Dead Malls of Canada

[MolsonExport]

well said on both counts.

I recall the great old malls of the 70s-early 80s with their MIXTURE of retail categories. Everything from Groceries to Hardware, and from Pets to Shoes. Sit down restaurants (including those at the Bay/Simpson's and Eaton's....even Woolworth/Woolco), along with nascent food courts. For me the big local mall was "Fairview Pointe Claire" (West Island of Montreal). And yes, Fairview also had a (two storey!) WHSmith. (which I would pronounce as "Whusmith!"). Plus Simpsons, Eatons, Ogilvies, Holt Renfrew, Marks and Spencer's, and Woolworth's as department stores, and a huge two-storey hardware store (Pascal's), pet store, hobby store, cool fountains, a extra-sized Steinburg's Supermarket. A German Delicatessan. Banks. Barber shops. 3 Record stores, plus you could also buy records at Eaton's/Simpson's. The whole nine yards.

Now it's all designer hand bags, overpriced women's shoes, and overpriced women's apparel. With a sprinkling of overpriced sporting wear, and nondescript yet overpriced food courts. Plus some kiosks selling useless cellphone bling. BORING AS FUCK.

You are spot on with your archaeological characterization of abandoned and dying retail. I suffer from an extreme case of nostalgia (while acknowledging that not everything was "Great" in the "good ol' days"). I can't help but imagine (and almost see and hear) the long-lost hustle and bustle that these places once possessed. Even the sad sack, world-famous Honeydale Mall.

Sadly, our urban environments have lost the magic that went with eclectic development and retailing. Everything is chains. Worst of all, the incredible sameness of the Banal Big Box Barf
powercentres (aka Dumbcentres). They all look exactly the same, with the same stores, in very similar arrangements. A vast ocean of parking. Nothing to beckon the casual shopper and would be mall rat.

1989 Sanyo CRT.

[MolsonExport]

[MolsonExport]

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

well said on both counts.

I recall the great old malls of the 70s-early 80s with their MIXTURE of retail categories. Everything from Groceries to Hardware, and from Pets to Shoes. Sit down restaurants (including those at the Bay/Simpson's and Eaton's....even Woolworth/Woolco), along with nascent food courts. For me the big local mall was "Fairview Pointe Claire" (West Island of Montreal). And yes, Fairview also had a (two storey!) WHSmith. (which I would pronounce as "Whusmith!"). Plus Simpsons, Eatons, Ogilvies, Holt Renfrew, Marks and Spencer's, and Woolworth's as department stores, and a huge two-storey hardware store (Pascal's), pet store, hobby store, cool fountains, a extra-sized Steinburg's Supermarket. A German Delicatessan. Banks. Barber shops. 3 Record stores, plus you could also buy records at Eaton's/Simpson's. The whole nine yards.

Now it's all designer hand bags, overpriced women's shoes, and overpriced women's apparel. With a sprinkling of overpriced sporting wear, and nondescript yet overpriced food courts. Plus some kiosks selling useless cellphone bling. BORING AS FUCK.

You are spot on with your archaeological characterization of abandoned and dying retail. I suffer from an extreme case of nostalgia (while acknowledging that not everything was "Great" in the "good ol' days"). I can't help but imagine (and almost see and hear) the long-lost hustle and bustle that these places once possessed. Even the sad sack, world-famous Honeydale Mall.

Sadly, our urban environments have lost the magic that went with eclectic development and retailing. Everything is chains. Worst of all, the incredible sameness of the Banal Big Box Barf
powercentres (aka Dumbcentres). They all look exactly the same, with the same stores, in very similar arrangements. A vast ocean of parking. Nothing to beckon the casual shopper and would be mall rat.

1989 Sanyo CRT.

It seems malls in this country have gone one of two ways - either dead, or upscale.

I remember when Westmount in London had a hardware store and an LCBO inside. The hardware store was right behind Dominion/A&P but it closed shortly after Home Depot opened on Wharncliffe in the mid-90s. Big box competition was really the beginning of the end for some malls.

[Coldrsx]

Edmonton City Centre Mall just filed for receivership and is largely empty on the west half.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/...l-owner-goes-into-receivership-1.7581307

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

How many abandoned RONAs litter the landscape? You can see them on the 401, in KW, in Missingsausage (https://ominous.app/browse/site/11032). There's two in London Ontario alone (Wonderland/Beaverbrook, Commissioners/Highbury). The bad news is that they sit vacant...forever.
You can see them here, you can see them there, you can see them everywhere.

The former Lowe’s/Rona+ in New Westminster is soon becoming a Costco Business Centre.

[BlaineN]

It may have already been mentioned, but there's a dead mall in Calgary that's actually been dead since the day it opened. The Horizon Mall located just north of the airport.

• Video Link

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

The former Lowe’s/Rona+ in New Westminster is soon becoming a Costco Business Centre.

So too is the abandoned RONA off Winston Churchill Rd (Mississauga), after sitting empty for about 12 years (becoming a Costco Business Centre).

[Coldrsx]

It's still underperforming and A LOT of people lost money, but it's much busier now and gaining some traction.

[Innsertnamehere]

There are still sears stores vacant across the country in various locations.. I even know of some vacant Zellers.

Limeridge Mall in Hamilton has long been a larger anchor mall that did good business, but the sears box is still empty 7 years after Sears left, and now the Hudson's Bay box is vacant too.

There is a vacant Zellers in Simcoe still too, a full 12 years after it shut it's doors:



A lot of the former Lowes got transformed into RONA+ stores. I went into the Ancaster RONA+ a few weeks ago, albeit on an off-peak time (6:30pm weekday), and I was basically the only customer in the entire store. Home Depots are always significantly busier than that, even at odd hours.

[MolsonExport]

I wonder which malls have had their ultimate deaths hastened due to the demise of HBC.

I miss Department store anchors. They drew me in much more than their replacements (e.g., shitty overpriced Rec centres with arcades/axe-throwing, Homesense, Sportchek, etc.).

[MolsonExport]

• Video Link

Great video! It also has brief histories of the malls attached to the various HBC locations in Toronto.

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

well said on both counts.

I recall the great old malls of the 70s-early 80s with their MIXTURE of retail categories. Everything from Groceries to Hardware, and from Pets to Shoes. Sit down restaurants (including those at the Bay/Simpson's and Eaton's....even Woolworth/Woolco), along with nascent food courts. For me the big local mall was "Fairview Pointe Claire" (West Island of Montreal). And yes, Fairview also had a (two storey!) WHSmith. (which I would pronounce as "Whusmith!"). Plus Simpsons, Eatons, Ogilvies, Holt Renfrew, Marks and Spencer's, and Woolworth's as department stores, and a huge two-storey hardware store (Pascal's), pet store, hobby store, cool fountains, a extra-sized Steinburg's Supermarket. A German Delicatessan. Banks. Barber shops. 3 Record stores, plus you could also buy records at Eaton's/Simpson's. The whole nine yards.

Now it's all designer hand bags, overpriced women's shoes, and overpriced women's apparel. With a sprinkling of overpriced sporting wear, and nondescript yet overpriced food courts. Plus some kiosks selling useless cellphone bling. BORING AS FUCK.

You are spot on with your archaeological characterization of abandoned and dying retail. I suffer from an extreme case of nostalgia (while acknowledging that not everything was "Great" in the "good ol' days"). I can't help but imagine (and almost see and hear) the long-lost hustle and bustle that these places once possessed. Even the sad sack, world-famous Honeydale Mall.

Sadly, our urban environments have lost the magic that went with eclectic development and retailing. Everything is chains. Worst of all, the incredible sameness of the Banal Big Box Barf
powercentres (aka Dumbcentres). They all look exactly the same, with the same stores, in very similar arrangements. A vast ocean of parking. Nothing to beckon the casual shopper and would be mall rat.

Oh man, I feel just the same as you. And yes, of course, feeling nostalgic for totems to mindless consumerism is problematic to me, but as you mentioned, they were different -- useful, atmospheric, fun -- back then, and a lot of it was window shopping and people-watching.
I remember, as a little kid (must have been '83, because, for whatever reason, I can still recall a TV Guide with "Conan the Destroyer" on the cover) standing in the cash line with my mom at Dominion, then going to the Ziggy's, which was just to the northwest of Dominion on the map you posted, to buy bread, deli meats, and a Der Spiegel, which my parents used to read every week.
Later in the '80s, my dad and I would go window shopping once a week. It was an outing for us. He mainly wanted to get cookies at Marks and Spencer, and I wanted to look at the latest games for the C64 at Compu 2000, or whatever it was called, and maybe we would grab an ice cream cone. There was also a hobby store near the subway entrance, where I bought an RC car in 1987.
Quite right, the StupidCentres are nowhere near a replacement for an old-fashioned mall. Asphalt in all directions, drive from store to store, get the hell in and out as fast as possible.

[MolsonExport]

Commodore 64. I wanted one of those...I had to make do with a Tandy TRS-80 Coco-II 16K. I spent many hours mastering the intricacies of Basic-A.

Bought it at Radio Shack. Radio Shacks were always sort of crappy places. The employees were surely, and they would often treat teens with utter contempt. I wasn't sad to see them start shutting down in the late 90s (replaced by the almost as bad "The Source").



Come to think about it, a lot of hobby shops also had surely employees/owners. Probably just my experience, because I would spend 30 minutes or more, roaming the aisles, taking in all the treasures featured in the store (model kits, DnD dice, electronic project kits, kites, etc., etc.).

[elly63]

I LOVED Radio Shack! I don't know how many useless gadgets I bought there. All kinds of things like rechargeable batteries, outlet timers, meters, parts, cables.

Once I bought about 300 ft? of coax, had it in my Radio Shack bag, then went to Shopper's. On the way out it set off all the alarms and I just kept walking and nobody came after me.

Probably the best Christmas present I ever got came from Radio Shack. My friend had a small 40 in one electronics kit which I think was a small red plastic six inch square IIRC, so I figured I'd add that to the Christmas list.

Instead, I got the 100 in one breadbox kit (below). I didn't think much of it at the time and played with my more kid age appropriate stuff (I was 10?). Later after supper I saw my brother (back home from college) screwing around with it. It was like "Gimme that"

I played with that thing for years. Didn't really learn anything about electronics as I just "painted by numbers" instead of figuring out the schematic, but it was great.

A year or so ago I thought I would get one on EBay but I have so many other things on the go I figured it wouldn't be the same. Also other companies have updated the idea and are making new ones.

[MolsonExport]

yeah, I loved those kits too.

[elly63]

Each Christmas after the electronics kit, I got a different kit but it wasn't the same as the electronics kit. I was too impatient to try and learn anything so I just kind of threw things together. The optics kit was kind of cool, I didn't understand any properties about lenses but I made the microscope and telescope. I never did try building the camera.



I built even less with the aeronautics kit as it involved gluing balsa together. I made the rocket but never got an engine for it. I had already done that in school anyway (one of the more cool school shop projects) which was that new school stuff that was coming along after my old school learning.



Finally, I got the computer kit and did very little with that. I actually still have it in pretty good condition. It was all about gates and stuff that was way over my head at that time. Funny how computers became such a big part of my life later because I was pretty clueless about them way back when.

[MonctonRad]

Lots of nerds on this forum (myself included).

I loved Radio Shack too.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

yeah, I loved those kits too.

As you know, that electronics kit could build several types of radios: There were one, two and three transistor radios (if you had the batteries). If you didn't, you could make a solar cell operated radio (from the built in solar cell) or if it was dark, a crystal radio.

In case anybody cares the white knob on the board was a variable cap (IIRC) for tuning and the black knob next to it was a variable potentiometer (for increasing volume)

Below the box was an earphone that if you screwed off the earpiece part you could screw in the clear megaphone piece above it to make a microphone. The kit made an early version of the mic heard through a radio. Next to that was the Morse code key which you could use as a switch when you made a siren.

The black gadget next to that was a coupler to attach to the phone so you could amplify the voice on the other end for the room to hear.

There was also a long wire included which could be used as an antenna or ground.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Lots of nerds on this forum (myself included). I loved Radio Shack too.

I wasn't a nerd, I lived for gym and sports, played everything. Also got into theatre from middle school on. Hungout with everybody in high school, jocks, brains and theatre ****. Does that remove nerddom?