I used to LOOOOOVE coming to Aviation Mall back in the day when I was nothing more than a pip squeak little kid! I used to love visiting this super busy mall, walking around with my parents, checking out all the cool stores.
It has probably been nearly 20 years or so, since I stepped foot in this place and WOW... this mall is like a ghost town! It had a completely different energy/vibe about it, there were hardly any open stores in here, and to be honest barely any people!!! How is this mall still open if no one comes here? In many of the stores... I didn't even see people working!?!?!?
It was shocking to say the least... I do not think I have ever seen a mall with some many vacant spaces EVER. The entire food court literally had nothing, except for one fast food Chinese space.... how sad and depressing????? :( Needless to say, since my mom and I were hungry we decided to high tail it out of there and search yelp for some better quality healthy local eating options.
On a positive note - the mall is still very well kept, clean, good signage for the few businesses that are still there. The mall still offers your basic larger corporate anchor shops/stores for shoes, clothing, etc....such as Sears, a Target, Bon-Ton, JC Penny's, a Dick's, and a movie theater. However, all of these major retail stores even seemed to be lacking in energy and inventory - they all seemed smaller than retail locations at lets say Crossgates Mall or Colonie Center down in the capital region.
Ultimately, the mall has not yet hit rock bottom YET, but it is certainly on "life-supprt" slowing dying ... I think that with a matter of a few years this mall will sadly close down completely. I feel as though internet sales and online stores like amazon/ebay, and bigger retailers like Walmarts are thrashing old school enclosed malls like this, and unfortunately they just can't compete with the lower prices and free shipping. I will miss you Aviation Mall, but I will always remember the good times had here as a child. Most likely, I will not be returning or recommending others to come here ... I would prefer to go to Wilton Mall in Saratoga if in doubt... it's a bit closer to where we are located in the Adirondack's and it has more to offer. read more