An ode to Lakeside Mall, the forgotten crown jewel of Michigan malls (2024)

The year is 2007. I’m a sophom*ore in high school, it’s a Friday night and I want to go buy the new album by my favorite band Paramore. The only place I know where to get it is the FYE store at Lakeside Mall -- the mall that I had been to what felt like hundreds of times before. I figure out I have enough money to buy it, so I ask my parents for a ride to the mall so I can meet my friends there to hangout and walk around, just like so many teens did before me.

That’s just one of the memories I have of Lakeside. Those memories inside that giant mall will soon fade away when Lakeside is closed for good on Sunday, June 30, and then later demolished. It will be a bittersweet day for the countless amount of people that have memories of walking around that mall.

I’m not even sure when my memories of Lakeside start, because I just always remember it in my life. As anyone who grew up in Macomb County knows, there isn’t a whole lot to do, especially way back in the day. When you were bored, or wanted some light entertainment for your kids, taking them to Lakeside for an afternoon was a fantastic option.

From the breakfast food play area (a favorite of mine), ice skating rink, the fancy larger-than-life sculptures and even a waterslide, Lakeside was so much more than just getting some shopping done. Although at the end of the day, the shopping was the best part.

When it was time to go back-to-school shopping we went to Lakeside. When it was time to get a suit for my grandmother’s funeral, we went to Lakeside. When I wanted to buy my own clothes for the first time in high school, I went to Lakeside. Heck, it was the place where I first met Santa and the Easter Bunny.

From the many iterations of Macy’s Department Store to my favorite store of all time, Hot Topic, Lakeside was so much more than just a mall. It was a place where you went with your friends and family just to hang out and have some fun. The memories that it holds for so many Metro Detroit eastsiders is endless.

I know that there are other malls in and around Metro Detroit, but they really never compared to Lakeside. Somerset is a fun place to visit, but it often feels very fancy and high end. Macomb Mall is fine, but it certainly isn’t no Lakeside. Even Oakland Mall, which looks and feels a lot like Lakeside, just can’t compare to the scale of this soon-to-be closed mall.

It’s sad that in many ways, the internet has destroyed shopping malls and the culture surrounding it in the last 15 years or so. The last time I went to Lakeside was 2021, and even though I was going there just to shop at Macy’s, I did a quick lap around the mall, and so many memories came flooding back to me. While I didn’t recognize most of the very few stores that were there, you can’t help but think back to trying free samples inside the food court, or how cool you felt riding the escalator with your friends from high school after a shopping spree at Abercrombie or Hollister. It kind of bums me out that kids and teens growing up won’t have those kind of memories.

Shopping mall culture is so ingrained into our lives, so it’s hard to see it change into something else. Will teens today really understand what it felt like when you went to the mall for the first time with your friends without your parents? Or having your first job be at the Auntie Anne’s or Claire’s?

Like they say, all good things must come to an end, and this is the end of the road for Lakeside. Macy’s and JCPenney will still remain, but the rest of the site will be turned into retail, office and and residential space, along with a park and a hotel.

I’m sure it will all be lovely, and probably fill the needs of that area of Sterling Heights, but it just will never be the same. Long may you live, Lakeside Mall, and thanks for the countless memories.