County Fair Mall (Thunder Bay, ON) - the city's first enclosed mall

Come check out Lakehead, sorry, Thunder Bay's first full enclosed air conditioned mall. This mall was the catalyst to get me to drive to Thunder Bay. While the mall has seen better days, it was cool to get a peak as this retro 1960's mall.
Oh yeah, be sure to pack some hand sanitizer or bring a friend to open the doors for you.
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[@charlestonpinballarcade]

WOW! You just reminded me that my mom also made my Halloween costumes with those old school McCalls kits. I’m going to get her to make costumes for her grandkids. That should work out well for high school and college kids! 😂😂😂

[@NorthCdogg22]

OOO! This place really is a gem, nice vid!

[@charlestonpinballarcade]

Awesome to keep seeing oddity malls like this that we have never seen before! This “hallway” must have been nice decades ago… but now it looks like a Franken-Mall. These places are basically good for county or local government offices and some professional or medical services. Very weird the owners can’t seem to find anyone that wants a small biz location next to a Walmart. Something doesn’t make sense here…

[@YodelingLoonRetail]

Yeah, now that you mention it that is odd they haven’t added anything non-retail other than the library.

[@TheMallFox]

I really love the old small obscure places like this. Thanks for getting here! Also security in a place like that is shocking.

[@karmakaruna]

i believe the detached building with red siding in the video intro was a self storage (now demolished and replaced by a gas station/Burger King combo, and a BMO bank (which used to be located in the center of the mall itself), and there is also a detached abandoned Canadian Tire to the back of the mall. There used to be another gas station in the Wal-Mart side parking lot, which part of that structure is used as roof for farmer's market vendors lol.

[@YodelingLoonRetail]

I’m kicking myself for not driving around the back to find the large Canadian Tire, but the “strip mall” stores were really busy and I didn’t know it was there.

[@karmakaruna]

@@YodelingLoonRetail not much to see anyway, it is all boarded up, and has no marking on the outside, but i've heard rumours of homeless living inside of it, so there's def a way in.

[@theretailadv]

Yes !! You got the major points right about county fair malls. Every little town that has a Zellers had one, and most have faded into the history books. There is one near me but it's long gone. And WOW! Most Loblaw malls are gone now. We actually have one in my home town that still remains oddly enough. Place is always packed though and not really "dead" so not really worth filming. Anyways, great little video Brandon !

[@deadmallition]

Which Loblaw malls are gone, other than Parkway Plaza in the east end of Windsor? Leamington still has a small County Fair Mall with a pharmacy and bank. Wallaceburg County Fair Mall is converted into a Walmart plaza. Do you know about the mall that used to be in Thames Lea Plaza (County Fair Mall, Chatham), and do you know of any other County Fair malls?

[@billdang3953]

There used to be a Country Fair plaza containing a Zellers in Calgary in the north end of town.

[@karmakaruna]

The middle food court area (yellow/blue), taped off area at 2:28, was a Robin's Donuts coffee shop, i used to go for coffee with my late great grandmother about 15 years ago a couple times a week. So weird to see it gutted, I still frequently shop at the dollar store, no frills and walmart, but have not entered the "inside" part of the mall in many years now. it's funny to me that this mall is essentially used by locals as a outside strip mall instead of its intended design.

[@YodelingLoonRetail]

Thanks for sharing this. I did stop at the Walmart to use the restrooms. The cash register lanes were setup to prevent theft so I felt the need to buy a coffee drink so I could leave without being questioned.

[@JoshYT1]

The dedication to document such remote places like this is inspiring. Great job!! I also noticed the pattern of numerous malls called County Fair with a Zellers. I know of one that was in Smith falls Ontario and Fort Erie Ontario. I believe theres one in atlantic Canada too. Cool to now know the reason behind it thanks to your video!

[@deadmallition]

Towers and Food City also made similar malls like Galleria in Toronto, but they didn't have standardized names.

[@JoshYT1]

@@deadmallition Interesting how back in the day all these store brands caught on to building their own indoor malls. Thanks for the info!

[@YodelingLoonRetail]

Thank you very much! I have to praise Deadmallition for his excitement to share Canadian mall history with me.

[@SuperBuickregal]

A really nice short informative video Brandon!

[@mollyheffernen]

Nice video! Canada malls are very interesting. I know Walmart used to be in U.S. Malls but it is not common anymore.

[@deadmallition]

Walmart is also not common anymore in Canada malls. Walmart murdered many Canada malls in the 2000s by moving to a new building.

[@Crackrzz]

Yeah there are few MallMarts anymore.

[@WillowBeee]

I have reoccurring dreams about this mall, great video

[@Crackrzz]

We have Fabricville here in Nova Scotia. Font seems similar. Hmm.

[@ashfiabrar4394]

Nice video!

[@YodelingLoonRetail]

Thank you!

[@SuperBuickregal]

Thanks for your time and effort shooting this video, Keep em Rolling!

[@YodelingLoonRetail]

Thank you so much!!

[@sampicano]

looks identical to a mall in gander NL

[@YodelingLoonRetail]

I like the photos I saw, but that’s a 47 hour drive for me! I think I can drive to Thunder Bay faster than I can fly to Gander. :D

[@sampicano]

@@YodelingLoonRetail bro...just make the drive and stop complaining....perfectly good mall in gander just waiting for ya

[@sampicano]

Edit: just googled thunder bay to Toronto...15 hour drive..... ............................................ Just speechless. That's too much.

[@brianmahoney4156]

canada is a sad little country