A Visit to The Maine Mall

Perhaps the only mall we can call live in Maine. The Maine Mall is a hub for Portland ME and those coming into Maine.
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[@butterboiii9810]

This past Christmas the mall was even more packed. Even where the Sears used to be there was no parking. It’s great to see one of my childhood malls still thrive though the pandemic. Great Video Doomie.👍

[@groton27]

So was announced this week that my local Macy's is going out which is probably the death blow to the Crystal Mall in Waterford CT since Simon already plans to give it back to the lender in a soft foreclose even tho they only owe a couple more payments for paying it off.

[@jrwheeler81]

I live just two hours north of Portland in Bangor and the Maine Mall is DEFINITELY in far better shape than the Bangor Mall. The mall here has been on a very fast decline since 2015/2016. It was owned by Simon, but it was actually foreclosed on and bought by some New York investment firm back in 2017 or 2018, who hasn't done a damn thing with it. There is almost nothing left in it. Stores that had been there for 10, 20, even 30+ years have all left. Everything is all closed and boarded up and the food court is entirely gone. Even the hair salon inside of the mall that I used to go to is now gone. We also lost two big anchor stores several years ago (Sears and Macy's) and the entire place is just one big ghost town. It's an extremely sad site. I haven't been inside of the Maine Mall in several years, so it's good to see that it's at least faring decently well.

[@danielfife348]

I wish this of Bangor Mall could be FIXED. It had many vacant stores when I went in 2018. That is just not right!

[@wicked-smaht]

That mall is still alive because its the only shopping hub like it in the state

[@Theteaspot5]

I just moved out of Maine October 2022 and lived in Portland. Sears has remained empty since they left, with 2 of 7 anchors empty. I think the Maine Mall has had a good run because of location, good layout and like you said- not bland and not an over the top shopping center. It is usually always busy and has had low vacancies in 41 years I lived in the area. They never sold the land for convention center, parking, etc. So it’s good the mall hasn’t sold off its extra land. Great video

[@lindagoreham2238]

Happy New Year Doomie! Great video!

[@arosenweig]

It has been a while since I have been to the Maine Mall. It has always been the best mall in Maine with the only Apple Store and the only Macy’s in the entire state of Maine. I have a feeling it will bounce back post Covid.

[@DashcamRiprock]

Not to pick nits, but Lechmere is pronounced "LEECH-mere." I still miss that (oddly-mixed merchandise) place.

[@trevorwhitechapel2403]

This was FANTASTIC! You must have been told by a little bird to make this video just for me. I grew up going to that mall about 100 times a week. It's been over 25 years since the last time I was there and yet this video proves to me that I still know just about every square inch of the place, even if the names have changed. The mall here where I live now had gone way down hill even before COVID so I have wondered how the old haunt, the Maine Mall is doing. I figured that after they knocked down the old movie theater across the road there it might be curtains soon for the whole place. GREAT WORK!

[@4500az]

'The Coof" 😂 Excellent video, thanks.

[@mybabba]

It’s amazing how indistinguishable one mall is from another. This looks just like the Northridge Mall here in CA minus the merry go round.

[@mattdeman5200]

Great video, as always sir! Happy New Year to you.

[@jeee1074]

The old school Macy's and JCPenney entrances are pretty cool. I like the fact that the mall has some high ceilings and skylights to break up the monotony of the corridors. Thankfully the Sears corridor has a mall entrance so the loss of that anchor will not completely kill off that corridor.

[@divinaloca]

Need to make a correction, there are also escalators inside Macy’s at the Maine mall and inside the former Macy’s at the Bangor mall. 3 stores total.

[@pauldavis8418]

The escalator in the Bangor Mall has been closed off entirely and now you wouldn’t even know it was there.

[@williamharris8367]

Kudos for mentioning The Dream Machine arcade. There were several locations in Massachusetts in the mid-1980s, but I did not remember a location at the Maine Mall. In about 1987, there was an arcade located directly across from the (then new?) food court. Presumably that was it. This was the _very_ first Mall I ever saw that included a McDonald's restaurant as part of the food court. (I have since encountered a few others.)

[@Riograndechic207]

Yes Dream Machine was by what is now the food court. At the time in the 80's to early 90's it was right by the entrance to the mall at the now food court. Across from it was Mc Donald's that even had a very small play area. The Mc Donald's and the few stores on that side of that hall were then made into the food court with central seating for the multiple restaurants there. Dream Machine was in the same sport for quite a few years till it closed. About 5 years after it closed they tried opening it again but this time over by Bsst Buy. I didn't last long there. I still have a shoe box with tickets I was saving up.

[@sierrakjack]

i live in maine, and the maine mall seems to be doing ok-even during a pandemic. i have a feeling it will bounce back well. the bangor mall, yuck. spent much of my childhood at the bangor mall, so sad to see it being let go. :( ps. this video was taken during the summer months and most mainers are outside hiking, camping, fishing, kayaking and etc-we got no time for the mall during the summer months! haha. it's been wayyy busier in the winter months!

[@jeremyperry5548]

Bangor Mall is dying and it is very sad. I spend a lot of my childhood, high school (graduated in 2006) and college years when the mall was thriving when people were out and about. When I came home from the navy (2017) the mall was a ghost town and stores were closing one after another. This is February 2021 and three stores, Hollister, Yankee Candle, and Christopher Banks closed. Stating the obvious but the management NEEDS to do something quickly.

[@danielfife348]

That shouldn't be that way of Bangor Mall as its tje only mall around. I saw empty stores there too. They need t fix it

[@BlueLazeMusic]

I usually come here once a year, didn't get to due to Covid, last year it was packed, seems to be doing okay, if you want a dead mall try the one in Bangor, or Auburn. Bangor not as bad but still.

[@WhittyPics]

WHAT? An open SEARS?

[@DoomieGruntVentures]

Funny you mention that. Literally two days after recording all this footage, someone messaged me with an article stating Sears's closure. It departed September.

[@BlueLazeMusic]

Last sears in maine.

[@DQSpider]

I was ready to scoff at the Sears sign in the hall until I heard that Sears had stayed open until 2021 there....later than most of its stores by a good amount

[@Daniel_s444]

This a great looking mall It's HUGE....lots of stores

[@blandmalls]

I guess you could say, it's the MAIN mall in MAINE. !! sorry for that joke I will see myself out

[@DoomieGruntVentures]

Missed that opportunity. And I kept saying "The Maine Thang"

[@notofthisworld5267]

This mall actually has life in it. They’re doing something right.

[@BlueLazeMusic]

The Jordan's ropecourse here is awesome. That empty sears give so many opportunities for chains that don't have any stores in maine, like Ross or even Dillard's.

[@DalmationProductions]

Sad to see Sears gone in that Mall :(

[@obushaala]

I remember I used to go to music land to buy some disco records at the main mall , I heard Elvis Presley went there .

[@barbarakilpatrick3859]

❤ we love all malls

[@urbanlegendsandtrivia2023]

My late dad was born in Lincoln, Maine, and my cousins are NASCAR drivers at Oxford Plains Speedway.

[@garyExposMtl]

Nice video, thank you. It's too bad it wasn't possible to show the food court, which is what I really wanted to see.

[@DoomieGruntVentures]

I arrived at noon. The liability was too great so I steered away from it.

[@RogerThat787]

Leach-meer is how you pronounce Lechmere. As a Mainer thank you for the video!

[@Riograndechic207]

I was there today and its packed. you never showed the food court or food court parking lot, they are always the busiest.

[@mr.sophistication3232]

Awesome work! Thank you

[@markstrouse3101]

Great great great video Doomie

[@louisbrownusofa]

This is my hometown mall so I know all of the history you stated. However when Woolworth closed the store was split between the now defunct Linens N Things and the still existng American Eagle store. The Harvest House restaurant (part of Woolworth) was the portion currently the AE store. Currently, the old LNT is divided between Super Shoes in the mall and Old Navy in the back end of the old Woolworth store.

[@jasonmartinson7758]

When is the Sears supposed to close WallieB26 would probably like to know

[@DoomieGruntVentures]

It already has. Back in September

[@danielfife348]

I was there recently and it was good, busy and Sears was vacant

[@paul2019.]

That’s such a low effort best buy sign

[@phasmin9017]

As someone who lives not even 20 minutes away from the mall, I can tell you that the mall is ALWAYS packed lol

[@LakeHowellDigitalVideo]

Yeah, the entire state only has 1.5 million people. The Maine mall ain't a dead mall. People come here expecting New York City crowds.

[@Steve.Cutler]

All malls are on borrowed time...

[@ChasetheComputerGeek]

Is a one level or two level mall?

[@SuperEverything_]

Why did the Apple store have its own security? My local Apple stores don’t have separate security. I’m not from Maine so I’m just curious.

[@R32R38]

Most or all Apple Stores are operating on a reservations-only basis. I guess they use security people to check reservations and manage admissions to the stores. I don''t know why they just don't use store employees, unless many of them have been canned.

[@dragomiros3958]

Like the music

[@jordanquimby854]

Gloria Jeans Coffee used to be there

[@SpinelFan64]

they still are