Creepy Abandoned Mall in America’s Heartland Is About to Become an Amazon Warehouse

Once upon a time, shopping malls were the go-to for buying stuff. But in the rise of the digital age, shopping has changed. We no longer have time for strolls through split level sprawling buildings, when it’s just as easy to go online.

Now, lots of malls lay in ruin. But this creepy abandoned mall in Ohio is about to get a new life — from a source you wouldn’t expect.

A New Form of Shopping Is Born

The first modern shopping mall was opened in Edina, Minnesota, in 1956. Its architect, Victor Gruen, imagined it to be a suburban center, complete with apartments, hospitals and office space.

The Era of the Shopping Mall

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Between 1956 and 2005, 1,500 malls were built in the U.S., with the biggest boom happening in the ’70s and ’80s. They were social hubs on top of being retail meccas, acting as true city centers.

Market Correction and the Great Recession

By the mid-‘00s, the rise of online retailers caused a decrease in mall attendance. The Great Recession of the late ‘00s made matters worse. And big box stores within miles of one another just became too much.

The Bubble Bursts

According to analysts, one out of four malls will be gone by 2022. Not demolished, but paved over and made into something new.

For now, most of these shuttered shopping centers are left as they were on their last days of business, relics of a different era.