San Diego Shopping Centers 1950s-1980s | News 8 Throwback Special 

My first job with Montgomery Ward at Grossmont Center in 1982, the store manager talking to the kids in this video hired me. I'm now 60. What a trip going down memory lane shopping at malls in the 80's, remembering hairstyles, fashion, etc. People spoke differently and seemed more relaxed.

I remember going to UTC when it opened. We drove up from Chula Vista. I was about 10 and I remember thinking I didn’t belong there. It was too fancy and my mom told me not to touch anything. Today I own a lovely home two miles away. 🙃

Great to see Jesse Macias. I miss him. He was a terrific reporter.

Watching this was like taking a nice little escape to the San Diego that I used to know 🥹

Love it thank you for the happy memories

Nice to see when people wore colorful clothes. 00:25 North Park JC Penny 01:20 Overview of Centers 05:06 Downtown Walker Scott 09:07 Fashion Valley 12:18 Grossmont Center 15:02 UTC 19:46 Horton Plaza 26:29 North County Fair

I remember Wards, May Co in Grossmont, JCP at Fashion Valley when Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor was there.

Very cool! Thanks!

Good times back in the day. Had many memories of going to several of these going up including Horton Plaza, Grossmont Center, Parkway Plaza, The Grove, UTC, Fashion Valley, Mission Valley Center, and Plaza Bonita. It is sad how many of the malls have declined over the years. North County fair has a high vacancy rate. Horton Plaza is being turned into an office complex. Part of the reasons for the malls decline: * Online Shopping * Too many store mergers. Macy's alone took over 30 other chains including Abraham & Strauss, Bambgers, Bullock's, Bullock's Wilshire, Burdines, Denver Dry Goods Company, Davison's, Emporium-Capwell, Filene's, Foley's, Goldsmiths, I Magnin, Jordan Marsh, Kaufmann's, Lasalle & Koch, Lazarus, Liberty House, LS Ayres, Hecht, Marshall Fields, Maas Brothers, May Company, Meier & Frank, O'Connor, Moffat & Company, Rike's, Rich's, Robinson's, Robinsons-May, Sanger-Harris, Shillitos, Sterns, Strawbridges, Thalheimers, The Bon Marche, The Broadway, The Jones Store, William Barr Dry Goods Company, and Weinstocks. Other department stores have merged. * Sears running its chain into the ground by turning it into a real estate flipping operation run by a hedge fund * Bon-Ton going under (and its clones Herbergers, Carson Piere Scott, Younkers, Boston Store, and Elder Beerman). * Failed Leveraged Buyouts by private equity firms. This killed several chains including Toys R Us. * Companies buying store chains to obtain real estate assets more than running the store and use them to build other things on the properties. * The COVID-19 Pandemic. P.S. Many malls all over the nation are dying and going vacant, and some are being demolished. You can really see videos of the dying ones and reasons for different stores demise or ones that have died around the country on the RU-vid channels "This is Dan Bell", "Ace's Adventures", "Sal", "Doomie Grunt", "Retail Archaeology", "Company Man", "WallieB26", "Ray Out There", "NorthCDogg22", "Seph Lawless", "The Proper People", "Unicomm Productions", "Bright Sun Films", and others.

I loved going to UTC they had the best stores. Miss going to the mall.

This definitely brought back a lot of memories. 🥲😊 Thanks Carlo for the trip down memory lane.

oh my gosh,....... such memories. wow. makes me sad. thank you for sharing this.

Geez, people were healthier and dressed better back then. You could feel optimism in the air. People during this time most likely thought that the future would be better than the past.

PLAZA BONITA & The Grove we’re my favorite

That's the biggest Woolworth's I've ever seen. And doesn't this look more fun than buying stuff online?

The last time I saw people rush into stores like that, there was something different about the way they looked and they all came back out with arm loads of merchandise

How things have changed now the malls are empty people can buy everything they want and have it delivered to their front door.

i am 50yrs old i went to college grove with my grandpa where mission fredreal credit union used be a 76 gas stion where the walmart us be a bagel shop and sears outlit before there was a safeway i have coffesion at college i was santa cluss for 20 yrs

“Thongs for the feet” she said during the UTC segment.. I’ve always called flip flops, thongs also. Now a days when I say thongs, people don’t know I’m referring to flip flops. Lol

Never cared for Horton Plaza, UTC. Grossmont was my favorite back in the day in the 80s and sometimes Fashion Valley.

beautiful poem

Now is a fentantyl hole

What the hell happened to Horton Plaza? It was always packed and now gone.

I THINK WALTER SCOTT SHOULD HAVE A PUBLIC SCUPTURE, HE DID GIVE SO MANY A JOB. XOXO

"the malls are all soon to be ghost towns, well, so long, farewell, goodbye" - Modest Mouse

Horton Plaza is now a thing of the past

Every one of those people attending the Horton Plaza grand opening couldn't find their car afterword, if they did they couldn't get out of the garage. I still think the best mall in San Diego was Mission Valley Center. It was nicely designed, pleasant to walk and had a great mix of stores. I walked through it recently and it now looks pathetic. Not only are many stores gone, remodels over the years have destroyed its mid century charm.

CHULA VISTA CENTER 1962!

They've all been shoplifted out of business.

Why was everyone so much thinner in the old days?

Complaining about no shopping centers in Southeast was kind of hilarious. Any businesses that tried operating in Southeast were shoplifted and robbed out of business, not to mention having your customers attacked and robbed, cars broken into Etc. I was told once by someone at Costco loss prevention that the Gateway location had more loss from shoplifting than all the other Costcos in San Diego combined. It's just a sad reality. And obviously given current attitudes towards shoplifting and other theft in california, it's not going to get any better.

Guess what wasn't running the State?

Last time I went to a mall it looked like nearly everyone was an illegal immigrant.