The indoor carousal is Maplewood Mall's most memorable feature
Welcome to the Maplewood Mall – the main enclosed traditional mall serving the East Metro area. If you haven’t been here, you’re not missing out on anything. It’s just…a mall. In a suburb in Minnesota. It’s not as if Maplewood is headed down the road to ruin, but it just isn’t anything special. This isn’t even a ‘Dale, even though it holds its own. Then again, the “dales” just don’t give off that highfalutin’ shopping mecca vibe that they used to. Twenty years ago, shopping at the ‘dales used to MEAN something, but today, the ‘dales name is pretty much meaningless with some of the company they keep….ahem — Brookdale, I’m looking at you…and Southdale, you are next!
Maplewood Mall opened in 1974 and was renovated and expanded in 1988 . I can’t say I have any warm fuzzies about this mall. My parents never took us here as kids, probably because it was too far away and there really isn’t anything at this mall that we couldn’t find at Brookdale.
The first time I visited this mall was in the summer of 1996. My only reason for going to this mall was simply to check it out. Wanting a reprieve from Brookdale, I drove all the way out here by myself (back then, it seemed so far away!), looking for a trendy outfit to wear for my senior pictures. I ended up buying a jean skort at the County Seat and a logo tee from The Gap. Make no mistake about it, I was a paragon of ’90s vogue. These days, I usually only go here if I have a Forever 21 jones. It’s the only location I know of, other than the Mall of America location. Being that I am 30 years old, I’m probably far out of their demographic now (*sheds tear*) but sometimes a girl just needs a cheap, ‘steppin’ out on the town’ top or a Nanette Lepore knock-off. Still, I hate going in here. It’s so damn messy, chaotic and the OONTZ OONTZ OONTZ music gives me a headache. *starts waving cane again* Not to mention, their shitty return policy.
The stores here are your typical mall standbys — Victoria’s Secret, Aeropostale, Bath & Body Works, Yankee Candle, Lidz, Gap, Hallmark, Maurices, and so on. You won’t find any of the more upscale mall chains, like the Apple store,
White House/Black Market, Coach, Banana Republic, J Crew, and the like here. You’ll have to travel further down
Maplewood Mall has a sweet fleet of rentable kiddie mall cruisers. Denny Hecker's next business venture?
Highway 36 and shop at Rosedale for that.
So what’s the history behind this mediocre mall? Well, I can’t offer up much, other than regurgitating what information Wikipedia has on the history of the mall anchors –
Macy’s: This originally was Powers Dry Goods 1974, Donaldson’s in 1985, Carson Pirie Scott in 1987, Dayton’s in 1996, Marshall Fields in 2001.
Kohls: The Kohls anchor was part of the addition in 1988. It originally was a MainStreet, but all MainStreet locations turned into Kohls in ’88-89-ish, so it didn’t stay a MainStreet for long.
Sears: I believe this has always been a Sears.
JC Penny’s: The current JC Penny’s space was a Mervyn’s that opened in 1996, and at some point, turned into JCPenny.
As far as former non-anchor stores, all I know of are Ann Taylor and County Seat. See, what did I tell you? I’m not writin’ The Chronicles of Maplewood here. If you know somethin’, post in the comments!
Simon Properties purchased this mall in 2002 and talked about another renovation (it needs one — this mall is very darkly lit) and adding a megaplex cinema. Seven years later, there is no sign of either in sight. Simon Properties — why must you tease us so? *giggles*
Your average mall has your average issues, and Maplewood is no different. First off, the escaltor near the Victoria’s Secret always seems to be broken. Strike One. Strike two — I find that this mall has a lot more miscreant teens loitering around than some of the other Twin Cities malls — usually blocking certain entrances doing tricks on their skateboards or hanging out near the Aladdin’s Castle arcade.
Maplewood is also home to some of the peskiest, pushiest mall market researchers known to man. Strike THREE. These survey hustlers patrol the corridor near the Payless Shoes/Orange Julius/Dairy Queen, hold their cute lil’ clipboards and hound you for a ‘minute of your time, sir.’ What exactly are they trying to learn from people shopping at the mall? People like booze, sex, and money. Voila! I just saved your company billions of dollars. No need for a market research budget.
Also, this mall has an abundance of cell phone stores & kiosks. Out of all the malls in the Twin Cities, Maplewood has the most pesky, pushy cell phone dealers EVER. Especially The Mobile Phone Co. store, which was featured on an expose on of the local newsstation’s broadcast a few years ago, about their slimy sales tactics. When you walk by this store
Maplewood Mall -- The home of the hard-sell cell phone sales tactics
(located between Hollister and The Gap), there’s usually 2 or 3 slick-looking sales guys standing outside the store, holla-ing at everyone who walks by. These fuckers are worse than the Dead Sea Salt hawkers. No thanks, I don’t want a fucking Razr. I swear, these guys look like Jersey mobsters. I wonder if they play Mafia Wars on Facebook? JOIN MY MAFIA?
The mix of stores here really caters to the teen shoppers. A bunch of stores here that sell cheap polyester thug-in-tha-club clothes — Forever 21, Charlotte Russe, TwinsTown, DEB, Ragstock, Vanity, Wet Seal, Hot Topic, PacSun, Zumiez, The Edge — how many stores selling throwaway “BUY-ME-A-DRANK” skimpy party clothing does one mall need?
This could have something to do with all of the nightclubs located within walking distance from the mall. (I know…weird, right? Get the crew all together and go tear up a club….in Maplewood ???? Hey, it must be working because there’s like three nightclubs in this area). Those hunnies at The Myth are buying their pink glitter bras and ass-cheek grazing neon orange mini skirts somewhere. And Twins Town is a great resource for the club hoppin’ fellaz — great place to get a knock-off Gucci bandanna just like Soulja Boy’s or a pair of stunna shades.
In case you’re wondering, the nightclubs in this area are –
The Myth: Supposed to be pretty “dope”. I’m not into the club scene so I haven’t been here and probably never will. KDWB has the hots for this place — or at least they used to. It seemed like every event sponsored by this local top-40 radion station was held here. Star Parties, Jingle Balls, that really trashy Halloween party with the human petting zoo, that Valentine’s Day lingerie costume contest…hell, at some point, they probably hosted a Booty Cruise here. It’s on a boat, I know, but they probably somehow figured out a way to do this! 
Maplewood Mall offers a great selection of scene clothes for tonight's mixer at The Myth
Dive Bar: Formerly The Bird nightclub. I remember going here a few times (when it was The Bird) when KDWB hosted their Saturday Night Party Zone here. My friend Deb and I would only come here when Michael Knight was hosting because I had a mad crush on him. (good god, why am I admitting this? He wasn’t even that good looking and the dude was probably twice my age. Thinking back, Ton E Fly was probably cuter, but I had to have the hots for Michael freakin’ Knight?!) Those were the days though… Anyway, this isn’t even a real dive bar. Real dive bars don’t name themselves “Dive Bar.” Dive bars = dirty bathrooms, flies on the food, beer served out of an Igloo cooler, blood stains on the walls from the nightly fights, cracked vinyl booths with the foam poking out, and a slobbery dog behind the counter. I’ve never been in here since the late ’90s, but I’m guessing this is not a real “dive bar.”
I think there’s another nightclub across White Bear Avenue, near that strip mall with the Old Country Buffet, but I can’t remember its name.
With all that said, Maplewood Mall does have one big redeeming factor — it has a giant carousal in the middle of the mall. You might be thinking, “Who the fuck cares? The Mall of America has Camp Snoopy-The Park at MOA-SpongebobLand feat. Dora the Explorer-Nick At Night Universe, or whatever the fuck it’s called these days — it’s a full-blown amusement park! And Maplewood has one carousal?”
But the Maplewood carousal isn’t just a place to get some cheap $2 thrills. This ride is an original Venetian double-
The Maplewood Best Buy up and left this location and moved down the road. My fond memory of this place? In 2001, a coworker set me up on a blind date. The dude took me to this Best Buy for our first date. We looked at car stereo equipment. No joke. Obviously, that first date was our last.
decker carousal from the 1800′s, with beautiful hand-painted murals. Definitely not something you’d find in your average suburban mall, or let alone any ol’ amusement park, for that matter. It’s worth checking out, if you find yourself shopping at this mall.
And this mall still has fountains. I like mall fountains. You don’t see them all that much these days.
If you have any memories to share or any information about former tenants/etc, feel free to post in the comments!
All photos taken June 2009. (I’m trying out the photo gallery feature on WordPress…so this looks a little funky. I’ll try to get it right on my next post! Sorry for the sloppiness!)
Awww yeah, this was my mall growing up. I used to work at Daytons back in 1998. There used to be a Kay-Bee Toys there, I believe before the renovation the food court was on the first floor and I do remember window shopping at Carson Pirie Scott. It was “too expensive” for my parents, but my grandparents shopped there. The Myth used to be an old Just For Feet I think, and there used to be a Childrens Palace around there where Toys R Us is now.
I haven’t been in Maplewood since 1999. Doesn’t sound like it’s changed much. At the time there wasn’t a JCP so it must have came in after the great Mervin’s Massacre of 2004.
Dave
My main complaint is that the food court here is always FILTHY!!!! and they’re constantly changing restaurants and what not.
In addition to what the precious posters said, there used to be a Mr. Bulky, a Wicks and Sticks (or whatever it was), an Applebee’s, and this place that sold a wide variety of crystal things (ornaments, flowers, birds, etc)
I live less than 10 minutes from the mall, but usually venture the 20 down to Rosedale…it’s cleaner and nicer and has less creepy kids walking around. The only reason I really have for going to Maplewood is the Old Navy.
How is Southdale bad? It has a vacant Mervyn’s but there’s an H&M coming up, and…
what r u guys talking about?! there are alot of good stores well put together like H&M, and Hollister, and Aeropostile,Hot Topic, Spencers, Pacsun, and a bunch more. they are pretty big too so idk when this was made but the maplewood mall is nice. oh and the food court is delicious.
Maplewood Mall is currently going through a renovation at this time. It will have new entrances, flooring, signs, and new food court. The large columns in the center court have been stripped of their light pink drywall and the original dark brick exposed and the skylight in the center court stripped of the 80′s post modern metal to reveal the original 70′s “gunslit” windows. Simon is also in the process of renovating Southdale. The only other mall in Minnesota Simon owns is Miller Hill Mall in my hometown Duluth. Like Maplewood, it was built in the 70′s and renovated in the 80′s and definately needs a renovation!
Jeez, the author had me chuckling a few times with the rash phrasing. Good stuff! My memories now…being a kid & running up and down the ramps the mall used to have to get down to the original food dungeon. Around XMAS time the mall had animatronic reindeer, elves etc on display. Somehow making 5 bucks last @ Circus Pizza all night. This arcade/eatery was attached to Carson’s/Donaldson’s at the time. There was even a “secret” door you could enter Circus from the mall for some time but was soon locked. I felt cool knowing “I” could gain access to the place like some VIP. My friends were in awe. Stores I remember: Carlton Cards, Stuart’s, Sbarros pizza was actually on the 1st floor & had a few arcade games. Gigi’s, Braun’s (my mom would drag me into Braun’s & my older sister would go over to Gigi’s. The stores were connected) I remember Gigis had this grey plastic piping all over the place as a decoration. I actually climbed up near the ceiling to my mother’s horror. Herman’s (sporting goods) Disc Jockey, Record Town, Music Land, Hall’s ( men’s clothing, as a kid I always thought the sign read Dtal’s the way fancy writing looked) ChessKing (my Ocean Pacific, Gotcha, Body Glove etc wardrobe store in Jr high) Cutlery World (when they also sold daggers & swords) Spencer’s (when they were on 2nd floor and had a weird staircase inside the store) Woolworth’s (my He-Man HQ) B Dalton books, Walden Books, Nina B’s, Willow Creek, Learner New York, Buster Brown’s, Italian Express, FootAction (where Radio Shack is) I only remember this because I had a huge crush on a classmate that worked there. In the early-mid 90′s the open area on the ground floor had glass “huts” for stores. I remember spending hours in Capcom store playing Street Fighter II for the SNES for free with my friends. Flourisheim ??? I dunno about the actual name but the place sold men’s dress shoes. Fredrick’s of Hollywood, Berman’s (then Wilson’s, the leather Experts) I could keep going but I got shit to do!!! The only other thing I will add is around my “mall days” there was a Showbiz Pizza & Chucky Cheese across White Bear Ave and theaters Maplewood 1 & 2 were on site. (where the bus station is now & the other was located where the Chipolte strip mall is)
Yeah, from about ’82 to ’86 the Maplewood Chuck E. Cheese was across the street on White Bear Ave. at Beam Ave. in the strip mall where MGM Liquor is now. ShowBiz was all the way down White Bear at Larpenteur in the Hillcrest strip mall. It was the largest ShowBiz in MN, but the first to close in ’84 after two years. They moved it to St. Paul-Midway on Lexington, but it only lasted eight months in the new location. Circus in Maplewood got their show. That Circus was connected to Maplewood Mall on the end with Carson’s. Both Carson’s and Circus’ spaces were bought out by Dayton’s in ’95, years before all the other Circus stores were bought out by Chuck E. Cheese.
I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned Barnes and Noble! And I miss Sam Goody. I loved browsing the CDs there.
I think renovation of the mall should be complete by now. Does anybody know how it looks?
Pretty sure the Circus Pizza in Maplewood Mall was one of my family’s most-visited locations. Think we hit up the Circus Circus in Blaine just as much, which apparently is now a Chuck E. Cheese’s. Hated that place as a kid compared to Circus, but it might be fun to visit that locale for nostalgia’s sake.
Anyway, Maplewood Mall… Lots of fun memories there, but no longer being a kid or teenager I have little reason to ever go there. Was admittedly a creeper popping into the Hot Topic one or two times over the past few years to ogle this older goth chick that I found pretty foxy and with an interesting personality. There’s a Hi-Score Video Games kiosk (multiple kiosks, actually) there right by the food court that I like to peruse every couple of years or so and always walk away with nothing as I can get everything cheaper and in better condition online. (How do asshole used video game stores stay in business anyway? No wonder the Toyriffic in my town closed just months after it opened.)
Last I was at the mall, which was years ago, they had security guards on Segways wearing helmets. Couldn’t believe my eyes: a not-so-hot mall that spent who-knows-how-many-thousands-or-tens-of-thousands on one or more Segways, and for what? To have security patrolling upright looking like a bunch of ’tards, whose expensive vehicles are useless if a teen perpetrator escapes down a flight of stairs. Gotta catch those Cinnabon thieves.
Speaking of which, as a preteen, Cinnabons were one of my favorite parts of the mall when my mom would take me there; EB Games (or was it an EBX?) another favorite. Suncoast was good for looking at all the anime, but I rarely ever in my life have spent money there… Usually just bought dorky Spawn figurines which I couldn’t find anywhere else.
This blog is my new favorite. Thanks for all the funny anecdotes. I grew up in the Western suburbs so I know nothing of any substance on this mall. However, my very good friend was a manager at the Macy’s here for several years. All I know is that they had a lot of problems with riff raff in that Mall, and I believe there were shootings and knife fights a few times. If I ever visited her, I only went to the Macy’s store. It was a rather nice store though from what I remember.
Sorry my first comment is so dumb and a lackluster contribution to the discussion.
They’ve completed the remodel, and it looks pretty nice! But they unfortunately removed the trees and fountains.