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icestormsurfing t1_iyegbbu wrote

Wasn't that mall a fleamarket for a while?

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TremorChristPJ t1_iyen01z wrote

It was the best flea market ever. So many records, video games, cds etc were purchased there in the 1990s and early 2000s. I really wish it was still there.

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MPIS t1_iyf83fh wrote

Totally the best, lots of nostalgia! Trying to remember the name of the inside vendor that sold bootleg PC 5.25" games back in the mid 90s for $0.99 - man, those were the days

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44problems t1_iyeqfdr wrote

It was the place to get Pogs back in the day

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Excelius t1_iyeq33d wrote

I'm not old enough to remember the actual mall, but my parents took me to the flea market semi-regularly.

It was interesting though because it was half indoor and half out in the parking lot, and there were a fair number of semi-permanent vendors setup inside.

Maybe it's just the rose colored glasses of youth, but it seemed like there was actually some good stuff for sale. Compare it to the flea market nearby in the old movie theater next to the Walmart, which is just sad and depressing.

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C_DallasMultipass5 t1_iyeqinr wrote

It was a weekly trip for us. I miss it. I agree with the rose colored glasses, but I love getting toys and fake Gucci coats whenever I was younger lol. It was there, I was introduced to chicken on a stick and sriracha.

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Excelius t1_iyes3bh wrote

Seemed like a lot of the vendors back then were semi-permanent semi-professional operations.

Closer to the people you might see setting up booths at a convention or something. They just maybe couldn't afford the rent for a traditional retail space.

I guess those kinds of folks are probably running eBay or Etsy shops now.

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C_DallasMultipass5 t1_iyeza4o wrote

I agree. Most were definitely permanent fixtures there. I remember the one guy in the inside had two tables of various baseball cards and sometimes fake Pokémon cards. Used to get made fun of for having them lol. Great times.

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[deleted] t1_iyfdww3 wrote

The one in Blairsville is kind of like that too. Part of it's outside and part is inside. It's in an old car dealership.

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sopabe6197 t1_iyen7nf wrote

A good number of years. It was pretty happening in the early flea market days. People had makeshift stores open inside for a while and the main Gimbles floors were packed with people and vendors. In the summer it was a large outdoor flea market too. Eventually the building started to fall apart with roof leaks everywhere. Rain buckets and barrels were a common sight. At one point I was laughing because they had a huge inflatable childrens swimming pool to catch all the water but even the pool had sprung a leak! During the better times they even had a DJ playing music for the flea market and he stopped the music for an announcement. He said there was a dog locked and a car and the owner better return soon because "people are about to take matters into their own hands". Honestly the flea market traffic dwarfed the mall traffic at one point.

Almost forgot about Beer World!

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GargantuanWitch t1_iyem6sy wrote

Yeah, there was a flea market for awhile, in the decrepit carcass of the mall that was left at the time. Last time I went inside was probably 1994 or so, and it was barely functional then.

They finally razed the entire thing when Amazon showed up.

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Excelius t1_iyeqiiy wrote

> They finally razed the entire thing when Amazon showed up.

It was an empty demolished lot for over a decade before Amazon showed up.

I've heard (but have not personally driven by) that Amazon finally broke ground, but Street View doesn't even have any recent enough photos to show that.

Google Street View - May 2012

Google Street View - Sept 2021

Edit: At least according to Wikipedia, the flea market shuttered in 2005 and the mall was demolished in 2007. So it was an empty lot for quite a while before Amazon finally came around.

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Jef_Wheaton t1_iyeygi6 wrote

Amazon's building is up, the parking lot is paved, and they're doing the landscaping. It should be open pretty soon.

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SWPenn t1_iyelvsp wrote

Great shot. This was eventually roofed in to become the interior of the mall. And that Penneys was a big deal when it was built. It was one of the new "super" Penneys. When this store opened, the downtown McKeesport and Braddock Penneys closed.

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nonymiz t1_iyfcrjm wrote

What an awesome photo. I was born in '64 and have a few very early memories of the open-air Eastland before they "malled it". I remember those concrete planters.

My mom used to take me to tons of movies at the theater when I was a kid and early teen. I think one of the last movies I saw there was "Alien".

And I lost lots of my allowance money in the arcade that was down in the mall's basement. Space Invaders, Sea Wolf, Lunar Lander.

In high school I saved up some money and bought a boom box at Penney's. And I remember buying the J. Geils Band's "Freeze Frame" album on cassette at Woolworth's.

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James19991 t1_iyeknc1 wrote

Ah back in the days when December usually actually felt like winter.

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More-Adhesiveness-54 t1_iyemlgl wrote

Assuming that PENNEYS sign is referring to a JC Penney, is it any wonder why people (at least in the Pgh area) started calling them "Penneys" instead of Penney/JC Penney? They literally were calling themselves that. On top of that, you have Gimbels right next to it when the actual family name was Gimbel (no s). It's no wonder people started slapping an "s" at the end of every store name.

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SaablifeNC t1_iyeyttk wrote

JCPenney has constantly changed up their logo. I remember seeing a old Pennys logo at Washington Mall then it was replaced with a JCPenny logo sometime ages ago before they left the mall for good

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vonHindenburg t1_iyfc7qa wrote

Monroeville Mall might have the Zombie Museum, but WashPA is the ultimate zombie mall. It's been mostly dead for what? 20 years now?

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SaablifeNC t1_iyfdekh wrote

Hard to believe it's been that long. It was unique mall

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[deleted] t1_iyeo7ud wrote

[deleted]

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More-Adhesiveness-54 t1_iyesp0z wrote

Pretty sure that's exactly why there's an "s" in Gimbels, to denote plurality from it being 2 brothers. But I'm not sure that was necessarily known to the typical shopper at the time (may have seemed like a possessive), and then you have places like JCPenney calling themselves Penneys or examples like Kaufmann's and Macy's.

It's kinda funny if you're to the point of putting an "s" at the end of stores like Bestbuy, Giant Eagle, or Wal-Mart. But I can see how there's precedent for assuming an "s" at the end of stores that are, or sound like, peoples' last names (e.g., Aldi).

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Ham_Ahoy t1_iyepyej wrote

I do all my shopping at flagg bros

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[deleted] t1_iyfdftl wrote

I miss going to that flea market. When I was a kid I always found some great toys and video games there. You could also pick up ninja swords, knives, and tools too.

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GargantuanWitch t1_iyemc7w wrote

Anyone got photos from the movie theater that was back there? My wife worked there after high school and she'd love to see some old memories.

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jamaltheonion t1_iyewkc9 wrote

My dad taught me how to drive in the empty lot it became. Good memories.

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IamTheFreshmaker t1_iyezt4e wrote

Tangent - how many people can you make laugh/infuriate with the way we pronounce Versailles?

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vonHindenburg t1_iyfcevt wrote

More or less than the number who get twitchy over 'Doo Boys'.

Oddly, the French name that we do pronounce correctly "Duquesne", seems to be the one that I hear mangled most often in audiobooks and on podcasts.

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flibbitydoo2 t1_iyf0u4h wrote

I remember going Christmas shopping there in the late 60's early 70's. I don't remember when they actually closed it in to make the mall. Seems to me when Century III opened up and the steel industry slowed down it hit Eastland hard. I still enjoyed the flea market and Beer World.

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