Mall of Memphis

"I was one of the people who opened the Thalhimers store in MOM in the early 80's. The senior staff, including me, was a mix of Thalhimers employees from other locations and local Memphis retail managers (mostly from Goldsmith's and Dillard's). The store manager was Dorman Hartley, the assistant managers were Ann Allen and Keith Darling. David McDonald was Operations Manager, Forrest Smith was in charge of the Loading Dock and Maintenance, Robbie Robertson was Security, Debbie Jacobs was Special Events, and Steve Danz was in charge of the Sword and Kilt Restaurant. The opening of the MOM store was Thalhimers bid to expand beyond its traditional Virginia-NC-SC trading area. I remember that the store opened to great fanfare. The extensive use of marble throughout the store provided a very sophisticated and modern atmosphere.

I left a year or so after the store opened so I don't know what happened after that, other than changes in ownership of the Thalhimers chain in the late 80's or early 90's quickly spelled its demise. Ironically, I went to work for H.J. Wilson in Baton Rouge, LA, the owners of Wilsons - which soon became Service Merchandise.

MOM was a beautiful mall, and had several innovative features for the time (the skating rink for one). I'm sorry to hear that it died such an ignominious (sp?) death. "

Scott Lippmann LippmannDOTScottATgmailDOTcom

Thalhimers was in Mall of Memphis up until the early ‘90s

I found about Mall of Memphis because of Thalhimers. They were based in Richmond, and they reigned as one of Virginia’s premier department stores for nearly 150 years. They opened the Memphis store as part of a planned expansion into the mid-South that never took off. When Thalhimers sold out to The May Department Stores Co, they sold the Memphis store, along with two stores in Charleston, S.C., to Dillard’s, creating the Dillard’s “double-header” at the mall.

Steven Swain (Steven provided the store logo for this page also. Thanks Steven!)

Thalmimers West entrance upstairs coming in by by housewares and electronics.

You could also go around to the north side of the building where the double story entry was or even the main entry (which was not through the mall) There were two entries by way of inside the mall and yet another entry downstairs in shoes by way of the east side of second floor opposite this entry shown.

Mark H. 6/24/2007

4/18/2008

Heather Bacon sent us this image of a Thalhimers shopping bag from the Mall of Memphis circa 1980s. Thanks Heather!

12/2/2009

Let's not forget that Thalhimers had a restaurant inside the store called "Sword and Kilt". It was on the upper level, you had to go through the store to access the restaurant. As I recall, the restaurant entrance inside the store was rather inconspicuous. I went to eat there with my mother when I was around 10 years old, and I recall the restaurant being somewhat dark and moody (not in a bad way). We got to sit at a table that overlooked the north parking lot (I say "north", it was the side that faced I-240 I think). I also remember near the hostess' podium they had a little table with things for kids. I got a couple of cardboard Thalhimer's delivery trucks (you know, the kind you have to tear the perforations, then put Tab A into Slot A, etc.). I had these for a while in my room at home... ahh, memories!

Remembering the Marketplace of the Midsouth