on the Spring Hill Mall featuring pictures from 2012 and 2013.

Here is my August 2015 update post and here is my September 2015 update post.

Here are my pictures taken a few days ago:

Demolition in progress

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What Has Become of the Old Arborland Mall in Ann Arbor, Michigan

          I do not typically feature a demalling, especially one that happened this long ago, but once a mall, always a mall, and in the case of Arborland in Ann Arbor, there is too much digital history to past this one up. What makes it more interesting is I was here and didn't even know it two years ago, and my proof is seen below, but first the timeline of pictures provided by Old News, and The Ann Arbor News, the archives these pictures are from, and the newspapers that they were printed in long ago will be documented below. These links will provide so much information, that I cannot re-document it here, so make sure to check out the links.

          Arborland mall started out as a lifestyle center of sorts developed by Taubman Centers back in 1961, with original anchor stores J.C.Penney & Co, Kresge, Kroger, local chain Federal's and Montgomery Ward. Federal's shortly became Crowley's in 1980, another Detroit area department store chain. 

After rival mall Briarwood opened near by, Arborland quickly became enclosed to stay on top of the competition. 

          Montgomery Ward and Crowley's both left in the 1980's, and Melvin Simon & Associates, now best known as just SIMON, bought the mall and began to convert it to a factory outlet mall, the discount equivalent to Briarwood, or other nearby malls. By this point, the former Wards store was a Burlington Coat Factory, and Service Merchandise took over the former Kresge storefront and Toy's R Us went into the former Crowley's. Marshalls opened in the former JCPenney store and a store opened in the converted Kroger store.

The mall was purchased again in the 1990's by another property manager, Freed and Associates, and the entire mall was raised in plan of creating what is seen in the newspaper article below. The Toys R Us store was rebuilt and the Marshalls and drug store remained.

Below, the pan shot of the center seen shows the Borders book store, which closed in April 2011, and the Circuit City, which closed in March 2009. The Borders became a Ulta Beauty and Five Below a year later, and the Circuit City was converted to Nordstrom Rack in 2013.

Here are my pictures from my trip back in March 2013:

I think the Hiller's has since closed because Kroger bought the Michigan chain earlier this year.

Former Circuit City

Former Borders Books

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October 21st, 2015- What We've Been Waiting 30 Years For!

          Today is the day my Chicago Cubs won the World Series, hover boards and flying cars filled the streets, and two ties were the men's style of choice.  Here is the mall from the first Back to the Future movie, when Marty and Doc went back to 1955, although the mall was not featured in movie 2, the Puente Hills Mall was the filming location, and below are some pictures from the movie, the Twin Pines mall, and the Lone Pine Mall. It looks a lot like the Spring Hill mall in West Dundee, Illinois to me now that I look at it.

          In Regular Show, Mordecai and Rigby go the the Twin Peaks Mall, referring to breasts, and in a separate episode, drive a Delorean time machine.

          There have been so many references to time travel and this movie in general over the past 30, but exceptionally the 5 years, the culture has been saturated, and John Delorean may be famous for revolutionizing the muscle car era, but this movie made his least popular creates, a world wide phenomenon.

The difference...

I need both of these so bad!

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Montgomery Wards was the Best! Part: 2- Google Search Goodness!

          Whenever I feel down, I google this, "Montgomery Ward Store", and everything seems better. Here is my first post of why Montgomery Ward is the Best and here is the second one, how is this a meaningful post, I'm telling you to google Montgomery Wards, but there is so much content from this Google search, I could never cover it all without being repetitive, so use the links provided to your own advantage and find what you want to learn more about.

           Thank you for reading and remember to check out Trip to the Mall on Facebook and now you can donate to support my cause, no matter how big or small your donation is, it will help keep TTTM continue to provide excellent and more current content.

Reflection 6: These Stores are Taking Advantage of the Way We Think!

          With a basic understanding of what is trending in modern fashion for youths and young adults alike, its always the choices of what to wear is referred to as "vintage" and "classic", these buzzwords make us buy these articles of clothing, it turns out the number 1969 is the greatest marketing ad The Gap has ever used. Most people under the age of 30 that are into this style, other than hipster's, because that's its own fashion, have the thought of only buying cloths at Urban Outfitters, Tilly's, Ragstock, and other urban stores and shops that sell mass produces replica's of original clothing like Members' Only Jackets, or the romper dress. I am not bashing this dress code ideology, I myself spend hours on eBay searching "90's Men's Shirts", and "80's Men's Nylon Jackets", I have o problem with the idea of this being my fashion, my choice of dress, but like a hobby, you don't take ships in a bottle of stamp collecting to the office, I dress professionally to work and when out in public, yet carry this style choice and choice in living in the past as best I can without going against what is customary today. I am not crazy, just believe in being different. but to an existent. A personal favorite in the fashion industry is the German artist and designer Karl Lagerfeld, anyone looks at how he dresses, knows automatically who he is. so when I am in a public place, if you know me, you can spot me a mile away, if you don't, you know what you are generally looking for based on the specifics I listed above. The real point I am building up here is how stores like American Apparel, Urban Outfitters, and Len will take advantage of bringing not so much forgotten trends from the past, but exploit it to new buyer's as if a product like this has never been worn before.

What the stores in question sell

 

How I described I dress typically

          This Halloween, with a bankruptcy in mind, the clothing store American Apparel is holding a contest that states take a picture of yourself wearing at least one piece of there clothing with the hast tag #AAHalloween and you qualify for a chance to win  a 1987 Cadillac Allante.

why these stores cater to the 1% of the specific market that goes for these products, by this example, giving a nearly 30 year old car away to a likely 25 year old guy. The car is valued at 8,000 dollars, so that is hipster baller on a budget dough right there.

Cadillac American Apparel is giving away!

          If I were to class these stores based on overall appeal, merchandise, and history, Urban Outfitter's is the best, followed by Tilly's, Pacsun, and American Apparel last. Any of the style sold at these stores best fits the era's of the 60's to now, yet how can modern clothes be vintage, or retro, this year marks the 25 year limit on cars build to qualify for "antique" license plates notoriety. This is really surreal because 1990 was 25 years ago, ok, 1900 was 115 years ago, but the word antique puts so much more age on the matter.

"Clueless" girls

Mallrats

          The 90s overall in my opinion coming from it were so much better, the cars were easier, girls were simply, more naive, and guys could get embarrassed over the smallest problem, what TV led me to witness. People in general seems gullible, music was happier, and cleaner, people aren't singing about there problems yet, primary colors were the only way to go, and everyone looks like dolls and action figures because how the hair and glasses fit there faces. My perspective on the people during the Clinton Administration vs. the people of the Obama Administration seem to be very different, I did not mention the Obama influenced people, because we are them, in 20 years, I will mention us, and compare us to the 48th president influenced crowd. Although using presidents as a unit of time seems stupid, because H.W. Bush was here until 1993, and W. Bush was here for the great years of the last decade.

          Its amazing just how many people care about the thoughts I choose to put on paper, but because we now live in the "paperless-age", what I put on this blog. This seems about all too many topics, but again they all bounce off each other, the difference between the 90's and the current age, the clothing trends that were popular then and now, and how these stores are taking advantage of what is still reletivly modern clothing, and chargin extra for a graphic t-shirt that says "Clinton-Gore 96", over a blank t-shirt, because the 1996 election seemed so historic since its 2015. Then the comparison of how people to me seems then vs. now.

         Thank you for reading another opinionated reflection and remember to check out Trip to the Mall on Facebook and now you can donate to support my cause, no matter how big or small your donation is, it will help keep TTTM continue to provide excellent and more current content.

Montgomery Wards was the Best!

Here are just some commercials of Wards to prove how great they were in there day, like to think the store above was the one in Geneva, Illinois?

1995

1996

Closing commercial

Truly wonderful to see a Chicago Wards commercial paired with ABC 7 Chicago news and the Field's Jingle Elf Parade!

Wards, much like Sears and Kmart, are such wholesome stores to shop at, they still stand for traditional shopping standards, and to those standards, is much of the reason there ultimately failing as it turns out, and like Wards, undated to late to gain customers back.

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[This Is Dan Bell]: DEAD MALL SERIES : Back to the 80s : The Gallery in Philadelphia

Thank you Dan Bell for doing a video on the dead mall of Philadelphia, The Gallery at Market East.

Yesterday, I wrote a piece on the gallery at is was suppose to close, but is now being postponed until next week, the mall is set for a full renovation by owners Simon Property Group.

This is my review on Dan Bell

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What the Gallery at Market East Means to Me

          Today is the day the Gallery at Market East in downtown Philadelphia with really effect how people shop. The Gallery will be partially blocked off, which effects traffic and commute patterns for SEPTA and bus routes but also is the turning point for the future of the downtown center. The Gallery once had famous labels like Gimbel's Philadelphia division, and later Kmart, which closed last year and a Century 21 Department store opened shortly after. Talk of the mall changing has since been an issue, and today is when the dreams of shoppers become reality. The Gallery will be closed off for several months while extensive renovation takes place, what does this mean, the 80's will be wiped clean off the floor, new lighting, interior styling, as well as exterior will be transformed.

          Although I never did get a chance of viewing the inside of this mall myself, pictures gloss the Google search and I know people who did go and content will be provided as soon as possible of there findings.

          This is such a cool center to me for the looks and style, like many malls, the flooring, untouched since it was installed, the brown and dark red shades of tile, and bleak cement pillars,and jungle of tree's and plants along each floor, such a cool time capsule will be torn up, and remade to fit the trends of the modern malls today, LED lighting and many shades of tan, and white couched and chrome tables will be placed over it. I get such a good feeling writing this, but the thoughts going through my head are of complete opposite, so you can say my inclination to the retro and forgotten things in urban sprawls is what I am into, but my eye's still light up at the sight of a new store opening, I still prefer to shop at the empty mall paneled in 90s faded paint, then go to the uptight, trending mall any day, but most of the time I do not buy anything anyway, so it doesn't matter the stores in the center, I go for the architecture.

          I guess really what the passion for this place fits the general trend of a place similar to this, the style of the building both inside and out, the looks, and the history the center has, although it is 2015, I would walk into a place like this and act as if its 1985, by stores and the people around me. For example, the mall's around where I grew up had Marshall Field's, Chicago's famous department store, I go into Macy's, and like many residents of Windy City, still refer to it as Field's. I go to Macy's at the local mall, and still refer to it as Field's in hopes of the older employee's may question me, and start talking about "I remember when it was Field's"., because that's what I am into.

          Hope for the best to this mall, as it is good to see it changing for the better than the worst, North America claims to loose 20 malls a year, is this true, this is a fact off the top of my head, so it may not be accurate, but guessing sure is since Owings Mills closed out of the blue last week, and the Lakeview Centre is finally being demolished. So spend time in the malls near and far from you, dead or immersed, enjoy where you are at.

          This was suppose to be about the Gallery in Philly, but this could be a reflection because of how off topic I got this time.

Enjoy this Gimbel's commercial and these old Gallery pictures from Google and Labelscar:

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