Exploring the Abandoned Great Northern Mall - Retail in Decay

Comments · 1.5K

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  @hannakirik5211 · 1 month ago

  Hey, just wanted to revisit this video as of August of 2026, the mall is in the process of being completely demolished. <br>As a child, I visited this mall frequently. Anytime I needed new sneakers, we would go to Dick&apos;s. I got a pair of earrings I still have to this day at that Claire&apos;s. (very 2010s cheeseburger earrings) I got my first Pierce the Veil shirt at that mall at the age of eleven. My dad did donuts in the parking lot of the Toys R Us that shared the malls parking lot. I am now twenty five, and watching this video at work. Seeing this video, and knowing that it is now being demolished, had left a lump in my throat. The mourning of nostalgia. Thank you for giving me a glimpse into a past I don&apos;t often remember.

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• RO

  @rogerdodger1984 · 1 year ago (edited)

  Putting that railroad track back where it belonged probably unlocked a compartment, or door, somewhere in the mall according to survival horror rules.

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• RO

  @robertdavidson7201 · 1 year ago

  I love when The Proper People visit abandoned shopping malls, and that intro music, never gets old.

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• ST

  @stockaf_studios · 1 month ago

  She’s gone now.. they started demolishing her after a recent fire. Rip to my childhood mall.

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• DA

  @Darxide23 · 1 year ago

  This is the Great Northern Mall in Syracuse, New York. Not the much more well known (and still open) Great Northern Mall in North Olmstead, Ohio.

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• RA

  @RAFFYtheRallyCat · 1 year ago

  I gotta say, the Panasonic TV with the original commercial and the proper people intro on it is absolute CINEMA 😳👍

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• GA

  @Gabriel87100 · 1 year ago

  The wall of memorable employee quotes at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=1125">18:45</a> is so bittersweet. What was once friendly banter between coworkers has been left behind as lines of dialogue locked in a dark room as a time capsule.

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• DA

  @davey_love · 1 year ago

  I lived down the road from this mall for 20+ years and worked in the Sears auto center for a while. My dad was part of the crew that built this place. Seeing it like this feels so surreal, I can remember the halls being hard to walk through on Black Friday because it was so packed. All my friends from high school worked there, we’d sneak into movies, cause trouble, shoplift from Hot Topic and Spencer’s… so many fun, cliche mall-kid memories. ❤

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• TH

  @thegoldenbrick1 · 1 year ago

  As someone who regularly visited this mall all the way up until its closure, I can testify that it really doesn&apos;t look like the inside&apos;s changed all that much since then.

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• NA

  @naga_h1316 · 11 months ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=1916">31:56</a> seeing the other side light up completely alive with people with warm lights in contrast with the cold abandoned place makes it almost feels like a portal to the past

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• RE

  @renhanxue · 1 year ago (edited)

  that TV commercial opening on the tiny Panasonic is one heck of a vibe. How do you even find mall commercials from like 1990?

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• AH

  @ahoag0 · 1 year ago

  The busiest part of the mall in the early 90s was right behind the McDonald’s (subway in the video) - that’s where all the payphones were.<br><br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=480">8:00</a> in 2000 I was age 12 getting glasses at that LensCrafters. My buddy and I were explaining to the LensCrafters guy how to use Napster and burn CDs.<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=498">8:18</a> that store across the way was a salon for years. The smell of chemicals from perms would stink up that whole wing of the mall.<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=531">8:51</a> yes there was a movie theater, it was just smaller before they expanded.<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=591">9:51</a> that was a London Fog that opened in 1998 or 1999. Didn’t last long. Then a local piano and organ store moved in. <br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=610">10:10</a> the left of sears was a daycare and the right was a Payless<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=668">11:08</a> that was a Zumiez<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=770">12:50</a> that used to be a huge fountain in the middle. Smelled like chlorine. I grew up as a child throwing spare change into it. I might have a photo somewhere<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=837">13:57</a> shoe dept used to be H&amp;M. There was also a Piercing Pagoda right there. My friend used to work there in high school.<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=915">15:15</a> to the left was Sbarro, to the right was Arby’s<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=968">16:08</a> that subway replaced what was a pretty big McDonalds. Just imagining it I can taste a happy meal and Orange drink.<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=1004">16:44</a> to the left was Time Out, an arcade. To the right was Friendlys.<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=1034">17:14</a> first theater was Loews, then Sony, then Hoyt’s, then Regal. During the Hoyts era they added a few theaters in a remote. Think it was mid to late 90s.<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=1066">17:46</a> that door to the left of the theater was a little elevator that we used to try to open as kids.<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=1300">21:40</a> it was H&amp;M that built out where shoe dept is. It loops around to the side - 2 mall entrances.<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=1480">24:40</a> on the left is where Cindy Cinnamon was - it was in the commercial you showed in the intro<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=1525">25:25</a> in the mid 90s I was eating at Ruby Tuesday’s with my family during a snowstorm and a girl had a flat tire outside of that window. We went out to help change the tire.<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=1675">27:55</a> a little further back to the left is where Radio Shack was.<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=1680">28:00</a> directly straight ahead there was a diner restaurant that I don’t ever remember being open. It looked creepy and abandoned even in the mid 90s.<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoweTSRGVT0&amp;t=1731">28:51</a> in the mid 90s this was Jungle Island which was a local place trying to compete with DZ Discovery Zone.

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