Ultra Swank - Retro Adventures

shopping centre

Shopping Spree – Part 11
Written by Christopher in Stores

Shopping Spree – Part 11

The Shopping Spree article series continues with part 11. As usual we head back 50 years or so to visit the stylish, kitschy and sometimes strange looking malls and shopping centers of the past. This time we take a look at Montgomery Ward, Woolco, Randhurst Mall and Colonial Plaza in Orlando. Like most of us retro lovers know, time stands still in photographs, but progress...

Shopping Spree – Part 10
Written by Christopher in Stores

Shopping Spree – Part 10

Let’s kick off the new year by spending some of your hard earned money at the local shopping center. Perhaps a new color television, that swank black suit that’s now on sale or why not a new kitchen appliance for the wifey? There is something for everyone. Where shall we go first? Montgomery Ward, SS Kresge, Publix or Woolco? I am sure many of you...

IKEA Design and Identity Through the Years

This book looks really swell! There are probably no one left in the world who hasn’t heard about IKEA with its affordable build-it-your-self-furniture concept. Ingvar Kamprad, the man behind IKEA was only seventeen when started his soon to be blooming enterprise in 1943. Ten years later he opened his first IKEA store in Sweden. Today there are over 200 stores worldwide and as much as...

Shopping Spree – Part 9
Written by Christopher in Stores

Shopping Spree – Part 9

Don’t know what to spend that extra cash on? Don’t worry, there is still time. Our stores are open at convenient times and located just around the corner here in Yester Sweden. Today we are traveling back in time to visit Stockholm and Hudiksvall (north of Stockholm) where you can slowly waltz through the many isles of exotic groceries, the latest fashion, brand new color...

More Photos from Väla Centrum – A Kitschy Swedish Shopping Mall

I recently found some more photos of my favorite shopping mall in southern Sweden – Väla Centrum. It was built in 1974 outside of Helsingborg and took its inspiration from American shopping malls of the time – meaning that it didn’t look typically Scandinavian or traditional, which I really love. It even had a bird cage with live canaries up until the circa the mid 1980s....

Väla Centrum – A Kitschy Swedish Shopping Mall

Väla Centrum is a shopping mall located in southern Sweden just outside of Helsingborg. This is the mall I grew up with. Many, many Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons were spent here as I took the car south going shopping with my family as a kid back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Väla Centrum was built in 1974 and was at its opening...

Video

This is a cut from a educational promotion film that explains some aspects on why Täby Centrum was built. The film is in Swedish and narrated by the architect of the center who explains some particulars about it. If you look closely you will see the Domus sign in the background on the second floor of the mall. Domus was one of the typical anchor...

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