Dead Malls of Canada

[Jaws]

Originally Posted by esquire

Does your sister know you got her at Billings Bridge?

Oh yeah. Moldy old family joke and as kids it was a good button pusher.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Long dead Superstore Mall, London




all photos c/o cedric R

ancient history:

That Towers plaza was actually on the west side of Wellington Road, across from Treasure Island Mall (aka Superstore Mall). It housed a Zellers in later years.

[Loco101]

We should come up with criteria for malls on the downswing.

Here are my answers for the Timmins Square shopping centre in Timmins, ON which is the largest shopping centre in the city:

Is it anchored by a liquidation mart and/or a discount food retailer (Food basics, no frills, Price Chopper, etc.)?

No Frills

Did it used to have a Target, Walmart, or Zellers?

Used to have Walmart and Zellers (Walmart moved out and Zellers closed)

Is there an independent place that sells cardboard samosas (or cardboard pizza slices) that have been sitting under a hot lamp since Abe Lincoln was President, and also advertise "Fax" services and key cutting?

No independent places that sell that stuff. There used to be a fax and key cutting store but it closed a few years ago


Are 20% of the stores selling cellphones, cellphone bling, and cellphone crap?

oh yes and also those kiosks in the middle

Is there a knock-off retail brand (e.g., Pizza Twice instead of Pizza Pizza?)?

No. Just Vanelli's pizza but it really sucks. And same with the Taco Time beside it. I've never heard anybody say they like eating at either of those places


Is the mall starting to fill with Dental clinics and places to get a prostate examination?

I don't think so but I could be wrong.

#1: Does the mall have a no-name, family-run dollar store ("Dollar-Valu", "Dollar Land", "Dollar Plus")?

No but a Dollarama location just opened in the mall and it's the fourth Dollarama location for Timmins, population 42,000 SAD!! And there is a Dollarama outside the mall just a few hundred metres away!


Does the mall have those mechanical sofa chairs that take loonies for a massage?

It sure does! And they have looked very worn and tired since they were installed. Probably were moved from a mall down South.


Has at least one bank closed?

It once had an RBC branch that closed in the late 1980s


Are 50% or more of the customers seniors?

Definitely! And they look even more depressed since Sears closed last year.


Does the place contain more than one place to buy hearing aids?

Yes!!


Have they drained the fountain at the mall centre and left it empty for years?

Never had a fountain. That's like um fancy. Malls are required to be depressing in Northern Ontario. There are skylights in a few places but they are covered with snow for half of the year. All plants are fake and there really isn't any decor


Do they advertise a "Mall Walkers" program (fitness for seniors by roaming the mall?)

They sure do! There is a bus takes them from their residences to the mall where they walk and then spend 25 cents on a senior's coffee at A&W with free refills!

If having a few remaining chain stores, are any/all of them Bentley/Ardene/The Source?

It has all three. And many of the other chain stores are closing so those three probably will be the last at some point. You rarely see customers in Bentley and The Source. I don't know how those two locations are still open?!? There is a Best Buy across the street from the mall with better selection and prices. The employees at The Source always seem to hide when you enter the store.

Does the mall's directory and/or website still list stores that have closed or moved away?

Not sure but they did have Sears listed for a few months after it closed.


Does the mall contain empty storefronts papered over with signage saying "Coming soon!" (with no disclosure on what is coming soon) or "Exciting Retail opportunity!"

MANY of those!!!


is there a flea market?

No.


Is there a store that caters exclusively to Lord-of-the-Rings-obsessed losers, offering "the one ring", and "gollum's scat", and playing cards featuring fake nudes of Galadriel and Eowyn?

Of course there is that. The store is "Wicked Stuff" although they do sell some other stuff as well that the former "It Store" used to carry.


Great questions!!!

Some additional ones that I can say "yes" about the Timmins Square:

Does it have a rent-to-own furniture store?

Does it have one of those "Nails" stores run by immigrants from Eastern Asia where when people walk by they can watch you getting your manicure, pedicure or massage?

Does it have a lottery booth where people are always standing by it ripping open Nevada tickets?

[itom 987]

The criteria for malls on the downswing is hilarious! The list is so true it's scary...

[ssiguy]

Wow, I'd forgotten all about Towers dept store.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Wow, I'd forgotten all about Towers dept store.

Then this should go nicely in this thread:

• Video Link

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by Loco101

We should come up with criteria for malls on the downswing.


If having a few remaining chain stores, are any/all of them Bentley/Ardene/The Source?

It has all three. And many of the other chain stores are closing so those three probably will be the last at some point. You rarely see customers in Bentley and The Source. I don't know how those two locations are still open?!? There is a Best Buy across the street from the mall with better selection and prices. The employees at The Source always seem to hide when you enter the store.

I just realized that these three chain stores tend to be present in the malls in difficulty along with Dollarama, that's a good observation. I have not really paid attention to Ardene, but off the top of my head I am thinking of at least two dead malls where I noticed they are present.

These chain stores are present in pretty much every mall, but when other chains give up on the dead malls these chains seem to be able to continue their operations.

[MacLac]

Originally Posted by itom 987

This is Edmonton's Westmount Mal in the 80s.


This is what it got downgraded to in the 90s. I bet every city has a failed mall with similar looking interiors, I know Edmonton has at least 3 malls looking like this.


Sorry for making you vomit...

No no....it's all good. The Ghermezians took over that mall in the mid-80's and turned it into WEM's little sister. Loved the cars in the food courts, 2 sets of theatres and another indoor ice rink. Pretty sure it's "not considered a dead mall." With WEM Phase 3 opening around the same time as this reno....it was mall "heaven" in Edmonton back from 84-87.....

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Architype

Then this should go nicely in this thread:

• Video Link

Damn that's atrocious! I take it those shots are all from the 80's. Found this nice mashup video of now defunct Canadian retailers after I watched it.

• Video Link

[O-tacular]

R.I.P. Zellers...

• Video Link

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by le calmar

I just realized that these three chain stores tend to be present in the malls in difficulty along with Dollarama, that's a good observation. I have not really paid attention to Ardene, but off the top of my head I am thinking of at least two dead malls where I noticed they are present.

These chain stores are present in pretty much every mall, but when other chains give up on the dead malls these chains seem to be able to continue their operations.

Ardene is present in every single mall. It never changes with the times. The stores are all bare bones with basic racks. Nothing fancy. They sell cheap product that pre-teen girls seem to love. My wife said she used to shop there as a pre-teen and it looks the same today.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

R.I.P. Zellers...

• Video Link

Man that is depressing. In an earlier career as a store director, I opened up a big box store (Toys R Us) in a new location (downtown Vancouver, back in the 90s) and it was the complete reversal (building up and fixturing/stocking).

And I thought that was depressing (truth be told, it was just extremely stressful)

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Architype

Then this should go nicely in this thread:

• Video Link

Even Alan Thicke couldn't save Woolco
• Video Link

[O-tacular]

Price Chopper Special:

[MolsonExport]

^wow. no wonder Price Chopper is down to three stores (all in Ford Nation).

[ssiguy]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

It's hard to say. I think that in larger cities like Toronto, where there is a definite trend towards people living downtown compared with previous generations, this will be the case. However in highly car-dependent smaller cities, I think they will still dominate. Suburban people don't mind long trips to go buy a loaf of bread or a light bulb.

At the same time I think that online retail is a much bigger threat to big box bricks-and-mortar retail than where people physically live.

I agree that most people in the burbs will drive to get a lightbulb but then why don't they just drive to the mall where it's warm and dry in the winter and air conditioned in the summer? Hell most large malls even have underground parking so you don't have to brave the elements.

My point was that what killed the mall has had more to do with changing demographics than anything else. Those malls of the 70s & 80s were built to serve the burgeoning suburbs of the time but now those suburbs have declining populations and very importantly, few kids who are huge discretionary spenders.

In 30 years these current outlets will be facing the same fate as they kids leave leaving far fewer people and few kids. While I agree that many stores will feel the impact of online shopping, I think it's the changing demographics that has hurt these malls the most.

The current big box developments of today may fall to the same fate as the 70s & 80s malls. Seems unthinkable but 30 years ago the idea of dying malls was lunacy.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

^wow. no wonder Price Chopper is down to three stores (all in Ford Nation).

Five, to be exact. Others were rebranded as FreshCo back in maybe 2011, which is actually not a bad store. The one in Kingston used to be a Price Chopper, and in its current incarnation their produce is quite good, and they have some international stuff that nobody else in Kingston sells.

The old Price Chopper at London Mall was dilapidated in its later years.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Long dead Superstore Mall, London




all photos c/o cedric R

I'm remembering back to about 1995, that mall had the London Ice House (where the London Knights OHL team played), United Furniture Warehouse (bomp bomp!), a Zehr's grocery store, DZ (where kids want to be), and McDonald's. Zehr's moved out in 1996 and Liquidation World was in there for some time, and then DZ disappeared and McDonald's moved to a new standalone location in the parking lot sometime after the Knights moved to the JLC downtown.

[SFUVancouver]

I shopped at the Price Chopper in Leslieville for the couple of years I lived in Toronto and it was perfectly fine, with the exception that the produce had a very short fuse. I switched to buying produce almost exclusively at farmers' markets in season and then Super Store for the balance of the year.

[manny_santos]

Even in the early 90s, dying malls were already commonplace in London. I remember visiting the late Wonderland Mall in early 1992, and it was already pretty much dead. The only tenant was Sears Outlet Store, and the rest of the mall had no tenants left. Three years later I experienced the London Mews downtown for the first time, and its only tenant was a six-screen Famous Players theatre. You had to go through several dark corridors of abandoned storefronts to get to the theatre. (One of the storefronts was used to showcase vintage toys during the original run of Toy Story.) Just across the street, Galleria was already suffering.

Those were in the days when if you wanted to go to the "good" mall, you went to Westmount. They had underground parking, they had Eaton's, they had a kickass food court and a movie theatre. Masonville didn't have a theatre in those days, but they did have the mini golf course.