Have y’all ever looked at this website, Dead Malls?
TC is kind of obsessed with it and has a fascination with abandoned malls. He says it’s because he spent a good amount of his childhood in many of our local malls and it’s sad to see such large, sprawling structures turn into empty parking lots and empty retail space.
I spent lots of Saturdays growing up at the mall, shopping at Limited Too, eating Chick-fil-A or Sbarro in the food court, and sticking around to see a movie in the mall movie theater. Family Saturdays were spent at the mall.
Now you see empty food courts. And in one case in Columbia, even the Chick-fil-A has closed! What up with that?
We have two dead malls in Columbia and one that’s on its way to being dead. In one of these cases it doesn’t make any sense. The mall is located in one of the most prevalent parts of town and just can’t succeed. I don’t understand it.
this particular mall is lucky enough to still have a Dress Barn keeping the place afloat
the Richland Fashion mall– with a great Barnes and Noble keeping the place afloat– sort of
These days, though, I’d rather avoid malls and spend my time in local boutiques, supporting local business owners. We feel the same way about restaurants. We rarely eat at chain restaurants.
Walking around an empty mall makes me feel like I’m in a ghost town and that’s just a creepy feeling.
Do you think it’s creepy? Do you have dead/abandoned malls in your city?
It is eerie to walk around in these nearly abandoned malls! San Antonio has a dead mall that sat empty for years and then was redeveloped into an entertainment complex with a huge dine-in movie theater. Where the sears was got turned into a Target. It feels more like a strip center than a mall now, but at least they didn’t leave the big empty sad building in the middle of town.
We have another one on the edge of town that is barely hanging on. I think it’s hard because we have two pretty good malls that are tourist destinations, and the outlet malls are 45 mins away.
Gotta love the palm trees, fountains, and over sized pieces of brass decor, haha! We have 2 malls, one that does really and another that has nothing but a Sears, JCP, and Belk…. not even a food court anymore. In fact, they let the local fire department do training in it.
I am going to have to check out that website.
Hope y’all have a great weekend!
We have two malls in Florence. The Magnolia Mall (which houses the Belk, JC Penny, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Best Buy, and Sears) and the Florence Mall (that has a Steinmart, Handpicked, Old Navy, Dress Barn, Ross, and TJ Maxx, among a few other places and one of the busiest restaurants in town, Red Bone Alley).
My frustration with the Magnolia Mall is that, even though it’s a pretty large mall, I still feel like there are no places to shop! I can find a few things at Belk, but they closed down the GAP a couple of years ago (RIP) and there’s not much else. When stores shut down, they fill them with cheap places that stay open for 6-12 months and then shut down again! I feel like if they could entice better shopping options – like J. Crew and Banana Republic and Ann Taylor, they’d be more successful. And because they don’t offer those places, we are forced to take our business to Charlotte and Charleston – or online.
Your post is so sad but so true! We have a mall just around the corner from us that used to be one of the biggest malls in the 1980’s, however, it still looks like it did in the 80’s!!!! The stores in there now are terrible and I rarely go in there. I prefer a newer, nicer mall on the other side of town and would rather go to outlet or outdoor shopping areas. Great post!
Richland Fashion Mall seemed in decline when we lived there! It never made sense to me, either.
There are two malls where we live. The smaller of the two has been in decline since I was a teenager. It has never had the ‘top’ retailers, so I’m not sure how it has managed to hang on this long. The other mall is larger than Columbiana Centre and seems to be thriving. It’s in the center of our major shopping area, which comparable to Harbison Blvd. although not quite as large and congested. Stores and restaurants move in and out, of course, but the larger stores are there to stay.
I don’t care to shop in malls and typically use a separate entrance if a store has one, however I do find myself walking through the mall every so often. I think your comments about supporting local business are on the mark. There is also a turn towards shopping handmade (etsy), consignment and direct reselling, farmer’s markets, and for buying less, in general.
Empty storefronts make me sad, even though I’m not a big shopper. They look bad, and I feel like empty storefronts reflect poorly on our community. In our particular area there is a ‘strip mall’ that has been on the decline. In addition, we have two newer shopping areas at the entrances to our community that have failed to thrive – a result of the current economy. Thankfully, these two shopping areas are beginning to see a turnaround, but I still think it will take a while for them to become what the developers envisioned. When that happens, I’m afraid we will have an empty ‘strip’ mall in the center of the community. It seems like a no-win situation, doesn’t it?
We have had 2 malls that closed, and 2 more on their way to closing, but that is only because we had 3 new ones open up in better neighborhoods and I’ll be honest, they are much better malls. They are always busy (and it’s horrible trying to find parking at Christmas!). I think it helps that 2 of these new malls have outdoor shopping sections which are great for shopping in the spring – fall. They also have restaurants, bars and movie theaters, so they are more like a little town as opposed to just a shopping plaza. It’s like a destination and people come from towns away to go shopping here.
There is an outlet mall in a very small town near me that has been dead as long as I can remember – in fact, I’m not even sure it was open very long (to be honest, it was in a dumb place to begin with). But it’s this huge, empty space that now boasts a call center, two antique stores, a daycare and a driver license photo center. Oh, and maybe one doctor’s office. So I guess it’s not TOTALLY empty, but it’s a real eyesore! And it’s a sad commentary to see all those empty storefronts.
My childhood hang-out is now completely “dead.” It’s THE place I went to see new Disney Movies (I sat eating skittles while watching “Beauty and the Beast” there in 1991!), and it had a Claire’s, so we’d go buy $5 earrings after our movie. Heck, I got my ears pierced at that mall! It absolutely depresses me. I think part of it (especially the recent malls closing up) has to do with the economy over the last 5 years. Part of it has to do with people wanting to support local shops/businesses. Where I currently live in Denver, though, I’m 5 mins away from the nicest mall in all of Colorado….so it still seems to be thriving. It’d be SO depressing if it went under!
It is sad to see empty retail space – chain or not, its sad for the local economy. But – agree, I’m a big supporter of locally owned establishments. I work in economic development and know how important mom and pop places are to the local economy. Check out http://www.the365project.net! I’m a big proponent of this shop local program.
I can totally relate up here in Virginia. Huge for lease signs all over – especially Tanglewood Mall in Roanoke, VA and the mall in Staunton, VA. Very sad situation, as their unemployment rates are high. However, like you two, M and I would rather support a local store/entrepreneur and farmer’s market and maybe spend an extra >$5 instead of a mall or chain. Quality is important to us, and lots of chains have even lowered their standards and customer service on the most basic things…
Eastland Mall in Charlotte was closed a couple of weeks ago. I spent my childhood (literally, every day, twice a day) at the Ice Capades Chalet in Eastland Mall. I was a competitive figure skater so much of my childhood was defined by and many of my memories surround the mall. It completely closed down earlier this month and they may bulldoze it soon. It is sad to think back at how busy and bustling the mall was back in the ’80’s and early ’90’s, especially during the holidays. I think our society is just at a place where the outdoor shopping malls (like Sandhill in Columbia) are so much more popular than your traditional indoor malls. Probably because we are now such a fast-paced society – it’s much easier to drive right up to the store you need rather than walk through a whole mall to get to one store!!
Almost empty malls are creepy. But I like what you said about supporting local business owners for retail and restaurants. It may be we are going back to a simplier life which would be a great thing.
I am really surprised that Dutch Square is even still open. I remember when all those malls were thriving. When I was little mom used to take me out to Richland Fashion all the time, but that was before they built Columbiana and all of Harbison up. I remember when Harbison consisted of the two shopping centers where BAM and Barnes are. The old Wal-Mart used to be in the big anchor next to BAM. I can’t remember if it’s a Gold’s now or a furniture store.
I will never understand the Richland Mall failure–it is located in one of the wealthiest areas of Columbia–several blocks away at Trenholm Plaza it is a zoo to find a parking space! Believe it or not, I actually worked at Richland Mall back in the late 60s and early 70s while in high school and at USC. It makes me so sad to go by there now–I take my 90 year old dad to get his hair cut there, and it is like a ghost town 🙁
The Richland Fashion Mall is scary! I used to nanny for some kids who went to Timmerman and I would go to the barnes and noble when I had time to kill, but tried never to leave that store. I just can’t understand why it is so empty all of the time either. It really could be great.
When we lived in Orlando last year, I was so surprised at how many malls and shopping centers were like ghost towns. How does that happen in a tourist area?!
In my town, the only mall we went to when I was a kid is closed now. It has a Sears anchoring it for the past couple years but it’s gone now too. It got to the point where they shut off the fountains inside and the escalator was stopped too. http://www.flickr.com/groups/rollingacresmall/
I can understand why these malls are closing – if I need to go shopping but only need to hit up one or two specific stores, why would I want to go through the hassel of parking miles away from the building, hiking in and then fighting the crowds just to go to a few stores that aren’t even that close to each other? I think more cities are going to the outdoor mall scenario where you can drive in, park directly in front of the store (or stores, since they group like minded places together), get what you need and then get on with your day. I like that scenario better, although you do have to contend with iffy weather in Texas in March and April.
The mall we had when I was a small child had to close down when a newer mall opened on the Northside of our town. It sat in the middle of town (in a not so great area) for well over a decade before a local church bought it. They didn’t change the outside structure of the building, so you can imagine how HUGE that church is now.
The newer mall that opened up on the Northside? It’s slowly dying. An outdoor facility was built on the Southside of town about 4 years ago and is “the place” people go to. The NS mall still has a lot of stores that you can only go to there, but Victoria Secret, Bath and Body Works, Belk’s, and a few others now have stores in both locations. About 1/4 of the storefronts in the NS mall are empty. At least another 1/4 are stores that you wouldn’t step foot in. There are restaurants surrounding it that they don’t have on the SS, so that keeps the area busy. The movie theater on the NS has NEVER been good. It was popular for about a year, but it’s not maintained very well….. pretty much everyone in town has always gone to the SS theater.
It’s actually really sad.
we have SEVERAL dead malls here in Columbus and the one is so pretty I don’t know how it got demolished a few weeks ago.
We have 1 mall in Knoxville, TN that is on it’s way to being dead. The only good thing about the mall is that it has a county clerk’s office where you can go for driver’s license and tag renewals. Much quicker than the other offices.
In my hometown of Chattanooga, TN, we have 1 dead mall that was once known as “Eastgate Mall” — at one time, the only thing keeping it alive was a Dollar Tree and a YMCA.
You and I are the same age — must be why I remember going to Limited Too to get the matching plaid shirt / scrunchies and eating in the food court, too!
Hi!
We don’t have a mall in my town but the next town over does and there is not one single store in it except JCPenny. It is very creepy.
I spent many of days in Limited Too. My momma jokingly says she is still paying them for some of the stuff she bought me through the years. I guess it is my turn to pay….Macy has discovered Justice. Yikes. {haha}
We have one here but not one we ever went to.. in midwest city, where my gaw gaw lives, there is one there. I got my ears pierced there when I was four and now it is so spooky and empty there! I don’t understand why some malls don’t make it..
Love the little swimming post. He looks so little in that big big pool! What a big boy though, swimming to the side with no help! Yay Huddy!!!
I grew up north of Milwaukee and we primarily shopped at Northridge Mall when I was younger (and through college). The mall just became so ghetto I think that’s why people stopped going there. There were always rumors of gang activity (most were probably not true), but it certainly kept many people away.
Empty malls (and used-to-be sprawling cities) give me this lonely, sad feeling. Charlotte has quite a few booming malls, but the one that was the place everyone shopped when I was growing up is right down the street from my house. We used to watch movies there, eat lunch, shop all day Saturday, and go ice skating. It just closed it’s doors for good about 2 weeks ago. I drive past it on the way to work, and it gives me that feeling everyday. So sad!
I’m secretly obsessed with deadmalls.com. I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only person who spends a few minutes now and then thinking of that kind of stuff!
I agree with you. It is kind of creepy and definitely sad!
It really is strange. We have one in Richmond that is going way downhill (ghetto) and it makes me sad because I’ve probably been there 500 times!