Posts Tagged shopping malls

Maplewood Mall: Maplewood, MN

Jul 6

Posted by dumpystripmall in Maplewood | 12 Comments

The indoor carosaul is Maplewood Mall's most memorable feature

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 mall cruisers

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!)

Tags: carosauls, dive bars, Forever 21, KDWB, malls, nightclubs, shopping malls

10 mall chain stores I can't believe are still in business

Sep 11

Posted by dumpystripmall in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Ever been to the mall and wonder, “How the heck does that store stay in business? No one is ever in there!” Well, I do too. I present you with my list of 10 stores at the mall I can’t believe are still around…

10.) The Thomas Kinkade “Art” Gallery:
If Anne Geddes photos are your idea of art, the Thomas Kinkade store might be for you. After all, who’s buying Picasso these days anyway?

I’ve never seen anyone in the Thomas Kinkade store, except during Christmastime. If they’re not buying paintings, they’re stocking up on the fugly keychains/calendars/coffee mugs. I imagine the “artwork” is quite expensive. Every painting is a “limited edition” even though every damn one of them has the same glowing thatched roof cottage and sugary-sweet nature scene. His “work” is nothing but an expensive Paint-By-Number. Why not save yourself hundreds of dollars and go to Ben Franklin and create your own?

However, what I wouldn’t give to see his rendition of dogs playing poker…

9.) Dots

If Kim Kardashian was broke, she’d shop at Dots. If you thought that Fashion Bug, Rainbow, and DEB were the lowest rungs on the women’s clothing store ladder, then you obviously haven’t been to DOTS. DOTS is disposable clothing at its finest. Think neon colored shirts with attached necklaces, hot pink bras, checkerboard patterned pants, plastic booty shorts, and just some absolutely BIZARRE “trendy” shit.

Clothing made with any natural fiber is nowhere to be found in this boutique – it’s a GHETTO-LICIOUS polyester paradise. Everything in the store used to be $10 or less, but I believe their prices are a bit more these days. The only Dots I know of in the Twin Cities area is located in the Har Mar Mall in Roseville.

I suppose it stays in business just because it is so cheap. It’s just that it’s so incredibly tacky I can’t imagine why anyone with a smidgen of fashion sense would shop here. Why not save your $10 and put it towards an outfit at Macys that will last through at least one spin cycle?

8.) Payless Shoe Source:
Payless catapulted the BOGO phrase into pop culture and made the dyed-to-match satin bridesmaid shoes a gold standard at weddings. Other than that, it doesn’t have much to offer, except for the obvious, of course –cheap plastic shoes that give your feet a blister the minute you put them on and ugly knock-off monogram Louis Vuitton bags.

Last time I bought a pair of shoes at Payless, the plastic made my feet sweat so bad that I had to carefully peel the shoes off my feet, as not to tear away any of my skin. Never again!

Why do people torture themselves like that? You’ve only got one pair of feet – treat them well. It’s amazing that people still shop here. Spend $10-$20 more and get a better pair of shoes at the department store that won’t cause your feet to insta-blister or sweat.

7.) Cache:

Cache: Outfitting mob wives and cougars since 1990

If Carmella Soprano owned a store, Cache would be it. Cheap-looking, flashy, vinyl Vegas wear — it’s like BeBe for the over 40 crowd. This is where Cathy Cougar shops for her “night on the town” outfit to reel in that 21 year old college student at First Ave.

The clothing in this store is incredibly overpriced and tacky and I NEVER see anyone shopping in this store or anyone in the mall carrying a Cache shopping bag. How they stay in business is beyond me.

6.) Love from Minnesota: It’s a local chain found in nearly every Minnesota mall, but I’m sure whereever you’re from, your state has one of these tourist memorabilia stores filled to the rafters with generic screen printed t-shirts, cheesy postcards on a rotating rack, and ugly overpriced chotchkies in your shopping centers. The Mall of America alone has about 50 of these stores spread throughout the mall-so if the impulse hits you to buy a teddy bear with “Mall of America” on its belly or a t-shirt with a written profession of your newfound love for the land of 10,000 lakes, you’re never more than 50 feet away. Are tourists really purchasing this pricey shit? I don’t know about you, but if I go to Missouri, I don’t feel the need to buy golf balls with an “I <3 Missouri” inscription.

Let's be realistic here. Bears do not drink coffee or read newspapers. They want the good shit, like watermelon rinds and day-old pork products.

They’re also well-stocked with those ugly ceramic black bear collectible figurines. For the record, I hate that shit. Those bears are always doing something ridiculous that a REAL grizzly bear just cannot do. Like playing on a teeter totter or drinking tea. Fuck. Where’s the “black bear ransacks through the trash” statuette? Now THAT I’d buy.

5) Dress Barn

A women’s clothing store named after a building in which farm animals live? Just by its name alone, it’s a wonder this place gets ANY customers. Its name implies that you’ll look as big as a house wearing their clothing — and judging by the matronly look of most of their apparel, it isn’t that far off. I guess the name “Dress Barn” is better than, say, Trouser Trough, Slacks Sty, or Clothing Combine. Despite its horrible name, chubby middle-aged moms who’ve “given up” and senior citizen women alike FLOCK here for the frump.

If you’ve ever wondered where Dowdy Darla at the office gets here wardrobe, there’s a good chance she’s shopping at Dress Barn. This is where they still sell elastic waist jeans, ’90s style business attire, boxy twinsets, and shapeless tunics. Think QVC-style clothing in a brick and mortar setting.

4) The Body Shop
I never see anyone in this store. The mall could have a Bath & Body Works AND a Body Shop – Bath & Body Works is packed, and The Body Shop will be empty. The store is so tiny that I feel like a bull in a china shop. I don’t know what it is, but it seems so dark and depressing – if I’m buying yummy-smelling bath products, I don’t want to shop in a gloomy store. Plus, their products are kinda…out there. Weird hemp products, strange scents…I bought a blueberry body butter and when I opened it up, it looked like Crisco. Yuck.

3) Franklin Covey:

Franklin Covey is shooting itself in the foot by being closed on Sundays

Who the hell uses paper daytime planners these days? You can’t sync your leather planner with your Outlook calendar, unless you want to get writer’s cramp. And there’s just a downright pretentious feeling to the place. With the faux stone columns of its storefront, I feel like I’m walking into a museum of binders. A little foreboading, perhaps? Paper planners and organizers probably WILL be in a museum in next few years. Adding to the pretention, they’re closed on Sundays. While that’s great for the employees, if you have a RETAIL business that markets items toward the 8-5 crowd, why close on a day when your target market has the free time to shop?

2) Glamour Shots:
Pancake makeup! Fat ladies in boas! Prom hair and fuzzy lighting! Over-the-shoulder poses! Yes, ladies, Glamour Shots is STILL around, providing headshots for realtors since 1992, Although they’ve toned down the cheese factor a bit over the years, it’s still the place to go if you want wallet-sized photos of yourself in all of your foxy badness.

Every girl, no matter what age, wanted a Glamour Shots photo shoot in the ’90s. If you were getting your highschool senior portraits done here, they’d make you look like you were 40. They made all little girls look like Jon Benet Ramsey. Adult ladies looked like daytime soap stars from 1987. But no matter age you were, the photographer would the obligatory “denim studded jacket with a cowboy hat shot” - Gah.

1) Radio Shack:
High pressure sales on AA batteries? No thanks! Not when I can go to Target and buy the same batteries CHEAPER and without the sales associate trying to “upsell” me a remote controlled car. And who plays with remote control cars these days anyway?

I think I’ve only purchased one thing from Radio Shack in the last 10 years. It was some sort of video cable that I probably could’ve bought at Best Buy. They made me give my name, address, and telephone number for a $4.99 CASH purchase. Who knows, these days they’re probably asking for your Social Security number, mother’s maiden name, and the name of the street you grew up on…and then having you to pass a “word verification” test to make sure you’re human.

Tags: business, lists, shopping, shopping malls, stores, top 10 lists

Northtown Mall: Blaine, MN

Sep 4

Posted by dumpystripmall in Blaine | 32 Comments

The Northtown Mall gives off that high class, puttin on the Ritz kind of vibes

With MGM Liquor as a neighbor, the Northtown Mall gives off that high class, puttin' on the Ritz kind of vibe.

Now that the Minnesota State Fair is over, us Minnesotans will have to wait an entire YEAR before we can see Minnesota’s best mullets, rat-tails, and muffin-tops on parade.

Don’t deny it – we all know you’re not going to the fair to oogle the riding lawnmowers or fawn over all that informerical shit in the bazaar. Quit kidding yourself; you go there for the PEOPLE WATCHING. And when the Minnesota State Fair shuts down for the season, the people-watching side show also shuts down. So how’s a people-watching afficiando supposed to get their jollies the other 50 weeks of the year? Well folks, I have the answer.

Come to the Northtown Mall.

Along with Billy Big Mouth Bass and mounted deer heads, these moving light pictures are a popular decoration in the typical Northtown Mall patrons homes

Along with Billy Big Mouth Bass and mounted deer heads, these moving light pictures are a popular fixture in the local homes

Normally, youd see at least 3 camaros with flamed-out paint jobs in the parking lot. I mustve visited on an off day

Normally, you'd see several Camaros with flamed-out paint jobs in the parking lot. I must've visited on an off day

Serving the exquisite north suburban communities of Spring Lake Park, Fridley, Coon Rapids, and Blaine, the Northtown Mall naturally attracts some very interesting clientele. Common creatures include -

Mulleted men in wife-beaters with a round can popping out of the back pocket of the wranglers (Chicks dig that)
Pregnant teens
Toby Keith fans
Middle-aged ladies with bottle-blonde frizz, teased mall bangs standing 8 inches high, hot-pink nails, and a stained NASCAR t-shirt pushing a stroller with 5 screaming brats fighting over a bag of rapidly cooling Burger King french fries.

Burlington Coat Factory sells CLASS and STYLE to Northtown Mall shoppers

See, it’s just like the people-watching at the state fair! Only in an enclosed, climate-controlled enviroment, open year-round! What fun.

110 stores? Really? I think someone's doing a little fuzzy math here... (photo taken August, 2007)

OH NOES! (2008, Herberger's remodel)

Herbergers is coming to save the mall! And hopefully help the Northtown shoppers dress like their from this decade)

Herberger's is coming to save the mall! And hopefully help the Northtown shoppers dress like they're from this decade)

Northtown Mall is a one-level mall, which opened in 1972 with a whopping 33 stores. It was remodeled in 1988 and, at the time, had 120 stores. Prior to this renovation, I’ve read that this mall was very dark & dreary (probably very Brookdale-esque), but I never visited this mall until 1992. I was a tween in 1992, and the best part about going to the Northtown Mall was checking out Spencer Gifts, Mr. Bulky, and Woolworth’s for their selection of “RUSS” Troll Dolls. Actually, I shouldn’t include Woolworth’s on that list – they only sold the “Treasure Troll” brand Troll Dolls, which weren’t as desirable as the Russ trolls. Anyway.

So if Brookdale is the Twin Cities’ ghetto mall, then Northtown is its trashy counterpart. I wouldn’t quite say it’s in Brookdale Center dead mall territory yet, but it has seen its better days. This isn’t a mall around which you’d plan your entire afternoon – unless you’re people-watching.

A popular hangout for Northtown Mall workers to take a smoke break

A popular smoke break hangout for Northtown Mall workers

Northtown’s anchors have seen a lot of turnaround. Here’s how some of the anchors have changed (I am going completely by memory – if you have corrections, please let me know!)
Donaldsons (closed early 90s) > Carson Piere Scott (closed early 90’s) > Mervyn’s (Closed 2004) > empty space/hallway/Banks (sealed off early 2008) > Herbergers
MainStreet (closed 1989) > Kohls (closed Summer 2004) > Burlington Coat Factory
HomeGoods (Closed 2001) > Steve & Barry’s (opened 2003)
Montgomery Wards (closed 2001) > sealed off > demolished to make way for Home Depot
Woolworth (closed early ’90s) > Best Buy

Ahoy, mateys!

Another view of old skool Northtown signage

Other former non-anchor stores in the Northtown Mall include:
Applebee’s (now moved to a location in the middle of the mall parking lot)
Petite Sophisticate
Casual Corner
First Barber Stylists
Some pet store, next to the hair salon
Mr. Bulky
Picadelly Circus Arcade
Kay Bee Toys
…I honestly can’t remember any other stores. If you know of any, please let me know!

The old Mervyn's location was converted into a mall hallway. This was sealed up in 2008 to make room for the Herbergers

Another view of the creepy hallway, July 2007

In 2006, this was a "Banks" store for a little while

Today, Northtown mall keeps chuggin’ along. In the past year, LA Fitness and Home Depot have set up shop, as well as a new Herberger’s store that’s expected to open within the month. Sure, it’s a trashy mall, but it has character, which many of the new malls simply do not have. In all honesty, it might not be the prettiest place, but it’s an okay-place to shop. It’s safe, has your typical mall offerings, and it usually isn’t terribly crowded (especially when NASCAR races are on the boob tube).

Enjoy the rest of the photos! (Photos taken August 2008)

This way to Steve & Barry's!!! Hurry, quick! Ill-fitting highwater olive green chinos are on sale! ONLY $8.98 (or less!) Supplies are limited!

Northtown Mall has a kids play area with equipment that looks like a giant piece of shit in a blue bowl

Northtown Mall has a kids play area with equipment that looks like a giant piece of dog shit atop a blue bowl

Creepy mall hallways have been scaring Northtown shoppers for decades

Creepy mall hallways have been frightening Northtown shoppers for decades

Lockers at the mall. WTF. I suppose if all the lockers at LA Fitness are in use, you can stuff your gym bag in here

Applebee's is closed. You'll have to walk across the parking lot to get your microwaved dinner, folks

Another view of the dead Applebee's

Ladies, if youre looking to flirt with the Federline-type, pick up your man at the Northtown Best Buy! Hubba, hubba!

Ladies, if you're looking to flirt with the Federline-type, pick up a man at the Northtown Best Buy! Hubba, hubba!

The Northtown Bath & Body Works still uses the old store front

Along with B&BW, Express hasnt updated its signage in years either. A rare sight indeed!

Speaking of old store fronts, Express hasn't updated its signage since 1986! A rare sight indeed! "Camgainge Internationale"

This shiny blue tiled wall once housed the Picadelly Circus arcade, ripping off thousands of teens back in its heyday

At Victoria's Secret, they just don't leave you alone until they've chased you around the store a few times and forced a black shopping bag in your hand