What are YOU watching on YouTube.com?

[kosko99]

 

[NightWolve]

I thought they were gonna overdo it for a second but that did get funny once the beat kicked in.

[esteban]

I thought they were gonna overdo it for a second but that did get funny once the beat kicked in.

Agreed.

I loved how he pushed the window open with his head.

[esteban]

I've been watching a series of videos where a guy walks through dead shopping malls.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNz4Un92pGNxQ9vNgmnCx7dwchPJGJ3IQ

That sounds intriguing. I've been in only a few *nearly dead* shopping malls (economically depressed areas...like near Rochester, NY back in the 90's, visiting my family).

[DragonmasterDan]

I've been watching a series of videos where a guy walks through dead shopping malls.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNz4Un92pGNxQ9vNgmnCx7dwchPJGJ3IQ

That sounds intriguing. I've been in only a few *nearly dead* shopping malls (economically depressed areas...like near Rochester, NY back in the 90's, visiting my family).

One basically dead mall a little ways from me got turned into a South of the Border style indoor flea market.

[geise]

Holy shit!  Rolling Acres mall is in that guys series!  I used to frequent that place as a kid in the 80's.  It was a really good mall.  Up untill the late 80's early 90's it starting having gang problems really bad.  We started to go to Great Northern near the Cleveland Hopkins airport instead.  I wonder how Great Northern mall is now?  Arkhan would probably know. 

[xelement5x]

It's pretty interesting to see the trend away from traditional malls to strip malls now.  I can only assume they are cheaper to maintain since you are not paying to heat/cool/clean entire corridors between stores really. 

I would like to think it is because people are healthier and want to walk more, but I bet it is really because you can now drive to store X, buy what you want, get back in your car, and then drive to store Z on the other of the mall faster and without having to go by Claire's/Forever Jailbait/etc or whatever other store you can't stand. 

[DragonmasterDan]

It's pretty interesting to see the trend away from traditional malls to strip malls now.  I can only assume they are cheaper to maintain since you are not paying to heat/cool/clean entire corridors between stores really. 

I would like to think it is because people are healthier and want to walk more, but I bet it is really because you can now drive to store X, buy what you want, get back in your car, and then drive to store Z on the other of the mall faster and without having to go by Claire's/Forever Jailbait/etc or whatever other store you can't stand. 

First off how often do you go to traditional indoor fortress style mall anchor stores?

I mean places like Sears, JC Penny, Macy's, Von Maur, Dillards, Nordstroms?

Those stores have lost a lot of their market share and luster over the past 15-20 years due to discount stores like Wal-Mart and Target eating away market share.

The indoor specialty shops in malls have taken even more of a hit with a lot of stores specializing in hard to find at big box items like specialty scented candles, offensive t-shirts , lingerie, specialty movies and music, all of these things can be conveniently shopped for and even price checked online. This is really what's killed indoor malls.

[johnnykonami]

Glen Burnie Mall, Owings Mills Mall and Security Square are all really close to me and I'm familiar with all of them.  I have plenty of memories of playing arcade games, eating Hot Sams cheese drenched pretzels, and buying Turbob there from the Toys R' Us.  In fact, I am pretty sure the Glen Burnie Mall TRU was my primary source for Turbob items.  I remember buying Vasteel there among others.

Glen Burnie Mall just got trumped by Marley Station Mall, which is like 8 times the size.  That happened some time in the 90s.  It's very tiny.  Then we got Arundel Mills Mall a couple years back which made Marley Station seem small in comparison.

[DragonmasterDan]

Then we got Arundel Mills Mall a couple years back which made Marley Station seem small in comparison.

A couple years ago? From my understanding they haven't built any big indoor fortress style malls in the US in the past 10 or so years.

[geise]

Watching that Rolling Acres Mall vid made me sad.  I used to go to Aladin's Castle and play arcade games all  the time.  I used to have birthdays there.  Across the street from the mall was Toys R US.  I used to get all my games there in the late 80's and early 90's.  That was after a stop from the next door McDonalds.  I think online shopping is part of what is killing these huge malls, and people being lazy as all hell now.

[Necromancer]

The internet is often blamed for the decline of indoor malls, but that doesn't make much sense when you see outdoor malls of equal or larger combined square footage being built all over the place.  Online shopping has hurt 'em some, of course, but the demand for in person shopping is still strong.

[johnnykonami]

Then we got Arundel Mills Mall a couple years back which made Marley Station seem small in comparison.

A couple years ago? From my understanding they haven't built any big indoor fortress style malls in the US in the past 10 or so years.

You're right, it doesn't seem like it's been that long but according to the wikipedia page it opened in 2000.  I guess thats a few more than a couple!  As a resident it still seems kinda new to me.  Still, the place is busy as hell.  Parking is damn near impossible and they did add a casino on making it even worse.

[DragonmasterDan]

The internet is often blamed for the decline of indoor malls, but that doesn't make much sense when you see outdoor malls of equal or larger combined square footage being built all over the place.  Online shopping has hurt 'em some, of course, but the demand for in person shopping is still strong.

I think the thing to take into account is the internet is responsible for not the death of the big department anchor stores but a lot of the weird specialty stores in malls.

For example, if I wanted to buy a movie(on VHS or Laserdisc being the popular formats at the time)  or CD not stocked at big box chains 20 years ago, I generally had to go to a specialty store (example Sam Goody, Musicland, Suncoast) and have them special order it. A lot of those specialty stores were predominantly but certainly not solely located in malls. These are the kinds of businesses (ones that were not price competitive to compete with big boxes, but carved out a niche selling specialty items) that the internet has really made obsolete outside of impulse purchases.

 

[Mathius]

Since I was little I have always had dreams about huge, weird indoor malls. With secret passages and crap. I even had one dream where I took shelter from Godzilla in a mall.


I'm weird.