I grew up in Clay, NY. Great Northern Mall was the mall I literally grew up with when I was a kid. Now when I go to that mall and walk around it, I always get teary eyed from seeing what it has become over just a few short decades.
The production on this video is spot-on, Ace. Those few notes on the synthesizer that "Little Lies" opens with give me the same feels now as they did every time that song came on the radio back in 1987.
Really good intro! Was noticing after the intro when the modern empty mall pictures came on...thinking yeah, that's what updated is supposed to look like, yet it is so ugly compared to how it was before - back in the heyday (generally - any mall). Very bland, no style, etc. People also different - undeservedly having a lot less fun. But for the mechanics of it - the modern plastic replacing more genuine metal, wood, and marble, that would have been there before...wondering if that plays into it, plastic having a deadening quality to it, not welcoming, creating an off-putting or repelling vibe.
I’ve figured it out that all disposable income has dwindled for the majority of Americans and has now gone to eating out and more of that is being eaten up by delivery fees. Free shipping at Amazon, Walmart dominance… it’s a perfect storm of no longer chasing the American dream and no longer eating at home mostly. There is also far more food variety these days locally than what’s at the mall. Prices of rent, housing, cars, fuel and even the grocery bills while lack of rising wages have eroded the mall experience.
@@Code7Unltd criminal banking cartel. Yep sums up IBF, WMF, WEF, NWO groups nicely. Tied to control over govt call it corpratism and an outgrowth of pplitical ideologies tied to great evil regimes (plural) of up to a century ago and you have nailed the map to the door.
@Chris”SackNation”Jones Stupid people want cheap 💩. Plus, Ghetto Mart is another who supports Commie China 🇨🇳 and the endless junk imported for them. Some of my good clothes are made elsewhere or in the US 🇺🇸. Even Target 🎯 has become unshoppable, I rarely go there anymore. I remember hess's, they were in Kingston and Poughkeepsie, Wappingers Falls. Terrible they went under.
Japan has an interesting retail scene. We’re seeing more of the Western-style malls with food courts. They’re really nice, and generally very busy. We do have our share of dead malls. Daiei stores, now owned by Aeon, is a really interesting story.
Congrats on 300! 🎉 I love that you used "House of the Rising Sun" at the beginning, I can still hear my father playing that song on his guitar, it's too bad he dosen't do that anymore but I will always associate that song with him
Am 70 now did not get to malls until I was about 40. Enjoyed them,wandering about,food court,movies,running into friends,holiday shopping,and mall employees were fun to talk with.
I just got back from Germany and Austria and I can tell you that their malls are thriving: packed with shoppers and no empty stalls. Almost brought a tear to my eye because that is how I remember malls in the 80's.
At the intro there’s a great photo of K & K Toys, a great Family owned toy chain that had 150+ stores. Eventually they sold the toy stores and built the Dollar Tree Chain. I worked for K & K toys, wonderful family.
I know that Great Northern Mall was never the snazziest, but it was the mall of my youth. I have fond memories of it and it's sad to see it meet such an end :(.
It used to be the mall we always went to as well. We liked it more than carousel. I have fond memories of throwing change in the fountain and then going to wetzels pretzels
Another great job.....So sad what has happened to America....We the people should have stood up and done something about this. Our values are all messed up
I loved seeing the pictures from the 80's of the people in the mall. The woman being helped with the lawn mower. You just don't get that kind of interactive service anymore. Things were great before technology took over pretty much all parts of our lives. For years to come, we are still going to be reminiscing about the heydays of the 80's.
Spot on as always Ace. Congrats on 300! As a child of the 80s every video is a bittersweet ensemble of nostalgia and sorrow. Keep up the great work my friend!
Great job, and congrats on 300! I remember going to this mall a few times as a kid, as well as most of the others in Syracuse. My mom worked here (and a few other malls) doing Hickory Farms about a decade ago, and it was dying then. I would love it if you or someone else could find a way to get into what's left of the old Riverside Mall (now Center) in Utica. I know there was still part of the main area left when they transformed it into a shopping center. I even remember working at Office Max (Now Tractor Supply) and going into the old Bradlees store where they stored some things.
What a great production Ace. I also work in the “ aviation arena”, OEM side though here. Well I will just say it, I am a jet engine R&D mech, but that’s not important, and I don’t get any travel benefits. Anyway, your videos are great little gems that bring me back to my childhood walking the Orange Blossom Mall in Fort Pierce.
It sucks that this mall is basically on the verge of death, I used to go to this mall since I was a young kid, literally nothing is in there besides bath and body works, old navy, and the shoe department, the regal cinema that is gone, literally everything good is gone except for some small buisnesses, there's not even a food court anymore. The building is a waste of space and a bleak reminder of how the landscape of American shopping has changed.
@@TriWaZe I don’t know if you knew but as of today 11/20/22 it’s officially shut down forever. Goodbye great northern 😭. But yeah the only stores left when I made my final visit we’re old navy and bath and body. Can’t believe they survived
I love your videos! I used to hang out at Great Northern Mall almost every weekend as a teenager. People were always there on the weekends, and I would always run into friends. I worked at this mall for years as a young adult. Thank you for making these awesome videos! I really appreciate that other people care about malls like I do. I used to check in on ShoppingTown Mall before it closed. Also, Ames is my favorite retail store of all time. If you didn't know, there's a used car building at Driver's Village that used to be an Ames!
The Greater Syracuse area used to have so many malls in the late 80's/ early 90's. Camillus Mall, Fairmount Fair, Shoppingtown Mall, Penn-Can and of course Great Northern just to name a few. Thanks Again for another great video and congratulations on 300 Ace!
I worked at the mall from 2008 to 2015 and personally witnessed Kohan’s killing of what was once a fun place to shop. In an area that’s exploding with new homes and retail, it sits festering and unloved. So sad to see.
Thank you so much for making this video! I spent my whole childhood in that mall and worked at 2 of the stores. Currently it is closed to the public and the roof collapsed. I was like ugh what I would give for one more walkthrough and to say a final goodbye. It’s nice to be able to have this video as a warm nostalgic memory of everything ❤
I lived about a mile from Great Northern, the sad thing is that there was only a short time that this mall *wasn't* dying. It opened to pretty great fanfare in 1988 - writing the end for the Penn-Can Mall, not far away - but in 1991 was totally eclipsed by the Carousel Center. Just three years after opening, although it would take a little while, the future failure of the mall was already set, and within a year you could see the decline begin.
The owner/manager is a lunatic! I called him and asked if he wanted to sell some stuff from an abandoned store and his reply was ,we will be needing that stuff when new tenants move in! He is definately out of his mind!
Congratulations! 300 is a lot! That arcade was the only life in the place -- and it was empty of customers! The song selection at the beginning was really bittersweet. It felt like a more grounded, honest reflection on the institution of the mall in contrast to one of Dan Bell's videos that opens with a montage set to a cover of "How Will I know" which nailed the nostalgia of the scene. With inflation going crazy, I wonder if mall closings are going to speed up. A lot of articles are being written right now, though, saying that dead malls aren't really dying or that they're really doing well. I can't find it in me anymore to trust most mainstream media. They've just not been truthful for a while about so many things. I guess I'll go back to using my own eyes. At least I can generally believe them.
I was living in Liverpool when this was built. Came home from my first year at Ole Miss in 1989 to this beautiful mall down the road. Saw Road House, Field of Dreams, Batman,Lethal Weapon 2, Ghostbusters 2, Weekend at Bernie's and Dead Poets Society st the theater there that summer before moving south for good that fall. Sorry to see it go
Your videos are quite good as they are. It doesn't look like there are but a couple of places still open in there? They still have the arrows on the floor. Did I hear some music still playing?
Man this one hurts. When I was a kid (in my 30s now) I'd visit my grandparents and we'd go here. It was always packed. It's sad to see it in this shape.
Just found out Mike Kohan bought our mall 1/25/2022. Went last week to see how our mall is doing, it’s horrible. Roads beaten up, one vender in food court, more stores closed. So bad Yankee Candle just disappeared overnight. Sad thing is it’s located in great area.
The music definitely adds to the video but I also like hearing the sounds of air conditioning and the echoes of voices. The addendum at the end about the plow job was good too. 😁👍
I remember back in 2011 my youngest daughter broke her leg coming out of a tent display in Dicks Sporting. She came running out of the tent when my then wife called her. I was looking at another tent on the other side when I heard a blood curdling scream. Ran to see her on the ground and her leg broken. I ran to Macy's where the car was parked an ambulance took her to the hospital. I also remember when this mall opened. And when I took my kids and here later back in 2018 I believe. I did my own video of it but unedited and no where as good from what Aces Adventures does. Mine is horrible actually. Wish I could do as well as he does.
I've had the good fortune to go here twice, December 2021 and May 2022, and it's about the best (worst) dead mall of the 25 or so I've visited. Great video - thanks for this!
I thought that was the mall here for a minute. 98 store, but only 7 or 8 mom-and-pop style stores open, and neither of the 3 anchor stores open. Been that way for years now.
I remember this mall being built. It’s really sad how bad it has become. I live really close to this place and go there at least twice a month to see how much worse it’s gotten. I mean the potholes alone are enough to do damage to a vhecial. I’m hoping the one local that wants to buy the place and fix it up can. Thanks for the great content. If nothing is done I would say one year max and then it will end up like Shoppingtown Mall.
This was my mall growing up. I'd make the 8 mile bike ride there every Saturday to go hang out with my friends. It's sad how the mall was left to basically rot and the last of the shops are leaving because of it. The mall was closed for 6 weeks because of pipes bursting and the owner not fixing it until codes stepped in. Let's not forget the millions in back taxes owed to Onondaga county cause the owner hasn't paid a penny. Meanwhile my friend who was the store manager of the Hallmark that was there just closed, the comic/game shop recently left and moved across the street. Last August, there was a collector event that I had my artwork at and the crowd that showed was 2k+ and so many wished the mall would come back, but it isn't going to happen
That mall, honestly, has long past a point of no return, even if Kohan wasn't the one in charge of it. I suspect once the current set of leases expire, that's it - Great Northern Mall will be no more. Yes, the former Macy's is getting converted into a furniture store under separate ownership, but that won't save the mall on its own.
I really appreciate the artistry of your locked off videography. It's well composed, perfectly level. You could sell prints of some of these shots, really.
What is that device at the left at 5:38 (square wooden thing)? It shows up regularly in mall videos but I never encountered this thing in the (European) malls I have visited.
@@daddynitro199 Thanks for the reply. With these hints I was able to find a close up video of such a device ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4TnHV6qpAzk.html
THe music in this was dead bang. Pastels and neon - says she who drove a 1982 Chevy Cav. (you had to kill the a/c to go uphill - that Chevy Cav.) If Bath and Body Works is closing down, will somebody please go in and get the plants? They don't deserve what's coming.
Welcome to Great Boredom Mall; The mall that started the malling of Syracuse by taking the Sears anchor from Penn-Can (Been Canned) mall, which started it's decline. This mall is probably the most bland mall I've ever seen, IMHO, even when it was new. I haven't seen the inside in decades, and from the thumbnail it doesn't look like it's changed at all.
Nice intro. And there is still more to fuck up. I was in Retail and worked in Toronto malls in the 90's. It was amazing time. Greedy land lords have a a role to play with the fall of the malls..
First of all congrats on over 300 videos Ace. That's a big milestone. Second, nice video. Liminal Spaces fascinate me, especially arcades. They have the facade of being full of life with the loud sounds, bright lights and colors they're known for but your footage showed there was no one there at all. That really stands out to me more than a standard Liminal Space.
Ace, every video you make is worth the wait. I also watch Doomie and maybe others but Ace is one of the best. Wasn't sure where Clay, NY was even though I live in the Rochester area. With masks gone now, maybe the malls left will see more life. We here in the Rochester area only have 2 malls left, the one near me still has a JC Penny and Macys. For how long, I don't know.
Getting into the Sunrise Mall will be well worth your trouble. I was in there a couple of months before it closed for good in 2019. You can see the video on my channel if you would like. If you are able to do a meet and greet somewhere in Southeast Texas, it would be cool.
Looks like the shoe finally dropped for Great Northern. A letter dated October 27th, 2022 was sent out by Kohan announcing the termination of leases for all remaining tenants and that the mall will close permanently on November 20th, 2022.
Thank you...Think you should do the Hudson valley mall in ulster ny.. the most empty mall I seen even the area has had a re-sergent with NYC poeple moving up due to covid job gone .. they the hvm made all the wrong turns...
I'm so excited to see your international videos. Those malls in Japan and other countries are booming. Good to see you back and your opening was great. I loved the music.
