Zombies Are The Only Things Missing: America's Abandoned Shopping Malls

[Karloff]

Zombies Are The Only Things Missing: America's Abandoned Shopping Malls

'Lord, please let the Food Court be okay.' Coach, Seph Lawless has something you should see.

Way back in 1978 George Romero's Dawn of the Dead gave us the abandoned American shopping mall as post-apocalyptic metaphor, but when Romero hit zombies with cream pies the mall was still very much a vibrant icon of consumerism. Not so today, as photographer Seph Lawless points out. He's been crawling through abandoned malls, collecting images for his book Black Friday, now out in e-format as well as physical. Take a look at what's left of an American shopping tradition: you won't spot a Hunter sneaking in the shadows, which to my mind makes the whole thing creepier.

"I started taking these a couple years ago," says Lawless, "Because I thought there was a big disconnect between Americans and the reality which surrounds them. I thought Americans lived in a bubble, and I wanted to show some of the most broken and abandoned parts of the country." He started with hospitals and homes, before turning to shopping malls; he wanted to find images that people would really connect with, on a gut level.

The decay of the malls follows the decay of the communities that fed them. Take is the kind of place you find corpses, not shoppers [http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jun/19/-sp-death-of-the-american-shopping-mall]. The last picture in the gallery is Rolling Acres.

[gallery=2806]

"They're trying to change; they're trying to get different kinds of anchors, discount stores," says retail expert Howard Davidowitz [http://www.davidowitzassociates.com/Biography2.html]. "[But] what's going on is the customers don't have the fucking money. That's it. This isn't rocket science."

If you're interested in Black Friday the ebook can be had for a little under $10 [http://www.sephlawless-shop.com/product/black-friday-the-collapse-of-the-american-shopping-mall-2014]; the landscape size paperback starts at $69, and prices go up and up for the hardcover and premium limited edition.

Source: Seph Lawless [http://sephlawless.com/my-story]
Image Source: Lawless, via Photogrist [http://photogrist.com/abandoned-shopping-malls-by-seph-lawless/]


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[theApoc]

Can you please hire a real web developer to implement a functional image gallery? There are lots of them out there, all free, I can post links if you like.

 

[Mr Fixit]

I remember an old mall that only had about 3 shops still open in it. I think one of the last shops in it was a pet store. It was such a dark & eerie place, always had most of the lights off & never more than a dozen people in the place at a time. Malls are supposed to be vibrant & noisy, but this one was so still & empty. It always gave me the creeps when I was a kid. Place was finally torn down & a new shopping center was put in it's place, which is a very busy place now.

You'd think someone would re-purpose the places into something useful.

 

[Slegiar Dryke]

You'd think someone would re-purpose the places into something useful.

chances are probable the people who could be inclined to do so may not have the money themselves. for a year or two now we've had an empty husk of a half built hotel sticking out of the historic downtown because the guy who was building it ran out of money. now some other guys picked it up "for when he finishes the hotel he's working on"....but hasn't actually started building yet. so the property and location managers don't even seem like they know what to do half the time at this point, in some places XP

 

[Mr Fixit]

snip

Oh yeah I know, it's always about money & I understand that. Makes me wish I had the money to do something with it. I was actually thinking of some more altruistic ideas, like opening them up as homeless shelters & things like that, but it'll never happen because of liability or property value or some other reason. Some probably already break into them & stay until they get kicked out, but to open them up & put in a soup kitchen & things like that would be such a great show of humanity.

I know, way to idealistic of me to think like that.

 

[cojo965]

I remember an old mall that only had about 3 shops still open in it. I think one of the last shops in it was a pet store. It was such a dark & eerie place, always had most of the lights off & never more than a dozen people in the place at a time. Malls are supposed to be vibrant & noisy, but this one was so still & empty. It always gave me the creeps when I was a kid. Place was finally torn down & a new shopping center was put in it's place, which is a very busy place now.

You'd think someone would re-purpose the places into something useful.

That's funny you say that, some of these malls become airsoft arenas. See for yourself:

 

[Riff Moonraker]

I dont find these pictures to be creepy, or eerie, at all. I find them sad. My "coming of age" decade was the 80s, where the whole mall thing was a huge freaking deal, and seeing these pictures as well as seeing the same thing happening at the mall in my hometown just saddens me to no end. Its just another reminder of how much financial trouble this country is really in, and why we absolutely have got to figure out a way to fix it. Hint... its not going to be our government that fixes this, but rather the people. What the government needs to do is stop hitting its people below the belt and allow them the breathing room to work our magic again. Man, these pictures really bummed me out.

 

[AdmiralCheez]

There are two malls near me that are slowly dying. Mostly empty with a food court, a few shops, and maybe one anchor store left. About 6-7 years ago, they poured millions into one of them, refurbishing it into a brand new town center, with upscale apartments, outdoor high-end retail space, and more. No one wanted to rent space, and the whole thing turned out to be a giant waste of money. It got so bad that the town hall moved their offices there just to give people a reason to come in. And this mall is in what's considered "rich-people" territory, so if anyone could afford to rent space and spend money there, it's them. Now the second one is considering doing the same thing, and I just shake my head knowing that history is repeating itself.

 

[Mr Fixit]

I remember an old mall that only had about 3 shops still open in it. I think one of the last shops in it was a pet store. It was such a dark & eerie place, always had most of the lights off & never more than a dozen people in the place at a time. Malls are supposed to be vibrant & noisy, but this one was so still & empty. It always gave me the creeps when I was a kid. Place was finally torn down & a new shopping center was put in it's place, which is a very busy place now.

You'd think someone would re-purpose the places into something useful.

That's funny you say that, some of these malls become airsoft arenas. See for yourself:

That thought had crossed my mind, that or paintball, laser tag. Anything like that would be fun.

 

[Slegiar Dryke]

Oh yeah I know, it's always about money & I understand that. Makes me wish I had the money to do something with it. I was actually thinking of some more altruistic ideas, like opening them up as homeless shelters & things like that, but it'll never happen because of liability or property value or some other reason. Some probably already break into them & stay until they get kicked out, but to open them up & put in a soup kitchen & things like that would be such a great show of humanity.

I know, way to idealistic of me to think like that.

It'd be pretty awesome indeed if it actually happened =) admittedly it still breaks down because its not really a profit puller and that's part(or all?) of how large scale location holders like malls make their money I'd gather......but certainly a nice idea ^^

captcha: "It is certain" hah, captcha, I wish things were XP

 

[ryukage_sama]

Seems like the photographer finds this sort of thing quite profound, but I don't share his fascination. Americans still shop at big, decorative malls, they just do it someplace else. Industry moves on, populations migrate, and its more economical to put malls, schools, hospitals and homes where the people need them. Showing an abandoned structure, which I have no emotional connection to, will not provoke an emotional response.

If he wants somebody like me to have an emotional response, he just needs to put pictures of people in front of me, broke, destitute, struggling people. The function of using pictures of buildings is to keep those disconcerting, anxious, depressed feelings at a distance. Its easier to immerse oneself in images that suggest the results of hardship rather than actually showing it. If his purpose was to burst the bubble of American consumerism, he needs to use a sharper needle.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

I bet a lot of this is due to the Internet. Not only do a lot of people prefer to do their shopping online nowadays, especially for the sorts of things you used to get at the mall, a lot of the teenagers who used to hang out in malls are doing their hanging out on the Internet as well. I'd hesitate to say "most", though; you still have to be somewhere in order to use the Internet, and I imagine most teenagers would still prefer that somewhere to not be their parents' house.

Oh yeah I know, it's always about money & I understand that. Makes me wish I had the money to do something with it. I was actually thinking of some more altruistic ideas, like opening them up as homeless shelters & things like that, but it'll never happen because of liability or property value or some other reason. Some probably already break into them & stay until they get kicked out, but to open them up & put in a soup kitchen & things like that would be such a great show of humanity.

That would be one heck of a big homeless shelter. Even with the state our economy is in, I'm not sure any of these communities have enough homeless people to fill one of the anchor stores, let alone the whole mall.

 

[Hiramas]

Fascinating thing to see, especially as an european where we have a much different structure of our cities and malls are still invading our city centers.
Also, the price policy is great, paper gives a very different form of the pictures and it is an appropriate price, ebook is affordable. Thats the way!

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I always think that places like that would be a blast to play laser tag in, or paintball.

That's funny you say that, some of these malls become airsoft arenas. See for yourself:

Yeah, something like that. That would be awesome. There's still a mall in my town, but it is ninety-five percent clothing stores now, plus a single GameStop. Gone are the cool stores, like Natural Wonder, and Sun Coast also left, so now there's nowhere in my town to buy anime, and the Dairy Queen there closed a few months back too, so now I can't even get a blizzard.

I was honestly getting more of a The Last of Us feel from those pictures than Left 4 Dead 2.

 

[Razorback0z]

Looks like a portent to me.

 

[Asclepion]

They could be like Bangkok and flood the mall's concrete ruins with water to make a giant koi pond. [http://tasteoftheroad.com/secret-abandoned-fish-mall/]

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

There's a mall about an hour away from where I live, and it is nearly abandoned, but kept in pristine condition.
It's actually the largest mall in the area (Over 1.5 million square feet, apparently), but the owner refuses to sell it, which I find odd. There is only like 10 or so stores in the entire mall, and maybe a movie theatre? It might have closed, I recall the company being bought out, and they might have closed that branch of it.

Spoiler: Oooohhh Spoopy (But not really spoopy)

EDIT: Woah, apparently a lot of malls are dying according to comments. The one I posted about has been in this state sense the late 1990s, and sense then only one mall around me is going downhill (Primarily due to the fact that it is pretty far away from anything, and there is a commercial center somewhat close to it that is more convenient for people to reach). Odd. (There is also one I vaguely remember as a child that no longer exists. The weird thing is I can't find any information on it. The only candidate would have closed down when I was 2, and I don't think I could have such fluent memories of it being that young... spoopy.)

 

[Ragnar47183]

I was actually just talking about this not to long ago. Malls aren't going out of business because America is poor. They are going out of business for 2 reasons.

1. They compete with themselves. How many clothing and shoe stores are in your local mall? Quite a lot I bet. All of these stores compete for the exact same customers. This means each business will struggle and go out until you are left with only a few stores.

2. There is virtually no reason to go to the mall anymore. The items sold in malls (Mostly books and clothes) are more convenient and cheap to buy online.

We need to see more of a reason to go to malls. Put an auto shop in one. If you are getting work done on your car chances are youd spend the day at the mall while your car gets its repairs. Put a bowling alley in there. Get fucking creative. Make people actually want to come out.

Most importantly. Limit the store types. You only need a 1 or 2 clothes stores, 1 or 2 shoe stores, and 1 or 2 jewelry stores. Same goes for the food court. How many asian type places do you need in one place? Put something that people wouldnt normally be used to like greek which has been growing rapidly the past few years.

 

[Killclaw Kilrathi]

We need to see more of a reason to go to malls. Put an auto shop in one. If you are getting work done on your car chances are youd spend the day at the mall while your car gets its repairs. Put a bowling alley in there. Get fucking creative. Make people actually want to come.

That's not a thing in the US? In Australia the vast majority of shopping malls have at least one auto shop, sometimes more if they specialise in something.

We have our share of abandoned malls too, but they're often because someone thought it would be a good idea to build a second one in a small town or charge too much in rent.