This mall is so pretty! It looks like they’ve actually tried to do what they can to keep out going. It seems well taken care of for what it is. How sad 😢
I'm pretty sure one of the reasons malls are still relatively popular in latin america is because online retail still hasn't taken off in a big way as it has in more developed countries. I'm Venezuelan and malls are still a really central part of social life in the cities, big contrast compared to the US.
i’m colombian and i noticed that too while visiting family in medellin lol. however malls still seem to be very popular and packed in miami where i live, i wonder if it has to do with the large latino population as well?
The difference between the Baltimore mall and a lot of other dead malls that have been covered on this channel is that most of those malls look old, run down or at the very least antiquated and out of date. They often appear to be stuck in other era, such as the 70s or 80s, while the Gallery mall in Baltimore appears well kept, bright, modern and upscale. It looks as if the owners still cared about it, yet that that wasn't enough to keep it thriving and in business. Such a shame.
The Gallery in Baltimore was really cool, and was placed in one of the nicer parts of the city that being the Inner Harbor. Such a shame it’s no longer around
I'm from Linthicum, this is so sad to see. Remember the glory days there with the Stauffer hotel attached, full food court. Banana Republic, Gap, Brooks Brothers, victorias secret, and so so many more. Still a beautiful mall. Makes me so sad...
I just moved to Japan and went to a mall near us (west side of Tokyo), and I was floored. It was a three story mall with amazing shops on every floor and on the ground floor they had a higher end grocery store attached. My 7 year old daughter didn't know what to think, she's never seen a mall with that many people actually shopping in it before. It was so nostalgic for me. Such a starch contrast to the malls we've been to in America recently. They too had many US stores, including an H&M and McDonalds. Also Toys R' Us is alive and well over here! We went on a weekday, because on the weekends or national holidays the place has a line just to wait for parking. (You also don't go to Cosco or Ikea on those days for the same reason.) Glad to know Japan isn't the only country keeping Malls alive and well!
Not just Japan, a friend of mine in SE Asia sent me pics of a big mall that he can walk to from his residence. Big mall with tons of stores, mostly mom and pop, and regular foot traffic. He is also close to two other malls that he can get to by ridesharing apps and it's the same result: big malls with regular foot traffic and tons of stores. All three are gorgeous and remind me of 1970s to 1990s mall architecture.
It's actually neat to see. Nothing will beat my memories of being in the malls back in the 80's and early 90's, places were just nuthouses. Especially around this time of year. But it really brings back memories to see a truly active mall again. Very cool.
@@danellacullen4401 lol! Same at our mall, there was a section by K-mart where all the old timers sat and chain smoked all day. We called it "Deaths front door"
A large mall near me used to have a really full parking lot during the holidays. Sometimes you had to park along the highway and walk a ways to get into the packed mall. A few days ago I drove by and the lots were maybe a quarter full, with open parking spots right up to the entrance...something is happening in America and I'm not sure what it is.
And this is how I learn the Gallery is closing lol. Back in the early 2010s, that place was a staple of our Otakon weekends. I've since left Baltimore (with no intention of going back), and this oddly enough is giving me a sense of closure? The last of good memories coming to an end.
I am gobsmacked by the malls in Ecuador! It’s like the 80’s but with more advanced tech and everyone in masks it’s so surreal! Also noticed Dunkin Donuts wasn’t just Dunkin like it is here now! Everything is just humming and vibrant, I love it.
What technology? They look like malls. In Ohio I’ve been to two malls this month and they looked just like that lol. What’s masking matter if we’ve got the vax too lol??
@@_KRose seriously lol? Doesn’t the vaccine almost completely eliminate risk of death and hospitalization? What’s the hold up? It’s free and if you want it you’ve already had it
I live in Maryland, London UK. Fun fact, it's the only place in the UK named after a place in the USA when the landowner returned to London from the states in the 17th century having made a shit ton of money, from probably questionable means.
That’s a myth. There is very little evidence to back that claim up. Even if it is true we are taking about an person/ event from the late 1690s. America was still Britain at that point really anyway.
Man, that mall in Baltimore looks beautiful...could they maybe keep the decor and turn it into office space or something? Would be a shame for all that to just be torn out/destroyed.
I visit Baltimore frequently for work and I travel down from Philly. Baltimore has taken huge leaps backwards in the last decade. The level of crime and bs happening downtown makes me hate visiting.
Getting dressed up and heading to the mall is an enduring weekend tradition among Hispanic people for reasons I still don't completely understand despite being one of them myself. If you're ever in south Florida, I recommend Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise, Dolphin Mall in Sweetwater, and Westland Mall in my native Hialeah if ya wanna see BUSTLING malls in modern day America!
when dan said he hasn’t seen a crowd like that since he was a kid i’m thinking wow he should check out dolphin mall, that place stays packed no matter what day it is lol
Holy crap! I left Baltimore 20 years ago...I didn't realize The Gallery was dead. I don't know what I expected knowing the state of retail now days, but it's certainly a stark contrast of what I remember in the late 80s and 90s.
As a Canadian, it's so odd to see the mall industry dying in the USA. Malls are still a super popular place to shop here, and even smaller/older ones usually have a staple grocery store or something attached to keep traffic flowing. I've always thought it's because we have less affordable shipping options, but I wonder if there's other reasons... anyways lol great video!
Man, I remember the last time I was in the mall. Circa 2012 - it was totally different. It was a humming ecosystem of shops, and people. I only live about 45 mins away, but I dont travel to baltimore too much. I remember my girlfriend and I at the time road the metro down to baltimore and the Galleria was one of the places we went. Crazy how much its changed since then as far as business. Sad.
I for sure hung out at malls in the early 2000s and had a blast. Nothing beyond 2006. I have Christmas memories of my aunt and mom dragging us through crowded malls decked out with decorations and sale signs! I remember being with my sister and cousins and waiting to ride the little train. We hated waiting for them and it took soo long yet somehow now its a good memory looking back. Best memory ever was my two oldest cousins getting so bored they dug through my aunts purse for change to throw in the fountain. They started throwing in quarters. She realized what they were doing, flipped out and went in after what was probably $5 in change 😂 We still bring it up. She always says that was our toll money home and she has no regrets 😂😂😂 I think that was the Woodbridge Mall in NJ
As someone who lived in the DC metro area as a kid and whose parents liked to visit Baltimore a lot, I can confirm Dan's recollection that the stores in the mall didn't have metal gates in the 80s. I also seem to remember there was another, smaller mall on the other side of that bridge going across the street, and it had a little kiosk-style record store on the second floor that specialized in new age LPs and cassettes.
Used to visit the Gallery Mall often in the early 2000s when I worked downtown. Always packed, and my goto was a Steak Sandwich place on the upper floor. Can't remember the names, but various chain food court establishments. Hard to believe that place and the mall across the street being dead. The Harbor was a fun place to walk around, or just sit and people watch.
13:20 A few reasons why Payless Shoesoure went bust in the US: * Walmart is the obvious answer. Internet might play a role as well, but then again, the hassle of making sure the clothes/shoes fit and doing returns makes that tedious for now. * Charging high prices for shoes that won't last as long as competitors when they should've kept to the cheap model. * Debt thru Mergers and Acquisitions.
Globalist policies that export American manufacturing and wealth to the world leaving us with nothing but a pyramid scheme welfare-service economy might have a lot to do with it, too. In fact, that's why Wal-Mart exists in the first place.
Quite an interesting note about how you hadn't seen a packed mall in years. My local shopping centre (the biggest in Ireland) is always rammed with people. Even now following the pandemic empty lots have new stores and carparks are full. There aren't many malls here in Ireland but the ones we have are all heavily depended on.. Maybe the usa is just over saturated with them?
It's a double effect. We've oversaturated with malls in addition to making a cultural shift to online purchasing. I think malls in the US could survive one, but not both.
I disagree with both assessments. The US economy is in free fall due to lack of gainful employment, mismanagement by Boomers, and outrageous pricing. People shop at Walmart because they have no disposable income.
@@equid0x Today's individual wants cheap, that is why most US manufacturers set up shop in China 🇨🇳. I, on the other hand, would rather pay a bit more for quality, especially if manufactured in the US. I do agree that disposable income has evaporated because the wealthy hoarding their wealth while the middle class has evaporated. The disparity now has widened considerably. And I must say that Ghetto Mart is not as inexpensive as they make themselves out to be!
9:04 I was in my local mall today, instead of the Christmas setup with train track and Santa pics, there was a mini flea market set up. Two guys selling jewelry, an air purification system, candles, etc. About 8 tables. As you said, it's odd to see!
The mall format isn't the problem. Seeing that mall in Ecuador, it just hit me. The mall format isn't the problem. All the dead malls in America are a symptom of a bigger problem.
Leftist ideology, " dieversity", mass immigration, big Corp and the destruction of the middle class, leftist ran disaster cities and the erosion of community and culture would be my placed bets.
@@underfire987 When you'd rather price everyone out and put the whole building out of business to file bankruptcy (or pass it to another bank which will also do nothing with it), there's no incentive for anyone to move in. This is a major systematic issue, and greedy banks and landowners are to blame. In any other country they'd lower rent and commerce could still occur, but here they only pipe dream of wanting a certain "breed" of stores and consumers to exist.
Thats cause those sort of "boomer" type conservative countries, are still outdated and infrastructure for "lazy" delivery isnt there yet. Malls in general are extremely wasteful. They tend to innovate / progress very slow, its why malls tend to be good in those places. Its like conservative Russia, their malls do great but their "economy" is extremely poor due to poor innovation which will lead to war eventually; thats like comparing our red welfare states which barely survive, that has to borrow from socialist government; its why business's arent holding up as they used to, cause people want a "LIVEABLE" wage, society is getting tired of being exploited of slave wages, hence fascist corporations are dying out with other business's which pay very poor.. As infrastructure is still a mess in a lot of countries, trying to do actual delivery, for online shopping which cuts out the useless malls. When societies advance faster with tech, makes "self" shopping a whole lot easier, once we get there tho, still a long way, seems like history is repeating itself backwards.
@@koilamaoh4238 it does go backwards, I see mom and pop stores opening back up in rural flea market/"dirt malls" that thrive, you just need to drive an hour from any major city. You also get ample free parking and clean air. Cites themselves are cesspools.
Kennewick Washington has a mall at full capacity. We have outgrown it 10 years ago, it's small for our combined city of 400k people but large enough for essentials
Hey Dan, we have a mall in San Jose, California called: Valley Fair and it’s busy like this one you should come check it out! Great video on this one ☝️
I was thinking the same thing. In NYC and NJ we have Newport Center and Garden State Plaza, Willowbrook Mall, Riverside Square, and many many more malls which are bustling. In areas where there are immigrants from all over the world, one generally finds malls that are still doing really well. Nothing against Baltimore/Annapolis area where Dan lives, but it’s not a very international place…and the malls are very generic (and dying). However it’s not the case all over the US.
Roseville, California has a successful mall called the Galleria. The Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento isn't doing so well in fact the Nordstrom anchor has closed.
Hi there local! I’m from the Bay as well. Valley Fair is only a 15-ish drive from my home. If he had managed to catch it, he could have seen the mall+Macys nearby Murphy Ave 7 it’s deconstruction but now it’s all new buildings and more.
Dan, I’ve been rocking with you on this dead mall stuff since late 2015. I have watched others, and there are some good ones, but no one does it better than you brother man.
One of our last malls was foreclosed on a couple of months ago in Little Rock. CBL took out a 90 Million Dollar loan about 15 years ago and never paid on it. Someone won the mall in an auction for $100K.
I remember hearing the story of Mayor Schaefer used to eat lunch at a table facing the Harborplace and would call Rouse and demand the flags flying needed replaced because they were tattered....I knew the owner of Display Chicks (Alice) ..she did the decorations and and display windows for the Harbor Place.
I wonder if the failure of malls here has to do with the fact you can order everything to your house. If Ecuador is anything like Panama, then don't have a mail system like we do so you can't really order everything online and thus..you have to still physically go to stores and the mall for stuff. Hmm..Anybody from Ecuador who can fact check that theorY?
I also think America and other first world countries have a populous becoming increasingly isolated, bitter, and apathetic towards the sense of community that public commercial areas like malls provide. Definitely a combination of things
Not what you’re asking but I’m from Brazil and in my town, malls still thrive as much as they did before the pandemic. We can get anything we want online too, but people still enjoy the feeling of buying stuff physically.
I think the situation in Latin America is quite different, here in Mexico is also common to shop online but malls are still a popular hangout spot, convenient, have a lot of stores you don't find anywhere else etc. I think the main differences are location, the fact that cities are more compact and in many cases better connected by public transport (not in every case), the fact that we don't have as many a lot being opened in the las two decades being more modern, luxurious etc., among other thing that can differ from one place to another and we also have many dead ones because of bad locations, bad design, a lot of competition in the area etc.
@@a.s.f.g.8345 True. I'd add that 80's and 90's service malls are rapidly being replaced by high end malls that cater or at least aim for a more upscale crowd, just as happened in America before the retail apocalypse they're now mostly experiencing.
Yay Dan! I'm so happy to see you posting again. The mall in Ecuador reminds me of the mall I used to go to when I was little. It's so sad to see all these malls dying. I was a mallrat for a long time. Speaking of which, I should watch 'Mallrats' after the video.
Come to the Fayette Mall in Lexington, KY. To this day it's as crowded as it was in the 80s. The place is filled with people all day every day. It's insane. People go there to buy clothes that they wear while going to the mall to buy more clothes
I like how the small mall in Guayaquil has the sense to at least turn off the escalators in the dead part of the mall, where Baltimore just has em running.
Coming from somebody who visited the inner harbor and worked near Baltimore a lot, I think the problem was not just the violence because the inner harbor is actually a nice area. But failing to just keep up with the times of today and I also don’t think people want to pay for parking which cost at least if I remember $20-25 then shop then eat and then leave which traffic in Baltimore in no means is the worse but is a big pain in the butt. Plus you have a 4-5 floor mall about 15 minutes north in Towson which has free parking and a parking garage for it. That also has the big name companies like Apple, Microsoft, Bose Etc.
I just realized that this is the mall my friends and I wandered into during a high school class trip to the harbor sometime in the late 2000s. I remember we went to the GameStop on the top floor and were in the store for about 10 seconds before the guy working there very angrily kicked us out and said that if we wanted to come back, we'd need to be with a parent or guardian
I remember going to the Gallery mall in the 80s and 90s. Harborplace was such a fun place to spend the day. Sometime after I moved out of the area in 2001 it got scary. Maybe "scary" is too strong a word, but if people don't feel safe they will go somewhere else.
These intros are fucking incredible. Giving me SuperDeluxe vibes. Might also just be that I'm incredibly high right now, but they're so fun. I would watch an hour of just these edits.
One word. Economy. Malls are economy driven. The ones you show abandoned during holidays is like a clue. Great videos, Dan. Thank you. The intro is funny. One world. Economy.
If you ever find yourself in Tokyo, you should check out Aqua City mall in Odaiba. It has a Toys R Us in it, a giant arcade full of old and new racing games, and is home to a ramen amusement park (6 different ramen restaurants all in different styles). Japan in general is full of thriving malls, would be cool to see you make videos on some, if you ever get out there.
Hi, Dan Bell. Thank you for the mental vibes that you give. There's a wavelength here that can't be understood with words and descriptions but you conveyed it beautifully to me.
in my town (Winona MN) we have a small mall, which doesn't really have a lot of stores that much anymore (due to rising prices for stores to get a spot there) and it is kinda dead, although people still shop there for stuff sometimes. (there was a antique store owned by a church that was there, and a liquor store too.) (there is also a fitness place where people go to workout) a Midtown used to be there connected to the mall, but got shut down and moved downtown
I'm from Guayaquil, i love your dead mall series, can't belive you where in my city lol, we had three malls trapped in the 80s - 90s one of them is Unicentro (the small one you visited) Plaza triangulo and Alban Borja are the Other ones, the have had some removation in the last years but, the last one has a lot of the 80s in it, is a pity miss them. Pretty excited to see this video haha :)
I dont get it either Dan, America has so many dead malls and not even an uptick at Christmas, but in Ecuador and Australia etc they are packed full of people
Gallery was really very nice when it opened. The stores were truly the firsts in Baltimore: the sharper image, church's shoe store, hoffritz, banana republic (with the jeep in the front glass) brooks brothers (on 2 levels) caswell Massey soaps, Martin Lawrence art galleries and more. It took 25 years but it's all gone.
This is so interesting to me as I’m in Canada and malls are still big here! In my city we have a two story mall that is packed all the time. There are 5 malls in our relatively small city (300k). One I would consider dead and I’m shocked it’s open, the other one that’s “dead” is mostly populated by old people due to assisted living facilities being right there. The other three are always busy.
So sad what happened to Baltimore. Not too many live near this mall downtown, and with the coof, the local workforce is telecommuting. Plus, you can't go downtown without getting lightly stabbed or harassed by the local homeless colony, so even more people stay away, even from Fells Point. All of Baltimore is dead...closed restaurants, stores, stupid expensive parking. The only thing left is the Aquarium, and that got stupid expensive, too. Baltimore had a gem in the harbor, but the local politicians ruined it by not doing anything to protect it.
Meh. I think it has more to do with changing times. I was a 90’s teen. We met at the mall and it was the social hubs of the cities. Malls got so popular, they built too many. And you can FaceTime your friends. The internet and social media killed anything that didn’t move online. Any mall that doesn’t have a movie theater, restaurants or some kind of family entertainment was/is doomed. The stores? Less Macy’s, more TJMaxx and Apple store. I live in MD, all the malls with a Cheesecake Factory or Dave & Busters is doing great! That whole harbor area is an outdated mess. A bad economy means people don’t have money to spend anyway. It’s not just any one thing, it’s everything.
I definitely remember seeing the ads for psychics in the early 90s. It makes me laugh every time you start your videos with all those early 90s shenanigans.
Back in 97, I had my senior prom at the Renaissance Hotel. My girlfriend that I took to the prom was 8 months pregnant. Her feet swole up and couldn't fit her dress shoes. I ended up running down stairs to the Foot Locker at that mall and bought her a pair of slides.
Mr. Dan Bell, you don't know how much you saved me. I am a teacher, and I wanted to quit back in 2016. Your videos saved me. I watched you during my conferences. I have never received less that a 95% passing on the bullshit Staar test...I didn't train, or want, to be a teacher. You gave me hope that THE SPIRIT OF HISTORY IS STILL ALIVE! It's more PUNK ROCK than SCIENCE/MATH/ENGLISH. Keep in mind I am a liberal, BUT HISTORY TELLS YOU HOW AMERICA IS DYING.
OMFG DAN!!!!!!! i've been following your Dead Mall Series for at least four years and would've never imagined you would come to my hometown!!!! So surreal to see a comparison that i had only done in my mind, come to real life in one of your videos!!!!! Its absolutely true, Christmas season means fully packed malls in Guayaquil, even for covid years, though i have to say that Payless used to be even more popular before 2016, when a tax reform made its prices double due to import taxes. Thank you so much for featuring Ecuador in you series, best Christmas gift ever!!!!!
This video makes me want to go on a Dan Bell mall watching binge and another dirty room binge... Ahhh yes, life is good.... Thanks Dan... You are still number 1 as far as I'm concerned... Stay blessed..
This dead mall feels so fresh. Just like one in my hometown in Europe. Small town 40k people and in the centre they've built the most fancy, richlooking mall possible in 2017. The thing is this city is already full of small shops in centrem and big stores on the outside so there was nothing new to offer. Long story short mall is pretty much dead. Only visited places are: grocery store and 2 restaurants in "food court". This mall was also built to support offices so it has a lot of corners, backstairs and corridors that are completely empty.
I used to go to that Baltimore mall after Ravens games to use the bathroom because the stadium lines are hell. A few months ago I was in Barranquilla, Colombia. There are several shopping malls and they were all just upscale and booming, I had never seen such bustle. South America is definitely on an upswing.
I know this is opposite of a the dead mall series, however, you should check out the thriving mall in Camp Hill Pa, Capital City Mall. It’s booming and always full. No dead stores. The Harrisburg mall on the other hand, is dying.
I lived in Brazil for a few years starting in 2011. Not only were the malls packed all he time, they charged quite a bit for parking. Thats how you know people want to be there,
