Question for the GenXers on the forums....

I saw this question on twitter and want to ask it here.

You're a teen in the 70's or 80's and you walk into the mall.

Where are you going first? 2nd? Where will you eat in the mall that day? And what mall was your hangout?

Do tell...

I always hit the record store first, then probably Spencers or the arcade. I also made a point to stop in Radio Shack, used to love that store. We usually ate at McDonalds or whatever line was shortest. Main mall I hung out in was called The Meadows Mall in Las Vegas, NV. Still there last time I was in Vegas.

I wasn’t a big mall person per se… I mostly went there to get clothes before the new school year when I was a kid. But the question is for a teenager… so if my memory is correct, I would head to whatever store had rock band shirts (most likely Spencer’s). Then the record store. And lastly, probably the Orange Julius and the Sbarro pizza shop.

Oh, I almost forgot. I went to the movies at the mall. A lot of malls in the 80’s and 90’s had built in theaters.

The MainPlace Mall (Santa Ana)

A mall wasn't something we went to too often because no matter which one we chose, we had at least a half an hour drive to it. When we did go, first stop was always the record store (Camelot, National Record Mart, etc.). After that probably would head over to Spencer's and/or the arcade to play Gauntlet. I don't know what food we would hit up. Probably just whatever we would be in the mood for that day.

I might be a boomer?

Anywhose, don't recall much mall stomping in my teens. Got my  shoes at Van Doren's in Orange County and the Wolverine store in Berdoo. (Vans & Waffle Stompers) Records/Tapes, rock shirts, and Randy's Instaroach  papers came from Groove Time on Base Line. Levis (501 & boot flares)came from the Outlet in Ontario, and most other apparel came from the surf shops in the beach towns. Got socks n boxers at Kmart, they had the 6 packs. When an older sister came to visit, I'd accompany them to the mall as they did some shopping. A lil Vodka in your Orange Julius while scoping out people while hanging with family was fun. My oldest sister was 20 years older than me. The other two are 18 & 15 years older. I think the two malls in Berdoo were Inland Center & Central City?

Record shop, Spencer's, sports, food court.
.Carnation Mall Allience Ohio

Belden Village Mall

I grew up in Paramus, NJ, which was known as Mall City USA. We had several major malls in town and during my mall-rat teen years in the 80s I spent quite a bit of time in all of them.

The mall closest to my house was Paramus Park, so I went there most frequently. My two regular stops there were a t-shirt shop (whose name completely escapes me after all these years) that always had the best selection of metal concert tees, and the Sam Goody record store. Aside from metal music, my other passion at the time was comic books so I would also spend quite a bit of time in an old fashioned newsstand upstairs in the food court that had a decent comic selection.

On the other side of town, the Bergen Mall (now known as Bergen Town Center, apparently) was within walking distance of my high school. My Mom also had a part time job at the Sterns' department store there, so quite often my brother and I would hike down there after school, hit the Record Town store and the comic book shop (Collectors Comics), snarf some pizza, and bum a ride home from Mom when she was done with work.

The Big Kahuna mall in Paramus was, and still is, the Garden State Plaza. It was an open air shopping center when I was a kid in the '70s, but during the early 80s they enclosed and enlarged it, so it became a an absolutely ridiculous, sprawling mass of retail stores. I mean, if you were going to "the Plaza," you were prepared to spend the day.  I especially enjoyed going to the Plaza cuz there were THREE (!) music stores, each in a different wing of the mall (Sam Goody, Camelot Music, and The Wall), a Warner Brothers Studio Store (I miss those!) and Schiller's, a fantastic book store that sold literally everything from Shakespeare to porno to comic books.  I haven't been to the GS Plaza in years but last I checked, it had gone through yet another renovation and addition to make it even BIGGER, to the point where it now apparently has its own exit off the Garden State Parkway.

One funny memory I have…

Out here in California we used to have a department store called Mervyns. Long before I discovered my love of metal music I liked the popular radio rock of the day. So anyways… sometime in the mid- 80’s I wanted this black Duran Duran shirt but my born again Christian aunt had a problem with it. She thought they were a bad Satan loving band. The PMRC must’ve had a bigger influence than I thought. Hungry Like the Wolf for sure… nude chicks in Rio!  

But now that I think about it… she may have been right. Look at Katy Perry. She’s got Illuminati symbols all over her image, music and videos.

Mine would've been the arcade, record store and then some pizza at the best pizza place ever that has like 4 stores left, Gino and Joes Pizza, a western/NY staple that is currently on it's last legs. Then we might get some ice cream at Friendly's because we were all skinny then and could eat whatever we wanted. And since Freddy reminded me, definitely check out what new metal mags were at the newsstand. After 16, I didn't see my boys during the day because I quit school so the mall was the place for me to be.

The mall before I move to Florida was The Finger Lakes Mall in Auburn, NY (Home of Manowar)

The mall I hung out in after moving to Florida at 18 is the Santa Rosa Mall, in Fort Walton Beach, Fl.

Both of these malls are now completely dead with the latter building apartments into half the mall.

Speaking of malls…

I love the original Dawn of the Dead!

Troublezone wrote:

One funny memory I have…

Out here in California we used to have a department store called Mervyns. Long before I discovered my love of metal music I liked the popular radio rock of the day. So anyways… sometime in the mid- 80’s I wanted this black Duran Duran shirt but my born again Christian aunt had a problem with it. She thought they were a bad Satan loving band. The PMRC must’ve had a bigger influence than I thought. Hungry Like the Wolf for sure… nude chicks in Rio!  

But now that I think about it… she may have been right. Look at Katy Perry. She’s got Illuminati symbols all over her image, music and videos.

Don't lie. You still love Duran Duram.

Record stores for me too. I rarely ate at the mall but the mall I used to visit had multiple record stores and I always checked out all of 'em. I know there was a Camelot and another one had the word "record" in the name and I can't remember the third store at all but I know there were 3

Big Rich wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

One funny memory I have…

Out here in California we used to have a department store called Mervyns. Long before I discovered my love of metal music I liked the popular radio rock of the day. So anyways… sometime in the mid- 80’s I wanted this black Duran Duran shirt but my born again Christian aunt had a problem with it. She thought they were a bad Satan loving band. The PMRC must’ve had a bigger influence than I thought. Hungry Like the Wolf for sure… nude chicks in Rio!  

But now that I think about it… she may have been right. Look at Katy Perry. She’s got Illuminati symbols all over her image, music and videos.

Don't lie. You still love Duran Duram.

Of coarse I like the old hits! I never denied. Haha

I just said I only knew the radio hits of the day before I found metal. Heck, their bassist John Taylor is a great player.

While we’re at it… I also like Billy Idol and Tears for Fears.

Anyone remember the record store Licorice Pizza? We had them out here in California. Also the Levi’s store Miller’s Outpost.

Thanks to this thread, I got the itch to go to the Westminster mall and look for some used CDs at the “Book Off” store. I have a like new copy of Slayer’s Christ Illusion in my hand right now. Only $3 !

Troublezone wrote:

Speaking of malls…

I love the original Dawn of the Dead!

That's one of the malls I frequented quite a bit. I still go to it from time to time, one of the few remaining thriving malls in the area.

The record store was always first. Then either the arcade or food court.

My mates and I would hit up the record shop, Spencer's, the arcade, and then hit up Pizza Hut, when you could go in, throw some songs on a jukebox, and sit down to have a bite.

Northgate Mall in Chattanooga, TN.

SideShowDisaSter wrote:

My mates and I would hit up the record shop, Spencer's, the arcade, and then hit up Pizza Hut, when you could go in, throw some songs on a jukebox, and sit down to have a bite.

Northgate Mall in Chattanooga, TN.

I've never seen a Pizza Hut in a mall.

Fat Freddy wrote:

My two regular stops there were a t-shirt shop (whose name completely escapes me after all these years) that always had the best selection of metal concert tees, and the Sam Goody record store.

I was talking to my brother yesterday and asked if he remembered the name of that T-shirt shop, and he said it was called "Paper Tiger." So there you go. Just in case anyone was wondering.

He also reminded me of a similar shop at the Bergen Mall across town called World Imports, which was a seedier, more "underground" t-shirt/pop culture memorabilia/kitschy junk emporium. Legend had it that they had a "head shop" in the back behind a beaded curtain, but you had to be 18 to go in there, so I never found out for sure. I had almost totally forgotten about that place, but now that I think about it I bought my first-ever Metallica tee shirt there (a Ride The Lightning tee with tour dates on the back, instead of the now-familiar "guy getting fried in the electric chair" pic!) circa 1985.

Big Rich wrote:

SideShowDisaSter wrote:

My mates and I would hit up the record shop, Spencer's, the arcade, and then hit up Pizza Hut, when you could go in, throw some songs on a jukebox, and sit down to have a bite.

Northgate Mall in Chattanooga, TN.

I've never seen a Pizza Hut in a mall.

And some Walmart’s have a McDonalds, Burger King or Subway restaurant. There is also some Starbucks inside grocery stores.

Kmart used to have their own snack bar in the old days, but I went to one that had a Little Caesars pizza shop inside.

Quote :

Kmart used to have their own snack bar in the old days, but I went to one that had a Little Caesars pizza shop inside.

I feel like I may have told this story here before, but what the hell...
I worked part time at KMart on and off when I was in college and full time for almost two years after. The store was remodeled during my time there and the old timey snack bar (which had great hot dogs!) was replaced by a Little Caesars Pizza Station.

...at first I was fine with that, cuz I was in my early 20s and pizza was my life (haha) so I ate lunch there all the time. After a while, though, just being around it all day, every day, smelling it everywhere you went in the store, finding half eaten slices and crusts left all over the place by slobby customers (people suck!), I got so sick of it that I couldn't even look at Little Caesars anymore.

I haven't had their pizza since I left that job in 1994. To this day, if I see one of their commercials on TV, I'm still like "bleah!"

Troublezone wrote:

Big Rich wrote:

SideShowDisaSter wrote:

My mates and I would hit up the record shop, Spencer's, the arcade, and then hit up Pizza Hut, when you could go in, throw some songs on a jukebox, and sit down to have a bite.

Northgate Mall in Chattanooga, TN.

I've never seen a Pizza Hut in a mall.

And some Walmart’s have a McDonalds, Burger King or Subway restaurant. There is also some Starbucks inside grocery stores.

Kmart used to have their own snack bar in the old days, but I went to one that had a Little Caesars pizza shop inside.

Seen lots of Wally Worlds with Subways and McDoanld's. In the 80's a Pizza Hut would've been amazing in a mall because they were still good then. Now they suck.

My mall in NY had a Friendly's and the mall in Florida here had a Ruby Tuesday's for years. And a Taco Bell and Wendy's. Now they have just a couple mom and pop places.

Troublezone wrote:

One funny memory I have…

Out here in California we used to have a department store called Mervyns. Long before I discovered my love of metal music I liked the popular radio rock of the day. So anyways… sometime in the mid- 80’s I wanted this black Duran Duran shirt but my born again Christian aunt had a problem with it. She thought they were a bad Satan loving band. The PMRC must’ve had a bigger influence than I thought. Hungry Like the Wolf for sure… nude chicks in Rio!  

But now that I think about it… she may have been right. Look at Katy Perry. She’s got Illuminati symbols all over her image, music and videos.

Mervyns always brings back one of the most embarrassing days of my young pre-teen life. My dad was taking me there to go school clothes shopping, and as we're walking in the front door, he blurts out "son, do you know what a vagina is?" I swear every woman in the store stopped and looked at me. Yeah I knew what one was, I had already found his porn stash by this point in life lol Doesn't mean I wanted to have "the talk" in the middle of the damn mall FFS!!!

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

Kmart used to have their own snack bar in the old days, but I went to one that had a Little Caesars pizza shop inside.

I feel like I may have told this story here before, but what the hell...
I worked part time at KMart on and off when I was in college and full time for almost two years after. The store was remodeled during my time there and the old timey snack bar (which had great hot dogs!) was replaced by a Little Caesars Pizza Station.

...at first I was fine with that, cuz I was in my early 20s and pizza was my life (haha) so I ate lunch there all the time. After a while, though, just being around it all day, every day, smelling it everywhere you went in the store, finding half eaten slices and crusts left all over the place by slobby customers (people suck!), I got so sick of it that I couldn't even look at Little Caesars anymore.

I haven't had their pizza since I left that job in 1994. To this day, if I see one of their commercials on TV, I'm still like "bleah!"

You did tell the story before. But I don’t mind… and maybe others that didn’t know your story will read it.