My piece today is very Saint Louis, and even more so, West County specific. If you are from Saint Louis, or the West County, or spent a good amount of time here, you will most definitely get what I'm going to talk about today. And even if you are not, I still think it will resonate, especially with people my age.
So, my daughter likes to go to malls and walk around for a bit, and finish off the day by playing at the indoor playgrounds. This activity is perfect for getting her out of the house, get her moving around and helps her to meet and play with kids her age. She loves it, and I love watching her play. She also likes to go into shops with me and shoe gaze. We never really buy anything, but we like to look at stuff and point out how cool the stuff is. It is a nice little bonding date for the 2 of us. We do this, especially now that it is getting colder outside, 1 or 2 times a week.
My daughter wanted to do that today. I said great. I asked her if she wanted to go to our regular mall, West County Mall, or as it is better known around here, "The Dove Mall", but she said no. We were just there 2 days ago, so I wasn't surprised. I asked her which mall she wanted to go to, and she said the one by our house with the movie theater.
Perfect I thought. The mall by us with the theater is called Chesterfield Mall. This was my mall as a kid. This was the place to be when I was in middle school. This was our hang out. I went on some of my very first "dates" at this mall. I got in trouble with my folks for not meeting them at certain spots in this mall when they asked me to. I used to go school clothes shopping at this mall. When I was a much younger kid Chesterfield Mall used to have a pet store in it. I spent most of my time there between the ages of 6-8 whenever we would go as a family. Even in high school I used to go there. It was a fun spot. Then, even after college, meeting my wife and getting married, moving out of West County, I would still go shopping there. I have many fond memories. Hell, even as little as 5 years ago, when my son was about a year and a half old, and I was a new stay at home dad, we would go there and do lots of Christmas and birthday shopping. I can remember when they built an American Girl Doll store there and my son and I had to buy something for my niece. I have never been so out of my element and overwhelmed. Then, when they built the movie theater, I thought this mall was never going to die. I saw "The Simpsons Movie" there twice. I took my dad to lots of movies there. And, it was the first place my son had seen a movie, "Big Hero 6". Again, I have many good memories of this place.
In the past couple of years, everything has kind of turned, and it is for the worst. It wasn't too noticeable at first. We would still go there, especially after moving back to West County about 4 years ago. My folks still liked to go there because the clothing store Dillard's always had deals. They had the kids play area. They had some cool toy shops. They had some decent CD and DVD stores that I frequented. But, businesses just started to vanish. We would eat at Houlihan's almost every time we went there. One day, after shopping, we decided to eat dinner there, and it was gone. No signs, no tables, no chairs. Just a big empty room. There was no warning, it was just gone. I was stunned.
The disappearance of stores started to happen more and more. Random, smaller shops and restaurants started to juts vanish. There was no warning. We'd go there one week, shop at a store like Crazy 8's, a kids clothing store, and the next week it would either be gone, or have a sign that said "Store Closing. Everything 50-80% off".
Then there was the 2015 Christmas time flood. My mom, ever the Dillard's shopper, called one night when we were supposed to go shopping there, and told us that she heard there was a flood . Apparently the entire Dillard's store was under water. It wasn't too deep, but it was deep enough to shut down the whole store. The Dillard's in Chesterfield Mall was enormous too. It took up three floors and about an entire quarter of the mall. They had to close down the whole mall for awhile. When we were finally able to go back, the whole Dillard's was closed off, but there were notes everywhere saying that it would reopen. It never did. It fell by the wayside much like Houlihan's and Crazy 8's.
That seemed to open the gates. A bunch of other stores started to close or go out of business. The Bread Company (Panera to all you out of towners) was gone within a week. The candy store was next. The sports apparel stores followed. The random weird gift shops vanished. And then the music stores fell down. The food court and the random little off shoot food places, for snacks, started to go. Auntie Anne's Pretzel's, one of my favorite spots, was gone. California Pizza Kitchen, my son's favorite place to eat there closed. Then Cheeburger Cheeburger, a burger place where I got my picture on the wall, closed. The food court started to lose the rest of it’s business. Panda Express, Subway, Dairy Queen, basically any random food court place closed down. The American Girl Doll store moved out. It was a ghost town in the mall.
So, when we went today, I was curious to see what was still standing. I haven't been there in awhile because it is kind of upsetting, to be honest. When my daughter and I walked in we went through the main entrance and the new 2 story used book, DVD and music and video game store was still open. It's called V-Stock, and it feels like they crammed all the toy stores, arcades, book stores, music shops and video game stores into one. It is 2 stories, but it feels tight. There was one sports shop, but it is a hyper expensive, personally owned shop that has no affiliation with Chesterfield Mall. They had a few off shoot clothing stores, like Hot Topic and Journey's that were still running, but they look like they might get the ax next. There were a lot of sales going on in these stores, which should be cause for concern. They have 2 sports apparel shops, Foot Locker and Hibbett Sports, but NO ONE was in either. The food court only has a Philly Cheesesteak's left. The only restaurant left is Cheesecake Factory. It just feels like a creepy abandoned place. They have a the old shops there with signs that say you can have a meeting, or work outing or group hangout there. That's a bummer. I did see a sign that said to look forward to something new in 2019, and I hope that is true, but now, I just don't really buy into it.
The fact that Chesterfield Mall is a shell of what it used to be is really sad to me. Going there today was very eye opening. I know malls are a thing of the past, but we still have a good amount here in Saint Louis that are thriving, including "The Dove Mall" that I mentioned before. I will keep those good memories I have from childhood and adulthood from Chesterfield Mall, but today was sad. It really bummed me out. This mall is just not the same. It feels different. I don't feel like they are taking good care of it anymore. And while the kids area was fine, other malls are much, much better in Saint Louis. I will miss Chesterfield Mall, even if it somehow gets a rebirth. It will not be the same. RIP to the mall of my youth.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Back in the day Ty would check out the latest video games at Babbages, look at the birthday cards with grannies giving the finger at Spencers, and end the night with a nice sandwich at Kent’s Deli. The only thing the past leaves us is our memories.
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