Wayfarer Pictures
Wayfarer Pictures
  • 13
  • 80 908
Capitola Mall - Capitola, CA
Ahoy ahoy, Wayfarers! Join us today for a (socially-distanced and masked) tour of the Capitola Mall in Capitola, CA! This was filmed in September 2020, right after indoor malls were allowed to open back up at limited capacity after being briefly closed down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Capitola Mall is currently the only enclosed regional shopping mall in Santa Cruz County and was originally built by Macerich in 1977. Some parts of it are still vibrant and active, but others are clearly struggling. There have been attempts to revitalize and reuse parts of the mall (like turning an old Abercrombie & Fitch store into a "Museum of Discovery"), but it may not be able to bounce back after a year of intermittent closures and the crushing impact of the overall decline of traditional malls in America. There are already plans in the works for redevelopment of this property, which usually means that it's been troubled for a while.
Keep in mind that this was filmed during extraordinary times (so it may not be entirely reflective of its "normal" state), but also remember that the writing was on the wall for Capitola Mall long before lockdown.
We hope you enjoy...as always, thanks for watching!
zhlédnutí: 2 680

Video

Somersville Towne Center - Antioch, CA
zhlédnutí 3,6KPřed 3 lety
Mahalo, fellow Wayfarers! Glad you're here to join us for yet another dying mall tour, today through the Somersville Town Center in Antioch, CA which is located in the East Bay region near San Francisco. This mall used to be known as the County East Mall until 2004, and has gone through several anchor tenants and renovations since its initial construction as an open-air shopping center in 1966....
Bayfair Center - San Leandro, CA
zhlédnutí 4,3KPřed 4 lety
Greetings, Wayfarers! Today we've got a dying mall tour of Bayfair Center in San Leandro, CA for you, located near Oakland and Hayward in the East Bay near San Francisco. Originally opening in 1957, it was built on the site of the former Oakland Speedway. A BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station opened south of the mall in 1972. We visited this mall in March of 2019, dodging some spring rainstor...
University Mall - Davis, CA
zhlédnutí 3KPřed 4 lety
Ahoy fellow Wayfarers! Join us for a dead mall tour of the University Mall ("U-Mall") in Davis, which is also home to the University of California at Davis. This miniscule mall is not actually part of the UC Davis campus itself, but like most businesses in the town, relies heavily upon the student population (and their evolving tastes and desires) as the bulk of its patronage. Filmed in Septemb...
Coddingtown Mall - Santa Rosa, CA
zhlédnutí 3,3KPřed 4 lety
Hello there, Wayfarers! Join us on a dead mall tour of the mid-century marvel Coddingtown Mall, located in Santa Rosa, CA, just north of San Francisco. This mall looks deceptively busy from the outside with hip big-box/lifestyle tenants surrounding it, however the original super-retro interior hallways with gorgeous natural lighting and exposed wood beams are much less traveled these days. We v...
Reno Town Mall & Carson Mall - Reno & Carson City, NV
zhlédnutí 3,6KPřed 4 lety
Hello there, fellow Wayfarers! In March of 2019, we headed east on a road trip to Reno, Nevada on the hunt for dead malls. If only we had made it there out a few years earlier, we could have visited the deliciously 80s Park Lane Mall. All that is left of that one (despite being razed over a decade ago) is a huge fenced-off empty lot with a movie theater on a distant, isolated slice of the prope...
County Fair Mall - Woodland, CA
zhlédnutí 7KPřed 5 lety
Hello there, fellow Wayfarers! We're back with a dead mall tour we filmed in September 2018 and March 2019 of the County Fair Mall in Woodland, CA. This mall is located in what used to be considered "out in the country", but this area is growing fast and due to be redeveloped any day now. Nevertheless, there's still vestiges of the agricultural past (and present) visible in the rolling expanses...
Palm Springs Mall & Indio Fashion Mall - Palm Springs & Indio, CA
zhlédnutí 4,5KPřed 5 lety
Greetings, fellow Wayfarers! While on a recent road trip to Los Angeles in November 2018, we found ourselves taking an unplanned wildfire-related detour east towards the Mojave Desert. Not ones to squander an opportunity when it presents itself (however it chooses to do so), we were able to tour not one but two dead malls, Palm Springs Mall and Indio Fashion Center (also known as the Fiesta Mal...
Westside Pavilion - Los Angeles, CA
zhlédnutí 2,9KPřed 5 lety
Happy New Year, Wayfarers! Today, we're presenting our chock-full-of-memories dead mall tour of Westside Pavilion in Los Angeles, CA. We filmed this in November 2018 while in town for a wedding, inadvertently also capturing the first full day of the devastating Woolsey Fire from the roof of the mall. In true Hollywood fashion, this mall eventually spawned its own not-as-good-as-the-original seq...
Hilltop Mall - Richmond, CA
zhlédnutí 26KPřed 5 lety
Ahoy there, Wayfarers! In September 2018, we headed out on a dead mall expedition to the Hilltop Mall in Richmond, CA (near San Francisco). This mall is a classic and somewhat well-preserved A. Alfred Taubman mall, complete with cavernous corridors, conversation pits, and an eye-catching center court housing a spiral ramp. The 1970s vibe is still strong throughout this mall and the signature ha...
Silver City Galleria - Taunton, MA
zhlédnutí 2,7KPřed 5 lety
Hello there, Wayfarers! Most of our dead mall videos feature malls from California however, today we've got a double feature from the East Coast. In December 2017 (while on a hometown visit for Christmas), we took a tour of two Massachusetts dead malls, the Silver City Galleria in Taunton and the Walpole Mall in (you guessed it) Walpole. As one of us was a former employee of the Silver City Gal...
Vallco Shopping Mall - Cupertino, CA
zhlédnutí 11KPřed 6 lety
Greetings, fellow Wayfarers! Join us for a dead mall tour filmed in November 2017 of the Vallco Shopping Mall in Cupertino, CA (home to the world-famous Apple Computer, Inc). It can be tough to find dead malls in California because of how valuable the land tends to be (especially in San Jose/Silicon Valley), but this one is still barely hanging on, with only a few parts of it still left open an...
Country Club Plaza - Sacramento, CA
zhlédnutí 7KPřed 6 lety
Welcome, fellow Wayfarers! This is our first video for our Dead & Dying Mall series, featuring a dead mall tour of Country Club Plaza: a struggling mid-century-era mall located in Sacramento, CA. There's been some additions and changes to the mall since this footage was shot (November 2017), but it remains to be seen if they'll be enough to turn it around. Thanks for watching, and please feel f...

Komentáře

  • @socheata460
    @socheata460 Před 4 dny

    I remember the old navy in the late 1980s it was Showbiz Pizza Place I didn’t go there cuz I was born in 2018

  • @TooTheMaximum
    @TooTheMaximum Před 7 dny

    its footage like this that make me appreciate CZcams and its contributers. i was thinking about allthe music videos from my childhood and researching malls that were featured in their videos, this is a great example of a reference video - thank you. as a kid of the 90s theres a spark of youthful excitement thinking about how colourful n vibrant malls used to be, this was treat! hello from New Zealand

  • @elismith8356
    @elismith8356 Před 16 dny

    I use to love the arcade in the back of the food court.i remember they even had a phone booth area right before you enter the arcade.im from East Oakland and in the 90's Bayfair was a step up from the ghetto ass Eastmont mall we had in Oakland.Eastmont was the shit in the 70's and 80's my dad and mom teenage era but by the 90's Eastmont Mall had already died down Today they might only literally have 1 store open and a welfare office smh.

    • @elismith8356
      @elismith8356 Před 16 dny

      Also I left Oakland 4 yrs. ago and moved 2 Santa Cruz there Capitola mall sucks ass. After Santa Cruz I moved to Salinas I forgot the name of it but there mall is actually nice for a mall in 2024.

  • @wmtrader
    @wmtrader Před 19 dny

    2024 update. The Vallco Shopping Mall has been bulldozed and a multi-use development called "The Rise" is replacing it. I grew up in the Santa Clara Valley during the 1970s/1980s, lived there until 2005, and went to this mall many times. All the times I went to Vallco never once did I see it busy, it was doomed from the beginning.

  • @TheDeluche
    @TheDeluche Před 20 dny

    I had to watchthis again after remembering it ice skating there during the 80s and 90s. I even visited it as a dead mall in 2014. I would say that the growth and development of valley fair and Santana row down stevens creek was what killed vallco imo. Just like how the development and growth of the Irvine spectrum killed Laguna hills mall.

  • @Sv_vic
    @Sv_vic Před 20 dny

    this was my go to movie theatre . Could normally get tickets to big opening movies like MCU stuff . Great crowds there . Miss it .

  • @mustbtrouble
    @mustbtrouble Před 21 dnem

    The “plans” have since fallen through it just stores Amazon vehicles in the parking lot which is extensive as you see.

  • @jorge81
    @jorge81 Před 26 dny

    I used to love going there every other weekend with my family. I would go straight to Suncoast to buy new dvds 😅 Last time I went which was about 2 years ago was a bit of a shocker seeing how dead it was. Really sad to see.

  • @pearpo
    @pearpo Před měsícem

    They built a fancier mall “Main street” nearby.

  • @poolmonitor
    @poolmonitor Před měsícem

    Can you do eastridge mall in the early 90s

  • @Popdaddy580
    @Popdaddy580 Před 2 měsíci

    I grew up in that mall, went to Sears when that was the only store and my first job was at "Coney Island Hotdogs" that was just outside of the Sears store entrance into the mall. Great times through the 70's. I can remember when they built the flyover Wolf road to what would become an ice rink. I graduated from Cupertino high in 1980 and shortly after that left the area. It's crazy how much the area has changed. The biggest thing I hated see go though was Tower Records and their infamous "headshop" 😮 I loved growing up in the 60s thru 80s in Cupertino.

  • @supersonicfan3522
    @supersonicfan3522 Před 2 měsíci

    So that's why there's a giant plot of land in the middle of Cupertino

  • @SpectrumIntruder
    @SpectrumIntruder Před 2 měsíci

    next to the Sears, that was a Fredricks of Hollywood

  • @Tripper111
    @Tripper111 Před 4 měsíci

    You all hated this mall from way before the moment you walked into it.

  • @adrianajimenez4342
    @adrianajimenez4342 Před 4 měsíci

    My childhood 😢 how sad

  • @MyJwiz
    @MyJwiz Před 5 měsíci

    Can you get older footage. 80s and 90s ❤❤??? Love it!

    • @elismith8356
      @elismith8356 Před 17 dny

      80's and 90's Bayfair was the shit!!!!! I remember the arcade was always lit. Giorgio's shoes been holding it down there for a long time ever since I was old enough to remember and I was born in '86. They are cool people always willing to give uh deal especially back then with this current sneaker craze sneaker head and online presence they probably not as quick to give uh deal. I would love to see footage from the 80's that would be cool. I grew up in East Oakland we had Eastmont mall down the street in my hood but that mall was already shitty by the 90's. That was the mall in the late 70's and 80's my mom and pops did they teenage stuff at.

  • @ElementalRicky
    @ElementalRicky Před 5 měsíci

    formely it was a racetrack for racing a long time ago

  • @ponchotran9004
    @ponchotran9004 Před 5 měsíci

    I was a student 1988-1993. The Forever21 was a Safeway at that time, I think. Across the street was the Davis Chinese Christian Church. What brought you out to see this mall? Or, how did you hear about this mall?

  • @ponchotran9004
    @ponchotran9004 Před 5 měsíci

    I was only ten years ago that my kids were taking Saturday morning lessons at the Ice Center; and I shopped for clothes at the JC Penny. There was a trellis lined walkway covered in wisteria vines leading to the entrance of JC Penny.

    • @j.d.contreras392
      @j.d.contreras392 Před 4 měsíci

      I actually worked at that mall for 2 years at Grain D' Ore. It was the last bakery/deli/store standing before they tore it down. They had amazing sandwiches and fresh breads with a full cafe on the second floor. I loved working for them. Their bread was great and the deli was awesome for sandwiches, salads and soups. They used to put fresh sprouts on almost every sandwich which was authentic and you can watch them making your sandwiches. It was a nice little Deli and honestly, we were the busiest on the second floor. I miss the bridge that was connected to the parking garage. They also had an amazingly popular Sushi Bar near the exit/entrance too!

  • @reach415
    @reach415 Před 5 měsíci

    2024 still waiting for that renovation....

  • @kenmoseanko8728
    @kenmoseanko8728 Před 6 měsíci

    I grew up on Santa Rosa in the 60s..Wonderful memories of Coddingtown. At Christmas time, I'd sell bunches of Misseltoe with red ribbon in front of Penneys and the Emporium that I acquired in the hills behind Howarth Park. I was quite the young entrepreneur! Lol

  • @chenrylames5970
    @chenrylames5970 Před 6 měsíci

    ❤❤❤❤🙏💞💞💞🇺🇲🇺🇲 come in shop in Santa Rosa California in colonial it got JCPenney's in their Target in Macy's in their whole bunch of other sorts and restaurants come and shop at cottontown and also wonderful eat and bring your friends and bring lots of gifts home to your friends and also weddings and also birthdays in also graduations don't forget Easter's coming up also time to Coddingtown have your picture taken with the Easter Bunny bring your children and your family and you're also your pets have fun in cottontown Mall in Santa Rosa California bring your smiles in your love always on the third floor of Macy's they always have sales all the time it's called backstage add JCPenney's on the second floor in the corner they always have good unbelievable sales at JCPenney's also inside the mall they have wonderful brand new stores in there you won't believe it it's the remodel the whole Mall in Coddingtown there's so much love in Cunningham and you should have got to check out time Jump when you're done shopping at Huntington run over by the skating rink ice skating rink and go skating with your friends and family and have a joyful time at the diner near and they have a wonderful gift shop at Snoopy ice arena in Santa Rosa California bring your friends and your family and ice skating ring enjoy yourself in in in in Santa Rosa California we always like to shop local and we always like to bring our friends enjoy them too come enjoy in Tiny Town for kids enjoy for buy yourself a gift do not forget yourself also they got wonderful wonderful incredible pizza for weddings and also they got you guys have your picture taken at Macy's I mean JCPenney's and also they got all kinds of wonderful Danger people on cowboy men also for men and women and also teenagers and they got clothing their inside them all it's incredible reasonable it's cheaper in Walmart by the quality of the clothes is really incredible the price is remarkable it's good price we'd like to see you in cottontown I like to see you this weekend and let's have some fun in cottontown inside the mall you have a choice and fun and see they're fixing it that all everything up for Easter for all the young children and also the adults and also their pets everybody is so friendly and lovable and compassion in Coney Island Town Mall there's so much to love their you don't know what to do with yourself see you in contact enjoy yourself❤❤❤❤❤❤😊

  • @Awiass41888
    @Awiass41888 Před 6 měsíci

    This was the spot in the early and mid 90s

  • @RN_BSN_PHN
    @RN_BSN_PHN Před 6 měsíci

    *The Grand structure has gone from exciting shopping center to Masoleum of memories. Financed by all you wonderful GM employees. Who were laid-off without your golden pensions. After GM filed for bankruptcy due to planned mismanagement of your funds. While they purchased this shopping center with your money. So you could spend money on the site. Where your money was taken for construction. As, GM made money from your purchases. At the site built by your money. Isn't that nice?* 🤣

  • @masterviper420
    @masterviper420 Před 7 měsíci

    its now close in 2024

  • @chriselving
    @chriselving Před 7 měsíci

    I found this subject very interesting, but the audio was difficult to listen to. Please Bing "p-pops".

  • @Mart9
    @Mart9 Před 8 měsíci

    That coffee place was a Cinnabon

  • @Mart9
    @Mart9 Před 8 měsíci

    The Kay bee toy store, the movie theaters, the McDonald’s, suncoast, arcade, Cinnabon, EB games, Disney store, radio shack, Walden books, Mrs fields and so much more. Many memories here

  • @steph2tdf
    @steph2tdf Před 8 měsíci

    Why the horrible music??????

  • @nsrracing1
    @nsrracing1 Před 8 měsíci

    Used to love thos place as a child before it got ghetto. 85-2005 after that turned into a real toilet and brought the worst kind of people. Some of my favorite stores were the dollar movies, KB toys, camelot music. Walmart really was the begining of the end for that place.

  • @mskharrazi3075
    @mskharrazi3075 Před 8 měsíci

    This mall had poor management and this is why it died which is pitiful. They could’ve gotten a few restaurants and bars or salons. The office space is stupid as working from home is the new office

    • @zzygyy
      @zzygyy Před 7 měsíci

      It's going to be a ucla research center now.

  • @fabulousfinds1045
    @fabulousfinds1045 Před 9 měsíci

    I remember stopping by at this mall with friends on our way to visit a friend in Vallejo. It was mid eighties and our group consisted of 3 Hispanics and 3 whites....GOOD LORD we were SO out of place and unwelcomed by the black youth loitering/ hanging out there! This was always a dangerous place to be especially if your weren't black!!! These idiots began threatening us and chased us out of the mall!!! We were from the avenues in San Francisco and completely oblivious to these scary areas....taught us a lesson - Beware!!!

  • @cdoggydogg
    @cdoggydogg Před 9 měsíci

    I miss Sam Goody's

  • @cdoggydogg
    @cdoggydogg Před 9 měsíci

    The Antioch Mall used to be crackin back in the 90s and like 2000/2001

  • @Glenonica1
    @Glenonica1 Před 9 měsíci

    It was never a drive in movie location, that was down the road a piece on San Pablo. This was a thriving mall and the community just could not support it. There are numerous malls in the country that a still going strong. They need to level it and build a neighborhood.

  • @timliao3701
    @timliao3701 Před 9 měsíci

    That's amazing this mall that is in the heart of the World's technology is dead like the malls of the Rust Belt.

  • @dickwong903
    @dickwong903 Před 9 měsíci

    This my favorite shopping mall to hangout back in the 1980’s & 90’s They Paramont Imports, had really cool gadgets, water bong smoking glass pipes, foreign gifts of all types sexy posters to Star Trek & Star Wars, I bought my 1978 Darth Vader costume helmet from their, Legends comic shop was there too they had everything, then across from there was Games Workshop store that sold board games, Books & miniatures, also there was another board gaming store that sold D&D books, modules & metal gaming miniatures, and traditional old time favorites. Now in 2022- 23, they demolished & flattened it. I need to take a look what they put it in place. I bought my first original Xbox game system from GameStop or KayBee toy store. My Cannondale mtn bike got stolen there had it locked up Focking thieves.

  • @brigvadirgeneral
    @brigvadirgeneral Před 9 měsíci

    Meadowood mall is one of my favorites so is the scheels mall at Legends

  • @gaerekxenos
    @gaerekxenos Před 9 měsíci

    There was never an arcade by the AMC -- the most they had were a few machines floating around the area, being crane machines or similar, and at one point a tornado simulator. The actual arcade was somewhere where Bowlmore Lanes ended up, which got torn down to make space for the Bowling Alley that was never going to be successful in the first place (there were several bowling alleys in the area, and they were all failing -- hard to believe one that is situated in a mall was going to be any better). The actual arcade and AMC never existed in the mall together at the same time. What was pointed to as the Arcade might have been the Armorgeddon...? It was either there or the next stall over, and it sold armor (plate mail, chain mail, blades, etc.) Sears was never replaced by the Bay Club -- they ended up cutting a chunk of the original Sears store to add the Bay Club in, but Sears was actually still running for awhile after the Bay Club was added in. I'm not sure what the blocked out glass area for the Sears was... but I'm pretty sure at some point it was where all of the mechanic tools were sold, or similar items to that for machinery or outdoors gardening. They may have shifted inventory around several times for all I know It's funny hearing the Vallco signage being called "vintage"... most of them were... newer signage... pfft. They did use the old logo and maybe touched it up a bit, but it's *nothing* in comparison to the old one that was in neon with something that was representative of the shape of fountains behind it (several arches in a nice pattern). All of the new signs had white lettering and a red backdrop -- reminiscent of the time they attempted to rebrand Vallco into Cupertino Square - hence the square shape behind the logo. Everyone hated it, so they changed it back to Vallco. They never fixed up the old signage, only replaced them with cheaper/low-cost/low-effort signage Underneath Benihana was an Ice Skating Rink. That is what sat beside the Bowlmore lanes on the lower floor. And you could only access the Ice Rink from the floor above, so you had to walk down some stairs located in the mall to get there Thanks for the maps near the end -- I actually completely forgot that Bowlmore Lanes was STRIKE at some point. Look at how quickly those bowling alleys failed... LOL. Also showed were some features I was forgetting the location of were There were any number of controversial things going on with the latter stages of Vallco. People wanted the mall to stay, but developers wanted something else instead, such as residential or offices. And all of that was being pushed back on because it was supposedly going to decrease the value of homes in the area. So... yeah, the developers seem to have wanted the mall to fail just to justify tearing it all down to build whatever the hell they wanted since they were getting pushback from residents. It's all sorts of disappointing. Which gets worse since you have Apple over there on the other side of the freeway documenting how Vallco was founded (along with the temporary rebrand, I think) on a placard along the street - then you read how it's "across the freeway" and Vallco just... isn't there anymore. LOL. But yeah... destined to fail...? I think that one is maybe a bit debatable. There were definitely circumstances that lead to its decline, such as Valley Fair developing pretty spectacularly and another shopping center opening up on the other side in Palo Alto; however, the management was honestly quite terrible near the end, and they really didn't know what they were doing. Not to mention developers wanted to get rid of the mall in the first place, so they might have been undermining the operations a little as well by choosing less than spectacular/nonsensical options that would still look like they were trying to garner good will. There were some ridiculous things going on with insane rent hikes during a recession, and the entire lower floor just being removed for... not much reason explained. Everything on the lower floor between Sears and Macy's just not existing was basically gutting 1/4th ~ 1/3rd of the entire mall for almost no reason. It's a HUGE chunk of retail space that suddenly went poof, with no plans on what they were going to do with it and no intention of fixing anything if there was anything wrong. And it was left that way for... I'd say a bit more than a decade. What. In. The. World. Were. They. Doing?!?!?!! - except we know now that they were intentionally getting the mall to fail to demolish it, so that's basically answered

  • @MaryLopez-pd5bd
    @MaryLopez-pd5bd Před 9 měsíci

    Didn't there use to be an ice skatting place there? I remember in my early teens I use to take the bus there. Im talking back around 1984. Memories 😌

  • @johnstuartsmith
    @johnstuartsmith Před 10 měsíci

    In 1970 I worked at Weinstock's selling bell bottoms and other men's clothing. Back then, a pair of Levi 501s sold for $4.98. We had a record player cranking out the "Woodstock" album on repeat. I was tasked with turning it down before it got to the part where Country Joe and the Fish started loudly spelling out rude words. Fun times...

  • @jasperc6101
    @jasperc6101 Před 10 měsíci

    Some fuckers filled it with fire hydrant stuff

  • @adamechevarria3374
    @adamechevarria3374 Před 10 měsíci

    RIP Hilltop, had lot good memories i will never forget. Born n raised Rich Town 😢

  • @Im_just_ed_
    @Im_just_ed_ Před 10 měsíci

    Damn this crazy I’m just finding out it’s closed

  • @sew_gal7340
    @sew_gal7340 Před rokem

    The music is awful and very distracting, it is also as loud as the narration making it difficult to hear over the annoying screeching noises.

  • @candaceleber9059
    @candaceleber9059 Před rokem

    This is so sad and frustrating to see! I grew up with the 1970s/80s version of this mall - open area with white lattice and green ivy decor, Weinstocks and JCP anchors, Woolworths in the middle. (Anyone remember the Labor Day telethon?) It was nice and open and airy with nice clothing stores. My first job was at that Orange Julius, then JK Gill Stationers. I thought it was a much nicer mall than CC Center, where half of that mall was dead space. The redesign made it claustrophobic and dated-looking... terrible redesign!

  • @rc653
    @rc653 Před rokem

    Wonder how it's doing after the pandemic.

  • @rell9601
    @rell9601 Před rokem

    7:13

  • @Trainlover1995
    @Trainlover1995 Před rokem

    Vallco was one of my favorite destinations as a kid. I knew that place like the back of my hand. There was a store selling kid's shoes that also sold Thomas Wooden Railway toys, the Toy Train Operating Society (a model train club that is still searching for a new home), a store selling old toys and sports cards, Pretzel Time (where I got many an ICEE), the AMC Theater (where I saw many movies such as Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Pacific Rim, Godzilla, and Sausage Party; the last movie I ever saw there was the Fathom Events presentation of the George Takei musical Allegience), Famous Footwear, Fresh Choice, Bowlmor Lanes (which is still there; I remember as a little kid, it was Tilt Family Entertainment Center), TGI Fridays, the three anchor stores (JC Penney, Macy's, and Sears), the old Hallmark Store that eventually became Inside Line Racing (an RC car racing club that did car rentals and birthday parties; they moved to Westgate Mall after their lease at Vallco was terminated, then moved to somewhere on Monterey Highway, and are now just gone), Sal's Diner (which I ate in once, and remember that the space sat vacant for years), Legends Games & Comics (which is now a local chain operating at Valley Fair, Oakridge, Eastridge, and the Great Mall; Vallco is still referenced in their email address), and Village Rugs (we knew the guy who ran it). The last time I was ever in the mall was to see the aforementioned Fathom Events presentation, the theater being the only public area left open inside the mall proper. It was as beautiful in death as it was in life. The only tenants left at what's left of the mall these days are Bowlmor Lanes, Benihana, and the ice rink; the mall west of Wolfe Road is now completely gone, taking with it innumerable childhood memories. The east side is still standing because that's where the ice rink and bowling alley are located (Benihana is in an external building), but the mall area (including JC Penney and the food court that was added in later years) are sealed off. Vallco's death can mainly be attributed to the fact the mid-level stores didn't reflect the affluence of the surrounding populace. In the mall's later years, people gravitated towards Valley Fair down the road (which is positively thriving these days, having had numerous expansions including a movie theater, parking garage, and Bloomingdale's), as well as Westgate Center near Saratoga.

  • @user-ko3il2kd8b
    @user-ko3il2kd8b Před rokem

    Man this is sad

    • @kayandaeddings4803
      @kayandaeddings4803 Před rokem

      Tell me about it. It seems like the only mall that’s going to survive is the Solano mall in Fairfield. It seems like everyone Has to come from Richmond to Fairfield to do their Christmas shopping and what not. There goes my childhood. Well, at least I had a chance from a little girl to an adult during the 80s and most of the new millennium to go to that mall.