Like many kids who grew up in the 1990s and early 2000s, an abundance of my time was spent at our local shopping mall at the Disney Store in Monroeville, PA, about 20 minutes outside of Pittsburgh.

I wasn’t necessarily going to the mall to shop at the time, but more so because my mom worked retail at quite a few stores in the mall while I was growing up.

Looking back on what was, at the time, more of a convenience for my parents juggling their schedules so that my brother and I never needed a babysitter turned out to be absolute heaven for me.

My Love for Animation Begins

For most of my early childhood, my mom worked at The Warner Brothers Studio Store in that same mall.

That store was the coolest!

I still remember the giant statue of Bugs Bunny that greeted guests at the store’s entrance vividly; the endless amounts of toys covering the walls, and especially the enormous set of TV monitors on the back wall of the store that had the crown jewel of the mall at its base: Marvin the Martian’s spaceship.

Kids could crawl in and watch different shorts featuring the wacky space cadet. I think her job undoubtedly started my love of animation.

For as much as I enjoyed going to the WB Store or how cool I felt being able to hang out in the back stock room; the highlight of every mall trip was being able to go to my absolute favorite place: no, not Chick-fil-A (although it was a close second), but rather The Disney Store.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking, there once was a time when both a Disney Store and Warner Bros. Store existed in the same building?

How?

When?

What a time to be alive!

The Disney Store Catalog: My Unofficial Christmas List

Back then no mall trip was complete until I was able to take a stroll up to The Disney Store and pick up their latest catalog. I’m sure my parents got sick of my routine, because I know it was the exact same every single time.

To be fair though, they never had trouble prying Christmas gift ideas out of me.

I’d walk into the store and marvel at the sights and sounds before heading straight to the massive tower of stuffed animals at the back of the store. I always had to check to see if there were new characters that I wanted to add to my Winnie the Pooh plush collection (some of which still sit in my home office nearly 20 years later).

I loved how the large statues of characters from my favorite movies lined the walls - Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians, and of course, Mickey and the gang - mixed with the hints of fun Disney music, movie clips, and cartoons playing on the screens throughout the store made for a simply magical experience for a kid like me.

The Closest I Could Get to the Disney Parks

I had never been to any Disney theme park to that point in my life, but every time I stepped into that store the feeling 5-year old me got was damn-near close to the feeling I get every time I walk down Main Street today.

It was my happy place before I could comprehend what those words even meant.

As time passed, one by one, Disney Stores around Pittsburgh and across the country all began to close.

But through all of the closures, one location close to home was able to hold the test of time at the South Hills Village Mall. That is until it was announced in early March that the last remaining Disney Store location in Pittsburgh would be closing its doors on March 23, 2021.

Tipping off the Local Pittsburgh News Stations

I’m not certain, but I like to think that my tweet made some people in the Pittsburgh media market realize that this was a rather big deal.

A few of my best friends in college and I all worked at the same local news station, and still have mutual followers working there today.

All of us interacted with the tweet a day before the station put anything out on their social accounts.

You’re welcome, fellow Disney-loving yinzers!

Although this wasn’t a frequent shopping destination for me personally, I had been to this mall a handful of times specifically to visit the Disney Store over the course of the past few years.

I knew I had to visit one last time before the store closed its doors forever.

Tori and I took a trip to the mall on March 13 and waited nearly 15 minutes to even get in. As Tori put it, we should be used to waiting in line when it comes to Disney stuff at this point.

Hit Me Right in the Feels

Upon entering the store most of the inventory had already been snatched up. It was merely a skeleton of its former magical self, with many of the walls completely barren of merchandise.

One detail that made me incredibly happy, though, was that after all these years, and many Disney Store remodels taking place across the country, the large figures that I so fondly remembered from my childhood were still hanging from the store’s ceilings.

Amidst all of the sadness I felt about the store closing, I couldn’t help but smile at the nostalgia factor for the entirety of the time we were there.

It’s truly unfortunate that future children will not be able to experience a store quite like this. Sure, there’s a plethora of Disney merchandise that can be easily purchased anywhere with the tap of a finger, but something about going to the store and browsing made for such a magical experience.

The doors to the store may be closing for good, but my childhood memories will almost certainly live on for quite a while longer.

…

The store has now been closed for nearly two years, but it turns out that the South Hills Village Mall is now my go-to shopping destination.

It’s probably a good thing that the store has since closed, at least for the sake of my bank account.

Though, every time I walk past that previously colorful marquee that has now been painted a stark, corporate white, I can’t help but smile a little bit as I think back to all of the amazing memories that the Disney Store brought to my childhood.