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Tanforan Mall Closing

Just took a quick look, there doesn’t seem to be a big mall all the way down to Hillsdale, so… why? But…it’s obvious. Maybe people don’t like malls that much more? And prefer other kinds of going out and/or shopping?

There are probably many other shops or strips. While tanforan is right next to an airport, so no flyer cares about going there.

(But yes, Amazon. )
 
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In my mind, malls went out in after The 90's. 80's & 90's, malls were teen hangouts. Parents dropped their kids off at malls. Online shopping took the air out of not just malls, but department stores also. Since 2000, the country's most reputable department stores have slowly been chipped away.

I wonder if the online foodie culture will eventually erode "corporate dining". Denny's. Applebee's. Chili's. Olive Garden. Are their days numbered?
 
AdamFiveFive said:
I search far and wide for Japanese restaurants actually owned and operated by Japanese people.
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I know most Japanese restaurants are ran by Chinese, but what about in Japan Town (on Geary) these days?

I am not crazy about the real Japanese food. It looks good, but doesn't taste all that great. And JapanTown was just like the food when in Japan in 1970. Looked great. But I would rather look at it than taste it. Almost everything tasted like seaweed.

-Don- Reno, NV
 
Does the Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo still exist? I used to live two blocks from that mall.

I know Bay Meadows is long gone.

I watched them build the underpasses at Hillsdale and El Camino. I am old enough to remember when the Hillsdale Mall was all outside and completely closed on Sundays.

-Don- Reno, NV
 
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AdamFiveFive said:
Because of my tender age, I always knew it as a shopping mall. I am not old enough to remember the previous racetrack.
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You're a young kid.

I remember when they closed the Tanforan Race Track and when they started to build the mall.

I have also been in the Sutro Baths well before they closed.

Do you remember the Playland at the Beach? That closed just after I got out of the army.

-Don- Reno, NV
 
I bet you're..
...mind will be blown if you realize there's not only a newer mall but CONDOS (OK, "townhouses" maybe) over the race track (Baymeadows) now.


Which condos.. were cheap 7 years ago at 1.3 Million. :wow :shocker


As for the Tanforan to Playland-at-the-beach connection... Kinda lost there :) :laughing

Unless, once again, we accept that for decades in the past "San Francisco" was called the area from the bridge down to Atherton or something.
 
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AdamFiveFive said:
In my mind, malls went out in after The 90's. 80's & 90's, malls were teen hangouts. Parents dropped their kids off at malls. Online shopping took the air out of not just malls, but department stores also. Since 2000, the country's most reputable department stores have slowly been chipped away.

I wonder if the online foodie culture will eventually erode "corporate dining". Denny's. Applebee's. Chili's. Olive Garden. Are their days numbered?
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I would like to think so but probably not.

I remember reading an article more than a few years back, about how Yelp forced hotels to up their restaurant game. It was one thing back in the day when you went to an unfamiliar city, didn't know where to eat and the steak + potatoes or scrambled egg combo at the hotel may not be great, but was always decent enough and you wouldn't get food poisoning. But when Yelp came out, all of a sudden you could find better food for cheaper and hotels had to offer their own organic applewood bacon or whatever, or watch guests walk out the door to someplace better.

But IMO there will always be a market for I want to eat something good enough without having to look anything up, and that's where Olive Garden and Chili's swoop right in. Kids hungry on a road trip? Denny's is right there and we know what to expect.
 
I remember when traveling, asking random strangers, "what's a good place to eat around here?". That was in the days of getting roadmaps from the auto club, before GPS.

Some of us may have wild stories of getting lost, exploring the unintended, and other such follies.
 
In the days before cell phones, a lot of people bought those hand held walkie talkies. The cheap ones. Just good enough to talk to each other if you went to an amusement park or shopping center.
 
AdamFiveFive said:
In the days before cell phones, a lot of people bought those hand held walkie talkies. The cheap ones. Just good enough to talk to each other if you went to an amusement park or shopping center.
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Or a grocery store or Wal*Mart. And for RVing. Tom & I used carry cheap walkie talkies for such stuff.

-Don- Reno, NV
 
The prices have dropped on those. A lot of advantages. Group conversations. Not have to dial. Instant communication. For what 1 radio would have cost way back when, you can now buy 10. At today's prices, I am tempted to buy a set. No Radio Shack though. You can't go into the store to play with them first.



Screenshot 2022-02-23 20.46.54.jpg
 
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I guess that company buys bankrupt companies, then tries to sell the same type of stuff under the same brand name.

For Radio Shack stuff, I can find it and buy it online. But I want the store. Some things, like small parts, you want to actually pick up and handle. Especially stuff like connectors and terminals - which could vary slightly in size. I want to make sure it fits.

Radio Shack had thousands of small parts in inventory. The bad part, was the mark-up. What I used to pay $5 for at Radio Shack, I can buy 100 of the same for $5 online. Only problem is that it takes a few days for shipping, and if it doesn't fit, I have to ship it back. Not ideal when you want to fix something.

There's no demand for that kind of stuff anymore. Resistors, capacitors, diodes, solder, switches, terminals, blah, blah, blah. Nobody is looking for a small electric motor to repair their blender. Nobody buys any of those parts anymore. Radio Shack had citizens band radios and antennas. Who is installing a CB in their Tesla. It still amuses me when people post in Harley Davidson forums about what type of CB radio to install on their motorcycle. I'm picturing Ponch & John on CHiPs talking into a speaker mic on a coiled cord.
 
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AdamFiveFive said:
I guess that company buys bankrupt companies, then tries to sell the same type of stuff under the same brand name.

For Radio Shack stuff, I can find it and buy it online. But I want the store. Some things, like small parts, you want to actually pick up and handle. Especially stuff like connectors and terminals - which could vary slightly in size. I want to make sure it fits.

Radio Shack had thousands of small parts in inventory. The bad part, was the mark-up. What I used to pay $5 for at Radio Shack, I can buy 100 of the same for $5 online. Only problem is that it takes a few days for shipping, and if it doesn't fit, I have to ship it back. Not ideal when you want to fix something.

There's no demand for that kind of stuff anymore. Resistors, capacitors, diodes, solder, switches, terminals, blah, blah, blah. Nobody is looking for a small electric motor to repair their blender. Nobody buys any of those parts anymore. Radio Shack had citizens band radios and antennas. Who is installing a CB in their Tesla. It still amuses me when people post in Harley Davidson forums about what type of CB radio to install on their motorcycle. I'm picturing Ponch & John on CHiPs talking into a speaker mic on a coiled cord.
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You can buy all those small parts on Amazon. But yeah, I miss the stores also.

But Radio Shack stores still exist. I have been in a few of them. But they are quite a bit different and don't sell as much small stuff, so they do little good compared to, say the one that used to be on Clement Street in SF. Of course, you will not find any in SF there days because the property is extremely expensive.

The last Radio Shack I recall being in is the one in Payson, AZ about three years ago. And I see it is not in the store locator so perhaps it went out of business. IAC, they are nothing like they used to be. And even that one in Payson was only occasionally open. It was whenever the owner felt like being there.

-Don- Auburn, CA
 
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