Throwback Thursday from Hartford Courant Shopping in Connecticut Past & Present

[ynkeesfn82]

Yesterday the Hartford Courant posted an online photo gallery of shopping in Connecticut past and present. Surprisingly there are no AMES pictures, which is strange considering they were based in Rocky Hill. Also I can not find a way to post individual photos into the individual topics. So I link to the whole gallery here: http://www.courant.com/courant-250/throwback-thursday/hc-shopping-connecticut-mall-pictures-photogallery.html

Interesting Photos: Caldor on Queen Street in Southington with the sloping front, Caldor on The Berlin Turnpike in Newington (one of the largest locations), the vacant WIZ and Bradlees Buildings on The Berlin Turnpike, and several different shots of Westfarms Mall over the years.

[TheFugitive]

Nice nostalgia.  Thanks for posting!

Malls sadly are no longer what they were when I worked in one in the 80's.  Or when my
kids were young in the 90's.

I just drove by the Parkway Center Mall the other day where I used to work.  Cracked and
broken, weed strewn, parking lot slowly subsiding into a mine shaft.  Only the Giant Eagle at
the far end is still open, and they've had to resort to painting "YES, WE'RE OPEN!" on the side
of the mall in huge red letters.

[TRU7536]

Those old school pictures of the malls were awesome! Seeing how Westfarms has change since it opened in 1974 is pretty amazing.

Also, seeing a picture of both Bradlees and nobody beats the wiz buildings on the pike was a blast from the past. I remember years ago, we were trying to find a picture of it and it was hard to find.

I am surprised they didn't show Ames at all as well. Also suprised they didn't show blue back square.

malls are a becoming a thing of the past with online shopping taking over. Its only going to get worse if and once Sears and or Jcpennys go out of business and once the older generations die and the newer ones are just focused on everything online. A lot of those typical cookie cutter malls are filled with department stores like Sears.

That's why malls need to change it up, malls were a suburban thing that exploded in the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. Look at buckland hills, ever since evergreen walk came about 10 years ago, buckland has crashed and fast. But they were smart, the comedy place and now dave and busters. They are thinking outside the box.

[Bdubs]

That's a nice compilation.
My office is in New London, and I drive by the Crystal Mall quite often. I was thinking exactly what we are all seeing in retail now, just how much the internet has changed things. I grew up in Salem, and my grandmother would drag us to the Crystal Mall all the time. I remember holiday time where you couldn't find a spot to park. It was wall to wall people from black Friday to Christmas Eve.
I was just thinking to myself just how long its been since that parking lot was full to capacity.
Not only has technology changed, but so has the economy. Peoples buying habits are different now. I grew up as a child of a family who made a comfortable living during the construction boom of the 80s. Many families are not so fortunate now to have a large budget to go out to eat and go shopping.

Sorry, I got off on a rant. Lol.