A Visit to Rock Hill Galleria

[@Daddy_Dirk_Diggler]

I grew up in Rock Hill mid-90s-mid 00’s. Moved to Georgia in 2011 & haven’t been to this mall since. I can remember as a young kid this mall was BOOMIN. That Americas Best was a busy arcade. Walmart had a direct entrance into the mall until they built a wall to block it. KB Games, Radio Shack, & the food court was always packed even up until 2009. I got my first phone at the Cingular store next to Rue 21. Yankee candle, Hallmark, & Victoria secret were some of the big brands here at one point besides sears & jc Pennys. My best friends dad was the property manager of Galleria for years & biggest issue was big name retailers just didn’t wanna be in this location vs Pineville mall or Charlotte. Sad to see.

[@DatDaisy]

The Wal-Mart used to be connected at the wall shown at 6:45, but was later closed off on both ends in the early 2000's I believe. They also hosted a Guinness World Record for Longest Group Drumroll in 2008 ish.

[@blairsimpkins3505]

Update! Rock Hill Galleria is still alive, barely. There is about 10 -15 stores still open. I love the feel of this Mall with the exposed steel structure. It's so 1990's and reminds me when I was young and the "Mall" was where you meet up and hanged out (pre social media).

[@TheRedDevil_NC]

Doomie is the best. He shall not be stopped!!

[@markstrouse3101]

The Dead Mall King does another great video.

[@johnwatson6082]

It's such a shame...it is a beautiful mall, I love all the natural light from the skylights, the white shiny floor tiles to reflect the light and the round lights also have a wonderful style to them. Even the storefronts, with all the nature light, feels more like walking outside then inside a mall...of the "newer" malls, this has some of the greatest aesthetics and I feel so sad that it is so empty, with even some of the other things like the hurricane simulator and "UFO catcher" showing "Out-of-Order" signs on them...I truly hope this one finds a way to avoid the fate facing so many other malls.

[@WhittyPics]

Now you are back in my neck of the woods again. If I knew you were going to be there I would have met you for a slice of pizza. Last time I was there a few months ago, there is ONLY ONE ANCHOR with a mall entrance left. I think it really hurt when Walmart walled off their mall entrance years ago. I don't know exactly when they did it, but in 2008 Walmart had a mall entrance. Eastridge Mall in Gastonia is on life support too.. I think Target was in this mall back in 2008 but they built a super store down the street. I am thinking that the Target was where the Revolutions used to be that it was over 10 years ago.

[@WhittyPics]

If you look across the street Doomie, there are 2 strip centers which are booming.

[@jrmertes10948]

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[@jeee1074]

I would like to see a revisit at Eastridge in Gastonia to see how bad it is now.

[@StaPuft99]

We just checked out this place on Saturday. Nice looking place but so lifeless! The busiest place there was the Showmars. The few national chain stores had some customers but otherwise not much happening. Still loving your videos! Please keep making them.

[@devonmarie17]

My local mall! Never saw it when it was successful as we just moved here a year ago. Seems like it had so much potential!

[@ERA_Productions]

Great video

[@stephenbray410]

Interested to know what the Escape Room Games would be like.

[@sid6392]

i work here and it’s only gone more down hill since you visited. i will say they’re putting in a Dick’s sporting goods now

[@hannakinn]

Great job Doomie. I really appreciate the history you provide about the malls you visit. It's interesting now and might be important to people in the future when many of these malls are gone. My mother constantly complains about the truly almost dead mall in her town. The mall killed the downtown retail and she says Amazon killed the mall but I suspect the mall was already struggling before Amazon became King. There's not another mall within reasonable driving distance from "her" mall in Danville, VA so I'm not sure what killed the mall there but I think pinning its death completely on Walmart probably isn't right to do. When I visit my mother I always stopped along the way (pre Covid) into The Fashion Mall in Charlottesville, VA to get a quick meal from a great Chinese carryout in the mall. Pre Covid that mall seemed to be doing fairly well unlike the dying malls that surrounded me in mid central PA and Northern MD at that time. I'm really sad about the death of malls nationwide. I really did enjoy them. Watching the iconic stores of my youth dying or barely hanging on now is rough too. I think the death of Sears was the biggest hit and head scratcher. How could Sears get it so wrong after such success for so long? They had catalog shopping down pat for decades, they could'a shud'a been Amazon pre Amazon. Sigh. RIP to all the dead malls and thank you Doomie, the historian we and malls need.

[@urbanlegendsandtrivia2023]

Are you going to visit the Southdale Shopping Center in Minnesota, which was the first American mall and opened in 1956?

[@MrSgm111]

That’s a lot of vacant space and very few national tenants .. doesn’t look promising 😞😞

[@joeyp9638]

doomie, im honestly shocked you dont have a video on Park city mall in Lancaster pennsylvania that mall is actually really nice you should make a video on that.

[@jeee1074]

The prospects of this mall are looking grim. It is a little bit on the bland side for my taste. I bet the mall that was replaced by this mall had a lot more character.

[@mmichal]

Id just tear it down and give it back to nature, too many malls should have never been built.

[@Desslok20]

Where was the Walmart?