Strip Mall of the Dead

/ Ray Van Horn, Jr.

As we were leaving Shore Leave in its new location of Lancaster, Pennsylvania last week, we pulled into a drive-through to snag some cool drinks for the ride home.

I seldom get the luxury of lazing upon my surroundings in the car, but being the passenger this time, I spotted a pushed-off strip center shopping mall that no doubt went up during the 1980s if not the Seventies.

Now strip malls are still very much a thing as opposed to the megacomplexes that were the lifeblood of my generation’s teen scene. Thus, I was a little caught off-guard, despite being a thorough student of economics, to find a completely barren strip center like this one. With a kaleidoscope of barren marquees, no less.

I mean, this sucker was one hundred percent dead.

Nothing leased, only one other car slinking by in passing. At one time, no doubt a major source of local commerce, considering its otherwise prime location planted on the main business artery of Lancaster Route 30.

The problem, I see, and I think it’s becoming more commonplace with failing strip centers, is not so much the syndrome of online e-markets offering far wider choices and pricing landing somewhat closer to the targeted retail cost.

Route 30 in Lancaster, like most American commercial routes, is a lifeblood to the local economy, so much every possible mainstream food and retail operation you’re looking for is almost guaranteed to be there. So much there are three competing steak houses in close quarters, one of which gained our business for being on our side of the street, even with all three being a stone’s throw from the convention.

The difference I saw in the strip centers of Lancaster that were thriving with stuffed parking lots, is having closer access to the main road. The strip mall you see here was pushed off a smidge of a block from Route 30. You had to rely, back in its prime, upon a guidepost sign directing you in. It’s still there, empty of businesses, but who cares about it when you have three fast food emporiums, a coffee peddler and a closer berthed mini strip burying it?

In other words, out of sight, out of mind. Instant kill-off.

A shame, really, but what I told TJ as I snapped off these quick shots was, “If this was a zombie holocaust and this empty shell was our only safe haven between survival and becoming chow for the undead, we’d be royally effed.”

–Ray Van Horn, Jr.

14 thoughts on “Strip Mall of the Dead”

  6. You don’t see much in the way of dead strip malls out here ― when we moved to the area we were pretty astonished by how much shopping there was and how much of it is in outdoor plazas like this. But you can do that when you don’t have winter.

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