This place is so sad. The 2000s were great for the mall but past 2010 is when it really started dying. It has so much potential but the owners don’t really care about it any more. The only thing this place has going for it is the Auntie Anne’s at this point. Thank you for covering it, I hope sometime in the future Whitney Field gets the revamp it deserves.
I grew up with this mall. I remember how busy it was. Going to Walden Books and Circuit City etc. I was so sad to see what it's become when I visited it a few months ago. Even GameStop left... I hope this place survives.
I hope so to very disappointed when Gamestop left have to visit the one up the street at Orchard Hill and now I have to get my games online now very sad to see it now haven't been in there since last year :(
Ahhh... Walden Books... and the Book Corner books too... Friendly's mall restaurant... Woolworths with the pet section... Simon and Poore's... Sears... R H Whites... Bradlee's... the good old days! They ought to take the former Sears section and have special event weekends there... for example... antiques weekend, coins & stamps and sports cards weekend, landscaper weekend, used and antiquarian book dealer weekend, quilter and seamstress weekend, etc., etc. Get people back in for special events and hopefully they'll also shop and eat there in the other establishments when they're visiting.
I grew up in Leominster in the 70's and went to the mall a lot when Woolworths was there, and Sears, etc. It was a place in the 80's & 90's where all the kids used to hang out. It was always packed. I've been there a few times in the past 5 years and it's sad. It's dying for sure.
Thank you for covering this Mall. From the 70's to about 2010, "Searstown Mall" was doing very well. I worked there from 1996 to 2004. I wish I had known you were going there, would have loved to give you the rundown.
This is my home mall. I haven't gone through in awhile, I heard it's stagnant, with possibly more stores closed, but are still showing on the online directory. Got to go through again soon. If you noticed those "Doorways" that appear, those were the border to outside when RH White's was a thing. One of these large "Doorways" was before the 45-degree jog, one before Burlington, and one where the original in-line section ended. The first "Addition" was turning the RH Whites into in-line tenants. 2nd expansion is the section were Burlington is (where that "Doorway" started). Last expansion was the Penny's wing, where the 45-degree segment is. PS: The old pic of the mall you have is not Searstown. The Sears building in your old photo is too plain, missing it's loading docks, and that detached "Mall" is entirely wrong. Not sure what shopping center you got there.
Stagnant doesn't begin to describe how bad it has gotten. Last time I was there, (looking for new sneakers for the kiddies), we literally saw No-One. What's left of the food court was totally empty, no one was shopping anywhere we could see, the place looked like it was closed.
@@looneyburgmusic There's days like that, but Hull needs to get off their ass and do something. They have brought dead malls back. They failed a New York one, albeit still going, this might be their second failed attempt.
I grew up in Clinton and would frequent this mall in the 90s and early 2000s. It was always busy; tons of families, a hangout spot for teenagers. I shopped at this mall last Christmas and was shocked to see how empty it was. The convenience of online shopping has emptied out our marketplaces, and as a result, our sense of community. :(
Gross mismanagement and greed killed this mall. There were times on Friday and Saturday nights back in the 2006-2012 era when the place was teeming with mallrats with allowance to burn, and overzealous security guards would kick out every kid without an adult in the mall. They had a rule where no more than three kids could be in one group occasionally, too. They let attraction stores go without renegotiating their contracts, not realizing that the foot traffic they brought in was sustaining other stores, even if they weren’t turning the profits the owners would have liked to see. They didn’t add a second floor when they could have, which would have attracted higher end brands that people had to drive to other malls to visit. When things got really bad, they opted for free reign with regard to the stores they gave contracts to, which made the mall feel cheap and weird. Then they went gimmicky and tried to make it a family mall with those stupid electronic animals that kids would ride into walls and other customers. They didn’t pay attention to recessions and market trends and overcharged folks right out of their spots, and there were no stores to replace them. They didn’t aggressively pursue contracts with businesses that could have injected lifeblood into the mall. And then, in my opinion, Hull and their dentist office design, delivered the deathblow with that awful, terrible carpeting. I haven’t walked through a carpeted mall since 1993. This mall has been actively trying to off itself since 2010 and new owners just keep showing up and injecting it with Lovecraftian zombie juice as it continues to decay in front of our eyes.
I remember when they decided not to renew The Gap's contract and stuck a terrible glow-in-the-dark mini golf place in their storefront. Even as a teen I knew that was a dumb business decision. And it still kills me that they added that carpet; it feels so dirty compared to the tile that used to be there.
Burlington used to be great. Now it's a huge mess with a large divider cutting the store in half. In March of 2020 is when things went from bad to worse.
That pizza place used to be a sbarros when I was a kid. It was a bunch of pizza places after. There used to be a subway next to it and a Chinese place.
Grew up there mid 80s-90s. Friday and Saturday nights packed. Meet up with friends and go to the arcade, chill. Then skateboard behind the movie theater until well after dark. Hell we’d skate every day there.
It’s completely dead. I grew up in the area and the 70s-90s were bustling. It was always packed. A friend told me that Yankee Candle was recently forced out by management. They couldn’t renew their lease. She heard it from an employee. Why would they do that? There have been long standing rumors that the mall is going to shut down and be turned into condos or apartments or some type of mixed use facility. Only time will tell.
Use to actually work here in the early 90's at Sears Customer Service. This mall was great! The restaurants, stores, crowds, etc. Now I go there to get my steps in and try to remember all the stores we used to have here- CWT, Mariannes, Cummings, Payless, Friendly's Sbarro's, Bradlees, Kaybees, Zales's sit-down eat establishments, its so sad.
As an employee at Gardner Outlet Furniture I can confirm that we do not use the second floor of the Macy’s. It would be too much for us to bring the furniture up and down from there!
I am a 90s kid and spent too much time at this mall as a teen. I left Leominster for Dallas in 2007 but still get back for Holidays and its just not the same. Its quite sad actually, the place used to be so great.
I know some people don’t like Hull Property Group, but the malls they have down here in SC are well maintained, clean and have a mix of local and national brands. Prince of Orange Mall and Sumter Mall are exactly what smaller communities need and it’s not Hull’s fault that many retailer that could have filled these open spaces just don’t exist anymore. Why would a large national brand want to open in a smaller community mall? Hull is doing a decent job, at least at the two malls near me…
I used to go here almost all the time when I was a kid, a teen, and a college kid. I remember there was a Friendly’s in the mall. I had to use the bathroom in the restaurant and my family had already ordered and never got my meal and instead, I got a side salad.
The company I work for recently closed our location at this mall because it is truly a dead mall. You were lucky to capture some traffic on the day you filmed, but it is usually a very quiet place with few customers.
I moved to this area in 1988. Moved away for about 20 something years and then moved back 9 years ago. It used to be a busy mall and I don't remember empty spots. When I moved back 9 years ago me and a friend used to mall walk at this mall. Sears, Macy's and several other stores were still in business. Maybe a year ago a friend told me nothing was in the mall. I still walk around the outside of the mall for exercise and went in to see what it looked like. I was shocked how empty it has become. Every now and then I go to the small Penny's but I don't go through the mall at all. I won't be surprised if it goes under.
It feels dead to me. I applaud Hull for putting the work in to at least make it look nice (and the walls did grow on me as the tour went on), but I don’t think it’s going to be saved per se.
I grew up here in the late 60's, 70's and the 80's, and it is so different now than it was then (when it was the Searstown Mall). I was in Strawberries and FYE every weekend. Buying CDs. Anyone remember those? I even remember Woolworth's and Bradlees. S'Barros Pizza. It's just sad now.
This was my do to mall as a kid....I remember the place when it still had a woolworths in it and before the expanded it to put the sage allen in it. As kids we use to go there on fridays and saturdays to hang out at the mall. I use to love going to the radio shack, kaybee toys, and friendlys there. My dad use to take all our cars to the sears automotive there. I still remember getting my first set of tires there. Oops, almost forgot strawberries music.
Just a few days ago I was recalling aloud to a friend just how differently things are today versus the 90s-2000s… and admittedly feeling oldish… or well seasoned, that sounds better lol. Anyhow, I initially was mentioning how dead where I am feels - just a short jaunt down route 2 a couple towns / “cities” away. Back in the 90s as a teen and 2000s 20s, things were always hopping. Parking lots were full of late teens to twenty-somethings. Not causing trouble or looking for it, just hanging out, grabbing a coffee at Dunkin’s and finding a place to just hang out, listen to tunes, chit chat, maybe kick a hacky sack around, toss a frisbee or football. Always a lot of traffic and people gasp in real life socializing. I then wondered about our beloved “Searstown” and what it was currently like considering I’d heard of malls being converted to office space or condos etc in recent years. With workplaces shifting away from physical office spaces to remote work, and just generally being unaware of the status of the mall, I wondered if it was even open. My oh my, is “Searstown” just a shell of what it once was. The 90s and 2000s, which feels concurrently both like yesterday and so long ago, we would, at times opt to have a Friday or Saturday night with dunks in a parking lot versus going to the mall because it was always so darn packed you could barely move. Not sure if any revitalization efforts would be sustainable irrespective of how nice they make it look with walling off former storefronts. To me it looks to be on death’s doorstep, in the throes of hospice care. In what feels like a couple blinks of the eyes, 10, 15, 20 years goes by, and wow how things have rapidly changed! Thanks for the video, saved me a trip to find out for myself, which would have felt like fracturing the soul of my memories!
I’ve grown up going there and I can tell you that it’s not only dead, it’s a bloody zombie. There’s barely any stores and the few times a new store opens it normally gone by next month.
I think they're doing a really good job keeping up the appearance of the place. I agree with you about the use of decorated walls hiding the signs of decline. It looks like they really put thought and effort into how they did it, though. It doesn't look desperate. It's a place I would gladly go to if I had some shopping I needed to get done, and I like the carpet. (Carpet is a peculiar like of mine; it's less common these days and most people seem to hate it, but I like carpet because it's soft on the feet.) Looks like they're taking good care of the place.
I managed the CVS in the mall in its heyday late 80s early 90s. I actually walked there today and counted 29 stores out of 75. Its a dead mall unfortanately. New owners put new flooring and lights and walls to hide vacancies. Never see it coming back. Sage Allen was the new anchor when they exoanded and replaced by Service Merchandise. They then split the space and had Old Navy and Circuit City and then Ultimate. They were NOT accessible from in the mall. Then Burlington and had a mall entrance. There Was NO food court for many years, just restaurants sprinkled throughout including Friendlys near the old Sears. When i was there managing another mall wanted to come to Leominster. It went to a vote in the city, very contenious. Tge Searstown won the battle. The proposed site is now a Walmart Super Center. The RH Whites, an original anchor is the 1st expansion wing that leads to the food court. The mall has always been more of a local mall and not attracting people regionally very much except when Fort Devens was nearby. Very sad to see it this way
So funny, I’ve been subscribed to your channel and my husband and I enjoy your flea market excursions. This review came up on my list so I was eager to watch since we live in Leominster . What are the odds we were at that mall (which we rarely visit) while you were filming?!?! We decided to venture out with our toddler on that very rainy day and even crossed you while we were leaving the furniture store….Mind blown lol you were walking behind us and we had no idea you were filling. Life is strange sometimes. We also made comments to each other about the food court and all the empty spaces. I agree with many of the other posts about how booming it was in the 80’s and 90”s. I spent many teen nights, especially Fridays at that mall. It was the place to be! I remember Benetton and McDonalds and other restaurants and Bradlees! It was always busy, weekday or weekend, not like it is today. Most things are over priced and it’s much more affordable to shop at Walmart or Amazon. Keep up the great channel, maybe our paths will cross again.
Its not dead yet, but give it time and it will be.I do like how they walled over the old store fronts and put pictures up. The Jo Anns used to bea car dealership, and the store next to Lens Crafters used to be a friend's ice cream. There also used to be a tuxedo rental place over by the food court, ithink where the dunkin doughnuts was. They used the former auto center for a drive thru covid testing place.
Lived in Fitchburg for a long time and haven’t been in Searstown other than the Chuck E. Cheese’s and the Old Navy since it changed over to Whitney Field. Seeing those walls over every old store front is a TRIP. I actually spent more time in the Pheasant Lane Mall than Searstown, and while Searstown wasn’t as big or busy, it was still very busy in 90s/early to mid 00s. Weird to see it this way.
The mall needs more stores people still go to the mall I’ve been to other malls why is it that Leominster only has hot topic and Spencer’s and JCPenney ik there’s a few other stores but not much it’s sad that some have to travel 30 minutes and no stores anymore I have to go to like an hr away for a actual mall
Mall hasn’t been busy since the early 2000s. I was like 10 in ‘06 and that was the last time I remember seeing it packed. My wife and I went to Panera about a month ago and the place was hurting.
Your photo from 1966 is from a different mall down south. SearsTown Malls was actually a chain of malls around the country. So many places had the same name, so you grabbed an image from a different location in the south as Winn Dixie supermarkets have never been this far north.
So sad to see the downfall of this mall. I used to be a mall rat there in the 80s when Friendly's was there. This video shows that 75% of the stores are gone. I moved to NC where outdoor open air malls do much better than the closed ones.
I’ve been to this mall around Christmas time to grab something and it was dead. Honestly this place creeps me out. Those walls had to have been put up in the last 2 years, I saw all the empty stores.
I lived in Leominster from 1962-1968. To my recollection there was never a Winn-Dixie store in Leominster. The big grocery store in town at that time was Victory Market.
ooops! Your 1966 photo is of a different Searstown Mall (there were several malls across the U.S. with this same name). Winn Dixie has never had a store in Massachusetts.
From Wikipedia the long hallway was caused by the closing of the RH White store. The photo you have of the mall is clearly not the Searstown mall as it shows a Winn Dixie Supermarket in the center and according to my research there was a Demoulas Supermarket at the mall next to the former Bradlees location. (The supermarket has since moved to a new location in Leominster). There was never a Winn Dixie in Leominster, MA as the chain is only in the southern US states. As far as I know the mall was never an open air mall.
RH White was at one time a major department store in downtown Boston. They closed there and sold the building to Jordan Marsh. They kept the Worcester store open and a couple of branch stores.
lots of fun memories in this mall. got caught stealing a zippo from CVS. Got my first Doom map creator at Waldenbooks. Closing time cheap pizza at Sbarro's.
When i was a kid in the mid 2000s/early 2010s they had a really cool play area out in front of yhe JCPenney. Was taken out around 2020/21 because of COVID I'd assume.
Yeah, it is sad. Many memories there. Some of the older people say about the dying mall "Karma". They feel the mall destroyed downtown shopping. Now the mall is facing the very same thing.
late 90s to early 2000s this place was bustling.... I really dont know what happened. Really sad to see this landmark of our town turn into an economic desert. It truly is a dying/dead mall.
Loved this mall growing up went there a lot as a kid and we would have dinner there on Saturday nights as well since a lot of the stores went out I do a lot of my shopping online seeing as how I don't drive. I get to the gamestop up at Orchard Hill in Leominster when my mother goes shopping at Kohls a lot of good stores left the mall at one point there was Circuit City ultimate electronics FYE Gamestop Toys R US and Sears I def miss shopping in Sears got some nice clothes in there and the sales were decent. That mall is dying it isn't dead yet but it will be if the new owners don't get some stores in there so sad to see what it has become def miss going in there. It looks great in there now but they def needs some stores to make it worth it. Don't remember it ever being an outdoor strip mall or open mall always been that way since I can remember it. Woolworths was there they had a resturant next to it miss Friendly's to also there was a Victoria's secret in there to I can't remember any more off hand great mall at one point online world and sadly Covid has killed a of the malls and stores around here :(
That mall is deader than disco. Supposedly Amazon wants it (proximity to RT. 2 and I190 make it desirable for them). Only reason anyone goes there for is to walk around for exercise during inclement weather.
I'm always in this area and yeah the mall is basically super dead. I was told some California company bought it but idk. Most stores they had there are just walls now. Definitely needs some electronic store like a Best buy or another food place
Last time I went to that mall was to Panera Bread in 2019, and then moved to Florida a few months later. My parents and I moved to MA in the late 2000’s, and I remember always finding this mall really boring and way too small compared to other malls. I’m not surprised it’s dead, the towns surrounding it are very small with little population. But like most malls, this one will go too. There’s nothing to keep it alive.
The owners of that mall must be the same owners of Richmond Mall in Richmond, Indiana because they have the exact same carpet and the walls over the empty stores look exactly like the walls over all the empty stores at the Richmond Mall
Oh, the dreaded Hull property group design of dull. Honestly, it gave every inch of character that this mall had an immense downgrade. It makes it feel even more dead.
That was the mall I used to go to as a teenager (90's), I haven't been there since. It looks nothing like it used too...I have probably been there 100's of times and I couldn't tell you were you were in the mall at most points.
And yes I can confirm you were "roughly were the red star" is and the mall used to end there, everything past the point the main hallway shifts to the side is "new" But no never an open air mall.
back in the day I used to go to the movies at sak cinimas and saw a lot of movies recently back in the 20th centery isaw public enemy #one about the untouchables a remake there was a music store that i freaquented I don't see any come back and with all the mall shootings and other strange activatives and stuff happening around the world nothing is safe
Havent been in since before 2020.... theres no where near the amount of stores they had it started to die i would say 09, 2010 time.... the area around the mall is good, i wish they could think of something and not turn it into housing that noone can afford ...
oooof. fighting for its life might be a nice statement. Used to practically live there when i was a kid, the missing gamestop witchlady and kiosk with all the pokemon plushies being missing hurt. that toys r us was my favorite when i was younger too. it looks a bit like a horror version of the mall. very sad to see.
When Hot Topic, Rue21, Bath & Body Works and Shoe Dept are part of the main attractions 😮💨😐😨 (Actual anchors: Burlington and JCP. Also Old Navy) Days are getting shorter. Yankee Candle and Am Eagle have both left within the past year. I can see more leaving (Journeys, possibly JoAnn’s etc).
That’s doesn’t look like the mall I think he got confused @ 10:50 isn’t the mall in Leominster Massachusetts so I’m very confused or maybe it is idk it looks weird tho
