What Is Going On At Superstition Springs Center? | Retail Archaeology

In this episode we take a look at Superstition Springs Center and do some lofi photography.
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#deadmall #retailarchaeology

[@jetman80pops]

Always a good day when you upload a new video

[@ua1514]

I love footage of these old school malls…takes me back to the 80s and 90s. A simpler and better time.

[@darktetsuya]

neat to see the photos from the old cameras! also fun to see the return of fountain-cam. excellent videos as always!

[@theunknowngamer2397]

I live close to this mall and had no idea they added a mini daiso! This is gonna be perfect for my weekend fun days

[@WaynoGur]

I hadn't been in this mall since 2005, before I moved to Tucson.

[@josephtafur]

The Quailty of the Sony Mavaica is amazing but their something about the low Quailty grainingness of the AOL Digi camera that gives a kind of mid 2000s digital camera Quailty nostalgia too me, gives me a throwback to looking up Mall and dead mall photos interior on Google back in the mid to late 00s

[@PeppermintPJ90025]

Wow, that Sony Mavica did really well!

[@Mrtfarrugia]

It's been 6 years already? Time flies.

[@jdh21403]

I go to that mall whenever I make a trip to Half Price Books. I was last there a month ago and I ended up buying stuff from Hot Topic!

[@shannonyoast6906]

As always great video 👍

[@Wheelman1966]

My wife and I took a trip down to the city and hit Superstition Springs a week before Christmas last year. It was packed! With very few vacancies. Happy to see because I'd hate for that mall to go.

[@jf6441]

Damn I use to work at the AT&T store on the 2nd floor there 12-15 and that mall was ALWAYS packed. This is wild.

[@dindog22]

my local mall seems to be doing a bit better these days as well. I try to go walking there after work at least 3 or 4 times a week

[@jasburger]

This is the most tragic mall I've ever been to. It was literally my FAVORITE mall as a child because it had the two story merry go round (dumb reason but still). From 2018 to some time in 2019, it was a nice mall to walk around. Nowadays, hell no. Many more stores have closed, some getting filled with the weirdest places and others closed. Beyond the garden recently closed, Pac Sun, rue 21, and more, all shuttered. The mall gets emptier each time I go, which is both depressing, and aggravating. If you sit in any of the massage chairs by Gamestop, you will hear the obnoxious music coming from some ice cream type machine, on loop, that's how dead it is. The food court is busy, nothing else. The mall feels completely different than it did 5 years ago. Honestly, I see them closing by 2027. I hope the local businesses in the mall keep it alive, at least for a little longer.

[@boingaon]

I can hear the whispers of my childhood in these old malls. You can feel echoes of the thousands of people who walked the halls. So sad when the physical materialization of your childhood crumbles to sand. Like Fiesta Mall.

[@chrislongbeard]

Just picked up a Mavica complete in box. Now have to go through my floppys and reformat them to test it out. Used one when I started working at Chrysler dealership in 99.

[@redfishtex738]

I grew up retail. From my Grandmother working at Sears, my Dad working and meeting my mom at Montgomery Wards, Dad working at Wards till they closed then working for Dillard's till he retired about 10 years ago. I was a retail kid bounced around town to town transfer to transfer as my Dad moved up the ranks in the company. Three grade schools, two Jr high highs, three high schools..3 states we saw it all with no regrets.

[@jayogee913]

It always amazes me that any Dillards stores are open. I used to go to them often, and I literally never saw a single soul ever buy anything in any of them! They were usually nearly empty, even! Very strange phenomenon.

[@tylerwilliams3207]

That's interesting! In Oklahoma City, the ones we have are always busy, especially during the 65% off sales at the beginning of the year.

[@jayogee913]

@@tylerwilliams3207 The only time I see people in them is indeed during the clearance sales. That's the only time I go, also. Better merch and prices at Nordstrom Rack and TJ Maxx, also.

[@JazzyBabe56]

what a treat it is to see a vid from you - missed your content! glad you are still uploading and this was very interesting to see the differences in the 2 cameras

[@SirNardManhawk]

The great thing about old digital cameras is you get some pretty unique/interesting choices as far as color and white balance baked in that can make for some fun shots in weird lighting conditions. It's why I still keep my functionally useless Sony point and shoot and an old Kodak Superzoom around.

[@wjadams2]

I remember going there when it first opened. It was so packed. Also was the first and last time I had a Crystal Pepsi around 1992.

[@lainwakura]

i'm so glad that superstition is still alive and well, makes me happy to see.

[@Hammster69official]

Independent shops moving in can go different ways. For example, Irving Mall in southern Irving, TX, has a Macy's, Dilliards, Burlington, AMC, and a few interior mall staples (Hot Topic, Claire's, Bath & Body Works, etc), but then there's a fitness center, doctors offices, salons, a *legitimate* massage clinic, a bunch of "one and only" clothing boutiques, a food court full of local restaurants, and Firestone has taken over the old Sears Automotive building - basically, it's become an over glorified bazaar. But for that part of Irving, it works and it's always busy.

[@mariogonzalez8185]

Awesome video 👍👍

[@tommylucatiel7911]

The backrooms community is going to have a new level as soon as those digicam pics get uploaded.

[@sjntube]

PLEASE tell me you remember the dinosaurs that used to be in that courtyard. It was a kind of Jurassic area with cliff walls, caves, dinosaur prints in the pavement and dino statues around. Superstition Springs has always been such a cool mall.

[@Austin.D]

My mom used to work at this mall while she going to school she used to work at this old Sears and the formally owned Robinson May I used to have alot of fond memories going to this mall as a kid in the late 90s and early 2000s

[@frostanimate]

Idk why but for some reason as soon as I go inside this mall, I get some weird stomachs ache. Till this day I still haven’t figured out what has caused that. Also they gave jcpenney some black outlines and it’s not as nice as it was before

[@Xtragicfever]

Hey, I bought the AOL camera in 2000. It was super easy to share pictures through email or instant messenger. The alternatives required you download software or use a floppy disc drive (who had one of those in 2000?).

[@Lively_1185]

Wow, I'm early!

[@KarlieMildraed]

In Edmonton, AB, the Miniso stores are okay. I really wish for a proper Daiso shop tho. From what I've seen, those shops are packed with all the things. Edmonton used to have a store called Oomomo. It was like a Daiso but cost more. Thanks for the vidoe, RA. Have a good one.

[@LatinaChef1986]

I wish I had a Diaso close by as well. I’m surprised Chicago (the closest major city to me) doesn’t have one or even in the suburb of Chicago, Arlington Heights.

[@LawrenceSeetoh]

thank you for the video, I like the inclusion of the photos

[@myu2k2]

ug, i had found a file of an AMV from 1999 on an old thumb drive and was sent back violently at remembering that CRT monitors were at a 600 pix X 800 pix resolution. phone screens may be smaller, but they have more pixels per square inch.

[@bjarkusmcfarkus6737]

Nooo! We lost the wig store!

[@johndornoff]

The last large K-Mart in the continental US located on Long Island has begun its closing sale, leaving only the small store in Miami.

[@davinp]

The Sony camera is much more clearer then the AOL camera which is very blurry

[@chadrodick1161]

Do an update on big lots as they added another round of closures

[@timlarabee1710]

I've noticed Miniso is moving into some "mid" malls, and without much fanfare. Yet when they open, at least here, there are crowds.

[@gmcnewlook]

Same here really depends on the mall and how big their space is for example at Vaughan mills or eaton centre fairly busy, the one at my local mall not so busy (it’s funny when I buy a ramune soda there and the people ask “do you know how to open that”)

[@giselletorres4156]

I love MiniSo but it'll take much more to revitalize the mall. Will attract more Sanrio kids, (me, I'm one of them). 🌸

[@andysorensen1737]

The Mavica’s photo quality actually holds up really well considering.

[@RetailArchaeology]

I also have a slightly newer Mavica with a resolution of 1024x768. That one takes really cool pictures. I had intended to bring it as well, but it started acting up at the last minute.

[@spencertheobald]

Bought most of my og Xbox games at that GameStop. I'm pretty sure it was originally an EB Games

[@Dewfilms]

I'm really surprised that the empty Sears didn't become a Spirit Halloween store ...also, is it just me or does anyone else find it funny & ironic that the Mall's GameStop is next to a closed Sears... it's pretty much not so subtle foreshadowing lol

[@jasonmacaro4052]

Are you going to do a video at spirit halloween again? As someone who lives in phoenix I love when spirit starts to open because it means the end of summer is in sight

[@kellycarroll6829]

what would make malls fun again?💚

[@iamsoverybored878]

Just discovered your channel.

[@ScottyPimpinATL]

I'll never forget the overpriced phone charger I purchased from there

[@ScottyPimpinATL]

5:21 from that t-mobile

[@neocommenter]

105° holy shit

[@jasburger]

Average late summer day here

[@lainwakura]

oh sweet summer child, that's nothing, you should see how it gets in july.

[@cdcVintage]

This mall still doesn't look "busy".

[@GaryGeat28]

The last time that I was at Superstition Springs Center was in 2015. I thought it was starting to decline back then. But it looks like it may still be prospering. I remember when the Hallmark was still there. I've mentioned this before: I worked at the Sbarro there in 2013. Is the Sbarro still there?

[@RetailArchaeology]

Sbarro is still there! I had a slice right before I filmed the 2 cameras in the food court. There's a picture of it in the set of pictures towards the end of the video.

[@GaryGeat28]

@@RetailArchaeology Okay, I did see that. I'm surprised that it survived the closures following the bankruptcy. I love their Stromboli. I know the ones at Tucson Mall closed as did the ones in Fiesta Mall, Metrocenter, and Paradise Valley Mall. That was before the demolition of said malls.

[@MyDreamIsAStory]

Our local Police Department made a joke saying that if our mall was still hanging on then we could too. lol. And our mall is awful. It was bought out not too long before the pandemic and the owners don’t want to do anything to the mall. It’s mostly now just independent stores with maybe a handful of national retailers. It also seems like there are a ton of shoe stores there. I think I can recall 5 and the mall isn’t that big. It’s basically a lowercase t shaped.

[@southwestAZ]

I think this mall is just too far for some or most of us to go visit and just have a fun shopping experience

[@boingaon]

I was here recently. I entered at the "dead" (Sears) side and got a bad impression. There were some women standing out front of a store advertising something so I turned around and left. When a mall starts to falter, you always see these gimmicky/weird shops show up.

[@ktchelseafamily3314]

Cute