Attention! Completely remastered episodes of the Dead Mall Series are now being archived in 4K at ua-cam.com/channels/fCM_TfrSDMkkMpKuLNWuXA.html. The remasters have gone through an extensive AI Enhancement process as well as proper sound mixing and colorization. This Dead Mall Series Remastered project has been made possible through viewer support on Patreon. Go over now and watch in glorious 4K. ENJOY!
well, i love also love living in a country where shopping online is still the weaker alternative to shopping in malls and malls from the 70s are still alive and thriving
I'd say the latter would be true. I've worked in a couple places like this, not malls mind you, but still very dead. The pay sucked but it was awesome.
I used to work in a huge dead mall at an H&M but we were the only store that was thriving. Since I left several years ago, they've expanded to take over the space in the two empty stores (closed American Eagle and a closed store that had sports fan items) next to it despite more than 20 other stores closing. I usually worked in the morning during weekdays which is the slowest time for any retail. That was sooo relaxing and I loved the slow trickle of customers. It was only really depressing when I took a long lunch at the food court which only had a panda express left and you had to take a walk down a hallway that had tons of closed storefronts to even get to it. Also similarly to this, a few anchors closed its indoor mall entrance and only allow you to come in from the outside.
Holy crap, this is my mall! Prior to covid, the mall wasn't doing so great. We have another mall in the area called "Destiny USA" which is the 6th largest mall in the US. Destiny has taken almost the entirety of the customer base away from great northern. The only reason to go to great northern was to see a movie. It's a shame since it's in a really nice location, but the lack of upkeep and stores has made the place obsolete for the past decade.
Remember when Destiny USA was just The Carousal Mall? I remember going there opening week in 1990 and there were people playing piano on every floor. It was very classy.
@@kaylakay3112 Amazingly, Sangertown, in the Utica area, seems to be doing remarkably well. Charlestown, however - the outlet mall in the old factory, burned down in August. It really was only a matter of time.
@@Kimzapoppin I still call it Carousel most of the time haha.. When I was younger I got free rides on the actual carousel in the food court, being friends with the operator. Great memories!
@@derps I do, too. I was actually there in July, on the day they reopened. It was surreal. I don't live in the area anymore, but I was home for a visit. I had planned on being up again this month, but that won't be happening. Oh well, I'll be back next summer, I am sure!
There was something kind of sweet about seeing that racetrack at the end with those people playing with the little RC cars. A little spark of fun left in a barren landscape.
Cant believe it. Dan bell finally did my mall. Thank you for being respectful. I was scared if you did it youd say its really generic, which it is lol but at one time with all the stores open and the fountain that used to be in the center court it was a great mall. Ive been watching you since January 2016. Thank you Dan. Thank you.
I grew up near Syracuse and frequented Great Northern. I live in Colorado now, and haven’t been back for years. Wow. I didn’t realize it was that bad. I do remember when the Fairmount Fair and Camillus malls were alive and when they died. I loved Fairmount Fair, and was really sad when it closed and was demolished (I was about 7 when that happened).
Often the comic book /geek shops have an online presence as well, use social media to target customers who already have a loyalty to the shop and the product, and also have people who will work under the table. Source: have worked for several of these kinds of shops
My local mall, Gurnee Mills is still ok all things considered, they have like 3-4 show shops that get some traction, a thriving gamestop and fye store, BAM and tabletop games shop as well, not as very populated as before (even before the Coronavirus hit) but it still has people coming in, even though it should be closed due to our state's mandate
The mall has better distancing than any store I went to over the holidays. Sad that it doesn't matter what this mall does now, its gonna die. And likely get torn up for either a strip mall (maybe with Dick's anchor it in the same building/place?) or torn down completely for something else depending on location. It's surprisingly sad to see these huge shimmering malls in final years.
Seeing malls like this really make me feel that my life (As it was then) is completely dead and I am a different person in a different world. My local mall Was built in 1971. I was 8. My family went there shortly after it opened.Being a girl, and from a family who owned a retail store, I spent much of my time shopping, window shopping, playing around etc, all of my life until just after high school. I left the area and returned to that Mal maybe 10 years ago when I was in the area. So few businesses were there from the very beginning, It wasn’t like how I remembered it and I felt lost.
I can bet that when your life takes place in a mall so much, you can get attached to it and seeing it struggle must be like seeing a person you hold dear struggle.
Dead mall series comforts me when I'm struggling nightly with anxiety and depression. Going to court to uphold a restraining order today. Up over 4.5 hrs too early worrying.
I live around where this mall is. When I was younger I went to it quite often. Now to see my favorite UA-camr visit it? Awesome, so happy to see it happen.
@@gnarlin4964 here's that story www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbusiness/onondaga-county-will-take-over-shoppingtown-mall-in-exchange-for-2435-million/ar-BB1b8DzL
What's ironic about this situation is that Great Northern Mall is what put Clay, NY on the map. This mall was pretty much the first thing out in that area back in '88, then as the years went by, more and more stores and businesses and parking lots started to sprout up. Today, Clay is BOOMING, even during this whole situation, because of all of the stores and restaurants that have been built west of the mall. If you look on Google Maps, you can see it for yourself. Being a resident of Central NY, it's so sad to see this mall deteriorate like it is. Thanks for covering it!
I'm hoping that those that do survive the pandemic will see a second coming, when people realize how enjoyable they are to shop, how enjoyable shopping brick and mortar can be, and it'll help the rest survive.
Hey Dan. Just wanted to let you know that on November 20, this mall was closed. Thank you for doing a series on this one. It's the second of three malls in this area which has closed in the past few years. The third is still alive.
When you run a comic store, low rent is everything. Our local dead malls have two comic stores and an anime store and they're doing well. At least one of the shops used to be downtown, but the rents have tripled so pretty much all of the "funky" shops were driven out and some ended up in the malls.
I actually teared up. The town I grew up has a small mall that's been struggling for years. But I have taken my son's there every Christmas because they decorate the mall so neat. I'll probably never be able to take them again 😥
I grew up in malls being born in 74 and i miss the mall lifestyle. I could spend hours just browsing the stores. Thats why i love going to Dubai, so many packed malls makes me happy.
what should make you sad is that prince of zimbobwe disappeared and bardic makes a video once every two years while hacks and frauds "influencers" on youtube make a video once a day and make millions a year
This is so weird, haha. I live 15 minutes away from this mall. I worked here from 2005-2008. I was assistant manager at Fashion Bug and then Deb Shop. It used to be a busy mall then started dying out around 2006. Fashion Bug and Deb shops both left the mall. Fashion Bug became a remote car racetrack place and a carpet store moved into Deb's. It was sad to see it's slow painful demise. I spent lots holidays shopping there in my younger days. Now everything is online. Sad. Thanks for doing this location!
No joke, the very end of the video almost made me cry. The music choice with those little cars driving around the track paired with what this year has been, made me feel sad for...everyone.
Oh wow! I used to go to the Great Northern Mall back when I lived near there. I saw the Return of the King with one of my friends there. There was a Friendly's right next to the theater. That place used to be doing alright. This is so depressing.
This is the mall I had my first ever job in! I worked at a Hot Topic that ended up going under. I am really curious as to how you came to know about Great Northern Mall as this mall was a huge part of my life growing up in the area. Awesome video!
Dan, I went to college in Syracuse and I remember when this mall opened. Only went I think once. This displaced the nearby 1960s vintage Penn-Can Mall, (which I went to many times) which was recently turned into an indoor car dealership, so the building still stands in a weird state of non-mallness. Only two years after Great Northern opened, the giant Carousel Mall just north of downtown Syracuse was built (in a former oil dump), causing all the malls in the region to slowly wither and die, though obviously Great Northern has been hanging on for 30 years.
It was Marley's scrap yard where the mall is now, plus on the southern side a tank farm for Hess. Some of Penn-Can was demolished when it was converted, even that was about 20 years ago.
Thanks for this one, Dan. My wife grew up down the road from Great Northern. In the past we’ve gone to the movies there when we would visit her parents. It’s been like that for a couple years now, but finally time to put ol bessy to rest...
The one I’d kill to see done is the mall in Nacogdoches, Texas. It’s been “dead” for over two decades now at least but last I checked it was still going. I loved it because when I went to college there people would visit because the only thing in the food court was the best Thai place for hours, one of the anchors became an anchor-sized resale shop, and SO MUCH of the original neon was still there and working.
I worked at the Regal Great Northern Mall 10 for about 8 years. It's sad to know it will never reopen, but it was inevitable. The pandemic only shortened it's slow, painful death.
I went to college nearby in Oswego and cannot count the number of times my friends and I piled into one of our cars to go to great northern because it had the closet taco bell to our campus. We’d see a movie and hit up the comic store and sometimes play guitar hero in the arcade. That wasn’t very long ago-between 2012-2016. The place was dead then too, since Destiny USA (formerly called Carousel Mall for my fellow western NYers) is one of the biggest malls in the country and isn’t too far from great northern. Would recommend checking out similarly dead upstate NY malls Marketplace Mall in Rochester (upstaged by the higher-end nearby Eastview Mall) and Finger Lakes Mall in Auburn, NY.
Yeah that is very true all the attractions like wonder works and Dave and busters gave them all that popularity, well people just forgot about the great northern mall it feels like a wasteland when you look at it and even the toys r us near closed so it’s just a bland and unappealing spot
Me and my husband grew up in Oswego just 20 mins from there and growing up iN The 90s, this was the place to go. I worked there for a few years about 8 years ago at the Rue21 and would park right at that entrance where the Ruby Tuesday was... we were about in tears watching this with all our childhood memories😢 he always talks about his fond memories of going to the KB Games and buying new video games with his step dad as a kid... so sad but also, that mall was already half dead when I was working there a decade ago. Me and my sister always did all our school clothes shopping there every fall🙃
I grew up in Oswego too. I remember Penn Cann Mall and Shopping Town opening. That was the beginning of the end to the local stores in Oswego. When Great Northern opened, it killed the rest of the local businesses in Oswego except for JC Penney (which is now going to close too). Now Destiny (Carousel) Mall is the place to go, I guess. I only went to Great Northern a couple of times because I had moved to the Albany area.
Im in the UK, when I walk through my semi dead shopping centre (too small to be a mall) I always think of Dan Bell, especially when the music is eerie and a really odd playlist...
Yeah shopping centres are probably going to die over here too, but then I’ve never enjoyed them and I’m not exactly sad to see them go. The ones that are in a town and you have to go through it to get to another part of town will probably survive but not others I don’t think.
Me too, i live in the Uk and every time i go into a shopping centre i think of Dan Bell. I loved going to the shopping centre with my mum when i was a little girl in the 80/90’s. So sad they are dying out. Westfield is not quite the same.
the shopping centre in my town is so almost dead, there’s only a poundland and 2 charity shops left in it. even the likes of costa coffee and greggs shut in it
It’s so surreal to see these huge complexes completely empty - especially since in my country malls are doing really well, to the point of the inner city stores going out of business.
Well this smaller mall used to be great until a big mall called Destiny around 20 minutes away from it was built and basically ran it out of business! In the US we do tend to have a lot of abandoned or dead malls though but usually it’s due to a bigger one that’s more successful
Dan, your editing at the beginning just keeps getting better and better. The music with the shots of the mall plus the commercial edits actually made chuckle, awesome job
I used to go to this mall years ago, it's something to see how much it has changed since, kind of sad in a way too. Pretty cool that you were in the area!
I remember when the Great Northern Mall was new... I used to go there and to the Salmon Run Mall in Watertown frequently. I actually lived pretty close to where the Great Northern Mall would have been, just a hair off Soule Rd. (the road that comes off the 481 at the 31 just outside the mall), before it was built.
I love and have always loved watching these dead mall series but, since the pandemic my small town mall has succumbed to the same fate and I can truly say it's scary for it to happen to your own town. Feels like the world is falling apart and we have no control on what to do
Great Northern was almost doomed from the beginning. Syracuse, as the home of Pyramid, always had a billion malls. Way overmalled anyway Then Carousel Center, now Destiny USA, opened in 1990 about 5 miles away.
When GNM first opened it was the only shopping center on RT 31. Needless to say it did extremely well. The villages in the area quickly noted the large increase in tax revenue from the switch from residential and farm to commercial. The RT 31 crosses over with RT 481 a major interstate that connects Oswego to the Syracuse area. It's quite heavily traveled even now with several large plants closed in the area. (Nestle's, I want to say Budweiser up in Fulton- But I know they have a large plant on RT 31 near Baldwinsville, The former Birdseye plant in Fulton....) I mention this sense people reading this might not know the area or the history. RT 31. The local villages quickly started to convert the zoning over to retail. The GNM was pulling in some serious traffic and $$. As the villages quickly kicked over the zoning rules to retail, RT 31 started to spring up strip malls and big box retailers, etc.. Where the mall made a huge mistake was their own management team started to decline perspective tenets- So they built 'new' stores and entered into the strip malls across the bridge that goes over RT 481. So they shot themselves in the foot, as the stores that wanted to come into the mall, just went down the road about 1/2 a mile where it was all freshly rezoned for commercial/retail. GNM (Great Northern Mall...sorry for confusion to anyone not in the area that might not know the initials) started to flounder as it was more profitable to go a 1/2 a mile down the road. So in our case it wasn't really "Destiny/Carousel Center mall" that put the mall into a downward tail spin. It was poor management decisions that made it seem like GNM was not receptive to new retail. (Don't even get me started on what they where asking for leases....I can't blame the other retailers from going down the road at those prices) I can't put the blame for the mall's condition on Destiny/Carousel. Retail on RT 31 is ever expanding and doing extremely well. Our own mall is being left in the dust due to a lot of bad choices. Heck, just do a search for the current owner and you'll know all the answers about our current condition and reputation.
@Jeffrey Haines shopping town mall also had a fun junction i remember going there a lot as a kid and if you go into the mall they still have the fun wallpaper from when that store was open
@Jeffrey Haines yeah I wish the malls would have put in a bit of effort to make them stand out or at least make new commercials for them to get business and last time I went to shoppingtown for the polka tot sale with my mom the parking lot stank so badly and I’m pretty sure there was birdpoop everywhere inside and I’m not sure if the elevators there even still work
I remember going to this mall when I was little when a lot of people were still going here in the early 2010s. I'm 16 now and it's sad to see it almost completely dead except for old navy and a few other stores.
This was my mall growing up in the very late 80's to early 2000's (born in 1984). It was always a busy mall with tons of good stores until about the mid 2000's when everything just started closing up after the bon ton closed (the closed off anchor). The comic/gaming store has two other locations. One in Destiny USA and one in Syracuse NY.
The nostalgia I feel watching these videos is indescribable. I really truly miss malls. When I was growing up, going to the mall was such a “cool” thing to do. Now everything is “click and ship.” Who knows, maybe one day malls will have a resurgence.
Your videos are amazing Dan. They bring back a piece of people's memories. It is crazy to think that we would think that malls would never die. Now with 2020 and COVID, it has fast forward the decline. Keep up the great work.
That it is, so sad. They used to be so packed and lively back when I was a kid and teen. Destiny USA killed them, and now destiny USA isn't doing too well either.
The biggest shock I had passing by there in early November is they're building a new Ihop on an outparcel in front of Sears. Great Northern also had a Bon Ton (former Chappell's) as a huge store that closed well before the chain gave up, maybe 2006 or so. Believe that's the first anchor you looked at. Dicks started out as a Hess's. Mall has been slowly dying for a long time. Didn't help that a woman was killed in the parking lot. 10:00 was Macys, at about 11:00 you're looking at Sears. That was a huge Sears and they put a little money into it in 2017 only to close it the next year. New paint, new logo sign on the outside anyways. Spirit Halloween was in the Macy's so that may be why it was lit up and not tarped over.
Imagine going back to 1995 and telling everyone American malls would no longer be a thing and that in 2020 a deadly global Pandemic would give mall their final death blow.
I haven’t seen an Old Navy store in a long time that still has the numbered registers and “plywood” looking trim. Nearly all stores have been renovated, but clearly not this one.
4:37 used to be The Bon Ton which closed in 2006 5:07 Dick's Sporting Goods has moved out of the mall down the road as of mid 2021 11:20 The Larger than Life Comic book store has since moved out and across the road.
The Source Mall next to the closed Fortunoff has been dead since it opened! I can't imagine what it looks like now! Broadway has been going dead just prior to Covid, losing Macy's!
@@Hubjeep Here's some photos I took back in March right before the lockdowns: imgur(dot)com/a/LOAso1Z -- Just change the (dot). Idk what UA-cam's rules are regarding links in comments.
@@FunVanDriver WOW, thanks for posting! I remember going there 20 years ago when I was at NCC, looks about the same, but it was brand new around then. Have you walked around the Sears Hicksville buildings (closed for a few years now), very abandon looking.
Dan, I love your style. No one (that I've seen) does it better ... you walk slow enough to actually cultivate the mood of wherever you're at, you take your time and I really appreciate and look forward to your work. Thank you.
I remember this mall from almost 20 years ago when it was flourishing, although I also wondered how long it would stay afloat with Destiny USA and the gazillion other malls in the area. Destiny was the crown jewel of them all.
"Comic book and gaming stores seem to thrive in dead malls." It's because people like me going there HATE BEING AROUND A LOT OF PEOPLE. The most we can tolerate is a Con, and we have to be enticed with panels and celebrities and shopping to get us there. Then we need copious amounts of alcohol and pot to get us to go to the dances.
Dan, you're the original, or at least the first dead mall channel I watched. And still the best! Also, your videos helped inspire me to make my own videos. Happy holidays!
It’s really sad what happened to this mall. 10 years ago I’d be there every weekend with friends and it was pretty popular, it was obviously the beginning of the end but man it sucks. Going by it once a week is so depressing lmao.
Thanks for this post Dan! Wow... having come from humble roots, Malls for me usually meant spending money for gifts for someone else. I was always very frugal with my selections - and a food court was only to get a soda - you know, pocket change. Had to be disciplined with pocket change. If you spent that on a soda, the less you have for the week ahead. Thanks again!
It always makes me particularly sad to see closed movie theatres. Sure Netflix is convenient for home, but there's always something special about going to the theatre and smelling the popcorn, playing at the arcade with the trippy carpet, and of course the anticipation when the lights go down in the theatre. It's such a special experience that seems all but lost.
Omg no way i wish i knew you went to great northern mall Dan. I could have met up with ya and showed you some really cool spots in syracuse, ny which is literally 20 minutes from clay. Thats so awesome.
It's good to hear your voice again, Dan! Your other Dead Mall videos always left me nostalgic and sad because although our local mall was still going strong, I can remember several from my past that are now gone. So many have suffered the fate of Clementine: "You are lost and gone forever..." and now the Pandemic is killing those that still had a pulse, weak though it was. How about gifting us with some of the "Abandoned" explorations occupying your Back File? Stay safe, everyone.
I like to think that's an HBIC at the local real estate agent's office/sometime Spirit Halloween store power walking to her two o'clock after a productive socially distanced unch with a client in the food court.
You've got such a dulcet voice, Dan. I also love when you make yourself chuckle, warms me up. Or when you make ME laugh with comments like "for some reason they've decided to practice social distance guidelines..." when the mall is DEAD :P From one Dan to another, keep up the great work. Love this stuff.
Attention! Completely remastered episodes of the Dead Mall Series are now being archived in 4K at ua-cam.com/channels/fCM_TfrSDMkkMpKuLNWuXA.html. The remasters have gone through an extensive AI Enhancement process as well as proper sound mixing and colorization. This Dead Mall Series Remastered project has been made possible through viewer support on Patreon. Go over now and watch in glorious 4K. ENJOY!
Dead Mall Series soothes me like a warm blanket.
Me too
Agreed.
Yep
Oh I thought this was just meeeee. I rewatch the playlist so often. Thank you Dan Bell
I love this series. You and me like the same things Brent.♏
You know a mall is dead when your followed by the sound of ghostly high heels
^you’re
99% sure it's foley added in for interest.
@@marsandbars correct. Dan has this aesthetic down to a T!
\\ 👠 //
Gave me a flashback of my high school principal walking the halls, high heels authoritatively click-clacking on the terrazzo..
I’m so happy that I got to experience malls when they were busy and full of life
Yes but now you get to feel the pain of losing them knowing what it once meant to you.
Same but i never went because anxiety
well, i love also love living in a country where shopping online is still the weaker alternative to shopping in malls and malls from the 70s are still alive and thriving
@@MultiPaco06 What country do you live in? I'm jealous, all the malls closing really gets me down.
@@MrCperone87 mexico city
I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to WORK in a dead mall. Not sure if it would be horribly depressing or meditatively relaxing.
I'd say the latter would be true. I've worked in a couple places like this, not malls mind you, but still very dead. The pay sucked but it was awesome.
I used to work in a huge dead mall at an H&M but we were the only store that was thriving. Since I left several years ago, they've expanded to take over the space in the two empty stores (closed American Eagle and a closed store that had sports fan items) next to it despite more than 20 other stores closing. I usually worked in the morning during weekdays which is the slowest time for any retail. That was sooo relaxing and I loved the slow trickle of customers. It was only really depressing when I took a long lunch at the food court which only had a panda express left and you had to take a walk down a hallway that had tons of closed storefronts to even get to it. Also similarly to this, a few anchors closed its indoor mall entrance and only allow you to come in from the outside.
It depends if you work alone or with someone else. I u are alone it would be boring as f...
watch the new south park season... it shows u exactly what its like and why its like tha t....amazon ftw
I work in a mall that gets SUPER busy during Fridays and Weekends but once the rest of the weekdays come it's just normal to slightly dead.
Holy crap, this is my mall!
Prior to covid, the mall wasn't doing so great. We have another mall in the area called "Destiny USA" which is the 6th largest mall in the US. Destiny has taken almost the entirety of the customer base away from great northern. The only reason to go to great northern was to see a movie. It's a shame since it's in a really nice location, but the lack of upkeep and stores has made the place obsolete for the past decade.
Remember when Destiny USA was just The Carousal Mall? I remember going there opening week in 1990 and there were people playing piano on every floor. It was very classy.
Same with shoppingtown mall, all it had going for it was the movie theater and black mamba
@@kaylakay3112 Amazingly, Sangertown, in the Utica area, seems to be doing remarkably well. Charlestown, however - the outlet mall in the old factory, burned down in August. It really was only a matter of time.
@@Kimzapoppin I still call it Carousel most of the time haha.. When I was younger I got free rides on the actual carousel in the food court, being friends with the operator. Great memories!
@@derps I do, too. I was actually there in July, on the day they reopened. It was surreal. I don't live in the area anymore, but I was home for a visit. I had planned on being up again this month, but that won't be happening. Oh well, I'll be back next summer, I am sure!
Dan Bell intros have a life of their own.
There was something kind of sweet about seeing that racetrack at the end with those people playing with the little RC cars. A little spark of fun left in a barren landscape.
I seen a pregnant lady smoking here, she was wearing one boot and a sneaker.
Lol sounds right
Sounds like something that would happen at my old job
That's sad.
That poor kid...
Nice!
Cant believe it. Dan bell finally did my mall. Thank you for being respectful. I was scared if you did it youd say its really generic, which it is lol but at one time with all the stores open and the fountain that used to be in the center court it was a great mall. Ive been watching you since January 2016. Thank you Dan. Thank you.
I grew up near Syracuse and frequented Great Northern. I live in Colorado now, and haven’t been back for years. Wow. I didn’t realize it was that bad. I do remember when the Fairmount Fair and Camillus malls were alive and when they died. I loved Fairmount Fair, and was really sad when it closed and was demolished (I was about 7 when that happened).
Often the comic book /geek shops have an online presence as well, use social media to target customers who already have a loyalty to the shop and the product, and also have people who will work under the table. Source: have worked for several of these kinds of shops
My local mall, Gurnee Mills is still ok all things considered, they have like 3-4 show shops that get some traction, a thriving gamestop and fye store, BAM and tabletop games shop as well, not as very populated as before (even before the Coronavirus hit) but it still has people coming in, even though it should be closed due to our state's mandate
Work under the table? People drop that many good Yugioh & Magic cards?! /s
Yeah I have a local shop I love to support, they do quite well. Haven't been there in a while, though, would like to make a visit before X-Mas.
the mall itself is practicing social distancing.
The mall has better distancing than any store I went to over the holidays. Sad that it doesn't matter what this mall does now, its gonna die. And likely get torn up for either a strip mall (maybe with Dick's anchor it in the same building/place?) or torn down completely for something else depending on location. It's surprisingly sad to see these huge shimmering malls in final years.
Seeing malls like this really make me feel that my life (As it was then) is completely dead and I am a different person in a different world. My local mall Was built in 1971. I was 8. My family went there shortly after it opened.Being a girl, and from a family who owned a retail store, I spent much of my time shopping, window shopping, playing around etc, all of my life until just after high school. I left the area and returned to that Mal maybe 10 years ago when I was in the area. So few businesses were there from the very beginning, It wasn’t like how I remembered it and I felt lost.
That first sentence kicked me right in the feels. Well said.
I can bet that when your life takes place in a mall so much, you can get attached to it and seeing it struggle must be like seeing a person you hold dear struggle.
The flickering lights tell the entire story. It's like the heart rate monitor starting to lie flat
It gives a Doom-like atmosphere to it. I think it comes from the leaking roof, so the rain day after day makes its way into the electric wires.
Dead mall series comforts me when I'm struggling nightly with anxiety and depression. Going to court to uphold a restraining order today. Up over 4.5 hrs too early worrying.
0:49 You can tell the mall is shaking and crying at the fact that Dan has graced it with his presence. Every dead mall does!
Dan is the mall reaper. Not a bad way to go honestly. One last look at the old girl before she becomes another parking lot.
oh my god here you are again, i see you everywhere!
Didn’t expect you here
When the pandemic is over, I want to see a Dan Bell Alive Mall series.
The pandemic will never be over.
I live around where this mall is. When I was younger I went to it quite often. Now to see my favorite UA-camr visit it? Awesome, so happy to see it happen.
Same lol im surprised he didnt go to Shoppingtown
@@cavan216 This is my childhood mall is well. I actually thought it was 100% shut down years ago...
@@cavan216 same but it would be a little hard seeing the county is buying that mall back and it's shut down
@@bertiejohnson9276 Oh, the county is buying the mall? Why?
@@gnarlin4964 here's that story www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbusiness/onondaga-county-will-take-over-shoppingtown-mall-in-exchange-for-2435-million/ar-BB1b8DzL
What's ironic about this situation is that Great Northern Mall is what put Clay, NY on the map. This mall was pretty much the first thing out in that area back in '88, then as the years went by, more and more stores and businesses and parking lots started to sprout up. Today, Clay is BOOMING, even during this whole situation, because of all of the stores and restaurants that have been built west of the mall. If you look on Google Maps, you can see it for yourself. Being a resident of Central NY, it's so sad to see this mall deteriorate like it is. Thanks for covering it!
COVID will be the final nail in the coffin for this kind of retail.
True but sad, still enjoy malls
Amazon is the hammer!
I'm hoping that those that do survive the pandemic will see a second coming, when people realize how enjoyable they are to shop, how enjoyable shopping brick and mortar can be, and it'll help the rest survive.
It's all deliberate. Look up 'The Great Reset'.
Because of the lockdowns.....
Hey Dan. Just wanted to let you know that on November 20, this mall was closed.
Thank you for doing a series on this one. It's the second of three malls in this area which has closed in the past few years. The third is still alive.
We've missed you Mr Bell
When you run a comic store, low rent is everything. Our local dead malls have two comic stores and an anime store and they're doing well. At least one of the shops used to be downtown, but the rents have tripled so pretty much all of the "funky" shops were driven out and some ended up in the malls.
Seeing these makes me sad for some reason.
I actually teared up. The town I grew up has a small mall that's been struggling for years. But I have taken my son's there every Christmas because they decorate the mall so neat. I'll probably never be able to take them again 😥
Same here, and I don't even live in the US
It is very sad, and so tragic!
The way people shop online now has changed retail forever...it's the end of error and that is always depressing! 😭
I grew up in malls being born in 74 and i miss the mall lifestyle. I could spend hours just browsing the stores. Thats why i love going to Dubai, so many packed malls makes me happy.
what should make you sad is that
prince of zimbobwe disappeared
and bardic makes a video once every two years
while hacks and frauds "influencers" on youtube make a video once a day
and make millions a year
That first minute was like a David Lynch film
ONG totally 💯
between that and the name of the mall being the Great Northern... hmmm...
Probably still get a copyright hit, though lol
Thought the same thing...
and the second minute was a youtube poop
weird times folks, I am so happy I got to grow up in the 80's and 90's.
Agreed
2020 and 2021 is quite possibly one of the worst years to be a high schooler
@@mrknowhere6457 Love your name, yes I agree, I feel for them all.
It is, I’m just exhausted and so sick of everything
Still have one year left of high school though, I’m ready to be done
Yuuuuuuup!!!
This is so weird, haha. I live 15 minutes away from this mall. I worked here from 2005-2008. I was assistant manager at Fashion Bug and then Deb Shop. It used to be a busy mall then started dying out around 2006. Fashion Bug and Deb shops both left the mall. Fashion Bug became a remote car racetrack place and a carpet store moved into Deb's. It was sad to see it's slow painful demise. I spent lots holidays shopping there in my younger days. Now everything is online. Sad. Thanks for doing this location!
No joke, the very end of the video almost made me cry. The music choice with those little cars driving around the track paired with what this year has been, made me feel sad for...everyone.
Oh wow! I used to go to the Great Northern Mall back when I lived near there. I saw the Return of the King with one of my friends there. There was a Friendly's right next to the theater. That place used to be doing alright. This is so depressing.
This is the mall I had my first ever job in! I worked at a Hot Topic that ended up going under. I am really curious as to how you came to know about Great Northern Mall as this mall was a huge part of my life growing up in the area. Awesome video!
I just found you and I can’t even tell you how happy the sound of the Muzak makes me!!
Dan, I went to college in Syracuse and I remember when this mall opened. Only went I think once. This displaced the nearby 1960s vintage Penn-Can Mall, (which I went to many times) which was recently turned into an indoor car dealership, so the building still stands in a weird state of non-mallness. Only two years after Great Northern opened, the giant Carousel Mall just north of downtown Syracuse was built (in a former oil dump), causing all the malls in the region to slowly wither and die, though obviously Great Northern has been hanging on for 30 years.
It was Marley's scrap yard where the mall is now, plus on the southern side a tank farm for Hess.
Some of Penn-Can was demolished when it was converted, even that was about 20 years ago.
Thanks for this one, Dan. My wife grew up down the road from Great Northern. In the past we’ve gone to the movies there when we would visit her parents. It’s been like that for a couple years now, but finally time to put ol bessy to rest...
This was my favorite mall. It absolutely breaks my heart to see it empty and quiet these days😔
The one I’d kill to see done is the mall in Nacogdoches, Texas. It’s been “dead” for over two decades now at least but last I checked it was still going. I loved it because when I went to college there people would visit because the only thing in the food court was the best Thai place for hours, one of the anchors became an anchor-sized resale shop, and SO MUCH of the original neon was still there and working.
Long time follower
This makes me sad The malls are dying out. Sucks Thanks Dan the Man
@Raulito Fernández yes. Yes I am
My grandma (dads side)is very well known
@Raulito Fernández my grandma appeared on the back of the $50 colon
Back in the 30’s
@Raulito Fernández that’s my fathers mom Great woman. Miss her
@Raulito Fernández curious how did u know to ask Me if I’m from C R?
Come to Kansas and visit oak Park Mall. The last living mall! Still gets thousands of visitors
I worked at the Regal Great Northern Mall 10 for about 8 years. It's sad to know it will never reopen, but it was inevitable. The pandemic only shortened it's slow, painful death.
I could watch these intros forever. A series of just these montages would be so amazing.
I went to college nearby in Oswego and cannot count the number of times my friends and I piled into one of our cars to go to great northern because it had the closet taco bell to our campus. We’d see a movie and hit up the comic store and sometimes play guitar hero in the arcade. That wasn’t very long ago-between 2012-2016. The place was dead then too, since Destiny USA (formerly called Carousel Mall for my fellow western NYers) is one of the biggest malls in the country and isn’t too far from great northern. Would recommend checking out similarly dead upstate NY malls Marketplace Mall in Rochester (upstaged by the higher-end nearby Eastview Mall) and Finger Lakes Mall in Auburn, NY.
Destiny Mall killed it years ago. Check out the current ownership to tell you all you need to know. Sad.
Yeah that is very true all the attractions like wonder works and Dave and busters gave them all that popularity, well people just forgot about the great northern mall it feels like a wasteland when you look at it and even the toys r us near closed so it’s just a bland and unappealing spot
Me and my husband grew up in Oswego just 20 mins from there and growing up iN The 90s, this was the place to go. I worked there for a few years about 8 years ago at the Rue21 and would park right at that entrance where the Ruby Tuesday was... we were about in tears watching this with all our childhood memories😢 he always talks about his fond memories of going to the KB Games and buying new video games with his step dad as a kid... so sad but also, that mall was already half dead when I was working there a decade ago. Me and my sister always did all our school clothes shopping there every fall🙃
I grew up in Oswego too. I remember Penn Cann Mall and Shopping Town opening. That was the beginning of the end to the local stores in Oswego. When Great Northern opened, it killed the rest of the local businesses in Oswego except for JC Penney (which is now going to close too). Now Destiny (Carousel) Mall is the place to go, I guess. I only went to Great Northern a couple of times because I had moved to the Albany area.
Im in the UK, when I walk through my semi dead shopping centre (too small to be a mall) I always think of Dan Bell, especially when the music is eerie and a really odd playlist...
Yeah shopping centres are probably going to die over here too, but then I’ve never enjoyed them and I’m not exactly sad to see them go. The ones that are in a town and you have to go through it to get to another part of town will probably survive but not others I don’t think.
Me too, i live in the Uk and every time i go into a shopping centre i think of Dan Bell. I loved going to the shopping centre with my mum when i was a little girl in the 80/90’s. So sad they are dying out. Westfield is not quite the same.
@@nettysrandombitsnpieces6790 don’t forget the takeaways and betting shops. sadly a lot of the town in the Uk are like this
the shopping centre in my town is so almost dead, there’s only a poundland and 2 charity shops left in it. even the likes of costa coffee and greggs shut in it
This mall back in 2010 was still pretty busy.
That food court was busy then as well.
I’m surprised it didn’t survive, considering the location.
It’s so surreal to see these huge complexes completely empty - especially since in my country malls are doing really well, to the point of the inner city stores going out of business.
Well this smaller mall used to be great until a big mall called Destiny around 20 minutes away from it was built and basically ran it out of business! In the US we do tend to have a lot of abandoned or dead malls though but usually it’s due to a bigger one that’s more successful
Dan, your sick 90s video montage intros make me so happy
Last song (melody) was so fitting for this sad situation those mall are in...
Dan, your editing at the beginning just keeps getting better and better. The music with the shots of the mall plus the commercial edits actually made chuckle, awesome job
I used to go to this mall years ago, it's something to see how much it has changed since, kind of sad in a way too. Pretty cool that you were in the area!
I remember when the Great Northern Mall was new... I used to go there and to the Salmon Run Mall in Watertown frequently.
I actually lived pretty close to where the Great Northern Mall would have been, just a hair off Soule Rd. (the road that comes off the 481 at the 31 just outside the mall), before it was built.
Wow thats really cool
But in all seriousness my heart leaped with joy when I saw the notification
There are a few other channels that cover dead malls but Dan is definitely the best. His dirty room series is awesome too!
I love and have always loved watching these dead mall series but, since the pandemic my small town mall has succumbed to the same fate and I can truly say it's scary for it to happen to your own town. Feels like the world is falling apart and we have no control on what to do
I suppose the good thing is I can pretend I am Dan Bell and walk the mall slowly as if I was him
I love the glass, floor, and candy machines. I love the light. I love the blinking light. I love the flowers, the rocks, the whole garden.♏
Great Northern was almost doomed from the beginning. Syracuse, as the home of Pyramid, always had a billion malls. Way overmalled anyway
Then Carousel Center, now Destiny USA, opened in 1990 about 5 miles away.
When GNM first opened it was the only shopping center on RT 31. Needless to say it did extremely well. The villages in the area quickly noted the large increase in tax revenue from the switch from residential and farm to commercial. The RT 31 crosses over with RT 481 a major interstate that connects Oswego to the Syracuse area. It's quite heavily traveled even now with several large plants closed in the area. (Nestle's, I want to say Budweiser up in Fulton- But I know they have a large plant on RT 31 near Baldwinsville, The former Birdseye plant in Fulton....) I mention this sense people reading this might not know the area or the history.
RT 31. The local villages quickly started to convert the zoning over to retail. The GNM was pulling in some serious traffic and $$. As the villages quickly kicked over the zoning rules to retail, RT 31 started to spring up strip malls and big box retailers, etc.. Where the mall made a huge mistake was their own management team started to decline perspective tenets- So they built 'new' stores and entered into the strip malls across the bridge that goes over RT 481. So they shot themselves in the foot, as the stores that wanted to come into the mall, just went down the road about 1/2 a mile where it was all freshly rezoned for commercial/retail.
GNM (Great Northern Mall...sorry for confusion to anyone not in the area that might not know the initials) started to flounder as it was more profitable to go a 1/2 a mile down the road. So in our case it wasn't really "Destiny/Carousel Center mall" that put the mall into a downward tail spin. It was poor management decisions that made it seem like GNM was not receptive to new retail. (Don't even get me started on what they where asking for leases....I can't blame the other retailers from going down the road at those prices) I can't put the blame for the mall's condition on Destiny/Carousel. Retail on RT 31 is ever expanding and doing extremely well. Our own mall is being left in the dust due to a lot of bad choices. Heck, just do a search for the current owner and you'll know all the answers about our current condition and reputation.
@Jeffrey Haines shopping town mall also had a fun junction i remember going there a lot as a kid and if you go into the mall they still have the fun wallpaper from when that store was open
@Jeffrey Haines yeah I wish the malls would have put in a bit of effort to make them stand out or at least make new commercials for them to get business and last time I went to shoppingtown for the polka tot sale with my mom the parking lot stank so badly and I’m pretty sure there was birdpoop everywhere inside and I’m not sure if the elevators there even still work
I remember going to this mall when I was little when a lot of people were still going here in the early 2010s. I'm 16 now and it's sad to see it almost completely dead except for old navy and a few other stores.
*sees the notification for the Dead Mall Series*
Me: Oh, thank God!
This was my mall growing up in the very late 80's to early 2000's (born in 1984). It was always a busy mall with tons of good stores until about the mid 2000's when everything just started closing up after the bon ton closed (the closed off anchor). The comic/gaming store has two other locations. One in Destiny USA and one in Syracuse NY.
More dead mall videos were much needed! Great way to make it through quarantine!
The nostalgia I feel watching these videos is indescribable. I really truly miss malls. When I was growing up, going to the mall was such a “cool” thing to do. Now everything is “click and ship.” Who knows, maybe one day malls will have a resurgence.
Dan’s voice is so soothing
I absolutely love this series and thank you Dan, you always add in the best music which adds to the creepy ambience, lol!
I was just revisiting Down in the Devil's Well to get my daily fix of your work! So excited to watch this 😁
Your videos are amazing Dan. They bring back a piece of people's memories. It is crazy to think that we would think that malls would never die. Now with 2020 and COVID, it has fast forward the decline. Keep up the great work.
Ouch, my childhood. Back when I was a kid, I'd occasionally do back to school shopping up in Clay if the shopping town Mall was too busy
And now shopping town is officially dead too.
That it is, so sad. They used to be so packed and lively back when I was a kid and teen. Destiny USA killed them, and now destiny USA isn't doing too well either.
Shopping town mall...another dead with an active collectables store
The biggest shock I had passing by there in early November is they're building a new Ihop on an outparcel in front of Sears.
Great Northern also had a Bon Ton (former Chappell's) as a huge store that closed well before the chain gave up, maybe 2006 or so. Believe that's the first anchor you looked at. Dicks started out as a Hess's.
Mall has been slowly dying for a long time. Didn't help that a woman was killed in the parking lot.
10:00 was Macys, at about 11:00 you're looking at Sears. That was a huge Sears and they put a little money into it in 2017 only to close it the next year. New paint, new logo sign on the outside anyways.
Spirit Halloween was in the Macy's so that may be why it was lit up and not tarped over.
Imagine going back to 1995 and telling everyone American malls would no longer be a thing and that in 2020 a deadly global Pandemic would give mall their final death blow.
I haven’t seen an Old Navy store in a long time that still has the numbered registers and “plywood” looking trim. Nearly all stores have been renovated, but clearly not this one.
Wow, I remember when that mall opened. I made a special trip, 45 minutes from my home, just to check it out. It was so exciting. Sigh.
Did nobody else find those RC cars absolutely HILARIOUS, especially when juxtaposed to the sad music?
Now, this looks like something out of a failed state or something.
Edit: Guys, this was just a reference to Night in the Woods.
Ya think
It sort of is.
Yup
A failed state? Please elaborate.
I don't like New York much either but calling it a failed state is a bit harsh lol
4:37 used to be The Bon Ton which closed in 2006
5:07 Dick's Sporting Goods has moved out of the mall down the road as of mid 2021
11:20 The Larger than Life Comic book store has since moved out and across the road.
A new Dead Mall Series episode is the Xmas gift I needed 😭 Thank you!
Great Northern Mall became officially closed in November 2022; doors locked and remaining tenants were ordered to vacate.
I'd love to see you visit a Long Island dead mall now that you're in NY
Yes!
The Source Mall next to the closed Fortunoff has been dead since it opened! I can't imagine what it looks like now! Broadway has been going dead just prior to Covid, losing Macy's!
@@Hubjeep Here's some photos I took back in March right before the lockdowns: imgur(dot)com/a/LOAso1Z -- Just change the (dot). Idk what UA-cam's rules are regarding links in comments.
Sounds dangerous
@@FunVanDriver WOW, thanks for posting! I remember going there 20 years ago when I was at NCC, looks about the same, but it was brand new around then. Have you walked around the Sears Hicksville buildings (closed for a few years now), very abandon looking.
Dan, you do such a phenomenal work with these edits. The background music almost makes me wanna cry! 😢
U gonna bring back Dionne Warwick saying “We’re coming to you from the MAAAALLLLLLLLL”
Dan, I love your style. No one (that I've seen) does it better ... you walk slow enough to actually cultivate the mood of wherever you're at, you take your time and I really appreciate and look forward to your work. Thank you.
Regal isnt out of business technically it's just shut down temporarily
Yeah, I’m not super optimistic every location will reopen but it’s been said to be temporary.
@@thetopcrusader Some locations are definitely permanent closures. Not all of the currently shuttered locations, but some of them are gone for good.
Nah, this one isn't reopening.
They blacked out the sign near the entrance to the mall. This theatre is dead. It was super gross anyway.
@@SuperKellyKhaos I haven't been in it since Team America: World Police
I watch these videos and i can't believe how much life has changed in the past 20 years.
I remember this mall from almost 20 years ago when it was flourishing, although I also wondered how long it would stay afloat with Destiny USA and the gazillion other malls in the area. Destiny was the crown jewel of them all.
Chambersburg Mall: I'm the deadest mall of them all!
Great Northern Mall: Hold my crickets!
That's pretty funny!
"Comic book and gaming stores seem to thrive in dead malls."
It's because people like me going there HATE BEING AROUND A LOT OF PEOPLE.
The most we can tolerate is a Con, and we have to be enticed with panels and celebrities and shopping to get us there. Then we need copious amounts of alcohol and pot to get us to go to the dances.
It’s the panels for me, celebrities I don’t really care for, usually ask wayyyy to much for autographs...
As a furry, it works the same way for us too. Alcohol is the ultimate social lubricant.
@@InflatablePlane Same as a brony.
Funny, I’m the opposite
Well, gaming stores tend to survive because people still show up to buy booster packs and ask when FNM is reopening.
Dan Bell’s warped sense of humor and clever editing always shines in these deal mall walkthrough/art films. 😂👍
*”Oh, JACKIE!”* 😱😏
Saw this announced on Instagram and pushed a bunch of elderly people out of my way to get here as fast as I could
hahaha genuine laughter
Thank you George Costanza
Women, Children and Seniors last, right?.
Dan, you're the original, or at least the first dead mall channel I watched. And still the best! Also, your videos helped inspire me to make my own videos. Happy holidays!
It’s really sad what happened to this mall. 10 years ago I’d be there every weekend with friends and it was pretty popular, it was obviously the beginning of the end but man it sucks. Going by it once a week is so depressing lmao.
This series does a really good job of capturing the grandeur of what malls once were, in contrast to the state of them now.
This is my hometown mall!! I had my 8th birthday party at the bouncy house when it use to be a golf course years ago!!
Thanks for this post Dan! Wow... having come from humble roots, Malls for me usually meant spending money for gifts for someone else. I was always very frugal with my selections - and a food court was only to get a soda - you know, pocket change. Had to be disciplined with pocket change. If you spent that on a soda, the less you have for the week ahead. Thanks again!
I live like-15 minutes away from this place
Super cool. I was born on syracuse, ny in 1987 so I've been here as a kid kid..gosh the late 80s early 90s was amazing
Should've hit up Shoppingtown mall too...unless if he tried and the doors were completely locked.
I live 2 and 1/2 hour car drive from clay county. I am in Albany, NY.
i live in brewerton, very close.
Thank you for resuming the dead mall series. It's the only content I am interested in that you produce.
DAN BELL...where are you? I need you, I need you!!😢😂😂😂 No really, AMERICA NEEDS MORE OF YOU, ASAP!!😻😻😻
It always makes me particularly sad to see closed movie theatres. Sure Netflix is convenient for home, but there's always something special about going to the theatre and smelling the popcorn, playing at the arcade with the trippy carpet, and of course the anticipation when the lights go down in the theatre. It's such a special experience that seems all but lost.
11:46 I love that you had to clarify that wasn't a fashion show runway.
Omg no way i wish i knew you went to great northern mall Dan. I could have met up with ya and showed you some really cool spots in syracuse, ny which is literally 20 minutes from clay. Thats so awesome.
You sound pretty upbeat in this vid, which probably means you’re doing alright. If that’s the case, I’m glad you are ❤️
It's good to hear your voice again, Dan! Your other Dead Mall videos always left me nostalgic and sad because although our local mall was still going strong, I can remember several from my past that are now gone. So many have suffered the fate of Clementine: "You are lost and gone forever..." and now the Pandemic is killing those that still had a pulse, weak though it was. How about gifting us with some of the "Abandoned" explorations occupying your Back File? Stay safe, everyone.
I really want to know - are those footsteps real or sound effects lol?
It sounds like karen going to complain to a manager
I like to think that's an HBIC at the local real estate agent's office/sometime Spirit Halloween store power walking to her two o'clock after a productive socially distanced unch with a client in the food court.
Good lord how depressing. We knew the pandemic would kill off the dying malls, but to witness it.. ugh :/
@@lilstarshard it’s glorious, isn’t it?!
@@AggiePhil Like the Breeders' song of the same name.
Seeing all these malls empty is so incredibly sad....it was a piece of our lives we all took for granted...
Hope my mall doesn't end up like this, we lost 1 anchor so far and several other stores over the past few years 😭😭😭
You've got such a dulcet voice, Dan. I also love when you make yourself chuckle, warms me up. Or when you make ME laugh with comments like "for some reason they've decided to practice social distance guidelines..." when the mall is DEAD :P From one Dan to another, keep up the great work. Love this stuff.