Attention! Completely remastered episodes of the Dead Mall Series are now being archived in 4K at kzfaq.info/love/fCM_TfrSDMkkMpKuLNWuXA. The remasters have gone through an extensive AI Enhancement process as well as proper sound mixing and colorization. This Dead Mall Series Remastered project has been made possible through viewer support on Patreon. Go over now and watch in glorious 4K. ENJOY!

The cool thing about dead malls is the feeling of time traveling back to the 80s/90s

the aesthetics are 2 real

Watching footage of an abandoned mall is like watching a sad movie. All the people that once gathered in these places, all the memories created. ALL GONE.

something about 90's architecture makes me feel at home, even though its not my favorite.

The intro of this video is a e s t h e t i c AF!!

*"Mall is sick today. Please don't ride this Mall"*

Whoever is taking care of the plants here should be running this country.

I grew up in Memphis and this used to be THE mall to go to. A little history. The Hickory Ridge Mall used to be in what was Shelby County, until the early 1990s when it was officially annexed into the expanded Memphis city limits and officially became East Memphis. When that occurred, the Shelby County sheriffs - who were in control of the area - were pushed out and the Memphis City Police came in. However, the city expanded way too quickly and didn't properly cover the area. So the mall and the area around descended into absolute chaos and crime. You literally had the area and some of the homes that used to be $500k become literal crack dens. I had such fond memories of that place. The late 90's hurt it badly and the tornado hitting it killed it officially.

Best Dan Bell Quote ever, "they grabbed their Craftsman drills and had the store back open in five days."

Hi from Memphis! I worked here as a teen in the 80s. This mall used to be so awesome back in the day. Thank you for the nostalgia! ❤ And yeah, that food court was totally rad. 😉

Oh my god, this is so sad. When I lived in Memphis in the early 90's, I went to this mall every weekend. I worked for Intl Paper and would buy a new tie, shop with my girlfriend, eat at the food court. To see it now ... ugh

Just an FYI, that tornado in 2008? There were looters running in and out of the hole in the side of Sears while the damn tornado was still on the ground.

I really love the Dead Mall Series, even though it always kind of bums me out, cause I get nostalgic about what WAS. The Mall was LIFE growing up as a kid!

Yay! Another Dead Mall episode! I don't know what it is, but there is something about the way Dan talks into the mic and walks rocky-like, while we look at the haunting footage of these near catatonic malls, that reminds me of a lullaby. The mall music playing in the background just adds to the dreamy effect, and it makes me want to curl up and go to sleep. :)

Dan, I wanna thank you for making this series, but especially this video. I grew up in this mall. My mom used to work in a furniture store across from the KB Toys, and before I was old enough to go to school, she would just bring me to work with her. I haven't seen this mall since I was a kid, and this just brought back a flood of memories. When you showed the food court I admit, I teared up a little bit. Thank you so much for filming this, and please keep it going. These places are really special to a lot of us.

Could you interview the owner of a mostly dead mall like this one? It would make a really interesting video.

Internet killed the shopping mall star....

The common denominator for all the dying malls seems to be crime. As soon as people don't feel COMPLETELY comfortable in a setting, that is the beginning of the end.

I’m a 35 year old Memphian. Growing up in the Graceland area of Whitehaven, the only mall my parents and I really frequented was the Southland Mall (which is still standing with one anchor store...it’s mainly an urban mall), but driving out to Oak Court, The Mall of Memphis, Raleigh Springs (my favorite), and Hickory Ridge Mall was a treat!! When I was 16, I got my second job in the Hickory Ridge Mall as an associate for the now defunct Dawahare’s. That was in late 1999-2000. The mall along with the area was still nice. That part of town didn’t decline until 2005 which WAS around the time housing projects in both North and South Memphis were closed down, and the Carriage Crossing outdoor mall in Collierville really caused shoppers (including myself) to shop at Collierville instead. My last time at Macy’s Hickory Ridge was in 12/2007 where I purchased a beautiful red handbag 😂😂. By that time, Service Merchandise has since closed, Applebee’s was gone, O’Charley’s and TGI Friday’s left back in the 1990’s partly due to a brutal murder, and the only anchor stores in the mall by then WAS Macy’s and Dillard’s. Once the tornado hit that area in March of 2008, everything went to hell after. All of the restaurants have jumped ship, and World Overcomers bought the mall in 2010, promising people that the mall will be back better than ever. I honestly don’t know how this mall is still open. A lot of people (myself included) do shop online, but demographics and crime did play a major role in the demise of the area. It really saddens me what this city overall has come to be. That is why so many are migrating to Mississippi. It’s booming in Olive Branch!

Anyone get chills when they showed the food court? Literally frozen in time....Like taking a time machine back to the 80s and 90s... Soo haunting yet beautiful.

I worked at the Babbage's in this mall back in 1996! Cool to see it again, Dan!

Every one of these videos are ART - pure unrelenting ART. Perfectly conceptualized, produced and executed. Keep up the great work!

I was just there. I live in Colorado, used to live in Memphis, and was in Memphis for a few days visiting friends. Boy, I can tell you all about that Mall and the City of Memphis. Not only is the Mall dying, but that entire section of the city has been dying for years. What used to be a vibrant suburb and the American Dream, Hickory Hill...turned into Hickory Hood. Memphis tore down all their public housing and spread the ghetto out into the suburban neighborhoods with Section 8 housing and ruined entire neighborhoods. Winchester Ave. used to be wall to wall Commercial, with malls, shopping, auto dealers, restaurants, etc. but almost everything has closed. An inept and corrupt City government drove the business and residential tax base into the unannexed suburbs. That area will never come back and it is tragic.

God this series is relaxing, and the music...ah the music

At first reminded me of a dead mall in Elizabeth City, NC. Before this series I never really paid attention to dead/dying malls, now every time I go into a mall I notice the cool little details like the old neon signs and I'm looking at the flooring and all of the things I never noticed before. Thanks for the newfound appreciation of old malls! They're really interesting when you stop and think about it.

Dead Mall Series is the best...AESTHETIC AS FUCK!

Back in the early 60's, shopping centers were all the rage. You could have a big chain store like BIG K and a bunch of smaller stores in the same shopping center. These shopping centers were not like todays shopping centers. These shopping centers were all designed around people and their cars. They had covered sidewalks and covered parking spaces and many had valet service to watch your car. What was really neat was people would only walk to the next store if it was just a few feet away. Anything more and you just drove to the next store and parked. Even if it was just 75 to 100 feet away. Everything was car centric. Restaurants like A&W, Bobs Big Boy, Big Chef were hits. It was fun! lazy but fun. It was like having a v8 powered shopping cart with you all the time. Then came the malls. Mainly because people started to realize that most of the time when they went shopping, they were spending as much if not more on gas than they did at the stores. A gallon of gas cost about 26 cents, a loaf of wonder bread was about 19cents and a pound of hamburger was about 29cents. Malls came about because of convenience and cost savings for the public. Now the same thing is happening with malls that happened with shopping centers. For convenience and saving money, people are turning to online purchasing. But just like everything before it, online shopping will fall to the wayside and something else will take its place in the public's interest. Who knows, it may even revert back to the beginnings where a retailer went above and beyond to make every customer feel like something special when they walked into their store. Like it was in the 50's and 60's. Grand old memories of a bygone era.

I worked for the landscaping company in this mall in it's glory days in 1990 . You commented about the food court. At one time it had a huge multi panel video board playing music videos and such. Sad to say this is one of 3-4 Malls in Memphis that went into ruin due to crime .

I would buy those food court chairs for my house tbh

It is kind of sad how malls are failing, it is like losing bits and pieces of America, First it was the drive in theaters, now the malls.

i live in memphis and you got balls going to that area of town, also i havent been to that mall in over 10 years and i remember riding the carousel when i was younger. thank you for letting me go down memory lane one last time

Love that Sears story, that is like the heart of Sears right there. "Grabbed their craftsman drills and they were back open in a few days."

This is a nice looking mall. That is so sad it is dead.

I showed this video to my mom and she was so excited to see this place again! Throughout the video while listening to your narration she was constantly nodding her head and saying, "I remember that!" She would hang out there almost every weekend. She got pretty nostalgic watching and remembering back in the day when there were so many people and stores still there.

*Macy's and Dillard's:* "Yea lets pack em up boy's we aren't gonna make it through this storm." *Sear's:* "Hold my Bankruptcy"

Oh noooo the tears! 😭 I grew up at this mall. Went every weekend with my family. Rode the carousel a thousand times. Thanks for the memories, man!

Dan, thank you so much for posting this! I literally squealed out loud when I saw the title. lol I grew up in the Hickory Hill area and spent countless hours at this mall as a child and teenager. There were so many cool features in the mall. I'm not sure if you were able to see the remnants of them. I'm assuming you entered through the main entrance (facing Winchester Rd). Back in the day, inside to the left of the front entrance was a beautiful, two-story restaurant with an atrium called Annabelle's. The food was incredible. I would call it a slightly upscale restaurant. It was filled with greenery and high, wicker, fan-back chairs (very 80's). On the left side of the food court was a great arcade and either a two-screen or four-screen movie theatre. Across from the food court was a Walgreen's drugstore which either later became a Chik-Fil-A or Chik-Fil-A moved in beside it. Some of the places in the food court were Swensen's, Sbarro, Corn Dog Heaven, and Char-Grill, just to name a few. Store-wise, I remember Gadzook's, Camelot Music, Structure, County Seat, United Colors of Benetton, Contempo, U.S. Male, Suncoast, KayBee, Lerner, Waldenbooks...just to name a few. This mall was so awesome back in the day. If you're ever in Memphis again, I'd love to tell you some great places, abandoned and not abandoned, to explore. I love all of your vids! Thanks for everything you do!

It kills me to see so many malls dying.

Man I loved that mall in the early 90's. So many special childhood memories. Seeing those chairs in the food court took me back. I still remember the sound they made when the would scoot across the tiles.

The store with the ear piercing sign used to be a "The Icing by Claire's"

2:21 Such a perfect, crisp shot I thought it was CGI. I think the food court looks like a highly colorized version of Landmark Mall's.

song name 0:39 インターネットファクスM A C H I N E - 自由 (Freedom) 11:14 インターネットファクスM A C H I N E - Talkin' Bout Love

This mall is surrounded by some of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in Memphis. I went to the Raleigh Springs Mall a few months ago and did a video on it but I will not go anywhere this far south into Memphis. In South Memphis you get singled out if you're white or if you look like you've got money. It's very dangerous to be there and you need to get the hell out of South Memphis completely before nighttime. The Hickory Ridge Mall is the second largest mall in Memphis. From largest to smallest, it goes Wolfchase Galleria, Hickory Ridge, the now demolished Raleigh Springs Mall, the vacant Peabody Place in downtown, and Oak Court Mall. With the further decline of Hickory Ridge Mall and the destruction of Raleigh Springs, the crime issues have moved to Wolfchase. Everybody goes to Wolfchase because there's no other places besides Oak Court even though Oak Court has had crime issues for decades. Wolfchase has been around my whole life but it's starting to decline too with a few small stores here and there peppered around the complex being vacant. It's very sad to know that once Wolfchase goes down, there's no other equivalent alternatives within Shelby County.

I lived within walking distance of this mall from 1975 to 1993, which was the year I graduated from high school. Adjacent to the food court there used to be a center stage area surrounded by an amphitheater. I sang on that centerstage in various telethons and variety shows throughout the early 90s. Directly across from centerstage was The Limited, which was where I got my first job when I was 16. There was also a movie theater that opened right off of the food court. I must've seen dozens of movies there, but I can clearly remember seeing Field of Dreams and Clue. The corner store you can see in the video( in the food court) was an amazing ice cream store called Swensen's. Interestingly, when the mall was first built there were only two or three subdivisions in that area. My grandfather had developed one of these, and that was where we lived. Directly across the street from the mall was a large farm. The farm house (which I believe had been built before the Civil War) burned down when I was about eight or nine years old, and the entire neighborhood walked over and watched it burn. We were way too far out at that time for fire trucks to make it there before it burned to the ground. There was also an airstrip in the field directly across from the mall where the crop dusters used to take off and land. The farmer who lived there had a number of antique airplanes and airplane motors sitting around - my father and my grandfather were both pilots, so this was always a point of interest for them. Compared to other malls in the Memphis area at that time, this mall was much more upscale, with stores like Gantos, Dawhares (which has to be the most hideous name for a store), and a Victoria's Secret back when their interiors looked like an English cottage rather than a neon whorehouse. We moved from the area in April 1993, and about a month after we moved a woman was shot and killed at an ATM down the street. She had only withdrawn 30 or $40, and they killed her for it. I remember that really being the death-knell of this area. The city was pushing to annex any and everything it could, and crime began to explode. Wow, I haven't thought about the Hickory Ridge mall and all the hours I spent there, singing, working, and shopping in many years. Thanks for posting this.

Dan, I love your intros into these dead mall videos.They have a great sense of fun and nostalgia.I love the music too.I could watch them all day.

Ugh, seeing those wonderful colors in the food court makes me really hate today's "everything must be white, grey or black" interior styles. Same goes for cars. We need some color again!

That video was so amazing. So sad and emotional. So I jumped in the car and made the 7 hour drive to see it myself. After standing amidst the palm trees and 80s food court i really can say it’s the closest thing to time travel I’ve ever experienced. Tears were shed after visiting this place. Not only for the sad reality that soon it won’t exist anymore but also the pure joy that came with being able to walk it’s amazing corridors. Thank u dan for what u do here on the dead mall series.

I lived near the mall when I moved to Memphis. So much of our lived revolved around this mall. thank you for bringing back the great memories. Do you remember Annabelle's? Loved that restaurant...

They should make abandoned malls into apartments. It would benefit a lot of communities.

I used to love coming to this mall when I was little and riding the merry go round. Memphis has always had nice malls, mall of Memphis, hickory ridge, Peabody mall, etc, they all went to waste 🤦🏾‍♀️

This was once a thriving mall in a thriving neighborhood until two things happened- Memphis annexed the area and white flight ensued. Hickory Hill became Hickory Hood and the death spiral began.

Wow The Food Court Was Amazing

omg the pink and blue chairs are amazing!!

That food court was straight out of my childhood! It's like a snapshot of the past - very cool.

There used to be a kids' play area in the '80s. I remember playing on it in '88 when my family was visiting our kin in Memphis. The play area consisted of wooden animals that you could climb on. I distinctly remember one of the animals being a turtle. This play area was located in one of the anchor courts, if I recall correctly. Another memory I have of that mall, same trip, was not getting out of there before closing, and the security guard led us out through a service corridor that was normally closed to the public, which I remember thinking was super cool!

Commersialism between 1980-2005 had this really weird warm And fuzzy feel to it.

Dan, No one should be making dead mall videos but you. You're a step above. It's always a pleasure seeing you in my sub box. Cheers!

THIs mall reminds me of something out of Saved By The Bell or something.

We took our kids to the Hickory Ridge Mall frequently in the 90's. The carousel, the Disney Store, the movie theater, the food court; it was a great mall for families.

The first time hearing Dan said "fuck"..lmao great

This one really brought back the memories. My family lived in nearby Collierville, TN (my dad built the CATV systems for Collierville and Germantown) and I attended the University of Memphis. This and the now-leveled Mall of Memphis were our local malls. My first job was weekends at the Hallmark store in Hickory Ridge. This was starting about 1981 until early 1984, when we relocated to Georgia. I also worked for a semester at the Ice Capades ice rink at the MoM. (Learned to drive the zamboni!) At Hickory Ridge, I worked after classes at a little cross stitch supply shop just to the left of the main front entrance. Where the merry-go-round now stands used to be a sunken stage area, with amphitheater style seating, and professional sound and lighting. I believe they actually had Lily Tomlin performing there. They had a different show or singing group or activity (such as video game tournaments) every month. It was a happening little mall. Thanks for the trip back in time!

This is my first video of yours. Your intro is so long I thought the whole video was vaporwave. Man, it's so sad to see a staple of my youth just completely abandoned. Not this mall particularly, but malls in general. It was always just so exciting to stroll through a mall. Hearimg people chattering, smelling all the foods, seeing all the bright and flashy things. Sad.

"When you think about it, department stores are like museums." -- Andy Warhol

twitter.com/thisisdanbell You should.

You should visit Ft. Steuben Mall in Steubenville Ohio. One main anchor, Sears, already pulled out and Macy's is leaving soon. And that just leaves JCPennys. And with all of the anchors leaving, in an already dead part of Ohio where there is no financial benefit for new business to move in, I can't imagine the mall lasting for more than a couple of years.

I used to shop and hang out there weekends from about 1980 -1995 used to be such a nice place.its really sad whenever you have something nice in Memphis thugs and ppl just trash everything worthwhile. that's why I hate to say it but so many people left Memphis you cant raise a decent family in a place filled with drugs drive bys and gangs.this mall of Memphis,which was demolished.it had a ice skate rink.before macys it had goldsmiths and sears as anchors. if you look around Memphis you will see all kinds of ghost stores such as kmart supercenter own the street from hick.ridge.mall. just really a sad sad heartless city.Why do some people find it nescesary to ruin anything ang everything good in Memphis? Look around millions of people would go to fairgrounds for mid south fair, then late ninetys there were stabbings muggings robbery etc. and no mother would let kids go to fair unsupervised any longer the way they used to.some people aren't happy until they take everything from you-ppl who actually work for a living, they could have worked also and helped us keep businesses malls etc. nice and enjoyable for all people but nooo they had to trash Memphis and make it undesireable for people to live there. well when city cant pay for nice things anymore because of crime I hope the ones who created the ghost town of Memphis are satisfied living and trying to shop in a wasteland.So look around and take pride in the wasteland you helped create!

I remember when this mall was at it's prime. So sad how it's demised came about. The last time I remember going to this mall I was threatened by a couple of thugs who wanted my cellphone. What is even more incredible/depressing is how the entire neighborhood around this mall decayed. In the end, the entire area became the equivalent of a third world country.

Another killer opening montage ! Totally goes w/ mall kitsch.

That food court hearkens to the Max in Saved by the Bell. I can also picture the Gap Girls sketch from SNL being set there. LAY OFF ME, I'M STARVING!

I use to play an old PC game called Mall Tycoon and the music you played during the food court was in the sound track of the game and oh boy nostalgia

"Sears grabbed their Craftsman drills, and had the store open in 5 days" That killed me.

That intro is so vaporwave haha. Awesome vid

Community Center Mall means homeless shelter

The feeling i got watching this was so crazy. NOSTALGIA! i use to come to this mall a lot when i was younger. Seeing the food court, (retro.. took me back to the 80's early 90's) and of course the stairs on the carousel. It sucks that good malls decrease because of sales, but mostly crimes. I'm just waiting to read about the wolfchase galleria, with the shootings around there, its only a matter of time. Thank you for sharing this!

That food court. Man oh man. Went there with all my girlfriends. Even my current wife, we've been together 20 years. Panchos, Corn Dog 7, Chik Fil A, Sabraros. Gadzooks Haha. Damn. Looooong time ago. I didn't wear jncos though. Probably was wearing Tommy Hilfiger. Lol

One thing that stands out to me, both in these videos as well as the dying (dead) malls local to Cinci, are how built and pristine these buildings are. Particularly the ones built or renovated in the late 80's - relatively expensive materials, large clear spans and lots of decorative architectural features. They were cathedrals of capitalism - not much to compare them to today actually.

I've often wondered if the music in your vids was added in post production, or if it's live in the mall...

i always thought mall plants were fake. huh.

Your videos are a hybrid of ASMR and Mallsoft. I love it!

Remember when there were lots of streams and waterfalls in here? It was amazing.

Groups of 5 or more people MUST HAVE MALL MANAGEMENT PRIOR APPROVAL TO ASSEMBLE IN THE FOOD COURT...... what the hell, well that rules out me taking the wife and kids there... lol

Wow! This is one of the most beautiful shopping centres I've ever seen...still so colourful and bright, strangely.

There's a line by a little band called modest mouse I always found fitting. "The Malls are the Soon to be Ghost Towns."

Yeah that food court! Righteous! So good to see a new Dead Mall up this morning. I've watched some of the others upwards of 18 times. There aren't any dead malls (that I know of) where I live, Portland, Oregon and your documentaries bring it. Thanks!

0:58 Even Charlie Sheen doesn't know what to make of all the raw aesthetic. Great video, as always. Felt like I'd been transported to 1996.

I love the computer animations in the intro! They are from “The Minds Eye” and “Beyond the Minds Eye” VHS & DVD’s! I bought them in 1995 at the Learningsmith and The Nature Company- love you Dan!

Your videos bring back so much nostalgia. The music the malls. Reminds me when my mom, grandma, sis and I used to shop at malls

I grew up going to this mall and shipped here almost every weekend, Dan you were right JNCOs were all over this mall, Spencer's use to be a store around the food court, there was a gazooks that was there for years you could buy the jncos, wide pants, etc was awesome during the 90s. Sadly everything in Memphis dies eventually not just the malls! You should've went and checked out Oak Court in Memphis it's on its way to becoming a dead mall Thanks for the video!

10:35 I didn't realise there was a guy sitting on that bench at first

That is an amazing food court, especially for an abandoned mall. In excellent shape.

Glad to hear they are trying to save the building. It's beautiful! 😊

I used to work in this mall doing surveys (Yes , I was the annoying survey person) and back in 1995-2000 it was the spot. It breaks my heart to see how it looks now and this was in 2017. I wonder what it looks like now? I'm going back sometime this year. Thank you for posting. It brings back so many memories.

OMG I cannot believe you filmed the HRM. I am 30 years old and when I was in elementary school, my dad took my brother and I here several times. I LOVED riding the carousel (I used to call it "The Carousel Mall"). My brother passed away 7 years ago so I really cherish those memories...and I cannot believe I am watching a video you filmed there! Also, fun fact...I came in first place in a crawl-a-thon at this mall when I was a baby. lol. :)

I was one of those kids in jenco jeans setting at the food court. I enjoy these videos so much. It's such a strange feeling of nostalgia, sadness and a bit eerie.

Looks like what Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia beach used to look like. That mall has somehow found a market in these internet times and is thriving.

The food court is cool af tbh

Man this video brings back memories. This used to be one of the best malls in Memphis. It's sad what's happening.

These dead mall videos have been my Sunday afternoons for two weeks. Kinda come out of watching these a little melancholy being a child of the 80's. Malls were the meeting place for movies, shopping, work (once I turned 16), dates and just hanging out. Miss them.

I use to work here in the early 2000's. I worked in Hot Topic, and I worked in The Buckle.