TGC

Title: YDKF Episode 194: Crossroads Mall
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2020 05:00:57 +0000
Link: http://podcast.robohara.com/ydkf-episode-194-crossroads-mall/

Description: As a kid, the period of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas was spent making Christmas wish lists, and many of the entries on those lists […]

Here's a collection of shopping mall advertisements from the 70s and 80s. It's weird watching these.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnOvVBUhQC4

I watched some of the Crossroads mall Youtube videos after listening to the episode and I will agree it was getting sketchy there. Too bad, it looks like it was a fun place to hang out.

There was Irondequoit mall in upstate that suffered the same fate. They built it all nice nice in 1990 and it closed in 2009 for much the same reasons, nobody with money felt comfortable going there.

The most interesting this about this episode for me was talking to my parents about Crossroads Mall.

My dad said that when he moved to Oklahoma in 1967, he had to go get car insurance. He called some place and they said they were located at Shephard Mall. My dad said he did not know what the word "mall" meant and they had to explain it to him. Shephard Mall predates Crossroads Mall in Oklahoma City, but the main shopping area was open and not covered. That was one of the novelties and selling points of Crossroads Mall when it opened. My dad said he had never seen a building that large before with air conditioning.

My mom really stressed the point that prior to the arrival of the mall, if you wanted to purchase multiple items you would drive downtown and visit multiple stores. She said back then there were no parking garages, so everything was curbside (meter) parking and it was a real hassle to move your car from store to store, which meant a lot of walking outdoors from store to store -- which was okay as long as the weather was nice. The other thing she said, something I did not realize, was that when she and my grandma would shop all day, they spent a lot of time in the anchor stores. I don't think as a kid I ever went in them. When we went to the mall, I was not lining up to go to JC Penny's or Monkey Wards. I was heading to the arcade, followed by the hobby shop, then the computer/game stores, and finally Eastern Treasures.

That massive common area that has to be air conditioned is one of the problems with malls as they get "poorer" (with the kinds and quantity of stores they have). That costs as ton of money and has to be done whether you have 70 or 100 percent occupancy; even when you get down to five different dollar stores.

After your podcast I started reading about the decline of malls. I was actually surprised at how many malls are still perfectly viable, there are still a lot of malls with 100% occupancy.

Even malls that manage to do okay with low-scale stores end up having real trouble when the county tells them their roof has to be replaced, and nobody is willing to dump a million or five on a new roof for a dead mall.

When I took my son in for his food handler permit tests years ago, it was at a mall that was starting to have non-retail stuff fill the empty stores. This seems to be more common now, with even doctors offices setting up in dying malls. You mentioned that someone thought about using Crossroads as a school (or part of it), this is actually being done in other old malls.

I find the whole thing fascinating. The YouTube videos of completely empty and run-down malls are just eerie, like something out of a post-apocalypse movie.

Something I didn't cover on the podcast (I always forget something) is that there are other thriving malls here in the OKC area. Penn Square Mall and Quail Springs Mall are still doing great. Both are located near "more affluent" sides of town. Penn has both an Apple store and (until it recently closed) a Microsoft store, which keeps people coming in and out. They also have a LEGO store, a great theater, and nice anchor stores. Quail Springs is nicer, and the newish turnpike makes getting to it a breeze.

None of the ones on the south side of town have made it. Crossroads was the oldest and the biggest. Shephard Mall closed around the time they build lookout towers in the parking lot to help prevent crime (rumor was they were sniper towers, which wasn't true).

I found the episode of Gangland that discusses the South Side Locos, the prominent gang on the south side of Oklahoma City. The Crossroads Mall shooting is discussed in depth and (sadly) shown.

https://vimeo.com/230172470

Having the right unique stores can make a huge difference. We've made the drive to go to the Lego Store. The last time I went to the mall here it was mainly because I wanted to browse the Microsoft store.

And as you say, the feeling of safety is a major issue. I'm sure lots of malls do this; the big one here has faux cop cars with flashing lights always driving around the parking lots. Even the big Warren Theater does that. Personally, I don't know who they think they are fooling with their rent-a-cop car lights always flashing, and if anything it would seem to give the impression that something bad has happened, but I suppose it must help in some way.