I Spent a Day in San Francisco's Dead Mall 

I arrived in San Francisco in 1981 at the age of 21 and for next twenty years, San Francisco was my home. I loved it dearly. The City offered this high school graduate enough job opportunities to afford my own apartment, good friends and fun times. Then suddenly everything changed and I was feeling really financially squeezed out. I left in 2001 for New Hampshire, but the hold The City had on me never let go. I am so glad I left earlier than most. I never had to witness everything tearing San Francisco apart with my own eyes. I still have uncorrupted memories of the place I still love. This clip was just so sad.

I used to spend an entire day at this mall with my friends when I was in High School. We would hang out eating croissants under the dome, see a movie and go shopping at United Colors of Benetton.

Truly heartbreaking. The memories I have attached to this mall are priceless.

Another good video. As a SF Native I've been to this mall many times including its movie theater. It's such a beautiful modern mall. I'm so saddened by how fast it has fallen. I'm even more irritated by how some people lie about this mall being unsafe when it's one of the safest places to be. In all of the times I've visited, not once did I ever feel unsafe. In my opinion Westfield or San Francisco Centre is a much safer place than that part of Oakland you visited in your previous video. I'm hopeful of its revival in the future.

Part of the situation with this mall is that traditional malls in general are struggling. The sorts of stores that they used to attract, especially their anchors, have almost all imploded in recent years, from Lord and Taylor to Sear's. Even those that have survived with physical stores worth in quantities worth mentioning thus far, like JC Penny and Macy's, are in real trouble, and nothing has necessarily emerged to replace them. As such, it is really difficult for malls to survive much of anywhere. Even some in busy locations with strong policing are seeing a notable emptiness.

Considering the mall guards also have to spend the whole day (and every working day) in the mall they would also be bored out of their mind. And I think that expelling the mall rats means less business for the food outlets, and the mall becomes just a bunch of shops, so you go to the one you plan to go to and then leave. This means the restaurants close, making it harder for people to spend any significant time there. There is a reason why every IKEA has a reasonably prized restaurant in the middle. Of course the death of mall culture can be either good or bad depending on what people do instead.

When I moved here in 1990 this was definitely a destination point! Two underground lines stopped here and the stores in it were great! Emporium was still around then and the Nordstrom Cafe with the overhead domed windows was a great spot to eat - especially on a rainy day! Around last Christmas I came over here and didn't realize so much had closed since I basically got tired of the nastier crowds that hung around the area since the late 90s! Very sad!

I remember when they opened the "new" extension side. The "new" extension used to be a department store called the Emporium. It's the part with the food court in the bottom. It was amazing. Lots of local food stalls and also a fancy Bristol Farms market down there. Increasing crime and the pandemic was the nail in the coffin.

I went to this mall just 5 years ago and it was very crowded and bustling, relatively speaking that was not that long ago. I am in shock!

Solid video, I should probably visit this mall since I'm pretty close to a BART station now. I usually visit Chinatown and a couple of other places in SF, but never really stopped by the Westgate Center for as long as I've been in the bay area.

The last time i went here, it was filled with ppl and it was a year ago, but now its dead? Wth

man i remember 2014 this place was hella busy

To me, it's considered a huge problem if the LEGO store has to close. Which there was one there, and it's last day of business was nov. 30, 2023.

Very fun video! Nice work. The dead mall community has a typical posting style and format that most channels offer. Your style is a great change of pace away from the common dead mall vids. 🎉🎉🎉

What a shame to see such an icon of a mall closing up. So many of our huge malls in Vancouver, Canada have unfortunately met the same demise. Great video!!

I still go to the mall where I live, and they are fun to hang out in, and you still see alotta life☆ great video btw!!

I worked at the Century/Cinemark theater in that mall from when it opened in Fall 2006 to when it closed on March 17th, 2020 due to the pandemic. I never went back even when it reopened in 2021, and was surprised that it closed so suddenly in July 2023 (right before "The Flash" opened that weekend) Oh well..

I work here!!! Dang I would have loved to talk to you physically there.

Hiya Brother Adam 👨🏼 Sad too see what happening over there.Many great famous store's in the malls is closed down. Such a modern mall. This mall remind me of Zombie 80's movies ( Dawn Of The Dead and Night Of The Comet) i hope you have seen them. In Malaysia we also have few new malls which is closed/ empty. Great video by the video

I grew up here in the Bay Area by SF and worked in that mall for many years and that is a shadow of what it use to be like even on a Monday, sad

The last time i was there was in late 90's. The mall had a lot of people shopping back in the day. Im really shocked to see this now.

That was one of my favorite balls to go to I've spent a lot of money at Nordstrom's in a lot of other shops there. Also the Century Theater was not bad at all. Last time I was up there was before covid so is sad to see it being so empty. 😔

Man, I remember. When I was 16 years old, my brother took me here, they had a lot of people. Now it’s not the same no more 😔

Man my friends and I used to go to this mall afterschool

New viewer! I moved back to my hometown after spending my college years in San Francisco just last September. Right when movie theaters were starting to open right back up in 2020, I worked at that Cinemark location you visited. I knew it had probably closed by now as the mall was slowly dying (and with it being so hidden away at the top floor) but seeing it fully defunct through this random video in my suggestions box was fucking surreal. I eventually took on a better job as a box office clerk at the Alamo Drafthouse in Mission. Anyway, love what I’ve seen of the channel so far. I get a lot of horrible “Isn’t San Francisco dangerous/dirty?” questions now that I’m back in SoCal, and though the city I left behind certainly has seen better days, I got to really appreciate my time there for what it was - your videos are a perfect encapsulation of what I mean by that.

I used to go out to Stones town Mall when I was on Vacation out in San Francisco! Is it still there? BTW where is this Mall located?

So freakin sad. It's just a giant domino game, right? One retailer leaves, and the rest do as well. I still "believe" in the city, and as in the past, it will rebound. Something unique will come of the mall (and thanks for acknowledging it's no longer the Westfield Mall, as we asked that at the beginning of the video). IDK, maybe London Breed is not the answer. I don't know enough about her tenure to make a decision on that. Funny, I consume quite a bit of SF content, and I still don't know the answer. 🥤

Future Milsim airsoft game event place sight. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I also like my coffee black 😂😂😂

Shocked tha Rolex and Panerai will allow their ADs to sell their products without any real foot traffic. It contradicts their corporate business model.

Adam 😍

San Francisco is a city in crisis and everybody knows it. While Mayor London Breed certainly can't be blamed for all that ails the city, she certainly can be blamed for the mismanagement of them. Mayor Breed is flailing and it's abundantly obvious she is in completely over her head. There needs to be a new day dawning in SF starting with a new Mayor!

It opened as San Francisco Centre, was then much later bought by Westfield. The Bloomingdales area was originally The Emporium (with the beautiful ceiling), a completely separate building. Only much later was a passageway constructed allowing one to go from SF Centre to The Emporium without going outside or going underground via the Powell Street BART station.

To paraphrase Albert Einstein. “The definition of insanity is electing the same liberal politicians over and over and expecting different results.“

Why go to the mall? I can get everything I need online. Even groceries.

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Editing the video must have taken forever, with all the 3 second cuts.

San francisco airport closed coming soon

Not a dead mall, but failing. All the signs are there. GNC will be the last one out.

Amazon is to blame

When the LEGO store moved out, the mall was officially dead to me. Great job goes to the SF mayor and Newsom.

It‘s poor management. Westfield relied heavily on tourism and charged really high rents, because they had a horrible financing plan. They didn‘t encourage mix of uses outside food hall + shopping. Once people decided they prefer eating in their own neighborhood and didn‘t feel the need to shop in person, that was the downfall - accelerated by covid. The plus to all this is that certain neighborhoods are doing much better than pre-covid and the other major mall (Stonestown) is slated for a massive redevelopment project over it‘s parking lot, smaller less ambitious versions of that project can be found across the Bay Area to revitalized dying malls.

These shots were doctored or you went there right when they opened in the morning.

If Trump buys it,it will recover.

San Francisco deserves everything it keeps voting for.

Stonestown is better. Fuck this mall lol

Que musica tan patetico.

unwatchable. I tried.

Based on the Wrap up shot of the Embarcadero BART Station 🚉 I'm guessing that it's somewhere near the Embarcadero Center!