I remember going to Metcalf South with my mom and her best friend when I was young. We liked to shop at Woolworth's. After I was married, I went there with my husband and his mom and dad. We loved going to the record store and buying Johnny Mathis cassettes. My mom, her friend and my husband have all passed. I will always have those wonderful memories!
Fantastic and amazing...a gentle reminder of my own mortality. KC, we had us some choices. Spent so much time in this mall (and Bannister and Ward Parkway), as a small child in the mid-70's through the early 2000's. Metcalf South, Mission Center, Ward Parkway, Bannister Mall, Blue Ridge Mall, Metro North, Antioch Center, Great Mall, and even Indian Springs. All that's really left is Oak Park Mall and Independence Center. Man, I was blessed and loved being an 80's kid. Would take it all back in a heartbeat!
The owners who sent that detective to contact you about "illegally" entering "their" mall, probably mismanaged the goddamned place into extinction from the day they bought or built it! And now they are embarrassed because the people know just what terrible landlords they would be if it were an apartment complex or hotel resort?! Why don't they just demolish it if they don't want anyone to see what has become of it, years after it closed down? Because if it's there, people are gonna want to know, because it tells those who have seen a shopping center, strip mall or street mall close down (or live near an abandoned shopping area), that they're not alone.
I was a kid at the grand opening. Slept over at my buddy's then went first thing in the morning. Got my picture taken with Mr. Universe. Bruce Randolph..
The Lowes is almost completely built over the top of the demolished Metcalf South Mall. I got booted out of Metcalf South the last day it was open for trying to film inside.
I spent a lot of time here. I would waste my entire Taco Bell paycheck here every two weeks. Got crabs trying on clothes at The Merry Go Round. Bought my favorite sweater at Bacharach. This was touching. I left KC in 1987 and moved back in 2017 right before it was razed. Thank you.
Kansas City area resident, I live in Johnson County and had gone to this mall many times in my life. Wasn't surprised as this mall declined over the decades as there's much nicer, bigger, and more popular mall (Oak Park Mall) just a few blocks to the west of Metcalf South. Much of the sights seen in this video certainly brought back memories.
Me and my dad used to donate newspapers to the Purrfect Pets Store there. I remember how empty and surreal it was, and there were only a few stores open. The only people there were little old ladies power walking. I’ll always remember that place.
Went shopping for my first suit for my first high school dance at Metcalf South. Was just about as dead then as it is in this video. Cool to see what the inside looked like at the end, now live a couple blocks away. Really was an eyesore. Great stuff!
Seph, Amazed and grateful for all the footage. Also appreciated your visit to another of our KC malls up niryh a few months ago! Thanks for taking the risks so that we may relive our memories of these now extinct destinations. Looking forward to your next adventure! Be safe and take care!
I just stumbled onto your videos yesterday. They are really well done. It must be a very strange feeling walking through these places, being totally alone. Stay safe (and awesome camerawork!!)
So you were in this mall doing an explore when you get a call about possible prosecution for being in another mall? Epic! Lol first time viewer and i really enjoyed your video. Abandoned mall videos sparked my interest in UE and got me out there starting my own journey. Well done!
I'm amazed it took this long for them to raze it, but even more astonished that someone actually bothered to keep it up. I moved to KC in 2006 and took my car to get oil changes at the joint sharing the parking lot with this behemoth, Sears (I think?) was the only store left back then, beyond the occasional small stall and some areas that seemed to be repurposed slightly. I thought for sure it would be totally gone by 2010 or so! Fascinating to see it in its last day--complete with waxed floors!
The empty Sears is still there, to this day. They tore down the mall, but went to the trouble of matching brick to the unfinished side of the Sears to make it a standalone building. There’s talk of more redevelopment involving the Sears, or so I hear.
Most of the business in this mall shut down after I was born, but I used to walk around this mall with my mom before it got demolished. I would have loved to be able to come here when it was still fully functioning. I really hope Oak Park mall doesn’t meet the same fate.
Went there a lot as a kid! I remember when some of those stores were open. For the longest right outside of the Macy's there was a Lady Footlocker with the original green & white sign. The reason the 3rd floor was trash is because people could sneak into the old video store & get in that way without being seen. Good job on this video!
Several of my family members and I worked at this mall and we all shopped there as well. It's been sad to see its decline. Jones store was there before Macy's and my husband and I got engaged at the Venture's across the street. Venture's was owned by the same company as Target, but I see that where the Venture was is now a Home Depot. You can't blame its decline on other malls or the internet -- it's a multi-plex situation. How has Ward Parkway or Oak Park Mall, Independence Mall or Truman Corner/Marketplace managed to hang on to their customers? And why has Metcalf South and Indian Springs and Blue Springs Malls gone out of business?
You are welcome. I'm interested in history, having a blog on the subject, but this is more recent history, per my lifetime. Thank you for photographing it.
Now, this is sad. All these stunning mid-century architectural designs splashed throughout the Metcalf South Mall to end up completely unappreciated and erased from retail existence. Such a shame. 😡 Thx for nothing ugly e-commerce. RIP beautiful mall.
I now feel as empty as the mall. Echoes of the past whispering in my mind. After watching this I quickly pulled up some Andy Griffith Show episodes. It hurts to see what we've lost. But we just keep on rolling...towards?
Seph what amazing documentaries you do on abandoned malls etc. I am really honored to see such an opportunity and amazing documentarian such as yourself Seph 😀
Thanks for the footage, moved to KC in 2015 and had always wondered what this mall looked like inside... Wanted to see what was beyond the windows at 7:47 though...
That background music, the dark isles and the empty spaces gives the feeling of that movie ALIEN. Could you tell us where you got that music/sounds......?
Good footage, but it would be great if you could contribute some historical commentary as you walk through these old dwellings. thanks again for your great footage!
This was the first mall my best friend and I were allowed to go to. This was in the days when kids didn't hang out at the mall, maybe 1972. We were dropped off so we could spend our few dollars and were picked up later in the day. It was magical to be so "grown up". Nice to be able to see it here and give it a wave goodbye. Thanks.
Meanwhile further west on 95th, Oak Park mall is still alive and kicking. I remember walking around this mall in my childhood. Every stall had a store, Packed to the gills with customers. Then around 2012 I took a walk around, and to be honest it felt like what I can only imagine imagine it feels like to walk around inside a corpse. Just a true shell of it's former self. Sad. And what's worse is so many good malls in the greater Kansas city area have suffered the same fate. Metro North, Antioch, Bannister, Indian Springs, The great Mall of the great Plains. Just leveled like they never were.
The small strip shopping centers are fully half empty in my area. And half of the businesses that are in the ones occupied are failing. It's a simple matter of walking into the small business and looking around, No customers or not enough to be,profitable. The business owners are hanging on hoping for an uptick in business that isn't going to happen. Many of these business owners are trapped in predatory lease agreements or franchise agreements.
I lived so close to that mall for 10 years! It was mostly closed down when I lived there. The Macy’s and Sears were still open and went shopping there a few times. It’s so crazy seeing it so empty like this! Great footage!
Quite telling, for lack of adequate words. Taken from the escalator, the image inside, in contrast with the green outside, portrays a story of its own. I would love a copy of that capture. Congratulations for receiving all of the recognition that you deserve! I look forward to each of your continuing endeavors. Ty
The carnage of Amazon. This mall was the closest to my home growing up. I had no idea it was opened the year I was born. As far as I knew, it had been there forever. I drove past it yesterday and saw that 50% was demolished. Spencer's toys and gifts was what I remember it for growing up, but it had Dale's Sporting goods and of course Sears and Macy's. This was a commercial area, with a very large K-Mart across the street and to the North and in the 70s and 80s, there was a Venture store across the street to the West. That's all gone. I called my mom to tell her it was being demolished and realized that the shopping mall was really a small portion of the progression of retail. She added some perspective, that I found interesting. Metcalf South was the second Mall built in the Greater Kansas City area. It came after Ward Parkway. It's been limping along since 1990. My sister worked in a department store within Metcalf South during 1990 and she said during the day it was a ghost town then, but I'd guess it was still breaking even or making money on sales during the holiday season. In the early 2000s a friend held a birthday party for her son at the mall in an arcade and it was the first time I'd been in it since probably the mid 90s, and it was stark, then. Many of the store slots were vacant. The two anchors were Macy's and Sears. Sears merged with K-Mart, but that seemed to only slow the demise of the once largest retailer in the world. When Sears decided to pull out of Metcalf South, the mall died. The area is supposed to be redeveloped as multiuse buildings with apartments and condos above businesses. The neighborhood is very suburban with good public schools and fairly high and affluent population density. This is unlike other malls which have been built and razed, within KC, due to economic downfall of the surrounding community. Buying habits changed because people learn they can get the exact same item online for a lot less. Mall space was expensive and the owners believed they were the inevitable mecca of shopping. During the 70s and 80s they were probably right, but the 90's saw some buying habits change, which changed more dramatically as the internet came along and sales tax could easily be avoided. It's funny, when the internet came along, there were lots of forecasts about it changing business, mostly how we'd be a paperless society. I didn't anticipate how it would disrupt the American mall. The mall is dead, long live the mall.
Mark Morash - Sears didn't decide to close that location until AFTER the mall had permanently closed it's doors and after demolition began. The demise of this mall had zero to do with Amazon, it didn't exist until well after this was already a dead mail. Oak Park Mall's success led to the demise of Metcalf South.
I was misinformed. I heard Sears had slated this location to close and that sped up the process. I can agree that Oak Park Mall was the beginning of the end, however; Oak Park Mall and the surrounding area seem to be battling the same problems that Metcalf South Mall succumbed to. I look at the strip center to the West of Oak Park Mall and the tenants change frequently, but to be fair. I haven't been inside Oak Park Mall in probably a decade. Amazon was around in 1997, and I was buying stuff over the internet back then. Some one said Metcalf South Mall shut down in 2014, which was news to me. If the closing date of Metcalf South is right there's 16 years of overlap. Claiming that Amazon is responsible is hyperbole, but online shopping hurt Metcalf South and is hurting Oak Park Mall like nothing before.
I saw that part and I had been misinformed, but Sears has been struggling and shuttering stores for the past 20 years. Sears was the largest retailer in the world until it was eclipsed by WalMart in 1989, and that was due to WalMart being "discount" vs department. I think we're seeing habits change again, and although WalMart remains the largest retailer by revenue and profit, it's losing it's customer to online shopping, specifically, Amazon.
They just tore down metalf south. They're building Lowe's there. I've walked through this empty mall before, it's sad everything is out of business. They demolished the whole mall but they kept the Sears part, does anyone know why?. I drive by it almost every day.
Hi Seph Lawless, thanks for uploading this! Even though it’s daytime when you filmed this, it really looks desolate and creepy! Great 👍 job! It is very angering and frustrating you have been arrested for just being in these malls! Keep up the good work, I sure would like to read your books! 📱📖
Live in KC in late 90's & I don't recall ever visiting this mall. I shopped at Shawnee Mission Mall & Oak Park. And a few times at The Mall of the Great Plains. I see...has been demolished. Shocking since our mall is 1 level & crap in S. Seattle suburb. With Amazon, the area would be better served as roadways.
Total BS that they want to prosecute someone for doing an honest explore. They need to focus on the ones who vandalize and destroy property, not the ones doing an honest explore, he'll, you can even consider Seph's explores artistic. Have you arrested and extradited for such a petty crime? Total BS. Yes, it's a crime. Does it really need to go that far? No! Keep doing what you do. I think you will always have our support!
I worked at the Sears there while I was in high school. The Macy's was a Jones Store Co. for most other years before it became a Macy's. An Osco Drug store used to be in there too. They also moved the Glenwood theatre in there for a while. Now the mall is demolished. All that remains is the skeletal structure of the Sears and what used to be a Backyard Burger. A Lowe's now sits where the Macy's was and a bunch of restaurants line the road.
ALSO!!! (Not that it matters now since the mall is demolished) On June 8th, 2022, an EF-1 tornado hit where this mall used to be. If the mall was still standing, it would.have been hit by this tornado.
I used to model for ups n downs every weekend. There were like 6 of us and we would still model in front of the store for hours and like once a month we would do a fashion show with the other stores in the middle of the mall.
I used to shop there. Topsys popcorn luckily is on the outside entrance facing Metcalf, so there's no need to have to walk long distance inside. Last I heard before moving out of state, they wanted to tear it down to turn it into combination outdoor shops and apartments. It was a redundant mall thanks to Oak Park Mall just up the street and Leewood Town Center with quicker door front access.
It was also eerie walking thru it when it was still open but practically empty. It took me back to my youth in the 80s when i was in the Sears and an old song came on over pa that i hadn't heard in years. It was sad to see it go and all those memories hauled away in dump trucks.
It's 2020 and the Sears building is still standing long after they closed and Metcalf South was demolished. It's portion of the mall is still awaiting plans for redevelopment.
These dead mall videos are so depressing. You can imagine Friday and Saturday nights when they were filled with teenagers hanging out, Xmas when they were so packed for light up night, and Summers when there was nothing else to do but go to the mall. If those walls could talk and if one could feel the residual energy in those places.
There were three malls I went to growing up. Being born in 69 I spent it's heyday in the 80s ......... It's not that my life was any easier then then it is now.... It's just I think 🤔 we had more hope then. Every single move we made wasn't on camera, we didn't have a phone strapped to us all the time.... They were actually little nooks and crannies in malls where you could go and sit and have a conversation or smoke a cigarette as a stupid teenager... The malls were my escape from my abusive home. Metcalf was a nice one and it has everything. This video is sad to me, like watching a funeral for a Friend. But I'm glad I got to see it and remember some safer better times.
I grew up two hours from here and as a kid in the 80's and early nighties I remember tons of trips to this mall a few times a year. Very sad to see it go so many memories and now I live 30 mins from it. sad sad miss the good old days.
Sabarios or something close? I grew up in Pittsburg Ks and moved to joplin MO just over the state line in 1999. I now live on Lake Lotawana on the edge of Blue Springs and the GF is in OP after the tornado wiped out half of Joplin in 2011 I ended up here. Like I said I spent a lot of childhood trips coming up to OP (or what was refereed to as KC) and saw some great shows at Kemper as a teen. My Gf of 5 years grew up in Olathe so she probably remembers more. I did always go to this killer music shop close by in the mini mall complex with the blue windows called Xandu or something close. I just turned 37 how times have changed in so many ways. I now sound like an old man lol
What was eerie, even when open, was the lowest level and i havent seen a MS video yet that goes down there. It had the Musicland, clints, Hobby Haven, the other Pizza place( MS had two Original pizza joints), the older Pizza place that was shut down even when i was a kid, and the arcade, plus a furniture store. Lots of levels and corridors.
I only ever went in that mall twice. Once for a movie, and once to go to a computer store that was one of the last in the area to have Commodore / Amiga software. Went to the Back Yard Burger in the parking lot significantly more than that, though. Now the big K-Mart across 95th is gone now too.
LOL. You were talking so quietly. @ 2:32 my little napping Chi about jumped out of her skin and wanted me to hold her. I had to replay it seven of eight time before she realized it wasn't real.
I remember spending most of my childhood at that Waldens Bookstore. Not to mention that Clint's Comics used to be in there and Hobby Haven. Also was at the tail end of Nicklodeon arcade being there too. For some reason it perpetually smelled like burnt cigarettes in there.
They were really shiny. It only closed recently and I spent many lunch hours walking there during the winter. Whoever was maintaining the place, tried to keep it up until the bitter end.
How did you walk thru this mall without the someone stopping you ? And the mall looks so good! Is there police patrols at night of this mall? Good job once again Seph!
SEPH LAWLESS Wow that's great and I have a lot of respect for you! Seph you didn't trash the place! I used to be the maintenance/housekeeping supervisor for Rolling A. Mall in Akron Ohio 96 thru 98 I loved your video of RA Thankyou Seph
I remember going to Metcalf South with my mom and her best friend when I was young. We liked to shop at Woolworth's. After I was married, I went there with my husband and his mom and dad. We loved going to the record store and buying Johnny Mathis cassettes. My mom, her friend and my husband have all passed. I will always have those wonderful memories!
Fantastic and amazing...a gentle reminder of my own mortality. KC, we had us some choices. Spent so much time in this mall (and Bannister and Ward Parkway), as a small child in the mid-70's through the early 2000's. Metcalf South, Mission Center, Ward Parkway, Bannister Mall, Blue Ridge Mall, Metro North, Antioch Center, Great Mall, and even Indian Springs. All that's really left is Oak Park Mall and Independence Center. Man, I was blessed and loved being an 80's kid. Would take it all back in a heartbeat!
Amazing footage...so important to digitally preserve these malls. Thank you.
+amyco 3167 thank you appreciative!
We lost a beautiful mall, and a huge piece of my childhood about 7 years ago.
The owners who sent that detective to contact you about "illegally" entering "their" mall, probably mismanaged the goddamned place into extinction from the day they bought or built it! And now they are embarrassed because the people know just what terrible landlords they would be if it were an apartment complex or hotel resort?!
Why don't they just demolish it if they don't want anyone to see what has become of it, years after it closed down? Because if it's there, people are gonna want to know, because it tells those who have seen a shopping center, strip mall or street mall close down (or live near an abandoned shopping area), that they're not alone.
I was there for the beginning and the end. Sad a piece of my life gone.
This mall actually opened in 1967. So it was 50-years-old when demolition started. But man, I LOVE your videos, Seph. Great work!
+Josh Weinstock thank you that's what it was supposed to say it's updated! 👍🏼👍🏼
I was a kid at the grand opening. Slept over at my buddy's then went first thing in the morning. Got my picture taken with Mr. Universe. Bruce Randolph..
The Lowes is almost completely built over the top of the demolished Metcalf South Mall. I got booted out of Metcalf South the last day it was open for trying to film inside.
Sad
I like how the R in the sears sign is still on.😂
I spent a lot of time here. I would waste my entire Taco Bell paycheck here every two weeks. Got crabs trying on clothes at The Merry Go Round. Bought my favorite sweater at Bacharach. This was touching. I left KC in 1987 and moved back in 2017 right before it was razed. Thank you.
Oh no ! I use to love Merry go round’s stuff😽
Kansas City area resident, I live in Johnson County and had gone to this mall many times in my life. Wasn't surprised as this mall declined over the decades as there's much nicer, bigger, and more popular mall (Oak Park Mall) just a few blocks to the west of Metcalf South.
Much of the sights seen in this video certainly brought back memories.
This was my mall as a kid. Memories in every corner. So sad that it's gone.
Aaawwwww how I miss Walden's book store! Many days and hours were spent there (not in this mall, different state and city)as a young teen!
Same 😢 When I was 11 - 12 I would go there to read Simpsons comics while sipping an Orange Julius lol. What I'd do to go back to those simple days.
Mine was a Metro North Mall..... KC Missouri
Me and my dad used to donate newspapers to the Purrfect Pets Store there. I remember how empty and surreal it was, and there were only a few stores open. The only people there were little old ladies power walking. I’ll always remember that place.
Went shopping for my first suit for my first high school dance at Metcalf South. Was just about as dead then as it is in this video. Cool to see what the inside looked like at the end, now live a couple blocks away. Really was an eyesore. Great stuff!
Seph, Amazed and grateful for all the footage. Also appreciated your visit to another of our KC malls up niryh a few months ago! Thanks for taking the risks so that we may relive our memories of these now extinct destinations. Looking forward to your next adventure! Be safe and take care!
+iteachgr8kids thank you very appreciative
17:18
Those escalators are in the same exact position they were the last time the workers clocked out. Surreal stuff.
Pretty cool of you to favorite my comment on such an old video, thanks and good work on this!
dvrk 158 i looove that someone else thinks this way too
I just stumbled onto your videos yesterday. They are really well done. It must be a very strange feeling walking through these places, being totally alone. Stay safe (and awesome camerawork!!)
Thanks for sharing. Memories of my Mom here. Respect for the code of taking only images, leaving only footprints.
So you were in this mall doing an explore when you get a call about possible prosecution for being in another mall? Epic! Lol first time viewer and i really enjoyed your video. Abandoned mall videos sparked my interest in UE and got me out there starting my own journey. Well done!
+Beauty in Decay Explorations Thank you very appreciative and yes that is what happened
You weren't in Metcalf when there was escalators going into a corner and a jc Penney sign
From one artist to another I really like your work. Your footage inside the Macy’s is incredible.
I'm amazed it took this long for them to raze it, but even more astonished that someone actually bothered to keep it up. I moved to KC in 2006 and took my car to get oil changes at the joint sharing the parking lot with this behemoth, Sears (I think?) was the only store left back then, beyond the occasional small stall and some areas that seemed to be repurposed slightly. I thought for sure it would be totally gone by 2010 or so! Fascinating to see it in its last day--complete with waxed floors!
The empty Sears is still there, to this day. They tore down the mall, but went to the trouble of matching brick to the unfinished side of the Sears to make it a standalone building. There’s talk of more redevelopment involving the Sears, or so I hear.
I went to this mall a few times. Your footage of it reminds me of the airport in the Langoliers LOL!
The only thing he took away from this is mall memories and wonderful days gone by. Leave the man alone. Wish I could go back in time.
Most of the business in this mall shut down after I was born, but I used to walk around this mall with my mom before it got demolished. I would have loved to be able to come here when it was still fully functioning. I really hope Oak Park mall doesn’t meet the same fate.
Went there a lot as a kid! I remember when some of those stores were open. For the longest right outside of the Macy's there was a Lady Footlocker with the original green & white sign. The reason the 3rd floor was trash is because people could sneak into the old video store & get in that way without being seen. Good job on this video!
+ThisIsTrent thank you and thanks for sharing
My grandma and I used to walk here.
Several of my family members and I worked at this mall and we all shopped there as well. It's been sad to see its decline. Jones store was there before Macy's and my husband and I got engaged at the Venture's across the street. Venture's was owned by the same company as Target, but I see that where the Venture was is now a Home Depot. You can't blame its decline on other malls or the internet -- it's a multi-plex situation. How has Ward Parkway or Oak Park Mall, Independence Mall or Truman Corner/Marketplace managed to hang on to their customers? And why has Metcalf South and Indian Springs and Blue Springs Malls gone out of business?
Thanks for sharing!
You are welcome. I'm interested in history, having a blog on the subject, but this is more recent history, per my lifetime. Thank you for photographing it.
This mall was managed by by a horrible company.
my first job after school was at the sears i remember this place when it was jumping, so many people you couldnt walk in a straight line.
+some guy thanks for sharing !
Now, this is sad. All these stunning mid-century architectural designs splashed throughout the Metcalf South Mall to end up completely unappreciated and erased from retail existence. Such a shame. 😡 Thx for nothing ugly e-commerce. RIP beautiful mall.
This is so beautifully done and so haunting. I was so sad when they tore this down it used to be such a beautiful mall.
I now feel as empty as the mall. Echoes of the past whispering in my mind. After watching this I quickly pulled up some Andy Griffith Show episodes. It hurts to see what we've lost. But we just keep on rolling...towards?
Seph what amazing documentaries you do on abandoned malls etc. I am really honored to see such an opportunity and amazing documentarian such as yourself Seph 😀
thank you for capturing this, this mall was part of my early childhood and I may have even gotten my first Coaster Credit there.
Thx!
This is kinda creepy and it's in the DAY imagine walking through here at night that would just be too much man
Thanks for the footage, moved to KC in 2015 and had always wondered what this mall looked like inside...
Wanted to see what was beyond the windows at 7:47 though...
This shows the entire mall I had access to every square foot luckily 👍🏼👍🏼
Your work needs no commentary, its nice to see your face and hear your voice, your work speaks for its self, and is nothing short of amazing
+Debra Evans thank you!
That background music, the dark isles and the empty spaces gives the feeling of that movie ALIEN.
Could you tell us where you got that music/sounds......?
Good footage, but it would be great if you could contribute some historical commentary as you walk through these old dwellings.
thanks again for your great footage!
This was the first mall my best friend and I were allowed to go to. This was in the days when kids didn't hang out at the mall, maybe 1972. We were dropped off so we could spend our few dollars and were picked up later in the day. It was magical to be so "grown up". Nice to be able to see it here and give it a wave goodbye. Thanks.
Meanwhile further west on 95th, Oak Park mall is still alive and kicking.
I remember walking around this mall in my childhood. Every stall had a store, Packed to the gills with customers. Then around 2012 I took a walk around, and to be honest it felt like what I can only imagine imagine it feels like to walk around inside a corpse. Just a true shell of it's former self. Sad. And what's worse is so many good malls in the greater Kansas city area have suffered the same fate. Metro North, Antioch, Bannister, Indian Springs, The great Mall of the great Plains. Just leveled like they never were.
Aesthetics in this Mall were off the charts..dang it's a shame it went the way of the Dodo!! :'(
They had a larger than average cleaning crew that kept it well maintain all the way up to before it closed for good.
I used to go to their every weekend back in the 90s. Loved the water fountain.
The small strip shopping centers are fully half empty in my area. And half of the businesses that are in the ones occupied are failing. It's a simple matter of walking into the small business and looking around, No customers or not enough to be,profitable. The business owners are hanging on hoping for an uptick in business that isn't going to happen. Many of these business owners are trapped in predatory lease agreements or franchise agreements.
Excellent footage,thanks for share, someone sure needs to do these videos, very inspirational, Big Like
Thank you
I lived so close to that mall for 10 years! It was mostly closed down when I lived there. The Macy’s and Sears were still open and went shopping there a few times. It’s so crazy seeing it so empty like this! Great footage!
that floor looks like it was just shiend yesteday
I first thought it had flooded...lol
I love your work bro! Great inspiration, looking forward to see what the future has in store
So many memories from this mall - My favorite memory was watching the marionette puppet show every year as a child - it was magical
Memories!
From the outside it reminds me of the old Northwest Plaza that was in St. Ann, MO, but the inside reminds me of Chesterfield Mall in Chesterfield, MO.
Quite telling, for lack of adequate words. Taken from the escalator, the image inside, in contrast with the green outside, portrays a story of its own. I would love a copy of that capture. Congratulations for receiving all of the recognition that you deserve! I look forward to each of your continuing endeavors. Ty
+W Kay thank you appreciative
The carnage of Amazon. This mall was the closest to my home growing up. I had no idea it was opened the year I was born. As far as I knew, it had been there forever.
I drove past it yesterday and saw that 50% was demolished. Spencer's toys and gifts was what I remember it for growing up, but it had Dale's Sporting goods and of course Sears and Macy's. This was a commercial area, with a very large K-Mart across the street and to the North and in the 70s and 80s, there was a Venture store across the street to the West. That's all gone.
I called my mom to tell her it was being demolished and realized that the shopping mall was really a small portion of the progression of retail. She added some perspective, that I found interesting. Metcalf South was the second Mall built in the Greater Kansas City area. It came after Ward Parkway.
It's been limping along since 1990. My sister worked in a department store within Metcalf South during 1990 and she said during the day it was a ghost town then, but I'd guess it was still breaking even or making money on sales during the holiday season. In the early 2000s a friend held a birthday party for her son at the mall in an arcade and it was the first time I'd been in it since probably the mid 90s, and it was stark, then. Many of the store slots were vacant.
The two anchors were Macy's and Sears. Sears merged with K-Mart, but that seemed to only slow the demise of the once largest retailer in the world. When Sears decided to pull out of Metcalf South, the mall died.
The area is supposed to be redeveloped as multiuse buildings with apartments and condos above businesses. The neighborhood is very suburban with good public schools and fairly high and affluent population density. This is unlike other malls which have been built and razed, within KC, due to economic downfall of the surrounding community. Buying habits changed because people learn they can get the exact same item online for a lot less.
Mall space was expensive and the owners believed they were the inevitable mecca of shopping. During the 70s and 80s they were probably right, but the 90's saw some buying habits change, which changed more dramatically as the internet came along and sales tax could easily be avoided.
It's funny, when the internet came along, there were lots of forecasts about it changing business, mostly how we'd be a paperless society. I didn't anticipate how it would disrupt the American mall. The mall is dead, long live the mall.
Mark Morash - Sears didn't decide to close that location until AFTER the mall had permanently closed it's doors and after demolition began.
The demise of this mall had zero to do with Amazon, it didn't exist until well after this was already a dead mail. Oak Park Mall's success led to the demise of Metcalf South.
+rmcdev very true if you watch the end of the Video after the credits you can hear me talking about that Sears still being opened 👍🏼👍🏼
I was misinformed. I heard Sears had slated this location to close and that sped up the process.
I can agree that Oak Park Mall was the beginning of the end, however; Oak Park Mall and the surrounding area seem to be battling the same problems that Metcalf South Mall succumbed to. I look at the strip center to the West of Oak Park Mall and the tenants change frequently, but to be fair. I haven't been inside Oak Park Mall in probably a decade.
Amazon was around in 1997, and I was buying stuff over the internet back then. Some one said Metcalf South Mall shut down in 2014, which was news to me. If the closing date of Metcalf South is right there's 16 years of overlap. Claiming that Amazon is responsible is hyperbole, but online shopping hurt Metcalf South and is hurting Oak Park Mall like nothing before.
+Mark Morash Sears is closing during the second round of Sears Holdings announced closings it surprisingly survived the first round
I saw that part and I had been misinformed, but Sears has been struggling and shuttering stores for the past 20 years. Sears was the largest retailer in the world until it was eclipsed by WalMart in 1989, and that was due to WalMart being "discount" vs department. I think we're seeing habits change again, and although WalMart remains the largest retailer by revenue and profit, it's losing it's customer to online shopping, specifically, Amazon.
They will never extradite on a misdemeanor warrant especially out of state.
They just tore down metalf south. They're building Lowe's there. I've walked through this empty mall before, it's sad everything is out of business.
They demolished the whole mall but they kept the Sears part, does anyone know why?. I drive by it almost every day.
Yea the plan to build a Lowe’s goes back years. The sears stayed only because it stayed opened until recently.
Love your work. Such a great eye. I really enjoy watching these.
+Charles Cole thank you!
Once again Erie and fascinating good work!
+soulblower69 Thank you!
This mall is one of my local malls! They have torn part of it down now and have built some other businesses including a Lowe's in its place.
They added a bunch of stuff including an andys a bank and apparently a restaurant
That music makes me think some person is going to jump out haha. Love your videos! I too almost thought the floors looked wet.
Wow i worked at this mall and so did my mother and Grandma both passed now.. It was so busy at one time.. Wild video thanks
Excellent video documenting very interesting architecture and interior design.
+Nancy Darling Thank you
this was the mall of my childhood, growing up in OP in the 80"s I spent many weekends in that mall. It was where I met Santa for the first time too.
Hi Seph Lawless, thanks for uploading this! Even though it’s daytime when you filmed this, it really looks desolate and creepy! Great 👍 job! It is very angering and frustrating you have been arrested for just being in these malls! Keep up the good work, I sure would like to read your books! 📱📖
So sad, as this could easily be renovated for a college, doctor's officesm law offices.
Live in KC in late 90's & I don't recall ever visiting this mall. I shopped at Shawnee Mission Mall & Oak Park. And a few times at The Mall of the Great Plains. I see...has been demolished. Shocking since our mall is 1 level & crap in S. Seattle suburb. With Amazon, the area would be better served as roadways.
Total BS that they want to prosecute someone for doing an honest explore. They need to focus on the ones who vandalize and destroy property, not the ones doing an honest explore, he'll, you can even consider Seph's explores artistic. Have you arrested and extradited for such a petty crime? Total BS. Yes, it's a crime. Does it really need to go that far? No!
Keep doing what you do. I think you will always have our support!
I worked at the Sears there while I was in high school. The Macy's was a Jones Store Co. for most other years before it became a Macy's. An Osco Drug store used to be in there too. They also moved the Glenwood theatre in there for a while.
Now the mall is demolished. All that remains is the skeletal structure of the Sears and what used to be a Backyard Burger. A Lowe's now sits where the Macy's was and a bunch of restaurants line the road.
ALSO!!! (Not that it matters now since the mall is demolished) On June 8th, 2022, an EF-1 tornado hit where this mall used to be. If the mall was still standing, it would.have been hit by this tornado.
I used to model for ups n downs every weekend. There were like 6 of us and we would still model in front of the store for hours and like once a month we would do a fashion show with the other stores in the middle of the mall.
Jeez, spent so much time there in the early 90s. There was a toy store on the bottom floor that always sold the rare Lego sets.
I used to shop there. Topsys popcorn luckily is on the outside entrance facing Metcalf, so there's no need to have to walk long distance inside. Last I heard before moving out of state, they wanted to tear it down to turn it into combination outdoor shops and apartments. It was a redundant mall thanks to Oak Park Mall just up the street and Leewood Town Center with quicker door front access.
It was also eerie walking thru it when it was still open but practically empty. It took me back to my youth in the 80s when i was in the Sears and an old song came on over pa that i hadn't heard in years. It was sad to see it go and all those memories hauled away in dump trucks.
This was not like Antioch, Metro North, or even Bannister to me. But having grown up in the KC area, this is really sad. Thanks for sharing
This has to been filmed in 2016 at least cause the mall started to be razed in Summer of 2017.
It was right before demo correct 🙏🏼
It's 2020 and the Sears building is still standing long after they closed and Metcalf South was demolished. It's portion of the mall is still awaiting plans for redevelopment.
In remarkable condition considering it has signage for stores that have been totally out of business for decades. Kinney Shoes, wow.
These dead mall videos are so depressing. You can imagine Friday and Saturday nights when they were filled with teenagers hanging out, Xmas when they were so packed for light up night, and Summers when there was nothing else to do but go to the mall. If those walls could talk and if one could feel the residual energy in those places.
There were three malls I went to growing up. Being born in 69 I spent it's heyday in the 80s ......... It's not that my life was any easier then then it is now.... It's just I think 🤔 we had more hope then.
Every single move we made wasn't on camera, we didn't have a phone strapped to us all the time.... They were actually little nooks and crannies in malls where you could go and sit and have a conversation or smoke a cigarette as a stupid teenager... The malls were my escape from my abusive home.
Metcalf was a nice one and it has everything.
This video is sad to me, like watching a funeral for a Friend.
But I'm glad I got to see it and remember some safer better times.
Came from a docu about malls in the 80s to this ,wow what a diffrence
I grew up two hours from here and as a kid in the 80's and early nighties I remember tons of trips to this mall a few times a year. Very sad to see it go so many memories and now I live 30 mins from it. sad sad miss the good old days.
Do you remember the pizza place down by Sears on the southeast side?
Sabarios or something close? I grew up in Pittsburg Ks and moved to joplin MO just over the state line in 1999. I now live on Lake Lotawana on the edge of Blue Springs and the GF is in OP after the tornado wiped out half of Joplin in 2011 I ended up here. Like I said I spent a lot of childhood trips coming up to OP (or what was refereed to as KC) and saw some great shows at Kemper as a teen. My Gf of 5 years grew up in Olathe so she probably remembers more. I did always go to this killer music shop close by in the mini mall complex with the blue windows called Xandu or something close. I just turned 37 how times have changed in so many ways. I now sound like an old man lol
What was eerie, even when open, was the lowest level and i havent seen a MS video yet that goes down there. It had the Musicland, clints, Hobby Haven, the other Pizza place( MS had two Original pizza joints), the older Pizza place that was shut down even when i was a kid, and the arcade, plus a furniture store. Lots of levels and corridors.
Downright freaking creepy as hell. Holy cow...
🌈🤮
I only ever went in that mall twice. Once for a movie, and once to go to a computer store that was one of the last in the area to have Commodore / Amiga software. Went to the Back Yard Burger in the parking lot significantly more than that, though.
Now the big K-Mart across 95th is gone now too.
LOL. You were talking so quietly. @ 2:32 my little napping Chi about jumped out of her skin and wanted me to hold her. I had to replay it seven of eight time before she realized it wasn't real.
I remember spending most of my childhood at that Waldens Bookstore. Not to mention that Clint's Comics used to be in there and Hobby Haven. Also was at the tail end of Nicklodeon arcade being there too. For some reason it perpetually smelled like burnt cigarettes in there.
Is there a horror movie set on a dead mall? Because this would make a great horror movie set.
Is the same mall that's featured on here in 1982 in its heyday ?
Oh my gosh ...
Creepy...
🙏🏼
Wow, are some of these floors just really shiny or are they wet? Great stuff.
+ems93 no surprisingly the owners kept it sealed pretty good that's why there's little vandalism
except for the graffiti on the third floor.
They were really shiny. It only closed recently and I spent many lunch hours walking there during the winter. Whoever was maintaining the place, tried to keep it up until the bitter end.
+Bradley Boots It was Owen Buckley and Level 4 property management they did a tremendous job keeping up the place.
This was the owners favorite mall so I've heard he took great care of it. Was such a beautiful mall.
Wasn’t there the last Smaks Burgers on the upper level? I think that’s where I used to go.
I like the sound you add to your videos regardless of what others met say, it gives your video its own character and uniqueness and style as well
Omg
I shopped in that mall for half my life.
i didn't know that this mall still existed, thanks for clearing that up seph lol
I wish you could have gotten more footage inside the movie theater, that's where my favorite memories were inside Metcalf South.
+MrBlue3rd it was already demolished
Me and my best friend got caught sneaking out of Good Morning Vietnam to go smoke cigs in the bathroom at this mall!
How did you walk thru this mall without the someone stopping you ? And the mall looks so good! Is there police patrols at night of this mall? Good job once again Seph!
Got lucky I suppose! It’s demolished now I was the last one inside
SEPH LAWLESS Wow that's great and I have a lot of respect for you! Seph you didn't trash the place! I used to be the maintenance/housekeeping supervisor for Rolling A. Mall in Akron Ohio 96 thru 98 I loved your video of RA Thankyou Seph
Oh I never touch or trash anything! Just there to photograph
@@SEPHLAWLESS When did the mall close? Some of those stores like County Seat haven't been around for quite some time.
Awesome video! I almost feel like I'll get in trouble for watching it.😂
Thriving anchor store? I was in that Sears about that time and it was one of the dreariest, most depressing places I have ever been.
When I see a abandoned mall I think about all who have lost their job and what waste it is of land that was once farmland.
The inside of the building looks in better condition than the outside.
+Kathleen 0822 true!
Its crazy how this aspect of Americana came and went. Maybe one day we'll be able to hang out in virtual reality at the malls of our youth.
Was that call about Lincoln Mall, near Chicago?
+Ryan Michelle yes it was