Since January 2008, 221,000 retail stores nationwide have gone out of business. Here’s a partial list of store deaths within a one-block radius of MoJo’s San Francisco office: The New Balance store in our building quietly pulled up the stakes. So did a Gap, a Shoe Pavilion, a men’s clothing store, and a retailer of fancy writing accessories. Our favorite bento place closed overnight. And luggage retailer Malm one day posted this note on its door: “Thank you for your patronage. After 141 years we are now closed for business.” Photographer Brian Ulrich has been documenting the retail carnage across the nation as part of his larger project, Copia.
Chicago Place Mall, 2009
Circuit City, 2008, Chicago, IL
Days Hotel, 2009. Next to Randall Park Mall in Cleveland, OH, once owned by Ed DeBartolo (considered the ‘Father of the Shopping Mall’), formally a Holiday Inn.
Dominicks, 2008, Niles, IL
Richland Mall, 2009. In Mansfield, OH, former Lazarus store, photographed by Stephen Shore when the Mall opened in 1974, it appears in his book Uncommon Places.
Rolling Acres Mall, 2008, Akron, OH
Target, 2008, Riverside, IL
Powerhouse Gym, 2008, Saginaw, MI
