Mall's teardown conjures memories, sadness

Over the years I have paid more attention to shopping opportunities in a community than I expect most males my age have had to in their lives. It isn't that I particularly enjoy shopping, but rather I know the number of stores and restaurants in a community help contribute to its quality of life. Before moving to Findlay, I lived and worked Up North in Michigan, as in four hours north of Detroit Up North. And, as publisher of the local newspaper in Alpena, it was one of my responsibilities to find and hire qualified workers for the newspaper. While that is straight forward enough, up until five years ago that meant I needed to find people who didn't need Starbucks every morning of their life, since the closest store was three hours away. It meant that shopping at stores like Target and Old Navy or eating at restaurants like Olive Garden and Cracker Barrel were also three hours away. If you loved woods and water, Alpena — located along Lake Huron — was the place to live. If you needed chain stores and restaurants, well … good luck. I used to tell applicants I interviewed "that a view of the bay is half the pay" in an attempt to soften the shopping reality. And while most of the applicants I interviewed understood that reality, more times than I care to admit, their family members had trouble coming to grips with the thought of living in a community so off the beaten track. It really did take a special person with a positive perspective to succeed there. Imagine Diane and my delight then when we moved to Findlay. It was as if we were two kids in a candy store, or in this instance two kids inside Dietsch Brothers with all its flavors. From our perspective, shopping opportunities were around every corner and restaurant choices were endless. And they still are. But I have to tell you I have been more than a little sad and distraught watching the Findlay Mall come tumbling down. It isn't like I ever grew up with the facility and have warm memories of it. No, my sadness for it instead comes from thinking about what it must have been like in its heyday, and wondering if we ever will see a shopping experience like that in the future. Trust me, nothing is worse than seeing an empty big box store and the vacant parking lot around it. Toward that end I am pleased Target will eventually move into the demolished area where the mall once stood. I believe area residents will love and enjoy the shopping opportunity Target brings to the community. But I wonder what happened to the mall experience that my family and I grew up with. Why did many malls suddenly become dinosaurs? Why did indoor shopping at stores like Elder-Beerman, Sears or JCPenney suddenly go out-of-style? One has to look no further than out at Production Drive and the Amazon Warehouse to discover much of the answer to those questions. Certainly shopping from the comfort of your pajamas at home explains why many shopping patterns changed. If there is anything that is a constant in the world of shopping though, I believe this is it: The shopping experience is ever fluid, ever changing and often, cyclical in nature. Thus, like residents must have been thinking in 1962 when the mall complex in Findlay first opened, then again in the 1970's when it was entirely enclosed, someday in the future our grandkids or great-grandkids will probably be shopping at a mall again. Robots might be cashiers and artificial intelligence might critique how a piece of clothing looks on us, but I expect one day a newer version of mall shopping will arrive. The shopping and dining landscape is ever evolving. That's true even Up North. Heck, last year Alpena gained its first Starbucks. Sometimes progress is measured one pumpkin latte at a time.