Death of an outlet shopping mall

[LVSteve]

About 35 miles south of Las Vegas on I-15 at the California border is a place called Primm, also known as State Line to longer term residents. In 1998 they opened a large outlet mall, and it was pretty popular for a while. Buses used to come in from California bringing people from Victorville, Barstow and Baker. The mall is attached to Whiskey Pete's casino, so there was that, too.

However, time moves on and somebody opened an outlet mall at Barstow, then a big outlet shopping center opened in central Las Vegas. I'm pretty sure those events severely dented business at Primm, but we always visited after getting our lottery tickets at the lottery store just over the CA border. Slowly, the number of stores, food vendors, and customers started to thin. Then came Amazon, Etsy, Wayfair, COVID, and higher gas prices.

We went down to get tickets on Monday and went into the mall. There are just two stores left, a thrift store and a Michael Kors outlet. Turns out the latter will close on 23 March. It is a little bit eerie walking around in there. You can easily imagine all kinds of stalk and slash alien type movies being made in there with the right lighting. I took a few pictures to show the last gasps of this place, about to become another monument to the decline of the retail business. RIP.

***CLICK FOR FULLSIZE***

The south entrance.

An empty corridor with empty stores.

The empty food court.

There are hoardings over many of the empty shops with some wonderful art.

Nothing says decline and abandonment quite like fake flamingos in an empty fountain.

 

[Onomea]

Interesting... Some years ago I spent some time looking at photos of abandoned buildings and neighborhoods in Detroit. Prewar skyscrapers, abandoned... I came across an account of one guy living in a well overgrown residential neighborhood who was making his living by trapping, primarily raccoons... Sorta like a dystopian movie come to life.

It seems such a waste...

A while ago I came across a story, with photographs, about an abandoned, opulent gambling casino built on some South Pacific island by the Chinese.

 

[SAFireman]

It ought to make a dandy server farm once the last tenants give up.

 

[grover99]

Back about 35 years ago there were several large malls in the KC MO area. A buddy and I would have lunch once a week or so and check out the malls. More to people watch than buy anything. None of then are left now and that is a shame. Buying on line may be easier but there was some thing that's just neat wandering about those multi level malls.

 

[jpage]

I think the casino in Jean is vacant as well. Vacant buildings tend to burn down, and the closest fire-engine is coming from St Rose Parkway or from Baker, where I work as a Fireman, 45 minutes away. I Doubt the fire-sprinklers are maintained, so that mall will be a smoking ruin one day soon.

 

[DWalt]

Macy's recently announced a plan to close 150 "underperforming" stores, most of which are located inside enclosed malls. WalMart and Amazon are taking their toll. But shopping centers seem to be standing their ground better. My personal observation is that enclosed malls have been going Zombie for quite a few years. They might well all end up as server farms. Guess they could be repurposed as newcomer shelters.

I haven't been in Nashville for a very long time. Whatever happened to that huge Opryland Mall that got flooded out about 15 years ago?

 

[LVSteve]

I think the casino in Jean is vacant as well. Vacant buildings tend to burn down, and the closest fire-engine is coming from St Rose Parkway or from Baker, where I work as a Fireman, 45 minutes away. I Doubt the fire-sprinklers are maintained, so that mall will be a smoking ruin one day soon.

One casino at Jean was leveled and is now a big rest stop area. The other casino is scheduled for demolition.

The mall at Primm is physically tied to Whiskey Pete's, so I doubt they will be onside with a fire.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

In the Columbus, Ohio area, the 1960's retail malls started dying and they became SWAT team practice ranges. When the Northland mall was eventually given some new life, in un-rehabbed sections, you could see the wax bullet impacts on the walls!

Before COVID, Columbus had 125% retail and 150% office space! I'm sure the homeless are camping in style now!

Ivan

 

[Bullet Bob]

All I know about Primm Nevada was when it was featured in a Ray Donovan episode with Jon Voight as Ray's dad.

I don't know anything about money, but The Wall Street Journal reports that some big investors are betting on a comeback by enclosed malls. Stranger things have happened.

 

[tripledipper]

Nationwide, brick & mortar replaced by online, empty malls and stand alone vacant buildings everywhere, not to mention empty office buildings in every large city. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos gets richer with new wife. Where are we headed?

 

[Rudi]

A lot of malls closing. Who needs to be intimidated by gangs of young thugs to go pick up a few items.

 

[CalifEd]

Where are we headed?

Obviously not to the mall.

The original Outlet Malls were so the big retail merchants could sell their end-of-run and second merchandise without undercutting their premium stores. By clustering these stores together people would drive to get the savings.
Then someone thought to start selling their regular merchandise in these stores at a small discount. People would still drive, in hope of getting some savings.
Now the Outlet malls are just another marketing outlet for the big retailers. No price discounts or other reason to drive out in the country to these stores.

 

[Tom S.]

In the early 50's, a shopping center was built on west side of Pontiac MI. It was named Tel-Huron as it was located on the corner of Telegraph Road and Huron Street. A few years later, further down Telegraph, maybe 3 miles, a larger shopping center named "Miracle Mile" was constructed. A decade or so later, a large enclosed shopping center was built only a few blocks north of the old Tel-Huron, also on Telegraph Road called the Pontiac Mall. It had several large 'anchor' stores, like Hudson's (local big name), Montgomery Wards and later on, Sears.

Each new shopping place took foot traffic away from first Tel-Huron then Miracle Mile and pretty much killed off downtown Pontiac. Time marched on and eventually a very large shopping mall was built north of Pontiac, at I-75 and Baldwin Road and named Great Lakes Crossings. The Pontiac Mall lost it's anchors: Hudson's was taken over by Macy's and later closed, Montgomery Wards went bankrupt and Sears was taken over, piecemeal broken up and sold. The once popular and very busy Pontiac Mall was bulldozed under a few years ago. Even now, the latest contender in battle for shopping center supremacy, Great Lakes Crossing, is losing customers and businesses.

So where am I going with this? Tel-Huron and Miracle Mile (now Bloomfield Town Square) are still open and doing business. None of the original businesses are in attendance, but the types of business's have changed to keep up with modern tastes. Even though they aren't one stop shopping meccas or even located under one roof, they are still around and still getting by. In fact, Miracle Mile/Bloomfield Town Square has expanded not only on it's own, but has drawn in other large stores to near proximity.

 

[Rustyt1953]

When you see Orange Julius and Spencer Gifts fold their tents you know the mall is withering on the vine.

 

[Rustyt1953]

This was within walking distance of my high school home.

From first to worst.

Swifton Center - Wikipedia

 

[Bald1]

Outside of Buffalo on the border of Williamsville and Clarence NY is the Eastern Hills Mall which opened in 1971. Growing up there were a lot of malls in Buffalo and surrounding suburbs. I even worked in one while in high school. But Eastern Hills was the pinnacle. At least in my eyes. Partly because it straddled the 2 most affluent towns in the county and partly because it had a Sears and a Sears Auto Service Center. As a teenage motor head I’d spend time there ogling the Craftsman tools and tool boxes. It’s been in a slow decline for years. Most of the traffic it got lately was seniors walking every morning. Back in the fall I walked through it to get a battery replaced in my phone at one of the kiosks. I later told my wife how sad it was to see all the big water fountains where I used to throw Pennie’s dry. All the “big” stores had pretty much left and it felt more like an arts and craft bazaar. Well it closed for good in January. A few large stores and a restaurant with exterior entrances will remain open. The plan is a mixed use town center with offices and residential development. I don’t see it being successful.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

The enclosed malls are disappearing, Granite Run Mall, west of Media, PA-gone. In NJ Burlington Mall, closed, Seaview Square-demolished, Monmouth Mall, being converted into apartments with a small shopping area, nearby Quaker Bridge Mall, Sears and Lord and Taylor gone.

 

[arjay]

A huge mall opened up near my home about 20 yrs ago and it was a big hit for a number of years. I went there Christmas shopping last December and the spaces are still filled,but there weren’t very many people around. It didn’t strike me until the next day,but there weren’t any Christmas decorations like in years past and no Christmas music. That was weird!!

 

[swsig]

LVSteve, I was going to suggest that you submit your post to DeadMalls.com. But after browsing through it, it appears to be a dead website.

Ironic, no?

 

[Ματθιας]

As kid, I used to hang out at the mall for the arcade. Kids were EVERYWHERE. Now, malls are dead - very few, if any, kids.