"Q: What the hell is this site about? This is a site about urban exploration in the Ozarks." Abandoned water slides, underground tunnels, abandoned buildings and half-demolished malls throughout Missouri were all once fair game for this blog, and remain fair game for those who post in Underground Ozarks' forums.
posted by limeonaire on Jun 16, 2008 - 25 comments

We've discussed dead malls before. But did you know that the world's biggest mall is also its deadest?
posted by Afroblanco on Jun 16, 2008 - 36 comments

Malls of America - Gone (some of them) but not forgotten (well, maybe). Vintage photographs and postcards of malls of the 1960s and '70s. For more personal stories, check out Deadmalls.com.
posted by deborah on Aug 7, 2005 - 19 comments

Dixie Square Mall , in the mostly-blighted "inner ring" Chicago suburb of Harvey, Illinois, opened in 1966. It suffered gradual decline, until it closed in 1978. A year later, film crews gave the mall a brief makeover and Jake and Elwood Blues drove through the place. Then, nothing. For 20-plus years, the mall sat and decayed. Renovation plans (even a planned baseball stadium for the White Sox) were popular over the years, but never panned out. In 1993, a rape and murder took place in the JC Penney's space. From space, the mall looks beat up. From the ground, it looks even worse. Human fascination with deserted space has borne a number of websites and spelunking trips (along with some excellent then-and-now comparisons), and a documentary is apparently in the works. Finally, at long last, there's renewed hope for the site. Previously seen here and here.
posted by AgentRocket on Apr 18, 2005 - 21 comments

Lifestyle centers are open-air malls designed to look like an urban street or a contemporary residential area. But don't be fooled. Among the activities not allowed in the center are: excessive staring or taking photos, video or audio recording of any store, product, employee, customer or officer. Oh, and "non-commercial expressive activity" is not allowed either. Hopefully, that doesn't include talking.
posted by Tlahtolli on Apr 6, 2005 - 37 comments

They have ways of making you spend A guided tour of the tricks stores use to make you spend more.
posted by Mwongozi on Jan 4, 2005 - 19 comments

The Father of the Shopping Mall "His most remarkable innovation--unveiled in Edina, Minn., in 1956--was the first enclosed shopping mall, a climate-controlled community of retailing under a single vast canopy. But it was intended to be more than just a place to shop. It was to provide a center to otherwise centerless developments, offering community, entertainment and even enlightenment. Gruen lamented that Americans, at the time, were living 'detached lives in detached houses.' With his shopping-center designs, Mr. Hardwick writes, 'Gruen hoped to offer a corrective to this grim and soulless American environment.' "
posted by jamsterdam on Dec 24, 2003 - 30 comments

Bomb Shelter Gets Makeover Got an old bomb shelter sitting around? Wondering what to do with it? Why not turn it into a shopping mall? Across China, more than 3,700 hotels and dormitories and 1,270 shops and restaurants have been created in former bomb shelters, according to an article in Beijing Youth Weekly last year. In Beijing, a youth hostel has been established in a bomb shelter below Wangfujing, the glitziest shopping street in the city. An estimated 20,000 workers are employed in businesses in former bomb shelters in Beijing alone.
posted by orange swan on Nov 28, 2002 - 6 comments

What happens to malls when they die? Usually, not much. Deadmalls.com chronicles dormant shopping centers through stories and pictures. While the East Coast is filled in pretty well, dead malls in the West and South are barely represented. Any malls near you-all that belong on this site? (Bonus for you shopaholics: a store locator portal!)
posted by me3dia on Jul 24, 2002 - 40 comments

SANTAS GONE MAD!!! First: Santa Shoots Woman! Then: Child Santa Booted From Mall! And then:Harrods' Santa Bares Botto in the Grotto! Finally: Santa Falls Foul of Anti-Terrorism Laws! Happy Holidays everyone! Jeesh.
posted by adrober on Dec 18, 2001 - 8 comments

Yes, but will they have a Quisp Quorner? Personally, this sounds pretty cool, but it's too dang bad they had to put it in the Mall of America. The higher-ups probably wanted to build next to the other theme parks in Orlando, but i've heard this wild rumor that Florida's getting a bad rep these days...
posted by NickBarat on Nov 12, 2000 - 3 comments