March 29, 2024

What Killed the Emerald Square Mall?

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I write this with the bittersweet memory of my childhood as the Emerald Square Mall opened in 1989 when I was just 11 years old. My Father took us a day before the grand opening as the G FOX anchor store had opened early. I stood with my face plastered against the glass doors facing the opening gateway of the first-floor main hall as I gasped in disbelief at the long aisle of endless stores. To a child, the Taj Mahal has arrived in my backyard of North Attleboro.

Before the mall arrived, Mom would pack up the old station wagon and drive from South Attleboro down the back roads of Cumberland to THE mall which was the Lincoln Mall. To us kids, this was a visit to Disney World with a multiplex cinema, a pet store with puppies, a cafeteria style steakhouse, a piano store where you could play all the instruments, and a giant video arcade that perfectly represented the awesome 80’s. To us kids, it was a dream outside of the multiple stores of simple apparel.

The Emerald Square Mall for us, was right out of the wonderful Wizard of Oz. In the name alone, my early teenage years along with entrance into Coelho Middle School spoke volumes. We would be dropped off by our parents on a weekend afternoon with only $10 in spending money which would last us for hours upon hours as we strutted down the mall corridor and popped into multiple stores to view the endless eye candy of commerce.

The food court provided us a selection right out of the United Nations with options from Italy, China, Mexico and Burger King. A soda cost 75 cents. Aunt Annie Pretzels was not yet a thing. We had an Orange Julius and a popcorn store and a hard candy outlet which sold 1-pound bags for $1.00. Simply put, the Emerald Square Mall began the 90’s for my generation and started our teenage years.

Now, over 30 years later, the Emerald Square Mall, like most malls in the country, are ready to close their doors. The Swansea Mall and the Silver City Galleria have both died deaths that were predicted. They like most malls were doomed to fail if they stayed the course. They accepted their demise and faded away. Talks of Casinos or condo duplexes were talked about for years. In the end, the talking stopped as they are ready to demolish the buildings for future enterprise.

Now, our Emerald Square Mall, which has been a backdrop of Rt 1 and a constant financial investment by the town, is on its way out. Looking back, I question why and what could have been.

In defense of the mall, COVID 19 has kept the people home. This alone has killed many businesses nationwide. Many stores have had no choice but to close their doors before COVID ends.

Amazon has redefined how we shop for goods. Amazon has been slowly but surely killing Main Street and forcing major corporations to rethink business for over a solid decade. In that time, Amazon has put millions out of business by cutting costs and bringing the product to the home.

Geographically, the Emerald Square Mall has always been in competition with the three previous malls that pre-existed before them. With the development of the Wrentham Outlets and the Providence Place Mall, Emerald Square dealt with becoming an older, obsolete mall when newer, bigger, and different product lines became available within a ten-mile radius.

As my generation X grew up and became adults, newer generations inherited the internet and the cell phone. The thought of being dropped off at a mall, away from home, is now considered a challenge and something foreign to many younger people. Many malls lost their audience due to the ongoing upgrades in home entertainment and technology.

Finally, failed management helped make the inevitable happen. The Simon Malls have focused on nothing outside of collecting rents from their stores in the last ten years. Few efforts were made to bring people into the malls in the last twenty years.

For example, the Lincoln Mall died in the late 90’s and was recently reborn. They reopened the cinema, added a bowling alley, brought in a trade school, a grocery store, and a Target as an Anchor store.

Granted, other malls did the same to become a gathering place and not just a giant room of stores to shop in. The Swansea Mall turned into a giant flea market of events and welcomed lower end stores to keep the doors opened. It eventually failed.

At times, the Emerald Square Mall brought in celebrities and musical guests such as Joey McIntyre, Jesse the Body Ventura, Selma Gomez, and sports figures like Cam Neely. Community events like the annual haunted house were huge for us kids in the 90’s. As times went on, less and less events took place as management focused on less community events outside of renting space for an annual carnival.

By default, the Emerald Square Mall has helped the growth of other developments up and down Route 1 that has benefited the community. Several plazas have popped up around the mall which has added to the business sector, but at the same time, hurt the stability of the mall. Geographically, the Lincoln Mall was able to have a re-birth while Swansea, Taunton and North Attleboro were pacing itself to eventually fail and close its doors.

With all this said, I reflect on the past with fond memories. With what could have been, I can only imagine and post blame to defend my fondness for what the Emerald Square Mall meant to many of us.

Soon, the mall will pass away like other store fronts of our youth. Similar to the yellow brick road in the magical world of OZ, the road led the traveler to a great city. The Emerald city. A place where all your dreams would come true no matter who the traveler was. Sadly, my generation has grown up and got old and all the remains is a mall that many do not want or need. Some still see the promise of what the location can become. Others see the loss as their memories from the past fade away.

Frank Durant

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