Buffalo in the ’80s: Hills at Transit & Main

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Not sure what Buffalonians will have more fun remembering: Hills or gas prices at $1.13.

Buffalo News archives

Buffalo News archives

The shopping plaza known as the Clarence Mall, complete with empty Ames, G&G Fitness and Burlington Coat Factory stores, was bulldozed in 2005 when the name was changed to the Shops at Main/Transit.

Barnes & Noble, Old Country Buffet and Bed, Bath, & Beyond now fill the retail strip between the Eastern Hills Mall and Main Street along Transit.

Bells Markets and Liberty Shoes were among the stores at the Clarence Mall in 1981.

Bells Markets and Liberty Shoes were among the stores at the Clarence Mall in 1981.

When the Clarence Mall held its grand opening in 1967, ads called the place “the shopping plaza of superlatives.”

clarencemall67

Grant City, the fourteenth store in the W.T. Grant chain, was by far the largest at 135,000 square feet when it opened. The 30,000-square-foot Park Edge grocery store that opened at the plaza was the largest in Western New York, with “the area’s largest dairy case,” measuring 80 feet long with four levels.

parkedge-1967

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Steve Cichon

Steve Cichon writes about Buffalo’s pop culture history. His stories of Buffalo's past have appeared more than 1600 times in The Buffalo News. He's a proud Buffalonian helping the world experience the city he loves. Since the earliest days of the internet, Cichon's been creating content celebrating the people, places, and ideas that make Buffalo unique and special. The 25-year veteran of Buffalo radio and television has written five books and curates The Buffalo Stories Archives-- hundreds of thousands of books, images, and audio/visual media which tell the stories of who we are in Western New York.