7 Businesses in Auburn, Maine, I Miss Terribly

When I was a teenager with a fresh new driver's license at the age of 15 and my grandfather's old, beat-up Ford F-100, I drove through Auburn, Maine, at least once a week. It's where all the teenagers went for entertainment. The movie theaters were there, department stores, arcades, and great places to eat.

Most of the places I would go were at the Auburn Mall, which is now just a shadow of its former self, sadly.

Here are 7 businesses that were in Auburn that I miss.

Kmart

Kmart is the first department store I ever set foot in.

I remember the location in Falmouth had a dinner right in the middle of the store and a massive toy aisle.

The Kmart in the picture above is across from the Auburn Mall and closed at the end of 2019.

Gifford’s Ice Cream

Gifford's Ice Cream stand on Minot Avenue in Auburn, unfortunately, wasn't around for very long, but their ice cream is amazing!

Getting a cone there was the best on a nice sunny day.

I may be eating a bowl of Gifford's Peanut Butter Pie right now.

Deering Ice Cream

Deering Ice Cream was one of the first tenants at the Auburn Mall.

Not only did they have great ice cream, but they had a menu chock-full of stuff that every kid loved.

Dream Machine

When I was at the Auburn Mall, this was the place I went to the most.

As a video game and pinball nerd, this was my happy place.

Family Time Dine and Play fills that void at the Auburn Mall today, and I highly recommend it.

Kaybee Toys

This is the toy store where I bought my Super Nintendo in 1991.

Before that, I bought the NES console at Woolworth's in South Paris.

Both of these stores are now gone, with Kaybee Toys closing all its stores in 2009.

Papa Gino's

The only Papa Gino's restaurant in Maine was at the Auburn Mall for 30 years.

It's where we'd all grab dinner when we visited the mall as teenagers.

The company filed for bankruptcy but was bought by the same company that owns D'Angelo's sandwich shop.

There are still 79 Papa Gino's in business in every New England state except Vermont and Maine.

READ MORE: Picnic With Cherry Blossoms on Maine's Largest Cherry Farm

Radio Shack

Radio Shack in the Auburn Mall was where I bought my second computer in 1986. It was a Tandy 1000EX with a built-in floppy drive, an external floppy drive, a CRT monitor, and a dot-matrix printer.  Full Geek mode here, but I do miss that store.