Rotting Toys and Where to Find Them

By: Rilie Saba

I was somewhat surprised that the motion detector doors still opened as I walked through. There was no blast of heat as I walked in, despite it being far into October. I heard the car lock, the distinct chime rang out as I heard my partner’s footsteps approach me.

“Are you sure that this is the right mall? It looks like everything’s… closed,” they said, eyes flicking between the TJ Maxx and the dilapidated massage spa (that was probably a front for something more illegal given the prices) across the way. We were in search of the closest Best Buy- I really wanted this specific Overwatch keychain that they had been discounting for months at this point (the game had been out for 3 years, so the merchandise wasn’t really new anymore). They released multiple variants of this plush keychain, and I really tried to get all of them given that they were like, three bucks each.

None of the storefronts had their lights on- some had their doors locked, but others remained open. Only the empty shelves and crumpled trash remained. One store that sold cell phone parts had all of the windows smashed in, display counters toppled over and ransacked. There were two teenagers smoking cigarettes in one of the long hallways, the familiar scent curling from the jaws of the corridor. The emptiness started to boil in my chest as I read the store signs. Old gimmick shops lost to time: I just stood there trying to picture the broken shelves filled with colorful statuettes and cheap merchandise. I considered going into some of the stores with open doors to see what junk I could find, but decided that I actually did not want any petty theft charges to result from my curiosity.

“I’m going to go to the bathroom,” my partner said, pointing towards the bathroom sign hanging by one chain. I didn’t want them to leave me alone, but I didn’t want to hold them hostage with me in this decrepit mall either. They stalked off, and my eyes fell upon a small arcade. The paint was most certainly from the 90s or early, but it was still clean. Some of the machines’ lights were burnt out and empty. Loose balls from the skeeball machine laid on the ground with seemingly no shadows. A claw machine sat at the back corner. The lights were bright, music blaring from a garbled sound box. Something smelled wrong- it didn’t smell like biological decay, though. It smelled more chemical, more moldy than anything else.

I peered inside, and the age of this place hit me alongside this new wave of stench. The plushies on top had dollar bills rubber banded to them, the only real incentive to try and rescue them. Large button eyes stared back, but not really at me. Through me, maybe. They were probably added within the past year, given that they were the same Sugar Loaf brand plushies I started to see in the claw machines at the local Walmart.  But underneath them, rotting plushies laid to rest, seemingly buried by their newer brethren: Explained the smell, I guess. Electric neon fur stained black, hyphae curling around the button eyes. If I shook this machine, it probably would have become a fungal snowglobe.

These plushies, this building- they had been left to disintegrate. The shelves once filled with money sinks now sat there in mockery. Just knowing that this place was once a vibrant arcade, probably well loved by the local kids (myself included), and then seeing it as a shell; there’s a sort of sadness tangled within that. It felt as if a part of my childhood was over. Large black buttons stared back at me, gaze as empty as those storefronts.

I found out recently that the Greendale Mall was eventually demolished in 2021 and turned into an Amazon distribution center, but I can only picture the mycelia of those plushies beneath the dirt, waiting to crawl back up to the surface again.

Extras:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WorcesterMA/comments/edw2wj/wishful_thinking_at_the_greendale_mall/ picture of the exact arcade

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greendale_Mall Info on closure.