Combined and with continued growth, Musicland peaked at over 650 music store locations and, in 1997, they decided to rebrand them all to the Sam Goody name. Musicland actually purchased the Sam Goody chain in 1978 and the stores became almost identical other than the name on the outside. I spent countless hours flipping through the records or cassettes or eventually CDs at these stores. Musicland / Sam Goody – Musicland was founded in 1955 and this was my main mall music store in the Midwest as a kid growing up in the ’80s and ’90s. I’m sure there were other arcades in other cities and there are still some free-standing retro arcades to be found, but since these were in malls but were not technically stores I wanted to at least include them as an honorable mention. but the last location in Quincy, IL closed in May of 2022. For Aladdin’s Castle, at it’s peak, there were 450 locations throughout the U.S. It looks like there were over 100 locations of Gold Mine at one point across the U.S. The Arcade at my mall was called the “ Gold Mine” and I remember another mall had one called “ Aladdin’s Castle“. Hearing all of those games playing at the same time is one of my favorite nostalgic sounds of my childhood. VIDEO GAME ARCADES – There were many places that offered coin operated Arcade games to play from bowling alleys to skating rinks to restaurants, but there was also the “Arcade” which in some cases was located within a shopping mall. So, without further ado and in no particular order, remembering our favorite Mall Stores of the ’80s (and ’90s) that You’ll Never Shop at Again: I will break the stores into a few categories and give you a little history on most of them while also declaring my personal “Mount Rushmore of Defunct Mall Stores”. This is by no means a comprehensive list and encourage you to leave any I have missed down in the comments section. I personally grew up in the Midwest, so some of these might be more or less memorable/sentimental depending on what region of the country your malls were located. This is not focusing on all stores in general, but ones that were primarily located within shopping malls. The purpose of this feature is a quick walk down memory lane remembering those shopping mall favorites from the ’80s and ’90s that are now gone forever. Though you can still stop in a Spencer Gifts or a Foot Locker and get an Orange Julius or Hickory Farms beef log, there are countless other stores that we’ll likely never get to shop at again. For those of us who spent a good portion of our formative years in shopping malls, certain stores bring back positive memories. The shopping aspect has been more-or-less replaced by online retailers, but the social aspect cannot be so easily replaced. The Shopping Mall was once an essential destination especially for those of us who grew up from the late-70s through the ’90s.
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