Most people may remember visiting the Fairlane Village mall, especially as a child, and enjoying a freshly baked pretzel and an RC Cola while shopping.
That ritual is now a permanent memory since Village Pretzel closed in December.
Georgia Thomas, Pottsville, who was the manager, said Thursday that the stand opened in August 1975 and while a combination of things led to its closing, one of the major things was a declining business over the last three years.
"It closed the end of the year and people are just now coming to me saying I can't believe the pretzel stand closed," Thomas said. "It was a hangout."
Thomas said she started working there in July 1976 and it was her first and only job.
She started working during the summer between her junior and senior year of high school, then not even a year later, took over as manager before graduating.
Having worked there for so many years, she said it was also a hangout, with some men who would come in the afternoon that she made coffee for.
"There's some of the people I really miss because you made a lot of friends here," she said. "From what I understand, from people that still come here, the traffic is even less since we closed. You didn't realize how much it drew."
With the owner retiring, he tried to sell the business but it never sold and there is even still time left on the lease.
Thomas said he had another stand in downtown Hatboro that was sold so the pretzel machine from the Fairlane Village mall location was taken there.
She also could have bought the Fairlane Village stand but said she's getting older and already worked 50 hours a week, so she didn't need any more stress.
While Thomas doesn't know what's going to happen to the stand, she thinks the mall may lease the location instead of dismantling it.
"It used to be phenomenal," Thomas said. "I remember Friday night I used to have to use two bank bags."
The pretzel stand at the Fairlane Village mall isn't the only one that closed recently, as Schuylkill Mall Manager Elaine Maneval said Thursday that Auntie Anne's closed Feb. 2.
While she couldn't tell the exact reason, Maneval said it "was not related to sales or rent."
When it closed, a lease had already been signed with a new business that will be opening sometime next week called Totally Twisted Soft Pretzel Bakery, which also has a location in the Columbia Mall in Bloomsburg.
Maneval has records for Auntie Anne's leasing the space that dates back to 1992.
"We're excited for the new operator," Maneval said. "We're anxious to get some hand-rolled pretzels in here."
She said there was also one other pretzel stand in the Schuylkill Mall, Bavarian Pretzel Bakery, that closed in July.
The only other pretzel stores locally are the Philly Pretzel Factory that has a franchise in the Coal Creek Commerce Center in Saint Clair and the Tilden Ridge Shopping Center near Hamburg.