It was Christmas in the late 1950s and taking the bus to downtown Rochester was a thrill unto itself. McCurdy’s Sibley’s, the smell of roasted nuts at the corner of Main Street and Clinton Avenue -  all made the trip a worthwhile memory. Oh, sure, there were the catalogs and fliers promoting this and that, but it only provided dreams of shopping. It was nothing like experiencing the real thing. Plus if you order through a catalog you would have to wait endless weeks, days, minutes awaiting the prize arrival.

Surely, nothing replaced the actual shopping event like being there in person. The fourth floor of Sibley’s was Toyland, the goal of every male and female baby boomer.

""Okay you can go up there, but meet me under the clock (the large memorable Sibley’s clock located on the first floor by the magic escalators) in a half an hour," was the plea of understanding parents and older siblings.

There was Midtown Plaza, the earlier child of what was to come. It had dozens of stores under one roof. It had the monorail and all the accompanying holiday decorations to boot!

By the mid 60s things began to change. The suburban shopping centers became all the rage. No longer would Rochester downtown be the end all. The same merchandise was available for many- within walking distance.

The parking was much easier and the wide covering over the sidewalk made travelling store-to-store a shopper’s dream.

Downtown Rochester began to slowly fade away and by the 70s the writing was on the wall. One-by-one the then-mega destinations became obsolete. 

But then came the MALL. The fully enclosed mega building with endless miles of walking without the fear of any weather. Surely with hundreds of stores under one roof this was the shopper’s dream come true, the end-all of shopping.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, things and people move on. The internet provided the lazy man/women’s 24/7 shopping experience from the luxury of the recliner.

Not only would you shop online, but numerous vendors provided a cornucopia of choices, prices and quality. "Omigosh, you can get that in burgundy!"

It took little time for a bookseller to expand to the giant we know today as Amazon.

No longer would brick and mortar buildings be the guidelines to shopping. You could shop for anything, everything, in a instant.

As technology advanced the same, or next day delivery arrived at your door. By golly, even food grocery shopping can be had without leaving home... wow.

Of course, pizza was not the only food one never left the home for. Now just about every restaurant fare became little more than a phone call, or computer ordering experience away.  "What, you can have this here in 20 minutes?!"

Some restaurants discovered that waiting tables was no longer necessary. There simply was more profit, again without the major brick and mortar to delivering a meal, or meals on a regular basis.

Wine deliveries became a standard law and practice. There was simply nothing that could be had, that online services could not provide.

Even the young ones now simply pick up a phone to dream about the shopping experience.

What is next? 

It is mind boggling to imagine anything beyond the online world, but than again, who would ever have thought that children of today would never experience downtown Rochester, Sibley’s, the monorail, the smell of roasting nuts along Main Stree, and waiting in line to sit on Santa’s lap? The thrill of the downtown

coming alive for the holidays is all but lost.