Dead MallsFebruary 1st, 2009 by Roy Berman |
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This NYT profile of the current state of the Mall of America traffics in exoticism almost as much as a piece by a foreign correspondent would, but the key bit was a link to a nifty web site called Dead Malls, which rather obviously catalogues malls throughout the country that have ceased operations. This could serve well as a list of fun places to sneak/break into and photograph.
February 1st, 2009 at 12:10 pm
“fun places to sneak/break into and photograph.”
Or fight zombies.
Silly article, but the exoticism is partly warranted, I think. I culture shock badly when I go to a NA mall after having been in Japan for a while.
February 1st, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I’m going to the Philippines for the second time in about a month, where it’s even weirder. The malls there look exactly like they could be anywhere in America and it really nails home the postcolonialism.
February 1st, 2009 at 12:20 pm
In the Philippines do they have mall food like the 3850 calorie appetizer or the 1450 calorie coffee?
February 1st, 2009 at 12:30 pm
In some of the malls they pretty much have the same EVERYTHING. A Manila mall food court is the only place outside the US where I ever saw a Taco Bell.
February 1st, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Thanks for the cool note! Deadmalls.com does not condone or warrant its readers to “break into” dead malls to take pictures! .... but if you do, send them along!
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:30 am
I’ve seen Dead Malls before – some really creepy stuff. Reminds me of that site about Japanese dead buildings, the name of which escapes me for the moment. The NYT article is interesting, and at least has a wider ‘comments’ base that many articles about Japan. I have been to the Mall of America (though there is a bigger one in Canada,in Edmonton), and found it to be insanely massive, though if you removed the clothing shops that make up half the tenants, there’s not much there that is actually of interest. I have noticed more newer Japanese places emulating American malls – Aeon in particular has some places that are just like US malls, such as a massive one in Kumamoto. It is also more common to see the outdoor type, where shops ring a carpark, like in the US.
Haven’t seen too many zombies in malls here, but have felt like one at times, following my wife from store to store….
February 3rd, 2009 at 3:55 am
There’s several sites, and some good photography books, on Japanese abandoned buildings. (the keyword is 廃墟 in case you couldn’t think of it)
Someday I’d like to go visit more of them.