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If you had any amount of independence in the 1980s, you probably spent a ton of time at the mall. In those glorious days, the mall was your town’s heartbeat. Everybody was there, all the time.
But even though tons of mall shops were thriving in the '80s, many of them are lost to time. Want to relive those days? Check out these mall shops of the ‘80s that no longer exist.
Before Apple showed up and decimated the concept of a record store, Sam Goody was enormous. If you were interested in CDs, DVDs, or tapes, you knew that Goody Got It (as the commercials insisted). It was also helpful that the branding was so neon that you could see it from everywhere. When Best Buy bought it in 2000, it was the beginning of the end for the iconic store. One last Sam Goody remains at the Rogue Valley Mall in Medford, Oregon, but the location is set to close this year.
B. Daltons were in damn near every mall in the ‘80s, and was effectively the place you wanted to go for the best selection possible. In ‘87, Barnes & Noble acquired them and phased them out.
There was a time when no matter what part for an electronic you needed, you hit the Shack. Beyond a few franchised locations, the chain that once had 8,000 locations is now completely dead.
Orange Julius wasn’t always something exclusive to the Dairy Queen menu; in the 1980s, it was its own food court staple, and you’d have been hard-pressed to find a mall in America that didn’t have one.
County Seat was all about denim. Jeans and jackets were big here, but by 1996 County Seat was out of steam. It didn’t live to see Y2K.
Chess King, unlike the board the name is based on, was all about flashy colors and big styles. First opened in 1968 in Dedham, Massachusetts, the clothing store was aimed at young men in need of leather ties and Members Only jackets. By 1996, Chess King was gone.
Babbage’s was born in 1984 and mostly sold computer games. At the end of the decade, it merged with Software Etc., another big ‘80s software chain, to become GameStop, A.K.A., the biggest video game retailer we’ve got.
Afterthoughts was a jewelry and accessory store aimed at teen girls, and was supremely popular in the mid ‘80s. In the late ‘90s, Claire’s bought and absorbed them, promptly arming teen employees with ear-piercing equipment and putting them to work.
Kinney Shoes had a good 100-year run from the 1890s to the 1990s. The amount of things that changed in that time is astounding, so good for them for making it as long as they did.
If you were stuck with your parents at the mall, there was no greater escape than a Kay-Bee. They had it all: Flying stuff, buzzing stuff, whirring stuff, and all the rest of the hits. I miss you, KB.
The clothing brand known as Gadzooks was known for one thing, really. They sold tees and other casual clothes, but each store had a Volkswagen Bug display that used a real car; apparently, these things were being sawed in half to stick into each mall shop as a display.
We’ve got another trendy teen chain here. Seems to be a pattern that all of these places closed down. Maybe a clothing store aimed only at people who don’t have money to buy clothes isn’t a great idea?
There were no Auntie Anne’s or Wetzel’s mall shops throughout most of the ‘80s; just Hot Sam’s. If you needed a pretzel, Sam was your man. Hot Sam’s became Pretzel Time, which then became Pretzelmaker.
