Shoppingtown Mall | Another Moonbeam Dead Mall Failure in DeWitt New York | ExLog 58

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  • čas přidán 7. 05. 2020
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    Hey guys! Thanks for coming by to watch ExLog 58! This video tour through Shoppingtown Mall was such an awesome adventure, thanks especially to Ace's Adventures! He really gave me the ability to see this place for all that it is, and I can't wait to go on the next expedition with Ace. Please go follow him if you aren't already. Stay safe out there, and stay home if you can! See you all next week!
    #stayhome #withme #salguido

Komentáře • 387

  • @scottlangdon9403
    @scottlangdon9403 Před 4 lety +20

    I miss hearing fountains in a mall.

  • @TownieGirl1974
    @TownieGirl1974 Před 4 lety +32

    What sets Sal's Dead Mall videos apart from all the rest is not only is each video full of great footage of the Mall he's covering, each video is also packed with an amazing amount of research.

  • @jaseyrae7943
    @jaseyrae7943 Před 4 lety +31

    I was born and raised in Syracuse! Even though Carousel was always closer to me I occasionally went to shopping town. The Fun Junction lazer tag there was huge! This mall has always been dead but the past 7 years it has become desolate. It’s sad to see it like this but the other mall in Clay, Great Northern, is going down this same exact path.

    • @sal
      @sal  Před 4 lety +5

      Thank you for watching!!

    • @spencermaddox5898
      @spencermaddox5898 Před 4 lety +4

      Jasey Rae’s Cosplays Yea, not just heading down the same path it’s already in life support: i was in Great Northern back in February. Just before the pandemic broke loose in the states. That mall is incredibly depressing. There’s somthing very creepy about great northern. Something really unsettles me there. I might be honestly imagining some of it because Great Northern was where that terrible murder case happened 7 years ago or so, but there’s just somthing really unsettling about the place. Got a chance to take a picture into the old Bon Tom that’s been closed for like 10 years and it’s absolutely Wreaked in there...
      I honestly believe Syracuse will emerge from the pandemic a One Mall Town.

    • @jaseyrae7943
      @jaseyrae7943 Před 4 lety

      Spencer Maddox oh I completely agree. I’m a college student now but I grew up going to great northern and carousel and honestly I’ve always had a bad vibe at Great Northern. It would be sad to see it go once the pandemic leaves but it’s great northerns time

    • @TheClockUpOnTheWall
      @TheClockUpOnTheWall Před 4 lety

      Shoppingtown at least has had their Regal theater relatively modernized. At Great Northern it still is all from the early 90s. Old school seats and not stadium style. Just a sloped floor. Saw a movie on opening night all by myself a few years back. Lol

  • @chriscresswellcomposer
    @chriscresswellcomposer Před 3 lety +7

    This mall was my teenage years. It's been sad to see it fall down so hard.
    The skatepark used to be a MediaPlay. I played a fair bit of Pokemon in the basement of that MediaPlay.

  • @teddine7366
    @teddine7366 Před 4 lety +34

    That skate park use to be a 2 floor media play store. music on the top floor and books on the bottom.

    • @michelleann5348
      @michelleann5348 Před 4 lety +1

      Can confirm. Loved that Media Play.

    • @emt9370
      @emt9370 Před 4 lety +1

      That was a huge media play.

    • @stephennedell6802
      @stephennedell6802 Před 4 lety +4

      Here's a blast from the past...before it was a Media Play, that space was a Woolworths!

    • @JohhneyRocket
      @JohhneyRocket Před 3 lety

      @@stephennedell6802 and before Rite Aide, was a Fay's with escalators in front going down.

    • @cevohs
      @cevohs Před 2 lety

      @@stephennedell6802 Yes, with a full restaurant/soda counter.

  • @TownieGirl1974
    @TownieGirl1974 Před 4 lety +26

    I think one of the only things I'll miss about the quarantine is Sal's uploads every Friday night. Thank you so much Sal for giving us something really fun & interesting to watch every week during these troubling times.

  • @YiFangShen
    @YiFangShen Před 4 lety +21

    Ugh, another dried up Moonbeam property...RIP. Thank you Sal for documenting these places some will never see.

    • @sal
      @sal  Před 4 lety +2

      It was so sad to see...Shoppingtown was an amazing mall.

  • @airaero5473
    @airaero5473 Před 4 lety +22

    I went to that mall on January 18 2015 (Yes, I still remember the exact day I went there) and, I must say that the mall was still doing fairly well since there was still Sears, Macy's, JCPenney and Dick's Sporting Goods as well as WAY more occupied storefronts. Heck, even the food court still had some life in it, with I think about 4 tenants. Sad to realize that this was VERY shortly before the mass exodus of store closures that would follow :(

  • @NightSprinter
    @NightSprinter Před 4 lety +27

    I gotta say, it was nice seeing a mall that still had warm and inviting hues to its look. Just gets so tiring seeing so many thriving malls that always want to go for the cold and sterile palettes and design.

    • @randomcommenterfromdownund8949
      @randomcommenterfromdownund8949 Před 4 lety +3

      I'm wondering if some of that was Macerich's doing. (???) I believe I've seen other Macerich malls that, after a refurb, had a similar colour look to them.

    • @Kenorbs
      @Kenorbs Před rokem

      Nah man that just makes it more dead. I have vivid memories of every square foot of this mall, it's such a empty feeling now that it's dead. I would have rather it be cold and artificial, it would have made it easier to comprehend it's death.

  • @jasoncarskadon6809
    @jasoncarskadon6809 Před 4 lety +46

    It's sad that this is another moonbeam casualty. It blows my mind that moonbeam can do these shady business tactics.

    • @sal
      @sal  Před 4 lety +20

      They're the absolute worst. Total criminals.

    • @music_holds_my_fading_soul
      @music_holds_my_fading_soul Před 4 lety +3

      @@sal I'm closely familiar with that mall, still a huge elephant in the room for locals. The tax seizure process won't ever end because the owners keep stalling.

    • @retailadventures6
      @retailadventures6 Před 4 lety +2

      Sal just like namdar.

    • @pilotgrrl1
      @pilotgrrl1 Před 4 lety +1

      Don't forget Kohan.

    • @leesanders6914
      @leesanders6914 Před 4 lety +4

      How do they get tax breaks or credits? When essentially they're slum lords.? Moonbeam needs a permanent eclipse!

  • @catrinag.9262
    @catrinag.9262 Před 4 lety +27

    The water fountains are pretty when you first walked in.

  • @sal
    @sal  Před 4 lety +30

    Thanks for watching everyone! Leave a like if you want to adopt the baby escalator. Also, please go watch ExLog 57, on the North Shore Square Mall:
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    • @skoopsro7656
      @skoopsro7656 Před 4 lety +1

      Pretty sure the skatepark use to be laser tag. Because they deffinetly had laser tag as shoppingtown in the early 2000s

    • @kendraftman
      @kendraftman Před 8 měsíci

      @sal You are right about MoonBeam Scamming Investors and the City, But I have a dirty secret to reveal:
      Moonbeam is the Jimmy Haslam and Paul DePodesta of Mall owners.

  • @joenoah9906
    @joenoah9906 Před 4 lety +18

    With the way things are going right now, looks like there will be alot more closed malls waiting to be explored in the near future.

  • @spyin78
    @spyin78 Před 4 lety +3

    That sequence with the Moonbeam Exec. was stellar. I laughed waaaay more than I should have. Genius.

  • @ephapax1
    @ephapax1 Před 4 lety +17

    Wow. Great work! It’s crazy you did a mall in my hometown after I just started following you and binging out on your movies only a few weeks ago. Oh the irony. So, I worked at that Sears while I was in college and bought my first proper suit at that Macy’s after I landed a job out of college. The mall was so robust and full of life in the late 90’s and 2000’s. Damn shame to see what Moonbeam has allowed it to become now. They’ve made a host of empty promises to the local community about redevelopment that have never come true. Seems that’s their MO with other malls they own. Wish local government could force their hand to take take action. Oh, and they owe the town of DeWitt millions in back taxes. Wish the town could seize it for back taxes and give it to a developer who would actually do something with it.

    • @1955gaylord
      @1955gaylord Před 4 lety

      Yea turn it in to a fuccillo auto mall lol its HUGE !!!!

    • @1955gaylord
      @1955gaylord Před 4 lety

      At least where I live now I dont have to hear his commercials anymore.

  • @dougschwarz6699
    @dougschwarz6699 Před 4 lety +21

    Wear your boots, Moonbeam means water damage!

  • @Lonrafael
    @Lonrafael Před 4 lety +16

    I’m looking forward to this as my usual Friday evening entertainment. 😁🥰

    • @sal
      @sal  Před 4 lety +1

      I think you're really going to like this one!

  • @claudiobeachball
    @claudiobeachball Před 3 lety +4

    I guess the "water main break" is this millennium's version of the 1970s "mysterious 5-alarm fire."

  • @mrmike5148
    @mrmike5148 Před 4 lety +29

    We need to save the dead malls. Think of the baby escalators for goodness sake.

  • @EduardoEnlai
    @EduardoEnlai Před 4 lety +19

    Herencia Diabólica looks like a movie they would screen in "De Película" channel at 2 in the morning.

  • @dodgingotters5409
    @dodgingotters5409 Před 4 lety +12

    I used to frequent this mall when I was in college back in the mid-2000's. I definitely remember that there was a Media Play around where that skate park was, so that may have been at least one iteration :)

    • @oliveloaf333
      @oliveloaf333 Před 4 lety +1

      The outside of it with the thing that looks like a giant funnel is definitely a Media Play thing.

    • @Sunset-Shimmer
      @Sunset-Shimmer Před 4 lety +1

      I am pretty sure it was Media Play as well as I don't remember many other stores with escalators there, especially in that part of the mall. It looks sorta vaguely like it under all that skater stuff. Media Play was wonderful, although quite overpriced vs. online shopping. I loved spending hours looking at used DVDs, CDs, video games, etc. Honestly it was the main reason why I went to that mall. The other stores really didn't interest me a whole lot as it was a fancy mall full of the upper-class stores and I was a very Bradlees/Hills/Zayre type of shopper which were found at the other malls. Shoppingtown was actually my least favorite of the area malls back then for that reason.

    • @dodgingotters5409
      @dodgingotters5409 Před 4 lety

      @@Sunset-Shimmer I moved to the area in '04 right before Media Play shut up shop. I liked it because it was the first place I had ever seen a wide selection (to me) of anime which really helped me get into that genre. I thus have some fond memories of it.

  • @overbanked
    @overbanked Před 4 lety +9

    24:07 You know that it's a super dead mall when it has mall runners, opposed to mall walkers

  • @skoopsro7656
    @skoopsro7656 Před 4 lety +5

    I live here in Central NY and man the shoppingtown mall has been a meme for over a decade. Closer to two decades. Its insane it hasn't completely shut down sooner.
    Great Northern mall about 20miles north in clay,NY is about as dead.

  • @crowmigration8245
    @crowmigration8245 Před 4 lety +36

    Why has one person disliked an hour before it premieres? I guess he's popular enough now to have haters/trolls. Remember folks, don't feed the trolls.

    • @ShiruKitty
      @ShiruKitty Před 4 lety

      or he hates that guy who likes breaking water mains. what a scum bag that guy.

    • @richardm3023
      @richardm3023 Před 4 lety +1

      Some people get angry when they see some of their fondest memories of youth die like these malls.

    • @firedreferee736
      @firedreferee736 Před 4 lety +2

      The owners disliked it

  • @josephsauve6504
    @josephsauve6504 Před 4 lety +4

    Skatepark used to be Woolworth’s and then Media Play. Note the super small escalator in the skate park (Woolworth’s) that used to take your shopping basket from one level to the other. It was right next to you when you rode the in store escalator

    • @Mark.Watson
      @Mark.Watson Před 4 lety

      Woolworth's was an original tenant of the open air mall. In 1954 if you walked out the door at 23:44 you'd be in the parking lot.

  • @grantmills4184
    @grantmills4184 Před 4 lety +5

    Man, I remember this place and think about it a lot. One time when I was 4, I was with my mom and grandparents at the escalators that led from outside to Sears. I pressed the ol emergency stop button, being a 4 year old. That’s my memory of this place, went to the library in the basement a lot too

  • @historiclift27
    @historiclift27 Před 4 lety +6

    Westwood mall here in Houston had miniature escalators on each end. It was split level the main level was 5 steps down the second floor was a full flight up. It had this style in front of its Sears and Wards entranced. The setup included stairs for the small distance as well. It also had both up and down escalators for the 5 steps. Each end also had a front and backdoor elevator traveling between all 3 landings.

  • @MikeBMW
    @MikeBMW Před 4 lety +7

    Well done, Sal! The history and backstory are always very great and much appreciated.
    Now, I'm going to have nightmares about the Chucky clown doll ... :D

  • @jorgefranco1278
    @jorgefranco1278 Před 3 lety +1

    This was ALREADY a dead mall in 2000 when I started attending Syracuse. I can't believe it still lived another 20 years before actual death.

  • @gingerkat74
    @gingerkat74 Před 4 lety +18

    I feel like life would be so much better if there were more miniature escalators.

    • @sal
      @sal  Před 4 lety +7

      Right? Just put them everywhere. Baby escalators everywhere.

    • @gingerkat74
      @gingerkat74 Před 4 lety +1

      For real though. Leave it to moonbeam to steal our dream 😔😂😂

    • @TheShiftersMusic
      @TheShiftersMusic Před 4 lety

      Mini escalators could possibly be the country's leading cause of obesity and diabetes. I mean, it's like 7 steps. LoL. That was the 90s , though.

    • @themoviedealers
      @themoviedealers Před 4 lety

      @@TheShiftersMusic More like the 70's when that part of the mall was built.

    • @davidjames666
      @davidjames666 Před 4 lety +1

      i would consider going to malls again if they had them

  • @meepthirteen
    @meepthirteen Před 4 lety +5

    Nice still-functioning water feature💧

  • @megaboom69
    @megaboom69 Před 4 lety +2

    That mall looks like it had a lot of potential. Sad to see it on life support. Moonbeam is killing off all the malls they buy and own. They are the problem.

  • @ben4573
    @ben4573 Před 2 lety +1

    When I was a kid I spent a lot of weekends here, would go to the Library, Movie theater, and comic book store on a regular basis. Thanks for documenting this place before the vandalism gets too bad. Unfourtinetly I don't expect this will take long considering how close it is to the city.

  • @bmiller2465
    @bmiller2465 Před 4 lety +2

    The multiple levels and ramps near the baby escalator remind me of the "streets in the sky" concept from the era. Very cool.

  • @sam_rules76
    @sam_rules76 Před 4 lety +2

    This hit me right in the feels. I'm 33 and I started going as a little kid with my father to get my haircut there at the barbershop. After my father passed away in 2009, I didn't go there for about 6 years and boy when I went back finally, it was a complete ghost town. It was very sad, I had a lot of good memories of that place... FYI the skate park used to be a Media Play

  • @sunpie1948
    @sunpie1948 Před 2 lety +1

    Wait, there is a mall in Dewitt? I have lived in Syracuse for about 6 years and never noticed there was a mall in that town. I looked up the malls location and I apparently pass by the mall to get to my children’s dentist and to the only Best Buy left in the area. WOW. How am I that unaware of my surroundings to miss an entire mall? Just wow. Great work, Sal!

  • @tamarapeterson1844
    @tamarapeterson1844 Před 2 lety +1

    My mom was a seamstress that specialized in wedding gowns. She worked at Champange bridal..next to economy books..until the owner closed it. In 1991 during the change, an AMAZING hand blown, 20ft tall glass sculpture that hung between the escalatoys at Pennys..was THROWN AWAY. The artist..a very famous glass maker..was PISSED. I spent 100's of hours here...my Mom just passed last April...she made stunning custom, heirloom quality wedding gowns for many Syracuse families. I helped on many of them.

  • @lowbar77
    @lowbar77 Před 4 lety +1

    Wonderful! Great video. Love seeing Anthony with you. I found you last summer and it has been great ever since. Always excited to see what you do next. Love Anthony’s stuff too!

  • @VandalDecaProductions
    @VandalDecaProductions Před 4 lety +1

    Hey Sal, great work as always -- I'm finding the Expedition Log Series particularly comforting during these trying times. My compliments also on your voiceover EQ improvements in recent videos -- this one with its subtle reverb is perfection.

  • @jasonb8569
    @jasonb8569 Před 4 lety +1

    The Moonbeam CLO footage is gold Im imagining that being played at their next trial. Thanks Sal for the weekly content

  • @mgsoden1
    @mgsoden1 Před rokem +1

    Directly across from the mini-escalator was a store called Chess King where I worked in 1984/85. They were a purveyor of parachute pants, skinny leather ties and jackets with lots of zippers and Chinese characters in the heyday of breakdancing, Michael Jackson and New Wave (think Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Kajagoogoo, etc.). I remember standing in the store looking across to the mini-escalator noticing that whenever a guy and girl were walking together hand-in-hand they would stop to make out as they rode the escalator up to the next level. It was if they thought "Well, we can stop walking now and have a little make out session." Sad to see a chapter of my teenage years come to such an inelegant end.

  • @here_we_go_again2571
    @here_we_go_again2571 Před 4 lety +4

    Thank you.
    I remember going to ShoppingTown before and after it became a mall.
    A covered shopping space is very nice in the climate of Upstate, NY
    "Open air space in a mall"? Why not just remain in the old downtown
    area of the city to shop? (Criminals prey on the patrons in both places)

    • @randomcommenterfromdownund8949
      @randomcommenterfromdownund8949 Před 4 lety

      I agree. I'm quite partial to indoor malls. These days, I like the clean air (which had even started being a thing in the late 1970s at some malls), as well as the climate control (heat/aircon). Plus, I feel safer at a decently maintained mall than I do wandering an outdoor shopping strip.

  • @SentaiAce
    @SentaiAce Před 4 lety +5

    Thank you Sal for amazing videos. Especially in the uncertainty we are all encountering, your videos provide an escape to the great memories of the past. Stay safe!

  • @colorinesss
    @colorinesss Před rokem

    I remember watching live the program that appears between minutes 5:33 to 6:44. Jesús Quintero, one of the best journalists Spain has ever seen, known as "the king of silences" for making them in a way that created great suspense. Sadly he passed away 3/10/22 at 82 years old.
    Thanks Sal for bringing this video ( the original interview was already very good but you have improved it with Moonbeam's "CLO").and in general for all your work, it is very good, I congratulate you and wish you success!

  • @kurtreitema2979
    @kurtreitema2979 Před 4 lety +3

    Finally! I’ve been waiting for you to do shoppingtown!

  • @Rjc8888
    @Rjc8888 Před 4 lety +1

    Great coverage and info about it. I also liked the sears cart. Thank you for all you do Sal. 👏👍😎

  • @lyndsiecollis
    @lyndsiecollis Před měsícem

    I used to go to the Shoppingtown Mall all the time as a kid and that minature escalator was my favorite thing ever ❤

  • @micheller6405
    @micheller6405 Před 4 lety

    Thank you for bringing us your logs!!!!

  • @themoviedealers
    @themoviedealers Před 4 lety +1

    Went to Syracuse U. during the 80's, so spent a lot of time in this mall during the glory days. Even was part of a remote radio broadcast from there (on WJPZ, the student run radio station). We were set up in the Sears/Addis wing near the baby escalator. Probably right across from the "skate park," which was (I'm almost 100% sure) where the Woolworth's was. I fished a bunch of 25 cent cassette tapes and vinyl albums out of there...they had a huge bin of them in the basement which had probably been sitting there for 10-15 years. It was a bunch of random stuff including Oldies (50s-60s music) compilation tapes on a label out of Italy. There were terrible unwanted records that I picked up including Alan O'Day and the Starland Vocal Band. Good memories there. Also remember getting Orange Juliuses and buying shampoo at Fay's Drugs. Finished college right before Carousel Mall/Destiny opened, so this was always the big important mall for me.

  • @Decade8Media
    @Decade8Media Před 4 lety +2

    That mini escalator kills!

  • @chadloveless3985
    @chadloveless3985 Před 4 lety

    As usual another great exlog! Thanks for sharing

  • @captaincabbage1895
    @captaincabbage1895 Před 4 lety +1

    My mom always tells me how fun this mall was back in the 80s when she was a teenager. I live 10 minutes from it.

  • @Stevie_B_0828
    @Stevie_B_0828 Před 2 lety +1

    Sal, I dig ur affinity for the pint sized escalator, I find it amusing to watch ur videos and try to find something in the spaces that I think may catch ur eye, and cause you to break focus for just a moment. LOL. I'm glad that little escalator brought you so much joy for even if it was only for a moment in time.
    Thanks for sharing ur videos, experiences, and a fragment of ur life with us, ur very respectful of the locations and to staff at the locations [if there's staff to be found, obviously not all ur locations are staffed]. Great work, my friend. You stay safe yourself, my dad passed in April 2021 from COVID-19 that he contracted in the hospital after a very high risk kidney transplant surgery. I miss him dearly, I appreciate that you mention for ppl to stay safe and even stay home, my dad thought he was in a safe place, but germs and viruses are tricky little pricks and they will find you if they want you. Be careful out there, Sal, please... I know ur on the road a lot, watch out for idiots sharing the roadways as well, they can be just as deadly as a virus. 👍👍

  • @drscopeify
    @drscopeify Před 4 lety +3

    Absolutely fantastic video as always! So much detail and such great job filming the location. I am in mixed thoughts about the situation we are in; one thought is that people being stuck at home will run to malls once they reopen and bring in allot of business. Another thought is that people who resisted shopping online have now learned to use it and will not return to malls. On the other hand, offices that cannot provide 6 feet distance like the office I work at cannot re-open without renovating or waiting out the virus completely. Due to this issue my office has been converted to permanent work at home. Due to this I can see myself visiting malls more frequently to interact with people and a destination to work from outside of the house. I think shopping malls that market themselves as welcoming place for people who now work at home, perhaps by setting up an area for this, will potentially get considerable foot traffic.

  • @tommyparo
    @tommyparo Před 4 lety +2

    I remember going on dates to the movie theater back when I was a teenager because it had the nicest one even compared to the fairly new carousel mall theater

  • @DAatDA
    @DAatDA Před 4 lety +2

    I feel like Upstate NY has more dead malls per capita then anywhere else in America. I don't have any data to support that, but I grew up near Albany and most of the 8-10 malls I remember there are dead.

  • @sprkl5d
    @sprkl5d Před 4 lety +1

    Great video Sal! Love the baby escalator!!

  • @isaiahbryant8327
    @isaiahbryant8327 Před 4 lety +1

    This is a great video as always, Sal! Upstate New York has plenty of dead malls, but of the ones still open, Shoppingtown might be the deadest. I was always intrigued by what the other half looked like.

  • @lisarodriguez194
    @lisarodriguez194 Před 4 lety +1

    This is so sad! I can remember going there with my mom for mother-daughter shopping fun days in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s. We would travel for about an hour to get there from the Utica area. Bought my dress for Prom in that mall. It was a really nice mall back then, and far bigger than anything close to where we lived.
    I had been to Carousel Mall, too, which was nice, but almost too big. (and that was before it’s expansion). I read that Carousel/Destiny was in danger of closing down, too.
    I think that the main reason for why indoor malls were so popular, particularly in Central NY, was because there was so much snow and ice in the winter, not to mention the single digit temps. You didn’t see the ground for 8+ months out of the year. My last year there we had snow flurries on August 29th, which I remember because it was my Grandma's birthday. Who wants to have to go in and out of stores in an outdoor shopping complex when it is 10 degrees and there is 3 feet of snow outside?

  • @dandelionbomb
    @dandelionbomb Před 4 lety

    I like all your videos that I watch but this one touched me on a personal level all the way out in South Dakota. Stay Well.

  • @leesanders6914
    @leesanders6914 Před 4 lety +2

    Great video!! Hilarious sign in skate park. No snot rockets!!

  • @raineryaeger8436
    @raineryaeger8436 Před 4 lety +2

    The place is covered with water buckets because of all of all the leaks and the mall always smells musky and of mold. The mall isn't even heated anymore and I doubt is even cleaned at this point. The only reason people might still go to the mall was the movie theater or black mamba

  • @notofthisworld5267
    @notofthisworld5267 Před 2 lety

    This was my mall I use to go to. So many memories here with my husband and I. It was still booming back in 2010 and 2011. Many ppl still shopped here.
    I moved from Syracuse, Ny in 2020, but the very last time we were here was in 2019 and Sears was the only thing open.

  • @erasure33
    @erasure33 Před 4 lety +2

    Thumbs up for the miniature escalator!

  • @LeighDeitrick1
    @LeighDeitrick1 Před 4 lety

    The mall I grew up with had a go cart track inside it now.
    Great video.

  • @sugarjones731
    @sugarjones731 Před 2 lety

    Food! Fashion! Fun! The three horsemen of the retail apocalypse.

  • @cythrosi
    @cythrosi Před 4 lety +1

    I grew up wandering this mall. My mom never like shopping at Carousel/Destiny because of how big/busy it was, so I spent many an evening or Saturday being dragged around (and later hanging around it with friends as a pre-teen/teenager). The skate park is a former Media play. I spent a lot of time finding and reading books from there. We used to buy new schools clothes at the Sears and Kaufmans (we went a lot less after it became a Macy's and raised prices on what seemed to be the same stock). Played a lot of laser tag and had a lot of prize tickets from that old arcade and probably saw hundreds of movies at this mall. The Fayetteville Library used to be in that lower space near the baby escalator. Bought a lot of my early video games at what was then the Electronic Boutique. There's a lot of memories of this place. But like many things of Syracuse, it's withered away. It always felt like so many places in the Syracuse region were just expecting a sudden bounce back after most of the manufacturing went, but nothing ever came. The city seems to have dumped all it's hopes and dreams into Syracuse University and Destiny USA at this point, which doesn't really leave much for the rest of the city to thrive on. I miss the good times and people there, but every time I come home to visit, I'm reminded why I left.

  • @JohhneyRocket
    @JohhneyRocket Před 3 lety

    I used to go this mall when i was a kid. The red framed store, the skate park, was once a Media Play. The triathalon store in the basement area by your beloved mini escalator, was a Onondaga Public library. ...

  • @Lonrafael
    @Lonrafael Před 4 lety +2

    Sal, that was fantastic! 🥰

  • @kipp3642
    @kipp3642 Před 4 lety

    thank you for covering this mall! my friends and i have had tons of good times in this mall growing up (in recent times at the skate park) and to see it in such disrepair like this is awful. it's hard walking through the food court and by the old fun junction in particular. the crosswalk at the jcpenney is cold and empty except for the lacrosse store on the way in. so many parts of the mall could be used for housing or living communities since there's already a good chunk of fitness places in there, too. moonbeam's antics have been covered less than favorably, of course, in local news; it's just awful what they've done, or rather what they haven't done... the buckets and tubs everywhere collecting leaks is just sad to walk by every time. the bathrooms off the side of the food court are also... really terrifying, to say the least.

    • @kipp3642
      @kipp3642 Před 4 lety

      22:50 i also read through some comments on a syracuse nostalgia walkthrough of shoppingtown & on the syracuse skate gang's website that before black mamba got into the mall, that location was a media play!

  • @typhonyx_was_taken
    @typhonyx_was_taken Před 2 lety

    That skate park used to be a Barnes&Noble in the mid 90’s. It was beneath a café that was “new and different, lol. Eventually it turned into a kid’s toy store of some sort

  • @fexo700
    @fexo700 Před 4 lety

    Thanks Sal for another informative Dead Mall Video. Yes How "The Hell was this Mall still Open" at the time? I believe it was for That Barber Shop lol. I really love that shiny gorgeous floor and the Rushing water...however with MoonBeam..it seems rushing water is their thing.:-( The "baby" escalator was adorable ,I have never seen one in a mall. Nice touch.Another damned shame for yet one more Shuttered Mall. But at least we get to explore them with you Sal. Stay Safe and take care. Looking forward to another video next Friday.

  • @airaero5473
    @airaero5473 Před 4 lety +7

    What if the judge who decided against Moonbeam's jail time secretly worked for them?

    • @sal
      @sal  Před 4 lety +6

      I wouldn’t be surprised

    • @galechicago325
      @galechicago325 Před 4 lety +1

      All judges are crooked. Too easy to pay them off.

  • @Whatchamawhozit
    @Whatchamawhozit Před 4 měsíci

    That mall was very dark and dingy before the late 80's early 90's renovation which seems to have not changed. I used to work there when i lived in Syracuse from 1981-1993, the watch battery place, and a few other walkway kiosks.
    There used to be a movie theater with 3 screens across from the mall in the same parking lot. I watched many movies there including 1985's return of the Living Dead and the 1988 sequel. Plus Beverly hills cop and more. I actually lived in Liverpool but dated a girl that lived in East Syracuse hence why I worked out that way... I left the area after graduating college as I knew it had nothing to offer me long term as all the major good paying jobs pulled out by the mid 80's

  • @Sunset-Shimmer
    @Sunset-Shimmer Před 4 lety +2

    Now you're in my part of the world! I live about 45 minutes away but I still went to the area's 7 malls several times a year in the late 80s to mid 90s. I stopped going so much when internet shopping (ebay) became a thing and honestly Carousel was the place to be if you went to Syracuse, not the other malls. So sadly I avoided visiting the rest but what had happened was that they had slowly disappeared one by one without my realizing it! Often torn down and replaced with a strip plaza. I'd back go looking for them only to never to see them again. Ah, if only you could have seen them in their print. They were lovely pieces of the 70s, stunningly outdated and trapped in time but so wonderful even though to the 90s. Now we have Great Northern Mall in Clay which is almost dead (I wouldn't doubt it will be torn down eventually as it's so ratty looking) and of course the dead (other than the theaters) but still amazingly pretty Shoppingtown Mall here. But we still have Destiny USA (beh!). I won't go to Destiny anymore as it's more of an "event" than shopping enjoyment.

  • @spencermaddox5898
    @spencermaddox5898 Před 4 lety +1

    Amazing Episode. I'm from Upstate so this hits close to Home, and one of the few Malls you've visited that I actually have as well. Its' really a shame. Such a Beautiful and Unique mall thats just completely gone to waste. Gets worse every time I'm in there. Just like the Irondequoit Mall, when Witmorite malls go under and close/die the aesthetic they create is very uniquely Eerie. I don't know what it is, it just it creates a very strange almost forbidding atmosphere.

  • @crystalponto3249
    @crystalponto3249 Před 4 lety +1

    I'm from central New York and worked in this mall years ago. So sad....

  • @MrJrogers8
    @MrJrogers8 Před 4 lety

    I spent my childhood at this mall. When I was in my 20's, early 2000's, I managed PacSun there and I Also worked for Cingular/AT&T wireless. I spent many years working and shopping there, so it's sad to see it in its current state. The skate park there was Media Play, back in the day. When I was even younger I remember begging my parents to take me to RecordTown to buy tapes, that was located in the basement, by the elevator. I also remember shopping at Gadzooks there. I used to shop at Media Play all the time. What a great mall this was in its day, and I miss it very much.

  • @christinestange4813
    @christinestange4813 Před 4 lety +3

    Thank you for your responsible advice as we continue to fight Covid-19 .... Stay safe & well .... RN from Upstate NY 😷 ✌️

  • @tendraftsdeep
    @tendraftsdeep Před 4 lety

    Excellent as always, and better than Bell. Thanks for Awesome work Sal! Cheers

  • @markdrukenbrod9475
    @markdrukenbrod9475 Před 4 lety

    Sal - Great swipe at Moonbeam!!! They sure are asking for it!

  • @azpowerphxaz1237
    @azpowerphxaz1237 Před 4 lety

    Good stuff.
    Thanks Sal.

  • @conorplaskitt9977
    @conorplaskitt9977 Před 4 lety +1

    Can’t wait for this one Sal!

    • @sal
      @sal  Před 4 lety

      It's such a great episode, and a fantastic mall...

  • @greggriffin3998
    @greggriffin3998 Před 4 lety

    Fantastic video - Sal I grew up in Pittsburgh near Century II and watched it built - what a story - one technical correction to this video about Kaufmanns. Kaufmanns was a part of May Company since I believe the 1960's and what actually happened in 2005-6 was May Company (Kaufmanns parent) was purchased by Federated Dept. Stores (now known as Macy's). Superb camera work and obviously you do your homework on these fascinating videos - documenting mall history - many which will soon be demolished and gone forever - except in your documentaries.

  • @paullastnamehere3295
    @paullastnamehere3295 Před 3 lety

    Used to go to that mall all of the time in the 90's. With Carousel/Destiney mall adding so much, Shopping Town was a ghost mall before the 00's.

  • @ItsaRomethingeveryday
    @ItsaRomethingeveryday Před 4 lety

    GreAt Exlog!!!!

  • @interwebtubes
    @interwebtubes Před 3 lety

    Many thanks buddy for your videos and coverage,
    Peace out everyone peace ✌🏿

  • @EvilTurnips
    @EvilTurnips Před 2 lety +1

    I was still going to this mall near the very end of it's life cycle. Used to play in Smash Bros tournaments at Cloud City Comics & Toys, near the food court. While I was there, there were a couple places still open in the food court. Don't remember their names but it was a pizza place and an asian food place. Interestingly, a Creole Soul opened up in there right at the very end of the mall's life, but only stayed in for like a month tops. Very peculiar. The movie theater continued to operate for a while, and there was a wing of what seemed to be all fitness or martial arts places, but besides that not much.

  • @mlbvintagecardcollector505

    Stores I remember as a child: Contempo's casuals, 1 potato 2, Circus Pizza with Rock a fire Explosion.... In Minnesota, malls still do quite well. I think the crappy 6 month winters helps them pull through.

  • @daleleibfried8648
    @daleleibfried8648 Před 4 lety

    Very well put together video 👍

  • @pbmaxman
    @pbmaxman Před 2 lety

    The Skate Park was a Media Play and along with Kaufmanns, Bon-Ton & Old Navy. Those stores closed in 2006 due to a lack of sales and foot traffic.
    From the Wikipedia page.
    The mall closed as part of New York's COVID-19 pandemic response in March 2020 and did not reopen. Moonbeam Capital served eviction notices to all remaining tenants in September 2020. Following its closure, Moonbeam Capital sold the property to the Onondaga County, New York government, for $3.5 million, as well as $13 million in forgiven back-taxes and interest.

  • @Robert-jc6tb
    @Robert-jc6tb Před 4 lety

    GREAT VIDEO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • @a.j.fisher813
    @a.j.fisher813 Před 3 lety

    There was a skate park in the Moorestown Mall in Moorestown NJ and there's a baby escalator (or there was, I haven't been there in awhile) in the Cherry Hill Mall in NJ.

  • @saabreplay7553
    @saabreplay7553 Před 4 lety +2

    I love the mini escalator

  • @TheWhitneyuk
    @TheWhitneyuk Před 4 lety

    Again Sal- you are the BEST!!!

  • @chrisdooher9145
    @chrisdooher9145 Před 2 lety +1

    I am from Syracuse. The skate park used to be a media play electronic store.

  • @FireFox173
    @FireFox173 Před 4 lety

    The smallest (baby) escalators are or were at the JC Penny at Westfield’s Garden State Plaza in Paramus, NJ. Last time I went to the mall JC Penny had shuttered and I think put a wall in front of them. They’re literally like 5 steps long.

  • @WUStLBear82
    @WUStLBear82 Před 4 lety

    For a while there was a Vans Skatepark inside Potomac Mills in Woodbridge, VA. It was a 62,000 sq ft space that was originally the Waccamaw Pottery outlet when the mall opened in the '80s, until 2001 when its parent went bankrupt. Vans took over the space, but ultimately closed the indoor skatepark in the mid-noughts because growing competition from free outdoor community parks made it unprofitable.

  • @Cherryfreezy61
    @Cherryfreezy61 Před 2 lety

    I spent so much time in this mall growing up. I moved away a long time ago. This hurts to watch.

  • @DNClark
    @DNClark Před 4 lety

    I grew up in the east suburbs of Syracuse, and went to both Shoppingtown and the Fayetteville Mall as a kid. This video was a trip back in time hearing about Dey Brothers and Chappell’s. It’s interesting at 16:10 that the Fayetteville Mall was more profitable than Shoppingtown even into the 90’s. That mall was loosing stores like a sieve by 94/95. The TJ Maxx was one of (if not the very) last new tenants to open in the mall before it was mostly torn down in 2000 and repurposed into a strip mall with several out-parcels called the Fayetteville Towne Center by COR Properties in 2001. All that remains of that mall structure is the Stickley Furniture showroom on the north side of the main strip mall.
    The only information correction is with the Dick’s Sporting Goods location at 18:36. Dicks Sporting Goods only ever had the one location in Shoppingtown Mall. It moved into that purpose built space on the southwest corner of the mall from a strip mall about a mile down Erie Boulevard.