The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
QUESTION: When was the last time you visited Sunvalley Mall in Concord?
Talk about it….
I visited a couple of weeks ago. It was surprisingly busy and easy to find what I was looking for. Sometimes it’s nice to see in person the item you’re purchasing.
I would have to say 20+ years ago
About 5 years ago. Was considered sub-par back then.
Earlier this year, very disappointed. Sears and Penny’s are the only stores I ever go to at Sunvalley. Penny’s isn’t so bad yet, but Sears was like a ghost town. I doubt that I will ever go to Sunvalley again, there just isn’t anything there that interests me.
RIP Charlie Watts
Dawg, Like your taste in music. If you come to Macy’s and find me I will give you outstanding customer service, however I work in the women’s department.
Has been well over a decade.
At least 10 years but probably closer to 15 years for a quick run into Sears. I don’t even think I went into the actual Mall. If I needed the mall I would make the drive down to Stoneridge in Pleasanton.
B
Fall/Winter of 2020,…and before that, the same in 2019, 2018,..etc.
Bath & Body Works has their 1/2 year sale and I get liquid hand soaps.
Oh, and I stop at Cinnabon too,….YUM!
Approximately six months ago. Interesting the question comes up now, as yesterday I thought well, I have to go back to Macy’s in person because I couldn’t get it online. Goes to show the mindset I suppose.
I’d say though that it has to do more with the Pandemic than anything else, I enjoy getting out when not dealing with a World Virus.
Bella, We look forward to see you at Macy’s. Since the vaccine have been available, we have had many elderly customer’s, who have not been shopping for a year or more. They are making up for it, as we are very busy, and meeting all our sales goals. If you find me I will make sure you get excellent customer service. I enjoy helping customers.
Miss the old mall from WAY back. Movie theater, ice rink, Union Jack’s.
And Anna Miller’s.
I loved Anna Miller’s!
OH!,…Anna Miller’s,…Yes!
It had the best Black Bottom Pie.
6 months?
Put an ice rink in and I’ll go every weekend…but only if I don’t have to wear a mask!
Does the Safeway gas station count? If not maybe five or six years. Maybe longer.
I was there (Sears) last Saturday with my friend returning her shoes. I guess Sears is going out of business. The lower floor is practically empty except for beds! It is depressing to see how Sunvalley has changed! Not good. It was falling apart before the pandemic. It is pitiful.
Actually, no. the Safeway store and the Safeway gas station though attached to SunValley’s property are not a part of the mall. In fact, they aren’t even in the same city as the mall is located in the city limits of Concord, and the Safeway store/gas station, and Nordstrom Rack are located within the city limits of Pleasant Hill.
The Concord/Pleasant Hill city limit line runs right down the middle of the parking lot between the mall and the Safeway store. I am sorry if I sound like a Rain Man here.
Coggins Square it was a joke. Evidently not a good one.
Sometime pre-pandemic. Penny’s was really the only place there worth visiting.
Unless going to the 24 hour fitness there counts, it was before the pandemic.
… a couple years ago… went to Sears tool dept .. they were out of what I wanted – said I could order it online…. went to Macy’s men shop – same didn’t have the color I wanted – said I could order it online….. I tell all of them, that’s why brick & mortar stores are going away… no inventory … I want to see it / touch it / buy it now… and if forced to order it online – I will.
Weird isn’t it. Time to start up another delivery service.
Randy, Often if Macy’s don’t have your size in the store, a sales associate can place the order right there and have it shipped to your house. If the salesperson didn’t do a search on the computer and let you know that possibility they were not doing their job.
I went there somewhere around a year ago to take a teenager to some specialty clothing stores. I got nothing for me. I’m guessing I go there once every two or three years for something so I’m probably not their target customer.
My daughter worked at Andersen Bakery during her junior and senior years of high school, so I picked her up at closing on the days she worked. So, I was a regular in the parking lot 2018-2019. I actually enjoyed the me-time listening to oldies in the car as I waited and watching the employees smoke in the eastern parking lot. I never went inside.
I haven’t been inside since I went to Sears for some sheets around 2012.
In all, since 2001, I’ve been inside the mall maybe three times.
I was better in the 1980s.
@Anonymous….I was much better in the 80s in many ways too…but I regress.
My teens were in the 70s and my twenties were in the 80s, so I’m partial to both those decades.
Best music, by far.
My granddaughter was visiting from south Idaho a month ago and wanted to see a “real California mall”. It was my first trip there in several years. It was an OK experience, but I am aware of at least one mall close to her Idaho home that is superior, in my opinion.
2019. they made me start to buy it all online. thanks sunvalley.
A very long time. There is nothing there for older people, not clothingwise for sure. It’s great if you want athletic shoes and baseball caps I guess
Macy’s has plenty of clothing for older people, we have many women customers in their sixties, seventies and beyond. Besides today there is no rules that says you have to dress like an old person. My girl friend own a boutique in Half Moon Bay until she was 82, she had many older customers and did and do dress very fashionable still.
You mean delta faire mall
That closed years ago due to child thugs and Inept management and rampant theft
Last month for b-day cards at Hallmark. Saw that Disney store will be closing so might go back for that to see if there is anything left for early X-mas shopping.
Not sure what year it was but I went Ice skating and had an Orange Julius.
Went to Macy’s a month or so ago but I don’t know if that counts. The time before that was 2-3yrs ago but because I bought pretzel dogs. Reading about the couple of shootings have made me not want to shop there in addition to not wanting to be present to witnesses more shoplifters in action. I rather shop online.
.
January 2021.
.
I treated my girlfriend to somewnat of a shopping spree at Victoria’s Secret.
.
Oh yeah…. you did it for her!
Not sure of the year but I bought a really cool astrological black light poster and a neck massager at Spencer’s Gifts.
I visited the Sears three years ago. I found a couple of specialty wrenches however the tool department was vacant. So I went over to major appliances where six salespeople vied for my attention. The lady who ran the fastest was able to ring up my purchase.
If Sears would bring back popcorn I would visit more often.
@ FS-
You can find Popcorn in Rossmoor. Past the expiration date and a bit stale though.
I’ve been to restaurants on the outside of the mall like Lucille’s as recently as a few years ago but I haven’t actually been inside the mall for at least 15 years. I try to avoid the place as much as I can.
Same for me. Last time I went was when BJ’s opened and I rushed in… then found out it was a restaurant.
Opry Mills in Nashville is instituting a new policy that youth under 18 must be accompanied by an adult over 21 on Friday and Saturday nights.
New Opry Mills policy calls for youth supervision after 3 p.m. on Friday, Saturday
People don’t shop where they don’t feel safe. That policy probably would help Sun Valley Mall.
Or just ban anyone from over the hill…
Decades.
Lived here since 71 and have never been the that mall. Never felt the need to go there not did my parents.
After not going for many, many years, I got a credit card offer from JCP so I went. Almost everything I looked at was made in China and not very good quality. I bought some underware for the special offer savings. I paid the bill by epayment through my bank, but the JCP bank messed it up and charged me a $30 late fee, about what the bill was. After call after call to correct it they said my payment was misdirected and would refund the late charge. I never saw the refund and after even more calls and being told each time that they would send the refund, it never showed.
It is safe to say I do not want to go through that again and have charged the $30 off as an education fee.
I do not see going the the mall again.
Since I work there, I’m there all the time, although it is rare I go out in the Mall. Most of what I need I can buy at Macy’s, except food of course. So I do at times go to MacDonald’s or the yoghurt place.
My husband and I took our daughter there in the beginning of June. We only went to The Disney Store, it wasn’t really a great mall when I had worked there in the late 90’s but now it felt sketchier than I remembered.
Are we talking about the place being run down or just full of 3rd world types & salty characters?
About three shootings ago.
September 8th 2013
Anybody remember walking into pennys from the underground parking area and to your left where western saddles western wear guns ammo those were the good old days the awesome food court too
@Worried…I remember Penney’s western wear section and the smell of leather, it’s where I got Levis Boot Cut jeans. I don’t remember them selling guns and ammo though, I sure would have noticed that. I wasn’t a big fan of the food court.
I have been taking my 6 month old son there every few weeks to check out the Disney Store. It’s a fun place for him to look around. It’s closing. Disney and David’s Tea were my go to places and now that they’re gone/closing, I won’t go to the mall . Sun Valley is becoming like Hilltop Mall. (Towards the end) . I worked at Hilltop in the early 00’s when we had a Disney Store there, back when the mall was nice. I was a manager for Disney. We had Cinnabon, Sees Candies, Paradise Bakery, Suncoast video, Sweet Factory Candy, and so much more . Now it’s closed entirely and bought out by ProLogis.
I miss the glory days of retail. Before online shopping and social media. It was a destination . For reference I’m 34, so not trying to sound like pops !
went to Macy’s two years ago to buy a sofa before that maybe ten years. Oh yeah, went there for a Cinnabon twice.
Haven’t been actually inside the mall in years, stopped going when the place became just way too ghetto. But then a couple months ago had lunch outside at BJ’s right by the walkway to one of the mall entrances…the stream of “clientele” going in/out in the hour I was sitting there confirmed my previous reasoning for no longer stepping foot inside that trash heap.
Another example where stealing is permitted and this is what happens. It was many years ago a fairly decent mall now it is just a collection of thieves waiting for their next victim.
Amen brother.
@Sam Malone, Stealing happens, however when you take into account how many people are in the Mall every day, it is still in the minority. I use to work at the Stanford Mall in Palo Alto (Macy’s) it is an upscale mall in a very affluent area, in fact Atherton has the highest median income in the US, and is located just 10 minutes from the Mall, however stealing happened there as well, both at Macy’s and in the Mall, as well as breaking into cars in the parking garage (I was a victim myself). I can also tell you that thieves are often caught, and turned over to the police. Macy’s have their own security and the Mall has security, but they can’t be everywhere at once. As a sales associate I know how to spot suspicious behavior, and notify security. Security at our store blend in with customer’s so you don’t know who they are. At times we do have someone by the exits wearing a red jacket that says security on it. They are hired on a needs basis from an outside agency, but the security that is part of Macy’s do not wear uniforms.
I once worked for Radio Shack at Sun Valley, but that was many years ago. The pay was terrible and the hours sucked, but there were a lot of things I especially liked. I enjoyed the product training and really got into the “you’ve got questions, we’ve got answers” mindset.
By the time I worked there, Sun Valley’s Food Court was long gone. I was a big fan of the Hof Brau, and they gave me a discount for working at the mall.
Sun Valley was where we always took our kids to visit Santa Claus. And I remember the time when they put a snow machine in one of the parking garages, so I took my Cub Scouts to get skiing lessons.
Probably a year? I’m not going back since the shootings.
A few months ago I bought some liquid soap on sale at Bath & Bodyworks.
Walked through the dark graveyard that is called Sears and went downstairs to buy a gas range. There was hardly anything to choose from.
Now that Yankee Candle is closed down, I wonder when I’ll go back.
I keep seeing comments saying people at the Mall are from the ghetto, what exactly is meant by that, and how do you know.
Customers at Macy’s are very diverse, most are middle class, they buy back to school clothes, or items for an event or vacation. They pay either cash, Macy’s card, or debit card.
The mall needs a refresh.I went to the new food court and there were like 3 open restaurants with a bunch of thug types yelling and playing around, scaring the families.
There are no restrooms closeby! A parent must go to the 2nd floor and curve around a weird area to locate the restrooms.
Bring common sense back. Put restrooms where they should be. The alternative: people will stop coming to this mall, frustrated. This will turn into another HILLTOP MALL or BAYFAIR MALL. Copy successful malls such as STONESTOWN MALL and SERRAMONTE MALL, both refreshed in a logical layout. I believe SOLANO MALL is nothing but a Senior Citizen’s hangout who sit around all day and don’t buy anything, repelling normal customers who really want to spend money.
I had to go there for something maybe a year ago. There was nothing really positive about the mall to make we want to visit, and given the option would choose to drive further for a different mall.
In January 2019. They had a currency exchange booth near the center courtyard, which I now understand has closed. With this, I now have no reason to return.