"We can’t stop change. All we can do is hold onto our memories."
-- Peggie Schmechel, 86, who was a store detective in downtown Tampa’s Maas Brothers department store
Malls throughout the country continue to lose anchor tenants like Sears and J. C. Penney while some of the shopping complexes are closing altogether or seeking to reinvent themselves in this era of online buying.
Those raised during the 1970s and 1980s are nostalgic for youthful days spent at malls teeming with life.
Those born earlier are reminiscing, too — about the last time there was a monumental switch in the way people shopped.
Before the age of malls, downtown shopping districts on both sides of Tampa Bay were the center of commerce.
Read more at the Tampa Bay Times.