It is just amazing that such a beautiful mall can go pretty much abandoned so quickly. The fact that they imported marble from France just shows that extreme planning and care went into building the mall, with all the luxurious decoration, plants, fountains and the every popular "Conservatory". They certainly had intended on this mall being around for a long time. Sad that the place died and would eventually be demolished. All that beauty, brass, marble, plants, destroyed.... Thank You again Dan for the awesome remastered videos!
Walking around the place in the 2010s it felt like an abandoned palace. Just beautiful, fountains, potted palms, marble, brass, glass, but no people. Actually somewhat creepy. It had been down to just a few stores for several years. Really odd that it didn't close sooner. It didn't seem to make sense financially, but Macy's seemed to be doing okay for a time, and some of the escalators were out of commission. I suppose 30 years was not a bad run for a shopping establishment.
Growing up, going to the mall was like an all-day adventure... Mum would go clothing shopping, Dad would go to the sporting goods spot, and us kids would roam and get lost at the KB Toys... Good times lol
Omg KB Toys was my childhood! All the good and cool toys I couldn’t find anywhere else came from that store! I remember when it closed I was so sad and then I was like well we still have Toys “R” Us and now that’s closed too. :(
Such a shame that the mall culture in the west is slowly dying, meanwhile here in Asia, particularly here in the Philippines where I live, Malls and retails are just getting bigger and bigger and despite the pandemic, majority of us look forward to stroll and shop in the mall.
@Sonic Hedgehog someday yes, but many malls in asia are built as a whole complex with apartement buildings, schools, office space, supermarket, etc surrounding the mall itself. it's very convenient to go to the mall and get everything done at the same time
@@xcaluhbration for the love of god, ignore that guy. Pretty sure I saw him comment on other dead mall vids. “Urban youth” is just racist code for “black thugs.” He’s insinuating that young Black people are by default delinquents that soil “nice suburban” (ie predominantly White) places like malls with their behavior. I don’t want to get too deep into the implications of such thinking because I’d be here all day, but it’s misguided at best and bigoted at worst. That’s why you haven’t heard it before; it’s bullshit. But to answer your question about the death of mall culture I have some educated guesses. I was a teen at the tail end of the mall craze in America, and where I live now are two dead/dying mall: one is 75% empty with a half closed food court, the other literally has one or two businesses in it. I blame it on two things; the boom of superstores like Walmart, and the rapid decline of department stores, thank to the ease of Internet-related shopping, be it Amazon or apps like Instacart, Shipt, and DoorDash. My local mall was very much active into the mid 2010’s. When the Macy’s closed, things took a bad turn, with the other two anchor stores and even the movie theater closing down. A bonus I saw with my area was the Outlets-style place that opened up. When your only options were to drive 30 minutes to the next closest full mall, visit the one with no anchor stores, or the shiny new outlet mall, the choice was easy. I’d look into those areas first.
It takes a lot of courage to step into an elevator in a dead mall. If it stops you can probably spend a long time waiting for help. Thanks for the video Dan.
no super wal-mart. they tore it down, there is a costco, giant, resturants and a few chain stores to replace the mall. Its doing well. Was hoping for a say 200 bed hospital at the site. Owings Mills needs a local one.
I'm weirdly drawn to dead mall YT video 📹 too. Something calming, relaxing walking around. Real abandoned, unused retail spaces can be dank, unsafe, 🚧, disturbing. I do security 👮🏻 & a few larger spots are spooky at night.
This was the mall of my teen years. So many days of my youth were spent roaming these halls. A lot of people say the 1992 murder was a cause for the mall's decline; that is debatable; I'm not convinced, there were a lot of complex factors, but let's just say it just didn't live up to the glamorous image the builders tried to portray. They seriously misjudged the class of shoppers that would come - every day people, not the type who would only shop in a beautiful mall paved with imported stone tiles. Yet in the mid-2000s it was still very busy; all corridors were open and had shops. Emerald East buffet to the right when you walked into the conservatory was one of the best places to get lunch. I remember there being a hair salon where the Sears was closed and demolished. An A&F was also in that wing but closed about the 2005 time frame. The vacancy problem really accelerated after 2005 and the stores just fell like dominos. Emerald East and the CVS closed. The CD market collapsed so audiophiles had no reason to go anymore. For some odd reason McDonald's pulled out fairly early on despite being the busiest fast food joint in the conservatory. They had Chick Fil A for a while. Sarku Japan was always jamming and it was one of the last to leave - my personal favorite of the rubber chicken variety. Victoria's Secret was the highest grossing retail store in the mall and it was there until the mall closed. Well there will always be a market for that... When the Towson and Columbia malls had make-overs under Rouse management people just went there instead of Owings Mills, and that was part of the problem. Owings Mills just didn't need a mall to begin with and it just became a 2nd rate mall. The Late-2000s financial crisis was probably the death knell. The only stores still making money were Victoria Secret and the department stores but probably only in December. Teens became interested in doing other things or becoming engrossed in their smart phones and high speed internet was now in most households.
The start of the Internet in 1994 and online shopping was a major shift in consumer buying habits. You didn't need to go to a mall, find parking and wander around if you needed a pair of shoes. You could just order some on Amazon. Then people start downloading music on Napster in 1999 and iTunes in 2001 so the CD & record stores lost business. You don't need to go to a mall and buy an album, just download the 2 or 3 songs you like.
@@cosmic-fortytwo Oh yeah that killed the CD business. FYE held on for a while in Arundel Mills mall though... Shoes are just about the only thing I go to an actual store to buy for obvious reasons.
I remember going to this mall probably around 12 13 years ago at Christmas and this place PACKED. It was beautiful inside with all the decorations and lights. Unreal.
dead malls will always fascinate me. there's something so haunting about it...the idea that in the 80s the gorgeous, sleek architecture and neon lights were a sign of the future, of fun, of hope. and now with all that being gone, it feels like a piece of that "vision" is gone as seen through the lens of the 80s. as a 90s kid, the 90s and malls were a time i associate with comfort and love. going to the mall wasn't so much about shopping as it was about being an exploration or outing, with family and friends. sigh...i hate that malls are closing down and that the next generations won't get to experience that...then again, there's so many things you could say that about.
I really don't know why I am so fascinated with dead malls, or dying retail spaces. But I am seriously intrigued by this whole genre, really eye opening. And I really appreciate your videos and information about all of this, that would otherwise go unknown. Can't wait to see what's next!
I think we enjoy these videos because almost anyone born between 1968-1995 spent tons of your life in a mall. I'm a dude and I hate shopping. But my gosh I spent a lot of money on arcades in the 4 (now 3) malls in Louisville Kentucky. When I was a rebel teen, got my ears pierced at a Spencer's. Had a b-day party at Chuck E Cheese that was located in a mall. Mr. Bell shows us a dying history of something that meant something to millions.
I once squatted in a dying mall, using one of the old Gilly Hicks store as a home. I would use the fountain to bathe in after hours, turning the water on and then off when done. I set up a hot plate, mini fridge and freezer, and a microwave in one corner of the space. I got my mail at a locked mailbox address elsewhere. Most of the cameras didn’t work. I was very discreet and careful, as were a few of my neighbors who were also squatting. Unfortunately the sheriff’s department forced us out, and then less than a year later homeless drug addicts, drug dealers, and gang members took over that mall entirely, so the police had to do even more raids and the building was demolished eventually and sold to a developer.
How do you squat in a dying mall? If its “dying”, then that means theres still a few stores and the entire walkway of the mall operating right? How did they and the security around the mall not remove you guys before you were able to install basically a kitchen in there?
@@a130inthesky security didn’t care. If I needed to use additional appliances I would use some of the abandoned food court restaurant kitchens for my other needs. Others did the same.
I can see that happening. In fact, it did happen in one dying mall in my old neighborhood, and in a dying mall in my new neighborhood as well. Security typically doesn’t care when they’re assigned to guard a dying mall, and they are only there to alert the police and fire department if some maniac tries to torch the place or some tweaker tries to steal copper wire or plumbing. And yeah, the squatters typically commandeer the empty restaurant kitchens (often the former tenants forget to shut off the utilities, and the utility companies don’t often keep track of active locations). Pretty bold of you to bathe in the fountain like that. 😉
@@juliusquasar1565 Are you talking about that mall you and I visited last summer? Yeah I saw the signs of squatters there. As for bathing in the fountain, I typically wore a cheap one piece swimsuit while taking a bath/shower in the fountain, and I would cover up with a robe going to and from the fountain.
People born after 2000 will never know the magic a good mall had. it was like Facebook, Amazon, and Instagram in one location. it's really sad to think my kids will never experience a mall. it's so strange that technology has allowed them to socialize with more people than my generation, yet they interact with 1/10 of the people we did.
80s refugee here. You're absolutely right. Some people are nitpicking, trying to find people to blame and other controversial reasons, but the internet is ALWAYS suspect #1. (The one violent crime he mentions probably had little or nothing to do with this mall's demise.) Couple the redundancy with people just having less money, esp. after 2007, and there ya go. Only Walmarts CAN survive in the current environment.
Dude... I'm a college student. Hanging out at the mall with my friends was a major pastime for me in high school and still is nowadays, when I have time. I have no idea where you're getting this idea that the internet killed malls. Sometimes huge expensive retail hubs are just destined to fail.
@@gazehound Well, one college student's anecdote vs. a f*ckton of data is probably where I myself got the idea. Dude, nobody's blaming you personally. No one is blaming all people under 20 personally. It's fine.
I guess it's depends where you live. In my country malls are still very popular and always crowded, especially on sales. Personally I don't go to malls anymore once Corona started, but I definitely wouldn't say that malls here are dead.
I'm amazed at these malls...80s were the days...its so wonderful that your talents are saving these landmarks for future generations..I believe one dayxa retro mall will be built..likexa Disneyland adventure
All of these dead malls are so sad. When we had a huge mall open in our city in 1984 it was a HUGE HUUUUUGE deal. Miss America made an appearance. The grand opening made the news in 3 states. We had to park almost 2 miles away and walk to the mall on grand opening day. If you were able to land a job anywhere in that mall it was also a big deal. I got a part time holiday job there and everyone I met would introduce me as “Name and.....she works at THE Super Mall!!” On Friday and Saturday night every teenager for a hundred miles would come to hang out at the mall. Every parent took their kids to do their “back to school shopping” at that mall. During the holidays it was always so festive. Christmas decor and music everywhere. The sounds of children’s laughter while standing in line to visit Santa. The smell of popcorn. The internet and crime ruined the mall. There are some newer shopping centers now open around town. But it will never be the same. It’s really sad actually.
Malls will come back , upcoming generations and the current generation are doing things that were considered dead such as collecting Vinyl records and using film cameras . The internet shopping trend will hopefully become boring and eventually people will visit malls again , everything has a cycle . I reside in Manchester NH , the Mall here is still fairly active . The Mall just added a few large additions where the SEARS store used to be so business can't be that bad . The economy is also robust in NH which may factor as to why it's still busy .
@@manchesterexplorer8519 i went to the mall of NH a few days ago and i saw they replaced all of the old signs outside with new ones, plus it was super busy although that may have been just because it was friday and school had just got out for the youngins. however have you visited the steeplegate mall in concord? no clue how that place is open, even when i went there growing up that place was desolate but it's somehow still open.
The loud music echoing through the big empty luxury halls was really what made this perfect(ly creepy). A 'show must go on' feeling almost comparable to the music playing while the Titanic was sinking.
This is beyond depressing, going to the mall as a kid was absolutely amazing and always a great time. I remember my parents would buy me a sugared cinnamon pretzel with a red Slushy every time we went to the mall. I would just sip on that huge slushy and devour that pretzel while my parents shopped until they dropped.😂
I remember watching your dead mall series for the first time back in Summer 2019. It was one of my best summers (especially because pre covid). But I would watch your videos on my tv at night in bed and it was just the most nostalgic thing ever. Thanks so much for the great content and inspiration.
I live in Owings Mills and it was a trip watching this after all these years. Just a correction, the mall was not replaced with a Walmart. There are no Walmarts in Owings Mills. It was replaced with an outdoor shopping center, the main attraction being Costco.
Owings Mills was definitely the "posh" mall when it opened and catered to the Pikesville crowd. But Owings Mills Mall was a snapshot of Baltimore's Tale of Two Cities. As greater development came to the area, so too did the demographics, with the familiar Baltimore County tale of "it's not safe" being the code word for that changing demographic. Add to that the decline in popularity of indoor malls and Owings Mills died a slow, painful death. My first job was in The Conservatory and the last time I visited on Halloween 2012, it was a stunning difference.
@@jerrysanders9101 it’s more that residents of Dc and Baltimore have been pushed out of the cities due to gentrification. The only places for them to go are the suburbs where there are pockets with lower-income housing. But as more people of color move into these areas, you experience why sociologist call ‘White flight’: and those people also move to the cities, which is how the cities become more and more gentrified, creating a cycle.
@@LaLaLaLaNom Your Marxist professor is lying to you. See here is how it works, rich bankers who hate all of us, force low income people into middle income areas and this forces the middle class further and further down, this will become aparant the more you grow up and understand they told you NOTHING BUT LIES kid. You can always tell one of their brainwashed victims by the use of "people of color" btw, all this manufactured racism didn't exist back then, despite the bs stories they tell you, we learned to get along sometime in the late 60's early 70's. Life experience trumps Marxist academics every time.
My childhood mall was finally torn down this week. Peach Tree Mall in Marysville, California. It was completely flooded in 1986, and after it was cleaned up and reopened, some stores tried coming back, but it was never the same. It was completely closed a few years later. Late last year, a homeless couple living inside set a fire and burned what was left, now the dozers are finishing the job. Sad to see, spent so much of my childhood/teenage years in the place.
I understand that as sad as it is for some of us who remember it fondly to see it go, things just change. My only question is why aren't they turning these big, fancy places with plenty of parking into their own sets of apartments with gyms, small convenience stores, bodegas, drug store, even maybe a doctors office? There's plenty of space to do it, and it could be like living in your own little village. Maybe even have an office building or two that would hire people who live there? Seems like the only reasonable thing to do with them instead of letting them rot away and eventually tear them down, meanwhile building all new places to live on land that has to be cleared first. Hell, these places already essentially come with parks and nice places to walk built right into them.
There’s a video or documentary on TH-cam of a mall that was converted into apartments upstairs and offices and restaurants and shops that would interest residents and office workers that live/work in the “mall”. I liked the idea.
Every mall is starting to look like this. Online shopping has killed the physical world of shopping. Call me old fashioned, but I love trying on clothes, feeling the material, and experiencing the real world. I hope more people snap out of the fake online world and rejoin reality. It’s beautiful out there.
Well... parking lots, extreme weather, traffic, harassment and physical threats, fights, seeing loud or obese people waddling around. Depending on your town, a mall can be a hassle or worse. I agree with why you like them, but seems to me that Main Street is where "the Mall" always has and always will belong. Although most main streets are just as dead as malls, themselves.
@@MrCantStopTheRobot lmao, how is just “seeing” obese people deterring you from going outside or to malls? Sounds like you got mental issues that need to be checked out if just looking at obese people is something that irks you.
Yea sorry gonna have to disagree. Since the pandemic and recent events depending on where you live. I hate crowds of people and loving online shopping. The parking and overall people just sucks. I don’t miss anything about malls. 2 major ones already closed in my area.
Enjoyed it Dan, as usual....I was thinking back to when i was 13 and seeing people gathering at "The Mall"...lol...I used to hang around West Edmonton Mall here in Edmonton Alberta..It's still thriving to this day, so is Kingsway Mall and Southgate Mall....all 3 are always busy,...Walmart is going to be opening a location in Kingsway in a couple months, replacing the Sears that used to be there.
Sad, I know for my elderly parents these malls used to be a safe place where they would go daily with many other senior citizens to walk each morning, and they would all go to the food court after walking and get a coffee or a bite to eat and sit and socialize. This was so nice especially in the winter. All that's gone. Now people are stuck at home anti social ordering their items online. Humans are social animals they need to get out and be with others. What's going on now is certainly easier but it's not healthy physically or mentally.
I totally agree but some people don’t like to be around huge crowds or people. But I agree we need socialize and understand each other more. Look at where at now lol
I worked in a mall for 25 years. I am captivated, and somewhat saddened by the decline of the shopping malls across our country. Amazing architecture gone by the wayside & thousands of lost jobs.
Christmas Season in a big mall was something to see. The music and decorations were fabulous. All the people and families. It's a shame that new generations will never have a chance to experience that.
I interviewed for a job in Baltimore once. I will never forget how really unsafe I felt on a train metro 🚋 ride from airport to the downtown area. That was over 7 years ago. I’m not surprised honestly that people are afraid to take metro to that destination as you’ve mentioned.
I was visiting DC for the first time some years back and going up to NY by Amtrak. I thought I'd stop in Baltimore to see the sights. I'd always seen a lot of films set there and I was curious. When the train rolled up and I saw all the abandoned and boarded up houses and buildings, I kept going. It's a shame what happened to that city.
Like so many of these large malls, the structure is a marvel of modern engineering. High quality materials, like a marble floor imported from France, reinforced steel buttresses that support a tiered layout, it's a shame they've ended up like this. These buildings would last a decades if not neglected. Aesthetically they were gorgeous in their heyday, and still are. Looks stunning in 4K. A big thanks to Dan Bell for documenting the decline of these temples of consumerism, nobody on YT does it better.
@@krisb3939 good idea, but regardless Walmart built its brand on "MADE IN THE USA!!!!" during its first decades, and once they were big enough and Sam Walton died they moved away from that entirely. By that time they had already destroyed their competition. So it's not as dependent on consumer choice as you think.
@@karenelizabeth1590 , please support the made in the USA movement The Made in America Movement (MAM) is the unified voice of American companies. MAM represents 20,000 American sourced companies
hi there! this is actually my local mall - a super walmart wasn't built they built a costco, giant grocery store, and lowe's as the "anchors" and have a bunch of other stores like sephora and the whole thing is called 'mill station'. this is a great video that took me through nostalgia 😭 i specifically remember when the whole 'outdoor mall' thing was announced
Liminal spaces eh? Some random abandoned places youtuber start using that or something? Yall are using it like a modern meme that just popped into existence lol. Second comment about 3 lines apart to use that phrase.
@@EQOAnostalgia It's been a thing for me since long ago, but I didn't name it exactly, until people started talking about it under the name of liminal space.
I found you and your Dead Mall series thanks to Contrapoints mentioning you at the end of her video on "Opulence." Been hooked on this concept ever since.
People think this is all down to shifting our preferences but it's deeper than that, the entire West is about to collapse. As it was designed to. Studying the fiat shows undeniable evidence.
@@EQOAnostalgia I was just in Germany and Australia and their shopping malls are thriving- packed with shoppers and no empty stalls. It reminded me of the 80s in the USA.
i am addicted. liminal spaces are my new frontier of interest. this series is the new art form! subbed real quick…can’t wait for more! please come to Dallas, Texas…we have MANY OF THESE!
Grew up in Dallas....was former Miss Dallas.....I shopped at north park mall as a child in the 70s & 80s. Also valley view mall in same era....into college. I went to NTSU....was Miss North Texas State in 1985 & on their calendar. 🤴💣💥🦁
In Detroit they closed Eastland Mall in I think November. I was there last summer. A gang of thugs almost immediately began to trail me. Thankfully two police came around the corner. They litteraly escorted me to my car. Off duty Detroit officers. Sad. Shout out to DP.
That's what 'they' do."They'll" muck up anything halfway decent.In my lifetime I've seen it happen to Westview and Security Square Malls. The only reason Hunt Valley Mall didn't turn to trash is because they got a jump on things and converted it to a "Towne Square" type of shopping center.Columbia is holding it's own, mainly because it has a lot of different nationalities of folks who shop there. Who wants to run the risk of getting jumped by Pookie and Ray-Ray when you can just order stuff online? I am old enough to remember when going to the Mall used to be fun.It's not that kind of party anymore......smh.
@@deliveryguyrx EXACTLY! Everyone tries to blame the interwebs or Amazon for the destruction of indoor shopping malls, but they wont mention how malls started dying back in the early 1990s because of the gangs of people whose ethnicity cannot be mentioned started brazenly attacking and robbing people in record numbers. I live near Richmond Virginia and dating back to 1994, two of our most prominent and nationally known malls at the time, Cloverleaf Mall and Regency Square were losing tons of customers purely due to fear of being attacked and robbed. People were robbed, raped and killed at both locations either inside the mall or in the parking lots. The malls' security were bolstered to the point of having small armies yet still they could not stop the crime perpetrated by one small minority group. Cloverleaf, formerly a beautiful regional mall, has since been demolished and Regency Square is in the process of being converted to a mostly outdoor mall with the anchor stores becoming apartment homes. I went to see the progress of the renovation of Regency a few months ago and a pack of "youths" walked right next to me and sarcastically said "how are you doing today thuurr!" trying to mock a Caucasian voice. I'm a pretty big guy so I can only imagine how they would behave if I were a lone small female trying to shop. Call me any name you want, but I am sick of all of the Die-versity that has killed my culture.
@@sayhitosteve2785 That's nuts I live in Yorktown, VA and I remember how nice the Regency mall was back in the mid 90's! The same exact thing happened to the Coliseum mall in Hampton! Bunch of moulin yon roaming in groups harassing ppl! The Patrick Henry mall is still alive but has started to decline the past 2 years, it's sad. I'm 38 now and I was in Patrick Henry this past Christmas season and it just doesn't feel the same at all! It's crazy how much can change in just 3 years!
Same here in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Mills Mall is our super mall. It's like a small city with multiple avenues that intersect each other. You can get lost real fast. Movie production sets have been renting a lot. But there are a small handful of rare shops that only survive in malls that are still there. The other one is Century III mall in West Mifflin. Not as big, but has 3 levels and a point on one end and it's completely deserted. Our closest is Westmoreland Mall and Monroeville Mall. They are still barely surviving due to some attached large attractions. One is a casino, and the other is a mega theatre and go karts.
The Internet changed everything....Shop online , door dash food, and get uber rides to anywhere... More options, more places to go...games to play...The days of just hanging out at the mall as a destination is long gone...sad
Hey Dan, I saw last Saturday you said you had been working on remastering your Dead Mall Series. So I came to check it out and wow you were right, it's an amazing difference. Looking forward to watching more of these! Thanks for all your hard work to bring us quality videos. 😊
*I had the weirdest dream of a dead mall type place before* I walked into an abandon, dark shop with some small illumination from the hall. I saw a few products still around, spaced haphazardly. leaves from the outside somehow made their way in, gathered in corners and along the wall bases. i was startled by a cash register sound so I walked toward that direction and saw some blonde lady with a clerks visor hat counting something at the counter in the dark. I walked up to her scared, but glad I found someone else in the desolate scape. I asked her what's going on, where the other people were, and what she's doing. She just looked up annoyed and asked me "what'do ya mean?". During she mimed confusion at the question, increasingly showing disorientation and shock ever so slowly as her eyes began to dart around between her hands, myself, and the surroundings. All of the sudden she started to convulsing in an inhuman manner, beginning to flicker like a lightbulb out of existence, eventually completely gone. In that exact moment of nonexistence an actual lightbulb overhead flickered and then turned on. It remains one of my most jarring dreams to date.
This is the one that sticks with me, I remember your first video when it was still only semi-dead, the food court/Conservatory is gorgeous (was gorgeous). Madness to think it's been gone for several years now.
Man, I would be scared to get on an elevator at a dead mall. You'd never know if it'd break down with you inside of it, and how long it would take for someone to notice.
Idk why this came up on my feed, but wow! This is nostalgic!! I grew up here and spent so much time at this mall. I would go to the CoinStar machine at Giant on Lakeside and then walk forever to get there just to buy some crap with my little bit of cash. A lot of good memories. Thanks for filming this. Edit: I left Maryland years ago, I had no idea this place even still had stores in it!
what might be the creepiest part is the mall still piping the "go get 'em, go buy shit" muzak on the intercom... like they're still in their prime. Like a geriatric patient with Alzheimers, without a clue they're in the psych ward.
I was in high school in 1984-88 so the mall was the place to be. Have to remember that a movie theater, pizza shop, ice cream store, or food court and the video arcade were the attractions for the young teens to arrive at the mall and hang out there for many hours spending money.
Wow! I remember when going to Owings Mills Mall to shop was like you were moving on up in the world. So surreal to see this mall so dark and empty in this video. This place used to be PACKED on the weekends!
This is so sad I can’t even watch. I miss the era of the shopping mall. We used to go to malls and play in the arcade, eat all kinds of food and treats and get an Orange Julius, play a game demo in the game store, look at all the funny stuff at Spencer Gifts, and try to look down girls’ shirts from the second floor. One even had an indoor mini golf course. Some had massage chairs. When I was older we used to get high and go there. The palatial landscape and the din of voices, music, games, and the smells of food, perfumes, tea and coffee was always mesmerizing. It was an experience that isn’t replicated anywhere else today. It appears malls everywhere are going the way of the video store, game stores, and music stores.
You're so right, brother! We not only had a Spencer Gifts an Orange Julius and a Karamel Korn, and a pretzel shop; we had Hong Kong, which was an Asian-owned head shop.We would go there to buy our EZ Widers and look at their bongs and water pipes!
Back in 86’ there was many new businesses opening and it was just a thriving time to be. Sad how over the course of times it becomes a ghost mall. If anything maybe a developer will buy the land and turn it into a condo building
I keep telling my wife that, if I ever get my Mega Millions or Powerball Jackpot, I'm buying a couple of these nice malls, and converting them into huge apartment complexes/condos. If you turned the keystone stores into Medical offices, and the food court into a giant Cafeteria, converted malls would be EXCELLENT assisted living centers. Considering the Baby Boomers outnumber Gen X and Millennials, we're going to need these conversions to happen.
There are many uses for dead malls. We can use them for housing, business centers, even airsoft fields. I work at an airsoft store, and I can easily say that there is a MASSIVE demand for a MASSIVE indoor field. Could put the retail store in one of the anchor stores, then have the rest of the mall open for the field. Could also block off ALL other entries for security, and still have them available for emergencies. Can remodel the mall as cheaper housings. Use the food court as a food court and employment, then have multiple housings for say veterans and still have room for a clinic and it would still be a way to help deal with homeless veterans. There are many options. It's just a matter if people want to actually help do something or not.
Honestly airsoft in an urban setting like a mall would be a dream, though, I feel like upkeep would be tough as things would inevitably rot away or get destroyed to make it look more 'realistic' but I suppose if the place has enough money it could keep the place good looking plus ask people to pick up after themselves. It would be cool to do airsoft in a mall with recognizable stores abandoned years earlier. The biggest issue however, is likely the modernization of such buildings and converting them for other uses would be just as time and cost consuming if not more so than just building from the ground up. Eventually malls will be relegated to the history books as peak pre internet age.
@@nautical6825 As far as upkeep, the mall is dead anyways, right? About the only massive payment to make is electric. Having just one anchor stores be the retail store/tech place, and hold the restrooms with the rest of the mall only using lights at night. And if the mall was at a location easily accessible for airsofters, it would bring in money fast and hard. Now, I understand there is also upkeep on keeping the building kept up and neat. That's where adding more than 1 airsoft retail store would bring in more. At each anchor store, is an airsoft store. Each one different. Say one has T1 or Airsoft Tulsa, another has Ballahack airsoft, another Evike, and so on. It keeps everyone in healthy competition, and each place can help pitch in to the field. This way one store alone won't have to carry the burden. The stores in the middle can be used as makeshift forts and bases, hidey holes for zombies, and so much more. Even having a day that the field is closed, like once a week, where EVERYONE, workers and players alike, help do sweeping and clean up of the mall. I am sure that many players would in fact help clean up if they knew first hand if they don't, it would shut down until it does get cleaned. I only mention T1 and Airsoft Tulsa, since it's near the location I'm at. But it would also help bring in more local airsoft stores.
To be fair, there is a mall that is always mobbed with people, complete with a nearby new casino and Medieval Times in Arundel Mills. I visit there every year multiple times. It's a nightmare just trying to find a parking spot around Christmas. This mall in the video is a ghost town with no real unique attractions to bring in younger people. I believe you are right in your assessment that the remaining stores will close and the interior of the mall will be sealed off. We have a mall up in Montgomery County closer to my home that's been slowly losing stores over the years in Gaithersburg called LakeForest Mall. We used to go there all the time but the gang violence has become so common we refuse to visit anymore.
It's so sad how all these malls are closing. It was so much fun to hang out at the mall. My kids are gonna miss out on exploring the mall I grew up going too. 😪
If malls didn't jack the rent every month more business would stay. My local mall is heading that direction and the marketing manager is super greedy. They lost a thousand very good stores and restaurants in the past 25 years.
I spent my childhood in this mall 😂 I was born in the 80s I graduated in 1998, I got my prom dress at that mall. I moved to Owings Mills in 1988... it’s unrecognizable today... you couldn’t pay me to live there
Very interesting little documentary you made, I think alot of people including myself have always had a weird interest in empty malls. Something nostalgic, lonely, scary and haunting making you think what went on in the past in there.
I live less than 10 miles from this mall and I've been there twice. Once right after it opened! I didn't even think it was still standing. I guess that idea to convert it into an outdoor mall died with Kevin Kaminetz. They did that conversion with the old Hunt Valley Mall and I think it's been pretty successful. You should check out Cranberry Mall in Westminster. It's not dead, but it's surely on life support
Ever since growing up with the Dead Rising games, something about abandoned malls and just hearing the chill music excites me. I'd love to just roam around a dead mall like that and mess around.
I miss the joys of malls back in the early 90s (I was born in 88) every mall I go too now it's really just sad looking...and someday...they will all be gone. All hail our lords Amazon, and Wallmart...it all just sucks. Malls were architecturally works of art throughout America.
They hired an auction company to sell off stuff after the mall closed. My brother-in-law bought two mall benches. It was weird walking around the mall with with all the roll up doors to the stores open, and pretty much no one there. I walked through Macys and saw a company taking apart the escalator they just bought. Almost everything was for sale, including the stair case's fountains, elevators, freight elevators, fixtures, air handlers, stoves, ovens from Ruby Tuesday. You name it, it was for sale! The big flag pole outside was sold! Went back several times when they were tearing the place down. Kind of creepy walking around the mall with no light and power. There are drone videos on TH-cam of the demolition. It was the subway murder, and high crime in that area which led to the demise of Owings Mills Mall.
The same thing was the cause of the death of Northridge Mall in Milwaukee. (That was a partial result of a homicide and a criminal element.) The mall is still there…but it’s an ever-growing eyesore.
That would be so cool to have a mall bench. We have a mall in my area that died because of crime. Sometime in the early 90's it was taken over by roving bands of feral teenagers and there was a constant stream of muggings, car jackings, fights and a murder inside the mall itself. The local city government refused to do anything about it. At first it got a reputation for being unsafe on weekend nights, then after dark in general, then it became unsafe at any hour. People just stopped going there even though it was in a very busy traffic corridor and all the surrounding shops were thriving. What a shame.
@@tjsogmc - Ah! So the now boarded up Northridge mall in Milwaukee isn't the only mall with similar issues. lol I asked because the mall in my area had ALMOST the exact same characteristics. (weird, huh?) I forgot to mention the local hardware chain that boarded up their entrance to the mall before replacing it with a Brick wall.
i lived in owings mills when i was in high school I'd hang with friends and sisters and remember it being so very much alive and the food court so loud and busy...rest in peace old friend
These videos are best viewed at 1 am in the morning for immersion. And why does this mall look exactly like a certain mall from Willamette that a certain photo journalist visited, who also happened to cover wars.
The Mall was so beautiful here in Northern California, now when you go there is always a robbery, either you Car windows will get smashed and your car robbed or your car parts or your gas , there are smash and grab robberies involving several armed people in broad daylight in the Mall, your kids, and young girls will almost get abducted in the parking lot, your purse will get snatched, now when women are at stop lights their back window will get smashed and a guy will grab your purse wherever it is sitting in the car, it goes on and on ! Our Mall got rebuilt a few years back after a guy went into the Mall robbed GameStop, the set the Mall on fire.
It is just amazing that such a beautiful mall can go pretty much abandoned so quickly. The fact that they imported marble from France just shows that extreme planning and care went into building the mall, with all the luxurious decoration, plants, fountains and the every popular "Conservatory". They certainly had intended on this mall being around for a long time. Sad that the place died and would eventually be demolished. All that beauty, brass, marble, plants, destroyed.... Thank You again Dan for the awesome remastered videos!
The flooring, fixtures and fittings would have been salvaged
It could be marble from Arkansas for all we know, the media will eat up anything you tell them with no validity.
@@jasonw833 Maybe it was from France, Arkansas
Walking around the place in the 2010s it felt like an abandoned palace. Just beautiful, fountains, potted palms, marble, brass, glass, but no people. Actually somewhat creepy. It had been down to just a few stores for several years. Really odd that it didn't close sooner. It didn't seem to make sense financially, but Macy's seemed to be doing okay for a time, and some of the escalators were out of commission. I suppose 30 years was not a bad run for a shopping establishment.
Videos he filmed with
a camera he bought on
Amazon,
I would bet
Growing up, going to the mall was like an all-day adventure... Mum would go clothing shopping, Dad would go to the sporting goods spot, and us kids would roam and get lost at the KB Toys... Good times lol
Kb toys, Suncoast Motion picture Company, EB Games, Gamestop. All fun places to go as a kid.
Or sit in the arcade all day, its amazing we can have all those arcade games on a 250gb hard drive and play them anytime we want to now.
Omg KB Toys was my childhood! All the good and cool toys I couldn’t find anywhere else came from that store! I remember when it closed I was so sad and then I was like well we still have Toys “R” Us and now that’s closed too. :(
Wow♡
You're comment brought back memories I totally forgot.
Oh, KB toys and hobbies!
Such a shame that the mall culture in the west is slowly dying, meanwhile here in Asia, particularly here in the Philippines where I live, Malls and retails are just getting bigger and bigger and despite the pandemic, majority of us look forward to stroll and shop in the mall.
@Sonic Hedgehog damn dark
@Sonic Hedgehog someday yes, but many malls in asia are built as a whole complex with apartement buildings, schools, office space, supermarket, etc surrounding the mall itself. it's very convenient to go to the mall and get everything done at the same time
they started bussing "urban youth" into suburban malls - thus the end of mall culture the west
@@gilbertmatta5364 I haven't heard that before. Where can I find info on this? I'm obsessed with learning about the death of mall culture.
@@xcaluhbration for the love of god, ignore that guy. Pretty sure I saw him comment on other dead mall vids. “Urban youth” is just racist code for “black thugs.” He’s insinuating that young Black people are by default delinquents that soil “nice suburban” (ie predominantly White) places like malls with their behavior. I don’t want to get too deep into the implications of such thinking because I’d be here all day, but it’s misguided at best and bigoted at worst. That’s why you haven’t heard it before; it’s bullshit.
But to answer your question about the death of mall culture I have some educated guesses. I was a teen at the tail end of the mall craze in America, and where I live now are two dead/dying mall: one is 75% empty with a half closed food court, the other literally has one or two businesses in it. I blame it on two things; the boom of superstores like Walmart, and the rapid decline of department stores, thank to the ease of Internet-related shopping, be it Amazon or apps like Instacart, Shipt, and DoorDash. My local mall was very much active into the mid 2010’s. When the Macy’s closed, things took a bad turn, with the other two anchor stores and even the movie theater closing down. A bonus I saw with my area was the Outlets-style place that opened up. When your only options were to drive 30 minutes to the next closest full mall, visit the one with no anchor stores, or the shiny new outlet mall, the choice was easy. I’d look into those areas first.
It takes a lot of courage to step into an elevator in a dead mall. If it stops you can probably spend a long time waiting for help. Thanks for the video Dan.
@Steve Gird As and elevator/escalator mechanic I appreciate the joke.
Take the stairs.
Such a shame this beautiful space is empty. Love your work Dan.
It was torn down years ago, and sadly the beautiful space was trashed for a Super Walmart.
@@lauraromdeussen864 they always replace stuff with the walmarts or targets. so much potential 🤦🏻♂️
@Jesus is LORD no thanks
Nah, big business retail that destroyed small community businesses are a disease on society that should have never been allowed to happen.
no super wal-mart. they tore it down, there is a costco, giant, resturants and a few chain stores to replace the mall. Its doing well. Was hoping for a say 200 bed hospital at the site. Owings Mills needs a local one.
TFW you realize you've been watching Dan Bell videos for at least the past 7 years. Best series ever
Same here! Dans the best
I'm weirdly drawn to dead mall YT video 📹 too. Something calming, relaxing walking around. Real abandoned, unused retail spaces can be dank, unsafe, 🚧, disturbing. I do security 👮🏻 & a few larger spots are spooky at night.
This was the mall of my teen years. So many days of my youth were spent roaming these halls. A lot of people say the 1992 murder was a cause for the mall's decline; that is debatable; I'm not convinced, there were a lot of complex factors, but let's just say it just didn't live up to the glamorous image the builders tried to portray. They seriously misjudged the class of shoppers that would come - every day people, not the type who would only shop in a beautiful mall paved with imported stone tiles. Yet in the mid-2000s it was still very busy; all corridors were open and had shops. Emerald East buffet to the right when you walked into the conservatory was one of the best places to get lunch. I remember there being a hair salon where the Sears was closed and demolished. An A&F was also in that wing but closed about the 2005 time frame. The vacancy problem really accelerated after 2005 and the stores just fell like dominos. Emerald East and the CVS closed. The CD market collapsed so audiophiles had no reason to go anymore. For some odd reason McDonald's pulled out fairly early on despite being the busiest fast food joint in the conservatory. They had Chick Fil A for a while. Sarku Japan was always jamming and it was one of the last to leave - my personal favorite of the rubber chicken variety. Victoria's Secret was the highest grossing retail store in the mall and it was there until the mall closed. Well there will always be a market for that... When the Towson and Columbia malls had make-overs under Rouse management people just went there instead of Owings Mills, and that was part of the problem. Owings Mills just didn't need a mall to begin with and it just became a 2nd rate mall. The Late-2000s financial crisis was probably the death knell. The only stores still making money were Victoria Secret and the department stores but probably only in December. Teens became interested in doing other things or becoming engrossed in their smart phones and high speed internet was now in most households.
Mall food court Chinese food is always top tier 😄
@@medicbabe2ID Right? The Asian food in malls is always my "go to."
Wow.
The start of the Internet in 1994 and online shopping was a major shift in consumer buying habits. You didn't need to go to a mall, find parking and wander around if you needed a pair of shoes. You could just order some on Amazon. Then people start downloading music on Napster in 1999 and iTunes in 2001 so the CD & record stores lost business. You don't need to go to a mall and buy an album, just download the 2 or 3 songs you like.
@@cosmic-fortytwo Oh yeah that killed the CD business. FYE held on for a while in Arundel Mills mall though... Shoes are just about the only thing I go to an actual store to buy for obvious reasons.
I remember going to this mall probably around 12 13 years ago at Christmas and this place PACKED. It was beautiful inside with all the decorations and lights. Unreal.
dead malls will always fascinate me. there's something so haunting about it...the idea that in the 80s the gorgeous, sleek architecture and neon lights were a sign of the future, of fun, of hope. and now with all that being gone, it feels like a piece of that "vision" is gone as seen through the lens of the 80s. as a 90s kid, the 90s and malls were a time i associate with comfort and love. going to the mall wasn't so much about shopping as it was about being an exploration or outing, with family and friends. sigh...i hate that malls are closing down and that the next generations won't get to experience that...then again, there's so many things you could say that about.
I really don't know why I am so fascinated with dead malls, or dying retail spaces. But I am seriously intrigued by this whole genre, really eye opening. And I really appreciate your videos and information about all of this, that would otherwise go unknown. Can't wait to see what's next!
Because it was a happier time, and the death of these malls is going hand in hand with the death of Western culture.
You would probably like the backrooms
I think we enjoy these videos because almost anyone born between 1968-1995 spent tons of your life in a mall.
I'm a dude and I hate shopping. But my gosh I spent a lot of money on arcades in the 4 (now 3) malls in Louisville Kentucky.
When I was a rebel teen, got my ears pierced at a Spencer's. Had a b-day party at Chuck E Cheese that was located in a mall.
Mr. Bell shows us a dying history of something that meant something to millions.
It reminds of of our youth and that we are immortal.
I once squatted in a dying mall, using one of the old Gilly Hicks store as a home. I would use the fountain to bathe in after hours, turning the water on and then off when done. I set up a hot plate, mini fridge and freezer, and a microwave in one corner of the space. I got my mail at a locked mailbox address elsewhere. Most of the cameras didn’t work.
I was very discreet and careful, as were a few of my neighbors who were also squatting. Unfortunately the sheriff’s department forced us out, and then less than a year later homeless drug addicts, drug dealers, and gang members took over that mall entirely, so the police had to do even more raids and the building was demolished eventually and sold to a developer.
How do you squat in a dying mall? If its “dying”, then that means theres still a few stores and the entire walkway of the mall operating right? How did they and the security around the mall not remove you guys before you were able to install basically a kitchen in there?
@@a130inthesky security didn’t care. If I needed to use additional appliances I would use some of the abandoned food court restaurant kitchens for my other needs. Others did the same.
I can see that happening. In fact, it did happen in one dying mall in my old neighborhood, and in a dying mall in my new neighborhood as well. Security typically doesn’t care when they’re assigned to guard a dying mall, and they are only there to alert the police and fire department if some maniac tries to torch the place or some tweaker tries to steal copper wire or plumbing.
And yeah, the squatters typically commandeer the empty restaurant kitchens (often the former tenants forget to shut off the utilities, and the utility companies don’t often keep track of active locations). Pretty bold of you to bathe in the fountain like that. 😉
@@juliusquasar1565 Are you talking about that mall you and I visited last summer? Yeah I saw the signs of squatters there. As for bathing in the fountain, I typically wore a cheap one piece swimsuit while taking a bath/shower in the fountain, and I would cover up with a robe going to and from the fountain.
Sounds like they got you out of there just in time... lucky.
People born after 2000 will never know the magic a good mall had. it was like Facebook, Amazon, and Instagram in one location.
it's really sad to think my kids will never experience a mall.
it's so strange that technology has allowed them to socialize with more people than my generation, yet they interact with 1/10 of the people we did.
80s refugee here. You're absolutely right. Some people are nitpicking, trying to find people to blame and other controversial reasons, but the internet is ALWAYS suspect #1. (The one violent crime he mentions probably had little or nothing to do with this mall's demise.) Couple the redundancy with people just having less money, esp. after 2007, and there ya go. Only Walmarts CAN survive in the current environment.
@ Hugo Schmeisser Facts. The craziest part is they could care less.
Dude... I'm a college student. Hanging out at the mall with my friends was a major pastime for me in high school and still is nowadays, when I have time. I have no idea where you're getting this idea that the internet killed malls. Sometimes huge expensive retail hubs are just destined to fail.
@@gazehound Well, one college student's anecdote vs. a f*ckton of data is probably where I myself got the idea. Dude, nobody's blaming you personally. No one is blaming all people under 20 personally. It's fine.
I guess it's depends where you live. In my country malls are still very popular and always crowded, especially on sales. Personally I don't go to malls anymore once Corona started, but I definitely wouldn't say that malls here are dead.
I'm amazed at these malls...80s were the days...its so wonderful that your talents are saving these landmarks for future generations..I believe one dayxa retro mall will be built..likexa Disneyland adventure
All of these dead malls are so sad. When we had a huge mall open in our city in 1984 it was a HUGE HUUUUUGE deal. Miss America made an appearance. The grand opening made the news in 3 states. We had to park almost 2 miles away and walk to the mall on grand opening day. If you were able to land a job anywhere in that mall it was also a big deal. I got a part time holiday job there and everyone I met would introduce me as “Name and.....she works at THE Super Mall!!”
On Friday and Saturday night every teenager for a hundred miles would come to hang out at the mall. Every parent took their kids to do their “back to school shopping” at that mall. During the holidays it was always so festive. Christmas decor and music everywhere. The sounds of children’s laughter while standing in line to visit Santa. The smell of popcorn.
The internet and crime ruined the mall. There are some newer shopping centers now open around town. But it will never be the same. It’s really sad actually.
Enjoy the memories they were kinder than the reality.
Basically the internet and anti-social media has ruined society and a lot of great things😥
@@jerrysanders9101 oh please it makes things a lot better. why waste money on gas if you can just order it on your phone
Malls will come back , upcoming generations and the current generation are doing things that were considered dead such as collecting Vinyl records and using film cameras . The internet shopping trend will hopefully become boring and eventually people will visit malls again , everything has a cycle .
I reside in Manchester NH , the Mall here is still fairly active . The Mall just added a few large additions where the SEARS store used to be so business can't be that bad . The economy is also robust in NH which may factor as to why it's still busy .
@@manchesterexplorer8519 i went to the mall of NH a few days ago and i saw they replaced all of the old signs outside with new ones, plus it was super busy although that may have been just because it was friday and school had just got out for the youngins. however have you visited the steeplegate mall in concord? no clue how that place is open, even when i went there growing up that place was desolate but it's somehow still open.
The way the music fades in as you open the door. Absolutely sublime.
This was the first video I saw from the series and it’s still my favorite. The night vibe with such a huge mall has a very surreal atmosphere
The loud music echoing through the big empty luxury halls was really what made this perfect(ly creepy). A 'show must go on' feeling almost comparable to the music playing while the Titanic was sinking.
This is beyond depressing, going to the mall as a kid was absolutely amazing and always a great time. I remember my parents would buy me a sugared cinnamon pretzel with a red Slushy every time we went to the mall. I would just sip on that huge slushy and devour that pretzel while my parents shopped until they dropped.😂
Going to a mall and then going to toys r us or something like that was always awesome
I remember watching your dead mall series for the first time back in Summer 2019. It was one of my best summers (especially because pre covid). But I would watch your videos on my tv at night in bed and it was just the most nostalgic thing ever. Thanks so much for the great content and inspiration.
I live in Owings Mills and it was a trip watching this after all these years. Just a correction, the mall was not replaced with a Walmart. There are no Walmarts in Owings Mills. It was replaced with an outdoor shopping center, the main attraction being Costco.
Owings Mills was definitely the "posh" mall when it opened and catered to the Pikesville crowd. But Owings Mills Mall was a snapshot of Baltimore's Tale of Two Cities. As greater development came to the area, so too did the demographics, with the familiar Baltimore County tale of "it's not safe" being the code word for that changing demographic. Add to that the decline in popularity of indoor malls and Owings Mills died a slow, painful death. My first job was in The Conservatory and the last time I visited on Halloween 2012, it was a stunning difference.
In other words the non white communitay began to mobilize? Lol
@@jerrysanders9101 it’s more that residents of Dc and Baltimore have been pushed out of the cities due to gentrification. The only places for them to go are the suburbs where there are pockets with lower-income housing. But as more people of color move into these areas, you experience why sociologist call ‘White flight’: and those people also move to the cities, which is how the cities become more and more gentrified, creating a cycle.
@@LaLaLaLaNom Your Marxist professor is lying to you. See here is how it works, rich bankers who hate all of us, force low income people into middle income areas and this forces the middle class further and further down, this will become aparant the more you grow up and understand they told you NOTHING BUT LIES kid.
You can always tell one of their brainwashed victims by the use of "people of color" btw, all this manufactured racism didn't exist back then, despite the bs stories they tell you, we learned to get along sometime in the late 60's early 70's.
Life experience trumps Marxist academics every time.
@@LaLaLaLaNom So if whites move in its "Gentrification" but when they leave crime areas its "white flight" sounds like they cant win. HmmMm
Oh yeah pikesville is a little bouj for a quiet suburb. Seems safe tho. Had a doctor up there and rather liked some of the neighborhoods.
My childhood mall was finally torn down this week.
Peach Tree Mall in Marysville, California.
It was completely flooded in 1986, and after it was cleaned up and reopened, some stores tried coming back, but it was never the same. It was completely closed a few years later.
Late last year, a homeless couple living inside set a fire and burned what was left, now the dozers are finishing the job.
Sad to see, spent so much of my childhood/teenage years in the place.
I understand that as sad as it is for some of us who remember it fondly to see it go, things just change. My only question is why aren't they turning these big, fancy places with plenty of parking into their own sets of apartments with gyms, small convenience stores, bodegas, drug store, even maybe a doctors office? There's plenty of space to do it, and it could be like living in your own little village. Maybe even have an office building or two that would hire people who live there? Seems like the only reasonable thing to do with them instead of letting them rot away and eventually tear them down, meanwhile building all new places to live on land that has to be cleared first. Hell, these places already essentially come with parks and nice places to walk built right into them.
I think zoning issues or something like that. From commercial to residential
They did make this area a strip mall and houses
The maintenance fees would be insane...
We went into the START of the second HOLOCAUST in March of 2020. Its prophecy....I would start reading quick.
💣💥😳🦁
There’s a video or documentary on TH-cam of a mall that was converted into apartments upstairs and offices and restaurants and shops that would interest residents and office workers that live/work in the “mall”. I liked the idea.
Every mall is starting to look like this. Online shopping has killed the physical world of shopping. Call me old fashioned, but I love trying on clothes, feeling the material, and experiencing the real world. I hope more people snap out of the fake online world and rejoin reality. It’s beautiful out there.
There's more and more reasons not 2 go outside anymore. Now they want drones bring things 2 your door.
Well... parking lots, extreme weather, traffic, harassment and physical threats, fights, seeing loud or obese people waddling around. Depending on your town, a mall can be a hassle or worse.
I agree with why you like them, but seems to me that Main Street is where "the Mall" always has and always will belong.
Although most main streets are just as dead as malls, themselves.
@@MrCantStopTheRobot lmao, how is just “seeing” obese people deterring you from going outside or to malls? Sounds like you got mental issues that need to be checked out if just looking at obese people is something that irks you.
Yea sorry gonna have to disagree. Since the pandemic and recent events depending on where you live. I hate crowds of people and loving online shopping. The parking and overall people just sucks. I don’t miss anything about malls. 2 major ones already closed in my area.
Totally agree. Worse part is its deeper than this. Full operation. Look up The Great Reset.
The happy music playing in the shut down abandoned mall gives the whole video a very creepy vibe. well done.
These videos are very cool, sublime. Thanks Dan Bell, enjoy your work and travels
Enjoyed it Dan, as usual....I was thinking back to when i was 13 and seeing people gathering at "The Mall"...lol...I used to hang around West Edmonton Mall here in Edmonton Alberta..It's still thriving to this day, so is Kingsway Mall and Southgate Mall....all 3 are always busy,...Walmart is going to be opening a location in Kingsway in a couple months, replacing the Sears that used to be there.
Sad, I know for my elderly parents these malls used to be a safe place where they would go daily with many other senior citizens to walk each morning, and they would all go to the food court after walking and get a coffee or a bite to eat and sit and socialize. This was so nice especially in the winter. All that's gone. Now people are stuck at home anti social ordering their items online. Humans are social animals they need to get out and be with others. What's going on now is certainly easier but it's not healthy physically or mentally.
I totally agree but some people don’t like to be around huge crowds or people. But I agree we need socialize and understand each other more. Look at where at now lol
Humans are not animals... that's what years of Marxist brainwashing has done to us, and people wonder why our society is crumbling. . .
Nah man. Here in the states ppl are crazy. A mass gathering of ppl nowadays= 🔫 or a fight of some kind.
@@selveneleven yes, *some* people don’t, not all people. The internet really killed social skills and getting out and just doing stuff.
Exactly. Walkability is key. The car-based culture of the modern world, especially America, is destructive and harmful.
I worked in a mall for 25 years. I am captivated, and somewhat saddened by the decline of the shopping malls across our country. Amazing architecture gone by the wayside & thousands of lost jobs.
And the present government is making people poorer.
Oh well
Christmas Season in a big mall was something to see. The music and decorations were fabulous. All the people and families. It's a shame that new generations will never have a chance to experience that.
I interviewed for a job in Baltimore once. I will never forget how really unsafe I felt on a train metro 🚋 ride from airport to the downtown area. That was over 7 years ago. I’m not surprised honestly that people are afraid to take metro to that destination as you’ve mentioned.
I was visiting DC for the first time some years back and going up to NY by Amtrak. I thought I'd stop in Baltimore to see the sights. I'd always seen a lot of films set there and I was curious. When the train rolled up and I saw all the abandoned and boarded up houses and buildings, I kept going. It's a shame what happened to that city.
Like so many of these large malls, the structure is a marvel of modern engineering. High quality materials, like a marble floor imported from France, reinforced steel buttresses that support a tiered layout, it's a shame they've ended up like this. These buildings would last a decades if not neglected. Aesthetically they were gorgeous in their heyday, and still are. Looks stunning in 4K. A big thanks to Dan Bell for documenting the decline of these temples of consumerism, nobody on YT does it better.
The Owings Mills Mall Trilogy is my favorite of all of Dan's Dead Mall Series videos.
So sad to hear this beautiful mall was demolished to build another cruddy Walmart!
People say that online shopping shut down malls, but in truth, it's probably because of Walmart. And because people can't afford anything else.
@@karenelizabeth1590 Humans are becoming poor schmo dead meat these days. You are the same. Fucked for good as well!!!!!
stop buying made in China all the time .
@@krisb3939 good idea, but regardless Walmart built its brand on "MADE IN THE USA!!!!" during its first decades, and once they were big enough and Sam Walton died they moved away from that entirely. By that time they had already destroyed their competition. So it's not as dependent on consumer choice as you think.
@@karenelizabeth1590 , please support the made in the USA movement
The Made in America Movement (MAM) is the unified voice of American companies. MAM represents 20,000 American sourced companies
hi there! this is actually my local mall - a super walmart wasn't built they built a costco, giant grocery store, and lowe's as the "anchors" and have a bunch of other stores like sephora and the whole thing is called 'mill station'. this is a great video that took me through nostalgia 😭 i specifically remember when the whole 'outdoor mall' thing was announced
I remember being in depression when this video was uploaded years ago. Liminal spaces used to hit me different than they do anyone else.
Liminal spaces eh? Some random abandoned places youtuber start using that or something? Yall are using it like a modern meme that just popped into existence lol. Second comment about 3 lines apart to use that phrase.
@@EQOAnostalgia It's been a thing for me since long ago, but I didn't name it exactly, until people started talking about it under the name of liminal space.
@@EQOAnostalgia liminal spaces is the phrase for it now. A lot of us were into it before it got that title, but im not sure why it makes you so angry.
@@EQOAnostalgia Yk you angered the band kid when they say “eh?”
@@EQOAnostalgia not sure why you’re so heated lmaoo
I found you and your Dead Mall series thanks to Contrapoints mentioning you at the end of her video on "Opulence." Been hooked on this concept ever since.
The 80's ruled, but its eerie to see all the big things about that decade basically fade away.
As a bona-fide 80's mall rat I can honestly say that looking at these dead malls is like a stab in my heart.
People think this is all down to shifting our preferences but it's deeper than that, the entire West is about to collapse. As it was designed to. Studying the fiat shows undeniable evidence.
@@EQOAnostalgia I was just in Germany and Australia and their shopping malls are thriving- packed with shoppers and no empty stalls. It reminded me of the 80s in the USA.
@@tjsogmc That's what it's like in many parts of the world. No Amazon.
Like, you were shot in the heart, thereby giving love a bad name and/or you have a achy breaky heart?
@@myrojynonce upon a time in your wildest dreams....
This was the first Dan Bell video I watched. Still probably one of the best preserved large dead malls at the time of filming on YT.
Such a shame such a beautiful piece of architecture and history is destroyed. Thank you, Dan, for helping preserve history.
i am addicted. liminal spaces are my new frontier of interest. this series is the new art form! subbed real quick…can’t wait for more!
please come to Dallas, Texas…we have MANY OF THESE!
Grew up in Dallas....was former Miss Dallas.....I shopped at north park mall as a child in the 70s & 80s.
Also valley view mall in same era....into college.
I went to NTSU....was Miss North Texas State in 1985 & on their calendar.
🤴💣💥🦁
Just don't go poking around in these places, you WILL find trouble. Or it will find you. . .
@@EQOAnostalgia Bring a grenade launcher for self-defence.
Most malls dry up because of the unsupervised youth driving away the actual shoppers. Some have no answer to e commerce.
Those damn mall rats
The answer lies in one of the last to close. Look closely its in a dark spot in one of the corridors
In Detroit they closed Eastland Mall in I think November. I was there last summer. A gang of thugs almost immediately began to trail me. Thankfully two police came around the corner. They litteraly escorted me to my car. Off duty Detroit officers. Sad. Shout out to DP.
That's what 'they' do."They'll" muck up anything halfway decent.In my lifetime I've seen it happen to Westview and Security Square Malls. The only reason Hunt Valley Mall didn't turn to trash is because they got a jump on things and converted it to a "Towne Square" type of shopping center.Columbia is holding it's own, mainly because it has a lot of different nationalities of folks who shop there.
Who wants to run the risk of getting jumped by Pookie and Ray-Ray when you can just order stuff online? I am old enough to remember when going to the Mall used to be fun.It's not that kind of party anymore......smh.
@@deliveryguyrx EXACTLY! Everyone tries to blame the interwebs or Amazon for the destruction of indoor shopping malls, but they wont mention how malls started dying back in the early 1990s because of the gangs of people whose ethnicity cannot be mentioned started brazenly attacking and robbing people in record numbers. I live near Richmond Virginia and dating back to 1994, two of our most prominent and nationally known malls at the time, Cloverleaf Mall and Regency Square were losing tons of customers purely due to fear of being attacked and robbed. People were robbed, raped and killed at both locations either inside the mall or in the parking lots. The malls' security were bolstered to the point of having small armies yet still they could not stop the crime perpetrated by one small minority group. Cloverleaf, formerly a beautiful regional mall, has since been demolished and Regency Square is in the process of being converted to a mostly outdoor mall with the anchor stores becoming apartment homes. I went to see the progress of the renovation of Regency a few months ago and a pack of "youths" walked right next to me and sarcastically said "how are you doing today thuurr!" trying to mock a Caucasian voice. I'm a pretty big guy so I can only imagine how they would behave if I were a lone small female trying to shop. Call me any name you want, but I am sick of all of the Die-versity that has killed my culture.
Double penetration cops
@@sayhitosteve2785 That's nuts I live in Yorktown, VA and I remember how nice the Regency mall was back in the mid 90's! The same exact thing happened to the Coliseum mall in Hampton! Bunch of moulin yon roaming in groups harassing ppl! The Patrick Henry mall is still alive but has started to decline the past 2 years, it's sad. I'm 38 now and I was in Patrick Henry this past Christmas season and it just doesn't feel the same at all! It's crazy how much can change in just 3 years!
Same here in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Mills Mall is our super mall. It's like a small city with multiple avenues that intersect each other. You can get lost real fast. Movie production sets have been renting a lot. But there are a small handful of rare shops that only survive in malls that are still there. The other one is Century III mall in West Mifflin. Not as big, but has 3 levels and a point on one end and it's completely deserted. Our closest is Westmoreland Mall and Monroeville Mall. They are still barely surviving due to some attached large attractions. One is a casino, and the other is a mega theatre and go karts.
Baltimore is a hell hole now
Yep, that's what happens when Democrats are in charge.
Awesome channel dan, I’m going back and watching ever video here remastered now
Beautifully remastered. Thanks much!
The Internet changed everything....Shop online , door dash food, and get uber rides to anywhere... More options, more places to go...games to play...The days of just hanging out at the mall as a destination is long gone...sad
It seems kind of eerie. Thanks for these videos.
Hey Dan, I saw last Saturday you said you had been working on remastering your Dead Mall Series. So I came to check it out and wow you were right, it's an amazing difference. Looking forward to watching more of these! Thanks for all your hard work to bring us quality videos. 😊
Now imagine the mall infested with zombies.
the added sounds always set the mood perfectly
*I had the weirdest dream of a dead mall type place before*
I walked into an abandon, dark shop with some small illumination from the hall. I saw a few products still around, spaced haphazardly. leaves from the outside somehow made their way in, gathered in corners and along the wall bases. i was startled by a cash register sound so I walked toward that direction and saw some blonde lady with a clerks visor hat counting something at the counter in the dark. I walked up to her scared, but glad I found someone else in the desolate scape. I asked her what's going on, where the other people were, and what she's doing. She just looked up annoyed and asked me "what'do ya mean?". During she mimed confusion at the question, increasingly showing disorientation and shock ever so slowly as her eyes began to dart around between her hands, myself, and the surroundings. All of the sudden she started to convulsing in an inhuman manner, beginning to flicker like a lightbulb out of existence, eventually completely gone. In that exact moment of nonexistence an actual lightbulb overhead flickered and then turned on. It remains one of my most jarring dreams to date.
I would watch that movie but you need some blood curling sounds and face masks and politicians. Now that's a scary story
I’d like to see that dream analyzed by a jungian psychologist.
This is the one that sticks with me, I remember your first video when it was still only semi-dead, the food court/Conservatory is gorgeous (was gorgeous). Madness to think it's been gone for several years now.
Can you imagine how depressing it must be for the custodians that are still working on a dying Mall!?
Right? Especially since they know they'll be out of a job soon.
My brother worked in a store in this mall in the early 90's. He quit because he got tired of the creepy vaporwave music that played 24/7.
Man, I would be scared to get on an elevator at a dead mall. You'd never know if it'd break down with you inside of it, and how long it would take for someone to notice.
Idk why this came up on my feed, but wow! This is nostalgic!! I grew up here and spent so much time at this mall.
I would go to the CoinStar machine at Giant on Lakeside and then walk forever to get there just to buy some crap with my little bit of cash. A lot of good memories. Thanks for filming this.
Edit: I left Maryland years ago, I had no idea this place even still had stores in it!
what might be the creepiest part is the mall still piping the "go get 'em, go buy shit" muzak on the intercom...
like they're still in their prime.
Like a geriatric patient with Alzheimers, without a clue they're in the psych ward.
Online shopping has destroyed malls and social media has made people comfortable with not meeting people in person.
I was in high school in 1984-88 so the mall was the place to be. Have to remember that a movie theater, pizza shop, ice cream store, or food court and the video arcade were the attractions for the young teens to arrive at the mall and hang out there for many hours spending money.
Salmon tones with seafoam green and creams, lush foliage and fountains with brass and glass. A vaporwave dream.
This place was seriously replaced by a Walmart? What a sad aggravating waste.
It know longer there and it’s now a big shopping center with a Costco and other big box stores
The malls across north America are getting killed preemptively by large corporations like Amazon and Walmart.. intentionally
Uh, I wouldn't blame just other corporations. Have you been to a mall lately? It's a haven for idiots that want to shoot people, loot or riot.
Wow! I remember when going to Owings Mills Mall to shop was like you were moving on up in the world. So surreal to see this mall so dark and empty in this video. This place used to be PACKED on the weekends!
That music playing without being drowned out by the din of pedestrians is just beautiful.
This is so sad I can’t even watch. I miss the era of the shopping mall. We used to go to malls and play in the arcade, eat all kinds of food and treats and get an Orange Julius, play a game demo in the game store, look at all the funny stuff at Spencer Gifts, and try to look down girls’ shirts from the second floor. One even had an indoor mini golf course. Some had massage chairs. When I was older we used to get high and go there. The palatial landscape and the din of voices, music, games, and the smells of food, perfumes, tea and coffee was always mesmerizing. It was an experience that isn’t replicated anywhere else today. It appears malls everywhere are going the way of the video store, game stores, and music stores.
You're so right, brother! We not only had a Spencer Gifts an Orange Julius and a Karamel Korn, and a pretzel shop; we had Hong Kong, which was an Asian-owned head shop.We would go there to buy our EZ Widers and look at their bongs and water pipes!
EDIT: The pretzel shop was called Hot Sam,located right next to Fashion Bug, where we would check out the foxes,lol.
Beautiful! Keep them coming!
The Owings Mills Mall videos are my favourite. I’m obsessed with this place. I bet what they replaced it with is nowhere near as nice
What a shame. I worked in that mall when it first opened back in the late 1980's.
Back in 86’ there was many new businesses opening and it was just a thriving time to be. Sad how over the course of times it becomes a ghost mall. If anything maybe a developer will buy the land and turn it into a condo building
I keep telling my wife that, if I ever get my Mega Millions or Powerball Jackpot, I'm buying a couple of these nice malls, and converting them into huge apartment complexes/condos. If you turned the keystone stores into Medical offices, and the food court into a giant Cafeteria, converted malls would be EXCELLENT assisted living centers. Considering the Baby Boomers outnumber Gen X and Millennials, we're going to need these conversions to happen.
Brilliant! You should pitch that idea to Erickson Properties! Hell,the place would pay for itself in a few years!
You better win that damn lottery, I want to live in a retirement home in a classic mall. Be sure to open a classic video arcade and pet shop there too
We need food shopping places and pharmacies. Funny enough. I have a Tim Decker I'm friends with on FB
There are many uses for dead malls. We can use them for housing, business centers, even airsoft fields.
I work at an airsoft store, and I can easily say that there is a MASSIVE demand for a MASSIVE indoor field. Could put the retail store in one of the anchor stores, then have the rest of the mall open for the field. Could also block off ALL other entries for security, and still have them available for emergencies.
Can remodel the mall as cheaper housings. Use the food court as a food court and employment, then have multiple housings for say veterans and still have room for a clinic and it would still be a way to help deal with homeless veterans.
There are many options. It's just a matter if people want to actually help do something or not.
Honestly airsoft in an urban setting like a mall would be a dream, though, I feel like upkeep would be tough as things would inevitably rot away or get destroyed to make it look more 'realistic' but I suppose if the place has enough money it could keep the place good looking plus ask people to pick up after themselves. It would be cool to do airsoft in a mall with recognizable stores abandoned years earlier. The biggest issue however, is likely the modernization of such buildings and converting them for other uses would be just as time and cost consuming if not more so than just building from the ground up. Eventually malls will be relegated to the history books as peak pre internet age.
@@nautical6825 As far as upkeep, the mall is dead anyways, right? About the only massive payment to make is electric. Having just one anchor stores be the retail store/tech place, and hold the restrooms with the rest of the mall only using lights at night. And if the mall was at a location easily accessible for airsofters, it would bring in money fast and hard.
Now, I understand there is also upkeep on keeping the building kept up and neat. That's where adding more than 1 airsoft retail store would bring in more. At each anchor store, is an airsoft store. Each one different. Say one has T1 or Airsoft Tulsa, another has Ballahack airsoft, another Evike, and so on. It keeps everyone in healthy competition, and each place can help pitch in to the field. This way one store alone won't have to carry the burden. The stores in the middle can be used as makeshift forts and bases, hidey holes for zombies, and so much more.
Even having a day that the field is closed, like once a week, where EVERYONE, workers and players alike, help do sweeping and clean up of the mall. I am sure that many players would in fact help clean up if they knew first hand if they don't, it would shut down until it does get cleaned.
I only mention T1 and Airsoft Tulsa, since it's near the location I'm at. But it would also help bring in more local airsoft stores.
To be fair, there is a mall that is always mobbed with people, complete with a nearby new casino and Medieval Times in Arundel Mills. I visit there every year multiple times. It's a nightmare just trying to find a parking spot around Christmas. This mall in the video is a ghost town with no real unique attractions to bring in younger people. I believe you are right in your assessment that the remaining stores will close and the interior of the mall will be sealed off. We have a mall up in Montgomery County closer to my home that's been slowly losing stores over the years in Gaithersburg called LakeForest Mall. We used to go there all the time but the gang violence has become so common we refuse to visit anymore.
I'm so glad our local mall has been revamped. We have an arcade, eateries and much more. This practically saved it.
This guy warped into a level of the backrooms. Great place to take pictures of liminal spaces.
It's so sad how all these malls are closing. It was so much fun to hang out at the mall. My kids are gonna miss out on exploring the mall I grew up going too. 😪
I LOVED this mall. It was my favorite in the 90s early 2000s.
The music enhances the dissociative experience that is this insane liminal masterpiece
If malls didn't jack the rent every month more business would stay. My local mall is heading that direction and the marketing manager is super greedy. They lost a thousand very good stores and restaurants in the past 25 years.
As much as we like to blame online shopping, this is a major contributing factor.
duuuuuuude- this was my childhood mall- I went here all the time
I spent my childhood in this mall 😂 I was born in the 80s I graduated in 1998, I got my prom dress at that mall. I moved to Owings Mills in 1988... it’s unrecognizable today... you couldn’t pay me to live there
Been meaning to watch this. Nothing better than to when you have an episode of insomnia on a late night with no work next day.
Super Walmart talk about a dump that attracts trash
I wouldn't go to a WalMart if they had ten dollar bills on sale for five bucks!
Simple solution to the malls. Refit them into luxury apartments. The interior space becomes a faux city street. Think a gated community under a roof.
THIS IS ONE OF MY FAV EP.
Very interesting little documentary you made, I think alot of people including myself have always had a weird interest in empty malls. Something nostalgic, lonely, scary and haunting making you think what went on in the past in there.
I live less than 10 miles from this mall and I've been there twice. Once right after it opened! I didn't even think it was still standing. I guess that idea to convert it into an outdoor mall died with Kevin Kaminetz. They did that conversion with the old Hunt Valley Mall and I think it's been pretty successful. You should check out Cranberry Mall in Westminster. It's not dead, but it's surely on life support
This is an old reupload. They did covert it to a strip mall. They have a good amount of stores already, but I believe they are trying to add more
Cranberry in Westminster is definitely on life support and has been for years.
Ever since growing up with the Dead Rising games, something about abandoned malls and just hearing the chill music excites me. I'd love to just roam around a dead mall like that and mess around.
I miss the joys of malls back in the early 90s (I was born in 88) every mall I go too now it's really just sad looking...and someday...they will all be gone. All hail our lords Amazon, and Wallmart...it all just sucks. Malls were architecturally works of art throughout America.
Great video! Thank you so much Dan!
I really love the open ceiling design, too bad it's gone now T_T
Steple gate mall in concord NH has 3 stores left. Super creepy
They hired an auction company to sell off stuff after the mall closed. My brother-in-law bought two mall benches. It was weird walking around the mall with with all the roll up doors to the stores open, and pretty much no one there. I walked through Macys and saw a company taking apart the escalator they just bought. Almost everything was for sale, including the stair case's fountains, elevators, freight elevators, fixtures, air handlers, stoves, ovens from Ruby Tuesday. You name it, it was for sale! The big flag pole outside was sold! Went back several times when they were tearing the place down. Kind of creepy walking around the mall with no light and power. There are drone videos on TH-cam of the demolition. It was the subway murder, and high crime in that area which led to the demise of Owings Mills Mall.
The same thing was the cause of the death of Northridge Mall in Milwaukee. (That was a partial result of a homicide and a criminal element.)
The mall is still there…but it’s an ever-growing eyesore.
That would be so cool to have a mall bench.
We have a mall in my area that died because of crime. Sometime in the early 90's it was taken over by roving bands of feral teenagers and there was a constant stream of muggings, car jackings, fights and a murder inside the mall itself. The local city government refused to do anything about it. At first it got a reputation for being unsafe on weekend nights, then after dark in general, then it became unsafe at any hour. People just stopped going there even though it was in a very busy traffic corridor and all the surrounding shops were thriving. What a shame.
@@tjsogmc - question:
Is that the Northridge Mall in Milwaukee you refer to?
@@Blktxdom2004 Military Circle Mall in Norfolk VA
@@tjsogmc - Ah! So the now boarded up Northridge mall in Milwaukee isn't the only mall with similar issues. lol
I asked because the mall in my area had ALMOST the exact same characteristics. (weird, huh?) I forgot to mention the local hardware chain that boarded up their entrance to the mall before replacing it with a Brick wall.
i lived in owings mills when i was in high school I'd hang with friends and sisters and remember it being so very much alive and the food court so loud and busy...rest in peace old friend
These videos are best viewed at 1 am in the morning for immersion. And why does this mall look exactly like a certain mall from Willamette that a certain photo journalist visited, who also happened to cover wars.
Poor Frank
I lived 5 minutes from there. I'm so glad you film the mall! Crime didn't help the business either; again thanks!
Love this video!
The remastered video looks absolutely beautiful Dan
The Mall was so beautiful here in Northern California, now when you go there is always a robbery, either you Car windows will get smashed and your car robbed or your car parts or your gas , there are smash and grab robberies involving several armed people in broad daylight in the Mall, your kids, and young girls will almost get abducted in the parking lot, your purse will get snatched, now when women are at stop lights their back window will get smashed and a guy will grab your purse wherever it is sitting in the car, it goes on and on ! Our Mall got rebuilt a few years back after a guy went into the Mall robbed GameStop, the set the Mall on fire.
Man, going to shop and hang at my local mall on Friday night was a highlight of the week during my preteen years in the late 90s.