I worked at this mall in high school starting in 1982 at Kmart as a stockboy, register operator and later in appliances. During the Xmas season on a Saturday afternoon you couldn't move in that mall. It would be packed and that arcade was always full of kids. It seems strange that newer shopping centers are developed that force peple back outside to brave the cold winters and hot summers moving from store to store. People came to the mall for the variety and climate controlled conditions.
i grew up here. im 29 now but back then in the 90's and early 2000's this was a fun mall to visit with my Dad and sister. Radioshack was my favorite and loved looking at the stereos! i got lost one time when i was 8 or 9 in jcpenny. i could not find my mom...luckily there was a gang of cheeleaders to help me out:) i also dumped an entire row of clothing racks in that same jcpenny. ahhh it was all so memorable. There use to be a pet store where that arcade use to be and i was bit in the ear by a farret ....i hate those things still !!!! At the same pet store i bought an African giant millipede for 10 bucks! and named him Mortimer....he was my 7th grade class pet. im glad you made this video....ill have to go back and visit soon. i saw a lot of great movies in that theater man. i saw the movie Volcano and also saw Harry Potter there too just to name a couple:) i had my first East of Chicago pizza there but that was not how it originaly looked....so crazy how times change!!!! speaking of Pizza if any of you visit good ol Tiffin Go to Reino's Pizza And Pasta downtown. its the best Italian food you can get. My best friends grandpa started the joint 70 some years ago! please check it out. ask for Johnny Reino and say Jake Dowler sent ya ;)
There was a RADIOSHACK in there but we shut the doors on 04/01/15 lol... I used to work there until then. The owner of the mall refuses to bring in stores. He uses the property as a tax write off.
And the same happens, for all these other malls too, sadly. Michael Kohan was also Lincoln Mall's(Matteson, IL) last owner, till that closed in January 2015. Granted in fairness to Kohan, the problems were more the fault of the former owner which didn't totally fix those issues, and was planned a big renovation of Lincoln. Too bad that largely never was fully completed, other than bringing in a JCPenney, Target, and a new mall access road to the south and east of the mall. Here's the full site of the company who runs this mall: www.kohanretail.com/locations
I barely even go to the mall, and I always realized it was constantly dead, but watching it in this video made it look like a ghost town.. I was born in 95 and it has been dead since I can remember..
Grew up in Tiffin. That mall started going down in the early to mid nineties. As another poster mentioned, I have lived in fairfield ohio for 16 years now, the cincinnait mills mall is another one that is really dead.
ah yes! good old Tiffin Mall. I remember see Return of the Jedi in that same theater you shown at the last bit of the video. BTB the old arcade was much radder back in the 80's; Aladin's Castle I believe. Good times...good time
Where did you get the video in the beginning? I would be interested to see what it looked like in its glory days. I grew up in this town, it's a great town. This mall was hoppin in the 90s but died out later. That tiwn would be a ghost town of it wasn't for the university and the new mayor. Glad I moved away!
Im glad to see you were interested enough to make a video on this mall. I went to college at Tiffin University from 2010 to 2014. It was a fun place to go to mess around if you had change amd time to waste and wanted some quiet lol. I'm pretty sure the arcade and the gnc are new. When I was living there there was JCPenney, Maurices, the mexican place and a dollar general. They had some games but they were out in the walkway. I'm pretty sure all those benches are new as well.
Yes, it really is lol. Tiffin is a very odd city. It used to be quiet a big and hoppin city in its hay day. Apparently one of the churches there was gifted the first lightbulb that was invented by Thomas Edison. Dont remember which one it is though. The city also just tore down their gorgeous courthouse. Not sure wgat year it was built but it was old. Sat for 15 years vacant and they couldnt muster up enough funds to restore it. Its worth looking up if you have time.
I live in Tiffin. Just wanted to say that this mall was recently Sold!! . Now maybe it will be updated. We also have gotten a Pub and Grub in the Tiffin University district, Buffalo Wild Wings across from the Hospital, Jimmy John's in front of Mall/Chinese Rst. and they are in the process of building a Chipolte where the bank use to be, beside Pizza Hut and Al's Gas Station. A new place is also opening downtown. We're just hoping that the mall is one place that will be hopping. Although JC Penney's is moving out...maybe something bigger and better will move in. Have a wonderful day from Tiffin. Intresting about the Thomas Edison light bulb. I'm gonna check into this and try and find out more. :)
2022 Update: The mall got new owners after 'shitty mall owners company' (What was their name, not moonbeam the other one) sold it for a profit despite it being a decently occupied mall when they bought it and closed when they sold it, they now rent out parking spots for new occupants. A few external access tenants also exist now, a Planet Fitness, a japanese restaurant, a dry cleaners, and the Mexican Restaurant remains open. If you care about Westgate, the Asian Buffet closed, Peebles closed and was replaced by Gordmans which also closed, the Bakery moved and then I think closed, Staples got replaced by Pat Catan's which got replaced by Burkes. A Harbor Freight and a hair place moved in, and the one store is till empty. The Mattress place is there, the Korger's there, and a school moved into the old Kroger, and another is looking to move into the old Penny's. EDIT: whoops forgot the local steakhouse, the Shoe Sensation, and the Sally Beauty.
looks like GNC was the only store operating there.so sad i hope someone will keep those plants don;t want them to die.its sad when malls and stores go out of business and just once were so happening are now dead.love that girls dress in the start of the video looked like that part was 1989 or early 90's?? were you using an old camcorder here???
Cool vid bro were the same age I remember the ardcade at the mall near seattle and it had that rad 70s wood slanted facade like in that mall. The arcade was awesome back then 80s early 90s something about having a pocket full of quarters and getting away from your parents in a dark arcade. The good old days!
the arcade is actually recent they were owned by Kohan realty the people who messed up my local mall (Rotterdam square) but retailers left this mall in droves when some company in Toledo bought them and demanded they pay for additional utilities. now there is only a single store and a movie theater which most likely pays for the whole complex
What memories. I wish I could have taken you on the tour of that mall and told you what stores used to be there when I was a kid growing up. I do imagine they will tear it down soon. The rumour always was that rent was too high and the building was too old and damaged to keep the businesses open. With JCPenney gone, it's probably true, it won't last much longer.
I just started watching your videos, and to be honest, it's pretty good. You should be more popular than this. I'm not sure if you could get popular than This Is Dan Bell, but hey, what you've got here so far is very good, and I hope you'll prosper in this RU-vid field. Besides, I like these videos in general, you don't get to see that many dead malls here in Wyoming.
Anthony, have you been told about Woodville mall in Woodville Ohio? It's a suburb of Toledo Ohio and the Woodville mall, although dated was still decently full as of a few years ago but maintenance and safety issues forced the city to shut it down, so it's now fully abandoned, would be a great mall for you to do, with Southwyck and North Towne fully demolished it's the only Toledo area abandoned mall still standing, and if you want to film an outrageously thriving mall Westfield Franklin Park has like 5 anchors and at least a hundred stores or more, with no other competition it's thriving , it has a Macy's, Dave and Busters, Jc Penney, Dillards, Dick's sporting Goods, abercrombie, hollister, gap, old navy, you name it if it's a successful company it's there! even with those anchors there is also a Kohls in the parking lot stand alone! But anyway, woodville mall is a much see!
I'm from Tiffin and this is great! I think you should check out the woodville mall by Toledo if it's still open last time I went there was 2 stores in the whole thing but it's pretty cool looking inside.
A little back story this mall was owned by the original developer up until a couple years ago. A newly formed LLC bought it for like 1mil and some change. Then they sold it to a big land developer out of Toledo. They have developed the out parcels and are putting in a full service car wash. GNC, Penny's and the women's store are gone. The only thing left is the Mexican restaurant. The land developer is known for buying older malls and redeveloping the land. It will be interesting to see what comes since Tiffin is an up and coming community.
Ace's Adventures, surprised you were so close to Findlay (20 minutes) and didn't film Findlay Village Mall, in Findlay Ohio! It was a thriving mall in a growing city with distrubution centers (Kohl's and Lowe's for starters)that is now dying, it was a suprisingly big mall for a town of it's size that likely thrived being the only mall in town, but wasn't able to escape the dying mall trend......
At 13:35, what store did that used to be? I thought that was what Foot Locker stores looked like so many years ago, but I can't remember for 100% sure. Correct me if what I thought this store used to be, is wrong. Interesting their arcade was still open, since most mall arcades seem to be gone nowadays. :( Golf Mill in Niles, IL had a mom and pop arcade that held on for FOREVER there, but it finally bit the dust a year or 2(maybe 2?) years ago. Not surprised it closed since it was often dead, and that their machines would at times malfunction since they weren't maintained the best.
wacky wings how about this? Don't base your entire economy on to universities that are overpriced and pretty much nothing but bars. It's a Haven for trouble. if you grow up in poverty and you're in Tiffin which if you're in Tiffin you're probably in poverty, get out now because of the police will Target you. it's easy to get into arguments with people when you're in poverty to and most household arguments will end up in domestic violence which will leave you jobless forever.
Good Grief! The only thing working in that dump is the horrible, overbearing music. Random park benches? Say goodbye to the 80's and just close. Sad... Excellent video!
Youve sumed it up very well. I remember going as a kid quite often. But then the new management came in and ruined everything. Fucking cheapskate running that place.
Why does anything need to be in the mall when we have everything else around town... Timnhortons.. Jimmy johns.. Chipolte dunk donuts buffalo wild wings
They are going to put in two new Asian resturants in this area soon...which would make 4 Asian places in the same area. Tiffin isn't doing great but the Mayor would have you believe otherwise. It's always just more crap no one wants and nothing to do. The mall has gone downhill since the new people bought it since more people moved out due to increased rent prices.
idk they've got a few new chain places and like the overall area seems like its on a bit of an upswing the malls still shit but like, overall Tiffin seems like its improving
+Slappy Fistwad That is the basic truth... If people think this happened overnight, well, NO. It's been an ongoing process. That mall was really only viable for maybe a decade. It began operation in the early 1980s. It was never what you would call a fantastic mall but it used to have most of the basics. After the 1990s rolled on, that's when it became there was a definite problem. They hadn't had some basic stores like a bookstore since the late 1980s? They had a B Dalton until what, 1986/1988? I forget exactly when it closed but that was that. It's not just the mall that went kapoot. Pretty much by the mid-1990s, most of the downtown Tiffin businesses were gone or on their way out. They did some cosmetic restoration of old the downtown building and revitalized the old Ritz Theater for a little bit but that was putting the band-aid on a bigger basic problem. Where's the industry, where's the future for the kids of the people who live in town? Connecting corridors were basically half-empty from the mid-1990s onward. I honestly can't remember when the last time I went to that mall was... I'm sure it was only to go to the newer movie theater on the outer rim (if THAT'S still happen -- BIG IF). I haven't been to Tiffin since 2015 since before shortly before my own parents FINALLY moved out. I'm frankly surprised that there WAS an arcade in there late last year... Those are long gone from BIGGER, more active malls that I can remember. The last time I saw anything like a "classic videogame" arcade was maybe 2001 when I lived in Orlando. That town really IS trapped in the past. Darn shame. Crime wasn't THAT bad there but there really is no industry there. Anybody who gets stuck living there, you basically have to leave and go elsewhere to make a living. It's kind of a middle of nowhere, boring place in the sticks that doesn't have much for people unless you want to escape reality. Good thing they have Internet access!!!! Make no mistake about it -- I would rather live in a place that didn't have high crime and some of the crap you see like gangs and riots but at the same time it MIGHT have been nice to know there were actual jobs, SOME kind of viable industry you could get into after you graduated high school. There just wasn't in this town... Hasn't been for a VERY long time... Most of the factories were there have been gone for decades. Even the town hospital has been downgraded a bit, it's made some cuts in recent years. I don't know how some people made their living unless they were doing some kind of e-commerce or working in another city. There wasn't ANYTHING there when I lived there and that was the better part of at least 20 years now!
Copying is not necessarily wrong. I'd probably attempt to employ the same methods here if there were dead malls to record. Although, I'd probably add some ideas of my own too.
