El Con Mall

Worst potholes in the Tucson area are in El Con parking lot/roadways!!! Try to stay away so my car stays intact!!!

A mall would make one think shopping, not so at El Con. There is probably a total of 3-4 stores located inside this indoor center and none of them are of any quality. It's desolate and depressing. It is a historic landmark for being Tucson's first indoor shopping center, the site of the original El Conquistador Hotel. A complete renovation or tearing the place down would be a good thing as this shopping center has done nothing but struggle and decend into a slow, torturous death. The places surrounding El Con are decent however, a Target, Home Depot, Ross, a few restaurants of the sit-down and fast-food varieties, and a great movie theatre... just do not enter the doors which lead inside.

The last two times I visited I was disappointed at how many housewares items weren't priced, nor was the price reflected on signing. The previous time I was there the person in housewares left and I had to take my merchandise upstairs to be rung up. This time there was a pleasant woman working who asked if she could help and made small talk. Upon arriving upstairs, a young lady in shoes was inches away but didn't address me. Another woman in shoes spoke to me along with a manager. I also grabbed a t-shirt for my son but it rang up $2 more than what the sign reflected. I know it's only $2 but he didn't really need it and I was only spending the money to reach the amount needed to use my coupon. The young lady told me it could be the price on the front or the back of the sign to which I informed her it appears to the customer the clothing on one side of the rack is $5 and the other side is $7. She was able to mark the price down and I thanked her. My other complaint is there often is only one register open on each floor with a long wait. I get good deals with sales and coupons so I enjoy that but this location could be greatly improved.

Huge mall with tons of shopping.There is big theater. Love the large seats.Huge parking lot.Easy access.

This isn't really a mall anymore. It's a collection of low-end big boxes with air-conditioned hallways in between. At the bottom is the supervillain Walmart, then your Home Depot and Target on opposite ends where the anchor department stores used to be.The obligatory movie theater is decent (for a mainstream one), and boosts the mall up to 1-star.It's tragic, really, this used to be the best mall in Tucson. The closest experience I have to something going this far downhill was when I returned to live in my house in Mid-City New Orleans after Katrina. Watching a neighborhood die is just depressing. What the hell happened to this place?

This is not a bad place to come when you need something or have something in particular in mind. It is not a regular mall to just hang out. The only reason why it is called a mall at all is because it used to be a mall. The big box stores are what saved this property and made it to where it is even here today. They have a good selection of stores and there is parking for miles. Some of the roads around are confusing in terms of driving from one end to the other and the parking lots need to be repaved.

It's always great to see a Mall on its death throes. Built in the 60's, they (greedy real estate scum) sacrificed a great hotel (El conquistador hotel) for it. During its hey day it attracted most of the dull people in town until eventually they got bored. Now its empty but they have brought in some bland new tenants (Super Store USA crap). You can sit and eat yogurt while staring at an empty mall. Hopefully they'll lose millions on the investment. Karma from the El conquistador hotel, hahhaha!

If you have nothing nice to say about someone, don't say it at all.That is true of El Con. Soon, this mall will be no more. It is just a shell of emptiness. It's a great place to hear echoes. Surrounded by many neat things (if you can call them that) such as the mall, Target and various fast food eateries, there is nothing left for El Con it seems.The memories here are what make this so sad. Once long ago El Con was an open air mall. When it was enclosed, it contained so many neat shops. It was hopping. This is where I came as a kid for Sam's Pretzels. A great video store was here. A food court with a second story! (yes, imagine that, but it's back there, sealed off or demolished by Target at this point). The mall was really going. They held huge baseball/trading card sales there and brought in celebrities. Before I could drink, my parents brought me to "Tequilla Mockingbird" for free appetizers. Loved that name.Now El Con has barely anything. At some point a decades old barber shop was or is still there, and a sad little poster store. El Con has nothing to offer except a place to walk around and ponder what could have been and now will probably never be.

This is really sad. I grew up with this mall and it was never the hippest or coolest mall...but it was a nice place to walk in the A/C and go to the movies or a restaurant. I recently returned to Tucson to find its no longer a mall but really just an unwalkable generic plaza. Whoever reimagined El Con has no shopping experience whatsoever. This place had such potential. There was such history with El Con being the first "mall" in Tucson. They should have left the interior walkway and designed it as an open air mall with benches and plants and lighting. You should be able to walk from Walmart to Target to the the movie theatres. The interior space is like a back alleyway with garbage cans and dirt. Such potential lost. Think La Encantada with more mainstream stores. This could have been lively with its proximity to UofA and downtown. Its history of the El Conquistidor. The beautiful home architecture in the area. But now its a mishmash of stores you have to get in your car to drive from one end to the other. Its just an epic fail. The owner of the mall (who I understand is a sports person) has no idea what El Con meant to Tucson or its history. This could have been renovated into a beautiful, outdoor, brick-lined shopping experience. Now its just another asphalt plaza mess that makes it even more miserable. There is still hope. Someone could come in and use that alley space now as the main corridor again. But I fear they never will. Tucson lost a bit of its history with the destruction of this place.

I was going to say something snarky here. Something like, "I've never had anybody close to me die yet. Therefore, I've never really been to a cemetery, though I think I would really like to go... not for fun, but to pay my respects & whatnot. So I go to El Con whenever I feel like visiting a cemetery, because it's about the same thing: visiting the grave of a dearly departed stranger."But really, El Con's not dead, right? It's just... spectacularly dying. It's pretty much tied up its loose ends, written a will, bought a coffin... & now it's on life support, barely hanging on. Probably waiting for the last of its great-great-great-grandchildren to show up to say goodbye, so it can pass away peacefully, without regrets.What's the anchor store in this place, anyway? Ross? The movie theater? The poster store? Oh... it's the In-&-Out, isn't it! (JCPenney doesn't count -- the one time I went in there, it was as dead as the hallway.)I almost feel bad picking on it. :( Maybe they should turn this into a nursing home for malls, where dead or dying stores/concepts can come live out the last stretch of their lives?Poor, poor, stinky El Con. Old & dying & nobody loves him... hopefully somebody will pull that plug soon & put him outta his sad, pathetic misery...