You gotta feel for the poor folks that work in those dying stores, never knowing when their last day will come. I lost my job recently when the company I worked for went under. We all knew the writing was on the wall, but never when the end would finally arrive. Very sad and lonely feeling.
Thanks for this! This was a great video. I liked how you showed the before/after pics. Those older pictures were memories of a better time. This was a once proud mall back in the 90s. Was always impressed how it had 6 anchor stores. Now looks very depressing.
You're so right. Even the malls in NJ are in decline and that was the mall capital back in the day. I loved going shopping. It's up to us to bring mall shopping back again.
I do not understand. I guess everyone will work from home, shop from home, and spend their lives at home. I love to shop, and try clothes on before buying them. I love the feel of shopping for Christmas, or birthdays. Our malls are on their way out here in Las Vegas too. I feel so sad. How could there not be a Dillard's!!
I usually find that alot of these malls are in shit locations, in europe their decline has come alot quicker and usually malls tend to centralise into one big location? We still have them just one big mall for a certain area rather than mini malls for smaller areas
I used to service the mall sound system and the Muzak (later called Mood Media) owned satellite receiver and dish for the mall, and several national chain stores located in Stratford Square Mall. By later years the mall traffic was noticeably less and less. Same was true at other major malls around the Chicago area. Eventually Mood Media was forced to cut the number of field service techs multiple times across the country due the shrinking numbers of retail stores in existence. It’s very sad to see the properties we serviced for the 30 years I was with the company going away, as the result of changing times and later the pandemic lockdowns.
@@QuietExp I have lived near Orland Square Mall since 1983. It’s rather depressing the last several years seeing the light volume of actual shoppers at that mall, especially now. Macy’s is the only real draw I see when I’m passing by. I had serviced that mall, and many stores up until 2 years ago. I’ve seen many changes over the years and many stores disappear.
Wow, I feel malls are pretty much a figure of the past. Many of them reopened after the covid shutdown's with shorter hours and never went back while the free standing retailers have longer hours. Online ordering and curbside pickup which makes things much easier picked up steam during lockdowns. Illinois had longer than most lockdown periods during covid which changed shopping behaviors.
Growing up in the 80's and 90's the mall was a massive part of the Christmas season. People walking around, shopping, running into friends and family... now we sit on a computer and click for our gifts. No wonder society is more depressed than ever.
@@williambill6730 there's not many places to go that don't cost a ton of money/require a lengthy drive. less reason to go since it'll be empty now, there's not really a sense of community anymore
I remember mall very well. Surprised you were able to film. I went there couple days ago. I took 2 pictures and they started yelling at me on the intercom. No taking pictures or video of the mall! Thanks for sharing.
It's so sad to see the mall deteiorate over time. Seeing the old pictures of the fountains & waterfall brought back old memories! Thanks for the great video!
That mall opened a few months after I was born. I was there with my family a lot as a toddler and adolescent, always wanting to visit the KB Toys, the Radio Shack, and the B Dalton. I looked forward to getting older and going on my own, but because I didn't have a car I really didn't get to explore it until I was 18, and by that point my interest in teen mall stuff it just started to taper. I did spend considerable time and the Tower Records that was in the strip mall adjacent to that mall at that age. When I was 19 at one point I was looking for a job and going around that mall submitting a lot of applications. I sort of got an interview with a trophy shop but he was asking me about my interest in sports and I could kind of tell the expectation was that if I was to work there I should be knowledgeable about sports. I feel like it died, but then I was back in that area around 2015 or 2016 so, while visiting my family, and it was doing surprisingly well. I actually liked Fox Valley slightly more, but I had much more experience with this one. I really like those ceilings with all the wood slats. When you showcased Macy's I gave a middle finger. I remember when they took over Marshall Fields. I was a little suspicious about going in, but finally I did when I was searching for Christmas present for the woman I was dating at the time. I wanted to look at some of the women's watches and the sales person I was talking to walk away in the middle of the discussion. She came back about 20 minutes later and she bother that I was still there and asked me what I wanted. I asked to see one of the watches and pointed it to it and she held it with both hands to the death grip like I was going to steal it. Didn't exactly give me the best first impression. But I see it's been replaced by Woodman's. I worked at the carpentersville Woodman's for about a year after graduating university when I couldn't find a job in my field. I had worked for Dominick's in high school and it was actually one of my better work experiences in retail so I assumed Woodman's would be comparable or better. It was so much worse.
I live in Alabama where inside malls are a thing of the past. Now we have outside malls, which aren’t faring too well, either. In the summer, it’s too hot and humid to enjoy shopping, whereas, winter is too cold…makes zero sense. Stores, like Macy’s, have become online “meccas.” Honestly, I miss window shopping, however, shopping online is much less of a hassle. The internet has forever changed how the majority of people shop. It’s a new world.
If you’re like me, and like instant gratification then online shopping is more of a hassle. It’s also easier to try on clothes before buying them than sending them back after purchasing them online. If you ask me, this “new world” sucks!!
@@blacksunshine1089 I can agree with you on that. Covid killed inside malls, and worst of all, stores like Victoria Secret are scarce to none. Dillard’s and Belk stock the ugliest clothes in their stores, yet online, are where the cute clothes are. Very frustrating, indeed!
This phenomenon of malls closing down all over the country is very sad. Some say it's due to the pandemic, increase of online shopping or rents that are too high. At one time it was a gathering place for teenagers but now most interact at home through social media. Whatever the reason is, what is happening is not a good thing.
It’s heartbreaking to see it deteriorate. My main malls are fox valley and …used to be Stratford too….Fox Valley is great but the one I’ve always been attached to is Stratford. I remember I’d go play in the indoor playground and I’d slide down the tree, I’d play tag, and there was a big statue of an animal reading a book, and I’d sit down on the book and my mother would take pictures. I could take every good place to eat shutting down. I could take Macy’s being demolished…I cried a lot though. I could take the theater shutting down…I went to go see a movie there once when I was small. They sold Oreo milkshakes later on…never got my darn milkshake. But the one thing that will inevitably shatter me is the..inevitable closing of the Gifts Extraordinaire shop. When I was small, three or four years old is the earliest I can remember, there’d be a lollipop display in front of the store. The lollipops oddly had insanely long plastic straw- like sticks, so the colorful candy would bend every which way. There were flowers, stars, heck even little blue and pink baby foot lollipops. The store, it’s contents and it’s employees have been a part of my life since I was very small. Entering adulthood has never been so bittersweet. I should be worried about graduation, and college and whatnot…but right now, all I want is for that little store to never close. I have to go the mall…just to see the store one last time. Just to take it all in, so I can let it go. But after that…I might never want to return to Stratford ever again. I think it would hurt too much to sneak off to go buy something from there and to see nothing.
Thanks for a walk down memory lane. The mall in the 80's and 90's was great. I remember going xmas shopping right after Thanksgiving as a teenager becauae if you waited, you couldn't even find parking at the mall. So sad my kids will never experience that.
I remember the glory years of this mal in the mid 80s. It was a beautiful space with tons of greenery and fountains. Even planters with unique ceramic figurines interspersed with more water features. The main atrium area was really eye catching. Sad to see this.
When malls have difficulty maintaining tenants it's due to high rent. Stores can't make a decent profit because the rent is so high. This starts the downward death spiral as more stores remain empty, less customers come and this slow burn continues. This is the main cause for most mall's decline other than the neighborhood going bad.
It's interesting you mention that because when you see dead malls most of the shops that are occupied are occupied by sort of oddball establishments that people are willing to go out of the way to get to. In that case there's an axe throwing place prominently featured. I've also seen a shop specializing in square dance uniforms, some janky churches, martial arts studios, in one case a gift shop for medical students, knock off perfume shops, and other kind of strange stuff. It's like someone wants to set up a shop and they can't find a good place on a main street along a town square, so they get a unit in a dead mall. They're not going to get anyone who just wanders in out of curiosity while wandering them all, but they're going to get people who go out of their way to go to that mall to go to their shop.
It’s the taxes and maintenance that drive the cost but mostly the taxes, you want to point the finger at a greedy entity and that’s government, taking from you even when there is no profit
Thanks for the great video. Why did we ever want to give up interactions with other people? Are we that mind controlled now that we fear every possible illness that could be out there in the world? I guess we are because it never used to be like this. I’m so glad I unplugged my television from the wall a decade ago. Life got a whole lot better after that.
Because people are rude, mean, nasty and just disgusting. Too much theft and inconsideration. If you were really there, you'll know it wasn't halcyon days. Not as much as now, but it WAS there.
I'm near Bloomingdale and Charlestown malls. Both used to be great until they started building strip malls and parking lots instead. Zoning committee should be to blame allowing more stores rather than a parking garage and bigger mall. Sad day when theses malls failed in 2009.
Actually made me really sad seeing this. I grew up in the 80's and 90's going to this mall. The fountains and two movie theaters, sbarro in the food court. Thank you for sharing and thank you for those older black and white photos. that was the mall i remember
Two movie theatres? The one time I went to a movie at the attached movie theater in 1984 was a two screen theater which played Ghostbusters (which I saw) and Bachelor Party.
@@fromthehaven94 yup. There was the smaller two screen theater by the water features. Then they opened a larger one that you walked down a long tile hallway to get too. I think it was a Sony one if I remember right.
I miss how malls once decorated for Christmas. I always wonder if they decorated and did more to celebrate Christmas if it would attract more people. I know a lot of people don't like holidays, but things are just kind of grim without them.
It's just so sad to see what has happened to malls all across this country. though i never went to this mall, some of my fondest memories are going to the Owings Mills mall with friends, not just to shop but hang out with everyone. The mall used to be THE PLACE TO BE on a friday or saturday night. its just so sad to so what has become of what was such a big part of my social life growing up.
I actually visited my local mall yesterday and it was packed af. Most if not all the stores were cramped as hell. I just bought what i needed and got the hell out of there.😂
This reminds me a lot of the Granite Run Mall in Media, PA before it closed. They just let all the tenant leases run out and it died a slow death over a few years before finally being torn down to put up an outdoor strip mall. The final Christmas before closing they didn't even bother to hire a mall Santa or decorate. It was my mall growing up and I met my wife there, so it's demise was very bitter sweet for me.
There is a mall north of Cincinnati that is still kicking ass. We were in town from St Louis for a Bengals game in Sept 2022 and the mall was rocking ass like it was 1988 again, was great to see and experience.
Indoor malls are dying quicky. We have an outdoor mall near us (Wrentham Premium Outlets) that looks crowded but I think people were only mall walking out in the cold. I went shopping at a small retailer and the employees outnumbered customers. It was there Monday around 4:00pm a few days ago and other stores I passed by looked the same. I think malls overall are on the way out.
I was just at my local mall yesterday, I was kinda surprised it was fairly busy. Not crazy, right before Christmas busy, but it wasn't a ghost town like that one. It only had a jc penny's and a macy's as anchors of the 4 possible ones and had quite a few shuttered shops. If I had to guess, about 75% of them smaller spaces stores were still open. This is the only mall in Kalamazoo MI area and it's not that massive of one, so maybe that's helping it stay open and sorta busy?
Water Tower Place downtown was also pretty sparse and dead last summer. A shell of its former self. Lots of dead storefronts, even in non-mall stores on the Mag Mile.
I remember going to the malls back in the 70's and 80's. People don't want to shop in malls anymore. I don't know why because I always enjoyed shopping and hanging out there. I guess too many people are living paycheck to paycheck these days. And young people just sit on their smartphones and computers and have no social skills for malls. The situation is so depressing to watch.
My local mall is actually about 90% occupied. Problem for me the only store of interest to me is Dillards, it just moved into the old Sears store. The rest of the stores are oriented toward younger folk and women. Tuesday 12-20-22 I made a rare trip to Best Buy, which is on the mall property, and got stuck in holiday shopping traffic! 25 minutes to get out of the area! I hope that it continues to do well even without me.
local mall i went to all the time as a kid closed recently and it really sucks to see, made sure to take a trip before it ended. So sad to see the same fate heading towards this mall
Wow an era gone by. Very sad in many respects. Helped no doubt my Amazon and on line shopping which I wish I could warm up to. It is understandable though.
Doesn't really look or feel much like Christmas. Christmas used to be the times I hated going the most. Long lines EVERYWHERE. Food courts, bathrooms, there was always thar one sicko who never flushed the toilet. Even one sicko who let out a silent rotten egg fart somewhere in a crowded store LOL
I always fantasized these buildings being reimagined as residential condominiums, mixed in with office space. Each storefront would be redesigned as an individual home. Probably not economically feasible.
Mall's rely on foot traffic. Not traffic then the stores cannot make any money. They close and or leave to greener pastures. Shift in demographics, economic changes, jobs leaves and shopping dynamics all impact such things.
Ya it sucks that malls are going away. And in terms of owning media people are going to regret it when streaming services no longer make that possible.
Yep. Watching one of your favorite movies or listening to one of your favorite songs on a whim is more difficult with streaming because you can only do so when it’s available. Why so many people view that as an improvement over owning your own copy is beyond me.
@@blacksunshine1089 It's because people are lazy nowadays and can't spend the five minutes to grab a movie or whatever and put in in your player or whatever. Granted the unskippable intros do piss me off. Edit: actually you know what? These greedy companies might encouraging this shit to maximize their own profits.
hey the company i worked for went down, sucked, thought you had a good career then bam..it was good pay to, still miss that job and the people. it was carson pirie scott where i used to work in the Indiana Southlake mall
Malls were dying prior to the pandemic, I am sure that didn't help them any. I personally prefer to have things delivered to my house. I worked in retail for many years and now no longer want to go near a store or mall.
WOW THAT WAS A COOL MALL . IT SUCKS THAT MALLS ARE CLOSING ALL OVER , WHEN I WAS A KID THAT WAS MY LIFE , IT STILL PART MY LIFE TODAY BEING A SNEAKER HEAD , THINK OF ALL THE FUNNY YOU HAD AT THE MALL . WHEN YOU COULD DRIVE OR HAD A JOB THERE ALL THE GIRLS , GOIN TO THE MOVIES , IT SAD , A FEW YEARS AGO WE WENT TO THIS MALL IN PA AREA AND IT HAD ALL THE STUFF THAT MADE THE MALL GREAT , THE WOOD ON THE WALLS AND CRAZY FLOORING , PEOPLE LOVE ONLINE BUT WHAT HAPPEN WHEN YOU NEED SOMETHING AND YOU CANT WAIT FOR NEXT DAY SHIPPING ?
It's a shame to see this happening to our country people need to get out and live ordering everything online and staying home is not experiencing life personally I like to see up close what I'm buying stop being lazy America
There's a few relatively filled malls near me, and I've tried going there for shopping. It's fine for browsing and randomly picking stuff up, but if you have something specific in mind, I found it's just not worth it. It was only about 5 years ago that I became affluent enough to randomly wander into mall shops and not worry too much about if stuff was out of my price range. I wanted to get some new shoes and I had kind of an idea of what I was looking for. I first went in to Macy's, thinking of it as being a slightly upscale department store, and found out that not only were there no active clerks in the shoe department helping people make selections, but I had to eventually flag someone down from an adjacent apartment to ask if they had something in my size and they weren't able to answer any of my questions. I went to a few other shops as well and eventually went back to Macy's to get the closest thing to the style I had in mind. I've had much much better experiences buying shoes online (except for running shoes, and for those I go to Fleet Feet which is fully staffed with merchandise experts). I actually went to the mall this year just a few days before Christmas just to wander around and see what was there. I did spend money on some random stuff. While I was there I wandered into the JC Penney, which I was surprised to see open because I thought they had gone out of business by now. I actually found a couple nice pairs of socks and when I went to buy them I found out there's only one register up in the whole store and there was a very long line for it, and it just wasn't worth it for me to wait in that long of a line for a pair of socks so I set them on the shelf and walked away. I could do recreational shopping in a mall, but never shopping with intent.
It's more than people needing to "get out and experience life" when they shop - there is a new set of economic realities that make big covered malls totally unfeasible in most markets. Here in North Texas, developers overmalled us in the 1980s in their quest to make a quick buck, which they largely succeeded at. But subsequent owners found that with the market WAY oversaturated, it was impossible to keep these places even close to 80% occupancy even with almost free rent and other perks, and there was little incentive for retailers to even be in an enclosed mall to begin with considering how low the foot traffic had become. Just too many malls here. And what I've just described was the situation up to the early to mid 90s; once e-commerce became a thing, the excess malls started getting demolished left and right. Once mighty malls were left with maybe 10% occupancy, and it was either diehard mall staples like Bath and Body Works and GNC, or places that don't rely on foot traffic but rather on being looked up and possibly having an appointment set, like African hair braiding and jewelry repair shops. The pandemic was the death blow, the finishing move that oversaturation and e-commerce had started decades before.
Malls are a dying/dead concept, in their death throes if they aren't already dead. Amazon (and the like) killed them. There is only one mall around here that even resembles still being alive, and it has definitely seen better days.
These videos are a love hate relationship. I love that people do them, but hate what has happened with retailing. But I have to ask. Where do people shop? I mean seriously. When you are in business, and need a suit (tailored) or a dress taken in...that is not the thing that you can get at AMAZON. Same thing with a dress coat. Doesn't anyone want to see it, try it on, or see the item first anymore? Now I know that since I retired, I buy way less clothing. And, in general, people don't dress up anymore for work. But if you do, where do you go? You would now have to travel for MACY's store locations since they are gone from most malls. Kohl's only does off the rack sport coats and things, and Burlington's...give me a break. I would not buy a sweater for the dog from them if I wanted it to be nice. Even though I used to use SEARS and JCPENNYS catalog (and later online) for a lot of things, in most cases I knew or had tried on similar products in the brick and mortar stores. Now do you just guess if it will fit, or order 4 off of AMAZON and then send 3 back? An there used to be a joy in shopping. How did that end so fast?
Part of it is the American mantra and fickleness. "It's cheap! It's so easy online" "I can shop at home" All the while forgetting they are giving Amzon 135 dollars a year for "free shipping" which by the way is getting slower.
Macy's is pretty rubbish now too as I've learned from experience. If I wanted a bespoke suit, I would probably go directly into an Armani or Hugo Boss or there's a chain called Gentleman's Warehouse as well. After I reached adulthood I stopped needing to buy new clothes every year, and only buy something new if enough of the clothes I have have worn out, and I realize I'm a little low on selection. In that case, if I want trousers, I know my size and I can order them on amazon. Same for shirts. Same for socks (although I do like to go to a department store for socks get higher quality) and so on. Amazon actually does have a thing now where you can try things on at home and they don't charge you until you've decided to keep it. Basically they send it to you without charging you and you check everything out and decide what you want to keep and send back and then after you've done that they charge you for whatever you've kept. I wanted a pair of slippers so I ordered the same parents several sizes using the service and I kept the size that fit me.
I got tired of going to a local shop and they tell me thry have to order something when I can order it cheaper myself. When I go to a physical store I want to come home with a product. Don't ever tell me you going to order it as I can do it cheaper from Amazon and get it faster.
I worked in office space at a mostly dead mall some years ago, and it was sad to see the place between Thanksgiving and New Year's. The last two or three years they didn't even hang lights in the concourse. It was just one big smelly flea market. No retail other than a Dollar General (with an outside entrance) and the only eatery was a Subway (also with an outside entrance. Quite a fall from the glory days of the 1970s and early 1980s. Even into the early 90s it was "okay", but the writing was on the wall. Literally, in some isolated hallways.
Truthfully if the cost of a lease in most of these units wasn’t so F… expensive people would be able to afford renting them. My friend rented a small cart with no overhead for $5000 a month come on. Price ripoff at its finest! Greed ….
I braved the Polaris Fashion Place mall in XMas 2020, that place was filled with people despite the pandemic and mask wearing recommendations. In comparison, this is depressing to see.
its not just Amazon but the pandemic that's been the demise of these shopping centres (sorry i am British) when the pandemic arrived it opened people to trying on line shopping as for other than food there was little option to get stuff, even people who under normal circumstances would not have even given it a try, but when they did they liked it and have just carried on shopping on line.
@@jamescook9661 shoplifting has always been a problem, violent crime does not seem to be any worse in the uk shopping centres than before, but is understandeble if the centers have less people and less security.
@@cliffcook3993 Now we literally have gangs of people bringing large trash bags into stores using hammers to break open cases and calmly walk out and nothing ever gets done about it
@@cliffcook3993 There was a mass shooting just yesterday in a mall in Texas. Street ga gs seem to meet their adversaries in the food court regularly anymore
My hometown metro area used to have 6 malls. They are now down to 2! Granted, two of those rolled into one larger mall, but still only 2 malls left. Rochester NY was also home to the first indoor downtown mall-Midtown Plaza. Demolished years ago.
@Quiet Expeditions Definitely some over building! One of the malls that was rolled into the other had these really cool sunken lounge areas. Now the whole thing looks like every other mall in the country-boring.
So sad kids now a days have nooooo idea about about the mall culture.. I grew up in the 90’s also if YIU went to ANNNNNY mall it was popping and the place to be.. Back then you could literally stay in the mall all day with your friends hang out laugh, shop, eat and go see a movie.. Any body remember the movie mall rats??? Prime example..
I've never really liked the concept of malls. I think they promote wasteful shopping habits, it's browsing for stuff you don't need just for the pleasure of getting something new that will instantly become junk. Very seldomly do you go to the mall for a necessity. Still, I live near a mall that is still lively and I'm kind of happy to have experienced it just because I know they won't exist much longer. It's interesting to see how my parents spent their time when they were young in the peak 80's mall era. We even had a Sears with those old bulky cash registers that took forever to check you out up until about 5 years ago when they went bankrupt. When they did finally close, they had a liquidation sale that was like 90% off everything and it looked like a mob had taken over the store, lol. While I don't think shopping should be how kids spend free time, at least old-schoolers had something to do in their youth. Now there's really nowhere for youth to socialize outside the interweb.
Out west here they are replacing malls with outdoor shopping centers, which doesn't make sense when the weather is extreme.
You gotta feel for the poor folks that work in those dying stores, never knowing when their last day will come. I lost my job recently when the company I worked for went under. We all knew the writing was on the wall, but never when the end would finally arrive. Very sad and lonely feeling.
Good luck in finding a new job.
I hope you find an even better job really soon!
Great concept....well shot video
Thanks for this! This was a great video. I liked how you showed the before/after pics. Those older pictures were memories of a better time. This was a once proud mall back in the 90s. Was always impressed how it had 6 anchor stores. Now looks very depressing.
You're so right. Even the malls in NJ are in decline and that was the mall capital back in the day. I loved going shopping.
It's up to us to bring mall shopping back again.
I was a 90's kid my self. So sad malls are disappearing because of online shopping cough the Big AmZon.
I do not understand. I guess everyone will work from home, shop from home, and spend their lives at home. I love to shop, and try clothes on before buying them. I love the feel of shopping for Christmas, or birthdays. Our malls are on their way out here in Las Vegas too. I feel so sad. How could there not be a Dillard's!!
I usually find that alot of these malls are in shit locations, in europe their decline has come alot quicker and usually malls tend to centralise into one big location? We still have them just one big mall for a certain area rather than mini malls for smaller areas
@@QuietExp Yep, exactly. I want to try on, feel, look at what I'm buying. Not guess like by gosh by golly shopping.
I used to service the mall sound system and the Muzak (later called Mood Media) owned satellite receiver and dish for the mall, and several national chain stores located in Stratford Square Mall. By later years the mall traffic was noticeably less and less. Same was true at other major malls around the Chicago area. Eventually Mood Media was forced to cut the number of field service techs multiple times across the country due the shrinking numbers of retail stores in existence. It’s very sad to see the properties we serviced for the 30 years I was with the company going away, as the result of changing times and later the pandemic lockdowns.
@@QuietExp I have lived near Orland Square Mall since 1983. It’s rather depressing the last several years seeing the light volume of actual shoppers at that mall, especially now. Macy’s is the only real draw I see when I’m passing by. I had serviced that mall, and many stores up until 2 years ago. I’ve seen many changes over the years and many stores disappear.
My very first job was in the food court of this mall, back when it was PACKED daily. This hurts a little.
Wow, I feel malls are pretty much a figure of the past. Many of them reopened after the covid shutdown's with shorter hours and never went back while the free standing retailers have longer hours. Online ordering and curbside pickup which makes things much easier picked up steam during lockdowns. Illinois had longer than most lockdown periods during covid which changed shopping behaviors.
Would be cool to see pics of it in its hey day in the 80s.
Growing up in the 80's and 90's the mall was a massive part of the Christmas season. People walking around, shopping, running into friends and family... now we sit on a computer and click for our gifts. No wonder society is more depressed than ever.
Well put!
At the end of the day, there’s no getting around the fact that humans are social beings. It’s just turning people into fat, lazy depressed zombies.
People too lazy or afraid to go out anymore
@@williambill6730 there's not many places to go that don't cost a ton of money/require a lengthy drive. less reason to go since it'll be empty now, there's not really a sense of community anymore
Yep, tech is killing society.
I remember mall very well. Surprised you were able to film. I went there couple days ago. I took 2 pictures and they started yelling at me on the intercom. No taking pictures or video of the mall! Thanks for sharing.
It's so sad to see the mall deteiorate over time. Seeing the old pictures of the fountains & waterfall brought back old memories! Thanks for the great video!
That mall opened a few months after I was born. I was there with my family a lot as a toddler and adolescent, always wanting to visit the KB Toys, the Radio Shack, and the B Dalton. I looked forward to getting older and going on my own, but because I didn't have a car I really didn't get to explore it until I was 18, and by that point my interest in teen mall stuff it just started to taper. I did spend considerable time and the Tower Records that was in the strip mall adjacent to that mall at that age. When I was 19 at one point I was looking for a job and going around that mall submitting a lot of applications. I sort of got an interview with a trophy shop but he was asking me about my interest in sports and I could kind of tell the expectation was that if I was to work there I should be knowledgeable about sports. I feel like it died, but then I was back in that area around 2015 or 2016 so, while visiting my family, and it was doing surprisingly well.
I actually liked Fox Valley slightly more, but I had much more experience with this one. I really like those ceilings with all the wood slats.
When you showcased Macy's I gave a middle finger. I remember when they took over Marshall Fields. I was a little suspicious about going in, but finally I did when I was searching for Christmas present for the woman I was dating at the time. I wanted to look at some of the women's watches and the sales person I was talking to walk away in the middle of the discussion. She came back about 20 minutes later and she bother that I was still there and asked me what I wanted. I asked to see one of the watches and pointed it to it and she held it with both hands to the death grip like I was going to steal it. Didn't exactly give me the best first impression.
But I see it's been replaced by Woodman's. I worked at the carpentersville Woodman's for about a year after graduating university when I couldn't find a job in my field. I had worked for Dominick's in high school and it was actually one of my better work experiences in retail so I assumed Woodman's would be comparable or better. It was so much worse.
Macy's killed Burdine's, the Florida store, so yes, they're pretty much like Satan.
I never understood how RS stayed around as long as it did. I bought 2 things there. DC crimp connectors and an SPL meter (db meter)
I live in Alabama where inside malls are a thing of the past. Now we have outside malls, which aren’t faring too well, either. In the summer, it’s too hot and humid to enjoy shopping, whereas, winter is too cold…makes zero sense. Stores, like Macy’s, have become online “meccas.” Honestly, I miss window shopping, however, shopping online is much less of a hassle. The internet has forever changed how the majority of people shop. It’s a new world.
True
man könnte auch sagen, eine bschissene welt !
🌎
If you’re like me, and like instant gratification then online shopping is more of a hassle. It’s also easier to try on clothes before buying them than sending them back after purchasing them online.
If you ask me, this “new world” sucks!!
@@blacksunshine1089 I can agree with you on that. Covid killed inside malls, and worst of all, stores like Victoria Secret are scarce to none. Dillard’s and Belk stock the ugliest clothes in their stores, yet online, are where the cute clothes are. Very frustrating, indeed!
This phenomenon of malls closing down all over the country is very sad. Some say it's due to the pandemic, increase of online shopping or rents that are too high. At one time it was a gathering place for teenagers but now most interact at home through social media. Whatever the reason is, what is happening is not a good thing.
Please note: the mall destroyed downtown and many small businesses. Where I live you couldn't get
It’s heartbreaking to see it deteriorate. My main malls are fox valley and …used to be Stratford too….Fox Valley is great but the one I’ve always been attached to is Stratford. I remember I’d go play in the indoor playground and I’d slide down the tree, I’d play tag, and there was a big statue of an animal reading a book, and I’d sit down on the book and my mother would take pictures. I could take every good place to eat shutting down. I could take Macy’s being demolished…I cried a lot though. I could take the theater shutting down…I went to go see a movie there once when I was small. They sold Oreo milkshakes later on…never got my darn milkshake. But the one thing that will inevitably shatter me is the..inevitable closing of the Gifts Extraordinaire shop. When I was small, three or four years old is the earliest I can remember, there’d be a lollipop display in front of the store. The lollipops oddly had insanely long plastic straw- like sticks, so the colorful candy would bend every which way. There were flowers, stars, heck even little blue and pink baby foot lollipops. The store, it’s contents and it’s employees have been a part of my life since I was very small. Entering adulthood has never been so bittersweet. I should be worried about graduation, and college and whatnot…but right now, all I want is for that little store to never close. I have to go the mall…just to see the store one last time. Just to take it all in, so I can let it go. But after that…I might never want to return to Stratford ever again. I think it would hurt too much to sneak off to go buy something from there and to see nothing.
Thanks for a walk down memory lane. The mall in the 80's and 90's was great. I remember going xmas shopping right after Thanksgiving as a teenager becauae if you waited, you couldn't even find parking at the mall. So sad my kids will never experience that.
Thanks for documenting this. I remember Stratford well from the 80s and early 90s. It really was a very nice space.
I remember the glory years of this mal in the mid 80s. It was a beautiful space with tons of greenery and fountains. Even planters with unique ceramic figurines interspersed with more water features. The main atrium area was really eye catching. Sad to see this.
When malls have difficulty maintaining tenants it's due to high rent. Stores can't make a decent profit because the rent is so high. This starts the downward death spiral as more stores remain empty, less customers come and this slow burn continues. This is the main cause for most mall's decline other than the neighborhood going bad.
In one word. Greed
It's interesting you mention that because when you see dead malls most of the shops that are occupied are occupied by sort of oddball establishments that people are willing to go out of the way to get to. In that case there's an axe throwing place prominently featured. I've also seen a shop specializing in square dance uniforms, some janky churches, martial arts studios, in one case a gift shop for medical students, knock off perfume shops, and other kind of strange stuff. It's like someone wants to set up a shop and they can't find a good place on a main street along a town square, so they get a unit in a dead mall. They're not going to get anyone who just wanders in out of curiosity while wandering them all, but they're going to get people who go out of their way to go to that mall to go to their shop.
I remember the Columbus City Center in downtown Columbus, Ohio having a charter school in the late 2000's before it closed.
It’s the taxes and maintenance that drive the cost but mostly the taxes, you want to point the finger at a greedy entity and that’s government, taking from you even when there is no profit
@@ursulasmith6402 what do you call a government that imposes tax on a property that doesn’t turn a profit, that’s greed.
Good video! Please keep posting!!!
Thanks for the great video. Why did we ever want to give up interactions with other people? Are we that mind controlled now that we fear every possible illness that could be out there in the world? I guess we are because it never used to be like this. I’m so glad I unplugged my television from the wall a decade ago. Life got a whole lot better after that.
Because people are rude, mean, nasty and just disgusting. Too much theft and inconsideration.
If you were really there, you'll know it wasn't halcyon days. Not as much as now, but it WAS there.
Beautiful looking mall. So sad at its demise.
I'm near Bloomingdale and Charlestown malls. Both used to be great until they started building strip malls and parking lots instead. Zoning committee should be to blame allowing more stores rather than a parking garage and bigger mall. Sad day when theses malls failed in 2009.
Actually made me really sad seeing this. I grew up in the 80's and 90's going to this mall. The fountains and two movie theaters, sbarro in the food court. Thank you for sharing and thank you for those older black and white photos. that was the mall i remember
Two movie theatres? The one time I went to a movie at the attached movie theater in 1984 was a two screen theater which played Ghostbusters (which I saw) and Bachelor Party.
@@fromthehaven94 yup. There was the smaller two screen theater by the water features. Then they opened a larger one that you walked down a long tile hallway to get too. I think it was a Sony one if I remember right.
I miss how malls once decorated for Christmas. I always wonder if they decorated and did more to celebrate Christmas if it would attract more people. I know a lot of people don't like holidays, but things are just kind of grim without them.
It's just so sad to see what has happened to malls all across this country. though i never went to this mall, some of my fondest memories are going to the Owings Mills mall with friends, not just to shop but hang out with everyone. The mall used to be THE PLACE TO BE on a friday or saturday night. its just so sad to so what has become of what was such a big part of my social life growing up.
I actually visited my local mall yesterday and it was packed af. Most if not all the stores were cramped as hell. I just bought what i needed and got the hell out of there.😂
It is so sad what Amazon has done to retail.
This reminds me a lot of the Granite Run Mall in Media, PA before it closed. They just let all the tenant leases run out and it died a slow death over a few years before finally being torn down to put up an outdoor strip mall. The final Christmas before closing they didn't even bother to hire a mall Santa or decorate. It was my mall growing up and I met my wife there, so it's demise was very bitter sweet for me.
There is a mall north of Cincinnati that is still kicking ass. We were in town from St Louis for a Bengals game in Sept 2022 and the mall was rocking ass like it was 1988 again, was great to see and experience.
Bengals have never won a Super bowl
I was so happy seeing disney store closed. I remember when that opened and it's about the time the mall was failing lol
Indoor malls are dying quicky. We have an outdoor mall near us (Wrentham Premium Outlets) that looks crowded but I think people were only mall walking out in the cold. I went shopping at a small retailer and the employees outnumbered customers. It was there Monday around 4:00pm a few days ago and other stores I passed by looked the same. I think malls overall are on the way out.
I was just at my local mall yesterday, I was kinda surprised it was fairly busy. Not crazy, right before Christmas busy, but it wasn't a ghost town like that one. It only had a jc penny's and a macy's as anchors of the 4 possible ones and had quite a few shuttered shops. If I had to guess, about 75% of them smaller spaces stores were still open. This is the only mall in Kalamazoo MI area and it's not that massive of one, so maybe that's helping it stay open and sorta busy?
Macy's literally turn its back on this mall. So sad! :-(
Water Tower Place downtown was also pretty sparse and dead last summer. A shell of its former self. Lots of dead storefronts, even in non-mall stores on the Mag Mile.
I remember going to the malls back in the 70's and 80's. People don't want to shop in malls anymore. I don't know why because I always enjoyed shopping and hanging out there. I guess too many people are living paycheck to paycheck these days. And young people just sit on their smartphones and computers and have no social skills for malls. The situation is so depressing to watch.
My local mall is actually about 90% occupied. Problem for me the only store of interest to me is Dillards, it just moved into the old Sears store. The rest of the stores are oriented toward younger folk and women. Tuesday 12-20-22 I made a rare trip to Best Buy, which is on the mall property, and got stuck in holiday shopping traffic! 25 minutes to get out of the area! I hope that it continues to do well even without me.
Is the Best Buy connected to the mall? This sounds a lot like my mall. In my mall, the woman’s Dillard’s moved from another part of the mall.
This really makes me appreciate North Park Mall in Dallas, Texas
there was a sweet little old lady who had a sewing/custom alterations store there at one point, guessing thats long gone
local mall i went to all the time as a kid closed recently and it really sucks to see, made sure to take a trip before it ended. So sad to see the same fate heading towards this mall
I live a few miles from here…how the heck this place still operates is beyond me.
Wow an era gone by. Very sad in many respects. Helped no doubt my Amazon and on line shopping which I wish I could warm up to. It is understandable though.
Spent a lot of time there in the early eighties. Not sure about now but it was an affluent area so I'm somewhat surprised
It's sad that indoor shopping malls are disappearing. The sign of the times... Darn internet screwed up the shopping pleasure of the past.
I went to a mall that looks very similar to this one but is in very good condition. It looks quite like this mall.
Doesn't really look or feel much like Christmas. Christmas used to be the times I hated going the most. Long lines EVERYWHERE. Food courts, bathrooms, there was always thar one sicko who never flushed the toilet. Even one sicko who let out a silent rotten egg fart somewhere in a crowded store LOL
Macy closings make me sad 😢
There was a fkn amazon add before this. Thanks for the coverage
Who makes the escalators?
I always fantasized these buildings being reimagined as residential condominiums, mixed in with office space. Each storefront would be redesigned as an individual home. Probably not economically feasible.
Maybe not but it would be a pretty cool thing if someone did it
When Burlington's pulled out, you knew the last hope was gone.
I hope you turned off the lights when you left.
Someone should do some marketing research on when each business closed up and what happened to the business.
Tell the city to save any sound equipment in the theatre, if possible. It’s worth a lot.
It was said, Few yrs ago that the malls were going become Apartments and Condos in the future
Mall's rely on foot traffic.
Not traffic then the stores cannot make any money.
They close and or leave to greener pastures.
Shift in demographics, economic changes, jobs leaves and shopping dynamics all impact such things.
Ah, so I was right the 2nd floor Claire's store(near Carson's) was covered up, after it closed for good.
Ya it sucks that malls are going away. And in terms of owning media people are going to regret it when streaming services no longer make that possible.
Yep. Watching one of your favorite movies or listening to one of your favorite songs on a whim is more difficult with streaming because you can only do so when it’s available.
Why so many people view that as an improvement over owning your own copy is beyond me.
@@blacksunshine1089 It's because people are lazy nowadays and can't spend the five minutes to grab a movie or whatever and put in in your player or whatever. Granted the unskippable intros do piss me off.
Edit: actually you know what? These greedy companies might encouraging this shit to maximize their own profits.
hey the company i worked for went down, sucked, thought you had a good career then bam..it was good pay to, still miss that job and the people.
it was carson pirie scott where i used to work in the Indiana Southlake mall
What theatre was that?
Malls were dying prior to the pandemic, I am sure that didn't help them any. I personally prefer to have things delivered to my house. I worked in retail for many years and now no longer want to go near a store or mall.
This mall had over a hundred stores open just a few years prior to this video, it was shocking to see it like this! Today it has about 21 stores left
Dam shame what life has turned out to be 😢
WOW THAT WAS A COOL MALL . IT SUCKS THAT MALLS ARE CLOSING ALL OVER , WHEN I WAS A KID THAT WAS MY LIFE , IT STILL PART MY LIFE TODAY BEING A SNEAKER HEAD , THINK OF ALL THE FUNNY YOU HAD AT THE MALL . WHEN YOU COULD DRIVE OR HAD A JOB THERE ALL THE GIRLS , GOIN TO THE MOVIES , IT SAD , A FEW YEARS AGO WE WENT TO THIS MALL IN PA AREA AND IT HAD ALL THE STUFF THAT MADE THE MALL GREAT , THE WOOD ON THE WALLS AND CRAZY FLOORING , PEOPLE LOVE ONLINE BUT WHAT HAPPEN WHEN YOU NEED SOMETHING AND YOU CANT WAIT FOR NEXT DAY SHIPPING ?
Well almost all got their holiday shopping done except prognosticators
How much of this mall is left?
I remember when Montgomery Ward was there
What do you mean the floor shook when a couple walked by you? Are you saying the structure feels unsafe?
It’s like that by the old Carson’s space. I wouldn’t be surprised if that whole store collapses
This mal looks actually pretty stylsih with the wooden decor
It's a shame to see this happening to our country people need to get out and live ordering everything online and staying home is not experiencing life personally I like to see up close what I'm buying stop being lazy America
Stopping worshipping the false God, the car and having more public transportation will help tremendously.
There's a few relatively filled malls near me, and I've tried going there for shopping. It's fine for browsing and randomly picking stuff up, but if you have something specific in mind, I found it's just not worth it.
It was only about 5 years ago that I became affluent enough to randomly wander into mall shops and not worry too much about if stuff was out of my price range. I wanted to get some new shoes and I had kind of an idea of what I was looking for. I first went in to Macy's, thinking of it as being a slightly upscale department store, and found out that not only were there no active clerks in the shoe department helping people make selections, but I had to eventually flag someone down from an adjacent apartment to ask if they had something in my size and they weren't able to answer any of my questions. I went to a few other shops as well and eventually went back to Macy's to get the closest thing to the style I had in mind. I've had much much better experiences buying shoes online (except for running shoes, and for those I go to Fleet Feet which is fully staffed with merchandise experts).
I actually went to the mall this year just a few days before Christmas just to wander around and see what was there. I did spend money on some random stuff. While I was there I wandered into the JC Penney, which I was surprised to see open because I thought they had gone out of business by now. I actually found a couple nice pairs of socks and when I went to buy them I found out there's only one register up in the whole store and there was a very long line for it, and it just wasn't worth it for me to wait in that long of a line for a pair of socks so I set them on the shelf and walked away.
I could do recreational shopping in a mall, but never shopping with intent.
It's more than people needing to "get out and experience life" when they shop - there is a new set of economic realities that make big covered malls totally unfeasible in most markets. Here in North Texas, developers overmalled us in the 1980s in their quest to make a quick buck, which they largely succeeded at. But subsequent owners found that with the market WAY oversaturated, it was impossible to keep these places even close to 80% occupancy even with almost free rent and other perks, and there was little incentive for retailers to even be in an enclosed mall to begin with considering how low the foot traffic had become. Just too many malls here. And what I've just described was the situation up to the early to mid 90s; once e-commerce became a thing, the excess malls started getting demolished left and right. Once mighty malls were left with maybe 10% occupancy, and it was either diehard mall staples like Bath and Body Works and GNC, or places that don't rely on foot traffic but rather on being looked up and possibly having an appointment set, like African hair braiding and jewelry repair shops. The pandemic was the death blow, the finishing move that oversaturation and e-commerce had started decades before.
was this filmed the day of the snow storm?
Malls are a dying/dead concept, in their death throes if they aren't already dead. Amazon (and the like) killed them. There is only one mall around here that even resembles still being alive, and it has definitely seen better days.
Looks like this was built in the late 70's or early 80's.
This isnt too far from me. maybe its worth a visit to see another dead mall.
These videos are a love hate relationship. I love that people do them, but hate what has happened with retailing. But I have to ask. Where do people shop? I mean seriously. When you are in business, and need a suit (tailored) or a dress taken in...that is not the thing that you can get at AMAZON. Same thing with a dress coat. Doesn't anyone want to see it, try it on, or see the item first anymore? Now I know that since I retired, I buy way less clothing. And, in general, people don't dress up anymore for work. But if you do, where do you go? You would now have to travel for MACY's store locations since they are gone from most malls. Kohl's only does off the rack sport coats and things, and Burlington's...give me a break. I would not buy a sweater for the dog from them if I wanted it to be nice. Even though I used to use SEARS and JCPENNYS catalog (and later online) for a lot of things, in most cases I knew or had tried on similar products in the brick and mortar stores. Now do you just guess if it will fit, or order 4 off of AMAZON and then send 3 back? An there used to be a joy in shopping. How did that end so fast?
Part of it is the American mantra and fickleness. "It's cheap! It's so easy online" "I can shop at home" All the while forgetting they are giving Amzon 135 dollars a year for "free shipping" which by the way is getting slower.
Macy's is pretty rubbish now too as I've learned from experience. If I wanted a bespoke suit, I would probably go directly into an Armani or Hugo Boss or there's a chain called Gentleman's Warehouse as well.
After I reached adulthood I stopped needing to buy new clothes every year, and only buy something new if enough of the clothes I have have worn out, and I realize I'm a little low on selection. In that case, if I want trousers, I know my size and I can order them on amazon. Same for shirts. Same for socks (although I do like to go to a department store for socks get higher quality) and so on.
Amazon actually does have a thing now where you can try things on at home and they don't charge you until you've decided to keep it. Basically they send it to you without charging you and you check everything out and decide what you want to keep and send back and then after you've done that they charge you for whatever you've kept. I wanted a pair of slippers so I ordered the same parents several sizes using the service and I kept the size that fit me.
I got tired of going to a local shop and they tell me thry have to order something when I can order it cheaper myself. When I go to a physical store I want to come home with a product. Don't ever tell me you going to order it as I can do it cheaper from Amazon and get it faster.
Nordstroms - - Dillards, if you can still find one on the suit question. In general? America now dresses like slobs, even at work.
I worked in office space at a mostly dead mall some years ago, and it was sad to see the place between Thanksgiving and New Year's. The last two or three years they didn't even hang lights in the concourse. It was just one big smelly flea market. No retail other than a Dollar General (with an outside entrance) and the only eatery was a Subway (also with an outside entrance. Quite a fall from the glory days of the 1970s and early 1980s. Even into the early 90s it was "okay", but the writing was on the wall. Literally, in some isolated hallways.
this mall was like this last 3 years dude
You couldn't walk in that mall before Obama was president. So busy during Christmas. I remember it well.
Truthfully if the cost of a lease in most of these units wasn’t so F… expensive people would be able to afford renting them.
My friend rented a small cart with no overhead for $5000 a month come on. Price ripoff at its finest! Greed ….
I braved the Polaris Fashion Place mall in XMas 2020, that place was filled with people despite the pandemic and mask wearing recommendations. In comparison, this is depressing to see.
Wait, malls still exists?
Why did you run and dance and sprint throug hit?
They should have never built a large mall so close to Woodfield and Oakbrook.
its not just Amazon but the pandemic that's been the demise of these shopping centres (sorry i am British) when the pandemic arrived it opened people to trying on line shopping as for other than food there was little option to get stuff, even people who under normal circumstances would not have even given it a try, but when they did they liked it and have just carried on shopping on line.
Violent crime and shoplifting has become a regular thing at malls as well
@@jamescook9661 shoplifting has always been a problem, violent crime does not seem to be any worse in the uk shopping centres than before, but is understandeble if the centers have less people and less security.
@@cliffcook3993 Now we literally have gangs of people bringing large trash bags into stores using hammers to break open cases and calmly walk out and nothing ever gets done about it
@@cliffcook3993 There was a mass shooting just yesterday in a mall in Texas. Street ga gs seem to meet their adversaries in the food court regularly anymore
My hometown metro area used to have 6 malls. They are now down to 2! Granted, two of those rolled into one larger mall, but still only 2 malls left. Rochester NY was also home to the first indoor downtown mall-Midtown Plaza. Demolished years ago.
@Quiet Expeditions Definitely some over building! One of the malls that was rolled into the other had these really cool sunken lounge areas. Now the whole thing looks like every other mall in the country-boring.
What the hell happened to this country? So sad. Good musical choice though.
There is no excuse for American malls to have declined like this.
On the bright side, violent mobs don't show up to rob people when there is nobody there to rob.
What do think this mall did wrong - if anything?
Now Mall of America, since the locals took over
I remember when Bloomingdale was nothing more than a rummy bar with an outhouse out back.😂
So sad,...there has to be a solution to putting these malls to good use, even it's just partially retail space.
First amazon, then the pandemic to nail the coffin. RIP malls.
So sad kids now a days have nooooo idea about about the mall culture.. I grew up in the 90’s also if YIU went to ANNNNNY mall it was popping and the place to be.. Back then you could literally stay in the mall all day with your friends hang out laugh, shop, eat and go see a movie.. Any body remember the movie mall rats??? Prime example..
Better empty than full of gang bangers, as is so much the case these days.
The mall experience ended when it became too dangerous. many of the indigenous tribes took over
There's nothing dangerous about the First Nations. I'm pretty sure they don't dominate the shopping mall industry.
omg
I've never really liked the concept of malls. I think they promote wasteful shopping habits, it's browsing for stuff you don't need just for the pleasure of getting something new that will instantly become junk. Very seldomly do you go to the mall for a necessity. Still, I live near a mall that is still lively and I'm kind of happy to have experienced it just because I know they won't exist much longer. It's interesting to see how my parents spent their time when they were young in the peak 80's mall era. We even had a Sears with those old bulky cash registers that took forever to check you out up until about 5 years ago when they went bankrupt. When they did finally close, they had a liquidation sale that was like 90% off everything and it looked like a mob had taken over the store, lol. While I don't think shopping should be how kids spend free time, at least old-schoolers had something to do in their youth. Now there's really nowhere for youth to socialize outside the interweb.
🇬🇧 Frightening.