I think the problem is once you've seen one shopping center, you've seen a'mall....

Our dead mall got flipped into a community college. It was interesting having class in the old Bath and Body Works.

This episode kind of needs a sequel. I can't imagine two years of a pandemic have done any of the surviving malls any favors.

I really wish malls would get converted into schools and apartments. They already have the architecture required to do so, but nobody's doing it.

"50,000 people used to shop here. Now it's a ghost mall."

My local mall has turned into a gaming centre. They have a retro place where you can play on retro consoles. I really like what they did with it

In Poland, malls are in their golden age. They're literally what they were in 80s in USA, and thats kinda funny ngl Teens are spending their time and money here, corridors are always full, and new malls are opening I got one near-dead mall in my city tho, (near dead cause at this point like 70% of shops closed lmao).... ...but its not because fall of malls. Thats because of competition. 2km away they build a new mall in 2016, one of biggest in the country. And thats why everybody lost their interest in the smaller one build in 2008, and now its dead. I guess that current state of malls in Poland is about history. Until 1989 we had an USSRish communism, and then, in 90s, whole capitalism came to us. Things that west had in 70s, 80s, and 90s, we got in like few years. First malls (smaller, usually few shops, no food courts, one floor etc) were build here in late 90s/early 00s. But full malls like these in 80s USA were build here in mid 00s. When USA started to abandon malls and enjoy e-commerce, we discovered malls. Modern malls here are giant, literally giant, like 400 shops/restaurants, few thousands of parking places, and they're all around the city, literally everywhere, and whats interesting - even though big competition, they're always full of people (well, maybe expect of few ones, usually smaller older, etc, as i said before). Idk thought that it might be interesting for americans, like it was interesting to me to watch this video and learn about culture and society in US

In Australia our malls, or shopping centres as we most often call them, are generally in the middle of a town centre, occasionally there are larger ones that are a tad isolated, but most medium to large towns or cities have a shopping centre or two in close walking distance to the rest of the town, so they're still extremely popular

Here in Europe malls were built in busy crossroads and roads of the cities, which meant that they are still a significant meeting spot to this day, avoiding the fate of american malls, which were mostly outside of the town separately, failing in that community aspect

I love Geoff Beer Zeus

At one point the mall had a wide variety of stores for all interests. Then suddenly they all became 90% Women's clothing stores. That is when I stopped going.

I live in Minnesota and the mall of America is still incredibly busy. It’s nowhere near dead. All the bigger malls have been prospering while all the smaller malls have died a long, and painful death. Like they’re ghost towns now

Thought I'd clicked onto a Summoning Salt video with this music, hah

Watching tech company founders go from their 90s form to their 20s form is terrifying.

I live in Central Europe, and the malls are still lively, and sometimes when i watch the malls it scares me to think about the consumerism people have.

The last time I was in a mall it was open and there was virtually nobody there, there was the occasional person or so. It felt like I was the only person there and tbh it was really comforting.

I'm glad to see someone as young as you with a perceptive understanding of and sincere appreciation for such an odd cultural artifact. There isn't a day that goes by where I don't think about the old mall, the one where I grew up, and the good times I had there. It filled my needs then-- a bookstore, a video arcade, a theater -- all good places to escape, at least for a little while, the disappointments and dreariness that filled up so much of my life at that time. Nostalgia in excess is unhealthy, but I will always miss having a place to go that wasn't work or school, or even my own house. Point of fact, a mall for me was *home*. It was comfortable, in more ways than one. I felt more like myself there. I wish the world hadn't changed so much as to make them obsolete, but it seems their time has indeed passed, and olds like me just have to accept it, adapt, and move on. Still, the memories linger. Thanks for reminding me.

Don't forget the advent of the oppressively annoying kiosks filling up every inch of walking space and trying to sell you perfume or snake oil turning the experience into a 3rd world bazaar as you tried to "enjoy" the walk from store to store.

I remember wandering around the mall in the early 00s, my favorite store was the Disney store and I loved Limited Too - by the time Geff Pesos' mall takeover happened in the 2010's, the last time we went to our local mall was to see Wreck it Ralph in a small cruddy theater tucked inside of it before it shut down completely.

The Proper People have some really cool videos on abandoned malls, I’m glad you featured some of their content because they are so underrated. Also I’m happy you mentioned Dan Bell. His dead mall series is honestly so chill and interesting. Great vid dude, you earned a sub today

The contrast of american optimism and corporate opulence, tied with memories of teenage social hope; the mall is a strange nexus of different political, economic and emotional ideals. The best spot was the arcade.

"AMAZON FUFILLMENT GULAGS!" 🤣🤣🤣 Another funny, well structured, paced and informative video mate! Class, keep them coming please!

In Australia, larger malls like Westfield are thriving. Medium sized malls are doing fine. Smaller malls are a bit depressing but still hanging on, mostly thanks to Coles and Woolworths, and Australia's addiction to bread and gambling. The small mall where I grew up (Kensington Village) is now just a Coles, a reject shop, a hairdresser's that changes its name every 6 months, a 24hr gym, a bakery and a golden casket. The medium mall in that area just lost its JB Hi-fi which is a true sign of decline.

My home town has a zombie mall: It's only alive in the places that are accessible from the street, but if you go inside, all the lights are down and all the boxes are empty. What's funny is that it was like that since it was built. I remember when there used to be a music shop way inside it and you could find it by simply listening to instruments echoing through the empty dark hallways.

Some malls are being converted into affordable housing communities, with small businesses on the 1st floors. So that's good! 😃

Weridly enough, malls are doing really well in asia.

I think you should have included that the housing market crash and subsequent recession of 2008 also played a huge role in the downfall of the mall as we know it today too. Don't get me wrong, EVERY industry felt the pain of the recession, but the tourism/travel and retail/consumer goods sectors got hit particularly hard due to consumers closing their wallets to save their money for only essentials.

bezos was the nail in the coffin, walmart was the true beginning of the end

Damn the intro song had me thinking I was about to watch the history of a speed run category.

One of the things I feel particularly ironic about malls is the consumptive powers of American consumerism have not faded or died, simply the means by which we consume.

I remember the opening of Gateshead MetroCentre. I was only in my teens and the idea of one of these vast American style malls opening nearby was mind-blowingly! It was a big treat to get your parents to drive to the shopping mall. We would traipse around for hours admiring all the stuff that was available. Unheard-of levels of choice, eateries, lots of nice toilets, a roof - it was like landing in wonderland.

“Credit card use was like totally bitchin’” 😂

Bezos would've lost everything in the Dot Bomb recession if people had just gone to the library for their books.

debt rectangles. historical ruins of analog consumerism. My friend, you have an enormous gift for words. It's delicious.

Wow im really glad to see you speak about this. Just watched aome of your other videos and then came to this one. Just a few week ago I visited a dead mall, just large empty space at this point. And even I remembered back in the 00s how different it felt like to be in one. Somehow you touch my heart by talking about the decline of malls.

Man, this is the BEST youtube channel there is. I learned more from you than from 16 years of school.

Malls started dying in the 2010s, they used to be a place where you'd hangout, get together, attend events, get stuff, and even eat. You'd spend all day at the mall, you'd go get some food, catch a movie, hang out at EB or Gorilla Games, hit the games workshop, go to the candy cart, then go and play at the little cyber cafe, then hit hot topic and spences, then you'd leave and come back the next day. The Aesthetics of the Malls were also important; they were built in different styles whether it was Art Deco or Beaux arts like you can find in Philly, or Brutalism in Ohio; this is very different now. You don't walk in a mall and go "wow this looks neat." Now they all look the same, and it takes away from the experience. You don't have Mallrats anymore, the Mall Goth and Mall Emo phase is over, the Grunge kids dont chill at the mall record store anymore. The Nerds don't have their boardgame or comic shops anymore either. In the 90s we had WCW and WWF coming to the mall, we had playgrounds and amusement parks in our malls, which expanded Mallrat culture. All of this was on the decline in the early and mid 00s, in the 10s it died, and in the 20s it's now a myth. It's a shame really, malls were great and I miss them. You showed footage of it in this video, but the Blue Hen mall was my mall, I lived across the street forever. It's sad to think about; I miss the memories.

Malls nowadays are just places to find weird stores like hot topic or build-a-bear

This is pop culture gold. This channel is general is a treat. Thanks to the hairy Englishman.

I think the only thing keeping our local mall open is the harsh winters, it gives people a place to go and walk around when they get cabin fever.

I work at the largest volume Amazon warehouse, we just set a record the other day for processing 114,000 packages in a single shift. He didn’t just kill malls he’s killing me too - this is hard work man! Haha great video as always

The song is called "we're finally landing" by home. Just fyi

This video is so comforting. The music, the narrator and the story itself is weirdly comforting

Your scripts are well underrated - can't wait to see you hit a couple million subs!

I like Contrapoints' take on dead malls: The decay of late 20th century prosperity is like a new gothic for the 21st century. I also really love how Vaporwave ties into the theme. What basically began as a mockery of 80's and 90's consumerism, turned into it's own genre and art form. The beauty of vaporwave isn't in the nostalgia, but the art that was created from the pieces of decay left behind.

“Like a mecca for people who like walking around in circles, worshipping inanimate objects” 😂

We miss the old intro. “Welcome to Ordinary Things where ordinary things are explained. Today we’ll be looking at *insert subject* also known as *insert hilarious name*

Was waiting to hear about a speed run when I heard this music 0:01 Summoning salts

Malls are pretty much Disneyland but they don’t hide that it’s all about consumerism, they are an attraction

5:35 "With these debt rectangles, people could cut the line and blow money they didn't have. As well as cut lines of blow and snort it through the money they did manage to hold on to." Genius writing here...subscribed. 7:57 If I'm not mistaken I believe "creepy yellow unicycle lad" was part of the Lego Land display.

it is 2021, I have watched this for the first time. As soon as jazz bean-soups is pointed out to have made malls obsolete... I get an amazon ad on KZfaq for the same stuff I saw in malls when I was 4. Truly we live in the future.

One thing missing... Robin Sparkles - “Let’s Go To The Mall”

I remember the mall. There was a movie theater and you could sneak into any theater since the security guard was in his late 70s early 80s

i feel like no matter what i'll stick to going to a mall cause of the experience and ability to try on clothes. Waiting to get my stuff via mail is too anxiety inducing for me

Videos are very informative. One thing I would like to add about this topic: rising level of violent incidents. Here in KCMO we have two remaining malls. They are the Independence Center and Overland Park Mall. There was a third called Bannister Mall. Bannister closed when I was young due to both lousy sales and an increased level of violence. The night my parents took me to see Space Jam in the theater at the mall, a man was stabbed to death over a high school feud. There was consistent fights, including gun violence, at the mall for years after. It closed at the end of the 1990s. Now, Independence Center is facing the same challenges. It's flag ship stores Macy's and Sears are both gone, leaving only Dillard's. There is consistent violence among teens, with not only a month ago a brawl involving over 100 people. Two years ago, there was a feud related shooting in the mall. It's anticipated that the Independence Center is in its final stages of life. Overland Park Mall is a bit better, less violence, but after Independence Center closes it's a fair assumption that the violence will shift to this mall. Combined with the effects of the pandemic, malls in the KCMO region will be gone save for a tiny micro-mall called Ward Parkway Center that is honestly more of a glorified strip shopping center. This is purely anecdotal, but I'd be willing to say that many malls in urban areas face the same challenges with violence. These places become gathering centers for testerone fueled teens fighting over god only knows, and it results an image of these malls as unsafe and unnecessary. At what point does the community decide that it'd be better off without these places for pissed off teens to congregate? I'd wager to say that incidents of violence of malls also contributes to their lack of interest and declining public perception, which also leaves them obsolete and facing closure.

Online shopping wasn’t the primary reason for the demise of shopping malls in America. It was just the final nail in the coffin. There are 2 main reasons the the demise of shopping malls in the United States. 1. Too many malls were built in the 1980s and 90s. Commercial real estate companies became too intoxicated with the glamour of building new malls that they threw caution and objective analysis aside and made emotional decisions to build new malls. It became like building 2 Walmarts a block away from each other. 2. The decimation of our middle class. Starting in the 1980s economic policy changed from benefiting middle class workers to benefiting primarily the wealthy stockholder class. This included trade policy as well. As a result the middle class had increasingly less disposable income and less leisure time. In other words they no longer had the time nor the money to go shop at malls. Online shopping acted like an opportunistic predator that preyed on this situation. The animal(malls and middle class) was already weak when companies like Amazon pounced.

There was this really good Chinese food place at my mall, but it closed down and now all there is is Panda Express. :(

Create a demand for *HUGE* Lan gaming parties to fill the voids, it would actually work, huge gaming centers

As an 80s child/90s teen, not gonna lie. I have such nostalgia for the mall. It's sad watching them die.

Great work!

*"Corn dog cathedrals of corpulent consumption."* Nice.

I can't believe he used the 80's version of Never Meant in this video

I live near the Mall of America here in Minneapolis. When people ask me they want to visit it, I tell them. Go to your local mall and walk around it 6 times. Same experience

As fun as malls used to be, they were really just a corporate cash cow. The exception to that was the few stores in which independent artisans were able to sell their crafts, as there were a few.

ME: "Is that the mall music from 'GTA: Vice City' playing in the background?" (sees image of mall from "GTA: Vice City" on greenscreen) ME: "YAY!"

As someone allergic to pretty much everything nature has to offer, I'm gonna miss malls so much. I always thrived in that sterile environment. The day my local malls kick the bucket is the day I'm stopping leaving home outside work hours.

First video I watched from this channel. You’ve a new subscriber, this has such a Johnathan Meades vibe about it. Love it!

I think one of the reasons malls got so popular for at least a little bit of time, especially with teenagers or "mall rats" is because people in the US were so desperate for a third place that they were willing to drive to them just to... be somewhere else. Even if that somewhere was constantly advertising to you.

In Helsinki, finland, we have some malls with healthcare facilities, social assistance services, library, photography art museum, voting place, and communal non profit spaces. Mostly not though.

Growing up in Minnesota the mall of America was certainly the best field trip of the year and a really awesome way to get out of the house and not freeze to death

So glad you mentioned Dan Bell, I was fully obsessed with all his videos for a full two years

I remember growing in the 90s and early 2000s and my parents walking us through the mall to look at fish, ride quarter machines, and "window shop"; i don't mean we were shopping for windows; I mean we were looking at things we couldn't afford, and would plan on saving up money to buy. Looking back at it, it feels dystopian.

I'm surprised Walmart wasn't mentioned as a contributor as well. I know once my small town got its first Walmart, nearly overnight everyone started doing their shopping their instead.

"With the speed and efficiency of a greased Scotsman" - Damn, good sir. Damn.

Props for putting in Never Meant 80’s remix in the second half of the video 🔥

Yo that’s definitely a Synthwave version of Never Meant in the background. Nice.

So many things on this one: 1. I think I’m going to have to adopt Jeep Bean Soups! F’in brilliant. 2. I went to Mall of America last year, it’s the absolute worst place. Was there on a busy weekend and I actually got anxious from the amount of mindless people. Which usually doesn’t happen to me. 3. My community college has its satellite campus is our mostly dead mall! Pretty sure the college moving in there is the only reason it didn’t end up abandoned. It’s the weirdest weirdest thing. Myself and friends literally call it “mall college!”

ah those were the days. I remember going to the mall with my parents every saturdays, and find friends at the mall. and play pokemon cards. It was a good time... Times change tho... I miss the mall..

Good stuff, free. Thanks for sharing.

bro, you can't hit me with the "Home - We're Finally Landing" like that. I'm crying my eyes out.

How could you mention 'Mallrats' without showing a clip from the movie, 'Mallrats'....snoochie boochies!

Then there's me not even knowing malls died

i work at a simon center mall that once had a major shooting occur at it. it’s still as popular today as many years ago, hardly even suffered from the shooting, and is a hot spot for world travelers to visit. however, nearly every mall around it is suffering if not now dead or abandoned. there’s one dead mall that still has the flagship store running, but nearly every other business in the mall shut down.

"...in the world." * BAMFJEREMYCLARKSON * Yup, I just about died at that.

Check out the theory of "liminal spaces" to explain the feeling you have of that warped nostalgia like in the abandoned malls!

We now have a terrible alternative. I live in Canada and for 4 months of the year I truly hate the new big box stores and really miss malls because it was great to have a bunch of stores all in one place where it's warm. To go in and out of a variety of big box stores in a windswept parking lot is a nightmare. I also think big box stores are big business and has run all of the smaller stores out of business, at least some of which were family run. Now, nobody can compete running a small business of any kind.

I'm from a part of the country where malls are still alive and well and found it shocking how in other places it's just common for them to be dead.

Meanwhile in Australia, the shopping centres (aussie malls) still thrive due to a lack of excessive construction. Yes there's no neon lights and hazey carpets, but they have modernized and adapted with the times

Nearly drove me crazy trying to remember what that Home song was. Been 5 years since I've heard that song and album - thanks for bringing it on back.

The void in the middle of huge malls is what caused my phobia of heights/falling

We have three malls in my town, one completely crashed and now only has a bunch of entertainment places like main event. The other is still going strong and there are tons of customers. They added a large outdoor area recently that has really helped them out. The third is an entirely outdoor mall, and while it may not be doing as well as the second mall, its still doing pretty well for itself.

The benefits: many small towns are starting to get their downtowns back as shops refill downtown cores: where people are living because no one can afford to buy a detached house in the suburbs anymore.

I miss Dan Bell. I mean, he's still around, but ever since Will left, he almost strictly focuses on motels & rarely does any Urbex or malls anymore.

I've been watching your videos for about 5 hours, i fell more depressed... But the jokes are funny. 10/10 will subscribe.

One of our dead malls got used for episode 7 of 'The Last of Us' Took me a while to find this channel. Loving your content!

A Mall near me started to collapse with the bankruptcy of Montgomery Ward (I know what was that?). Instead of finding a replacement, the operators raised the rental rates to compensate. The vendors had to raise prices which made them too expensive with comparison to a new store called Walmart. The end was inevitable.

As someone who never experienced malls, growing up in an area without any, I still feel this strange nostalgia towards them and wish I could have experienced them in their hayday. I would have been a mallrat for sure! Since I spend a lot of my time meeting up with people in coffee shops and watching the world go by, I would have been right at home in a mall food court.

Nostalgic af thank you

Just think it is so cool how Ordinary things uses the Vice City mall theme on the background

2:25 I like how you use the mall music from GTA Vice City.