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Attention! Completely remastered episodes of the Dead Mall Series are now being archived in 4K at ru-vid.com/show-UCfCM_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!
just rewatching this again, Sal just put up a vid of this place, he mentioned you, during it, really cool to see the before and after of this mall, sad and also depressing
RU-vid is full of stupid prank videos, screaming gamers, and jumpcutting vlogers. Few channels create worthwhile, original, and artistic content. Dan Bell has one of those channels. Sure there are a lot of Urbex videos out there but you really take time to make it an art-form. Good job!
love the vintage commercials and the music - especially the "canned" music that makes you feel like you are walking through the mall that is in so many of your dead mall vids. - I have a feeling us kids from the 90s will have to explain to future generations what a mall was like back in the day - with amazon and online shopping they are disappearing
Holy shit, I grew up in Phillipsburg and spent considerable time in that mall as a teen. I never, ever expected to see it turn up on this channel. Just wow.
+Amber Lewis I moved out of the area in late 2002, and at that time "Cafe du Freak" (haha) did not exist. Back then, there was a normal food court and a handful of other eateries scattered throughout the mall. I don't know WTF possessed them to put in that bizarro cafe.
The internet has given us so much, but at the same time it has taken so much away. The next generation will never know the simple joy of going to the mall to hang out, because everybody just shops online. I'm afraid it might be a matter of time before grocery stores meet the same fate.
@Kajdien Ahbib Those are things that doomed this mall in the end. Bad management, the constant leaking roofs, and high rents are said to what led to its demise.
Wow Dan I had no clue how obsessed I was with dead malls or even malls themselves. It's so interesting to watch really. You as always do a great job taking your viewers through. I've binge watched all of your videos, the production value is phenomenal.... Truly!
+Isabella Gillies I became obsessed with Dead Malls or Dying as well, they are fun to watch. If you have seen all of Dan's videos, check out my Playlist that I have created. I have search around for good videos with Mall Music and also, one of them has someone riding a Bike through a Mall, and another one, driving a Car through a Mall, it's really awesome, check it out. The first one has a Drone through a Mall, I got some cool stuff.
Ditto, I totally share your sentiments. "Binge watching " is exactly right haha....I used to be obsessed with a particular mall here at home years ago. I would just go in and walk around in awe. Dan takes it to a new level 😆
Zynyster thanks! Ill be sure to check to your playlists. Its hard to find these sort of videos that dont have the most annoying person ever recording. I'm sick of these kids with the 'selfie' sticks making the series solely about showing their faces.
MICOLE WHYTE the people sitting on benches in a basically vacant mall is indeed creepy to me. I wasn't suggesting that the benches alone, in and of themself, were creepy.
yeah I know but I wonder if it was ever really meant to last!?!!?? retail started a decline bin the late 90's and its gotten worse!! ha its strange to think that even fast food is going down!! I remember the late 80's I was three and 4 well and the mid 90's too man burger king was the shit around here I lived near one lol and man now a days their is hardly anyone at that location and of course quality has dropped!!! it's just strange we are in the time of death of retail!!
PineKushDude ok but in reality the rent is just purely to damn high and the traffic is down!! Thus most companies can't justify being there!! Even strip malls aren't doing so hot!! The rent is just plain to high!!
Matthew W yes I'm well aware I just didn't care to write a bunch!! However the middle class has actually done it too them selves via they spent too much lived well beyond their means!! They had been asleep they thought it was always going to last via they bought into job security!! The middle-class is in fact dumb to a degree they are only now starting to come around to the idea its bad and its not coming back!! Also unemployment is more like 35-45%!! Several years ago congressmen was fighting over just how high it was some said 26% some said 36% and that was 2008!! Yes fast-food is going down every location is looking like something you'd find in a movie or video game it really shows the break down of society!! Yeahhhh the internet ummm I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you on that!! First off its either you have the money or you don't so if you only have ten bucks and the item is 35 at Walmart but its 22 online you still are not buying it!! Secondly most major retailers had catalogs that you could still get 10-13 years ago that was the equivalent of online sales for like 100 years yet brick and mortar business still was strong!! The catalog became the online sales thus when stores started offering online sales they commonly referred to the items display page as the catalog or online catalog!! Hints the only thing that changed was how you the consumers shopped the catalog you used the computer thus making it a novelty!! Online sales have become an excuse used by bad management when a company falters!! Much like companies blamed walmart for failure when in fact it was their own doing!! But bad management never admits wrong doing!! That being said I'm not a walmart lover I just understand bullshit!! So in conclusion I'll sum it up for you!! When they blame online sales given they them selves operate online sales they are saying that they are hurting them selves?? No its more like you the public have been fed the online excuse and thus they use it as a scape goat because most people overlook the fact that they are part of the online retail world!! Thus its just purely that people plain don't have the money!! To spend in either arena!! Amazon because I know you will bring it up!! Well they too are slipping they will flounder as well!!
PineKushDude yes I do agree with you about the government has pretty much a communist tax system!! However alot of middle class has done it to them selves via standing idle while the government takes more not to mention they voted for decades for the tax and spending jerks on both sides!! They (we) got the power if they (we) choose to claim it which they (we) have yet to do!! Thus yes its their fault for doing nothing!! Also shopping at high price stores like penny's Macy's and sears is not helping them its their fault for being superficial and trying to keep up with the Jones's!! I like how the most of the middle-class is always quick to bust out high horse sayings about taking responsibility yet they them selves don't instead they blame everyone else for what they have voted for and sat idle on their asses and did/do nothing about!!
+PineKushDude that's part of it, but that's not the whole story. the government has allowed companies to offshore our jobs..... manufacturing is just about gone. now you need a bachelors degree to get a miserable $20 per hour and that college is just more debt. used to be the husband worked in manufacturing and made a good pay, the kids could work in retail, and the wife could work if she wanted to but often times stayed home. now the husband does whatever he can find for work, the wife is lucky to have a job, the kids dont have a job, and nearly every dollar goes into keeping the lights on, the heat on, food on the table, paying debt and other bills. the government not protecting out manufacturing has led to most of this.......obamacare just put the nails into the coffin. i agree obamacare sucks but this country was in decline long before that, it just made it worse.......im voting trump if any reason he does not support TPP which is the next evolution of nafta. nafta is a disaster and need to be repealed, he said outright he will do it..... he gets my vote. im tired of a country on life support and no-one seems to care because they are paid off by big money donors ex hillary clinton. i have had enough of their political bullshit.
These videos make me want to cry sometimes. There’s such a sense of bittersweet nostalgia about them, as if you’re saying goodbye to an old friend. Keep up the good work.
"The Europa" cafe was trying to emulate the Venice festival... Once a year in Italy there is a parade and kids dress up... Very similar to Halloween but they throw each other paper "petals"... It's fun!
it’s sad to think that there is basically nothing left of this mall now and everyone that was left in it has until the 13th or so to find new place to be. the mall is particularly dark and sad 24/7
*UPDATE* On January 29, 2021 it was confirmed that the mall will in fact soon start being demolished and will likely be fully gone by June of this year.
Go check out the mall now. Was there 2 days ago. Boston and Sears are gone. Torn down to the floor. There are only 10 stores left. The ceiling is falling in. The mall is closing Jan 23rd,2020. The mall is freezing
megan d It’s definitely closed for good now, due to the COVID 19 shutdown. I know malls are temporarily closed, but there’s no way this one will ever reopen again. In fact, on their Facebook page, they’ve already started selling off benches, plants, and office supplies.
There is a pizza place back in that spot now, don’t know how long they’ll last now that Sears and Bon Ton are gone, that entire side of the mall is pretty much empty except for the pizza place
Matthew Walkley And when they do close, they should just close off that whole hallway portion from the pizza place back. Why would they want people wondering around down there when there's nothing there now? *UPDATE* As of August 2018, with the closure of the Sears, the entire corridor from the Pizza place down has now been closed off.
Also let me just say, that DEB store got me through middle AND high school. Also, that "mom and pop store" seemed to never change a bit no matter what the name, or who the new owners were. My family and I would always stop in the store and get candy (It's kind of a dollar store) Across from that store was a Payless, The Learning Express, FYE and a hair salon. so we'd do all of our shopping in that little section- ending our stop with Sears.
This mall is now empty and closed. The only thing remaining is the Kohl’s, which owns that part of the building and is separate from the mall. Everything else is gone. They also demolished the two spaces that took up Sears and Bon Ton. Very sad.
It was already planned to close early last year, but I also feel that COVID was the final nail in the mall. *UPDATE* On January 29, 2021 the management confirmed that the mall will in fact soon start to be demolished and will likely be fully gone by June 2021.
Just went here this past weekend. The Shoe Depot is gone, the Bon-Ton is gone, and the Sears is gone. Now what’s left is what every mall seems to have nowadays: GameStop, Victoria Secret, Bath and Bodyworks, a nail salon, a phone repair store and a Kohl’s. These are just the chains excluding the nail salon. The weird thing is there seems to be a brand new looking Chick Fil A outside the mall and that was incredibly busy. Happened to visit this mall on the day of a car show so there ended up being a lot more people than usual. There also was a Black Rose antique store that features many different booths of different sellers.
That creepy cafe part of the video scared the shit outta me! It would have been made scarier if you had edited a jumpscare in it like at the very end of that part! I'm traumatized for the rest of my life now!
Zero-G-Worx Not as of August 2019. Bon-Ton, Sears, Gertrude Hawk, Yankee Candle, Freddie's Cafe, Auntie Anne's, Bruno's Pizza, Hallmark, H&M, Lehigh Valley Sports, and Victoria’s Secret have since closed down.
Zero-G-Worx Just went there yesterday, March 2019. This mall has maybe 5 - 10 stores and the only reasons there were people there are for a local car event, the Black Rose antique shop, and the Gym.
They have such a good Santa that still comes every year! I used to live in Phillipsburg years ago for about 5 years and it’s gotten more dead every year. I just heard last month actually that they told all stores they need to be out by the end of January
I spent most of my childhood visiting this mall and it used to be pretty good! But it's really gone down the shitter. It's so cool to see that Dan visited the town over from mine and a mall that holds a lot of memories for me.
I worked at the Auntie Anne's here for about a year and you're definitely right about this place being perfect for mall walkers. In fact, the mall opens it's doors early specifically for them. A new pizza place just recently opened where the creepy cafe used to be, and it's actually pretty good. Unsurprisingly, they removed those nightmarish faces when they opened. From what I noticed, this mall isn't planning on going down without some sort of fight, and I really hope things start to pick up for it soon.
Which is odd to me because there really are no other malls close by. There are a couple of strip malls on 22, but you really have to go all the way to f'n Allentown to find a real mall... if memory serves me right. It's been a while since I've been back there.
This was my childhood mall growing up. I remember when they put the Panera in (in the same parking lot) and it was the biggest thing. I haven't been there since then. Even until then you had to make laps around the mall to find a spot. I never thought I'd see it on this channel. My heart just sunk.
ChristinaDaAngel Well, Bon-Ton and Sears have now closed down too. *UPDATE* Mall management just confirmed on January 29, 2021 it will start to finally be demolished soon, and will probably be fully gone by June 2021.
I always feel a little sad when I see these videos. I spent my youth hanging out at the mall, as so many of us did. Things change, though, and life goes on. I love and appreciate your videos, and you are a class act!
I was looking for vacuum cleaner bags once and looked in that Sear's. The workers genuinely seemed surprised to see a person shopping. There also used to be a reasonably large food court accessible from 2 ends in the back of the mall - that went away a long time ago.
I discovered the Dead Mall series last night during a fit of insomnia. The tranquil melancholy of it was exactly what I needed. Hopped back on this morning to continue the series during breakfast and was ecstatic to find the mall from my hometown among the dead. I worked in this mall for 2 years during highschool, and I remember when all the stores started disappearing. My friends and I fondly refer to it as "the graveyard". I don't live there anymore, but when I'm back in town I make it a point to stop by the old mall and walk the length of it, just to see the bones. Thank you so much for this video.
2021 UPDATE: this was my childhood mall, I live 20 mins away. Everything is closed except the Kohl’s now. Road to and from the mall area is full of craters and weeds that are becoming forests basically 😹 it’s extra creepy to see the mall fall so quickly, I’d die to see the inside now after having been vacant
Gone are the days when we used to go to the mall just to hang out with friends or walk around the music store. I remember just walking from one end of our local mall to the other filling out paper applications for an after school job. Kids now will never know what they’re missing.
My local mall recently lost it's anchor (Target) but has actually brought in a nice new Sobeys (Canadian grocery store) and a GoodLife Fitness (who seem to be doing the Gold's Gym strategy) which is kind of a good sign despite a few empty stores. They also put a Dollerama in there, which makes sense since Manitoba is like the world capital of having one dollar store per five residents.
I love your work Dan! I loved going to malls in the mid to late 90's (when I was a teenager). One particular mall that stands out to me is the Seatac Mall in Federal Way, WA. I grew up in this town. My family moved here when I was 11 years (1995) when my dad retired from the military. My friends and I used to ride our bikes here because none of us were old enough to have a license yet. LOL. Anyways, there is an old commercial for the Seatac Mall from 1983 on RU-vid. That's how I remember the mall, with all the 70's and early 80's decor. Anyways, they remodeled in 2004 and much of the decor is similar to the decor of this mall. Even though this mall is on the opposite side of the country from my mall, thanks for bringing back great memories, Dan!
I love these videos... makes me want to take a tour of my local mall which is still thriving, just for posterity. It could be a glib reminder that not all malls are dead or dying (for now)
Damn, that table in hidden treasures might actually have some hidden treasures lol. I'm kind of curious what's there now. You can see an NES, n64 games as well as SNES games lol.
I remember this mall when I was young. Looking down the mall from the Sears end, there used to be a mural on that right wall and as you kept walking down there was a huge fountain and off to the right was a big food court. Bon Ton had big chandeliers in the mall entrance. The Kohl’s was once a Kmart and there used to be a big FYE, suncoast video, and East meets West. I think there may have been a pet store across from where the Deb was too.
Distantsanity 0 You’re correct! I assume the fountains ⛲️ were removed because of maintenance and liability, and the food court was removed because of lagging sales.
It's a crying shame these childhood places that occupy a lot of my memories is dying. I see so many malls crumbling and dangling by a thread but thankfully here where I live in central PA two malls are thriving. One near Harrisburg and the other being the Park city mall in lancaster which kicks so much arse.
I remember when I was growing up, there was the food court there with the hotdog on a stick place, then they closed up the food court. I also remember preferring to go to this place over the Palmer Mall because it seemed to have larger stores and better selections.
I love these dead mall videos. They make me feel this sense of nostalgia and longing for the time these were still thriving and alive. I would’ve also been a little kid then without the knowledge and experience of the sorts of hardships that are a part of life now. It all links together . The music makes things sting just a bit more too
It is so surreal to see this mall on RU-vid especially about it being a dead mall as well. I remember I used to go here all the time with my brother to get pretzels from Auntie Annes and then look at the games in Game Stop. I remember going to Old Navy with my parents for back to school clothes shopping. This video game out around 5 years ago and the current state of the mall is abandoned. 1 anchor store remains and that is Kohls which still gets some business being the only clothes store nearby. Ace's Adventures also made a video about the Phillipsburg (Pburg) Mall where he goes into it when it was completely abandoned.
It's Sad to see how malls are becoming a thing of the past. The company I work for store's can only be found in Malls or online. The scary thing is last week they closed 50 stores.. It makes me wonder how long can this company stay open at this rate.
My first job was at this mall. Best Chinese food and at a great price. Won the Trick or Treating contest one year with my awesome ET costume purchased from when Orr's in the Hillcrest Mall closed. Fond memories at the Pburg Mall...
Follow-up - all tenants have been given until January 27th 2020 to vacate. A few places have requested an extension, but no one has heard back. They were given this deadline on 12/24/2019. Because of this, almost every store is now closed as of today.
And it happened. The final stores left in around early March, but COVID was likely the final nail. *UPDATE* The mall management just confirmed on January 29, 2021 that the mall will start to soon be demolished and will probably be fully gone by June 2021.
This mall is closing down January 22nd, it has been dying out over the past ten years and the majority of the stores in this video have closed down or been demolished since this was filmed. Dan you should do one last journey through here!
James Barns He should! It only has one week left! And yeah, it’s unreal that in only 4 years, the majority of the stores in this video have since closed :(
This mall just announced over the last few weeks that it will be formally closing. They gave all the remaining tenants (including the record store which appears to be about the only successful business within the mall at all) that they had until the end of January to vacate.
I discovered your channel relatively recently, so I know this is very late... but as a former GNC employee, I appreciate how you provide a lingering shot of the GNC store in every dead mall that has one... and they ALWAYS have one.
I always get so excited and look forward to your videos on Friday nights! I also find the mall series to be really relaxing for some reason 😁 DAAA MALLLL!
I don't know why these videos are so addictive. I'm sure it attracts millennials and the like. I remember when going to the mall was exciting. At the very least, there were always a few cute girls wandering around. COVID seems to be the final nail in the coffin.
Finally a mall I've been to! I always remembered P'burg as being kind of the lower middle malls of the area. There was still stuff there, but it was always kind of old and outdated. Haven't been there in a few years, but I can imagine a lot of the stuff in there is gone now compared to when I was a kid. Other cool malls in the area are the Palmer Park Mall and the Whitehall Mall. Palmer Park is a lot like this, but a little bit more lively. The end down by Bon Ton is pretty dead though. Whitehall Mall is a really bizzare case where they left a small portion of the interior intact, as well as some of the anchors, and demolished the rest of it. This is not to be confused with the Lehigh Valley Mall, which is a REAL mall, and is across the street, and one of the few that are actually thriving. Highly recommend visiting it, as I'd think it would fit in REALLY well in the Dead Mall series
I second the Whitehall Mall. It's not quite a Dead Mall, but it's more like a Bizarro Mall. Part of it is like a strip mall, there's Kohl's, one huge branch leading to Sears is closed off, so you have to walk outside to get to Sears, there's Five Below on the outside, the movie theater is closed, there's a Gold's Gym, the pet store has been in operation forever. Totally discombobulating.
Not anymore. It closed last March, of 2020 just when COVID hit. And on January 29, 2021 it was announced that the mall will soon start to be demolished, and will probably be fully gone by June of 2021.
I love these vids and you're hilarious interesting commentary! Thank you so much! its an upper from a hard day...lol the music is perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
