Photos From My Dead Mall

A few years ago my mall died. I know I’m not alone in this fact as numerous malls have closed all around the country in the last decade. For our local mall, it started when a new shopping center was constructed seven miles away. Only a few stores left for the new center, but it was like the first little snowball starting to roll down the hill. A couple of years later, a new mega-shopping attraction began construction, and all of the anchor stores in the mall declared they would be moving there. Even Stevie Wonder could read the writing on that wall, and before we knew it, most stores in the mall were signing up for the move to the new outdoor shopping center. The few shops that were left were too small to afford the move and ended up staying at the mall until the end, and then just vanished. The independent stores went out of business altogether, and the smaller chain stores just didn’t relocate, and that was the end of the mall.

A few days before it closed for good, I was able to get in and take the photos in the slideshow below. Consider them autopsy photos. If you have any questions as you browse through them, feel free to ask. I’ll be over in the corner weeping.

5 thoughts on “Photos From My Dead Mall

  1. This reminds me of the mall where I grew up, even though it was only single-story. I hear it’s not doing too well these days, either. =(

  2. It hurt looking through those, especially reading your memories alongside them. I’m thankful my local mall is hanging on pretty well, but the others I grew up with are either dead or dying.

  3. That is awesome you were able to get some pictures before it was completely gone. Malls are so similar all over the country, so this could easily be anyone’s mall and I had memories of some of my old malls just flipping through your pictures. I worked in retail for over 20 years, so malls have an adult connection for me in addition to my adolescent/teenage connection. Thanks for sharing!

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