Dead Mall: Towne Mall - Elizabethtown, Kentucky
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- čas přidán 4. 07. 2024
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Any mall with that vintage, brown look makes me feel warm inside. Loved the stories too. Your research is always impeccable.
Its not that brown in person
Yeah those colors are pretty off. They have a warm filter on or something. And it's not always this dead. Weekends it's pretty popping for a brick and mortar.
Love the thought of a mall mayor. May Mayor Edward live on. Enjoyed the amazing plants and green reflections of the light near the 1 set of sky lights. Thanks for what you do!
I didn’t notice the green lights until I watched my footage and I concur!
Nice mall very well kept
I like this mall
My mother showed me this video the other day because this is our mall. It has been a dying mall for a long time now and it will be a bit of a blessing to see it laid to rest. I remember the early 2000's in the mall, it was thriving with 2 toy stores, a book store, instrument store, full food court and all that jazz. The last 10 years have been a drastic drop on this mall and it pains me to see it in the current state it is in. The only stores we personally go to is 360 and Bath and Body Works, the rest changes out so often that I never know what is there. Before covid hit, Hard Knox Games was in the wing that is now boarded up and was one of our favorite places to go, but he said the rent was way too high and ended up buying his own place on the outskirts of town (the business is booming where it is now). I knew the mall was going to collapse after FYE was leaving about 3 years ago but it crashed faster than I expected when the candy store, Auntie Anne's, cookie shop and then GameStop took their leave in the last 2-3 years in a rather quick succession. I wish the current owner would have helped the business (a lot of them were small businesses at some points) and not snuffed them out, but he isn't known for making good decisions or being a nice person to deal with. Rip Towne Mall of Etown... I will miss the 2000's era of the mall, but I won't be missing what it is now.
Is 360 still around? I haven't been in over 6 years. It was always my favorite place there, and it had stuff for bands that I couldn't even find in Louisville.
@@PoseurGoth Yeah, it was in the same spot for YEARS and then more recently they moved to the other side of the mall into a larger store. They have a little more merchandise now too.
Well I own one of the mom and pops in this mall and it is very sad the way the manager has let it go and hasn’t cared to help businesses or the traffic in the mall. Hard Knox didn’t just leave because of rent prices, he did a pretty expensive renovation and just a few months later after Spirit Halloween left the mall for the season in the old Sears the mall manager never had the water shut off in the unused store for the winter and the pipes bursts and the whole store plus part of that wing flooded so all stores in that wing needed to be relocated. Hard Knox was pretty upset when the mall refused to compensate him for the renovation he had just done so he left the mall and rightfully so. That wing is now boarded up because there is extensive water damage and mold!!!
@@Suzie77 see, I had no idea! I really haven't been in the mall in ages since Hard Knox left because besides 360, I really never went in there anymore. The candy shop, FYE, auntie Anne's were the few places I went to and just wandered around as a teen. I hate to see the mall slowly become a husk of what it used to be, but it seems a lot of malls are that way now.
@@neko-mimihearts9784 yeah it is very sad…we are hearing rumors now the mall will closed by the end of the year
I live in a smaller town that’s nearby to Elizabethtown. When I was little, my family would always travel to E-town and go to this mall when my parents would get the money to do so. We always had so much fun when we did that and I have so many great memories from this mall. It breaks my heart to see the dead state that it’s in nowadays. The world isn’t like what it used to be. Great video!
Was having a crappy morning and seeing the notification that there was a new video was amazing, watching now and always love your videos!!!
Thank you, Scott!
Thank You Scott!!!
I remember going to this mall when I lived at Fort Knox as a kid. So much time spent at Kaybee, playing the PlayStation demo unit. I visited the mall again in September 2010 and was able to tell even back then that the mall was on the decline.
I live in Louisville and stop by every time we pass thru Etown just to see what's new there. Good vid!!
I miss malls that looked so warm and inviting like this.
The story of the mall mayor was so wholesome. I hope he’s still there too 🥹
Thank you for compiling this history and sharing it in this video! I was born in Elizabethtown and have returned to Hardin County many times over my life, as I have many family members that live there. I always love learning about my "second home."
I love the remark about how much the Sears and K-Mart going out of business has been. I remember a couple years ago there were at least monthly announcements of more store closures. I began to wonder if the goal was to make it difficult to track how many locations actually remained in business.
I grew up in Elizabethtown and went to this mall all the time. I have so many fond memories going to Software ETC, KB Toys, and Walden books. I remember when they would open the mall up over night for big sales. So much fun when they hosted things like this. I still live in Elizabethtown and I haven't been inside in years and it is sad to see it's current state. I really hope malls make a comeback but its a far off dream.
I feel like there’s got to be a breaking point where we don’t want to buy everything online. There are a lot of items that are hard to visualize in person. I started having groceries delivered during the pandemic, for instance, and I occasionally end up with a much larger or smaller version of something than I expected! (Who knows how many ounces a normal jar of peanut butter is? 😅) Clothing and furniture can be the same way, I’ve known a few people who have bought furniture online and it arrived much larger or smaller than they expected.
My first job was at Dawahares in this mall. This was late 90s and the mall was awesome back then. Disc Jockey, Gadzooks, Radio Shack, Luca Pizza. Man, it’s sad to see how empty it is.
Back in the late 90s the mall was the place to be. I remember spending many hours walking around there after school. You were still allowed to smoke while walking around the mall up until about 1998-99 it was the craziest thing to me.
i live in etown and it always makes me sad thinking about how dead and quiet this mall is now- this place literally used to have people constantly on it, it was super lively before covid. but then they got rid of most of the good stores post-corona and people just stopped going (i miss the old rolled ice cream place, man!)
I miss thai sweet shoppe too! They tried to get some new workers there after corona to keep it going.. but the dude got my order wrong then stuck his finger in my drink right in front of me, no gloves on. ew. Im pretty sure it was shut down for health hazzards. But the short brunette girl who used to work there years ago was so sweet and made the best bubble tea. I miss her. Hope shes doing well these days. I used to go to the mall just for thai sweet shoppe. Now if you want that sort of thing you have to go out of town.
i remember always going to this mall as a child.
Just a few years ago this mall was SO popular, I went there about a week ago… it’s literally like a ghost town😢 I’m 24 and have been going to Towne Mall for as long as I can remember
I come from Elizabethtown and I've been waiting for this video to come out! Thank you!
You’re very welcome! I hope I did right by you and your mall.
i wish i could talk to the owner of the mall i have so many ideas for the mall that would make it booming again, sadly that prob wont happen but idea of bringing back the 70's to 80's look would be so cool with neon colors and other things, i think the older style would bring back some people not only shopping but people to make stores there as well, i think everything is to modern these days and i think people are seeing that, i feel like for the younger generation and the older generation would appreciate it alot because then you would have people telling stories about the good old days with shopping in malls when it was really booming and popular and i think also if its possible to make it 2 stories tall so you have more options for more stores and more shoppers, its just sad that everything is all online now and thats why malls are dying, i wish myself can do something about it, i live near etwon about 10 to 15 min away and i would love to go to the mall more and make fun memories there with friends, i wish the community between Radcliff and etown and downtown etown and a few other places nearby can do something about it, maybe do a fundraiser for the mall or have a massive community vote on what to do with the mall to keep it open
I remember KB Toys, Disc Jockey, and Radio Shack. Now that I'm in my 40's and do quite a bit of electronic tinkering, I really wish Radio Shack was still in existence. I haven't been in that place for nearly 20 years. Lol. Watching this kind of reminded me of the Dawn of the Dead movie. It's quiet and empty in the mall and then it shows outside the mall and it to was quiet except for being packed full of shambling zombies.
Great video! Love the vintage architecture here, and I really hate to see these classic charms struggling.
This is my hometown mall. They just took out that large blue play area near the beginning of the video a few weeks ago, one of the last reasons I had to go here with my kids.
I heard that it’s under new ownership, but with the growth in the area it won’t surprise me to see the apartment complexes take it over eventually.
Wow, the algorithm brought me and others here. It was nice to listen to and I enjoyed the facts given about the mall. Great video!
Thank you! I’m happy you found me!
There is a major update with the Towne Mall in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. It has been sold to a local developer and he hit the ground running. The day they closed on the property he had a crew replacing lights in the parking lot. They have secured a tennant for the Sears building which will be Malibu Jack's. The exterior of the Sears wing has been repainted white and grey. The anchor wing on the front which housed Dawahares/Burke's Outlet/Beall's will be torn down. The fountain in the center court will be torn out along with the rest of the center court. That will all be opened up. The parking lot will all be reconfigured also. The whole plan is to make it look nothing like it once did.
Thank you for this!! I lived at Ft. Knox in 2001-2002 (yes, I’ve lived everywhere). This brought back memories!! Driving through Radcliff to E-town, even though I preferred Mall St. Matthews in Louisville (and yes, I saw what you did there 😉).
I love Mall St Matthew’s so much it might end up being one of the few “live” malls I end up covering. It’s so weird that they and Oxmoor haven’t ended up cannibalizing each other
@@UniCommProductions Fayette Mall(Lexington) is also a “live” mall! Lou(e)ville I believe have 3 malls that are still “kickin”.. StMatt, OxM, and I hear Jefferson Mall (which was my “local” mall growing up in South L’ville) is also still going “strong”).. ?
I'm vintage at heart so I love the vintage look here. As always enjoy your videos. Great work!
As someone who is slowly becoming vintage themselves, I can relate
@@UniCommProductions 💜
Seeing this in my feed made my day! It’s my local mall.
I used to live in Etown in the 80s and early 90s when I was a teenager. Towne Mall was bumping back then with activity. The game room (arcade) was always packed with kids and we'd all hang out at the tables outside of it. Of course, because it was the 80s, we'd be divided up in groups of different 'styles' of kids. stoners, rednecks, preppy kids etc. Some kids bounced from table to table. Then invariably a group would go out to the parking lot to get stoned in someone's car. The mall was another place to look for your friends when they weren't at the other hangouts. Ah, the days before cellphones and internet.
I miss those days...kids nowadays only dream of being able to disappear for hours where our parents couldn't get ahold of us and check up on us. You got to be who you wanted for a few hours and there was no evidence to find!
So many good memories here. I had a blast coming here when I was a kid. In high school, it was the spot for me and my friends to go to. Now it’s a ghost town.
Worked at this mall from 1999-2014. The mayor passed away awhile ago. There is a little label at his favorite table in his memory.
I wish I’d known that story when I filmed or I would have tried to get a photo of it! Thank you for passing that along, that makes me happy.
I live in etown, what table is it?
Thanks for the look at this mall. Enjoyable as always.
You have the best new mall content out there, always happy to see a new video from your channel!
Towne Mall was purchased by a local real estate developer in November 2023. He is a life long Elizabethtown resident and has developed and revitalized many properties with much success. Hopefully the Towne Mall will be no exception!
i wish i could talk to the owner of the mall i have so many ideas for the mall that would make it booming again, sadly that prob wont happen but idea of bringing back the 70's to 80's look would be so cool with neon colors and other things, i think the older style would bring back some people not only shopping but people to make stores there as well, i think everything is to modern these days and i think people are seeing that, i feel like for the younger generation and the older generation would appreciate it alot because then you would have people telling stories about the good old days with shopping in malls when it was really booming and popular and i think also if its possible to make it 2 stories tall so you have more options for more stores and more shoppers, its just sad that everything is all online now and thats why malls are dying, i wish myself can do something about it, i live near etwon about 10 to 15 min away and i would love to go to the mall more and make fun memories there with friends, i wish the community between Radcliff and etown and downtown etown and a few other places nearby can do something about it, maybe do a fundraiser for the mall or have a massive community vote on what to do with the mall to keep it open
They are indeed renovating it, the whole space actually - good things to come for Etown.
Amazing video as always. I can't wait for the next one.
The first time I visited the USA was in 1979, and visited the sierra vista mall in El Paso, this was my first introduction to malls and just loved the idea, over the years I've noticed the decline, it's like watching the decline in my youth!
I was so delighted that you just released another new dead mall video. I really do enjoy watching your dead mall videos. You always do an awesome job!
Well thank you Rosemary!
Nice history and video. Thanks for sharing.
I am so glad to see you back!
It’s good to be back!
Great Video!! Thank You!!!
I haven't been to a mall in years so it's always great to put on my headphones and dive in to the atmosphere. 😁👍
All the atmosphere, none of the people! :)
I live about 30 miles away from there and we used go shopping there all the time especially at Christmas time and it was so cool it was always full of people and it just felt good to be there .
This is much better than the one near me in Central Florida! Thanks for the videos!
Most of my Childhood is in that Mall!
Another excellent in-depth review.
Thank you kindly!
Hi Kristin, Nice to have you back on board and making fun videos!
I enjoyed your date night videos back in the day.
You heard it here first: Dead Mall Honeymoon is coming later this year!
Nice job! I've been missing my cruises 😃
Another excellent video :)
there is nothing quite so forlorn as an eternally blinking long disused kid's ride in a largely shuttered and dimly lit wing of a severely dead mall.
I've been watching your channel since you had
Thanks for sticking around! You are appreciated!
@@UniCommProductions Thank you
Another nice video.
Ahh dropped in a wet, cold winters night in New Zealand 🇳🇿 Thank you
CZcams recommended this video to me and I am not disappointed. Very nice cinematography and you have an amazing, soothing voice. You have a new subscriber and your work is very appreciated. Your video brightened my terrible evening. 💯
I am so glad the algorithm smiled on both of us today! I hope tomorrow is better. Thank you for brightening my day with your comment!
So funny you mention a Mayor. When I worked at the PetSmart at Christown Mal in Phoenix back in the 2000s, there was a mall employee that mainly did cleaning. She had a black and grey beehive hair style and had worked for the mall for as long as anyone could remember. I felt like her name was Marge, but because of her hair style I cant be certain. We always called her the Mayor. Always. Thank you for unlocking that memory and also reminding me that I worked at a PetSmart that had an outdoor entrance AND one that entered into the mall. Pretty unheard of for PetSmart. Fond memories!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Petsmart with a mall entrance! As the cat mom to a spoiled twosome, I’d love that.
I used to have a friend in E-Town and I would visit this mall every now than then. I have been in that mall in over 20 years.
It probably looks the same as it did then, doesn’t it?
Yay! I was hoping you'd visit this one!
Also, as a Louisvillian, I do see what you did there 😉
Lou-a-vull. Live it. Love it. :)
Decent well kept place, Liked the vid, Staysafe out there
You too! Thank you!
This is 2022 and we are currently at the mall in that place by the fountain that was a Bandan is now American red Cross
You simply always put out amazing videos Kristin! I do have a little series idea, kinda like Overmalled Cincinnati was. We used to have Turfland Mall (now a shopping plaza) and Lexington Mall (now a church with other businesses around it) in Lexington. Fayette Mall sort of drove the other two into oblivion, and combined with places like Lexington Green, the Summit, and Hamburg, they never really came back. I think it would be fun to see your take on this.😸
Thank you ❤️The idea of malls cannibalizing each other is always something I’m up for! Lexington isn’t too bad of a drive for me, either
i wish i could talk to the owner of the mall i have so many ideas for the mall that would make it booming again, sadly that prob wont happen but idea of bringing back the 70's to 80's look would be so cool with neon colors and other things, i think the older style would bring back some people not only shopping but people to make stores there as well, i think everything is to modern these days and i think people are seeing that, i feel like for the younger generation and the older generation would appreciate it alot because then you would have people telling stories about the good old days with shopping in malls when it was really booming and popular and i think also if its possible to make it 2 stories tall so you have more options for more stores and more shoppers, its just sad that everything is all online now and thats why malls are dying, i wish myself can do something about it, i live near etwon about 10 to 15 min away and i would love to go to the mall more and make fun memories there with friends, i wish the community between Radcliff and etown and downtown etown and a few other places nearby can do something about it, maybe do a fundraiser for the mall or have a massive community vote on what to do with the mall to keep it open
If you ever make it up north around Syracuse there are some great repurposed/abounded malls (Penn-Can - now a giant car dealership and Great Northern Mall) as well as a giant mall (Destiny USA) that was supposed to be the biggest mall in America, but ran into issue after issue that delayed and scaled down the project quite a bit.
Ahhh Elizabethtown (the movie). I sent in my photo and info to be an extra in the movie, and remember when Orlando Bloom came to Louisville. It was a big deal to 14 year old me. The movie itself, well...
I don’t care what anyone says, I really like that movie. If you can suspend your disbelief about the road trip portion of the movie (when did she have time??), it’s a heartwarming watch.
@@UniCommProductions it has its moments, for sure! I loved the soundtrack also.
that mall was alot of fun :(
RIP Redmar shopping mall in Radcliff, KY. Not sure about the fate of the vehicles and other stuff in the back. The building is scheduled to be demolished starting in August 2023 - according to the local newspaper.
HOLA, KRISTIN! Nice to listen your voice back on one of those "trips". Hope you and Ron are A-OK.
We are! We’re tying the knot soon too!
@@UniCommProductions - CONGRATULATIONS!!! 😁 Knowing enough about you two I've figured this would've been the way to go sooner or later.
COOL VIDEO KRISTIN!!
SNAKE! HOW YOU DOING BUDDY?!
@@UniCommProductions I'M DOIN ALOT BETTER NOW!!! THX. CAN'T KEEP THIS TOUGH GUY DOWN!!!!
They have shops open for like 2-3 months and then they close them down 😭 that play place has been my childhood though
i wish i could talk to the owner of the mall i have so many ideas for the mall that would make it booming again, sadly that prob wont happen but idea of bringing back the 70's to 80's look would be so cool with neon colors and other things, i think the older style would bring back some people not only shopping but people to make stores there as well, i think everything is to modern these days and i think people are seeing that, i feel like for the younger generation and the older generation would appreciate it alot because then you would have people telling stories about the good old days with shopping in malls when it was really booming and popular and i think also if its possible to make it 2 stories tall so you have more options for more stores and more shoppers, its just sad that everything is all online now and thats why malls are dying, i wish myself can do something about it, i live near etwon about 10 to 15 min away and i would love to go to the mall more and make fun memories there with friends, i wish the community between Radcliff and etown and downtown etown and a few other places nearby can do something about it, maybe do a fundraiser for the mall or have a massive community vote on what to do with the mall to keep it open
I know it was built by hocker. But it is so similar to middlesboro mall developed by hocker as well. Even the benches and center court. Amazing.
Middlesboro has at least a few extra points for the floor but especially the center court is VERY similar in both, they’ve even both got the stage/fountain combo!
I remember this place, bought a bunch of CD's from FYE, my teacher at the time told me to go there to expand my music collection since I was tired of the censored Slayer and 5FDP CDs from walmart, haven't been there in years since there really just wasn't anything there anymore, everyone left, sad to see this place end up like this, especially so close to home
i wish i could talk to the owner of the mall i have so many ideas for the mall that would make it booming again, sadly that prob wont happen but idea of bringing back the 70's to 80's look would be so cool with neon colors and other things, i think the older style would bring back some people not only shopping but people to make stores there as well, i think everything is to modern these days and i think people are seeing that, i feel like for the younger generation and the older generation would appreciate it alot because then you would have people telling stories about the good old days with shopping in malls when it was really booming and popular and i think also if its possible to make it 2 stories tall so you have more options for more stores and more shoppers, its just sad that everything is all online now and thats why malls are dying, i wish myself can do something about it, i live near etwon about 10 to 15 min away and i would love to go to the mall more and make fun memories there with friends, i wish the community between Radcliff and etown and downtown etown and a few other places nearby can do something about it, maybe do a fundraiser for the mall or have a massive community vote on what to do with the mall to keep it open
The closed off spot at around 1:46 is closing off 6 retail spots and the entrance from the mall to Sears. Sears closed August 2018.
The Sears spot is in horrible shape. The mall was in charge of all repairs to the roof and units on the roof. They refused to fix it. Sears left and Spirit Halloween came in. Some of the people say that black mold took over.
I go on to mention that later in the video-the first time I went they had the door open to that wing and you could see inside, but there were guys working in there so I didn’t think I could get away with snapping a photo
They have a Belk! I love Belk, I am going there…
This is my unreachable dream
There's a point at which a mall seems to be fading from commerce into...something else? Into offices and medical shops, maybe. Watching this, it feels like public is slowly becoming private, effacing welcome for practicality. This really brings out an emotional resonance.
You see that in a lot of smaller malls like this, when they start to struggle they'd rather have an unconventional tenant than no tenant.
Many are abandoned rest all non closing unicomm, sears at Towne mall has been closed for 4 years just 2 years before covid-19 pandemic starts.
I really hope someone builds a better mall in Etown cause I miss this mall. It’s still open but when I go in I get depressed. I cried one time after we left cause I remembered it so fondly. Gosh I can remember when GameStop was in there, FYE even KB toys. When FyE closed I knew it was over. Even just watching this video makes me sad. The only good thing left in the mall is the Comic book store.
same here, i wish i could talk to the owner of the mall i have so many ideas for the mall that would make it booming again, sadly that prob wont happen but idea of bringing back the 70's to 80's look would be so cool with neon colors and other things, i think the older style would bring back some people not only shopping but people to make stores there as well, i think everything is to modern these days and i think people are seeing that, i feel like for the younger generation and the older generation would appreciate it alot because then you would have people telling stories about the good old days with shopping in malls when it was really booming and popular and i think also if its possible to make it 2 stories tall so you have more options for more stores and more shoppers, its just sad that everything is all online now and thats why malls are dying, i wish myself can do something about it, i live near etwon about 10 to 15 min away and i would love to go to the mall more and make fun memories there with friends, i wish the community between Radcliff and etown and downtown etown and a few other places nearby can do something about it, maybe do a fundraiser for the mall or have a massive community vote on what to do with the mall to keep it open
@@RetroNitiss I also live pretty close to Etown. It’s sad the malls in such a state but the owner is not a reasonable person even if you could talk to him sadly.
Thank you for taking the time to come to our town and film our mall. I’ve lived here in Elizabethtown all my life. Born in ‘84 I been coming to this mall literally my whole life. In the 80s and 90s this was the place to be. The mall always stayed packed. I have a theory as to why our mall is dying tho. The store rent is absurdly high here and there is no incentive to bring your store to the mall. I have heard that it was because the current mall owner wants it to fail so that they can sell it off to a developer that wants to put apartment complexes on the property. Being that it is prime real estate, they will get top dollar for every square inch of the land. Not sure how correct that theory is, but I wish they would be more competitive with outside rent prices so they could find a way to breathe life back into this mall. My wife and son live in the Philippines and every mall in that country I have been to is always hopping. We’re talking large 4-5 story malls. I would love to see that here again, and to see the Towne Mall have a reason to finish their development stages.
i wish i could talk to the owner of the mall i have so many ideas for the mall that would make it booming again, sadly that prob wont happen but idea of bringing back the 70's to 80's look would be so cool with neon colors and other things, i think the older style would bring back some people not only shopping but people to make stores there as well, i think everything is to modern these days and i think people are seeing that, i feel like for the younger generation and the older generation would appreciate it alot because then you would have people telling stories about the good old days with shopping in malls when it was really booming and popular and i think also if its possible to make it 2 stories tall so you have more options for more stores and more shoppers, its just sad that everything is all online now and thats why malls are dying, i wish myself can do something about it, i live near etwon about 10 to 15 min away and i would love to go to the mall more and make fun memories there with friends, i wish the community between Radcliff and etown and downtown etown and a few other places nearby can do something about it, maybe do a fundraiser for the mall or have a massive community vote on what to do with the mall to keep it open
Been missing you and wondering when the next chapter was going to premiere.
The next won’t be nearly as long
I often went there for my last job as they had a few retail customers located in the mall. Since leaving my last job, I haven't been back in over 2 years. This video makes it seem more dead, and it was dead in 2020.
It’s definitely taken a turn since the pandemic, unfortunately.
This is my mall and i live in etown. Its not fully shut down. I did some christmas shopping at the spencers. It was quite busy. But any other part of the year? Its either empty or just broke teenagers walking around that have no where else to go
No, it's definitely not shut down, and I did not intend to insinuate it was. When we use the word "dead" in these kinds of videos it doesn't mean "closed"; we're stating that it's unlikely to recover to fully successful in its current form without a big change of some kind. I'm happy for the opportunity to clarify.
Gawd I remember back in early 2000's, you'd be bumping shoulders with people walking down the "strip" here. The food court was always packed. Spencers has always stood the test of time though and is still a staple store in here.
Edit: 2:15 Idk where you speak of this "dead zone" but i've been all around hardin county including on Fort Knox multiple times and there is no dead zones on tmobile. Only dead zones are out in the country, neither towards Louisville or Bowling Green.
I’m not sure what road it was but it’s a wide, steep highway section with virtually no buildings along it. I do have T-Mobile but this video was shot a few months before I released it so it’s possible some improvements have been made since then.
Love it. Sears is gonna Sears is definitley the best way to describe the long sad oddesey that is Sears. Belks is pretty popular in Florida, at least with my Mom lol. When I say I went to Kohls, or Target, she says go to Belks! She's anti Kohls and says she doesn't get the appeal of Target? 😃
I had never shopped at a Belk until we moved to West Virginia; I actually really like their clothes (but not as much or Kohls or Target!)
Quick note: Dawahares was based in Lexington and had a presence in Cincinnati. Their attempt at growth overleveraged them. Pronounced, as only Kentuckians can, Daw Airs. One store in Greater Louisville. Oddly in the mall next to the mall that would have welcomed an ultra-premium department store.
This is all really good info! I remember the very short lived one in Forest Fair Mall…and the one at The Mall St Matthew’s that was once…a Lord and Taylor? It was something fancy.
@@UniCommProductions I was in another time zone, but seem to recall L&T's short time (6 or7 years?) at MSM was in Dawahare's post-dissolution space. Louisville just isn't a spendy market.
That does seem awfully upscale for Louisville, even that neighborhood
A correction is in order for posterity. Dawahares had a store at the ill fated River Falls Mall in Clarksville IN or pretty much Louisville's northern suburbs. Therefore, they had two stores in the Louisville market if not actually ever in Loserville itself.
I remember Radcliff Mall. LOL
A mall so dead it never existed at all.
The thing about the Towne Mall is that, for a long time, it's "decline" made it more interesting. This mall has always managed to get quite a few interesting local shops. The food court had a number of locally owned shops that would come and go. The mall seemed to attract a reasonable amount of "subcultural" shops, and I managed to find merchandise for bands like Bauhaus (which can be difficult even in urban areas) at a little hippy/punk/goth shop 360 that looks like it has closed. The Hot Topic had always been pretty packed with the younger crowd, and I was surprised when it shut down.
360 hasn’t closed it just moved to a larger store in the mall.
Hey look my homwtown. I met my first boyfriend at that mall lol.
Hayward passed in July of 2013.
He seems to have lived a long life! Rest In Peace, mayor!
This channel is great! Do one in New Mexico and label it Better Call Saul Mall.
You are speaking my language, it's one of my favorite shows! :)
I live in near Elizabethtown, and have my whole life. I remember the day it opened. I was eight years old. The mall was once a booming place. A unique story about JCPenney is that it was supposed to have been a two story building but it never came to be. The interior you see here is what it looked like in 1985 when it opened. The permanent benches are the same, the fountain is the same and Penneys hasn't changed. I was there this past Sunday and I think there's one eatery left in the food court. I don't know why, but it appears that the company running it wants it to die. They made no effort to draw new stores in. They've made no effort to update it. It's sad. In 2009 they repaved the parking lot but that's it.
I don’t really know a lot about the current owners. I know they are not among the more notorious ones. There are absolutely mall owners who buy malls with the intention of letting them flounder so they can sell the land and make a profit, though.
The mall owners are a larger corporation out of Texas and own multiple malls…the manager is the problem here, he doesn’t care about anything but staying under budget so he gets his bonus for the year that’s why there is never anything done in this mall and no marketing. He is even so cheap there were dead bushes in between the Belk entrance and the other mall entrance and he had maintenance spray paint them green for years so they didn’t look dead. He finally had maintenance just recently dig up all the shrubbery around the mall.
Ugh. That’s disappointing, you can really tell when malls have management that cares. I’m surprised if they’re that concerned about their numbers that the fountain is still on and all the plants look as healthy as they do
@@UniCommProductions he has the fountain set to a low trickle just to keep it running, the last time someone tried to turn it up he threw a fit and made them lower the water pressure back down. He does the bare minimum that he has to to keep the mall looking somewhat presentable.
I have been 2 that same mall I’m a Kentuckian
Well howdy neighbor I’m from WV!
this is my local mall, lol. i live in radcliff the town right next to it
Guess what I own a store in the mall and even when the mall opens the traffic isn’t still any different or better than just mall walkers
That’s a shame.
The stores are charged so much rent to have a business there. They can't afford it. Now with theft being allowed, any business would have a hard time making it on top of high rent. So sad!!
It's sad to see how far that mall has fallen. It was amazing in the mid-late 90s.
Those were my prime mall-going years and I feel like almost all malls peaked in the late 90s. All the best stores, all the foot traffic
@@UniCommProductions Indeed. I spent time in the numerous malls in E-town, Louisville and Lexington back then. Could easily spend an entire afternoon in one. Now I can walk through one in about 20 minutes and not find any stores I want to go into. Only exception might be Opry Mills down in Nashville.
@@SimRacin14 I think we really started to go off track when malls became so apparel-centric. Record stores and bookstores are largely a thing of the past, as are places like Radio Shack and the Sears hardware department. Most men don’t find shopping for clothing fun, and there’s not a whole lot for them at most malls these days.
@@UniCommProductions Yep. This mall was great for me when I was growing up. Somehow had two KB Toys locations in it simultaneously (One near Sears, the other towards JC Pennys...later on they closed and both became a Waldensbook store at some point...which was nice because I enjoy reading. GameStop was in there for a good 20+ years until it left in the last year or so, I'd spent some time in there over the years. One of the rumors I'd heard for the Sears building was that the grocery store across the road had thought about buying the space and moving in for more space, but they ended up remodeling their building instead.
Towne Mall looks like they're doing better than Greenwood Mall down 65 in Bowling Green.
See that’s another one I’ve been lax on trying to cover because the last time I checked on it, it was pretty full. It’s not doing great these days I take it?
@@UniCommProductions They're trying their best to hang on. It's been a while since I've been there, and Macy's bailed a couple of years ago.
Wow what a dreary place.
The Sears in Radcliff was a Sears Outlet and it ruled. The Sears in this mall was a lame ol’ regular Sears. That wing is almost entirely closed off now by the Claire’s.
It is...the first time I was at this mall, they had the door open and you could see that "abandoned" wing, but there were some guys working in there and I didn't want to be told I couldn't come back!
It’s a shame tht malls across the US are becoming like this I’ve always loved going to the mall
For every one of these, there’s one doing fairly well. All the malls in Louisville and Lexington seem to be doing fine, for whatever it’s worth.
Etown, is a booming town now, sad the mall is not in better shape. Etown is way to busy to shop. We go to Owensboro to shop, but the mall there is dead also.
It definitely seems to have plenty of activity in the area surrounding the mall, and it's always weird when that kind of propsperity doesn't carry over to the inside either. I've been to a few malls like that. There's a notorious now-abandoned mall in Pittsburgh called Century III that is surrounded by busy businesses, and you've just got this empty husk of a mall overlooking all of it.
@@UniCommProductions I agree, I've seen people do that mall and sad to see it go to waste
The downtown area is really developing too, when you consider how small an area that is. Etown's development is kind of insane though. Every other week there's a new strip mall, and not really the infrastructure to make it work right.
Live 5 minutes away from the mall. It’s been dead for years!
I went there once in maybe 2018 and it seemed lively enough that I shouldn’t bother with making a video about it…and it’s a shame it deteriorated further.
@@UniCommProductions we used to have hot topic and everything! 😖 Thanks for making the video, it’s so cool to see my hometown represented!
So sad this mall has been going down the last 15 years. One idea to save it would be to make it a discount mall like other states have for local small business vendors. They pay $400 or $500 a month. They could fill the building with locals and then some. Other than that it will fade out in a few years. Unless Amazon buys it and turns it into something. You have to stay up on the times. Marketing & advertising. This at one time was a packed fun place. Sad to see this.
I feel like the future for malls in smaller towns and cities is probably as what you’re describing, a place for small businesses to get started with low overhead. There’s something to be said for the sense of community that grows among the business owners in an enclosed mall that’s full of stores and services like that. I’ve been to a few that are full of local shops and there’s this fantastic sense of pride you don’t see in a mall mostly occupied by National chains.
i wish i could talk to the owner of the mall i have so many ideas for the mall that would make it booming again, sadly that prob wont happen but idea of bringing back the 70's to 80's look would be so cool with neon colors and other things, i think the older style would bring back some people not only shopping but people to make stores there as well, i think everything is to modern these days and i think people are seeing that, i feel like for the younger generation and the older generation would appreciate it alot because then you would have people telling stories about the good old days with shopping in malls when it was really booming and popular and i think also if its possible to make it 2 stories tall so you have more options for more stores and more shoppers, its just sad that everything is all online now and thats why malls are dying, i wish myself can do something about it, i live near etwon about 10 to 15 min away and i would love to go to the mall more and make fun memories there with friends, i wish the community between Radcliff and etown and downtown etown and a few other places nearby can do something about it, maybe do a fundraiser for the mall or have a massive community vote on what to do with the mall to keep it open
How hard would it have been for the people who made that movie to look a map of Kentucky, and see there's no 60B?! I know Google maps was not really a thing when that move came out, but rest areas gave out free paper maps back then. So, it was not like the studio could not have sent some person, who is barely mentioned in the ending credits, to drive to the nearest rest area and get a state map of Kentucky. Furthermore they actually filmed in Elizabethtown for several months. How were they in town for that long and not notice there was no 60B.
I have no idea. I guess it was one of those details that no one thought anyone would look up!
I don’t understand why indoor malls are dying but outdoor malls are being built on every town across America
You and me both!
Cheaper rent, smaller crowds, and closer parking for customers. Mind you, I prefer denser shops with sidewalks over strip malls, but those aren't available everywhere.