10 Original Auburn, Maine, Mall Stores We Wish Would Come Back

The Auburn Mall opened on August 7, 1979, and it was the first mall completely indoor mall to serve the Lewiston/Auburn area and the towns surrounding it. Growing up in Norway and South Paris as a teenager, we would drive the 30 minutes or so it took to get to the Auburn Mall for the food, arcade, music store, and the ability to hang out, back when you didn't have dozens of ways to entertain yourself at your fingertips.

The Auburn Mall originally opened with 50 retailers all under one roof, and if you went to the Auburn Mall on a weekend, it was always packed full of people. Today, that list of stores is 28, with JCPenney, Spencer's, and Thatcher's Restaurant being the only tenants that have been there since the beginning.

At the end of the '80s and into the '90s, shopping malls were on the decline. Thanks to online shopping and the development of shopping centers rather than malls, the Auburn Mall became a victim as well, but it still hangs on.

The Auburn Mall may be a ghost town now, but I have a lot of memories of stores that were there when I was in high school.

Here are 10 original Auburn Mall stores that I wish would come back.

Radio Shack was a geek like me's dream store. I had a Tandy 1000EX computer with 256 KB of RAM and a 5.25" 360 KB floppy disk drive. Today, I have a smartphone with 128 million times the amount of storage as my Tandy.

Papa Gino's held out at the Auburn Mall for a long time as the only Papa Gino's in Maine. It was where we always ate dinner when we went to the mall. That pizza was great, but sadly, it closed in 2018 after 30 years.

In New England, you had two ice cream shops. Friendly's and Deering Ice Cream. They were very similar, but Deering was a little bit better. There was one we went to often in Yarmouth while camping that was eventually taken over by McDonald's near Hannaford Supermarket. McDonald's is also gone in Yarmouth.

Dream Machine was the best video game arcade in the area, except for LaVerdiere's Drug Stores, which had arcades in them. This was back when you were playing games trying to get a high score for a quarter. Those were the days. Luckily, Family Time Dine and Play has done well to take over the role of the mall arcade.

Who remembers going into Musicland and flipping through albums, buying 45s or cassingles to hear your favorite music you heard on the radio any time you wanted? Me! Bull Moose Music is the modern day of the beloved Musicland.

Not gonna lie. Hickory Farms is what I bought as a teenager for my mom for Christmas because I was terrible at coming up with gift ideas. Thinking of that just brings back good memories of Mom.

The organs and pianos were always playing, either with an organist or pianist, or even some that could play automatically. It was the soundtrack of that corner of the Auburn Mall.

Toys 'R Us was in South Portland, but Kaybee Toys was in the Auburn Mall, much closer than the drive to Portland. I stopped in to browse every single time I went to the mall. I bought several Nintendo video games there.

Bookland was a big browsing store for me too. I could spend hours looking through the stacks and stacks of books.

I wish the Great Hot Dog Experience was still at the Auburn Mall, because I don't remember it, and it sounds amazing! It's an experience I never experienced, so I'd like a do-over.