Do you remember that fountain that was at the Sears end of the mall. Or back the day when Burger King was it's own sit down restaurant with that huge fountain right by it the was 2 stories high. When I was a kid I was upset when they remodeled and got rid of that one.
What sets Sal's Dead Mall videos apart from all the rest is not only is each video full of great footage of the Mall he's covering, each video is also packed with an amazing amount of research.
Don't The Proper People do their own research. If wager he does share a bit more but. Don't assume I'm accusing you of anything though please, more pointing out some of the others do theirs too..
I was born and raised in Syracuse! Even though Carousel was always closer to me I occasionally went to shopping town. The Fun Junction lazer tag there was huge! This mall has always been dead but the past 7 years it has become desolate. It’s sad to see it like this but the other mall in Clay, Great Northern, is going down this same exact path.
Jasey Rae’s Cosplays Yea, not just heading down the same path it’s already in life support: i was in Great Northern back in February. Just before the pandemic broke loose in the states. That mall is incredibly depressing. There’s somthing very creepy about great northern. Something really unsettles me there. I might be honestly imagining some of it because Great Northern was where that terrible murder case happened 7 years ago or so, but there’s just somthing really unsettling about the place. Got a chance to take a picture into the old Bon Tom that’s been closed for like 10 years and it’s absolutely Wreaked in there... I honestly believe Syracuse will emerge from the pandemic a One Mall Town.
Spencer Maddox oh I completely agree. I’m a college student now but I grew up going to great northern and carousel and honestly I’ve always had a bad vibe at Great Northern. It would be sad to see it go once the pandemic leaves but it’s great northerns time
Shoppingtown at least has had their Regal theater relatively modernized. At Great Northern it still is all from the early 90s. Old school seats and not stadium style. Just a sloped floor. Saw a movie on opening night all by myself a few years back. Lol
I think one of the only things I'll miss about the quarantine is Sal's uploads every Friday night. Thank you so much Sal for giving us something really fun & interesting to watch every week during these troubling times.
This mall was my teenage years. It's been sad to see it fall down so hard. The skatepark used to be a MediaPlay. I played a fair bit of Pokemon in the basement of that MediaPlay.
I gotta say, it was nice seeing a mall that still had warm and inviting hues to its look. Just gets so tiring seeing so many thriving malls that always want to go for the cold and sterile palettes and design.
I'm wondering if some of that was Macerich's doing. (???) I believe I've seen other Macerich malls that, after a refurb, had a similar colour look to them.
Nah man that just makes it more dead. I have vivid memories of every square foot of this mall, it's such a empty feeling now that it's dead. I would have rather it be cold and artificial, it would have made it easier to comprehend it's death.
Sal, I dig ur affinity for the pint sized escalator, I find it amusing to watch ur videos and try to find something in the spaces that I think may catch ur eye, and cause you to break focus for just a moment. LOL. I'm glad that little escalator brought you so much joy for even if it was only for a moment in time. Thanks for sharing ur videos, experiences, and a fragment of ur life with us, ur very respectful of the locations and to staff at the locations [if there's staff to be found, obviously not all ur locations are staffed]. Great work, my friend. You stay safe yourself, my dad passed in April 2021 from COVID-19 that he contracted in the hospital after a very high risk kidney transplant surgery. I miss him dearly, I appreciate that you mention for ppl to stay safe and even stay home, my dad thought he was in a safe place, but germs and viruses are tricky little pricks and they will find you if they want you. Be careful out there, Sal, please... I know ur on the road a lot, watch out for idiots sharing the roadways as well, they can be just as deadly as a virus. 👍👍
Wow. Great work! It’s crazy you did a mall in my hometown after I just started following you and binging out on your movies only a few weeks ago. Oh the irony. So, I worked at that Sears while I was in college and bought my first proper suit at that Macy’s after I landed a job out of college. The mall was so robust and full of life in the late 90’s and 2000’s. Damn shame to see what Moonbeam has allowed it to become now. They’ve made a host of empty promises to the local community about redevelopment that have never come true. Seems that’s their MO with other malls they own. Wish local government could force their hand to take take action. Oh, and they owe the town of DeWitt millions in back taxes. Wish the town could seize it for back taxes and give it to a developer who would actually do something with it.
@@sal I'm closely familiar with that mall, still a huge elephant in the room for locals. The tax seizure process won't ever end because the owners keep stalling.
I used to frequent this mall when I was in college back in the mid-2000's. I definitely remember that there was a Media Play around where that skate park was, so that may have been at least one iteration :)
I am pretty sure it was Media Play as well as I don't remember many other stores with escalators there, especially in that part of the mall. It looks sorta vaguely like it under all that skater stuff. Media Play was wonderful, although quite overpriced vs. online shopping. I loved spending hours looking at used DVDs, CDs, video games, etc. Honestly it was the main reason why I went to that mall. The other stores really didn't interest me a whole lot as it was a fancy mall full of the upper-class stores and I was a very Bradlees/Hills/Zayre type of shopper which were found at the other malls. Shoppingtown was actually my least favorite of the area malls back then for that reason.
@@Sunset-Shimmer I moved to the area in '04 right before Media Play shut up shop. I liked it because it was the first place I had ever seen a wide selection (to me) of anime which really helped me get into that genre. I thus have some fond memories of it.
I went to that mall on January 18 2015 (Yes, I still remember the exact day I went there) and, I must say that the mall was still doing fairly well since there was still Sears, Macy's, JCPenney and Dick's Sporting Goods as well as WAY more occupied storefronts. Heck, even the food court still had some life in it, with I think about 4 tenants. Sad to realize that this was VERY shortly before the mass exodus of store closures that would follow :(
Skatepark used to be Woolworth’s and then Media Play. Note the super small escalator in the skate park (Woolworth’s) that used to take your shopping basket from one level to the other. It was right next to you when you rode the in store escalator
My mom was a seamstress that specialized in wedding gowns. She worked at Champange bridal..next to economy books..until the owner closed it. In 1991 during the change, an AMAZING hand blown, 20ft tall glass sculpture that hung between the escalatoys at Pennys..was THROWN AWAY. The artist..a very famous glass maker..was PISSED. I spent 100's of hours here...my Mom just passed last April...she made stunning custom, heirloom quality wedding gowns for many Syracuse families. I helped on many of them.
Wait, there is a mall in Dewitt? I have lived in Syracuse for about 6 years and never noticed there was a mall in that town. I looked up the malls location and I apparently pass by the mall to get to my children’s dentist and to the only Best Buy left in the area. WOW. How am I that unaware of my surroundings to miss an entire mall? Just wow. Great work, Sal!
The smallest (baby) escalators are or were at the JC Penny at Westfield’s Garden State Plaza in Paramus, NJ. Last time I went to the mall JC Penny had shuttered and I think put a wall in front of them. They’re literally like 5 steps long.
Well done, Sal! The history and backstory are always very great and much appreciated. Now, I'm going to have nightmares about the Chucky clown doll ... :D
Northway Mall in Pittsburgh (before it was remodeled and renamed the block northway) had a baby escalator, might have been a little smaller than the one at shopping town. The bottom floor of the mall had a long corridor that had a slight slope to it and at the end there was a small escalator that led up to the 2-story atrium.
This hit me right in the feels. I'm 33 and I started going as a little kid with my father to get my haircut there at the barbershop. After my father passed away in 2009, I didn't go there for about 6 years and boy when I went back finally, it was a complete ghost town. It was very sad, I had a lot of good memories of that place... FYI the skate park used to be a Media Play
Hey Sal, great work as always -- I'm finding the Expedition Log Series particularly comforting during these trying times. My compliments also on your voiceover EQ improvements in recent videos -- this one with its subtle reverb is perfection.
Westwood mall here in Houston had miniature escalators on each end. It was split level the main level was 5 steps down the second floor was a full flight up. It had this style in front of its Sears and Wards entranced. The setup included stairs for the small distance as well. It also had both up and down escalators for the 5 steps. Each end also had a front and backdoor elevator traveling between all 3 landings.
Man, I remember this place and think about it a lot. One time when I was 4, I was with my mom and grandparents at the escalators that led from outside to Sears. I pressed the ol emergency stop button, being a 4 year old. That’s my memory of this place, went to the library in the basement a lot too
Thanks for watching everyone! Leave a like if you want to adopt the baby escalator. Also, please go watch ExLog 57, on the North Shore Square Mall: th-cam.com/video/-SWc850-mDg/w-d-xo.html Catch up on the full Expedition Log Series! Support the Expedition Log on Patreon, if you like! - www.patreon.com/salvatoreamadeo Second Channel! - th-cam.com/users/quitestudios Join the discussion on Discord! discord.gg/g4tKbpu My Website: www.salvatoreamadeo.com Facebook Page! - facebook.com/QuiteStudios/ ExLog Series Playlist - th-cam.com/play/PLeveLKZSrsW5yrdr5vZa1-7oq_g-EuzZt.html Twitter - twitter.com/salvatoreamadeo Instagram - instagram.com/salvatoreamadeo Subscribe to and follow everyone on the DMOD Seal: Faded Commerce - th-cam.com/users/fadedcommerce RetailPocalypse - th-cam.com/users/Retailpocalypse The Vintage Spaces Channel - th-cam.com/users/thevintagespaceschannel Unicomm Productions - th-cam.com/users/unicommproductions Ace's Adventures - th-cam.com/channels/YfArGrC66A-vdS45DS7Qrg.html Jonrev's Flickr - www.flickr.com/photos/7323354@N05/ Jonrev's Site - jonrev.com/ The Caldor Rainbow - thecaldorrainbow.blogspot.com/ The Neon Explorer instagram.com/theneonexplorer Rustbelt Expeditions instagram.com/rustbeltexpeditions
@sal You are right about MoonBeam Scamming Investors and the City, But I have a dirty secret to reveal: Moonbeam is the Jimmy Haslam and Paul DePodesta of Mall owners.
When I was a kid I spent a lot of weekends here, would go to the Library, Movie theater, and comic book store on a regular basis. Thanks for documenting this place before the vandalism gets too bad. Unfourtinetly I don't expect this will take long considering how close it is to the city.
Directly across from the mini-escalator was a store called Chess King where I worked in 1984/85. They were a purveyor of parachute pants, skinny leather ties and jackets with lots of zippers and Chinese characters in the heyday of breakdancing, Michael Jackson and New Wave (think Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Kajagoogoo, etc.). I remember standing in the store looking across to the mini-escalator noticing that whenever a guy and girl were walking together hand-in-hand they would stop to make out as they rode the escalator up to the next level. It was if they thought "Well, we can stop walking now and have a little make out session." Sad to see a chapter of my teenage years come to such an inelegant end.
I live here in Central NY and man the shoppingtown mall has been a meme for over a decade. Closer to two decades. Its insane it hasn't completely shut down sooner. Great Northern mall about 20miles north in clay,NY is about as dead.
Wonderful! Great video. Love seeing Anthony with you. I found you last summer and it has been great ever since. Always excited to see what you do next. Love Anthony’s stuff too!
This is a great video as always, Sal! Upstate New York has plenty of dead malls, but of the ones still open, Shoppingtown might be the deadest. I was always intrigued by what the other half looked like.
I remember watching live the program that appears between minutes 5:33 to 6:44. Jesús Quintero, one of the best journalists Spain has ever seen, known as "the king of silences" for making them in a way that created great suspense. Sadly he passed away 3/10/22 at 82 years old. Thanks Sal for bringing this video ( the original interview was already very good but you have improved it with Moonbeam's "CLO").and in general for all your work, it is very good, I congratulate you and wish you success!
Thank you Sal for amazing videos. Especially in the uncertainty we are all encountering, your videos provide an escape to the great memories of the past. Stay safe!
Yeah, I’ve never seen an escalator that is less than a story up. It was like 3/4ths of a story and that thing was operating for the entire ~35yr life of the mall, it was invincible. Meanwhile escalators at modern malls seem to break monthly.
Absolutely fantastic video as always! So much detail and such great job filming the location. I am in mixed thoughts about the situation we are in; one thought is that people being stuck at home will run to malls once they reopen and bring in allot of business. Another thought is that people who resisted shopping online have now learned to use it and will not return to malls. On the other hand, offices that cannot provide 6 feet distance like the office I work at cannot re-open without renovating or waiting out the virus completely. Due to this issue my office has been converted to permanent work at home. Due to this I can see myself visiting malls more frequently to interact with people and a destination to work from outside of the house. I think shopping malls that market themselves as welcoming place for people who now work at home, perhaps by setting up an area for this, will potentially get considerable foot traffic.
Thank you. I remember going to ShoppingTown before and after it became a mall. A covered shopping space is very nice in the climate of Upstate, NY "Open air space in a mall"? Why not just remain in the old downtown area of the city to shop? (Criminals prey on the patrons in both places)
I agree. I'm quite partial to indoor malls. These days, I like the clean air (which had even started being a thing in the late 1970s at some malls), as well as the climate control (heat/aircon). Plus, I feel safer at a decently maintained mall than I do wandering an outdoor shopping strip.
I spent a lot of time on this mall visiting and working there, but your info regarding the May Company and Macy’s are a little off. I worked for Kaufmann’s, part of the May Department Stores Company from 2000-2001 before transferring to their Hecht’s store in Raleigh. Federated Department Stores merges with May Co. in 2006 and that’s when they rebranded all of the May stores (Hecht’s, Strawbridges, Kaufmann’s, Robinson’s May, et al) as Macy’s stores. Other than that, great work. I had friends who worked for Addis & Dey, Sibley’s and evening one of the stores from the original open air plaza that started out on that plot of land. Many, many memories of this wonderful mall.
Sal please do the Irondequoit Mall/Medley Centre/Skyview on the Ridge! I used to love going to it as a kid and it would be great if you covered it just like this video with Shoppingtown. I live in Syracuse and visited this mall and it is just sad. However Onondaga County took it over and plan to turn it into a new outdoor shopping center.
This was my mall I use to go to. So many memories here with my husband and I. It was still booming back in 2010 and 2011. Many ppl still shopped here. I moved from Syracuse, Ny in 2020, but the very last time we were here was in 2019 and Sears was the only thing open.
Went to Syracuse U. during the 80's, so spent a lot of time in this mall during the glory days. Even was part of a remote radio broadcast from there (on WJPZ, the student run radio station). We were set up in the Sears/Addis wing near the baby escalator. Probably right across from the "skate park," which was (I'm almost 100% sure) where the Woolworth's was. I fished a bunch of 25 cent cassette tapes and vinyl albums out of there...they had a huge bin of them in the basement which had probably been sitting there for 10-15 years. It was a bunch of random stuff including Oldies (50s-60s music) compilation tapes on a label out of Italy. There were terrible unwanted records that I picked up including Alan O'Day and the Starland Vocal Band. Good memories there. Also remember getting Orange Juliuses and buying shampoo at Fay's Drugs. Finished college right before Carousel Mall/Destiny opened, so this was always the big important mall for me.
This is so sad! I can remember going there with my mom for mother-daughter shopping fun days in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s. We would travel for about an hour to get there from the Utica area. Bought my dress for Prom in that mall. It was a really nice mall back then, and far bigger than anything close to where we lived. I had been to Carousel Mall, too, which was nice, but almost too big. (and that was before it’s expansion). I read that Carousel/Destiny was in danger of closing down, too. I think that the main reason for why indoor malls were so popular, particularly in Central NY, was because there was so much snow and ice in the winter, not to mention the single digit temps. You didn’t see the ground for 8+ months out of the year. My last year there we had snow flurries on August 29th, which I remember because it was my Grandma's birthday. Who wants to have to go in and out of stores in an outdoor shopping complex when it is 10 degrees and there is 3 feet of snow outside?
I feel like Upstate NY has more dead malls per capita then anywhere else in America. I don't have any data to support that, but I grew up near Albany and most of the 8-10 malls I remember there are dead.
thank you for covering this mall! my friends and i have had tons of good times in this mall growing up (in recent times at the skate park) and to see it in such disrepair like this is awful. it's hard walking through the food court and by the old fun junction in particular. the crosswalk at the jcpenney is cold and empty except for the lacrosse store on the way in. so many parts of the mall could be used for housing or living communities since there's already a good chunk of fitness places in there, too. moonbeam's antics have been covered less than favorably, of course, in local news; it's just awful what they've done, or rather what they haven't done... the buckets and tubs everywhere collecting leaks is just sad to walk by every time. the bathrooms off the side of the food court are also... really terrifying, to say the least.
22:50 i also read through some comments on a syracuse nostalgia walkthrough of shoppingtown & on the syracuse skate gang's website that before black mamba got into the mall, that location was a media play!
I remember going on dates to the movie theater back when I was a teenager because it had the nicest one even compared to the fairly new carousel mall theater
Stores I remember as a child: Contempo's casuals, 1 potato 2, Circus Pizza with Rock a fire Explosion.... In Minnesota, malls still do quite well. I think the crappy 6 month winters helps them pull through.
I used to go this mall when i was a kid. The red framed store, the skate park, was once a Media Play. The triathalon store in the basement area by your beloved mini escalator, was a Onondaga Public library. ...
That mall looks like it had a lot of potential. Sad to see it on life support. Moonbeam is killing off all the malls they buy and own. They are the problem.
Fantastic video - Sal I grew up in Pittsburgh near Century II and watched it built - what a story - one technical correction to this video about Kaufmanns. Kaufmanns was a part of May Company since I believe the 1960's and what actually happened in 2005-6 was May Company (Kaufmanns parent) was purchased by Federated Dept. Stores (now known as Macy's). Superb camera work and obviously you do your homework on these fascinating videos - documenting mall history - many which will soon be demolished and gone forever - except in your documentaries.
Carousel center didn’t close this mall, it was Moonbeam plus Destiny that shut it down. Carousel center was never that trendy nor was it on the cutting edge. As to shopping town, it Stinks as the skylights everywhere were very unique and cool.
Our cases here in Utah are staying steady at around 100-200 new a day since early April. Meanwhile, bars, restaurants, and our three major malls in the Salt Lake area are now reopened. They're all taking precautions but I still think it was too early. Certain stores inside the malls aren't reopening yet, or are only operating as "curbside" pickup locations.
I grew up wandering this mall. My mom never like shopping at Carousel/Destiny because of how big/busy it was, so I spent many an evening or Saturday being dragged around (and later hanging around it with friends as a pre-teen/teenager). The skate park is a former Media play. I spent a lot of time finding and reading books from there. We used to buy new schools clothes at the Sears and Kaufmans (we went a lot less after it became a Macy's and raised prices on what seemed to be the same stock). Played a lot of laser tag and had a lot of prize tickets from that old arcade and probably saw hundreds of movies at this mall. The Fayetteville Library used to be in that lower space near the baby escalator. Bought a lot of my early video games at what was then the Electronic Boutique. There's a lot of memories of this place. But like many things of Syracuse, it's withered away. It always felt like so many places in the Syracuse region were just expecting a sudden bounce back after most of the manufacturing went, but nothing ever came. The city seems to have dumped all it's hopes and dreams into Syracuse University and Destiny USA at this point, which doesn't really leave much for the rest of the city to thrive on. I miss the good times and people there, but every time I come home to visit, I'm reminded why I left.
It was interesting that you said there was a particular style/look to the Wilmorite properties. Before that point I had been thinking of how much this mall looked like Danbury Fair Mall (not a "dead" mall by a long shot, merely dealing with the shrinkage of department store chains, and the usual turnover). After you said that I had to look them up and sure enough, Danbury Fair is a Wilmorite property. At the end of the video, in the parking garage, and driving out (under the bridge from the mall to the parking garage) it looked just like it (including those hexagonal cutouts in the beams). Of course, further along, Danbury doesn't have the detached buildings (just swampland that likes to flood the roads and parking lot).
The place is covered with water buckets because of all of all the leaks and the mall always smells musky and of mold. The mall isn't even heated anymore and I doubt is even cleaned at this point. The only reason people might still go to the mall was the movie theater or black mamba
For a while there was a Vans Skatepark inside Potomac Mills in Woodbridge, VA. It was a 62,000 sq ft space that was originally the Waccamaw Pottery outlet when the mall opened in the '80s, until 2001 when its parent went bankrupt. Vans took over the space, but ultimately closed the indoor skatepark in the mid-noughts because growing competition from free outdoor community parks made it unprofitable.
Amazing Episode. I'm from Upstate so this hits close to Home, and one of the few Malls you've visited that I actually have as well. Its' really a shame. Such a Beautiful and Unique mall thats just completely gone to waste. Gets worse every time I'm in there. Just like the Irondequoit Mall, when Witmorite malls go under and close/die the aesthetic they create is very uniquely Eerie. I don't know what it is, it just it creates a very strange almost forbidding atmosphere.
I was still going to this mall near the very end of it's life cycle. Used to play in Smash Bros tournaments at Cloud City Comics & Toys, near the food court. While I was there, there were a couple places still open in the food court. Don't remember their names but it was a pizza place and an asian food place. Interestingly, a Creole Soul opened up in there right at the very end of the mall's life, but only stayed in for like a month tops. Very peculiar. The movie theater continued to operate for a while, and there was a wing of what seemed to be all fitness or martial arts places, but besides that not much.
I don’t recall you having one yet, but are there plans to just do a whole dedication to moon beam and all of their failures and horrible business schemes?
Thanks Sal for another informative Dead Mall Video. Yes How "The Hell was this Mall still Open" at the time? I believe it was for That Barber Shop lol. I really love that shiny gorgeous floor and the Rushing water...however with MoonBeam..it seems rushing water is their thing.:-( The "baby" escalator was adorable ,I have never seen one in a mall. Nice touch.Another damned shame for yet one more Shuttered Mall. But at least we get to explore them with you Sal. Stay Safe and take care. Looking forward to another video next Friday.
There was a skate park in the Moorestown Mall in Moorestown NJ and there's a baby escalator (or there was, I haven't been there in awhile) in the Cherry Hill Mall in NJ.
I miss hearing fountains in a mall.
Do you remember that fountain that was at the Sears end of the mall. Or back the day when Burger King was it's own sit down restaurant with that huge fountain right by it the was 2 stories high. When I was a kid I was upset when they remodeled and got rid of that one.
What sets Sal's Dead Mall videos apart from all the rest is not only is each video full of great footage of the Mall he's covering, each video is also packed with an amazing amount of research.
Don't The Proper People do their own research. If wager he does share a bit more but. Don't assume I'm accusing you of anything though please, more pointing out some of the others do theirs too..
I was born and raised in Syracuse! Even though Carousel was always closer to me I occasionally went to shopping town. The Fun Junction lazer tag there was huge! This mall has always been dead but the past 7 years it has become desolate. It’s sad to see it like this but the other mall in Clay, Great Northern, is going down this same exact path.
Thank you for watching!!
Jasey Rae’s Cosplays Yea, not just heading down the same path it’s already in life support: i was in Great Northern back in February. Just before the pandemic broke loose in the states. That mall is incredibly depressing. There’s somthing very creepy about great northern. Something really unsettles me there. I might be honestly imagining some of it because Great Northern was where that terrible murder case happened 7 years ago or so, but there’s just somthing really unsettling about the place. Got a chance to take a picture into the old Bon Tom that’s been closed for like 10 years and it’s absolutely Wreaked in there...
I honestly believe Syracuse will emerge from the pandemic a One Mall Town.
Spencer Maddox oh I completely agree. I’m a college student now but I grew up going to great northern and carousel and honestly I’ve always had a bad vibe at Great Northern. It would be sad to see it go once the pandemic leaves but it’s great northerns time
Shoppingtown at least has had their Regal theater relatively modernized. At Great Northern it still is all from the early 90s. Old school seats and not stadium style. Just a sloped floor. Saw a movie on opening night all by myself a few years back. Lol
I think one of the only things I'll miss about the quarantine is Sal's uploads every Friday night. Thank you so much Sal for giving us something really fun & interesting to watch every week during these troubling times.
That skate park use to be a 2 floor media play store. music on the top floor and books on the bottom.
Can confirm. Loved that Media Play.
That was a huge media play.
Here's a blast from the past...before it was a Media Play, that space was a Woolworths!
@@stephennedell6802 and before Rite Aide, was a Fay's with escalators in front going down.
@@stephennedell6802 Yes, with a full restaurant/soda counter.
This mall was my teenage years. It's been sad to see it fall down so hard.
The skatepark used to be a MediaPlay. I played a fair bit of Pokemon in the basement of that MediaPlay.
Ugh, another dried up Moonbeam property...RIP. Thank you Sal for documenting these places some will never see.
It was so sad to see...Shoppingtown was an amazing mall.
I gotta say, it was nice seeing a mall that still had warm and inviting hues to its look. Just gets so tiring seeing so many thriving malls that always want to go for the cold and sterile palettes and design.
I'm wondering if some of that was Macerich's doing. (???) I believe I've seen other Macerich malls that, after a refurb, had a similar colour look to them.
Nah man that just makes it more dead. I have vivid memories of every square foot of this mall, it's such a empty feeling now that it's dead. I would have rather it be cold and artificial, it would have made it easier to comprehend it's death.
This. I felt relaxed and comfortable at Shoppingtown. Carousel, not so much.
Sal, I dig ur affinity for the pint sized escalator, I find it amusing to watch ur videos and try to find something in the spaces that I think may catch ur eye, and cause you to break focus for just a moment. LOL. I'm glad that little escalator brought you so much joy for even if it was only for a moment in time.
Thanks for sharing ur videos, experiences, and a fragment of ur life with us, ur very respectful of the locations and to staff at the locations [if there's staff to be found, obviously not all ur locations are staffed]. Great work, my friend. You stay safe yourself, my dad passed in April 2021 from COVID-19 that he contracted in the hospital after a very high risk kidney transplant surgery. I miss him dearly, I appreciate that you mention for ppl to stay safe and even stay home, my dad thought he was in a safe place, but germs and viruses are tricky little pricks and they will find you if they want you. Be careful out there, Sal, please... I know ur on the road a lot, watch out for idiots sharing the roadways as well, they can be just as deadly as a virus. 👍👍
The water fountains are pretty when you first walked in.
Wow. Great work! It’s crazy you did a mall in my hometown after I just started following you and binging out on your movies only a few weeks ago. Oh the irony. So, I worked at that Sears while I was in college and bought my first proper suit at that Macy’s after I landed a job out of college. The mall was so robust and full of life in the late 90’s and 2000’s. Damn shame to see what Moonbeam has allowed it to become now. They’ve made a host of empty promises to the local community about redevelopment that have never come true. Seems that’s their MO with other malls they own. Wish local government could force their hand to take take action. Oh, and they owe the town of DeWitt millions in back taxes. Wish the town could seize it for back taxes and give it to a developer who would actually do something with it.
Yea turn it in to a fuccillo auto mall lol its HUGE !!!!
At least where I live now I dont have to hear his commercials anymore.
That sequence with the Moonbeam Exec. was stellar. I laughed waaaay more than I should have. Genius.
With the way things are going right now, looks like there will be alot more closed malls waiting to be explored in the near future.
It's sad that this is another moonbeam casualty. It blows my mind that moonbeam can do these shady business tactics.
They're the absolute worst. Total criminals.
@@sal I'm closely familiar with that mall, still a huge elephant in the room for locals. The tax seizure process won't ever end because the owners keep stalling.
Sal just like namdar.
Don't forget Kohan.
How do they get tax breaks or credits? When essentially they're slum lords.? Moonbeam needs a permanent eclipse!
I used to frequent this mall when I was in college back in the mid-2000's. I definitely remember that there was a Media Play around where that skate park was, so that may have been at least one iteration :)
The outside of it with the thing that looks like a giant funnel is definitely a Media Play thing.
I am pretty sure it was Media Play as well as I don't remember many other stores with escalators there, especially in that part of the mall. It looks sorta vaguely like it under all that skater stuff. Media Play was wonderful, although quite overpriced vs. online shopping. I loved spending hours looking at used DVDs, CDs, video games, etc. Honestly it was the main reason why I went to that mall. The other stores really didn't interest me a whole lot as it was a fancy mall full of the upper-class stores and I was a very Bradlees/Hills/Zayre type of shopper which were found at the other malls. Shoppingtown was actually my least favorite of the area malls back then for that reason.
@@Sunset-Shimmer I moved to the area in '04 right before Media Play shut up shop. I liked it because it was the first place I had ever seen a wide selection (to me) of anime which really helped me get into that genre. I thus have some fond memories of it.
I went to that mall on January 18 2015 (Yes, I still remember the exact day I went there) and, I must say that the mall was still doing fairly well since there was still Sears, Macy's, JCPenney and Dick's Sporting Goods as well as WAY more occupied storefronts. Heck, even the food court still had some life in it, with I think about 4 tenants. Sad to realize that this was VERY shortly before the mass exodus of store closures that would follow :(
Skatepark used to be Woolworth’s and then Media Play. Note the super small escalator in the skate park (Woolworth’s) that used to take your shopping basket from one level to the other. It was right next to you when you rode the in store escalator
Woolworth's was an original tenant of the open air mall. In 1954 if you walked out the door at 23:44 you'd be in the parking lot.
My mom was a seamstress that specialized in wedding gowns. She worked at Champange bridal..next to economy books..until the owner closed it. In 1991 during the change, an AMAZING hand blown, 20ft tall glass sculpture that hung between the escalatoys at Pennys..was THROWN AWAY. The artist..a very famous glass maker..was PISSED. I spent 100's of hours here...my Mom just passed last April...she made stunning custom, heirloom quality wedding gowns for many Syracuse families. I helped on many of them.
Wait, there is a mall in Dewitt? I have lived in Syracuse for about 6 years and never noticed there was a mall in that town. I looked up the malls location and I apparently pass by the mall to get to my children’s dentist and to the only Best Buy left in the area. WOW. How am I that unaware of my surroundings to miss an entire mall? Just wow. Great work, Sal!
I’m looking forward to this as my usual Friday evening entertainment. 😁🥰
I think you're really going to like this one!
The smallest (baby) escalators are or were at the JC Penny at Westfield’s Garden State Plaza in Paramus, NJ. Last time I went to the mall JC Penny had shuttered and I think put a wall in front of them. They’re literally like 5 steps long.
The Moonbeam CLO footage is gold Im imagining that being played at their next trial. Thanks Sal for the weekly content
Well done, Sal! The history and backstory are always very great and much appreciated.
Now, I'm going to have nightmares about the Chucky clown doll ... :D
Northway Mall in Pittsburgh (before it was remodeled and renamed the block northway) had a baby escalator, might have been a little smaller than the one at shopping town. The bottom floor of the mall had a long corridor that had a slight slope to it and at the end there was a small escalator that led up to the 2-story atrium.
Before that remodel back in the mid 70s they used to have a big indoor birdcage.
I am from Syracuse. The skate park used to be a media play electronic store.
The multiple levels and ramps near the baby escalator remind me of the "streets in the sky" concept from the era. Very cool.
Wear your boots, Moonbeam means water damage!
This hit me right in the feels. I'm 33 and I started going as a little kid with my father to get my haircut there at the barbershop. After my father passed away in 2009, I didn't go there for about 6 years and boy when I went back finally, it was a complete ghost town. It was very sad, I had a lot of good memories of that place... FYI the skate park used to be a Media Play
Hey Sal, great work as always -- I'm finding the Expedition Log Series particularly comforting during these trying times. My compliments also on your voiceover EQ improvements in recent videos -- this one with its subtle reverb is perfection.
Westwood mall here in Houston had miniature escalators on each end. It was split level the main level was 5 steps down the second floor was a full flight up. It had this style in front of its Sears and Wards entranced. The setup included stairs for the small distance as well. It also had both up and down escalators for the 5 steps. Each end also had a front and backdoor elevator traveling between all 3 landings.
Man, I remember this place and think about it a lot. One time when I was 4, I was with my mom and grandparents at the escalators that led from outside to Sears. I pressed the ol emergency stop button, being a 4 year old. That’s my memory of this place, went to the library in the basement a lot too
Thanks for watching everyone! Leave a like if you want to adopt the baby escalator. Also, please go watch ExLog 57, on the North Shore Square Mall:
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Pretty sure the skatepark use to be laser tag. Because they deffinetly had laser tag as shoppingtown in the early 2000s
@sal You are right about MoonBeam Scamming Investors and the City, But I have a dirty secret to reveal:
Moonbeam is the Jimmy Haslam and Paul DePodesta of Mall owners.
Just wanted to ask in case it was a TH-cam thing but. Is there a reason I can only reply on your videos not actively comment otherwise.
Herencia Diabólica looks like a movie they would screen in "De Película" channel at 2 in the morning.
lol
Lollll
When I was a kid I spent a lot of weekends here, would go to the Library, Movie theater, and comic book store on a regular basis. Thanks for documenting this place before the vandalism gets too bad. Unfourtinetly I don't expect this will take long considering how close it is to the city.
Many thanks buddy for your videos and coverage,
Peace out everyone peace ✌🏿
Directly across from the mini-escalator was a store called Chess King where I worked in 1984/85. They were a purveyor of parachute pants, skinny leather ties and jackets with lots of zippers and Chinese characters in the heyday of breakdancing, Michael Jackson and New Wave (think Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Kajagoogoo, etc.). I remember standing in the store looking across to the mini-escalator noticing that whenever a guy and girl were walking together hand-in-hand they would stop to make out as they rode the escalator up to the next level. It was if they thought "Well, we can stop walking now and have a little make out session." Sad to see a chapter of my teenage years come to such an inelegant end.
We need to save the dead malls. Think of the baby escalators for goodness sake.
😊
I live here in Central NY and man the shoppingtown mall has been a meme for over a decade. Closer to two decades. Its insane it hasn't completely shut down sooner.
Great Northern mall about 20miles north in clay,NY is about as dead.
Wonderful! Great video. Love seeing Anthony with you. I found you last summer and it has been great ever since. Always excited to see what you do next. Love Anthony’s stuff too!
This is a great video as always, Sal! Upstate New York has plenty of dead malls, but of the ones still open, Shoppingtown might be the deadest. I was always intrigued by what the other half looked like.
I remember watching live the program that appears between minutes 5:33 to 6:44. Jesús Quintero, one of the best journalists Spain has ever seen, known as "the king of silences" for making them in a way that created great suspense. Sadly he passed away 3/10/22 at 82 years old.
Thanks Sal for bringing this video ( the original interview was already very good but you have improved it with Moonbeam's "CLO").and in general for all your work, it is very good, I congratulate you and wish you success!
I grew up there. The skatepark used to be a Media Play. It was a similar store to best buy.
Thank you Sal for amazing videos. Especially in the uncertainty we are all encountering, your videos provide an escape to the great memories of the past. Stay safe!
Great video Sal! Love the baby escalator!!
Thumbs up for the miniature escalator!
That mini escalator kills!
Yeah, I’ve never seen an escalator that is less than a story up. It was like 3/4ths of a story and that thing was operating for the entire ~35yr life of the mall, it was invincible. Meanwhile escalators at modern malls seem to break monthly.
Great coverage and info about it. I also liked the sears cart. Thank you for all you do Sal. 👏👍😎
Finally! I’ve been waiting for you to do shoppingtown!
This was ALREADY a dead mall in 2000 when I started attending Syracuse. I can't believe it still lived another 20 years before actual death.
Absolutely fantastic video as always! So much detail and such great job filming the location. I am in mixed thoughts about the situation we are in; one thought is that people being stuck at home will run to malls once they reopen and bring in allot of business. Another thought is that people who resisted shopping online have now learned to use it and will not return to malls. On the other hand, offices that cannot provide 6 feet distance like the office I work at cannot re-open without renovating or waiting out the virus completely. Due to this issue my office has been converted to permanent work at home. Due to this I can see myself visiting malls more frequently to interact with people and a destination to work from outside of the house. I think shopping malls that market themselves as welcoming place for people who now work at home, perhaps by setting up an area for this, will potentially get considerable foot traffic.
Thank you.
I remember going to ShoppingTown before and after it became a mall.
A covered shopping space is very nice in the climate of Upstate, NY
"Open air space in a mall"? Why not just remain in the old downtown
area of the city to shop? (Criminals prey on the patrons in both places)
I agree. I'm quite partial to indoor malls. These days, I like the clean air (which had even started being a thing in the late 1970s at some malls), as well as the climate control (heat/aircon). Plus, I feel safer at a decently maintained mall than I do wandering an outdoor shopping strip.
Great video!! Hilarious sign in skate park. No snot rockets!!
I used to go there through the 2010's and I couldn't remember it being anything else but I was informed it used to be a book store
Thank you for bringing us your logs!!!!
I spent a lot of time on this mall visiting and working there, but your info regarding the May Company and Macy’s are a little off. I worked for Kaufmann’s, part of the May Department Stores Company from 2000-2001 before transferring to their Hecht’s store in Raleigh. Federated Department Stores merges with May Co. in 2006 and that’s when they rebranded all of the May stores (Hecht’s, Strawbridges, Kaufmann’s, Robinson’s May, et al) as Macy’s stores. Other than that, great work. I had friends who worked for Addis & Dey, Sibley’s and evening one of the stores from the original open air plaza that started out on that plot of land. Many, many memories of this wonderful mall.
Sal please do the Irondequoit Mall/Medley Centre/Skyview on the Ridge! I used to love going to it as a kid and it would be great if you covered it just like this video with Shoppingtown. I live in Syracuse and visited this mall and it is just sad. However Onondaga County took it over and plan to turn it into a new outdoor shopping center.
This was my mall I use to go to. So many memories here with my husband and I. It was still booming back in 2010 and 2011. Many ppl still shopped here.
I moved from Syracuse, Ny in 2020, but the very last time we were here was in 2019 and Sears was the only thing open.
I like all your videos that I watch but this one touched me on a personal level all the way out in South Dakota. Stay Well.
I feel like life would be so much better if there were more miniature escalators.
Right? Just put them everywhere. Baby escalators everywhere.
For real though. Leave it to moonbeam to steal our dream 😔😂😂
Mini escalators could possibly be the country's leading cause of obesity and diabetes. I mean, it's like 7 steps. LoL. That was the 90s , though.
@@TheShiftersMusic More like the 70's when that part of the mall was built.
i would consider going to malls again if they had them
As usual another great exlog! Thanks for sharing
Went to Syracuse U. during the 80's, so spent a lot of time in this mall during the glory days. Even was part of a remote radio broadcast from there (on WJPZ, the student run radio station). We were set up in the Sears/Addis wing near the baby escalator. Probably right across from the "skate park," which was (I'm almost 100% sure) where the Woolworth's was. I fished a bunch of 25 cent cassette tapes and vinyl albums out of there...they had a huge bin of them in the basement which had probably been sitting there for 10-15 years. It was a bunch of random stuff including Oldies (50s-60s music) compilation tapes on a label out of Italy. There were terrible unwanted records that I picked up including Alan O'Day and the Starland Vocal Band. Good memories there. Also remember getting Orange Juliuses and buying shampoo at Fay's Drugs. Finished college right before Carousel Mall/Destiny opened, so this was always the big important mall for me.
Why has one person disliked an hour before it premieres? I guess he's popular enough now to have haters/trolls. Remember folks, don't feed the trolls.
or he hates that guy who likes breaking water mains. what a scum bag that guy.
Some people get angry when they see some of their fondest memories of youth die like these malls.
The owners disliked it
Nice still-functioning water feature💧
This is so sad! I can remember going there with my mom for mother-daughter shopping fun days in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s. We would travel for about an hour to get there from the Utica area. Bought my dress for Prom in that mall. It was a really nice mall back then, and far bigger than anything close to where we lived.
I had been to Carousel Mall, too, which was nice, but almost too big. (and that was before it’s expansion). I read that Carousel/Destiny was in danger of closing down, too.
I think that the main reason for why indoor malls were so popular, particularly in Central NY, was because there was so much snow and ice in the winter, not to mention the single digit temps. You didn’t see the ground for 8+ months out of the year. My last year there we had snow flurries on August 29th, which I remember because it was my Grandma's birthday. Who wants to have to go in and out of stores in an outdoor shopping complex when it is 10 degrees and there is 3 feet of snow outside?
I feel like Upstate NY has more dead malls per capita then anywhere else in America. I don't have any data to support that, but I grew up near Albany and most of the 8-10 malls I remember there are dead.
thank you for covering this mall! my friends and i have had tons of good times in this mall growing up (in recent times at the skate park) and to see it in such disrepair like this is awful. it's hard walking through the food court and by the old fun junction in particular. the crosswalk at the jcpenney is cold and empty except for the lacrosse store on the way in. so many parts of the mall could be used for housing or living communities since there's already a good chunk of fitness places in there, too. moonbeam's antics have been covered less than favorably, of course, in local news; it's just awful what they've done, or rather what they haven't done... the buckets and tubs everywhere collecting leaks is just sad to walk by every time. the bathrooms off the side of the food court are also... really terrifying, to say the least.
22:50 i also read through some comments on a syracuse nostalgia walkthrough of shoppingtown & on the syracuse skate gang's website that before black mamba got into the mall, that location was a media play!
Sal, that was fantastic! 🥰
I remember going on dates to the movie theater back when I was a teenager because it had the nicest one even compared to the fairly new carousel mall theater
I guess the "water main break" is this millennium's version of the 1970s "mysterious 5-alarm fire."
Yup
24:07 You know that it's a super dead mall when it has mall runners, opposed to mall walkers
Stores I remember as a child: Contempo's casuals, 1 potato 2, Circus Pizza with Rock a fire Explosion.... In Minnesota, malls still do quite well. I think the crappy 6 month winters helps them pull through.
I'm from central New York and worked in this mall years ago. So sad....
Sal - Great swipe at Moonbeam!!! They sure are asking for it!
I used to go this mall when i was a kid. The red framed store, the skate park, was once a Media Play. The triathalon store in the basement area by your beloved mini escalator, was a Onondaga Public library. ...
This was a great documentary...
It looks so sad without the merry-go-round. I guess it looks sad for a lot of other reasons too.
Again Sal- you are the BEST!!!
That mall looks like it had a lot of potential. Sad to see it on life support. Moonbeam is killing off all the malls they buy and own. They are the problem.
I love the mini escalator
Fantastic video - Sal I grew up in Pittsburgh near Century II and watched it built - what a story - one technical correction to this video about Kaufmanns. Kaufmanns was a part of May Company since I believe the 1960's and what actually happened in 2005-6 was May Company (Kaufmanns parent) was purchased by Federated Dept. Stores (now known as Macy's). Superb camera work and obviously you do your homework on these fascinating videos - documenting mall history - many which will soon be demolished and gone forever - except in your documentaries.
The mall I grew up with had a go cart track inside it now.
Great video.
wholly inept management. Thank you for saying this!
Excellent work brother. Andy from Berkeley
Carousel center didn’t close this mall, it was Moonbeam plus Destiny that shut it down. Carousel center was never that trendy nor was it on the cutting edge. As to shopping town, it Stinks as the skylights everywhere were very unique and cool.
Our cases here in Utah are staying steady at around 100-200 new a day since early April. Meanwhile, bars, restaurants, and our three major malls in the Salt Lake area are now reopened. They're all taking precautions but I still think it was too early. Certain stores inside the malls aren't reopening yet, or are only operating as "curbside" pickup locations.
Here in MA everything's still a ghosttown
I grew up wandering this mall. My mom never like shopping at Carousel/Destiny because of how big/busy it was, so I spent many an evening or Saturday being dragged around (and later hanging around it with friends as a pre-teen/teenager). The skate park is a former Media play. I spent a lot of time finding and reading books from there. We used to buy new schools clothes at the Sears and Kaufmans (we went a lot less after it became a Macy's and raised prices on what seemed to be the same stock). Played a lot of laser tag and had a lot of prize tickets from that old arcade and probably saw hundreds of movies at this mall. The Fayetteville Library used to be in that lower space near the baby escalator. Bought a lot of my early video games at what was then the Electronic Boutique. There's a lot of memories of this place. But like many things of Syracuse, it's withered away. It always felt like so many places in the Syracuse region were just expecting a sudden bounce back after most of the manufacturing went, but nothing ever came. The city seems to have dumped all it's hopes and dreams into Syracuse University and Destiny USA at this point, which doesn't really leave much for the rest of the city to thrive on. I miss the good times and people there, but every time I come home to visit, I'm reminded why I left.
Very well put together video 👍
It was interesting that you said there was a particular style/look to the Wilmorite properties. Before that point I had been thinking of how much this mall looked like Danbury Fair Mall (not a "dead" mall by a long shot, merely dealing with the shrinkage of department store chains, and the usual turnover). After you said that I had to look them up and sure enough, Danbury Fair is a Wilmorite property. At the end of the video, in the parking garage, and driving out (under the bridge from the mall to the parking garage) it looked just like it (including those hexagonal cutouts in the beams). Of course, further along, Danbury doesn't have the detached buildings (just swampland that likes to flood the roads and parking lot).
The place is covered with water buckets because of all of all the leaks and the mall always smells musky and of mold. The mall isn't even heated anymore and I doubt is even cleaned at this point. The only reason people might still go to the mall was the movie theater or black mamba
For a while there was a Vans Skatepark inside Potomac Mills in Woodbridge, VA. It was a 62,000 sq ft space that was originally the Waccamaw Pottery outlet when the mall opened in the '80s, until 2001 when its parent went bankrupt. Vans took over the space, but ultimately closed the indoor skatepark in the mid-noughts because growing competition from free outdoor community parks made it unprofitable.
Amazing Episode. I'm from Upstate so this hits close to Home, and one of the few Malls you've visited that I actually have as well. Its' really a shame. Such a Beautiful and Unique mall thats just completely gone to waste. Gets worse every time I'm in there. Just like the Irondequoit Mall, when Witmorite malls go under and close/die the aesthetic they create is very uniquely Eerie. I don't know what it is, it just it creates a very strange almost forbidding atmosphere.
Can’t wait for this one Sal!
It's such a great episode, and a fantastic mall...
My mom always tells me how fun this mall was back in the 80s when she was a teenager. I live 10 minutes from it.
I was still going to this mall near the very end of it's life cycle. Used to play in Smash Bros tournaments at Cloud City Comics & Toys, near the food court. While I was there, there were a couple places still open in the food court. Don't remember their names but it was a pizza place and an asian food place. Interestingly, a Creole Soul opened up in there right at the very end of the mall's life, but only stayed in for like a month tops. Very peculiar. The movie theater continued to operate for a while, and there was a wing of what seemed to be all fitness or martial arts places, but besides that not much.
I don’t recall you having one yet, but are there plans to just do a whole dedication to moon beam and all of their failures and horrible business schemes?
Thanks Sal for another informative Dead Mall Video. Yes How "The Hell was this Mall still Open" at the time? I believe it was for That Barber Shop lol. I really love that shiny gorgeous floor and the Rushing water...however with MoonBeam..it seems rushing water is their thing.:-( The "baby" escalator was adorable ,I have never seen one in a mall. Nice touch.Another damned shame for yet one more Shuttered Mall. But at least we get to explore them with you Sal. Stay Safe and take care. Looking forward to another video next Friday.
There was a skate park in the Moorestown Mall in Moorestown NJ and there's a baby escalator (or there was, I haven't been there in awhile) in the Cherry Hill Mall in NJ.
Good stuff.
Thanks Sal.
Thank you for your responsible advice as we continue to fight Covid-19 .... Stay safe & well .... RN from Upstate NY 😷 ✌️
What if the judge who decided against Moonbeam's jail time secretly worked for them?
I wouldn’t be surprised
All judges are crooked. Too easy to pay them off.