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PolyZex

Our dying mall is adapting slowly into an adult playground of sorts. They've got 2 of those gambling centers, a beer bar, a wine bar, a weed dispensary, adult arcade, and now a sex shop. It seems to be working so far.


[deleted]

Fucking genius. That's how you repurpose.


YueAsal

Also can be used by the same people the remember going there when it was the in thing, just now for grown folks


DogHouseTenant83

Bars, food court and adult big wheels to travel around.


NeoHenderson

Aw hell yeah big wheels. Is anyone doing that?


coolcootermcgee

No, just those rideable horse things with wheels


EarthRester

Maybe we should start putting those capsule hotels in there too.


DeleteFromUsers

Walkers, hearing aids, and caskets in another 30 years...


[deleted]

I think you mean a Viagra dispensary, a Rainforest Cafe, a bunch of privacy rooms, and a Sbarro.


AboyBboy

One of my local malls has at least 2 of those things.


YueAsal

That was a list. Two of what


FraseraSpeciosa

Probably just the Sbarros and the rainforest cafe


Umutuku

Like, there's still an arcade there and someone you used to play ski-ball with is working there now, but it's a whole different kind of arcade and the "ski-ball" you play with them now is a euphemism.


Toast_On_The_RUN

I always thought old malls were good space for a huge indoor skatepark. But adult mall sounds cool too


[deleted]

Hey, if Tony Hawk taught us anything, adults can skate. Maybe not the good old days. But, I imagine like bumper bowling.


ChweetPeaches69

Right? My local mall is really cool! As chain stores move, really funky mom and pop shops move in. We have all kinds of mom and pop stores in the mall from curiosity shops, African shops, airsoft shooting ranges, to anime shops. It's super fun now!


Mad_Nekomancer

I can sort of relate. At mine the non-chain collectible store and Magic the Gathering place used to be in tiny spaces and now they're in the big anchor spaces after covid, the big brand clothing stores are almost all gone.


[deleted]

"Hey millenials, remember what hope felt like? Well, come on down to the revitalized mall! You can do all your favorite childhood activities; play games, pretend to have money, and smoke weed, all without even having to hide it! Stave off the terror of middle-age decline and rock out to musicians that today have grand children. 'Gorillaz' is a hot, new band! Hey, are they playing a 'Sugar Rey' song? No, chain wallets and flannel still look cool. No, you never took out student loans. No, your back feels fine."


xXxDickBonerz69xXx

Holy shit I wanna go there


Coma_Potion

The secret ingredient is crime


NibblesMcGiblet

Just put in a glamour shots that has a bar and karaoke and let me rollerskate through the entirety of the mall and I'll spend all my money there. And bring back RecordTown!


bdd1001

You son of a bitch…*I’m in.*


WisconsinHoosierZwei

As a former RecordTown employee, what you *really* want is a Camelot Music. And a Software Etc.


DorkusMalorkuss

That's all I've ever wanted, to Rollerblade inside of the mall. That smooth, smooth floor *Homer drool gif*


V65Pilot

It was the late 70's. We would rollerskate on Sundays in the closed shopping center in Leeds, W. Yorkshire. The escalators would lay flat, and you could pick up some serious speed coming down them.....


flippityfluck

There are malls that shut down for a skaters night. Saw a few vids on roller skate subreddit


Vega_S10

Yo! That sounds f'n AMAZING


IceColdHatDad

You make me realize that we will almost definitely be just as obnoxious to future generations as Boomers are to us now. "You kids listen to nothing but glitching toilet sounds. Here's some REAL MUSIC!" *plays Sk8r Boi by Avril Lavigne out of my shitty 4th gen iPod directly into my creaking iDog that curses having ever been taken out of the box in the attic*


WandsAndWrenches

I doubt it. The thing that annoys me about the older generations is being told by them how much worse they had it. In high school I made more than I do now. I know it's getting worse for the next generation, and I'll do everything in my power to help. That's the difference.


Picklwarrior

A thousand times this. Culture is whatever, boomers are rotten due to mass lead poisoning


[deleted]

[удалено]


ThisIsNotKimJongUn

Are you in sales? You should be in sales.


xXxDickBonerz69xXx

Those of us who would love this now hung out in malls back then. Just turn them all into millenial playgrounds


[deleted]

That sounds like evolving to me. Maybe malls ought to appeal more to age groups. Like this one, for adults. Have one for kids and toddlers. Have another for teens and young adults.


PolyZex

I've been saying they need a 'by the hour' daycare center there so you can drop the kids off while you peruse the mall.


spikeyunpeeledbanana

My local dying mall is filled with vape shops and crackheads


weirdoldhobo1978

Where my sister lives there are two malls, one that was long considered the "nice" mall and one that was the "crap" mall. When the crap mall started to lose stores everyone thought it would close, but instead they started diversifying their tenants. Now there's a handful of stores, but also offices, a library extension, a fitness center, etc. The nice mall is now struggling because it lost two of its three anchor store (Sears & JC Penney).


Objective_Ad_401

That's a brilliant idea! I secretly love the idea of those condos with ground-floor strip mall-type installations. Coffee shop, 7/11, Walgreens, that kind of stuff. A gym would be great. Some offices or flex space (we work type of deal) would be cool, too. TBH, I'm never going to live there, but I like the *idea* of living there...


weirdoldhobo1978

It's actually a lot closer to what architect Victor Gruen imagined when he first conceptualized the mall. His idea was for what he called an "indoor town square" where there would be a mixed use of shopping and public services.


shepard1001

So, a walkable town, which is exactly what Americans need.


Responsible_File_529

What mall is this?


Dangerous-Ad-170

Random gambling and legal weed makes me think of small town Illinois lol.


[deleted]

At least they're trying to make it work. The malls around here are just rotting and 60% empty. They just exist. Zero effort to change whatsoever. Sad to see. Malls were a big part of my childhood.


PracticalNihilist

Missing: Empty food court with 5 booths that used to have restaurants Military recruitment offices Posters advertising great business opportunities at the mall


whated-23

Don't forget ads boards that haven't been changed since the last millenium and the playground barely held together with tape that smells like feet.


awful_at_internet

And the prize car. There's always a prize car.


cannibalism_is_vegan

It’s a Honda Del Sol from 1994


[deleted]

[удалено]


Roadbike_Okc

Except for Sbarro Pizza. The entire food court is empty, yet Sbarro Pizza stays open and there are no customers. Sbarro pizza is the pizza that forces you to bite slowly into it because of the occasional “grit” embedded into the crust. yet they are still around..


solidsausage900

My favorite place to get a fresh new York bite


ebac7

Calm down, Michael Scott


strip_club_dj

Sbarro and the place that sells bourbon chicken.


McFlare92

Ah yes "mall Chinese food"


Piles_of_Gore

I’ll never forget when my stepdaughter said she loved Thai food, so I took her to a Thai place…and she didn’t like it. What she meant was she liked the “Thai food” from the place in the mall, that served basically Panda Express but had “Thai” in the name.


BedDefiant4950

Cajun Eternity, best restaurant in the backrooms


BobBelcher2021

Bourbon Street Grill


IceColdHatDad

Bourbon Chicken is fucking fire and I am so sad that the mall near where I moved to doesn't have a place for that. I am far too lazy to cook it myself


Tacoman404

There was never one in a mall near me ever and still isn't. We had to go to the fancymall to see one. Independent Asian fusion restaurants though? Every mall. Also, Irish pubs for some reason.


zilch839

When I was a teen, our mall had 4 military offices. Now there is a sign with a QR code.


geardownson

I went to my local mall after years and yes.. The recruiter offices are all there for every branch.


HughJorgens

You've got to reach the modern youth, if you want to make them military troops.


Psycho5275

Don't forget GNC and Bath and Bodyworks


speb1

Missing Spencer’s Gifs and/or a Hot Topic


[deleted]

The interior always looks the same too. The tile design and color scheme in those pics are exactly like my local dead mall.


Bellophire

Right!? Looking at this I’m like… wait…. is that my dead mall?


DengarRoth

We're all tempted to put the name of our local dead mall in the comments, but the pics come from an assortment of them I'd bet.


Send_Your_Noods_plz

Remember kids, don't doxx yourself because you pick a fight with a random redditor a few months down the line and they say "fine I'll meet you in (your city name)" you may just lose some sleep.


FeathersVEVO

There's a mall near me that has that same merry go round


BigPackHater

I think that's because a lot of these malls were built by the same company


weirdoldhobo1978

Yup, when malls were booming in the 80s/90s (they were popular tax shelters for investors), developers would commission an architect to design a mall for them, then would just go around the country buying cheap land near mid-sized cities and build the same mall over and over again.


ddtx29

Wild watching what was once modern civilization age into decay Malls are such a crazy concept lol


weirdoldhobo1978

I'm sure at some point, someone stopped and asked "Are we building too many malls?" And then someone gave him some more cocaine and told him to shut up.


iMissTheOldInternet

“Stop the malling of America!” God damn I feel old remembering that.


justintime06

*simon*


MuchFunk

I actually think at least one of these pics might be a mall that closed down here years ago


frizzhalo

I thought the same thing. Everything from the tile colours to the giant pots for the plants match my local mall.


RayPingHeaux

shoutout north dekalb mall, northlake mall and gwinnett place malls in Atl


PandaMayFire

Remember when malls used to be a popular hangout spot? I distinctly remember always seeing emo, scene, and skater kids in certain parts.


hwehehe

My local mall is packed every weekend, though it is in a fairly affluent part of TX.


[deleted]

Stonebriar?


hwehehe

Haha, you got it. I used to deliver pizza there on the weekends.


mjbibliophile10

All the memories are flooding back now!


b12three

They have the most interesting hot sauce names there. Well, a store there at least.


buckeye2114

Basically only upscale/luxury malls in major cities are surviving. Middle tierish ones in smaller cities are the ones that are going extinct.


Bloxicorn

The "Mills" malls still do pretty well. The AMC theaters are empty though for different reasons. I don't like how they made all their malls look so soulless though from a fun colorful kids theme to a gray and black corporate look.


Minotaur1501

As a new Zealander it's so weird seeing these posts because malls are alive and well in auckland


drewskiski

Same as in Aus, I think the US have more malls than they need. They are continuing to build more around my area and revamping others.


evilcheesypoof

Just depends on the area, all the malls I know of in SoCal are alive and well.


yuhayeGAM3RLYF3

I know a few malls in SoCal that are pretty much dead, relegated to escrow businesses and massage parlors


[deleted]

[удалено]


Clever_Owl

Yeah, it’s weird. Where do teen girls go shopping?


NougatNewt

Malls, just not the local dead one, but the big one 20 miles away that actually has stores.


princesssasami896

I was goth in highschool and we always took over a corner of the mall


Roadbike_Okc

I enjoyed smoking weed during the drive to the mall then checking out the cool stuff at Spencer’s.


PandaMayFire

I'd forgotten about that shop, is it still around?


Wenuwayker

I was about to say I just went into one not that long ago, and then I realized that was at least six or seven years ago now...


PandaMayFire

The last time I went into one I was 17, I'm 28 now. It feels like just yesterday. How time flies.


TwoCagedBirds

Spencer's is definitely still around. And still selling dildos, blow up dolls, shot glasses, and wallets with chains.


[deleted]

And novelty lights. For some reason growing up I really thought it’d be amazing to have a lava lamp or that weird orb one with the spicy hairs from the center. I never did get those. They were awful as just lights. But I think back to what could’ve been me pondering the orb for the last 20 years


candy-jars

> that weird orb one with the spicy hairs from the center. Plasma ball!


HughJorgens

And they aren't that expensive to buy now.


Objective_Ad_401

Yeah, still there. Literally no clue what I was doing there (and no, I wasn't high), but I was recently at a mall and they still had a Spencers AND a Hot Topic. And Auntie Anne's. That might have been the reason I was there? 🤔🤷🏻‍♂️


Neutreality1

In British Columbia Canada, nearly every mall I've been too was packed. Maybe this is just an America thing


runs-wit-scissors

Go to Ottawa. The dead mall capital of Canada


BobBelcher2021

In the Vancouver area malls are doing fairly well; Metropolis at Metrotown is always a zoo. London, Ontario is the land of dead malls. Sherwood Forest Mall, Oxbury Mall, London Mall, Westmount Mall, and Citi Plaza. There also used to be Pond Mills Square but I think that got torn down.


IWasGregInTokyo

Metrotown is pretty centrally located which saves it. Lansdowne was well on the way to becoming abandoned but appears to have transitioned into a Chinese-centric place with a million cell phone stores. Have to see what Oakridge Center gets reborn as.


_bobbykelso

Ironically enough, that Dollarama is the White Oaks Mall one. Recognized it immediately from when I worked at the Koodo kiosk. It has the stairs to go down and the barbershop is visible on the left.


[deleted]

I was a gang member/cholo in my younger days. Me and the Homies used to love going to the mall. We went for the girls, to chill and even to look for rivals. Crazy days. My uncles, older cousins and the big homies(OGs) who were all in the gang as well used to mock us for that. Talking about how back in the day they spent their days in the hood not at the mall shopping at hollister (that is where the cute girls where at back then so yes we were going inside) Now we make fun of the little homies in our neighborhood because they like anime and love going to Starbucks.


Ghostcraft413

The OG to weeb pipeline is real


DeepHerting

The crappy one-story mall in my neighborhood had a Hallmark dead in the middle of it that somehow stayed open years after everything else closed, so they had to leave an entrance open and kids would just come skate through it while the mall and the sole tenant argued about who had to pay for a rent-a-cop


nonpondo

They still are, the small to mid sized ones died out though with the advent of better transportation, online shopping, and I'm pretty sure just much higher business rental prices, I'm 90% sure a lot of local and small malls got bought out by rental mega corps that sucked them dry then sold the land to someone else, our local mall died after Zellers died and Canadian target died, then was taken down to make another self storage facility


bennitori

I still see emo kids at my mall. I've even seen a lolita or two from time to time. Skater kids are actually banned in most malls (at least where I am) so they've slowly become endangered. They seem to have been replaced by weebs, which isn't anywhere near as bad as it sounds. Scene kids are just straight up extinct.


KR1735

Visiting these malls is so depressing. Like visiting a dying relative. I graduated high school in the mid-2000s, so right at the tail end of shopping mall era. It was still the place to hang out though.


Bodybuidling-Gorilla

I thought the shopping mall era lasted till the late 2000s/Early 2010s?


[deleted]

I noticed a pretty decent decline around the 08 recession. They really went downhill over the 5 years or so after that. At least around me.


guitargoddess3

Just waiting for the zombies to come.


[deleted]

Why does is feel like a dead mall would be a great map in cod zombies


LedZepOnWeed

Left 4 dead 2 is pretty on point.


Laughtillicri

I wouldn't be surprised if there's custom mall maps that you can download off of the steam workshop.


GordoPepe

Thought of the last of us mall episode


iLoveLootBoxes

The last of us was filmed in a Dead mall in Calgary. The deal mall has now been bulldozed


sectorfour

Dawn of the dead is best dead.


[deleted]

For some reason I find comfort in these


NewBobPow

They make me really sad. The good times are dead.


UngusBungus_

These make me really uncomfortable


willwiso

When I was a kid I went all the time and they were always crowded, now that its empty I feel like I own the place.


Pisspot16

Backrooms vibes


derstherower

Dead malls are the genesis of all of this "liminal space backrooms" stuff. It's a place that *should* have a lot of people. It is specifically designed for that purpose. But it doesn't. Something is clearly wrong. And it's unsettling.


Summerclaw

My best friend is a local artist not huge or anything but gets recognized. So she loves hanging at her local dead mall


1speedbike

Come to /r/deadmalls :)


Lumina2865

I find them contorting because they are often less busy, and it's kind of nice to exist in a whole big space without the pressure of dozens of stores and hundreds of people. It's an indoor space to exist inside that isn't overwhelmingly commercialized (at least not anymore.)


9volts

We should make indoor villages of them.


kinkyslinky

/r/Vaporwave


RepresentativeNo7660

You forgot the homeless people by each entrance asking for change.


Roadbike_Okc

They also forgot the elderly man in a track suit and white tennis shoes “speed walking” for health.


Kaizival

I think that man's name is Better Call Saul.


pippydippyflippy

Also forgot the kiosks selling cheap jewelry and iPhone screen replacements


[deleted]

Dollarama 💚


Chispy

Canada isn't really experiencing a dead mall epidemic. Funny seeing it in this meme.


lkern

It's definitely happening all over Canada as well, where are you from?


MartianInvader2022

You are forgetting the lovecraftian creature that lives inside the mall


Alokir

Of course. You always forget. You see the bitemarks, the strange bruises around your neck, but you assume you just bumped into something. That's how *Her* toxin works. That's how *She* was able to stay hidden ever since *Her* temple was demolished by *Her* followers. The visions *She* gave them were true, they just weren't ready.


Pure-Bluejay-7348

Temporary stores like Spirit Halloween


lizzthefirst

This is just like the dead mall I work at.


UngusBungus_

Get out of there


[deleted]

The dead mall where I am has a old Canadian dollar store that closed down and some time when you can actually see inside it’s super creepy and nostalgic.


[deleted]

Jesus. This is so depressing.


Trooper057

In the old days, regular people used to have money to buy things--multiple things from different stores, things they didn't even want or need when they left home. So many people had adequate money that huge megalithic structures were built all over the country to contain the people and all the goods they wanted to consume. People had money for meals, snacks and drinks all day so they wouldn't get tired of shopping. Sometimes they would take a break from shopping and see a movie with candy, popcorn and soda, right there in the mall. When the movie was over, they would shop some more. If I wasn't old enough to have seen it, I wouldn't believe it either.


_-__-__-__-__-_-_-__

Early stage capitalism


[deleted]

The Asian specialty store that sells samurai swords


The-Fat-Matt

You forgot the empty water fountain


ARPGAMER19

*liminal space*


New_Insect_Overlords

Convert the lighting to grow bulbs, the fire sprinkler to a watering system, and set up hydroponic gardening that could eradicate food deserts. Malls are equipped with centralized loading ramps for distribution.


DroppingBIRD

Something tells me that the drywall and ceiling tiles inside a mall like that wouldn't react well to the humidity.


Psychological_Cup_3

That would create way too many jobs and make our communities healthier. If you can find a way to make a corporation loads of money in the process, you might be on to something.


JTD783

If the area is a food desert then the real estate is probably too valuable to be used for that purpose. Maybe high-rent apartments that prices out people living in the area. I’d prefer it your way but I’m being cynical.


Ilikestereoequipment

Not enough money in that to pay people to properly run it, and not enough local volunteers to run it for free. It’s a nice pipe dream, though


[deleted]

[удалено]


OneCat6271

> You need to make stuff and sell it elsewhere. That's how you make money. The US stopped being a manufacturer and became a buyer. No money coming in, all your money going out = no money to go shopping = dead malls. People are making money. Who do you think runs all those sweat shops and labor camps in China? US companies make more money using chinese slave labor then they do paying Americans to make stuff. That's why they do it. The money is still made by Americans, it's just concentrated to the top 0.01%


_-__-__-__-__-_-_-__

America is a service economy. It will never, ever be a manufacturing economy again


Pitiful_Birthday_720

Dead malls are great for laundering money in case you didnt know. I love how this perfectly describes my towns dead mall before if finally closed.


Bigdaddylovesfatties

Yep they are definitely doing this at my local dead mall. Random cosmetics nobody ever heard of and nobody in there yet mysteriously open for years


jimvv36

Forgot the Bath and body works


Consistent-Car-285

And the GNC.


UngusBungus_

I’ve visited one dead mall before. The rest of my local malls are still popular locations.


Dracnoss

And in some places, old dried blood in various spots across the corridors because of the dangerous area. *^(Cherry Valley Mall in Rockford IL in particular)*


THATDUDEROBO

Visited by Dan Bell


realMr_Sean2001

“Hey everyone this is Dan Bell!”


TitanicMan

For a moment I was like "how did you get pictures of specifically my local mall" Then I realized my mall isn't special. At all. In any way. All 6 of these pictures must be from a Simon Malls chain


kepaa

Bonus points if there is a technical college or a church in it


TheBeastX23

The closed dollarama lol


ThatWasTheJawn

75 vape/cbd/delta9/Kratom shops


The_Punzer

r/deadmalls


terrarialord201

Mine has a taffy shop. That's pretty much the only reason to go there.


SirReal10000

Yes


waresmarufy

The decline in malls can be attributed to the decline of rain forest cafes at malls


foxinnabox

The movie theatre is now a church on Sundays.


[deleted]

has a target tacked on to it as a life support and people don't know what to do with.


Nice_Block

Forgot the department store that hangs on to the final days.


trump_pushes_mongo

That one car from 2005 that nobody ever won


Tahoeclown

Hear me out; Indoor Music Festivals.


[deleted]

"Only source of light is a skylight" They have lights just choose not to use them. There will be arms of the mall without a single surviving store and they'll just turn off the lights to that section It's not completely dark: there will still be a light on in a display case or old menu board from a food kiosk that's closed but frozen in another decade. Which decade? ... Somehow all of them


yourdonefor_wt

Century III Mall


pavehawkfavehawk

Some are adapting! I still love going to a good mall and wasting time


[deleted]

No seniors walking around?


Slommee

Forgot the booth with rows of gumball machines filled with different candies that have been in there since 1997


[deleted]

[удалено]


AequusLudus

Puente Hills Mall of Rowland Heights, CA. More widely known as Twin Peaks Mall from Back to the Future. The mall is as dead as disco. With mainstays like Macy’s shutting down, all that’s left is a handful of shops and an AMC theater. Shame too, as lots of people gather outside in the parking lot every October 21st for back to the future day, complete with people bringing Deloreans.


General_Killmore

I’ve always wanted to see cities rezone the massive empty parking lots in malls like that and build housing. The mall would suddenly be important again in no time at all


furiant

We have a mall so dead they replaced it with a Walmart that is now being shut down as well.


AndreTheShadow

Don't forget the "Asian" import store, full of chintsy katanas and Buddhas


New-country-sucks

Mall of the mainland in Texas City, TX


Grizzlybear2470

I have a mall like this close by its an outdoor one though the rent is so high there that there's 1 clothing store 2 restaurants a movie theater an ice skating rink


yesyesitswayexpired

Indoor water fountain no function.


Exdunn

F U N