Favorite Stores at Meridian Mall Back in the Day

I was driving by the Meridian Mall yesterday and the parking lot was pretty empty.  That is always a startling moment, I mean when i grew up everybody shopped at the Mall and no matter the time of day, the parking lot was always full of cars.

Malls all across the country have been struggling for years, and the Meridian Mall in Okemos is no exception.  The Meridian Mall ended up filing for bankruptcy back in November, but they are working closely with Meridian Township to try and stay open.

The LSJ has some wonderful photos of Meridian Mall in the early days.

The mall opened up in 1969 and quickly became the place to be.  The Lansing State Journal had some photos that were taken back in the day and it brought back some memories.   I had totally forgotten that center court at Meridian mall had a foot bridge over a fountain, and that fountain changed color.  I wonder why they decided to get rid of that, if was a pretty cool part of the mall.  The LSJ photos also captured some of the stores that were around back in the 1980's, when I was shopping there.

One of my favorite stores was Gantos,  Prom, weddings, special occasions, or just looking for an amazing outfits, Gantos was where i would always shop first.  Other stores that i basically handed my pay checks over to were Foxmoor, Alberts,  Vogue, Hudson's, and Merry-Go-Round, which is where I worked for awhile in college.

For the guys, like my co-worker, they always looked sharp in the 80's because they shopped at places like Webster's Menswear, Bacharach's or Chess King.

One of the Meridian Mall's anchor stores was Service Merchandise, kind of an early and archaic version of Amazon, where you had to do the work yourself.

Dinner was always delicious at the Backstage Restaurant.  Amazing drinks, the Oscar comes to mind....a strong and fruity drink where 2 of them would knock you on your butt.  After dinner the best desert was the Gandy Dancer, an apple pie kind of desert with cinnamon ice cream.

Hopefully our shopping malls will get their footings and evolve into the must- go- to places for 2021 and beyond.