I was born in 1989 and so I really appreciate you making these video's. I hope you keep doing them in all sorts of ways. I have been really noticing just how bland and soulless everything has gotten in our current era & I don't understand why we would stray away from rewarding a optimistic creative Retro Futurism type vibe aesthetic of all different types..? That should be our mindset. We should strive to constantly be improving our quality of life. I hope our society snaps out of this depressing tunnel visioned capitalistic perspective that really makes society feel so dystopian and dysfunctional.. it's so hard to even afford to exist at the most basic level. Which is sad because We have so much creativity, advancements, technology, ideas, motivation, to create a awesome environment. Improve our quality of Life, improve the quality of our media, games, homes, living situations... Yet for now... Our society is really in a sorta new age low point.. just being brutally honest. So these videos and thinking about things of this nature are very therapeutic and uplifting in a otherwise bleak point in time. Glad I found your channel 👍🏻
maybe making an 80s-90s-2000s themed business or something would be a great strategy, considering so many people (including me) are sick of the blandness everything has.
Maybe it is just me but In furniture stores you definitely loose your sense of time. Especially when it has 3 -5 floors it's enormous. Greetings from Vienna
I was in an empty mall with my family once, not a soul in sight, lights were shutting off, we had to run through this concrete hallway outside because everything, all the doors, passageways were locked off, still remember the wind in my ears the run to the car, the emptiness of the mall, honestly a nice break from all those eyes though
In San Antonio, there are still 3 malls that are very popular - La Cantera (outdoor mall built in 2005, but still set-up like it used to be indoors, lotsa high fashion stores), Northstar (classic old mall, but again, lotsa high fashion and near the airport so still very crowded) and Rivercenter Mall (located next to the Riverwalk in downtown, near The Alamo so it gets lots of foot traffic). Malls dying in the midwest is definitely a thing because people just have no need to go to them anymore.
My Dad helped in a Hurricane Katrina cleanup in 2005 - 06. He would often haul copper wiring and other building materials to scrap yards, one mall had a bottom floor that was built partially underground. Let's just say it was hell trying to salvage anything from the stores down below.
There's an abondoned mall, I think it's in Thailand or something, for a very long time the bottom floor was flooded and over 3,000 koi and other various fish lived down there
I’ve actually been to the Washington Square mall location dozens of times. From what I was able to gather, it used to be a daycare which explain the colors, and it has a children’s mural on the other side of the shop. It used to be a LensCutters and I think either a furniture or antique shop. The mall itself is eerie to walk around, you just hear your own footsteps, buzzing of the lights and sometimes the kids car ride would play a child’s laugh. This is a very good video, I always find these locations fascinating and it’s nice to learn about them.
aw I'd love to go visit abandoned/dead malls here, but as far as I know, they aren't really a thing and a ton of people still go to most malls where I live, I just really enjoy the vibe of abandoned places even if almost all of my friends get too scared to go with me :')
my local mall is dying and it makes me really sad, i grew up going there and i hate seeing it so empty. i haven't been in a long time because of covid but i know it's not doing too well
@@Shookey I actually just found out it was bought by a company that plans to keep it as a mall and add more businesses to bring customers, so I'm hopeful!
@@chickennuggetpaw it’s not doing any worse, they haven’t added any new stores yet but luckily business doesn’t seem to have gone down much bc of covid!
i've lived in myrtle beach all my life and that mall is actually completely torn down now, that picture sadly doesn't exist anymore, the lot is now used yearly for carnivals and car shows
Have you been to the Myrtle Beach mall, its off of North Kings Highway. I think that the mall is semi dead. The 2 big stores are Bass pro shop and a belks. there are a few small stores in the mall. There is an arcade ( a good one with 80s cabinets), a retro game store called Players Choice ( I have been to this store on several ecations). It also has an AMC theater, but I think that's shutdown.
@@theangrygamer2823 I go to players choice all the time. They have a really rare fighting game cabinet me and my friend love. Players choice is pretty much single handedly keeping that side of the mall open. If that Bass pro wasn’t there I’m sure it would probably be gone. The Mall is still pretty dead though every time I go
The mountaineer mall is my favorite liminal space picture cause it's one of the few I genuinely connect with. It reminds me not of a mall, but of a rec center 5 minutes from where I live, combined with a mall that no longer exists near me
Once you understand the meaning of liminal spaces, that your childhood is gone and your memory is full of empty memories, you realize that these kind of photos are art
A couple of weeks ago, I was having a rough day. And as I so often do when I have rough days, I dressed in my finest 1980's themed attire; All three feet of hair, teased to perfection, and my face was adorned with every kind of makeup you could imagine. I decided to go the the mall in the next town over, somewhere I had fond memories of but had not visited in years, with the intention of reliving those quickly fading memories (thanks memory disorder). But when I stepped through those doors, I was greeted with an empty shell of what once was. Over half the stores were closed and derelict, and there were maybe nine other families in the whole building. I meandered about for a bit, got my little brother some freeze-dried ice cream, but eventually I left without much fuss. It was a really, truly disheartening experience. I never got to live through the 80s or the golden era of the shopping mall. I feel like I've missed out on something that I was meant to see. I dunno lol. I just gotta hope someday they'll come back.
Picture this: Your in a mall. It's a dead one. You walk through focusing on all of the abandoned and forgotten places. All of these stores were once cared for, loved, ...Alive. You walk through and begin to wonder; "Will I be abandoned as these stores have?" You continue on. You feel your insecurities close in on you. You then start to feal that empty fealing of abandonment. That. Sadness. You continue on with your journey and try to run away. You try and try and the walls and eyes on every poster start to track you down. You look around. You cant focus. You feal hatred closing in on you. It's all falling apart. Your falling apart. You hear whispers in your own head telling you to be better. You are moving through people. A few minutes ago you were in your own mind. But then you realize you were yourself because you bumped into someone. Your in a real and alive mall. You dont know why. Maybe you forgot. You look for your car and find it. You drive home. You dont know whether or not they whispered cruel things about your face. Your hair. Was it good enough? No. It was all perfect. Nobody was talking about you. But you dont understand. Your emotions that have no real meaning close in on you and you cry yourself asleep that night because of something that wasnt said.
Liminal Spaces are a comfort of mine. It’s hard to describe. I used to visit malls as a kid, too. Every second I got to myself, I’d grab my buddies and head to the Hot Topic, Spencer’s, and a few others. It wasn’t a retro looking mall. To this day, nothing has changed and yet it still remains busy. Happy to have discovered this video. Nice channel.
Great video! I remember when I first discovered Vaporwave (around 2015, but I've come to recognize that I've been experiencing the feelings for longer) and that was when I first started noticing the feeling that comes with Liminal Space images. Just like you said, there's a lot of overlap with Vaporwave and Liminal Space. I didn't have the words to describe it at the time, and as such I thought I was the only one who felt that way about these nostalgic and somewhat unsettling spaces. I'm really glad that things like the Backrooms and other such internet trends brought it enough into the spotlight to actually be defined and easily understood by others for the most part, it makes me really happy. As always keep up the great work!
Hey Deci! I liked what you said on the mixing/overlap of Vaperwave and Liminal Spaces, it's basically what I was trying to convey but you actually put it into words hahaha. Also I'm glad I can be here to put that little spotlight on these strange corners of the internet. Thanks again for the support -- it's always good to hear from you :)
Empty Malls are easily my favorite type of pics. Especially ones in which the lights or neon is on. Just went to my local mall late last year (hadn’t been there since childhood). There were a bit of people but due to “The Thing” and probably online shopping it was not super busy. It looked different than I remembered as a kid (although I couldn’t remember alot). I always went during Christmas. My memories were of wreaths on the wall and Santas chair and Christmas music playing. Most of the mall was just clothing stores (not interesting to me) except for FYI and Spencers and Food Courts. Don’t know why In typed all this- just sharing a bit of nostalgia! If you made it to here: *CONGRATULATIONS*
I personally experienced this liminal space feeling in where I live, somewhat. There's this big mall that my parents used to take me as a child. We wouldn't always go there (I live in a big city) but my memories of that specific mall are pleasant. It's also imo one of the most aesthetically pleasing malls I've been in, fancy but not too flashy. Tasteful and totally nostalgia-inducing. A few years back I had some business in that part of the city with my dad so we decided to give this mall a visit on our way back. Turns out they went under and the majority of the shops were already closed. The mall has these glass-walled shops in the middle of the ground floor that create narrower hallways throughout and the insides are visible. They had dimmed out the lighting to reduce the bills. So while not completely abandoned, walking through this mall was kind of an otherworldly experience. I felt bittersweet, nostalgic and unsettled. I was telling my dad about liminal spaces the other day and mentioned that day of our visit. I think he understood exactly what I was talking about.
There's a dead mall in my town that's still open and it's so quiet in there due to the lack of people. You can literally hear your footsteps echo and the low humming coming from the escalators, it gives off a really eerie vibe, especially for me since I remember when it used to be popular.
As an Evansville resident it is SO cool to see Washington Square Mall on here. It is infamous among the town for being eerie and dead yet somehow still open.
Very nice work on this one, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Dead Malls have fascinated me for years, especially since I discovered the Dan Bell series about 4 years ago. I have been really into the liminal space images off and on this past year. I appreciate your point of view
I always thought these images were of malls after closing time and didn't think they'd be closed. In Puerto Rico, the few malls we have here are always incredibly full all days of the week so it's surprising to me a mall could be completely empty. Great informational video!
Wow I had an extremely similar experience with a mall near me, I remember going there as a kid and it being pretty busy. But when I visited there as an adult there had to have only been a handful of people in the entire place and you could go several minutes without seeing another person.
Last time I checked the channel, which was yesterday, there was 500 subs. Your channel is growing quicker than a field of green grass. Great job. I really love these liminal space videos. XD
I grew up in the USA but i recently moved to New Zealand and one big difference is the malls. Even before the pandemic, malls is my city in the USA were seldom busy, although not considered dead. Even on Black Friday, it was only moderately busy. Malls in New Zealand are incredibly busy, due to unreliability of online shopping.
Know what’s weird? Your story is the same as mine. The mall I grew up with had a carousel, play area, and restaurants all in the food court next to eachother. I remember seeing Santa as a kid there. Now the foodcourt is torn down……malls are soon to be gone…. Everything pre 2012 was amazing. Idk what happened…it’s too depressing to get deep deep into details but the feeling I get thinking about it is soul crushing. I have broken down in tears many times thinking about the happy times……
Theres a dead mall in Aiken SC, they were supposed to close and tear it down in 2017, but the money was pushed towards(i kid you not) Luxury apartments near the highway. due to 5 big stores there, it is still open! I might go to the bookstore there and take some photos
Finally! A video featuring Washington Square! No one talks about this mall l despite being very dead (and my local dead mall). I went here all the time as a kid and I remember there being a Thomas Kinkade store, a pet shop, and even a licensed Disney Store. From visiting there over the past few years, I noticed there was a LensCrafters at one point too. Currently there are no anchor stores (SEARS left around 2015 and the other most recent anchor was a flea market that is no longer there). The food court is nearly abandoned with hardly any stores. Most of the mall that is still open to the public is small, local businesses. The back half of the mall is all being rented out to St. Vincent Hospital. The parking lot is a complete disaster compared to the ad that was shown. But yet after all this time, the gaudy food court sign is still there and the fountain is still running. IMO visiting it would be boring because of how the access to the mall has shrunk, but it’s definitely worth exploring. A lot of the store fronts that can be openly seen by the public are literal time capsules. It’s a shocking comparison to the mall down the street, Eastland Mall (owned by Simon Group), is still fairly busy and is a very live mall. Though the pandemic did hit it a bit hard
Whoa I never knew that malls over there were getting super empty meanwhile where I live at Puerto Rico almost every mall is full like even now at these times
So off-putting. And yet strangely inviting. One thing I notice in these liminal spaces is the cognitive dissonance of feeling both both safe and repulsed. It's like coming home when you live alone and find a cup of coffee sitting on the counter. And it's still warm. Great job of conveying the utter strangeness of these places. I look forward to more of your work.
The deadest mall I been to is called the Brunel centre in Swindon, Swindon was basically built and then just left. A lot of the buildings in Swindon are abandoned, there’s a church in the town centre which is bordered up and abandoned, the tall building above the train station is bordered up and abandoned, since Debenhams has closed all shops in England, the massive Debenhams in Swindon’s now abandoned, there’s a huge building next to the train station which is also abandoned and has loads of smashed windows, and in some of the suburban parts of Swindon there are derelict council estates, even the Swindon Oasis swimming park closed down and has now closed down and just been left to rot. The only thing Swindon has left is a shopping outlet quite far from the town centre and the football stadium, other than that it’s a completely run down dead town and the people who live there are often depressed. Swindon is a place that people go through but no one actually goes there
I live pretty near a dead mall. Barely any people go there anymore, and the shops are slowly closing down. There's around 10 shops left there, and business seems to be slowing every year.
The mall close to where I live has pretty much been dead since it opened, but since it got raided and covid happened, it became the ultimate dead mall experience (despite it still being open). The billboards outside have faded out, there are plenty of spaces where the lights don't work, others have some broken glass, the hallways lead to a dead end, there aren't many shops working on it and it's always empty (the makeup and art supplies are quite affordable tho)
Remember back when malls were fun and not constantly going out of business? When I was little the malls had little play arenas, those screens on the floor with games (I frogot what it was called) little toy cars like you’d find at play places, and carousels. Most where I am have been closed down and there’s only like 2 "good" ones left
Found this channel just now, and man these videos are great, they seem to be really well researched and you're able to present them in a very consise and entertaining way. Definitely worth a sub.
PLEASE READ THIS: Ok so anyways I didn't know dead malls existed until I realized THE PLACE WHERE I LIVE HAS A DEAD MALL AND ITS CREEPY AF, look up "Findlay Mall Ohio"
my local mall has been dead since about 2015ish and got demolished earlier last year, i never spent a ton of time there but i do remember the food court and the gymboree store really vividly. the place had some very obvious 90s design and wasn't very full except for the macy's and burlington's in there
I have hundreds of mall dreams. Sometimes the mall is floating, sometimes the floor is gone, Sometimes the malls are popular or ghostly. there is one dream i had where the place was a giant square mall, that was very tall. Once I got up to higher floors, I realised there's no escalator down. (Keep in mind i was about a kilometer from the ground. and the only place to go near the top was a very thin path. as I said earlier, I was very high up and since I don't drink water I felt like I was drunk in the dream. I span around infinitely trying to get to the end of the path. As someone with a fear of heights it was scary. I have had this dream countless times in different locations
I just realized how lucky it is that my childhood mall is literally the mall of Georgia- that place will never die, it’s literally always PACKED with people.
when i was watching the introduction/background to this video my mind immediately went to the Mountaineer Mall, i lived in a very very small town about half an hour from morgantown. my school, my parents work, and everything else in my life was in morgantown up until a couple years ago. and i was so surprised to see it on here. i used to go to this mall once or twice every week because i had ballet/irish dancing lessons there. my dad usually would be the one to take me and their was this large, long train diorama in the one hallway, it was usually broken but when it wasnt my dad and i would try and find quarters to run it. there was no shops i would go into and none were memorable and they were almost always closed, there was one arcade that was outdated and was always barred off and closed, but because of the bright colors and lights, you could still see into it. there was only one restuarant, very small and not a chain which i remember having barbeque food, and i remember it being really good and the sauces being spicy which i loved as a kid and still do now, but i dont think it stuck around. its crazy because i never remember seeing more that 5 people in the mall at a time besides the parents, students and teachers at the dance place and the sales associates at the empty, dimly lit stores. i guess looking back it is an eerie, empty place but i was a kid when i went, and since i lived in an old town where the only malls i had been to were like this (other than one in pittsburgh, hours away, that we would go to once a year for school clothes) i thought all malls were like that.
i think it is so cool that something i am familiar with an know about resonates with some people. so btw if anyone has a topical question i can probably answer it.
ooh, this just reminded me of a dead mall I visited with some of my family sometime during last year. The mall was in a pretty bad condition, while the main architecture was still there there were little to no lights from the building that were still on, leaving the only source of light to be from the glass ceilings the mall had. The air in the building smelled pretty bad due to there not being any working air conditioning, and there was also some graffiti on some of the walls, I think most of the graffiti was either near the entrance or near the main court area. One thing I remember seeing was a few large balloons that were mostly deflated, I think there was still a bit of helium in some of them but there wasn't much. The only two parts of the mall that were still in use was an arcade/game store that was in one of the places for a store, and at one of the ends of the mall there was a clothing store or something like that, I don't remember exactly though
Oh dang I was not expecting my home town to show up in a video here. Been to Washington Square a few times growing up, crazy to think it's a well known liminal space photo now! And that ad is a bizarre blast from the past.
I feel like malls kinda screwed themselves. They seemed to do their best to discourage loitering teens, but without the business of kids and teens they started dying out. They got rid of stuff like arcades and attractions (like at my local one there was a carousel at one time) and i think it made the places a lot less special. Also it doesnt help that Malls are almost always built sort of out-of-the-way, to facilitate a big parking. Nowadays the last thing I wanna do is drive 30 mins to go shopping. Driving is hell.
there was a dead mall where I used to live...I went there for music lessons when I was about 13-14 but after Sears closed, and the arcade upstairs closed, the place was finally condemned a few years ago. wanted to go there and take a nice, peaceful walk down the cool, dark tiled hallways with my now fiance. but we get there and everything is closed off with a "No Tresspassing" sign at every exit. It was an oddly sad feeling, looking at the door I walked through so many times to the Music Academy. Remembering how awesome the acoustics were in that seemingly endless abyss of a building. If I found a place like this again, the first thing I would do is sit down on the edge of the dried-up fountain and sing my favourite songs. take pictures. reflect on the bittersweet sensation that comes with change. Imagine twenty years in the future, maybe they'll make sitcoms that parody the cultural environment of the 90s or early 2000s. Maybe we'll experience then the same gleeful nostalgia our parents had when watching "Happy Days" or "That 70s Show". But I don't know. Will TV even exist then? or will we all be sat there on our smart couches watching videos like these on our ethernet-having 65" flatscreen or some shit.
Imagine working at a mall after hours wrapping up your stuff and you walk through the empty mall remembering the children, adults and teens who were once there hours ago, now knowing you are the only one there
this definitely is unheard of in my country since malls here are treated more like parks to chill in with stores on the side rather than just a place to buy stuff
I walked by a dying mall every day on my way to school. It was built in the late 50's / early 60's, and probably had its prime time in the 70's or 80's. When I was just starting school in 1999, it was still full of stores and bars and restaurants, but over the years I saw it decline. More and more stores and services like hairdressers didn't renew their contract and moved elsewhere, because they heard a rumor that the city was planning to tear the building down soon. I think the last establishments to leave were a pizzeria and the bars, their customers didn't give up on them. I was in my teens when I walked through it for what I suspected was the last time, and saw barred and closed storefronts and graffiti all over. I remember I felt a bit sad and nostalgic. The mall was torn down eventually, and a new building was erected on the other side of the street, with a big grocery store, a Subway, driving school, hypermodern public library and a second hand shop in it. The architecture of the new building is so modern that it looks almost alien compared to the one-story low concrete building that was the old mall. Times change, sadly. Luckily the old mall is still visible on Google Streetview, so I get to "revisit" it in the past.
the biggest "liminal space" feeling I ever got was at a rest stop in France at night when I was on a trip with my school, the building was open, but all the shops in it were closed (bakery, mcdonalds, café) and so we just sat on some chairs in front of the bakery, tired and sleepy from the long bus drive. There were literally no people there except for us. It felt just like the "dead mall" feeling. I always loved these rest stops, especially at night. Only happened on school trips because with my family ,we'd never drive over night. Standing in a queue to a toilet at midnight behind your equally sleep-deprived teachers somewhere in the middle of France kinda feels like an altered reality. Also sitting in the bus at 3am listening to music while everyone else was asleep, only the driver awake for hours and hours on some French highway in the middle of nowhere... Damn I miss that feeling.
It feels so bizarre to watch this, having been to one of these malls as a kid! The Washington Square one. My strongest memories of it are going there with my grandma to pick up her prescription, and being freaked out by a few of the machines for kids that you could put money in to ride, as they would go off on their own with no one there. This was like, 10 years ago too, and the mall was just as dead then as it is now. Great video dude! It unlocked a memory for me, but was also very informative about other places ^^
The Hamilton Mall near me in New Jersey was thriving about 4 years ago. I remember going with my friends to the game stores there and spending hours in there. When I got there now, it's so empty. It's unreal how quickly these things can die off. Unfortunately new management took over and they plan on demolishing it to put up town homes. COVID really didn't help it either.
Im from montgomery county and i literally shouted when you mentioned white flint mall. I used to go there a bunch as a kid and loved the playplace. I think its closed off now and ia getting demolished. Havent seen the inside of it for like a decade. It was a lovely place.
man i love dead malls. the vibe they give off is like no other. over saturation of the market is to blame as well for this dead mall situation. there are usually boat loads of strip malls and outlets that surround these places. for example; the lakeview mall in battle creek mi, i noticed how it was nearly impossible to see the mall because of surrounding stores. i have personally noticed how malls are absolutely surrounded by these outdoor stores. consumers would just like to stop in at one or two stores in particular. which can be found in outdoor stores like this- just park and go in. nonetheless, great video!!
Seeing Washington Square was a huge surprise 'cause I grew up in Evansville. As a kid, we'd go to it all the time even though it was dying (and still is, the things on life support) took pictures with santa their once, got cookies with my grandma, etc. Good memories. It's very nostalgic for me. One time we even met the owner (though I don't think he's the current owner rn). There's another mall in town that's far nicer, but idk, doesn't feel as special as Washington Square. I still go there everytime I visit family just to walk around (Though, I'm also a sucker for dead malls and go whenever I can)
I remember white flint mall, I used to live in Montgomery county MD and I vaguely remember it being a big deal in the area that it closed, especially since there are very few malls in Maryland, so it’s closure drilled in the thought that malls are disappearing from existence.
I love love LOVE malls. I have so many good pure memories from when our mall was alive. We recently went inside and there were a few stores back up but not the same. Malls were truly something. You could find random little things you wouldnt be able to find online without super specific names. Our candy store was great too, even a few fancy candy/sweet powder machines in the theater. Inside the dead mall there were two trees left by the foodcort, both connecting at a small skyline window. The last of the proper sunlight in that part of the mall.
I used to go to this mall in Ocoee when I was a kid called “West Oaks Mall”. I go rarely now and it’s sad to see a place once lively and full of people, now deserted & cold.
Talk about the South Road mall in Poughkeepsie. It was the most prominent mall until the Poughkeepsie Galleria opened in the late 80s. While it stayed popular throughout the early 90s, but in the mid 90s the Galleria got an expansion, which along with the closing of Media Play was the fnail in the coffin for the mall. It closed in 2007, and is currently a shopping plaza. I did go inside, but I was so young that I wouldn’t be able to remember anything. The inside is kind of iconic in the liminal mall community, so it won’t be hard to find. Thanks for reading!
I honestly don't get how these aren't as popular! I just found out about your youtube account and I really like it. I just love your videos soooo much!
Grew up eating basically exactly where those photos of White Flint were taken! Wonderful surprise seeing it in the video, I was thinking of it right before you revealed it as the first in the list.
I've always wanted to go to a massive store like Ikea store or just some cross road in the middle of no where and just look around, seeing Liminal space fuels this motivation
The mall at Tuttle Crossing, Dublin OH. It's still well visited today, but it's in the process of dying. It was very close to my old house, so we used to go there a lot. My parents would go shopping and we would eat at the Chick-fila. There was also "Spaceland", as we called it. It was a play area filled with big plastic planets, comets, and a space shuttle to climb on. Spaceland's long gone, but the mall remains, and I'm planning to go back to visit it relatively soon, among other places from my early childhood, for old times' sake.
I have a pretty dead mall in my hometown. Its still open but there at least has to be only 100 to 160 people including employees. Most of the stores have shut down and i only go there for my retro games. Luckily there is a more lively mall farther away from the dead one. It is very busy and has good stores. I don’t have much hope for the old mall. Many owners have bought it, had plans for it, and sold it. Only a couple stores last.
There is this mall that is half an hour away from my hometown that is just completely abandoned. Apparently when my mom was a kid they had more stuff and even had a movie theater. Now it is just empty. I'm guessing because a popular outdoor mall opened up a decade later it drew away attention. The only major things left were a Hobby Lobby and a Bath and Body Works, but they closed the HL and moved it to the other mall, so it's just abandoned essentially. Occasionally during Halloween a Halloween store will open. I remember when I was little there was a thrift store in the mall that my grandma took me to occasionally. Looking at the mall is just depressing
I used to go to my local mall all the time as a child. They'd have different little things to do for kids. I remember taking dance lessons at one. As time passed by and I stopped going, the mall became dead. It's sad to see that they are currently demolishing the mall. I'd imagine it was really creepy inside.
I was born in 1989 and so I really appreciate you making these video's. I hope you keep doing them in all sorts of ways. I have been really noticing just how bland and soulless everything has gotten in our current era & I don't understand why we would stray away from rewarding a optimistic creative Retro Futurism type vibe aesthetic of all different types..? That should be our mindset. We should strive to constantly be improving our quality of life. I hope our society snaps out of this depressing tunnel visioned capitalistic perspective that really makes society feel so dystopian and dysfunctional.. it's so hard to even afford to exist at the most basic level. Which is sad because We have so much creativity, advancements, technology, ideas, motivation, to create a awesome environment. Improve our quality of Life, improve the quality of our media, games, homes, living situations... Yet for now... Our society is really in a sorta new age low point.. just being brutally honest. So these videos and thinking about things of this nature are very therapeutic and uplifting in a otherwise bleak point in time. Glad I found your channel 👍🏻
maybe making an 80s-90s-2000s themed business or something would be a great strategy, considering so many people (including me) are sick of the blandness everything has.
Maybe it is just me but In furniture stores you definitely loose your sense of time. Especially when it has 3 -5 floors it's enormous.
Greetings from Vienna
I know the feeling
IKEA be like lol
lol ikea
@@ifelldownthestairs_ scp 3008, the infinite ikea.
@@ifelldownthestairs_ not IKEA it is a more local store like Ludwig , XXLutz
I was in an empty mall with my family once, not a soul in sight, lights were shutting off, we had to run through this concrete hallway outside because everything, all the doors, passageways were locked off, still remember the wind in my ears the run to the car, the emptiness of the mall, honestly a nice break from all those eyes though
Why did you run to the car?
@@MrsSking123 Why would we stay in a closing mall? It was like, night
@@menu.config i assumed you were out of the mall...
@@MrsSking123 We were in then we got out
@@menu.config what do you mean "a nice break from all those eyes though"?
Thing is.. malls haven't died, they just changed format. The outdoor artificial "small town" ones are hopping.
ugh I hate those ones, i come to the mall to be inside with food games and stuff, not just stuff and outsideness.
@@weredoughz same! they made Macy’s leave for a outdoor space and it got cancelled cause 🦠
Hell we don't even really have any where I live, there might be some north of me but idk, I've been to an outdoor one in Virginia tho only once
In San Antonio, there are still 3 malls that are very popular - La Cantera (outdoor mall built in 2005, but still set-up like it used to be indoors, lotsa high fashion stores), Northstar (classic old mall, but again, lotsa high fashion and near the airport so still very crowded) and Rivercenter Mall (located next to the Riverwalk in downtown, near The Alamo so it gets lots of foot traffic). Malls dying in the midwest is definitely a thing because people just have no need to go to them anymore.
@@Iceechibi I haven't seen San Antonio since I was in basic training back in1998. :-)
Just discovered your channel and its perfect, love this content
Welcome aboard and thank you :)
k ase aca
Que haces aquí capitán pito?
hmm I've seen u around in Gorillaz video comment sections before
same
Imagine exploring a flooded mall after a hurricane or something
Now that would be really really cool
My Dad helped in a Hurricane Katrina cleanup in 2005 - 06. He would often haul copper wiring and other building materials to scrap yards, one mall had a bottom floor that was built partially underground. Let's just say it was hell trying to salvage anything from the stores down below.
There's an abondoned mall, I think it's in Thailand or something, for a very long time the bottom floor was flooded and over 3,000 koi and other various fish lived down there
POV: hurricanes trying not to hit america every 4 seconds
Swiiim
I’ve actually been to the Washington Square mall location dozens of times. From what I was able to gather, it used to be a daycare which explain the colors, and it has a children’s mural on the other side of the shop. It used to be a LensCutters and I think either a furniture or antique shop. The mall itself is eerie to walk around, you just hear your own footsteps, buzzing of the lights and sometimes the kids car ride would play a child’s laugh. This is a very good video, I always find these locations fascinating and it’s nice to learn about them.
Appreciate it! Interesting stuff, cool to hear from someone whose actually been there!
@@Shookey I might try to show more of the area in a video. I managed to find some photos of it when it was still occupied.
aw I'd love to go visit abandoned/dead malls here, but as far as I know, they aren't really a thing and a ton of people still go to most malls where I live, I just really enjoy the vibe of abandoned places even if almost all of my friends get too scared to go with me :')
You weren't far off. The store used to be a hands-on discovery center before it was a lenscutters.
What about the liminal space image, what do you know about that?
when you said "the thing" i thought you were being creepy but then i remembered it was 2021 lol
Yuppppp 🙄
@@Shookey what is the thing
@@savageclasher1014 cockvid 19
LOL
2021? Are you crazy?! It’s 2015! Now come on, let’s go finish our Minecraft house!
my local mall is dying and it makes me really sad, i grew up going there and i hate seeing it so empty. i haven't been in a long time because of covid but i know it's not doing too well
That really is unfortunate :/ I hope it doesn't close down!
@@Shookey I actually just found out it was bought by a company that plans to keep it as a mall and add more businesses to bring customers, so I'm hopeful!
How’s it doing now?
@@chickennuggetpaw it’s not doing any worse, they haven’t added any new stores yet but luckily business doesn’t seem to have gone down much bc of covid!
Oh
You know how to edit
You dont sound monotone
Amazing video man
Thank you
i've lived in myrtle beach all my life and that mall is actually completely torn down now, that picture sadly doesn't exist anymore, the lot is now used yearly for carnivals and car shows
i remember it vividly being just as haunting too, if it was lively, it was in the early to mid 90s
At least people can still find joy from it
Have you been to the Myrtle Beach mall, its off of North Kings Highway. I think that the mall is semi dead. The 2 big stores are Bass pro shop and a belks. there are a few small stores in the mall. There is an arcade ( a good one with 80s cabinets), a retro game store called Players Choice ( I have been to this store on several ecations). It also has an AMC theater, but I think that's shutdown.
@@theangrygamer2823 I go to players choice all the time. They have a really rare fighting game cabinet me and my friend love. Players choice is pretty much single handedly keeping that side of the mall open. If that Bass pro wasn’t there I’m sure it would probably be gone. The Mall is still pretty dead though every time I go
!!! I went to mustang there this year and I think we parked in the old mall parking lot. That's so weird I never knew what was there
I predict that this channel will grow
Why thank you :v
@@Shookey if you dont grow In case, I'll still enjoy it
@@Shookey papulince xdddd
ok no (no hate)
@@SR_superior_1000 same
You are scarily underrated
Appreciate the support haha
Agreed
I think people are too scared to subscribe. Afraid of the feeling that lurks behind everyday life
Ahh, White Flint. Growing up in the DMV, this was a staple of my childhood. It’s been torn down for a few years now.
Would've loved to go
@@Shookey same, maybe it could be rebuilt sometime
Yeah same,some of my best memories were from there.once the big stores started leaving,I knew it was over
Hi, as a dead mall lover it made me so delighted to see a video like this! Amazing job, keep it up! :D
Oh thanks I appreciate it! I had fun making this video and I might make another in the future :)
no way
it’s you
The mountaineer mall is my favorite liminal space picture cause it's one of the few I genuinely connect with. It reminds me not of a mall, but of a rec center 5 minutes from where I live, combined with a mall that no longer exists near me
Same. That image is like the place where most of my dreams occur in.
Thanks for letting me know you're favorite and that's cool to hear about the rec center
I'm surprised you can remember the location of your dream
@@Shookey If I ever go back there once the world gets back to normal I will definitely show a picture of where this compares
@@YF501 That'd be awesome
Once you understand the meaning of liminal spaces, that your childhood is gone and your memory is full of empty memories, you realize that these kind of photos are art
Yes 100% Yes
A couple of weeks ago, I was having a rough day. And as I so often do when I have rough days, I dressed in my finest 1980's themed attire; All three feet of hair, teased to perfection, and my face was adorned with every kind of makeup you could imagine. I decided to go the the mall in the next town over, somewhere I had fond memories of but had not visited in years, with the intention of reliving those quickly fading memories (thanks memory disorder). But when I stepped through those doors, I was greeted with an empty shell of what once was. Over half the stores were closed and derelict, and there were maybe nine other families in the whole building. I meandered about for a bit, got my little brother some freeze-dried ice cream, but eventually I left without much fuss. It was a really, truly disheartening experience.
I never got to live through the 80s or the golden era of the shopping mall. I feel like I've missed out on something that I was meant to see. I dunno lol. I just gotta hope someday they'll come back.
Picture this: Your in a mall. It's a dead one. You walk through focusing on all of the abandoned and forgotten places. All of these stores were once cared for, loved, ...Alive.
You walk through and begin to wonder; "Will I be abandoned as these stores have?"
You continue on. You feel your insecurities close in on you. You then start to feal that empty fealing of abandonment. That. Sadness. You continue on with your journey and try to run away. You try and try and the walls and eyes on every poster start to track you down. You look around. You cant focus. You feal hatred closing in on you. It's all falling apart. Your falling apart. You hear whispers in your own head telling you to be better. You are moving through people. A few minutes ago you were in your own mind. But then you realize you were yourself because you bumped into someone. Your in a real and alive mall. You dont know why. Maybe you forgot. You look for your car and find it. You drive home. You dont know whether or not they whispered cruel things about your face. Your hair. Was it good enough? No. It was all perfect. Nobody was talking about you. But you dont understand. Your emotions that have no real meaning close in on you and you cry yourself asleep that night because of something that wasnt said.
damn
Liminal Spaces are a comfort of mine. It’s hard to describe. I used to visit malls as a kid, too. Every second I got to myself, I’d grab my buddies and head to the Hot Topic, Spencer’s, and a few others. It wasn’t a retro looking mall. To this day, nothing has changed and yet it still remains busy. Happy to have discovered this video. Nice channel.
Great video! I remember when I first discovered Vaporwave (around 2015, but I've come to recognize that I've been experiencing the feelings for longer) and that was when I first started noticing the feeling that comes with Liminal Space images. Just like you said, there's a lot of overlap with Vaporwave and Liminal Space. I didn't have the words to describe it at the time, and as such I thought I was the only one who felt that way about these nostalgic and somewhat unsettling spaces. I'm really glad that things like the Backrooms and other such internet trends brought it enough into the spotlight to actually be defined and easily understood by others for the most part, it makes me really happy. As always keep up the great work!
Hey Deci! I liked what you said on the mixing/overlap of Vaperwave and Liminal Spaces, it's basically what I was trying to convey but you actually put it into words hahaha. Also I'm glad I can be here to put that little spotlight on these strange corners of the internet. Thanks again for the support -- it's always good to hear from you :)
Empty Malls are easily my favorite type of pics. Especially ones in which the lights or neon is on.
Just went to my local mall late last year (hadn’t been there since childhood). There were a bit of people but due to “The Thing” and probably online shopping it was not super busy.
It looked different than I remembered as a kid (although I couldn’t remember alot). I always went during Christmas. My memories were of wreaths on the wall and Santas chair and Christmas music playing.
Most of the mall was just clothing stores (not interesting to me) except for FYI and Spencers and Food Courts.
Don’t know why In typed all this- just sharing a bit of nostalgia!
If you made it to here: *CONGRATULATIONS*
once again, a banger video. keep up the good work!
Thanks! Will do!!
I personally experienced this liminal space feeling in where I live, somewhat. There's this big mall that my parents used to take me as a child. We wouldn't always go there (I live in a big city) but my memories of that specific mall are pleasant. It's also imo one of the most aesthetically pleasing malls I've been in, fancy but not too flashy. Tasteful and totally nostalgia-inducing.
A few years back I had some business in that part of the city with my dad so we decided to give this mall a visit on our way back. Turns out they went under and the majority of the shops were already closed. The mall has these glass-walled shops in the middle of the ground floor that create narrower hallways throughout and the insides are visible. They had dimmed out the lighting to reduce the bills. So while not completely abandoned, walking through this mall was kind of an otherworldly experience. I felt bittersweet, nostalgic and unsettled. I was telling my dad about liminal spaces the other day and mentioned that day of our visit. I think he understood exactly what I was talking about.
There's a dead mall in my town that's still open and it's so quiet in there due to the lack of people. You can literally hear your footsteps echo and the low humming coming from the escalators, it gives off a really eerie vibe, especially for me since I remember when it used to be popular.
As an Evansville resident it is SO cool to see Washington Square Mall on here. It is infamous among the town for being eerie and dead yet somehow still open.
7:37 I don't know but this feels weirdly nostalgic even though I didnt exist back then.
Very nice work on this one, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Dead Malls have fascinated me for years, especially since I discovered the Dan Bell series about 4 years ago. I have been really into the liminal space images off and on this past year. I appreciate your point of view
Hey thanks a lot! I tried being respectful to people who watch Dead Mall videos
Someone needs to make a horror game on one of these images but expand it into a full horror game
Not sure if it's a horror game, but there's Anemoiapolis if you're interested.
@@joannamysluk8623 oooh
Washington square mall liminal space horror game 😁
@@cartoonlizardtheanimator6701 wow sounds amazing i gotta check it out
@@thelunarsimulationleague no, it's not a real game, it's want I want to be real 😐
I always thought these images were of malls after closing time and didn't think they'd be closed. In Puerto Rico, the few malls we have here are always incredibly full all days of the week so it's surprising to me a mall could be completely empty. Great informational video!
Shookey: I'm a bit sick at this part
Also Shookey: Sounds like Chills and a Reporter
3:37
💀
Wow I had an extremely similar experience with a mall near me, I remember going there as a kid and it being pretty busy. But when I visited there as an adult there had to have only been a handful of people in the entire place and you could go several minutes without seeing another person.
Last time I checked the channel, which was yesterday, there was 500 subs.
Your channel is growing quicker than a field of green grass. Great job. I really love these liminal space videos. XD
I grew up in the USA but i recently moved to New Zealand and one big difference is the malls. Even before the pandemic, malls is my city in the USA were seldom busy, although not considered dead. Even on Black Friday, it was only moderately busy. Malls in New Zealand are incredibly busy, due to unreliability of online shopping.
Know what’s weird? Your story is the same as mine. The mall I grew up with had a carousel, play area, and restaurants all in the food court next to eachother. I remember seeing Santa as a kid there. Now the foodcourt is torn down……malls are soon to be gone…. Everything pre 2012 was amazing. Idk what happened…it’s too depressing to get deep deep into details but the feeling I get thinking about it is soul crushing. I have broken down in tears many times thinking about the happy times……
you’ve just uncovered a childhood memory of mine. i grew up going to white flint. i remember it so vividly
Same,I remember riding on the mini ride on train they had there a ton.good times
Theres a dead mall in Aiken SC, they were supposed to close and tear it down in 2017, but the money was pushed towards(i kid you not) Luxury apartments near the highway. due to 5 big stores there, it is still open! I might go to the bookstore there and take some photos
Finally! A video featuring Washington Square! No one talks about this mall l despite being very dead (and my local dead mall). I went here all the time as a kid and I remember there being a Thomas Kinkade store, a pet shop, and even a licensed Disney Store. From visiting there over the past few years, I noticed there was a LensCrafters at one point too.
Currently there are no anchor stores (SEARS left around 2015 and the other most recent anchor was a flea market that is no longer there). The food court is nearly abandoned with hardly any stores. Most of the mall that is still open to the public is small, local businesses. The back half of the mall is all being rented out to St. Vincent Hospital. The parking lot is a complete disaster compared to the ad that was shown.
But yet after all this time, the gaudy food court sign is still there and the fountain is still running.
IMO visiting it would be boring because of how the access to the mall has shrunk, but it’s definitely worth exploring. A lot of the store fronts that can be openly seen by the public are literal time capsules.
It’s a shocking comparison to the mall down the street, Eastland Mall (owned by Simon Group), is still fairly busy and is a very live mall. Though the pandemic did hit it a bit hard
Whoa I never knew that malls over there were getting super empty meanwhile where I live at Puerto Rico almost every mall is full like even now at these times
So off-putting. And yet strangely inviting. One thing I notice in these liminal spaces is the cognitive dissonance of feeling both both safe and repulsed. It's like coming home when you live alone and find a cup of coffee sitting on the counter. And it's still warm.
Great job of conveying the utter strangeness of these places. I look forward to more of your work.
I had many dreams of empty malls as a kid
They scared me. These pictures helped me get over my fear of empty malls
Sorta.
maybe it's just my introvertedness or whatever but dead malls seem like the most comforting places to me
The deadest mall I been to is called the Brunel centre in Swindon, Swindon was basically built and then just left. A lot of the buildings in Swindon are abandoned, there’s a church in the town centre which is bordered up and abandoned, the tall building above the train station is bordered up and abandoned, since Debenhams has closed all shops in England, the massive Debenhams in Swindon’s now abandoned, there’s a huge building next to the train station which is also abandoned and has loads of smashed windows, and in some of the suburban parts of Swindon there are derelict council estates, even the Swindon Oasis swimming park closed down and has now closed down and just been left to rot. The only thing Swindon has left is a shopping outlet quite far from the town centre and the football stadium, other than that it’s a completely run down dead town and the people who live there are often depressed. Swindon is a place that people go through but no one actually goes there
I live pretty near a dead mall. Barely any people go there anymore, and the shops are slowly closing down. There's around 10 shops left there, and business seems to be slowing every year.
BRO OMG YOUR VIDEOS ALWAYS ENTERTAINING
THANKS FROST!! APPRICIATE IT :)
I loved watching about abandoned places, and this was so interesting to me! Great job!!
Thank you!
The mall close to where I live has pretty much been dead since it opened, but since it got raided and covid happened, it became the ultimate dead mall experience (despite it still being open). The billboards outside have faded out, there are plenty of spaces where the lights don't work, others have some broken glass, the hallways lead to a dead end, there aren't many shops working on it and it's always empty (the makeup and art supplies are quite affordable tho)
Sounds like you could get some really cool photos! I'd take the opportunity while you still can!
I feel like in some way, these liminal videos will actually make these malls popular, at least a little bit more so.
Remember back when malls were fun and not constantly going out of business? When I was little the malls had little play arenas, those screens on the floor with games (I frogot what it was called) little toy cars like you’d find at play places, and carousels. Most where I am have been closed down and there’s only like 2 "good" ones left
Welp, new fav youtuber I think! Liminal spaces are extremely special to me!
omg thank you so much :D
“I think!”
Found this channel just now, and man these videos are great, they seem to be really well researched and you're able to present them in a very consise and entertaining way. Definitely worth a sub.
tysm! hope you stick around for whats next
I find liminal spaces so crazy. I cant even explain all the mixed feelings i have when i see them. Also, your videos are awesome 💪👌👍
Thank you so much! I'm glad you find liminal spaces interesting
I appreciate you using a slowed version of Blizzetta's theme, love that song
PLEASE READ THIS: Ok so anyways I didn't know dead malls existed until I realized THE PLACE WHERE I LIVE HAS A DEAD MALL AND ITS CREEPY AF, look up "Findlay Mall Ohio"
my local mall has been dead since about 2015ish and got demolished earlier last year, i never spent a ton of time there but i do remember the food court and the gymboree store really vividly. the place had some very obvious 90s design and wasn't very full except for the macy's and burlington's in there
I have hundreds of mall dreams. Sometimes the mall is floating, sometimes the floor is gone,
Sometimes the malls are popular or ghostly.
there is one dream i had where the place was a giant square mall, that was very tall. Once I got up to higher floors, I realised there's no escalator down. (Keep in mind i was about a kilometer from the ground. and the only place to go near the top was a very thin path. as I said earlier, I was very high up and since I don't drink water I felt like I was drunk in the dream. I span around infinitely trying to get to the end of the path. As someone with a fear of heights it was scary. I have had this dream countless times in different locations
I just realized how lucky it is that my childhood mall is literally the mall of Georgia- that place will never die, it’s literally always PACKED with people.
thats pretty cool
Wonderful content- As always. If you need music for your videos lemme know
We'll definitely be in touch!
when i was watching the introduction/background to this video my mind immediately went to the Mountaineer Mall, i lived in a very very small town about half an hour from morgantown. my school, my parents work, and everything else in my life was in morgantown up until a couple years ago. and i was so surprised to see it on here. i used to go to this mall once or twice every week because i had ballet/irish dancing lessons there. my dad usually would be the one to take me and their was this large, long train diorama in the one hallway, it was usually broken but when it wasnt my dad and i would try and find quarters to run it. there was no shops i would go into and none were memorable and they were almost always closed, there was one arcade that was outdated and was always barred off and closed, but because of the bright colors and lights, you could still see into it. there was only one restuarant, very small and not a chain which i remember having barbeque food, and i remember it being really good and the sauces being spicy which i loved as a kid and still do now, but i dont think it stuck around. its crazy because i never remember seeing more that 5 people in the mall at a time besides the parents, students and teachers at the dance place and the sales associates at the empty, dimly lit stores. i guess looking back it is an eerie, empty place but i was a kid when i went, and since i lived in an old town where the only malls i had been to were like this (other than one in pittsburgh, hours away, that we would go to once a year for school clothes) i thought all malls were like that.
i think it is so cool that something i am familiar with an know about resonates with some people. so btw if anyone has a topical question i can probably answer it.
ooh, this just reminded me of a dead mall I visited with some of my family sometime during last year. The mall was in a pretty bad condition, while the main architecture was still there there were little to no lights from the building that were still on, leaving the only source of light to be from the glass ceilings the mall had. The air in the building smelled pretty bad due to there not being any working air conditioning, and there was also some graffiti on some of the walls, I think most of the graffiti was either near the entrance or near the main court area. One thing I remember seeing was a few large balloons that were mostly deflated, I think there was still a bit of helium in some of them but there wasn't much. The only two parts of the mall that were still in use was an arcade/game store that was in one of the places for a store, and at one of the ends of the mall there was a clothing store or something like that, I don't remember exactly though
Oh dang I was not expecting my home town to show up in a video here. Been to Washington Square a few times growing up, crazy to think it's a well known liminal space photo now! And that ad is a bizarre blast from the past.
nice!
Can't believe i have been here since 400 subs and you still aren't famous!
Thanks for sticking with me :)
I feel like malls kinda screwed themselves. They seemed to do their best to discourage loitering teens, but without the business of kids and teens they started dying out. They got rid of stuff like arcades and attractions (like at my local one there was a carousel at one time) and i think it made the places a lot less special. Also it doesnt help that Malls are almost always built sort of out-of-the-way, to facilitate a big parking. Nowadays the last thing I wanna do is drive 30 mins to go shopping. Driving is hell.
Hey,how about...
Fields in liminal spaces?
there was a dead mall where I used to live...I went there for music lessons when I was about 13-14 but after Sears closed, and the arcade upstairs closed, the place was finally condemned a few years ago. wanted to go there and take a nice, peaceful walk down the cool, dark tiled hallways with my now fiance. but we get there and everything is closed off with a "No Tresspassing" sign at every exit. It was an oddly sad feeling, looking at the door I walked through so many times to the Music Academy. Remembering how awesome the acoustics were in that seemingly endless abyss of a building.
If I found a place like this again, the first thing I would do is sit down on the edge of the dried-up fountain and sing my favourite songs. take pictures. reflect on the bittersweet sensation that comes with change. Imagine twenty years in the future, maybe they'll make sitcoms that parody the cultural environment of the 90s or early 2000s. Maybe we'll experience then the same gleeful nostalgia our parents had when watching "Happy Days" or "That 70s Show". But I don't know. Will TV even exist then? or will we all be sat there on our smart couches watching videos like these on our ethernet-having 65" flatscreen or some shit.
we'll be watching iconic vines on our glass TVs and virtual reality brain chips 🙊
You're almost at 600 now, it's crazy.
I honestly can't believe it
@@Shookey almost 750 now
Almost 1k
Imagine working at a mall after hours wrapping up your stuff and you walk through the empty mall remembering the children, adults and teens who were once there hours ago, now knowing you are the only one there
I really hope my towns mall doesn’t shut down they’re the only place with an auntie Anne’s/pacsun around here
Same I hope my doesn't close anytime soon cause one of them has a good ass pizza spot
this definitely is unheard of in my country since malls here are treated more like parks to chill in with stores on the side rather than just a place to buy stuff
The mall is the best place to go to and the music in this video is relaxing so relaxing
That slowed down Mario 64 track is really something. I love it.
Thought it went well
The fact the first video you show is the mall I go to now, which is still open and thriving
(I mean the background of the intro, just to make myself clear)
Thanks for including my video in this, my dude!
The effort you put into your videos really shows. I have always been so fascinated by liminal spaces so I literally love your channel so much
Thank you so much I really appreciate it :)
I walked by a dying mall every day on my way to school. It was built in the late 50's / early 60's, and probably had its prime time in the 70's or 80's. When I was just starting school in 1999, it was still full of stores and bars and restaurants, but over the years I saw it decline. More and more stores and services like hairdressers didn't renew their contract and moved elsewhere, because they heard a rumor that the city was planning to tear the building down soon. I think the last establishments to leave were a pizzeria and the bars, their customers didn't give up on them. I was in my teens when I walked through it for what I suspected was the last time, and saw barred and closed storefronts and graffiti all over. I remember I felt a bit sad and nostalgic. The mall was torn down eventually, and a new building was erected on the other side of the street, with a big grocery store, a Subway, driving school, hypermodern public library and a second hand shop in it. The architecture of the new building is so modern that it looks almost alien compared to the one-story low concrete building that was the old mall. Times change, sadly. Luckily the old mall is still visible on Google Streetview, so I get to "revisit" it in the past.
the biggest "liminal space" feeling I ever got was at a rest stop in France at night when I was on a trip with my school, the building was open, but all the shops in it were closed (bakery, mcdonalds, café) and so we just sat on some chairs in front of the bakery, tired and sleepy from the long bus drive. There were literally no people there except for us. It felt just like the "dead mall" feeling. I always loved these rest stops, especially at night. Only happened on school trips because with my family ,we'd never drive over night. Standing in a queue to a toilet at midnight behind your equally sleep-deprived teachers somewhere in the middle of France kinda feels like an altered reality. Also sitting in the bus at 3am listening to music while everyone else was asleep, only the driver awake for hours and hours on some French highway in the middle of nowhere... Damn I miss that feeling.
Liminality in Europe! Specially in France!? Cooley.
It feels so bizarre to watch this, having been to one of these malls as a kid! The Washington Square one. My strongest memories of it are going there with my grandma to pick up her prescription, and being freaked out by a few of the machines for kids that you could put money in to ride, as they would go off on their own with no one there. This was like, 10 years ago too, and the mall was just as dead then as it is now.
Great video dude! It unlocked a memory for me, but was also very informative about other places ^^
The cursed mall rides wtf 🙀😅 also nice Reagen PFP
The Hamilton Mall near me in New Jersey was thriving about 4 years ago. I remember going with my friends to the game stores there and spending hours in there. When I got there now, it's so empty. It's unreal how quickly these things can die off. Unfortunately new management took over and they plan on demolishing it to put up town homes. COVID really didn't help it either.
Thank u so much for putting that super Mario 64 music track on here...so nostalgic...
It's great music :)
the slowed down mario 64 music fits so well, nice video too! you gained a sub
Im from montgomery county and i literally shouted when you mentioned white flint mall. I used to go there a bunch as a kid and loved the playplace. I think its closed off now and ia getting demolished. Havent seen the inside of it for like a decade. It was a lovely place.
Like of you are part of the 10% that sticks through the whole video! How can 💯% not watch the entire thing? These vids are great! 😍
💯
Hello I have no words to express my excitement about finding content discussing specific liminal spaces so have this comment aaa
man i love dead malls. the vibe they give off is like no other. over saturation of the market is to blame as well for this dead mall situation. there are usually boat loads of strip malls and outlets that surround these places. for example; the lakeview mall in battle creek mi, i noticed how it was nearly impossible to see the mall because of surrounding stores. i have personally noticed how malls are absolutely surrounded by these outdoor stores. consumers would just like to stop in at one or two stores in particular. which can be found in outdoor stores like this- just park and go in.
nonetheless, great video!!
Seeing Washington Square was a huge surprise 'cause I grew up in Evansville. As a kid, we'd go to it all the time even though it was dying (and still is, the things on life support) took pictures with santa their once, got cookies with my grandma, etc. Good memories. It's very nostalgic for me. One time we even met the owner (though I don't think he's the current owner rn). There's another mall in town that's far nicer, but idk, doesn't feel as special as Washington Square. I still go there everytime I visit family just to walk around (Though, I'm also a sucker for dead malls and go whenever I can)
I remember white flint mall, I used to live in Montgomery county MD and I vaguely remember it being a big deal in the area that it closed, especially since there are very few malls in Maryland, so it’s closure drilled in the thought that malls are disappearing from existence.
You found your thing and you do it well, hope you get the views you deserve
I love love LOVE malls. I have so many good pure memories from when our mall was alive. We recently went inside and there were a few stores back up but not the same.
Malls were truly something. You could find random little things you wouldnt be able to find online without super specific names. Our candy store was great too, even a few fancy candy/sweet powder machines in the theater.
Inside the dead mall there were two trees left by the foodcort, both connecting at a small skyline window. The last of the proper sunlight in that part of the mall.
I used to go to this mall in Ocoee when I was a kid called “West Oaks Mall”. I go rarely now and it’s sad to see a place once lively and full of people, now deserted & cold.
Talk about the South Road mall in Poughkeepsie. It was the most prominent mall until the Poughkeepsie Galleria opened in the late 80s. While it stayed popular throughout the early 90s, but in the mid 90s the Galleria got an expansion, which along with the closing of Media Play was the fnail in the coffin for the mall. It closed in 2007, and is currently a shopping plaza. I did go inside, but I was so young that I wouldn’t be able to remember anything. The inside is kind of iconic in the liminal mall community, so it won’t be hard to find. Thanks for reading!
I honestly don't get how these aren't as popular! I just found out about your youtube account and I really like it. I just love your videos soooo much!
Grew up eating basically exactly where those photos of White Flint were taken! Wonderful surprise seeing it in the video, I was thinking of it right before you revealed it as the first in the list.
Amazing!
I've always wanted to go to a massive store like Ikea store or just some cross road in the middle of no where and just look around, seeing Liminal space fuels this motivation
The mall at Tuttle Crossing, Dublin OH. It's still well visited today, but it's in the process of dying. It was very close to my old house, so we used to go there a lot. My parents would go shopping and we would eat at the Chick-fila. There was also "Spaceland", as we called it. It was a play area filled with big plastic planets, comets, and a space shuttle to climb on. Spaceland's long gone, but the mall remains, and I'm planning to go back to visit it relatively soon, among other places from my early childhood, for old times' sake.
2:28 ngl I hope its reopened, it looks cute and I love the 80's vibes.
I have a pretty dead mall in my hometown. Its still open but there at least has to be only 100 to 160 people including employees. Most of the stores have shut down and i only go there for my retro games. Luckily there is a more lively mall farther away from the dead one. It is very busy and has good stores. I don’t have much hope for the old mall. Many owners have bought it, had plans for it, and sold it. Only a couple stores last.
There is this mall that is half an hour away from my hometown that is just completely abandoned. Apparently when my mom was a kid they had more stuff and even had a movie theater. Now it is just empty. I'm guessing because a popular outdoor mall opened up a decade later it drew away attention. The only major things left were a Hobby Lobby and a Bath and Body Works, but they closed the HL and moved it to the other mall, so it's just abandoned essentially. Occasionally during Halloween a Halloween store will open. I remember when I was little there was a thrift store in the mall that my grandma took me to occasionally. Looking at the mall is just depressing
That intro sounds so unsettling. Love it.
Appreciate you boss, I gave it up a couple years ago but it's still iconic imo
happy with those liminal places that are malls that are open right now :)
I used to go to my local mall all the time as a child. They'd have different little things to do for kids. I remember taking dance lessons at one. As time passed by and I stopped going, the mall became dead. It's sad to see that they are currently demolishing the mall. I'd imagine it was really creepy inside.
6:39 CORRECTION: It does still exist, but however the place is blocked off by a gate