Scranton-Steamtown Mall visit info

[DarkWolf]

Originally Posted by frank754

I guess you are right, Go Phillies, years ago in many towns it was a nice novelty to have an indoor mall, out of the elements and with a big variety of stores as well as a food court. I guess they do better in some areas than others, especially when they are right off a major highway rather than having to detour downtown. I remember way back in the early 60's that in NJ there was the Bergen Mall and Garden State Plaza (both in Paramus). Some of these were not actually indoors but rather a mini-city with open air walkways. But being right off the highway does help a lot. In Asheville NC, the main mall is about a mile outside of town, but in an area where a bunch of continually-growing strip malls are as well, so it's no detriment to them. In fact, Barnes and Noble recently relocated from a strip mall into the mall itself, and they've expanded the mall but around 40% in the last 10 years, with 2 levels of parking. Their other mall of the south side of town is also near an interstate, but has not fared so well, and has a higher vacancy rate. Some cities have a good deal of downtown tourist traffic on foot, and peruse the shops & restaurants on the main street downtown. A lot of once-blighted cities have found a way to gentrify and restore the downtown quite a bit, but I guess Scranton is a bit too blighted to offer much of this sort of attraction. I Asheville, due to the high tourist volume, the took and old downtown building one block square (the Grove Arcade), which was vacant for decades, and turned it into a small mall-type attraction. It has stores and restaurants all around the outside perimeter (as well as a natural food store and an area on one side where vendors can set up booths along the sidewalk and sell their wares), and on the inside it has an indoor mall with upscale shops all along the walkway, and it the center has art-deco 1920's era elevators for the people that have private business lofts upstairs.
While malls used to be a lot more in fashion, perhaps due to a slower time, and the teen Valley Girl culture and it being a social focus decades ago, people today don't have that kind of patience nor perhaps the extra few bucks for the higher prices, so they (myself included) usually just flock to the local Walmart for an easy-in easy-out all-in-one-place shopping experience, and just go to the mall for a rare treat around the holidays perhaps to see a bit of more classy holiday spirit than can be had at Walmart. I've been in W-B for 5 months, and only visited the mall once, while they were working on my brakes at Firestone (right outside). I guess in some malls they have senior citizen walks and such before they open, so that's some encouragement for them to go there. In downtown W-B, parking is not free or easy, and you have to wonder if your car will get vandalized, but I've been to the Farmer's Market a few times, but not to Boscovs yet. At least the city is cleaner and has a lot more attractiveness than Scranton. I would say, for Scranton, if they got their act together downtown and had more venue for people to be able to enjoy it, that would help, but as it stands now I would agree on the reasons for the decline.

The New Mall Trend is the mini outdoor Town Mall like they have off Route 100 in Exton near the Septa Station or in the Lehigh Valley off Route 309. Those types of Outdoor mall are really catching on and expanding......i can name at 6 in my state in planning or UC. If you were to reinvent a Indoor into an Outdoor Mall that might just save it. Or you could go the way of the Bergen Mall and close it down tear it down and rebuild it as a clean and New but old Mall. The Strip Mall are slowly dieing a painful death , my town lost its strip mall after 25 good years......The other thing that is good to have with a Mall of any kind is a Railway station or Major Bus / Light Rail station nearby the Malls with that tend to to slightly better. Look at our Jersey Gardens and Newport Mall , on Black Friday extra trains and buses form NYC help cut down on the Excess cars ......theres no parking lot fighting.....theres turnstile fighting and ppl with Gaint flatscreen TV's on the Subway.... Maybe its time for something New and Fresh to built in or near Scranton.....Outdoor Malls are still popular in the Winter Time.......also look at Woodbury Commons which is on NY 17 near I-87..... There are other types of Mall , but i doubt they'll work in Scranton.....

[toobusytoday]

This is the place you're talking about Nexis Welcome to The Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley, in the Lehigh Valley. It's in my school district and is very, very popular. It's also horrible to shop in during the very coldest months or when it's raining/snowing because you often can't park close to the one place you want to run into or if you can, then you are most likely to just hop in your car and leave after you are done your purchases. At an indoor mall at least you feel that you can pop in two or three stores without any effort. But, that's JMHO, and probably the minority opinion since it has done very well since opening a few years ago. It has a very much Disneyworld feeling about it, with the fake main street and town square. Instead of unique shops though you have Old Navy and LL Bean, Starbucks and Barnes and Noble.

I hesitate to post this link, since it's not local news but since we're talking about your local mall and how it appears to be outdated, I will 101 Uses for a Deserted Mall - NYTimes.com I still find the appeal of the old style malls attractive but they certainly were the death of many Main Street businesses. It's ironic that the "new" outdoor malls are essentially imitating that old Main Street.

[sheena12]

The Steamtown Mall is fine! I have been there several times and I have never once feared for my saftey. People really do get hysterical over little things!
Back in the 70s and 80s there were shops in malls that sold posters, candals, insence and other things of that sort. They were called "Head Shops" by teens and tweens.
So yes one could probably purchace a tee shirt with a pot leaf on it - way back then.
Big deal.
Steam Town is NOT a scarey mall, and I do know of one scarey mall back in NY that I would not patronise. But my 70 something mil goes there all the time with her girl friends, so go figure...

[Mr Yuk]

Originally Posted by sheena12

So yes one could probably purchace a tee shirt with a pot leaf on it - way back then.
Big deal.

My point was that there is no book store in the mall, but you can buy drug-themed merchandise and paraphernalia. That's a telling tale about the place in my book.
The majority of the people hanging around that mall are not the "book learnin'" types.

[sheena12]

No malls are not very high brow in general, if you trace them historically. In the past 30 years or so, they have improved their image.
But I too, along with toobusytoday prefer the indoor variety - for the same reasons - shelter from the elements, and convenience.

As for people who hang out at malls they are mostly young teen who can't drive.
And most intellectuals would prefer the local library.
But I still do not think that ANY of the local malls are scary.

[Mr Yuk]

Originally Posted by sheena12

.
But I still do not think that ANY of the local malls are scary.

I don't think its scary....just a glorified flea market.