I was born in 1975 and I grew up right across the street from the place Vertu shopping mall. Both sears and Kmart were visible from our front lawn, before the redevelopment started bringing in condos across from it on Cavendish Boulevard. Back in the 70s and 80s, the mall used to be booming.
They always had mountain lions and petting zoos. We also had an indoor McDonald's in the main atrium. That particular section of the mall is completely dead now. Since Covid, the McDonald's disappeared. I think that was the main meeting spot, because it was right across from the main atrium.
We had Cole's, Sears, Hallmark, Laura, Laura Petites, marks & Spencer, Laura secord, HMV, music world, Mmmmmmuffins, Cumberland Drugs, the liquor commission, a pet shop, k-mart, Zellers, lots of top-tier women's fashion boutiques, a restaurant by the name of Les Jardins Vertu, which was there since the mall was built. there was a Levi's 1851, lots of cool men's wear stores, shoe stores, Stokes, Le Rouet, and other kitchen gadgets stores.
The Sears and The Bay were both two floors, with an escalator going up/coming down in the centre of the store.
their own restaurant/cafeteria that you could eat at, if you didn't feel like eating in the food court.
The present food court is an absolute joke. It is mostly Asian cuisine.
The place Vertu mall was always an excuse for me to skip classes during high school, because it was so fun and it was within a few minutes walking distance from my high school . Nowadays, I wouldn't even bring my kids to shop there.
Now the building is a dump and it should be torn down. It would be more valuable as a parking lot for an airport. I blame the demise of on all the people who came into this country and took over with their international stores
I remember in the late 80s and throughout the 90s, you could spend the entire day in the mall, and there was always something interesting to do, and always a chance to meet up with the neighbours on my street.
We would spend hours in Kmart, especially in the audio department. They always had the best electronics!
And speaking of electronics..... the mall had one of the most incredible Radio Shack stores. All our electronic Christmas gifts came from there., otherwise they were from Kmart or Zellers, or the Woolco across the street at the Le Bazar shopping mall.
We were also lucky enough to shop in Laval, at miracle Mart and Simpsons.
Every Christmas, at Place Vertu, there would be the most epic Santa Claus photo booth, where you could meet Santa and have your photo taken with him.
All the memories! And we always had McDonald's after that, which was right across from Santa, under the main atrium.
Over the last 20 years, they filled all the fountains and sunken areas in, leveling the floor where the main atrium is, Making it look like a big empty room. Now that the McDonald's is gone, all the life has gone from that place. What used to be a very wonderful memory is now a very bittersweet headache for me.
I'm actually glad I moved away from that part of Montreal 27 years ago. It's absolutely disgusting what happened to that mall! I blame the people living around there, who let it fall into such poor condition read more