The decline of the suburban shopping mall. (Pittsburgh, Scranton: sale, hotels)

[FreightTrainRunning]

The issue with me and malls is just time. If I need something, I can get it online in a few minutes of effort and delivered to my office in a day or two. If I was going to try to get that same thing at a mall, I'd have to figure out what evening or weekend I didn't have anything else scheduled, figure out where the mall was, drive the half hour out to the 'burbs and then wander around trying to figure out what store had what I wanted. The kicker is that 1/2 the time I'd do that, the store wouldn't actually have what I wanted in the first place and I'd end up ordering it online anyway. Time is just too valuable to waste in a mall.

[ML North]

Originally Posted by jay5835

When I eat Italian, I go to Piccolo Forno in Lawrenceville or Lidia's at 15th and Smallman.

I have yet to find an Italian restaurant in Bloomfield I like. I've been here 13 years, and it hasn't happened yet. I never tried Stagioni. The main ones I avoid in Bloomfield are Del's and DeLuca's. Donatelli's is okay at lunch if you like $7.95/all you can eat. The food isn't great, but for $7.95 it doesn't suck. Alexander's is okay, but Lidia's and Piccolo Forno are so much better, I've never found a reason to eat on Liberty Avenue again.

I like the way ferrarisnowday puts "Italian" in quotation marks when he describes Alexander's, and then damns all of the Bloomfield restaurants with the faint praise of "can hold their own against Olive Garden." One of the most truly perceptive sentences ever written here on the Liberty Avenue food scene.

These restaurants might not suck if they charged half of what they charge, but it costs no more to eat at Piccolo Forno or Lidia's. D'Amico's in particular is not cheap. Nor is Donatelli's regular menu.

If you must, must, must eat on Liberty Avenue, have a burger at Tessaro's.

But the Pasta Trio at Lidia's has been stellar lately. Spectacularly good. $15 at lunch. $18 at dinner. All you can eat of three different pastas.

I'll eat at Alexander's about once each year, but Groceria Italiana is my favorite in Bloomfield. It's mostly for takeout, but in the cold months there's one table inside, and during spring and summer there are three or four outside. They hand make a bunch of different pastas and have a decent selection of hot foods each day. Last Wednesday I had macaroni with ground beef and a San Pelligrino for like $5. It's classic, well executed Italian-American.

For more traditional Italian, I go to La Tavola Italiana on Mount Washington. Piccolo Forno was a bit of a miss for me, but I've only been there once. I've been meaning to get back to Lidia's for a while, and Mateo's has been on my radar for at least a year.

[jay5835]

I didn't like shopping in malls...ever. They were a large part of what I wanted to get away from in NJ (I was one of the two kids in my neighborhood who wanted to move to NY and have a doorman, as opposed to the driver's license and car most of our peers craved). I've always been naturally inclined to go "downtown," whereever that might have been, in NY, DC, Portland, Seattle, and even my little town in NJ.

Sadly, Pgh. hasn't had a downtown worth going to for the past few decades, so it was good for me that moving back coincided with the arrival of the internet as a shopping medium.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by ML North

Groceria Italiana is my favorite in Bloomfield. It's mostly for takeout, but in the cold months there's one table inside, and during spring and summer there are three or four outside. They hand make a bunch of different pastas and have a decent selection of hot foods each day. Last Wednesday I had macaroni with ground beef and a San Pelligrino for like $5. It's classic, well executed Italian-American.

Hmmm...I'm having lunch today with a friend. I wonder if we could get there in time to eat at Groceria Italiana's single table.

[ML North]

Originally Posted by jay5835

Hmmm...I'm having lunch today with a friend. I wonder if we could get there in time to eat at Groceria Italiana's single table.

It's a small, rickety table beside a shelf of jarred anchovies. I've generally had good luck with the deli and the pasta dishes. Hopefully you do, too.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by ML North

It's a small, rickety table beside a shelf of jarred anchovies. I've generally had good luck with the deli and the pasta dishes. Hopefully you do, too.

Thanks for telling me about it.

Too soon for points. Sorry.

[XRiteMA98]

Originally Posted by UKyank

I'm curious about this too - my grandmother who is italian visited once - saw the 'little italy' sign and got all excited and wanted to have some good old italian food there - sadly i had to tell her I didnt know of any there

UK Yank, a good but expensive Italian store is the "Uncommon Market" in Mt Lebanon. Their merchendise comes stright from Italy. Their sausages, lasagne, soups, salads and whatever else they make on the premises. I saw italians in their store marveling at the prices. They were talking Italian among themselves and I understood.

As for the death of the mall, it's about time. I hate huge giant boxes where you lose so much time looking for stuff. I prefer boutiques or smaller stores where you can even develop a relationship with the vendors etc. Needelss to say my favorite mall is Galleria .

I think that those malls declined either because of location, competition or demographics. SHV won;t die soon because there's plenty of people shoping there. Even if my step daughter and her friends hang out at Robinson's mall cuz they have more teenage stores like Forever 21 and stuff like that, once in a blue moon she goes to SHV for stuff. I on the other hand, when I am not at Galleria - for clothes & shoes - I go to SHV for macy's, sears, Sephora & banana republic.

[SlurmsMcKenzie]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

I grew up shopping at the Boscov's store in Downtown Wilkes-Barre, PA.

I grew up going to the 5 story Boscov's in downtown Binghamton with my mom. i always thought that place was a palace, i had never seen such an amazing store and downtown was booming (early 80s). Last time I was there it appeared to still be limping along amidst the wasteland of downtown. I can't imagine there will be any downtown retail left if/when that store closes.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by trlstreet

I grew up going to the 5 story Boscov's in downtown Binghamton with my mom. i always thought that place was a palace, i had never seen such an amazing store and downtown was booming (early 80s). Last time I was there it appeared to still be limping along amidst the wasteland of downtown. I can't imagine there will be any downtown retail left if/when that store closes.

^ That's the same story for Downtown Wilkes-Barre and Downtown Scranton as well. If I remember correctly both cities provided a grant (loan?) to Al Boscov in order to help him remain fiscally solvent enough to keep both stores open a few years ago when the company nearly went under.

I actually did a http://www.city-data.com/forum/new-y...hoto-tour.html for this forum back when I lived in the 'burbs of Scranton. I think there's a picture of Boscov's in it.

[dannythekid]

My thought on this topic is that no one likes to spend hours upon hours in a shopping metropolis indoors, which is what a shopping mall concept was. I mean, Monroeville Mall was built with an ice skating rink inside it, and that was a common trend!

Couple this with the fact that people enjoy the idea of outdoor and urban shopping again, and you see why places like the Waterfront have enjoy success. Look at the stores that are open down there and you will notice many of them were in Century III mall not long ago.

As mentioned before as well, how many people now do their shopping online? They can get everything done and never leave the house. This makes a lot of sense when you consider how much gas costs are now.

It's mainly a changing in trends with the way people shop, and malls are no longer the place to go. Depending on your age, you can probably recall the shopping mall being a destination for you because it had everything inside it. Now you may want to venture to other outdoor shopping areas to have some sort of seperation if you will.