www.ShopDanBell.com DEAD MALL SERIES : • Dead Mall Series MUSIC : dmtrec.bandcamp.com/album/wit... Follow Dan : / thisisdanbell / thisisdanbell / thisisdanbell www.vine.co/ThisIsDanBell Photographed and Edited by Dan Bell
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!
Dan! Please go back to Signal Hill. The dead mall community would love to see your revisit to this place. Village Inn Pizza is gone, the mall is moldy and truly unsafe for anyone to be inside. I have visited several times over the last few years and just posted an update video. Please, Signal Hill needs you back. 😂🎉🎉🎉
Update: as of Sept 2023 the belk wing of the mall is now roped off. The belk entrance was walled off a while ago, now you can’t go down that wing. The rest of the mall now has kiddie pools collecting water. It seriously has to be close to the end… sad
***** sheesh. Radio Shack was worth something at some point in time. I tried to find a power switch for my bass amplifier and they looked at me like I had a second head.
I miss Blockbuster... it was such a fun experience to just walk around trying to decide what movie or game to rent, and then buying some pop corn or ice cream to eat along. Good times.
Omg I remember Blockbuster, I was maybe six or... seven. It was around the final days of Blockbuster. My family used to rent movies and games all the time. There were always big bins filled with candy, I used to beg for Mike and Ike's each time we went. Good times :)
blockbusters - i did have some good experiences at them. But they were overpriced and pushed out the cheaper and friendlier mom and pop video rental stores. I'd rather go to the mom and pop ones. Blockbusters were a bunch of bastards no different than jeff bezos and amazon. I'm actually glad they're gone, but yes I agree video rentals were the shiznit back in the day. I just preferred the local joints instead.
I was gonna say the music goes well with these mall vids. really gives it that retro feel from back in the days. i actuly miss music like this, when i was a kid in the 90s i enjoyed this kinda music. you dont get it anymore sadly.
+This is Dan Bell. There is a dead mall in my hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin called The Shops of Grand Ave. It's an urban mall with about 45% occupancy rate. It's good court is full but there are barely any shops at all. I would really appreciate if you would visit. Thanks.
I was the store Manager at Claire's, across from GNC. I brought it out of the hole and trained a manager how to keep profits up, and I moved to do the same to another store, and we transfered once again. The 3rd Claire's manager tanked it, and it was closed. RIP Signal Hill Mall. You were a great place to work. Edit: the hall down JCPenney is haunted by a woman wearing a red sweater. She was angry her fine jewelry store was turned into a kid's store. She would knock things off shelves, without a single customer inside.
1-that fountain...you can see the erosion of the outside edges 40+ years of water. Kinda neat. 2-It really upsets me to see the malls that have all these plants, because when they close, they just leave the plants to die. They could have a "come grab a plant" thing, but instead they just stop watering them. Then when you go back as the closed mall is rotting, you see all the dead plants. Such a waste.
Actually in some of these dead mall videos, the water seeping in and the broken skylights have caused the plants to grow really huge. Jake Williams has some videos of malls like that; he tends to do malls that are in a later stage of abandonment (i.e. moss growing on the floor).
This is Dan Bell. Love your work Dan. Did you see ace's adventures. He has a video behind the wall at century 3. And a good rolling acres video. He got inside the movie theater. For some reason as a Clevelander that place fascinates me. if you make it back here I owe you a beer. I don't have cable in my house so your channel gives me hours of entertainment.
i miss those kind of malls cos today malls are to weird for me is not the same plus ppl dont go to the malls where im at like b4 now is quiet places in the malls and i was born 1984
There was this one time that this customer came in asking if we had any pornos. That's... that's it. I actually never worked there, nobody answered so I thought at least someone could get something. :) lol
I was hired in high school and the college kid assistant manager tried to get me to sleep with him day one. I quit. Obviously lacking a sexual harassment training video
that thing you referred to as a “stage” was sitting for chick fil a. I live in Statesville. I used to go to Signal when everything was open. The barn looking thing was a child playground thing. And across from bath and body works was a book store.
The best way to tell if a mall is on its death bed: Count the number of older Buicks and PT Cruisers are in the parking lot. >10 total = That mall is dead.
Also, if you see a guy walking about with a videocamera & listening to vaporwave, it's an omen of impending mall-death. Kinda like the banshee in folklore as a sign of imminent death...
Hello from Tokyo.This is happening only in US? No,No,NO,same things are happening in tokyo as well. We don't have any big mall in Tokyo.But small retailers are shutting day by day. Preparing for 2020 olympic here in Tokyo,but who will feel happy for seeing this situation?
Hello from America. Some cities in America don't do so well, and businesses go under. People shop online a lot today, and stores find it hard to compete.
That’s understandable, small businesses around the world close all the time. Just normal economics, I guess. I remember, from the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, businesses would make big investments, and some would go out of business afterwards due to a lack of funds. Also, your English is not bad, Ko.
Kinda made me think of the time my grandmother took me to a Dead Mall in Brantford, Ontario, it was called the Eaton Centre (there were many called that not to be confused with the big one in Toronto). It was like 10+ years ago, i think now it is just business and medical offices.
I actually live near here, and let me say, this mall used to be booming. I remember going shopping in Sears and JCP and Belk during the holidays! FYI, Santa was always done next to JCP on that stage with the US Flag. So many memories. Couple of my pennies are still in that fountain
You must be young. I am almost 50 and was born three months after the mall opened to the day. Santa was at center court where the fountain was. Then he was by Woolworth's where Sears was. Only in the later years was Santa on a stage by JCPenny's.
I worked a few summers at McDonalds in the early 1990s. Their crew training videos were just as cringeworthy and hilarious as Blockbuster's! I clearly remember the saccharine-addicted blonde in a McDonald's visor asking the customer "How are your fries and Big Mac? Would you like a free refill of Coke?" LOL. My first thoughts were "What have I gotten myself into?!"
I had to sit through a couple for some grocery store jobs, and they weren't so much cringey as boring (although they were cringey as well). Nothing will top the rapping Ames lady though.
xYALE70x Tbh, she's probably remembering the good times. You know, like when you go to a rememberable place that you went to when you were younger? And you get that warm nostalgia feeling.
Wow, America really do have a lot of dead malls. In Europe malls are quite popular, always crowded. Especially in Denmark, I think our oldest mall is from 1966 and it's still going on, good business, crowded everyday and still looks super nice with a bunch of awesome stores. really sad to see a mall die down.
Online shopping is also not as easy in Europe, I think. In America is all just one click away and everything is there the next day. We still don't have that mentality in Europe.
The main problem with American malls is the concentration of malls in certain areas and many of them offer the same stores. Paramus, NJ has 3 large malls and a number of smaller plazas that house larger stores. The malls are no more than 2 or 3 miles away from each other. One of the malls was dying until 2011 when it was bought out and extensively renovated, expanded, and rebranded as an outlet mall.
u.s. wages haven't gone up since the 80s, so the bulk of the u.s. population has barely enough money to survive on, let alone spend on random crap without at least researching the shit out of it first - hence, online shopping
Not all of them will disappear. Malls of which are convenient to city residential areas, and busy highways will remain popular. What we are seeing is the death of portions of the overbuilt malls dedicated to Suburbs, and remote areas.
whenever i watch you or the proper people im just reminded on how exploring with josh doesn't deserve the amount of subs he has. you both are so amazing compared to him!
+Claudia Powell well what really irritated me was a few months back he posted a vid in Tx about a abandoned ghost town. That town is is Bartlett,Tx its in the County i live in. its not a ghost town just a small town. he was completely wrong about the Tx. chainsaw massacre house in Granger,Tx. He needs to get real facts and not just google shit.
Blockbuster: A great microcosm of shopping's demise. I used to go there like everyday to browse the aisles. Just like shopping at the mall, I sort of miss that relaxed experience. There was something about the trip and anticipation of watching the movie on the way home-even looking at the video box when pondering whether to select the particular movie in question.
It's like walking inside a 1980's fallout shelter. It's so strange to walk into old but preserved buildings who kept their aesthetics. What a Time Capsule trip, Dan. I'm hooked now. *THANKS!* XD
"Once apon a time, at Signal Hill Mall... there were people". This has been my favorite Dead Mall episode. Excellent narration and well filmed as usual. The giant book with the 1 senior seated in the background: pure gold. Should have made it the thumbnail.
I swear to the Almighty Cosmic Creator that everytime I watch your D E A D M A L L S E R I E S on this channel, I get a relaxing and spooked sensation as well as sadness when I see a HUGE building with so little businesses. Plus, the music choices is just top notch (especially the sound quality, I honestly thought at first the mall was playing the music.)! I'm really blown away by how wonderfully crafted your videos are! Congrats! You've just earned a new subscriber!
Nice! I checked out their website today.. they have a counter that says "Christmas is just around the corner" and it says it's 365 days away. Sounds accurate! lol
LOL.. I just moused over it. "Christmas, August 20th 2017" Also, the footer says (C) 2016 Default copyright text. Come on! It's not that hard even with the little money they have.
the main reason this mall declined was valley hills mall's success and the growth of Mooresville. This mall actually had 4 anchors at one time with peelbles next to the jc penny. There was a chick fila and a music store next to it. What keeps this mall operating at the moment is ihop
Friday nights are sometimes a "double mall night" for me: I go to one of my local, lively malls with my mother just to hang out for awhile, and then return home to see the latest Dead Mall Series episode!
Absolutely love the old, heavy looking stone used in those benches, planters and fountains. Lots of twists and turns; really quite a unique design. Definitely an architectural feat during the 80s! Love the music as well. Nice as always Dan!
Why am I addicted to this Dead Mall Series? I don't know but these are fascinating …. I lived in Statesville for a while as a teenager and spent many weekends at this mall... I remember buying Communion at the WaldenBooks, alien posters everywhere... so weird that all these malls are now dead....
Hi, fan from the UK here. Love the Dead Mall series of vids. It's so fascinating as it's not so common here. Feels a lot of the time that consumerism kind of cannibalised itself by having way too many of these places with only so much disposable money floating around. Anyways, keep up the awesome work!
Craig, part of the problem with malls is that they have a lot of competition from department stores that are stand-alone locations and not near the mall. Places like Kohl's will provide you with a similar experience to a Macy's department store in the mall, and it's much more convenient. Stores like Target and Wal-Mart are go-to places for typical stuff. They sell almost anything, and the clothing is decent these days compared to the 1980s when the clothing was subpar. I also get the feeling that Americans are not as materialistic as they used to be. People don't seem to feel the need to go shopping as much as they once did. There are thriving malls in the U.S., but these are typically the ones that led to the demise of the "dead malls".
It doesn't help when millions and millions of people have lost their jobs over the past 25-30 years, either. People who are still lucky enough to have jobs have snapped their wallets and pocketbooks tight.
Plenty of dead malls in the UK, although they're more like undead malls. Shops are occupied but with gold-buying scams, ultra discount plasticy clothing, musclebuilding supplements etc. There just wasn't the number of malls that you got in the states. In the UK the more blatant example of the death of retail is the high streets. Charity shops everywhere -they get a discount from the council, selling the dusty old tatty belongings of dead people. Course if you live in London or one of the big cities, everything might seem great, but It's Grim up North. ;) (And west. And east.)
Also, parking can be really bad in the UK, so even when a mall is undead, people will still use the multistory carpark. Reminds me of Dan's video on Gallery 1 connected to a train station. Lots of thru-traffic, nobody actually buying anything.
Just wanted to add that i havent seen this episode before, but this is right down the road from me and theres still one clothing store operating. Half the time the ambient music isn't playing and its extremely eerie. Love seeing you check it out!
I really can't feel sorry for malls. My memories of malls, are a huge task force of "mall security guards" who ran around pretending they were cops, harassing the kids... It's no wonder those kids grew up and NEVER WENT BACK.
That's more of an indication of what's wrong with this country. If someone can't grow up, look back on their childish stupidity, and realize that the adults weren't being out of line, then they have not moved beyond childhood. This country's adult citizenry is mostly overgrown children.
Because it's impossible for adults to be out of line, right? Must always be the kids fault. Seriously though, why do you think it's so important to grow up and move beyond childhood? What do you see stupid about childishness?
+Link Judging by your avatar, which is a cartoon, and that you have a Japanese fetish, you will never think objectively on this subject, just as the child can never come to the realization that they are the common denominator when it comes to adults supposedly giving them a hard time.
I'm currently waiting to meet up with a friend right beside Signal Hill Mall. I just had to bring your video up of this mall, Dan. How I adore this series of yours!
Dan, My wife and I live a hour away from this place and we inspired by your video to go visit it today. It was fun to walk around and see it just like the video. Thanks for all the great videos. Keep up all the great work.
Had to share... Yesterday my husband and I were getting out of the car and he had to wait for me to blow my nose. When I was finished he said "There ya go with a clean nose and a bright future" I could barely get out of the car I was laughing so hard. The couple who were with us, now think we are a few generic decorations short of a dead mall but that's ok. We are Bellheads and proud. LOL
Another awsome video from Dan Bell i absolutely love it when you do the old 1960's and the 1970's retro malls. You have a Australian fan that absolutely love the American malls that are really different the malls back here in Australia.
Dan I'm going to say you're a genius. That opening music choice is perfect. Exactly the kind of vinyl you would have put on your record player after a nice dinner with your lady. That would have been late 70's. Seeing that Lerner sign, wow, I haven't seen one of those in years. My mom would go into Lerner when we went to the mall and spend what seemed like hours to little kid me. I just wanted to go to Sears and look at toys. Yes folks Sears, JCPenney and Montgomery Ward used to sell toys. Those stores had massive toys sections.
Ahhh... the malls of the 70's! THE place to be on friday or saturday night! Places were packed especially near the holidays. Would take my girl there on friday night and meet some friends and we would go to York Steakhouse to eat... then walk thru the mall, upper and lower deck, and end up at Aladdin's Castle to kill the rest of the evening. I'd go back to that era in time in a heartbeat! The old mall is still there but with only 60-70% occupied and all the good places (York and Aladdin's) are gone... you could do a series on the Theaters too... they are disappearing!
The static shot of the grandmother watching children that may or may not be her own in front of the closed NBA store was perfect art and a well framed shot.
I got here because of an article FACT Mag wrote over some architect with an idea of creating the first "Vaporwave Shopping Mall". They linked one of your vids and I've already binge watched a few. Never thought someone actually documented "dead malls". This is why I actually enjoy vaporwave, because of that feeling I get from my childhood and empty malls. I remember this one mall when I was a kid, it had open only an "As Seen On TV" Shop, a Payless Shoesource and the only food place open was a Sbarro Pizza, that echoey music in the background and Pokemon cards, we bought them in some kiosk in that mall. Damn, just made me reminisce on that. Feels good! Great job on these vids btw.
At 4:44 that little area was not a stage, it had 2 small tables in each corner with a couple chairs for eating back in the 1980s. Santa was always at the main water fountain in the center of the mall. Woolworth used to be where Sears was.I loved this mall as a kid and teen. I miss what it used to be. Thanks for getting a video of it!
