by Alex Lloyd Gross
The Zen Spa and a pretzel stand are all that is left of the stores that were in the Neshaminy Mall. If you are reading this before it closes later tonight, you have a few minutes to get down to see it. Otherwise, you will be relegated to trying to peer through windows.
It is a ghost town. There was a walk through last October 24, 2026 that was organized through social media. There, a few hundred people showed up, someone brought pretzels and soda. People could eat in the food court. There were no stores to eat at. They had long since closed. So people walked, reminisced and took some photos and video. A mall trivia game was organized, with prizes supplied by Boscov’s.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo-Delaware Valley News.com People stroll through the ghost town that used to be the Neshaminy Mall.
There are theories as to why the mall closed. The pandemic certainly did not help, the price of commercial real estate rent is another real reason. Add in online shopping and you get a retail death sentence. Say you want a new camera. The camera shop has experts that can walk you through it and answer your questions. Buying online has some photos and a You Tube video or online forum. The cost is $899.00. Free shipping. Where are you going to buy it at?.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo-Delaware Valley News.com The abandoned mall
On Halloween, the morning and afternoon, the mall was busy with people walking , looking at the stores they used to work in. Remember Woolworths, Spencer Gifts, Sam Goody and Spaceport? Some places were there for decades. Hickory Farms was there for a few years and that was it. It was a great place for a kid to earn some money. Most people has some sort of part time job at a store in a mall growing up.
Buying clothes at the mall meant you got a good fit. Buy it online and you take your chances. Some people brought their dogs.
Mall management should have had signs outside each store, letting people know who occupied that space. People were asking each other where places like Cafe Rivera, or Chess King used to be. Hall Mark closed on October 16.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo-Delaware Valley News.com The exterior of the Neshaminy Mall.
Some stores, with outside entrances will stay open. A hair cutting school, Barnes and Nobel as well as Boscov’s will not close. Niether will the movies. Bloggers, journalists and curious people strolled the mall with cameras, documenting what they could.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo-Delaware Valley News.com Don’t be fooled. The Zen Spa is the ONLY store still open in the mall that does not have an exterior entry way.
The dioramas will be saved. The future plans for the site is unknown. Rumors abound of condos to a shopping district. They are rumors.
Keeping the mall open is expensive. When a pipe breaks, it must be replaced. Light bulbs must be replaced and some infrastructure must be replaced as well. The days of a mainte4nce crew working for $5-$6.00 /hr are over. To keep it functioning costs money. Renters will only pay so much before they are priced out. When the $2500.00 rent jumps to $6500.00 prices have be be raised. Workers need to be paid No one is going to work in a store for $8.50/hr when they can go across the street and get $15,00. All that means the store has to close. Tenants are unwilling to pay a lot for rent unless their store is packed with paying customers all day.
It was a fun time while it lasted.