UPDATE: This space is now an Amazon fulfillment center providing a lot of jobs for people in the surrounding area. And yes, they tore down everything and started over. But the abandoned hotel is still standing.
We have a Burlington in Crossroads in San Antonio and its due to them and several other businesses that keep it open. Our other malls North Star and River center are doing amazing. Of couse River Center as its downtown next to the Alamo, but North Star is where you go when you are on the far north east as Crossroads is on the North West. Its also known for the huge boots outside of it.
What I like most about your "abandoned" series is that you don't just walk around inside some big, abandoned building, talking about how decrepit the building is, and showing how everything is falling apart... You give us a history lesson. And a well-researched one, at that. You delve deep into the company's history and show how well things went when they were succeeding, and how badly things turned when it all fell apart. I really like the history behind the abandoned buildings. Well done. I look forward to more of these videos in the future.
That is what has made him my favorite person to watch when it comes to abandoned places. When I watch others I am always wondering what the story behind the place is. With this series I always know! It makes it so much more interesting.
LMacNeill If you're looking for a combination of both exploration and history, I would recommend a channel called This Is Dan Bell. If you haven't checked it out already, of course.
I always find watching old 60s and 70s video of people just fascinating, wondering where they are, what course their life took, how old they are now, etc.
Or any business. I worked at a club in downtown Cincinnati that was an amazing place to work with customers from all over the city. One race riot and some random shootings nearby and that was all she wrote.
I was about 9 or 10 years old when it opened...It was the shit...But the neighborhood surrounding the mall started going downhill shortly after it opened (if it hadn't already started to).
I have a feeling the next mall to go under in the next few years is Chapel Hill Mall in Akron, you can see some of the things happening there that he explained here
I live in Northeast Ohio, and you'd be so surprised how many abandoned things are around here. Countless malls, department stores, plazas, schools, and even amusement parks (the most famous being Geauga Lake of course). It just surprises me when I research this topic that so many abandoned places are in Ohio. Jeez, maybe I ought to grab a camera and go explore myself. Keep up the good work guys! I really enjoy your videos!
+zestydude87 Yeah that was so cool. I remember hanging on to those silver railing things on the left wall (if you face the wave) hanging on for dear life.
I know I remember this mall was everything❤ can't believe its gone down hill I miss da good ol day's I use to go to Randall, tower city,severance, Richmond & Beachwood mall🙂
Yeah my generation killed Randall something we're not proud of at all! But them Saturday's getting girls and fighting then shopping before the mall close at 9:30 #goodtimes00-02
Fun fact: DeBartolo’s malls started failing in 97 because he died, his son took over, had bad gambling debts and put the company up as collateral for his sports bets.
I spent my whole childhood, and then all of my teen years in this mall. I remember taking the bus there when it was mostly empty. I loved this mall. I was 8 when I got my ears pierced there. I kissed a boy there when I was 16, it meant a lot to me. When I think of Randall I think of my family, the original theater, and my first pair of hot pink and black LA Gears! Sad to see it gone, but glad for the jobs that are coming!
As long as I can remember, we always called it Randall Dark Mall..... when I worked for Pacific Sunwear, I had to go there twice to fill in, and I had never been more aware that I could be killed going to or leaving work. Even safer malls had problems, for instance, Mrs Pesho was raped, tortured and killed at Parmatown. And that's a MUCH safer area.
It wasnt that bad was it???? I worked at DJ,s when I was 15 . Although my aunts car was stollen out of the parking lot in 86 somewhere between Casual Corner and Petite Sophisticate lol ! Station wagon w wood panel sides . they didn care .
@@missybarbour6885 Yes, Millcreek Mall has been open since the early 70s. It's not doing badly, but it isn't great either. It's tough to say what its fate will be because the mall is such an integral part of Erie, but the boom of the 80s and early 90s is long gone from the Millcreek Mall. I think the only three stores that opened with the mall (or at least have been there since I was a kid in the 70s and 80s) are JCPenny, Spencer Gifts, and a pet store. In fact, JCPenny has never even changed their interior or exterior facades, so to stare at them you can almost get that early to mid 70s mall vibe!
@@jgn2112 I live in lake county just east of Cleveland, and I used to go Randall all the time un thg he late 90s. Then when they closed, I used to drive to Erie for the Millcreak mall. Sometimes I would hit the casino also lol. Is Millcreak still open? Burlington and Macy's specifically? I haven't been to Erie for a few years, but I always enjoyed myself at the mall and casino.
Isn't it ironic that both Randall Park and Rolling Acres started with Sears and JCPenney's as the anchor stores, and both closed around the same time? Especially since Sears and JCPenney's are both struggling right now
At Rolling Acres, Sears and JCPenney were the first two anchors to open and also the last two survivors, both staying open a few more years after the mall itself shut down...
Update: 3 days after the video was uploaded, work crews have been in the Macy's building and have cleaned up most of the ground floor and removed most of the mold. On June 2017, PowerSports have officially left the property, leaving the mall completely empty. It wasn't until two months later when Amazon purchased the property and is currently planning on demolishing the remaining anchor stores and build an 855,000-square-foot warehouse, bringing 2,000 full-time jobs to the region.
SwagGum.....I hope Amazon makes sure to hire good security for their buildings. The area is a high crime area, bringing Amazon in is good for jobs, but the crime rate will still be high.
Thank you so much for doing this. I grew up here and this was my mall I was at every weekend with my friends just hanging around. I cried watching this because of all the memories this brings.
Me 2 girl....GOD I miss this place had so many goodtimes here I used 2 run down the platform with the red carpet me and my cousins do you remember Jeepers??? Lol I used 2 have a ball in there
Imagine living there... Passed by Akron (Rolling Acres) a few years ago....and I just feel sad for anyone who has to live there. Obvious gangs and prostitution right near their downtown. Abject poverty. Abandoned property throughout. Throughout the Rust Belt, there's tons of areas with insane poverty. In Buffalo, there's the street of Broadway: An old connector street through the suburbs connecting to the Central Terminal (which needs its own video). The whole area is in poverty, with absolutely no businesses and over 95% abandonment. People live in abandoned houses with no running water or electricity... East Cleveland is similar. Not as bad, but miles long. Northern Detroit and many surrounding Cities/Towns (like Flint) are centers for poverty and dead industry.
Artzie Music we have a large mall and there was a kfc that got fucked by closing down There was also a robbery there in a jewlery store when i was there!
While that was a major contributing factor, as well as the recession in 2008, the rise of the internet and e-commerce would have eventually doomed the mall to failure anyway.
Ah, Southpark mall. I love that mall, great staff, amazing stores (Like Petland and Pick Of The Litter), and there's a lot of space! Southpark and Great Northern seem like they'll stay open for a long time.
@@nd4656 i’m the exact same way !! ever since my dad bought me a book about abandoned places i’ve had a huge obsession, and i’d die to explore a dead mall someday.
Just wanna say - love this series, I totally get the fascination with abandoned retail spaces and theme parks and stuff. I think a large part of it is how they formerly were so incredibly crowded and well-trafficked, and then they become a sort of Dark World version of themselves. It's a particular kind of eerie. Anyway, I don't comment on most of these because it'd be redundant. Just keep doing what you do man. Highly informative, frequent humor, great editing and enthusiasm, these are great watches!
Wow ... growing up in Cleveland in the 90’s ... I always went to this mall .. and NEVER knew why it died until now. It’s crazy to see something that held so many childhood memories no longer there, at all, as if it never existed ... scary ...
Well, with people shopping more online, they have to fill those former retail spaces. A mall in my city has a Church, an army career center, a women's resource center, and a charter school.
Border arrived in the UK near where I lived with this amazingly huge book store, then it disappeared within a few years. I can remember how amazing it was to go to a borders, they had every book you could think of, it's just sad the model didn't really work with Amazon available at the click of a mouse.
I like you also I have a fascinating thing with abandoned buildings I am from Toronto Canada and we do have some of them and I found some cool stuff in them like some old matchbox and hotwheel cars.
It's still hard to believe this place is gone. From the jeepers amusement park space, the magic Johnson theater, and visiting my dad's gym (he was a tenant there for a few years) I practically spent most of my childhood in this mall
Outlets are like malls but it doesn't have an actual roof over it's head, seen in most of them. It's all just clothing retail stores. I don't enjoy those places because outlets are quite boring.
Smøl Tyler outlets are also where stores send old out of season stuff (or stuff they maybe never made it to retail in the first place) to sell at a cheaper price to get rid of it. They're fun to go to every once in a while but not on a weekly basis like regular malls are
Microsoft Regime That's not true for the outlet mall nearby me. It's a massive outlet mall that houses popular brands. It has a massive indoor mall and two outdoor areas with restaurants. It's also busy all the time.
Greet video!! Top notch work as always informative and well produced!! This was a beautiful abandoned mall. The structure was amazing!!!an absolute MARVAL!!!!!
This mall was from my childhood. I use to go to this mall a lot with my aunt. I always liked running down the ramp that went from the second to the first floor. I went there later on as an adult a few years ago and I walked through it again and just about all the stores and eating places were closed. I also ran down the ramp again for old times sake. It was heartbreaking to see that something from your childhood become like this. I will always have very fond memories of this mall and they will remain in my heart forever.
Same used to lived there everytime we past it is scary to look at it and church n the mall me and my family went there and my grandfather walk and prayed so our pastor can owned it but it never worked
me and my friends once tried to get inside the mall but never did because we heard a noise and started to run and it also looks hunted I just wish it wasn’t abandoned since it live near me
I was born in 1987 and always loved going to the mall since I was 3 until about 5 years ago. Shopping mall just aren't fun anymore!!!!! Back in the 80's and 90's going to the mall especially on the weekends was bomb!! They still had elegant department stores, cool mom and pop stores and eateries, video arcades, book, music, and movie stores, specialty stores and so much more. Today you just have those fancy pretentious shopping malls that house only corporate retail stores and eateries now that sell cheap looking overpriced merchandise and food. I miss the old school food courts where there were still family owned eateries. All you have now is crappy Panda Express and Sbarro's. Sad how the economy made shopping malls which were once sparkling gems disappear forever. Shopping malls back in the day were so fun now they just make you depressed and remind you of the dismal state this country has been in for almost 10 years. Goodbye sweet old school shopping malls, you gave many people fun, happiness, and beautiful years of memories with family and friends.
The country isn't in a dismal state. You just don't see it, because all the good stuff happens on the Internet now. Jeff Bezos didn't recently become the world's richest man for no reason.
Japan still has shopping malls like this that are booming! It's a great country for shopping. The malls near my hometown in the States are all struggling to stay open.
This was THE mall to go to when I was a kid in Cleveland. Still remember the Commodore 64 game shop and how it had games you couldn't get anywhere else. Had to beg my parents to take me there at Christmas time.
I used to go to jeepers too. It was like a better version of chuckie cheese. I miss that mall. I grew up going there witb my grandma all the time as a kid. Its sad hoe things change.
I used to go to Randall all the time growing up! I remember the fountains being off and elevators being down for a lot of it too. Seeing the Magic Theater in this is so surreal because I used to stand in that same spot and walk through those halls, and now they're gone.
Adam S. oh my gosh yes! I only went there a few times, but I did! I remember them having a little mini coaster or something in there too. It's been so long.
Stephen Johnson Yeah the coaster! That place was great until they had to shut it down with the rest of the mall, and I think some kid was being stupid and stood up on that coaster and got seriously injured, that was one of the nails in the coffin.
I'm actually from a Northeast Ohio. I lived in a small suburb on the border of Bedford Heights and North Randall, so Randall Park Mall was my mall growing up in the 80s and 90s. When I was old enough to ride my bike further away from my house and neighborhood, I would go there all the time to play video games at the two arcades, eat in the food court, buy music and movies, my family dentist was at the Sears there, and watch movies at the Magic Johnson theater in the late 90s/early 2000s. I have a lot of very good memories of Randall Park Mall and I was very sad to see it decay and finally die over the years.
Did you ever go there in the early/mid 90s when the dollar theater was still? But yeah I loved the two arcades there. The smaller one was on the top floor by the food court (KFC, Taco Bell, etc), and the bigger one was downstairs. I hung out at the arcades, always checked out EB Games and look at the back of the video game boxes, looked at clothes at Dillards, etc. Oh and KB Toys, Record Town, etc.
Very interesting but sad video. I was the first mail carrier for Randall Park when it opened and it was an amazing piece of architecture and a vibrant place to shop and hang out with your friends. It was a fun place to be for a young twenty year old like myself. I will forever remember the good times working and cruising around the second floor watching the girls go by with my buddies!
This was the mall of my childhood (I’m 38) and I watched as it declined, I forgot how beautiful it was, this video made me sad, I hate wasted potential!
I remember me and my friends having an entire routine when we'd go there on Saturdays. So on Saturday morning, we'd catch the 19 or the 15 RTA there in the morning when they first opened. Hang out in the downstairs or upstairs arcade, get some food from the food court. Then we'd go check out some stores like EB Games, KB Toys, check out clothes at Dillards. Then after spending more hours in the arcade, we'd catch a late movie in the dollar theater there, and finally get home around midnight or 1am. Ugh, the fun times! Apparently ruined by the criminal element, which I had no idea about.
I love this series. While most RUclipsrs would do a random one-off "Shocking! Creepy abandoned mall", you actually take the time to explain the history and the path to the decline, as well as speculate about the future. Very well covered.
Crazy to see how everything surrounding a mall like this dies off so quickly after the main attraction shuts down. I always wonder what can be done to successfully revive areas like this when I see them. Awesome coverage on this :D
The only mall I know of that has been successful in the current age, is an outlet mall nearby where I live. It's pretty filled with stores, but what helped it stay relevant, was that it changed with the times. It's got an aquarium now, a Lego store (complete with a big walk through attraction), a movie theater, and an arcade/bowling/karaoke place, along with a ton of really great restaurants. I'll be sad if that mall shuts down.
Hey another great video. My mom group up about 15mins away from the mall and the entire area has really taken an economic downturn. When those malls were built factory and production jobs were paying middle class incomes. By the 2000s those jobs had left Cleveland for good. Im just saying even the best of malls would have struggled in that area. But enjoyed the video!
This mall was where I stupidly got a free cell phone in my early 20s thinking it was just that...free. Had to go back with my mom and fake a mental disability to get out of it. Such a gorgeous mall. Then it turned über ghetto.
malls turning ghetto is typically how they go out. I live in San Antonio, Tx. At one time we had...I think 11 shopping malls. Today, I think we have 6 and 5 of those are traditional malls. The one that I don't consider traditional is laid out like a mall, but the open area normally "inside" the mall is open to the elements so it's kinda a mix between an outlet center and a shopping mall. Anyway, the malls that closed over the years, the areas around them decreased in value. So in turn, less valuable tenants rented mall space. It's a down hill spiral which few malls ever recover from. The only mall here that closed that DID NOT get ghetto was called North Park Mall. Why did it close? Well I'm not 100% sure but the fact that it was immediately across the road from a more popular mall didn't help. lol. Google maps "North Star Mall" in San Antonio. If you do, the shopping center directly across San Pedro Ave was North Park Mall. It's now North Park shopping center. But yea, going ghetto is how most of them tend to die.
I just moved from San Antonio to North Carolina but man I loved North Star Mall. I went there every other weekend lol. Texas has some really good outlets, much nicer than ones I've been to in other states. La Centera (idk if I'm spelling it right) was a ways away from where I lived but I drove there every now and then just to walk around. The most 'ghetto' mall I've been to while staying in Texas was Rolling Oaks tbh. One girl threatened to beat up my sister because she thought we were following her (???) when really there were only five good stores and thus we ended up in each of them at the same time as her. Never went there again.
I used the live near Rolling Oaks Mall. You clearly just had a bad experience because that mall is far from ghetto. I guess you never went to Wonderland of the Americas, or what used to be the old Crossroads Mall. THAT is the most ghetto mall in San Antonio. There is absolutely ZERO doubt about that.
I remember going to Randall Park Mall with my family back in the 1980s. It was a great place to shop and eat and play video games, much of which I did while there. It was a amazing place to be a young, married adult with a job and expendable cash back in those days! Unfortunately, people back then thought of malls as "cheap babysitters," so they would drop of their kids with some money in the hopes that the kids would go to the movies, buy food and hang out at the arcade. I'm sure that many of them did just that, but kids being kids, there were also that faction that would "see how much trouble they could get into before being kicked out," those that would steal and then jump on buses that were foolishly designated to sit right outside the mall's doors, or fights of "who's dating whom" that cropped up. The local economy taking a nosedive didn't help Randall Park Mall either, not to mention the sheer fact that America had an overabundance of malls, many of them so close together that you could literally drive a few blocks down the street and mall-hop from one to another. These factors, NOT the "African-American kids/poor neighborhood/gangs" people spouted off about in the comments is more than likely what caused the decline of this once grand mall. And for the record, I NEVER heard RPM referred to in racist terms until I read some of these comments! As for those that made racist statements in the comments, why don't you take off your white hoods and robes and go back to fucking your relatives!
Quick correction, the buses weren't literally right outside. You did have to walk a few minutes, unless I'm misjudging the distance from the closest "anchor" store (which would be Dillards) to where the busses were parked by that little hill.
Well I'm black, but I think you'd be crazy to not acknowledge that ill-intentioned people generally ruining a vibe of a place won't have any effect on people's willingness to go there. That's just ignorant and irresponsible to outright dismiss the idea altogether. That doesn't help anyone.
Great job Jake! I didn't know if you knew the original owner of the mall also owned the SF 49ers when they won all those Super Bowls with Joe Montana. I saw him one time when he was doing a walk through of a large mall in Orlando, Fla. He had three bodyguards, all were packing heat and big guys! Keep up the good work Rich
DeBartolo. was also the original owner of Chesapeake Square Mall in Chesapeake, VA, not far from where I live. That mall is still standing; it opened in October 1989.
Great video, Jake! The Holiday Inn actually closed in 1991/1992. I thought it closed in 2003, but when I found out it closed in the early 90s, I was shocked. I've checked out some of the photos of this place, and you can definitely tell that it was frozen in time. Heck, some of the newspapers were from June 1991! Most of the furniture and architecture remind me of the mid/late 1970s (with one of the televisions in the decayed hotel room looking like it's from the mid-1980s). The hotel itself opened in 1972 with the Randall Park Mall, with Days Inn taking over sometime in the mid/late 1980s. Well, that's all the information I've found so far. This hotel has to be one of the most absurd abandoned places I've ever seen. It's no wonder it was demolished!
I spent so much time at that mall in my late teens and early twenties. The video game arcade was a frequent destination for me. This video brought back so many memories.
@@VeraxMusic I think I only went to upstairs for the Tron game in the back. The downstairs was may main place to hang. Dragon's Lair, Cyberball, NBA Jam, Two Tigers, Techmo Bowl, WWF Wrestling, Tapper, Journey Escape, Battle Zone and so many others. I take it you were a big fan of that downstairs one as well. Do you remember the glamor shots near the arcade? I shopped for computer games at that Electronics Boutique and got some awesome Orange Julius and Sabarro Pizza at that mall.
You should do Gwinnett place mall it isn’t fully abandoned yet but it almost is, and it was also the location for the mall in stranger things Starcourt Mall
Sounds exactly like the Regency mall in Augusta, GA. It was also the biggest mall in the south built by DeBartolo and the crime around the mall pushed all the consumers to the Augusta mall about 20 miles away. Up until a few years ago it was exactly how it was when it closed in 02'. They have gutted the mall because of fire code but the main structure is still there.
Walking through a mall that you vividly remember being popular and filled with people all the time now being quiet and empty with few stores or people and only you footsteps to listen to is quite spooky I must say.
I remember the shooting at the mall! I lived in Akron during that time period, and went to Rolling Acres a whole lot. It was all over the news and our parents did say “don’t stay out too late you don’t want to get shot”. I just hate seeing these malls closed and demolished. I know my husband and I are of the mall generation so much of the shopping has gone to online and I love online shopping but it’s not the same as in store shopping
I remember when it opened. My brother had an apartment 15 minutes away. I also remember the manager of the Merry Go Round Clothing Store who killed it in sales. I used to manage the store in Parmatown Mall, now demolished and rebuilt with outdoor stores. Malls are the go to in snow storms.
The DeBartolos were from Youngstown Ohio, close to where I live. They are responsible for a ton of malls throughout the country and owned the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins for a brief time before selling them, and they currently own the San Francisco 49ers. Not to mention they were totally a mafia family.
If only they did like here in many european countries.. Here when you have a anchor store it is usually only accesible from within the mall itself and they are usually located in a spot near center of the mall, meaning you have to pass all the smaller stores and are more likely to do some impulse shopping. I really wonder why they never tried that in US...
1. The big stores wouldn't like that, as they want people coming through their doors. 2.Most American states prefer free market choices rather than government regulations which arbitrarily limit competition. 3. A move like that would limit fire exits, lowering mall capacity, and/or increasing insurance prices.
That and malls in Europe, well around the Southeast of England at least always have an air of niceness about them, no offence to Americans here, but all of your malls just seem to have mundane shops in them, nothing that you wouldn't get on your high streets (main street), and they all seem to be pretty soulless and samey inside and i think that is part of the problem.Sure they were all built at around the same time so were subject to the same sort of stores and the same sort of architecture, but pretty much no attempt has been made in them to be different apart from size, and if all the shops are crap, what difference does 100 make over 80 or 50? It makes going to them much less of a leisure activity and does just promote a switch to online shopping. Here in Essex (S.E England), we have 2 main malls, and both of them do really really well even in the age of internet shopping. Bluewater pulls in around 27 million visitors annually, and Lakeside (literally 3 miles from Bluewater) has 26 million annually.
Thank you Jake! From 1975 , for 7 years that was my favorite place to shop or meet up with friends for coffee. We were barely out of high school! It made me sick how quickly it went down hill! A bad element ruined it as your story has eluded to.
Omg! I'm from Cleveland, Cleveland Heights. I was like, "he's not talking about Randall park mall in Cleveland, but you are! That's crazy! I totally remember Randall park mall as a kid! I remember, we started to go to beachwood!
Reminds me of when I saw the name Great Northern Mall as the title of a "dead mall" video, and I was confused at first until I saw that it wasn't the one in Cleveland that's dying, but rather a namesake in upstate New York near Syracuse...
I lived in Shaker Heights & Cleveland Heights at different times. I used to shop at Randall Mall as a Teenager Lady in the 1980s. I stopped going there after the fights were happening over & over again. I have always loved Beachwood Mall and that Mall is in a better location. However Beachwood Mall is beginning to change. And Richmond Mall all I can say is WELL Its Over.🙄
in 2009 I walked through that mall when only a few bazaar-type stores remained. I looked around and said my final goodbye to it. I knew it was not long for the earth.I am old enough to remember the original red carpet and then after they changed it to blue. Santa used to come around Christmas and the Indian Guides had the Pinewood Derby there. Crime had driven the paying customers away. If not for that,it may have survived much longer IMO .Loved the mid century architecture. Sears was the last anchor store to go
I worked at Rolling Acres and Randall Park Mall. It was a shame that they declined so quickly. Rolling Acres was gang run for a long time. The gangs let the employees alone, but the customers were free game. Akron Police actually put a precinct in the mall itself to protect the public. I was a District Manager for Radio Shack and a Loss Prevention Regional Manager for World of Science. I had the opportunity to see Randall at its best and worst. It is sad to see the great malls of the past in ruins because of reputations and unfortunately big box stores and technology. These malls were, at their peaks, works of architecture that were stunning. I always like your videos. Thank you and keep up the good work.
@@linkfan95 huh? That totally had nothing to do with it LOL.. I could just wasn’t really that big enough for so many miles at the time this part of the reason that one time there were three, +20 minutes north was Randall Park Mall and 20 miles south was Belden Village in Canton.. and Tara city is still hanging in there downtown Cleveland LOL
Hardly any Mall in America is ever seen without a MACY'S,JC PENNY,SEARS and or BLOOMINGDALES,huh??Either all 4 or at least 2 of these are in our Malls.
People who know this neighborhood are not surprised. This was a great mall that gave people moving from the ghetto a chance. And as it is text book, they consumed and destroyed the neighborhood. They have done this to a mall a few miles call RIchmond Mall. Same fate. Soon it will also be abandoned. Next....the ghetto have their eyes set on Beachwood Mall. Type it in, and you will see the crime they are bringing. Facts do not lie as much as they want to blame others for their sad behavior!
I quit going to the Great Lakes Mall when a couple mall rats knocked my disabled wife to the floor. Mall Rats though that was so funny & no one offered to help me get her to her feet. Society sucks.
It's sad to see such things. A grand shopping mall that was opened in 1976 to much fanfare now reduced to an empty space. I love watching these abandoned videos. They're great.
i used to go to this mall as a kid. fast forward 15 years. I would take the 15 bus line thought the urban areas picking up tons of kids. RTA. ( the regional transit authority) had buses rolling into the parking lot and dumping tons of unsupervised youth to get into trouble all summer long . So..... away goes the true shoppers and put it in a spiral to the depths of hell. i blame the greed of the rta and the mall ownership to allow a bus system to run from downtown Cleveland through the crime riddled urban neighborhoods to pick up tons of kids without money or self control to go to a clean quiet neighborhood and deploy terrorism on innocent Americans who have worked hard to live peacefully and shop proudly in the suburbs without worrying about danger walking through the doors in droves.. I love the fact that that southpark mall in Strongsville ohio doesn't allow RtA anywhere near their mall. If you don't have a car that can travel that far. STAY AWAY. leave the real shoppers alone. that same crap that destroyed Randall happened to rolling acres, euclid square and... tower city. Urban boredom. it ruins everything. Im a black man with kids saying what the real is. parents had a way to get a baby sitter for 50 cents as bus fare, and wouldn't see their kids until 11pm.
sean c exactly ... it's may even sound disgruntling as a black male myself that inviting low income people with less sense of decency is not a good idea if you want a business and mall especially to succeed.
My understanding is Tower City has begun to turn around though. They have cracked down on youth loitering and the shoppers have begun to return,though be it to a lack of speciality retailers tower city was known for.
CCWSig I would never eat at Tower City. I used to do work in that building and the roaches are huge. And if you need to use a bathroom go into the casino and use theirs. I think there is a full time worker to clean the bathroom by the food court area. Bums are constantly in there blowing ass all over the place. sean c is exactly correct about the history of the malls here.
A great use of former malls, and a great way to save their architecture, would be to turn the mall into a sort of apartment building. They could use the storefronts as apartments and the interior of the mall could be preserved as a public space for people living there. This would allow the beautiful architecture to be preserved. But sadley, very few people have actually thought of that.
I had to stop watching! It breaks my heart!!!!!! I loved those floating walkways. It's so tragic! I wish they could have kept it and turned it into reusable space like they do with old warehouses now-days. There has got to be other people out there who appreciate the architecture, want it saved and can think of ways to reuse the space before they get torn down! Arggh! Not sure if this was the mall where Tiffany had her huge hit and the video was filmed in the mall. Not my song, but it was big to most kids in the 80s. Thanks for the info, but it's really sad.
There's a mall here called University Mall in Tampa Florida. It used to be really really nice and then in like 2010 it started going downhill and Dillard's closed there and now it's very ghetto and there's only like 5 stores there and people are afraid to shop there without getting their car stolen but it looks like the area is trying to bring the mall back, new restaurants are opening up near the mall and the exterior of the mall is getting fixed up a bit. I hope it can be revived
This happened in Nashville, one of the most beautiful malls began becoming a haven for Thugs. It killed the mall. It was such a glorious place called Hickory Hollow Mall.
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A NEW ABANDONED IS OUT! ruclips.net/video/GKNS-tb_koU/видео.html
Can you do vidoes on southwyck mall, woodville mall and northtowne mall?
Do a video on Dixie Square Mall
BirminghamProTeam Eastwood isn't abandoned.
Drac39,what is Dixie Square Mall ?
It's a mall that stayed abandoned from the late 70's to the early 10's. It was the mall they went through in the Blues Brothers.
They shoulda turned it into the sickest paintball course ever
Andrew Loutzenhiser
And skate park!!
Idiot it would not be safe would you really like to be playing paintball or airsoft where a shooting happened
Maria M r/wooosh
Yes holy shit yes
Im agree
UPDATE: This space is now an Amazon fulfillment center providing a lot of jobs for people in the surrounding area. And yes, they tore down everything and started over. But the abandoned hotel is still standing.
You would think they would tear it down and use that for housing
Wendy's is using a little bit of the Former.
@@dallas_central Amazon got rid of everything
Actually one of the other buildings, the former Sears is still standing as well.
The Hotel is being slowly dismantled due to its proximity to Wendy's.
If you ever see a Burlington Coat Factory move into a mall or retail center, it is often a sign that the place has no where else to go but down hill.
Not necessarily. NYC loves Burlington & all the malls that its in are doing fine.
There's a Burlington adjacent to Monroeville... And that's doing ok.
Yep. In Shreveport, the Burlington is attached to a former mall. The mall is now a giant church complex. It was a gang riddled shithole prior to that.
We have a Burlington and our town center is doing just fine.
We have a Burlington in Crossroads in San Antonio and its due to them and several other businesses that keep it open. Our other malls North Star and River center are doing amazing. Of couse River Center as its downtown next to the Alamo, but North Star is where you go when you are on the far north east as Crossroads is on the North West. Its also known for the huge boots outside of it.
What I like most about your "abandoned" series is that you don't just walk around inside some big, abandoned building, talking about how decrepit the building is, and showing how everything is falling apart... You give us a history lesson. And a well-researched one, at that. You delve deep into the company's history and show how well things went when they were succeeding, and how badly things turned when it all fell apart. I really like the history behind the abandoned buildings. Well done. I look forward to more of these videos in the future.
You should check out the Westminster Mall in Colorado
That is what has made him my favorite person to watch when it comes to abandoned places. When I watch others I am always wondering what the story behind the place is. With this series I always know! It makes it so much more interesting.
LMacNeill If you're looking for a combination of both exploration and history, I would recommend a channel called This Is Dan Bell. If you haven't checked it out already, of course.
Dan Bell is too fat this days and the abandoned structures can no longer suport his weight so he mostly do Dirty hotel and stuff.
Jamie Ivx wow... ROASTED! 😂
I always find watching old 60s and 70s video of people just fascinating, wondering where they are, what course their life took, how old they are now, etc.
AnAmericanMan i thought I was the only one who thought like this
Me three
And in 50-60 years they will watch us
Probably a similar course to the mall. .. The decay of this glamorous site is surprisingly similar to how the lives of many glamorous people pan out.
The years of American excess and bad decisions
When someone is murdered in the parking lot of a shopping mall, that’s usually the first nail in the coffin.
Of both the mall and that person.
@@zegurk lmao
Ah yes, the usual murder in front of a building.
It happened exactly that way at Northridge Mall in Milwaukee Wisconsin.
Or any business. I worked at a club in downtown Cincinnati that was an amazing place to work with customers from all over the city. One race riot and some random shootings nearby and that was all she wrote.
Why is this so fascinating to me?? Why am I so sad about the death of a mall I've never been to?? This is awesome!
Sunny Gurl It honestly was a beautiful mall, but a dangerous one. I was not even 10 when we stopped going there and that was right before it closed.
I heard it called Racial Park Mall one time lol
I was about 9 or 10 years old when it opened...It was the shit...But the neighborhood surrounding the mall started going downhill shortly after it opened (if it hadn't already started to).
Pretty much all the malls in Ohio shut down after the 90's. The only one remaining in Toledo, for example, is Franklin Park Mall.
I have a feeling the next mall to go under in the next few years is Chapel Hill Mall in Akron, you can see some of the things happening there that he explained here
I live in Northeast Ohio, and you'd be so surprised how many abandoned things are around here. Countless malls, department stores, plazas, schools, and even amusement parks (the most famous being Geauga Lake of course). It just surprises me when I research this topic that so many abandoned places are in Ohio. Jeez, maybe I ought to grab a camera and go explore myself. Keep up the good work guys! I really enjoy your videos!
was so sad to see the video done on Geauga Lake. I remember going there many times as a kid
"The Wave" was the best part of Geauga Lake. Waiting for that tidal wave to come every, what was it, 10 minutes?
Yeah, i think it was around every 8-10min... It was like a Tsunami of human bodies....
+zestydude87 Yeah that was so cool. I remember hanging on to those silver railing things on the left wall (if you face the wave) hanging on for dear life.
Amy CS thank NAFTA for that
My parents met each other at Randall mall in the 70's and that use to be my hangout spot in the 90's. Wow can't believe its gone
It was jumping in the 90s
Do you remember the two arcades? One of the lower floor and one on the upper floor.
"Mall Still Open" LOL Always a good sign.
"I assure you, we're open"
"cannot stress enough the fact that we are open..."
It's always a good sign lol I like that pun.
I LIVED at this mall as a teenager and it saddens me GREATLY
to see this!! "(
K Slat me too it's so sad that a bunch of odors ruined the mall.
I know I remember this mall was everything❤ can't believe its gone down hill I miss da good ol day's I use to go to Randall, tower city,severance, Richmond & Beachwood mall🙂
Yeah my generation killed Randall something we're not proud of at all! But them Saturday's getting girls and fighting then shopping before the mall close at 9:30 #goodtimes00-02
Kat Slat how old are u??
@@mikaylahstop asking all the real questions
Fun fact: DeBartolo’s malls started failing in 97 because he died, his son took over, had bad gambling debts and put the company up as collateral for his sports bets.
Interesting, this should be a pinned comment or have more likes. It really needs more visibility. I had to scroll so far before I saw this.
DeBartolo used to own the SF 49ers
I spent my whole childhood, and then all of my teen years in this mall. I remember taking the bus there when it was mostly empty. I loved this mall. I was 8 when I got my ears pierced there. I kissed a boy there when I was 16, it meant a lot to me. When I think of Randall I think of my family, the original theater, and my first pair of hot pink and black LA Gears! Sad to see it gone, but glad for the jobs that are coming!
Lots of good memories in this mall. Footlocker, hobby store, theater, I can go on and on.
U the reason they tore it down being fast kissing boys with your friends
@@Natureking113 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😅😅😅😅 you Savage 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
69th like
Randall park had the very last BEEF CORAL restaurant, delicious
As long as I can remember, we always called it Randall Dark Mall..... when I worked for Pacific Sunwear, I had to go there twice to fill in, and I had never been more aware that I could be killed going to or leaving work. Even safer malls had problems, for instance, Mrs Pesho was raped, tortured and killed at Parmatown. And that's a MUCH safer area.
It wasnt that bad was it???? I worked at DJ,s when I was 15 . Although my aunts car was stollen out of the parking lot in 86 somewhere between Casual Corner and Petite Sophisticate lol ! Station wagon w wood panel sides . they didn care .
Mike anything that abuts Cleveland is a shit hole. Maple Heights, Garfield Heights, Bedford, Euclid, all ghetto waste lands.
Goddess Sky put your old ass parents in a fucking home then bitch.
Hugo Stiglitz Oh my god racists bro
Mike Taylor lol
We used to drive 100 miles from Erie PA to go to Randall Park. Had lots of New Wave clothing stores in the early 80's
Wasn't the Millcreek Mall open back then? I've always found it to be decent
@@missybarbour6885 Yes, Millcreek Mall has been open since the early 70s. It's not doing badly, but it isn't great either. It's tough to say what its fate will be because the mall is such an integral part of Erie, but the boom of the 80s and early 90s is long gone from the Millcreek Mall. I think the only three stores that opened with the mall (or at least have been there since I was a kid in the 70s and 80s) are JCPenny, Spencer Gifts, and a pet store. In fact, JCPenny has never even changed their interior or exterior facades, so to stare at them you can almost get that early to mid 70s mall vibe!
@@jgn2112 I live in lake county just east of Cleveland, and I used to go Randall all the time un thg he late 90s. Then when they closed, I used to drive to Erie for the Millcreak mall. Sometimes I would hit the casino also lol. Is Millcreak still open? Burlington and Macy's specifically? I haven't been to Erie for a few years, but I always enjoyed myself at the mall and casino.
Isn't it ironic that both Randall Park and Rolling Acres started with Sears and JCPenney's as the anchor stores, and both closed around the same time? Especially since Sears and JCPenney's are both struggling right now
Engei I didn't realize that
Isn't it funny that both areas are full of government housing units and as a result high crime????
Engei I don’t think it’s ironic, I think that’s connected.
JC Penney is struggling?
At Rolling Acres, Sears and JCPenney were the first two anchors to open and also the last two survivors, both staying open a few more years after the mall itself shut down...
Update: 3 days after the video was uploaded, work crews have been in the Macy's building and have cleaned up most of the ground floor and removed most of the mold. On June 2017, PowerSports have officially left the property, leaving the mall completely empty. It wasn't until two months later when Amazon purchased the property and is currently planning on demolishing the remaining anchor stores and build an 855,000-square-foot warehouse, bringing 2,000 full-time jobs to the region.
SwagGum.....I hope Amazon makes sure to hire good security for their buildings. The area is a high crime area, bringing Amazon in is good for jobs, but the crime rate will still be high.
Significant shrinkage....
so did amazon ever build?
@@feliciahull2335 Yes, it did. Amazon Fulfillment Center CLE2 opened last year.
Amazon is there and it destroyed 1 anchor store but the others are still there.
Thank you so much for doing this. I grew up here and this was my mall I was at every weekend with my friends just hanging around. I cried watching this because of all the memories this brings.
Me 2 girl....GOD I miss this place had so many goodtimes here I used 2 run down the platform with the red carpet me and my cousins do you remember Jeepers??? Lol I used 2 have a ball in there
this video is so depressing lol
Artzie Music aye never thought i would see you here
Imagine living there...
Passed by Akron (Rolling Acres) a few years ago....and I just feel sad for anyone who has to live there. Obvious gangs and prostitution right near their downtown. Abject poverty. Abandoned property throughout.
Throughout the Rust Belt, there's tons of areas with insane poverty.
In Buffalo, there's the street of Broadway: An old connector street through the suburbs connecting to the Central Terminal (which needs its own video). The whole area is in poverty, with absolutely no businesses and over 95% abandonment. People live in abandoned houses with no running water or electricity...
East Cleveland is similar. Not as bad, but miles long.
Northern Detroit and many surrounding Cities/Towns (like Flint) are centers for poverty and dead industry.
Artzie Music 3rd
Artzie Music keep it up with the great music
Artzie Music we have a large mall and there was a kfc that got fucked by closing down
There was also a robbery there in a jewlery store when i was there!
Love you videos as always, Jake! Thanks for taking the time to make these.
+Zzyzx Wolfe always, thanks for watching.
Can you do a video on Hollywood Video too?
Zzyzx Wolfe
Angie2343 Do You Mean The Stores With A History Similar To Blockbuster Video
Yes.
Sadly, if it wasn't for criminal activity, this mall could have still been opened today
Crime is allowed to flourish in America, a by-product of the liberalism allowed here.
That is exactly what I think. Its because of the punks that come to hangout with there homies and drive away the people that come to buy stuff.
@@tomdeininger7379 better than living in a police state
tom deininger yes because conservatives anti government circlejerking has nothing to do with it
While that was a major contributing factor, as well as the recession in 2008, the rise of the internet and e-commerce would have eventually doomed the mall to failure anyway.
Here in Ohio, we keep our malls open..
for a year or two...
RIP Cincinnati Mills
I dunno, my closest mall (Eastwood Mall) has been open for quite some time.
GWR Oliver Southern Park mall as well.
Yep. I just went there today, actually.
Ah, Southpark mall. I love that mall, great staff, amazing stores (Like Petland and Pick Of The Litter), and there's a lot of space! Southpark and Great Northern seem like they'll stay open for a long time.
I'm so intrested in abandoned buildings for some reason. I love history
Me too
@@nd4656 i’m the exact same way !! ever since my dad bought me a book about abandoned places i’ve had a huge obsession, and i’d die to explore a dead mall someday.
Abandoned plot: **exists**
Jeff Bezos: *hippity hoppity this is my property*
Lol
that 9 million was nothing to him
Jeff bezos: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Pippity poppity, give me the property?😅
😂👊🔥
Just wanna say - love this series, I totally get the fascination with abandoned retail spaces and theme parks and stuff. I think a large part of it is how they formerly were so incredibly crowded and well-trafficked, and then they become a sort of Dark World version of themselves. It's a particular kind of eerie.
Anyway, I don't comment on most of these because it'd be redundant. Just keep doing what you do man. Highly informative, frequent humor, great editing and enthusiasm, these are great watches!
I’ve been binge watching these all day. Your costa Concordia video popped up in my recommended and I’ve been hooked, you earned yourself a sub.
Thanks so much man!
@Kross Same here!
Me right now !
@@BrightSunFilms with online shopping malls are slowly dying out
Wow ... growing up in Cleveland in the 90’s ... I always went to this mall .. and NEVER knew why it died until now. It’s crazy to see something that held so many childhood memories no longer there, at all, as if it never existed ... scary ...
Church n the mall. Preach af
Cam Winter one in midway mall in Elyria ohio.
Cam Winter I know right I've never heard of such of a thing XD
Well, with people shopping more online, they have to fill those former retail spaces. A mall in my city has a Church, an army career center, a women's resource center, and a charter school.
they also had a studio in there
AZ Outcast How is it not a career 😂
Jake can you do a abandoned episode on Borders which is a book store
Adam Helsel i miss borders it was my childhood
Seconded. Borders was a huge part of my childhood.
Although, what Barnes and Noble did with Border's Customer Information was extremely shady.
Adam Helsel Borders was so much cheaper than Barns and Noble. I miss them.
Border arrived in the UK near where I lived with this amazingly huge book store, then it disappeared within a few years. I can remember how amazing it was to go to a borders, they had every book you could think of, it's just sad the model didn't really work with Amazon available at the click of a mouse.
I worked at Brentano's Booksellers and remember my manager saying, "Now who on earth would buy a book online? It'll never last."
Moral of the story? Don’t build malls in Ohio
Especially in Eastland. Smh
Neven Karas There’s still malls that do well though dumbass, look up southpark mall.
@@theoneandonlyrustyshaklefo6256 Wow... have you ever heard of a joke before? 🤐
C 2 Yeah.
@@theoneandonlyrustyshaklefo6256 No you haven't, but that isn't surprising given the fact you're from Ohio.
With all of that crime surrounding it's downfall you would think this place was built in Gotham lol
A Gotham outlet?
@@None-zc5vg i may not be a fan of it but im pretty sure they're talking about Gotham city in batman
I just found your channel! this is the best! I have a fascination with abandoned buildings! Thanks for making these videos!!
Thank you for watching! (:
Bright Sun Films Can you do Hawthorne Mall in California
Kaitlin Greene ME TOO
I like you also I have a fascinating thing with abandoned buildings I am from Toronto Canada and we do have some of them and I found some cool stuff in them like some old matchbox and hotwheel cars.
It's still hard to believe this place is gone. From the jeepers amusement park space, the magic Johnson theater, and visiting my dad's gym (he was a tenant there for a few years) I practically spent most of my childhood in this mall
When outlet stores start replacing the actual store you know you're fucked.
Juan Irving this is probably a stupid question but what the difference between outlet stores and regular retail stores
Outlets are like malls but it doesn't have an actual roof over it's head, seen in most of them. It's all just clothing retail stores. I don't enjoy those places because outlets are quite boring.
Microsoft Regime thanks for explaining
Smøl Tyler outlets are also where stores send old out of season stuff (or stuff they maybe never made it to retail in the first place) to sell at a cheaper price to get rid of it. They're fun to go to every once in a while but not on a weekly basis like regular malls are
Microsoft Regime That's not true for the outlet mall nearby me. It's a massive outlet mall that houses popular brands. It has a massive indoor mall and two outdoor areas with restaurants. It's also busy all the time.
Greet video!! Top notch work as always informative and well produced!! This was a beautiful abandoned mall. The structure was amazing!!!an absolute MARVAL!!!!!
+A. Lò Thank you so much!
Louisiana Apple yes
This mall was from my childhood. I use to go to this mall a lot with my aunt. I always liked running down the ramp that went from the second to the first floor. I went there later on as an adult a few years ago and I walked through it again and just about all the stores and eating places were closed. I also ran down the ramp again for old times sake. It was heartbreaking to see that something from your childhood become like this. I will always have very fond memories of this mall and they will remain in my heart forever.
Hurts my heart Everytime I drive past it
Same used to lived there everytime we past it is scary to look at it and church n the mall me and my family went there and my grandfather walk and prayed so our pastor can owned it but it never worked
me and my friends once tried to get inside the mall but never did because we heard a noise and started to run and it also looks hunted I just wish it wasn’t abandoned since it live near me
I was born in 1987 and always loved going to the mall since I was 3 until about 5 years ago. Shopping mall just aren't fun anymore!!!!! Back in the 80's and 90's going to the mall especially on the weekends was bomb!! They still had elegant department stores, cool mom and pop stores and eateries, video arcades, book, music, and movie stores, specialty stores and so much more. Today you just have those fancy pretentious shopping malls that house only corporate retail stores and eateries now that sell cheap looking overpriced merchandise and food. I miss the old school food courts where there were still family owned eateries. All you have now is crappy Panda Express and Sbarro's. Sad how the economy made shopping malls which were once sparkling gems disappear forever. Shopping malls back in the day were so fun now they just make you depressed and remind you of the dismal state this country has been in for almost 10 years. Goodbye sweet old school shopping malls, you gave many people fun, happiness, and beautiful years of memories with family and friends.
The country isn't in a dismal state. You just don't see it, because all the good stuff happens on the Internet now. Jeff Bezos didn't recently become the world's richest man for no reason.
hey! watch what you say about panda express! ;-)
materialgirl8707 w
Very well written.
Japan still has shopping malls like this that are booming! It's a great country for shopping. The malls near my hometown in the States are all struggling to stay open.
This was THE mall to go to when I was a kid in Cleveland. Still remember the Commodore 64 game shop and how it had games you couldn't get anywhere else. Had to beg my parents to take me there at Christmas time.
Yeah I just looked it up! They had an amusement park named Jeepers! , I had a birthday party there once!
Me 3
I remember that place!
I use to be so scared of that green dragon rollercoaster jeepers had 😂😂
I used to go to jeepers too. It was like a better version of chuckie cheese. I miss that mall. I grew up going there witb my grandma all the time as a kid. Its sad hoe things change.
I still have jeepers tickets after all these years.. i planned on using them but then.. well u know what
This brings me to tears man i use to hang out at Randall mall all the time as a kid. This place use to be the spot!
I used to go to Randall all the time growing up! I remember the fountains being off and elevators being down for a lot of it too. Seeing the Magic Theater in this is so surreal because I used to stand in that same spot and walk through those halls, and now they're gone.
Stephen Johnson Just curious, do you remember that arcade in there, Jeepers?
Adam S. oh my gosh yes! I only went there a few times, but I did! I remember them having a little mini coaster or something in there too. It's been so long.
Stephen Johnson Yeah the coaster! That place was great until they had to shut it down with the rest of the mall, and I think some kid was being stupid and stood up on that coaster and got seriously injured, that was one of the nails in the coffin.
Adam S. at least it still exists in the memories of us that lived it. Shame someone got hurt though.
Stephen Johnson damn
I'm actually from a Northeast Ohio. I lived in a small suburb on the border of Bedford Heights and North Randall, so Randall Park Mall was my mall growing up in the 80s and 90s. When I was old enough to ride my bike further away from my house and neighborhood, I would go there all the time to play video games at the two arcades, eat in the food court, buy music and movies, my family dentist was at the Sears there, and watch movies at the Magic Johnson theater in the late 90s/early 2000s. I have a lot of very good memories of Randall Park Mall and I was very sad to see it decay and finally die over the years.
Did you ever go there in the early/mid 90s when the dollar theater was still? But yeah I loved the two arcades there. The smaller one was on the top floor by the food court (KFC, Taco Bell, etc), and the bigger one was downstairs. I hung out at the arcades, always checked out EB Games and look at the back of the video game boxes, looked at clothes at Dillards, etc. Oh and KB Toys, Record Town, etc.
Very interesting but sad video. I was the first mail carrier for Randall Park when it opened and it was an amazing piece of architecture and a vibrant place to shop and hang out with your friends. It was a fun place to be for a young twenty year old like myself. I will forever remember the good times working and cruising around the second floor watching the girls go by with my buddies!
Wow, I miss RPM. Lots of memories as a kid hanging out there on the weekends.
Amazons Fault
This was the mall of my childhood (I’m 38) and I watched as it declined, I forgot how beautiful it was, this video made me sad, I hate wasted potential!
I remember me and my friends having an entire routine when we'd go there on Saturdays. So on Saturday morning, we'd catch the 19 or the 15 RTA there in the morning when they first opened. Hang out in the downstairs or upstairs arcade, get some food from the food court. Then we'd go check out some stores like EB Games, KB Toys, check out clothes at Dillards. Then after spending more hours in the arcade, we'd catch a late movie in the dollar theater there, and finally get home around midnight or 1am. Ugh, the fun times! Apparently ruined by the criminal element, which I had no idea about.
This mall was my childhood 🙏🏿❤️
I love this series. While most RUclipsrs would do a random one-off "Shocking! Creepy abandoned mall", you actually take the time to explain the history and the path to the decline, as well as speculate about the future. Very well covered.
Crazy to see how everything surrounding a mall like this dies off so quickly after the main attraction shuts down. I always wonder what can be done to successfully revive areas like this when I see them.
Awesome coverage on this :D
I miss it When Malls used to have theaters.
Now they’re just either your typical boring mall or the expensive riches
There’s malls where I live with theaters
Mine is all three
I miss having Malls that didn't cater to blacks.
The mall up the road from me has a huge movie theater.
Actually there are malls that aren't expensive that have theaters there's one I go it all he time to to go see movies
There are more Abandoned Malls here in Ohio, than anywhere else in the world.
Ashley omf that pfp is amazing
Thanks, I love Ranma.
Is there a reason for that? Because there are none here in Oregon (that I'm aware of).
Ohio's economy is shit, when there are no jobs, people don't want to go out of their way to go to a mall.
Ashley Thanks for answering, I'd love to explore one.... We need some abandoned malls here 😢.
I can still smell the scent of “carpet cleaner mixed with chocolate chip cookies”… Sooo many childhood / teenage memories at Randall…
The only mall I know of that has been successful in the current age, is an outlet mall nearby where I live. It's pretty filled with stores, but what helped it stay relevant, was that it changed with the times. It's got an aquarium now, a Lego store (complete with a big walk through attraction), a movie theater, and an arcade/bowling/karaoke place, along with a ton of really great restaurants. I'll be sad if that mall shuts down.
Hey another great video. My mom group up about 15mins away from the mall and the entire area has really taken an economic downturn. When those malls were built factory and production jobs were paying middle class incomes. By the 2000s those jobs had left Cleveland for good.
Im just saying even the best of malls would have struggled in that area. But enjoyed the video!
This mall was where I stupidly got a free cell phone in my early 20s thinking it was just that...free. Had to go back with my mom and fake a mental disability to get out of it.
Such a gorgeous mall.
Then it turned über ghetto.
Dee Liteful 😂😂😂
Dee Liteful iiii
malls turning ghetto is typically how they go out. I live in San Antonio, Tx. At one time we had...I think 11 shopping malls. Today, I think we have 6 and 5 of those are traditional malls. The one that I don't consider traditional is laid out like a mall, but the open area normally "inside" the mall is open to the elements so it's kinda a mix between an outlet center and a shopping mall. Anyway, the malls that closed over the years, the areas around them decreased in value. So in turn, less valuable tenants rented mall space. It's a down hill spiral which few malls ever recover from. The only mall here that closed that DID NOT get ghetto was called North Park Mall. Why did it close? Well I'm not 100% sure but the fact that it was immediately across the road from a more popular mall didn't help. lol. Google maps "North Star Mall" in San Antonio. If you do, the shopping center directly across San Pedro Ave was North Park Mall. It's now North Park shopping center.
But yea, going ghetto is how most of them tend to die.
I just moved from San Antonio to North Carolina but man I loved North Star Mall. I went there every other weekend lol. Texas has some really good outlets, much nicer than ones I've been to in other states. La Centera (idk if I'm spelling it right) was a ways away from where I lived but I drove there every now and then just to walk around.
The most 'ghetto' mall I've been to while staying in Texas was Rolling Oaks tbh. One girl threatened to beat up my sister because she thought we were following her (???) when really there were only five good stores and thus we ended up in each of them at the same time as her. Never went there again.
I used the live near Rolling Oaks Mall. You clearly just had a bad experience because that mall is far from ghetto. I guess you never went to Wonderland of the Americas, or what used to be the old Crossroads Mall. THAT is the most ghetto mall in San Antonio. There is absolutely ZERO doubt about that.
I remember going to Randall Park Mall with my family back in the 1980s. It was a great place to shop and eat and play video games, much of which I did while there. It was a amazing place to be a young, married adult with a job and expendable cash back in those days!
Unfortunately, people back then thought of malls as "cheap babysitters," so they would drop of their kids with some money in the hopes that the kids would go to the movies, buy food and hang out at the arcade. I'm sure that many of them did just that, but kids being kids, there were also that faction that would "see how much trouble they could get into before being kicked out," those that would steal and then jump on buses that were foolishly designated to sit right outside the mall's doors, or fights of "who's dating whom" that cropped up.
The local economy taking a nosedive didn't help Randall Park Mall either, not to mention the sheer fact that America had an overabundance of malls, many of them so close together that you could literally drive a few blocks down the street and mall-hop from one to another.
These factors, NOT the "African-American kids/poor neighborhood/gangs" people spouted off about in the comments is more than likely what caused the decline of this once grand mall.
And for the record, I NEVER heard RPM referred to in racist terms until I read some of these comments!
As for those that made racist statements in the comments, why don't you take off your white hoods and robes and go back to fucking your relatives!
Thank you! People can be such jerks! It makes me so sad to see all of this racism in the comments.
Also Nittle Grasper forever!
Quick correction, the buses weren't literally right outside. You did have to walk a few minutes, unless I'm misjudging the distance from the closest "anchor" store (which would be Dillards) to where the busses were parked by that little hill.
Well I'm black, but I think you'd be crazy to not acknowledge that ill-intentioned people generally ruining a vibe of a place won't have any effect on people's willingness to go there. That's just ignorant and irresponsible to outright dismiss the idea altogether. That doesn't help anyone.
As always, excelent work!
Thanks!
Great job Jake! I didn't know if you knew the original owner of the mall also owned the SF 49ers when they won all those Super Bowls with Joe Montana. I saw him one time when he was doing a walk through of a large mall in Orlando, Fla. He had three bodyguards, all were packing heat and big guys!
Keep up the good work
Rich
DeBartolo. was also the original owner of Chesapeake Square Mall in Chesapeake, VA, not far from where I live. That mall is still standing; it opened in October 1989.
Great video, Jake!
The Holiday Inn actually closed in 1991/1992. I thought it closed in 2003, but when I found out it closed in the early 90s, I was shocked. I've checked out some of the photos of this place, and you can definitely tell that it was frozen in time. Heck, some of the newspapers were from June 1991! Most of the furniture and architecture remind me of the mid/late 1970s (with one of the televisions in the decayed hotel room looking like it's from the mid-1980s). The hotel itself opened in 1972 with the Randall Park Mall, with Days Inn taking over sometime in the mid/late 1980s. Well, that's all the information I've found so far. This hotel has to be one of the most absurd abandoned places I've ever seen. It's no wonder it was demolished!
I spent so much time at that mall in my late teens and early twenties. The video game arcade was a frequent destination for me. This video brought back so many memories.
Did you mainly frequent the upstairs arcade or the larger downstairs arcade? (with the shooting gallery thing they had for a while)
@@VeraxMusic I think I only went to upstairs for the Tron game in the back. The downstairs was may main place to hang. Dragon's Lair, Cyberball, NBA Jam, Two Tigers, Techmo Bowl, WWF Wrestling, Tapper, Journey Escape, Battle Zone and so many others. I take it you were a big fan of that downstairs one as well.
Do you remember the glamor shots near the arcade? I shopped for computer games at that Electronics Boutique and got some awesome Orange Julius and Sabarro Pizza at that mall.
The mall looks very similar to the abandoned mall in The Last of Us
BHuang92 it's also is the same thing that's started happening with metrocenter mall in Phoenix
I think that mall was Rolling Acres...
BHuang92 s
You should do Gwinnett place mall it isn’t fully abandoned yet but it almost is, and it was also the location for the mall in stranger things Starcourt Mall
YES HE SHOULD
I Agree! I live in Gwinnett.
Sounds exactly like the Regency mall in Augusta, GA. It was also the biggest mall in the south built by DeBartolo and the crime around the mall pushed all the consumers to the Augusta mall about 20 miles away. Up until a few years ago it was exactly how it was when it closed in 02'. They have gutted the mall because of fire code but the main structure is still there.
I've been waiting sooooooooo long for another episode! Yessssss!
Jake, I love this channel so much. Keep doing this, it’s amazing!
Walking through a mall that you vividly remember being popular and filled with people all the time now being quiet and empty with few stores or people and only you footsteps to listen to is quite spooky I must say.
I remember the shooting at the mall! I lived in Akron during that time period, and went to Rolling Acres a whole lot. It was all over the news and our parents did say “don’t stay out too late you don’t want to get shot”. I just hate seeing these malls closed and demolished. I know my husband and I are of the mall generation so much of the shopping has gone to online and I love online shopping but it’s not the same as in store shopping
I remember when it opened. My brother had an apartment 15 minutes away. I also remember the manager of the Merry Go Round Clothing Store who killed it in sales. I used to manage the store in Parmatown Mall, now demolished and rebuilt with outdoor stores. Malls are the go to in snow storms.
Damn i grew up like 5 min away in the 80's was the best mall around sad to see what happened
Why does this guy get hate??? His videos are entertaining.. smh
Does he get hate? It seems everyone enjoys his videos.
The DeBartolos were from Youngstown Ohio, close to where I live. They are responsible for a ton of malls throughout the country and owned the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins for a brief time before selling them, and they currently own the San Francisco 49ers.
Not to mention they were totally a mafia family.
Took ya a while, still its was worth the wait. You make something that seems boring interesting.
Never mind I forgot I've been gone for a while witch means more videos of yours for me to watch.
If only they did like here in many european countries..
Here when you have a anchor store it is usually only accesible from within the mall itself and they are usually located in a spot near center of the mall, meaning you have to pass all the smaller stores and are more likely to do some impulse shopping.
I really wonder why they never tried that in US...
Do you know how that worked out?
1. The big stores wouldn't like that, as they want people coming through their doors.
2.Most American states prefer free market choices rather than government regulations which arbitrarily limit competition.
3. A move like that would limit fire exits, lowering mall capacity, and/or increasing insurance prices.
We've had malls like that here, and they are all closed, too. No one wants malls anymore, they want Amazon and Wal*mart
KC9UDX i want malls
That and malls in Europe, well around the Southeast of England at least always have an air of niceness about them, no offence to Americans here, but all of your malls just seem to have mundane shops in them, nothing that you wouldn't get on your high streets (main street), and they all seem to be pretty soulless and samey inside and i think that is part of the problem.Sure they were all built at around the same time so were subject to the same sort of stores and the same sort of architecture, but pretty much no attempt has been made in them to be different apart from size, and if all the shops are crap, what difference does 100 make over 80 or 50? It makes going to them much less of a leisure activity and does just promote a switch to online shopping.
Here in Essex (S.E England), we have 2 main malls, and both of them do really really well even in the age of internet shopping.
Bluewater pulls in around 27 million visitors annually, and Lakeside (literally 3 miles from Bluewater) has 26 million annually.
Thank you Jake! From 1975 , for 7 years that was my favorite place to shop or meet up with friends for coffee. We were barely out of high school! It made me sick how quickly it went down hill! A bad element ruined it as your story has eluded to.
Just to add Amazon built on the land.
How on earth do you research a vid like this? Where are the records of when a coat store open in a mall in the early 80's???
Theres something called the internet.
I would start with the finance department at the city hall to check when business licenses were issued and cancelled.
Wikipedia, vlogs, local news, property records, there are tons of sources
Omg! I'm from Cleveland, Cleveland Heights. I was like, "he's not talking about Randall park mall in Cleveland, but you are! That's crazy! I totally remember Randall park mall as a kid! I remember, we started to go to beachwood!
Reminds me of when I saw the name Great Northern Mall as the title of a "dead mall" video, and I was confused at first until I saw that it wasn't the one in Cleveland that's dying, but rather a namesake in upstate New York near Syracuse...
I lived in Shaker Heights & Cleveland Heights at different times. I used to shop at Randall Mall as a Teenager Lady in the 1980s. I stopped going there after the fights were happening over & over again. I have always loved Beachwood Mall and that Mall is in a better location. However Beachwood Mall is beginning to change. And Richmond Mall all I can say is WELL Its Over.🙄
Blowing my mind too
in 2009 I walked through that mall when only a few bazaar-type stores remained. I looked around and said my final goodbye to it. I knew it was not long for the earth.I am old enough to remember the original red carpet and then after they changed it to blue. Santa used to come around Christmas and the Indian Guides had the Pinewood Derby there. Crime had driven the paying customers away. If not for that,it may have survived much longer IMO .Loved the mid century architecture. Sears was the last anchor store to go
I worked at Rolling Acres and Randall Park Mall. It was a shame that they declined so quickly. Rolling Acres was gang run for a long time. The gangs let the employees alone, but the customers were free game. Akron Police actually put a precinct in the mall itself to protect the public. I was a District Manager for Radio Shack and a Loss Prevention Regional Manager for World of Science. I had the opportunity to see Randall at its best and worst. It is sad to see the great malls of the past in ruins because of reputations and unfortunately big box stores and technology. These malls were, at their peaks, works of architecture that were stunning. I always like your videos. Thank you and keep up the good work.
That's crazy that gangs were there. It's like an infestation of roaches that's impossible to get rid of.
And that, children, is why we don’t build a mall near Cleveland.
Rolling Acres learned that the hard way.
....nope, that had nothing to do with it!
🙄
That area just turned into a really bad area. It’s near the Akron canton area right? Enough said.
@@linkfan95 huh? That totally had nothing to do with it LOL.. I could just wasn’t really that big enough for so many miles at the time this part of the reason that one time there were three, +20 minutes north was Randall Park Mall and 20 miles south was Belden Village in Canton.. and Tara city is still hanging in there downtown Cleveland LOL
This is a total flashback seeing all of this. North Randall got SOOOO ghetto everyone stopped going. Today, north Randall is a literal hellhole.
its what happens when gangs and the ghetto culture steps foot on the property.
Hardly any Mall in America is ever seen without a MACY'S,JC PENNY,SEARS and or BLOOMINGDALES,huh??Either all 4 or at least 2 of these are in our Malls.
I've been there before and my parents grew up going to that mall!
People who know this neighborhood are not surprised. This was a great mall that gave people moving from the ghetto a chance. And as it is text book, they consumed and destroyed the neighborhood. They have done this to a mall a few miles call RIchmond Mall. Same fate. Soon it will also be abandoned. Next....the ghetto have their eyes set on Beachwood Mall. Type it in, and you will see the crime they are bringing. Facts do not lie as much as they want to blame others for their sad behavior!
I'm sure mentor mall isn't far off either.
I quit going to the Great Lakes Mall when a couple mall rats knocked my disabled wife to the floor. Mall Rats though that was so funny & no one offered to help me get her to her feet. Society sucks.
Yea, about these perspectives, enjoy highlighting your gaslighting...👍👍👍
@Advocates For Children's Online Safety / Narcissist, you're not funny tho...😕😕😕 Enjoy highlighting that gaslighting...👍👍👍
Well suburban kids ruining the Ithaca mall by shooting it up and stealing
It's a shame that they demolished it... The interior looks like it was beautiful...
BikerBoyNJ the best part of this mall was being a kid and running up and down those zig zag walkways
On a Saturday afternoon in HS when you had plenty of money on you, man, it was nice.
Your episode on Rolling Acres was fantastic, this is great too!
It was like a trip to Kenya or Somalia. So nice and friendly. Visiting there gave you the feeling of being glad to be alive!
As an 80's kid I used to go to this mall all the time.......good memories.
I think this mall is so interesting because of the bridges and walkways. I’ve never seen so many in a mall before.
I’m from Vermillion and we used to go to Randall Park around Christmas every year. Part of my childhood.
Lived my teen years here, and if you can imagine a Midwest version of Fast Times At Ridgemont High in the mid 80's, this mall was it....
trust me, Ohio is more than just abandoned things😂 this is like the 4th abandoned episode about something in ohio
My closest mall will probably close soon tbh
hoopwarrior which one do you live buy? midway mall?
youngstown is why i avoid ohio
If it is Midway, than you are screwed dude!
the one and only rusty shakleford chapel hill mall in Akron
It's sad to see such things. A grand shopping mall that was opened in 1976 to much fanfare now reduced to an empty space. I love watching these abandoned videos. They're great.
I love you man! Your videos always make my day!
+Luke T. Thanks so much!
i used to go to this mall as a kid. fast forward 15 years. I would take the 15 bus line thought the urban areas picking up tons of kids. RTA. ( the regional transit authority) had buses rolling into the parking lot and dumping tons of unsupervised youth to get into trouble all summer long . So..... away goes the true shoppers and put it in a spiral to the depths of hell. i blame the greed of the rta and the mall ownership to allow a bus system to run from downtown Cleveland through the crime riddled urban neighborhoods to pick up tons of kids without money or self control to go to a clean quiet neighborhood and deploy terrorism on innocent Americans who have worked hard to live peacefully and shop proudly in the suburbs without worrying about danger walking through the doors in droves.. I love the fact that that southpark mall in Strongsville ohio doesn't allow RtA anywhere near their mall. If you don't have a car that can travel that far. STAY AWAY. leave the real shoppers alone. that same crap that destroyed Randall happened to rolling acres, euclid square and... tower city. Urban boredom. it ruins everything. Im a black man with kids saying what the real is. parents had a way to get a baby sitter for 50 cents as bus fare, and wouldn't see their kids until 11pm.
sean c exactly ... it's may even sound disgruntling as a black male myself that inviting low income people with less sense of decency is not a good idea if you want a business and mall especially to succeed.
sean c this is what happens when you have too many niggaz
sean c well put sean
My understanding is Tower City has begun to turn around though. They have cracked down on youth loitering and the shoppers have begun to return,though be it to a lack of speciality retailers tower city was known for.
CCWSig I would never eat at Tower City. I used to do work in that building and the roaches are huge. And if you need to use a bathroom go into the casino and use theirs. I think there is a full time worker to clean the bathroom by the food court area. Bums are constantly in there blowing ass all over the place. sean c is exactly correct about the history of the malls here.
A great use of former malls, and a great way to save their architecture, would be to turn the mall into a sort of apartment building. They could use the storefronts as apartments and the interior of the mall could be preserved as a public space for people living there. This would allow the beautiful architecture to be preserved. But sadley, very few people have actually thought of that.
I had to stop watching! It breaks my heart!!!!!! I loved those floating walkways. It's so tragic! I wish they could have kept it and turned it into reusable space like they do with old warehouses now-days. There has got to be other people out there who appreciate the architecture, want it saved and can think of ways to reuse the space before they get torn down! Arggh! Not sure if this was the mall where Tiffany had her huge hit and the video was filmed in the mall. Not my song, but it was big to most kids in the 80s. Thanks for the info, but it's really sad.
There's a mall here called University Mall in Tampa Florida. It used to be really really nice and then in like 2010 it started going downhill and Dillard's closed there and now it's very ghetto and there's only like 5 stores there and people are afraid to shop there without getting their car stolen but it looks like the area is trying to bring the mall back, new restaurants are opening up near the mall and the exterior of the mall is getting fixed up a bit. I hope it can be revived
ZoLexa “it’s very ghetto” wow sis just wow
This happened in Nashville, one of the most beautiful malls began becoming a haven for Thugs. It killed the mall. It was such a glorious place called Hickory Hollow Mall.
Nice Video and I been subscribing your channel since 2014. Keep it up.
Thanks so much!
Vizeit same here
Bright Sun Films Regency Square Mall closed 2 stores
Hello
tjaz031 Regency Square as in Jacksonville, Florida?