Wyoming Valley Mall - Wilkes-Barre, PA | A Bland and Slowly Dying Mall
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
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Today we visited the Wyoming Valley Mall in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
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Film Date 2/17/23
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This is sad. At one time, you could hardly find a parking space for the crowds and space was occupied. The food court was huge with a nice variety to choose from. I blame online shopping for the demise of many malls. In a few years, this mall will be totally closed.
Jumpscared, I still go to this mall rn and absolutely did not expect a video about it lol. I still remember when the foodcourt was big and the mall felt more alive than it does present day. Great video!
There’s supposed to be a Korean buffet restaurant opening September 1. I highly suggest it.
There was a time when the Wyoming Valley Mall was THE mall of the area. Viewmont was nice but WVM was nicer, bigger, more stores, etc.., but while the Dickson City mall changed and evolved and is the mall to go to, the other did not. Both Bon-Ton and Sears left and nothing was done to stop the bleeding. Just a few years ago it was still a mall where you had good stores and crowds of people. Heck, there was even a sushi bar over by the proactive kiosk. If people want to shop, they go across the street where Target, Best Buy, etc.., are located.
yep i remember
The stores did not leave, they closed.
As a resident of the Wyoming Valley I can compliment our mall with this, even though it is dying there are still some mildly interesting things and on occasion there are decent crowds.
This hurts my heart. Every time I drive by there I get a sick feeling, remembering the weekends walking around the mall for hours, grabbing a slice of pizza or something to eat, and then going to the movies. It’s all gone, nothing is the same and it really stinks. You would see so many people that you would know, you would spend hours walking through all the stores.
Right in the beginning of the video that chinese buffet place used to be a pretty cool movie theater and i remember right around the corner inside there was a gallery of sound and a walden books and I could easily spend a few hours there as a teen. There was a pretty kick ass arcade room there too with mortal kombat and street fighter... ahh memories..
Wow, most of the good tenants left. It's sad to see what they did to the food court, too. They used to have some of the best food. They also removed the comfy chairs they used to have by JCPenney, etc. I have not been in this mall for a few years, and I guess I am not missing anything. Such a sad thing to see. This mall used to be packed and had some great stores.
The stores did not leave, they closed. All of the Sears and Bon Ton stores everywhere closed.
This mall was Bangin' in the 90's spent most of my teen years there.
This was my childhood mall. RIP.
The Orange Julius was originally located just outside of the Sears store mall entrance, First Eastern Bank had a branch down near the food court. Barrels Whiskey & Rhyme was by JC Penny next to the service corridor (had some KRZ nights there), just up from there was a leather store, all of us KRZ radio guys got "Thriller" leather jackets! (I still have mine, but cant fit into it anymore)
The movie theater was where the Chinese Buffet is now located. Hickory Farms & Bavarian Pretzel were in the hall between the theater & the main concourse.
What made the mall was the Hurricane Agnes flood in June 1972. Everyone had to replace everything lost in the flood, and the downtown stores were flooded, but the mall was high and dry!
I learned how to drive in the empty parking lot outside the BonTons. Big ups willes baree Pa.
I remember Pomeroy's and when the food court first opened... it was very exciting... there were two bookstores in the 80s...B. Dalton and Walden Books. There was two record stores too!
And the Rainbow Shoppe! Miss that place, they had great stickers, gummy bracelets, and a bunch of Hello Kitty stuff.
Foxmoor, famous maid, litman jewelers, dinos, brooks, merry go round, barrels whiskey and rhyme, the limited, express, hess’s, Bon ton, cvs, I could go on, and on with the names of the stores that used to be there, it’s just so sad
The Rainbow Shoppe!
Still looks like a pretty nice mall. Hope it stays that way! Great explore! 😊😊
Let us never forget the " Key Walker 🔑 " who paced the WVM Mall all day long long in his cut-off jean shorts and knee-high socks, swinging that key ring back and forth. There had to be over 50 plus keys on that ring 🤣🤣 he literally just walked from one end to the other, all day swinging and jingling those keys 😳
this was my mallrats mall as a kid 🥺☺️
I remember being in this mall when I was a kid. There were news cameras in the record store. We found out Elvis had died.
I used to work here at the arcade back in the 90’s. It was near the food quart/last known location of the Orange Julius there. It used to be THE place to go in this area. It’s a shame what they did to that food quart. What’s the reason for them doing that?
I wonder how many shopping centers around the country are suffering the same fate because of the advent of Amazon?
I remember hanging out here often in the 80's. Good times and met a lot of cool people. Seems things are going in the wrong direction these days
Yes defund the police is working out so well for the hard working American, couple it with inflation and people are miserable.
Do you remember the " Key Guy" 🤣
Few remember but the WVM also had a full family restaurant inside the mall called Franklin's Family Restaurant in the late 70s/early 80s
It was Elby's Big Boy. It was alongside Mccory`s department store, which my mother worked at for years. Franklin`s was on Kidder St. on the way to the mall.
Nope.
And water fountains by the anchor stores
Great video Jeremy!
The theater company that I was a part of as a kid was kicked out for some shitty buffet. I can never forgive the owners for that.
I agree. We might have overlapped our time at the theater company!
I'm an 80s baby. To the left of where you enter was the movie theaters. Where the new lights are was all neon lights
man we use to pack this mall on the weekends, kids shopping at hollister and ambercrombie and whatnot, food court filled, girls busting out of vics secret, spencers rollin in the dough, the arcade getting lines for dance dance. boy i miss it.
Sad to see that all that seating area in the food court is gone. That used to fairly busy.
Internet sales killed the malls At Christmas time this was THE place to shop. And it was packed everyday from Black Friday on when the Christmas season really began. It’s like a ghost town now 😢
Yeah but you are not spending gas, you can comparative shop and you are not going to be a crime victim. Voting "blue," has consequences.
I go here occasionally whenever I wanna spend my money on physical things. They actually have quite a selection to choose from. They're about a 15-20 min drive from my home.
When i was growing up in the late 90's early 2000's malls where being built everywhere. I asked my dad what will happen when these places close.
I remember sitting in the food court years ago, enjoying my coffee, when a bus from a juvenile detention type facility drove up to the doors letting off it's passengers for, all I could guess, was a day trip - as soon as these fine young people cleared the doors, they began the harassment of the people at the tables, messing with their food and trying to pick fights - if there had been any supervision on the bus, they left with the bus - this was the last time I ever visited the mall even though I had frequented it since it was built
Great video
Thanks!
Maybe they should real coat the parking lot and repaint the lines. Especially on the road inside the parking lot, you can even see the lines at all in most areas, its dangerous not knowing there and 2 way traffic.
A movie theater would be a plus. so would expanding the food court.
Lol I remember when there used to be a Disney store here
Thanks Jeremy!
First approve the plans for the mall and allow construction to begin. Next, question the water and sewage issues. Welcome to Wilkes-Barre Township!
:( man.... I miss it back in 2005
Thank you for creating this video
It's my pleasure
This is a bustling metropolis compared to the frackville mall
I used to be a mall rat here every Friday and Saturday id hang out here with my friends and we get kicked out every friday and Saturday 😆 this was 10 years ago thw mall was so busy back then our friend group was massive but it was always so crowded on Friday and Saturday and every shop was open and when one would close it would be quickly remodeled and another shop reopened
I stil come here a lot, where sears used to be is a theater company I do shows with pretty often, the auntie annes knows my order by now XDDD
Damn! 105 acres of land for $765,000.
Today, you can't even buy a 3-bedroom house in Hawai'i for that much money. 1968 was a good year. 💁🏻♂️🏢💰
$765000 in 1968 is equivalent to $6.5 million today plus minimum wage in '68 was $1.60 an hour.
@@johnp.5134 at no point EVER was minimum wage enough to buy studio apartment, so not sure that's relevant. 🤷🏻♂️
@@TuNnL I honestly don't know what you're talking about. You're implying $765k was cheap back in '68 when it wasn't.
@@johnp.5134 It WAS cheap. $6.5 million for 105 acres of prime land today would DEFINITELY be a fire sale. Unless it's in the middle of the desert, that's slightly more than half of the market value.
Tell me you don't know real estate without telling me you don't know real estate. 🤦🏻♂️
@@TuNnL You don't know real estate you use emojis. Give mom her tablet back Timmy.
I've slowly watched this mall become more dull and it's so sad. Did not expect to see this video thank u
This is too bad. This store had so much potential! At one point, there were open stores around every corner. Now, there are barely any stores left, and most of them are dying. Except for spencers or hot topic.
Still looks better than the Bramalea City Centre in Brampton Ontario Canada. It used to have three anchors (Target, Sears and the Bay). And we all know what happened to Target and Sears in Canada. The Bay is the only anchor left in the whole mall.
Dino's has some great garlic knots
This was a landfill before the mall was built. My brother and I would go with my father to dump stuff there back then. That's why Mundy St always sinks here and there and the parking lot also. The garbage underneath was always sinking. That's why they tore down the Long John Silvers at the front of the parking lot. Land was constantly subsiding there. The mall right now has a lot of stores. It's doing much better than it was 5-10 years ago. Lastly, this mall is not in Wilkes Barre. It's in WIlkes Barre Township.
Well, it's in the greater Wilkes-Barre area, so I'm keeping it as that. All the other videos on the mall list it as Wilkes-Barre.
@@JeremysRetailExploration Agreed.I wasn't saying to do anything about that. I heard you state garbage was tranferred from the twp to there and just thought I'd correct that. That was the landfill in WB Twp. It's all good man. The mall was in really bad shape with tenants but has come back from how bad it was. I can remember when no stores were up there at all. There are so many now and they built the arena, they put in a new exit off Int. 81.
It's still better than Laurel Mall.
There’s not much worse than the Laurel Mall.
Every time someone new buys the mall, they keep raising the rent! Stores can't keep up with the cost. Every owner kills the mall more than before
i’m in this by the empanadas 💀💀
This is sad and it’s been going through so many ownerships and no one apparently wants it, or to invest doing anything to it. JLL was the most recent former owner of the property.
Yes, it is indeed sad what has happened here. I am curious though, where did you find this video? I am just wondering because this has been a popular video lately.
@@JeremysRetailExploration It just showed up and ofc I had to watch being from 570
on christmas shopping it was elbow to elbow now no crowd at all i think physical shopping is over much more on internet
AY I'V SEEN THAT MALL
WHOA WHOA WHOA IT IS THAT PLACE HOLY COW its a good place doe
Not sure if I’d call this mall dying considering a new restaurant is opening September 1st but hey that’s just me.
@mikemancini313 Well the Macy's is most likely going to close in March now. Also, one restaurant won't do anything sadly.
@@JeremysRetailExploration True, but that would be a loss to Macy’s in terms of being able to sell merchandise considering they have two anchor stores at Wyoming Valley Mall. Also, Macy’s is cashflow positive so while they probably will close some mall locations considering they have so many currently, it would kinda be a bad decision to close these locations. The nearby malls in Scranton and Dickson City are actually doing rather alright since the 2008 recession which hit the Scranton area hard. Compared to Eastern Hills Mall, Arnot Mall, or even the really dead Nittany Mall, Wyoming Valley Mall has seen more life than even my local mall has.
@@JeremysRetailExploration If Macy’s is cashflow positive, I would advise against closing 150 of their least profitable stores. More like renovating 75 and closing 75 would be better or selling off their stores that are headaches such as their Union Square store. I know that might seem like wishful thinking but there’s no need to make it worse if they’re cashflow positive.
man, i bought candy meth from there two days ago lol
0:25 thought she was giving him a
LMFAO
Any idea why the food court got walled off?
I don't know. My guess, though, is that the mall owners don't want to have more tenants because they never filled the spaces that are not walled off.
All malls are dying for many reasons. People of means shop online. Inflation has diluted disposable income, so middle income people choose not to purchase high end clothing items. Further they are magnets for bad elements that create crime. For these reasons malls are dying.
Is the price of the land purchase accurate? That feels like a LOT
Well yeah.
it's not online shopping that's killing these malls but it's America's decline. Shopping Malls are thriving allover the world and yet are dying in the US. This tell us how America is declining. Sad.
Exactly, and we elect an outsider TWICE, and the bookend administrations to the outsider is prosecuting him as any banana republic would to a political opponent.
Firearm sales are through the roof, maybe they could open a gun store there.
why were u at my mall lol whatt
@@Euclidswrld Whatever dude
Slowly progressing towards hell.
housing for the homeless.
Well you guys elected John Fetterman. I'm just saying, LOL!
I live hear in old Forge this is so sad.
The main problem for the majority of malls is right there in the title, they're generally quite bland with the same mix of a few dozen stores and targeting a middle economic class that really doesn't exist in this country anymore.
The other thing that really kills them is their typical design structure's lack of accessibility. If they were designed as strip malls connected by the interior concourse, but with the shops accessible from both the interior and exterior, as traditional anchor stores have been, they'd see more success. Why? Nobody wants to park and then walk three blocks after getting inside the mall to get to the store they wanted to visit, nor that and/or walking through essentially the footprint of a Target to get there.
Yes but Obama's Centralized Federal Bureaucracy he created will provide your every need and want. You do not need your own money anymore. Too much choice and freedom is dangerous for the middle class to have.