Laurel Mall Portrait of a Dying Shopping Mall.mov

On Black Friday, November 25, 2011, I decided to pay a shopping visit to Laurel Mall in Laurel, Maryland. I used to love going shopping there years ago. It once had stores and restaurants like Montgomery Wards, J.C. Penny's, The Disney Store, Victoria's Secret, The Hallmark Store, McDonald's, Subway, Friendly's Restaurant, Auntie Annie's, Foot Locker, Babbage's, The Electronics Boutique, K-B Toys, Spencer's Gift Shop, Suncoast Video Store, Sam Goody's, B. Dalton's Books, Claire's, Rite Aid, Deck the Walls, and the Great Cookie Company.

However, time hasn't been very kind on Laurel Mall and, as you can see in the video, the mall is about 90% empty. It's been like this for years. The owners keep on saying that they are going to renovate it or tear it down and replace it with something else but then nothing happens. Personally I feel that the owners should either make an effort to attract new tenants or just shut the whole thing down because, as it stands right now, this mall is creepy and pathetic.

The only silver lining about Laurel Mall these days is that you don't have to worry about the crowds during the Christmas holiday shopping season.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Laurel
• Shopping
• Mall
• Maryland
• dying
• mall
• dead
• Black
• Friday
• November
• 25
• 2011

[youzzernayme1]

*It was the E- bus* my bad the J goes there too from a different location!

[youzzernayme1]

I would take the J-Bus from Columbia mall to here.I was shocked to see how pathetic it has become.I hate the fact that they took out the elevator!

[xplosivejosif]

The announced that Macy's is closing.

[dragondancer1814]

I grew up in the Laurel-Beltsville area, and this mall was a mjaor part of my growing-up years. It was where my family did their shopping, and my friends and I spent so many weekends hanging out here when we got old enough to be on our own. I even worked here one holiday season, and I remember the place being MOBBED then, to the point where it took me almost an hour just to find a parking space! Now it's an empty space full of ghosts, echoes, and memories-man, that's depressing!

[koloff28]

Believe it or not, this is an improvement over Spring 2010 when I was last there. At that point there was only one place in the food court. The closed portion of the upper level, did, however, have a Lady Foot Locker and a GNC holding on at that point. Probably for the best that it's closed off since Security must have a hard time patrolling the place.