There was more to the security issues. The parking lots started to attract groups of youths who were loud and rather obnoxious. There was a rash of car break ins too. Among us locals Rolling Acres took on a reputation of not being a safe place to be. Once that mind set was fixed in people's minds the attendance just plummeted and never recovered. It was a shame. Rolling Acres was really beautiful. That iconic fountain was surrounded by Indian Laurel Trees and had a stunning skylight over it. During winter it was like a breath of summer during the cold.
I noticed that's usually the reason malls end up dying overtime, is that more poor populations move into the region leading to an increase in the crime rate. This leads to people avoiding it, and of course its death as a mall.
@@TheNSTLKIAChannel That's just what so strange. The demographics of the area didn't change. At least, not that much. A very few unsavory types haunting the area, a few petty crimes to give the idea a bit of truth and legitimacy, and it was done.
That's what killed City Center mall in down town Columbus. Gangs would hang out in the underground parking lot and Rob people. There were also a couple shootings in the mall, and people quit going. That was a sad day when the mall closed. It was a beautiful mall
I went there for 30 years and you remember when people nicknamed the mall "rolling Afros" and "strolling afros" after Metro bus put in the direct routes from the ghetto to the new terminal they built. That was the beginning of the end. Foot traffic changed to large groups who didn't have money and went there to hang out and some thefts happened because they didn't have a lot of money, the customers that was spending all the money got frightened and annoyed and the old phrase "the customer can fire the CEO just by choosing to spend his money elsewhere" came into play. Then those stores with terrible sales and increased theft definitely noticed it and didn't renew a lease left the mall with empty stores that paid nothing instead of collecting rent they collected nothing but bus loads from the ghetto who came to congregate and those bus loads alone couldn't keep the mall afloat
@@user-kh2dg7it2nn I never heard those nicknames. My parents took us there the week it opened. The lower level of the North wing wasn't even open yet. That wasn't finished for another 18 months or more. I was last there about two months before it closed for good. My last purchase was a gyro from the last food vendor in the food court. I was under the impression it had metro bus service from the start. While Akron does have its share of low income housing I dispute the claim it has a getto or even a neighborhood approaching that much less worthy of the name.
This channel is awesome. I hope you grow as big as the other ones, like Bright Sun Films, are. It's only the first video I've watched and it's very well edited and produced. 👍.
The area around the mall is residential. It went bad. Real bad. Real fast. It spread to the mall obviously. The malls location right next to the highway didn't help.
Right on, I wish I knew they were going to crash and burn earlier than I did. I still have my beeeautiful Andrew Marc leather jacket that I bought there from Wilsons leather back in probably 99 or so * sniff * it's so sad they are gone. It was a better mall than Chapel Hill or Summit Mall (two Akron competing malls). Good doc, thanks!
@@TheNSTLKIAChannel I did back in the 70s when it was built and then again to a lesser degree in 93 when I moved back to Akron. Towards the end there were gangs roaming the mall and it wasn't too safe anymore.
theres a mall in my area thats doing great, i went there in january 2022 and there is no closed stores, no for lease signs, nothing, its like 1985 in that place and id know because i was there in 1985 too. they even sunk more money into in 2016 and redid a lot of the floors and aesthetics. i think its just in the perfect location, right off 1-91, and convenient for people to shop in
Rolling Acres was a nice Mall so was Chapel Hill talk about nostalgia I remember when all that happened it was just a matter of time it was in Decline I remember when they built that Target I actually worked on that building in 5° weather it didn't stay open that long
@@TheNSTLKIAChannel yes I did, as a long time follower of Rolling Acres, I have seen nearly every video and video documentation of this place, I haven't been there in person, but have been enamered with all that is this mall, I feel you did a very good, accurate video of it and hope to see more like minded content, will be following your channel to see more, as I know this region is the hub of these legendary malls that are the elite of them all, Have a Great Weekend, And Take care
Another video done by someone who never even set foot in this mall. The problem with videos like this done by people who decided to "do a video" on a place they only know about because they seen it on the internet is full of half truths and some things that are totally false. They do their "research" on google only to regurgitate some of the popular myths. Sure a handful of this is correct when you have non disputed material such as opening day or how many stores was there on opening day but as for some of the issues that caused its demise your basically just repeating a lot of myths and popular opinion but nothing that's undisputed facts. I went to that mall for 30 years. I can tell you firsthand that the security guards have nothing to do with that mall going down. If you lived here you would know how bad security actually was they was basically mall nazis, they was NOT friendly to anyone who wasn't 18. I got kicked out of that mall so many times for being there during school hours because I wasn't 18, even though I was not doing anything but quietly standing there with a handful of shopping bags, spending money. One time I got kicked out and went around the mall to the other doors to come back in and shop for a little more and got caught again and kicked out a second time. Of you was local you would know the real reason is politically incorrect to talk about but it's TRUE. You can thank Metro bus company. They bought a section to make a bus terminal and then began with the idea that it should be easier for everyone to have easy direct access to the mall, an idea with good intentions but stupidity was when they went into impoverished ghettos and made straight routes from the ghettos directly to the mall. The term white flight comes into play here. What happened was the foot traffic became heavily with poor blacks from the ghetto who didn't have a lit of money to shop but the place was big and beautiful and a wonderful place to hang out, the foot traffic became a lot of people who came to hang out in large groups who wasn't spending money, I seen some of the same people in there for hours without a single bag. The local customers who was spending money went to other malls and the foot traffic that metro bus brought in didn't have the money to spend at the stores. What we have here is the foot traffic changed from paying customers exchanged for large amounts of non paying customers , at the end of the day the stores start noticed quickly that revenue is down and theft was up further eating into profits, those stores choose NOT to do a renewal on their lease and relocated, now the mall itself is suffering without revenue in forms of rent. Those empty stores dont pay you money while your paying customers was frightened off and annoyed off to another area meanwhile you have another bus from the ghetto pulling up with people to congregate and hang out. If you knew anything about this mall you would know the security situation was good and at times to good and didn't have anything to do with it. It was white people with money choosing to spend their money elsewhere and bus loads of people without finances in their place. The security didn't kill the mall, the dollars going elsewhere did. If you knew about this mall you would know locals nicknamed it two different names. "Rolling Afros mall" and "Strolling Afros mall". Yes that was unacceptable for people to start with those names but everyone around knew those names was for rolling acres and knew why. It dont matter what a person's race is but putting direct routes to a mall from the ghetto or any impoverished area is guaranteed to fill a mall with foot traffic that cant pay the bills and push out foot traffic that was paying the bills.
I appreciate the insight into how exactly the mall declined, but why are you so TO'd about people on the internet talking about it? I'm from Pennsylvania; I'd never heard of Rolling Acres until demolition was already underway. But for years I've been fascinated by the mall, and like pining for pics/video of the mall to preserve. Like I get it, you actually have memories of the place but that doesn't mean you have to gatekeep the discourse about it
Nobody is gatekeeping anything by stating facts that you was unaware of. The fact it existed its entire operation and you never knew about it is reason enough to inform you of facts I know firsthand.
@A51502 Exactly!. If they are shopping and minding their business then leave them alone. They should have been more worried about the bus of 40 people who pulled up every hour and walked in large groups who was abnoxious and just looking for trouble all while not spending a dime and stealing from stores. You are right, the mall Nazis randomly throwing shoppers out who are not causing any trouble and they are the ones who's paying the stores revenue that dictates if they renew their lease or not combined with the theft the non shoppers brought in further dictates a non renewal of the lease and that dictates how many bodies the mall can even keep security on the payroll and also dictates when the mall will fall. You can't keep a mall open with over 100 empty stores and nobody paying the bills with a few mom and pop shops and a few churches in a few shops. Security definitely played a role in its fall but not in the way everyone talks. They essentially cut their own throats.
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There was more to the security issues. The parking lots started to attract groups of youths who were loud and rather obnoxious. There was a rash of car break ins too. Among us locals Rolling Acres took on a reputation of not being a safe place to be. Once that mind set was fixed in people's minds the attendance just plummeted and never recovered. It was a shame. Rolling Acres was really beautiful. That iconic fountain was surrounded by Indian Laurel Trees and had a stunning skylight over it. During winter it was like a breath of summer during the cold.
I noticed that's usually the reason malls end up dying overtime, is that more poor populations move into the region leading to an increase in the crime rate. This leads to people avoiding it, and of course its death as a mall.
@@TheNSTLKIAChannel That's just what so strange. The demographics of the area didn't change. At least, not that much. A very few unsavory types haunting the area, a few petty crimes to give the idea a bit of truth and legitimacy, and it was done.
That's what killed City Center mall in down town Columbus. Gangs would hang out in the underground parking lot and Rob people. There were also a couple shootings in the mall, and people quit going. That was a sad day when the mall closed. It was a beautiful mall
I went there for 30 years and you remember when people nicknamed the mall "rolling Afros" and "strolling afros" after Metro bus put in the direct routes from the ghetto to the new terminal they built. That was the beginning of the end. Foot traffic changed to large groups who didn't have money and went there to hang out and some thefts happened because they didn't have a lot of money, the customers that was spending all the money got frightened and annoyed and the old phrase "the customer can fire the CEO just by choosing to spend his money elsewhere" came into play. Then those stores with terrible sales and increased theft definitely noticed it and didn't renew a lease left the mall with empty stores that paid nothing instead of collecting rent they collected nothing but bus loads from the ghetto who came to congregate and those bus loads alone couldn't keep the mall afloat
@@user-kh2dg7it2nn I never heard those nicknames. My parents took us there the week it opened. The lower level of the North wing wasn't even open yet. That wasn't finished for another 18 months or more. I was last there about two months before it closed for good. My last purchase was a gyro from the last food vendor in the food court. I was under the impression it had metro bus service from the start.
While Akron does have its share of low income housing I dispute the claim it has a getto or even a neighborhood approaching that much less worthy of the name.
Excellent video! I remember when my parents would work with the garden fair. I also remember playing arcade games at aladdin's castle.
This channel is awesome. I hope you grow as big as the other ones, like Bright Sun Films, are. It's only the first video I've watched and it's very well edited and produced. 👍.
Thank you my man! Glad you like it. I'm trying to get more consistent with when I make my content.
@@TheNSTLKIAChannel Well anything to do with the histories of companies like retailers that are defunct will do very well on here.
When the developer, Forest City Enterprises saw two other local malls being renovated, they knew it was time to sell the mall.
The area around the mall is residential. It went bad. Real bad. Real fast. It spread to the mall obviously. The malls location right next to the highway didn't help.
1:41 is this a pic of the Montgomery Ward at RAM? Or just a random one. Bc I've never seen a pic when the RAM Montgomery was open
Right on, I wish I knew they were going to crash and burn earlier than I did. I still have my beeeautiful Andrew Marc leather jacket that I bought there from Wilsons leather back in probably 99 or so * sniff * it's so sad they are gone. It was a better mall than Chapel Hill or Summit Mall (two Akron competing malls). Good doc, thanks!
Thank you! That's actually really cool that you'll always have a piece of the mall with you. Did you used to go often?
@@TheNSTLKIAChannel I did back in the 70s when it was built and then again to a lesser degree in 93 when I moved back to Akron. Towards the end there were gangs roaming the mall and it wasn't too safe anymore.
@@zone47 Dang that sucks. Well it's cool to hear first hand accounts of the mall. I too wish it was still around.
And now Chapel Hill Mall is gone too (shut down in April 2021)...
theres a mall in my area thats doing great, i went there in january 2022 and there is no closed stores, no for lease signs, nothing, its like 1985 in that place and id know because i was there in 1985 too. they even sunk more money into in 2016 and redid a lot of the floors and aesthetics. i think its just in the perfect location, right off 1-91, and convenient for people to shop in
Thank you for your time putting this video together. Great content.
Chapel Hill is gone now too?
yea en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapel_Hill_Mall
th-cam.com/video/sJ0bAIFhZzA/w-d-xo.html
@ Dennis W: Yes it is. I live right across from it 4 20 yrs.💔😢
I worked for FCE …. Security matters and neighborhood demographics change
Rolling Acres was a nice Mall so was Chapel Hill talk about nostalgia I remember when all that happened it was just a matter of time it was in Decline I remember when they built that Target I actually worked on that building in 5° weather it didn't stay open that long
Replaced by the very thing that killed it. How poetic. A Amozon distribution center of all things.
It's cool how it ended up as an Amazon warehouse. They not only killed it, they picked their bones and built their house with it.
Love the vid, Fantastic job,
Thank you! Hope you enjoyed it 😁
@@TheNSTLKIAChannel yes I did, as a long time follower of Rolling Acres, I have seen nearly every video and video documentation of this place, I haven't been there in person, but have been enamered with all that is this mall, I feel you did a very good, accurate video of it and hope to see more like minded content, will be following your channel to see more, as I know this region is the hub of these legendary malls that are the elite of them all, Have a Great Weekend, And Take care
Another video done by someone who never even set foot in this mall. The problem with videos like this done by people who decided to "do a video" on a place they only know about because they seen it on the internet is full of half truths and some things that are totally false. They do their "research" on google only to regurgitate some of the popular myths. Sure a handful of this is correct when you have non disputed material such as opening day or how many stores was there on opening day but as for some of the issues that caused its demise your basically just repeating a lot of myths and popular opinion but nothing that's undisputed facts. I went to that mall for 30 years. I can tell you firsthand that the security guards have nothing to do with that mall going down. If you lived here you would know how bad security actually was they was basically mall nazis, they was NOT friendly to anyone who wasn't 18. I got kicked out of that mall so many times for being there during school hours because I wasn't 18, even though I was not doing anything but quietly standing there with a handful of shopping bags, spending money. One time I got kicked out and went around the mall to the other doors to come back in and shop for a little more and got caught again and kicked out a second time. Of you was local you would know the real reason is politically incorrect to talk about but it's TRUE. You can thank Metro bus company. They bought a section to make a bus terminal and then began with the idea that it should be easier for everyone to have easy direct access to the mall, an idea with good intentions but stupidity was when they went into impoverished ghettos and made straight routes from the ghettos directly to the mall. The term white flight comes into play here. What happened was the foot traffic became heavily with poor blacks from the ghetto who didn't have a lit of money to shop but the place was big and beautiful and a wonderful place to hang out, the foot traffic became a lot of people who came to hang out in large groups who wasn't spending money, I seen some of the same people in there for hours without a single bag. The local customers who was spending money went to other malls and the foot traffic that metro bus brought in didn't have the money to spend at the stores. What we have here is the foot traffic changed from paying customers exchanged for large amounts of non paying customers , at the end of the day the stores start noticed quickly that revenue is down and theft was up further eating into profits, those stores choose NOT to do a renewal on their lease and relocated, now the mall itself is suffering without revenue in forms of rent. Those empty stores dont pay you money while your paying customers was frightened off and annoyed off to another area meanwhile you have another bus from the ghetto pulling up with people to congregate and hang out. If you knew anything about this mall you would know the security situation was good and at times to good and didn't have anything to do with it. It was white people with money choosing to spend their money elsewhere and bus loads of people without finances in their place. The security didn't kill the mall, the dollars going elsewhere did. If you knew about this mall you would know locals nicknamed it two different names. "Rolling Afros mall" and "Strolling Afros mall". Yes that was unacceptable for people to start with those names but everyone around knew those names was for rolling acres and knew why. It dont matter what a person's race is but putting direct routes to a mall from the ghetto or any impoverished area is guaranteed to fill a mall with foot traffic that cant pay the bills and push out foot traffic that was paying the bills.
I appreciate the insight into how exactly the mall declined, but why are you so TO'd about people on the internet talking about it? I'm from Pennsylvania; I'd never heard of Rolling Acres until demolition was already underway. But for years I've been fascinated by the mall, and like pining for pics/video of the mall to preserve. Like I get it, you actually have memories of the place but that doesn't mean you have to gatekeep the discourse about it
Nobody is gatekeeping anything by stating facts that you was unaware of. The fact it existed its entire operation and you never knew about it is reason enough to inform you of facts I know firsthand.
@A51502 Exactly!. If they are shopping and minding their business then leave them alone. They should have been more worried about the bus of 40 people who pulled up every hour and walked in large groups who was abnoxious and just looking for trouble all while not spending a dime and stealing from stores. You are right, the mall Nazis randomly throwing shoppers out who are not causing any trouble and they are the ones who's paying the stores revenue that dictates if they renew their lease or not combined with the theft the non shoppers brought in further dictates a non renewal of the lease and that dictates how many bodies the mall can even keep security on the payroll and also dictates when the mall will fall. You can't keep a mall open with over 100 empty stores and nobody paying the bills with a few mom and pop shops and a few churches in a few shops. Security definitely played a role in its fall but not in the way everyone talks. They essentially cut their own throats.
How big was the property of Rolling Acres
kaybee toys Rolling Acres Mall Akron OH