Then & Now
Grandin Mall Safeway, May 1981; Musée Héritage Museum.
Grandin Mall Interior, May 1981; Musée Héritage Museum.
St. Albert’s Malls
Then & Now
BY ROBERT MICHON
THOUGH ‘DEPARTMENT STORES’
had been around in North America for a hundred years, beginning in the 1950s indoor ‘shopping ma lls’—where sepa rate businesses set up shop under one roof—began sweeping the nation. These were public places that were wa rm in the winter a nd cool in the summer; places where you could meet friends, shop for hours, or just hang out. In short, they were a modern urban oasis. But shopping habits have changed, and the concept of the mall doesn’t have as wide of an appeal as it 28 T8Nmagazine.com
once did. With the rise of online shopping and the popularity of big-box stores, shopping malls are in decline all over the country. While the golden age of the shopping mall is past, it’s certainly left its mark on St. Albert.
1960s St. Albert’s first shopping centre was known as Grandin Shopper’s Park, though most of us will remember it as Grandin Mall. It first opened in 1962, as an open-air strip mall boasting over a dozen shops. For the first time, you could visit the bakery, the drug store, the bank, the grocery store, and more, all in one trip. The open-air part of the mall
