When a hurricane destroys a town or a shopping mall shuts down, once buzzing eateries can get left behind – becoming nothing more than empty shells with faded menus, peeling paint, and decaying decor. From an abandoned McDonald’s in Alaska to a deserted Kmart in Michigan, these ransacked restaurants, derelict diners, forgotten food courts, and ghostly grocery stores are guaranteed to give you chills.
Once a shopping hub with a carousel, a beach-themed food court, and more than 200 stores, Forest Fair Mall never really reached its full potential. One of the biggest shopping centers in Ohio, at around 1.5 million square feet (93,000sqm) in size, it opened in the late 1980s, but was plagued with bankruptcies and failed rebranding efforts. It underwent millions of dollars' worth of renovations in the early 1990s, and again in 2004, but struggled to save its stores from shuttering.
Kiosks at the food court are closed for good, though some are in such good condition that they look as if they've just shut for the day. In December 2022, the crumbling interior of the mall was permanently closed to the public due to a number of fire code violations. Now there are just two stores left – Kohls and Bass Pro – which are allowed to stay open because they have separate entrances.
Home to a US naval station for much of the 20th century, the remote Alaskan island of Adak once had a population of around 6,000, made up of military personnel and their families. Back in its heyday, it had its fair share of familiar fast food joints you’d expect to find on the US mainland, including a Pizza Hut, a Baskin Robbins, and a McDonald’s (pictured). The latter, still standing yet abandoned, stands as a monument to 90s Americana.
If you take a walk around the building, the entrances are bolted but the blinds are still open, so you can take a peek inside. Through the windows, it's still easy to spot the retro decor, complete with muted red, beige, and blue furnishings – a stark contrast to the bright, modern look of today’s McDonald's restaurants.
On the menu, there’s a Quarter Pounder with cheese for $2.60 (the same burger will set you back around $4.60 these days), plus an advert for Jurassic Park–themed 'Dino-Size' meals – a promotion launched at the same time as the 1993 movie. You can even catch a glimpse of the toy you'd have received in a Happy Meal if you were a kid 30 years ago: a Bobby’s World collectible inspired by the 1990s cartoon.
American entrepreneur Horace Bullard was famous for plunging huge amounts of money into revitalizing Coney Island with various projects, including setting up Kansas Fried Chicken after he was unable to secure a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. He made his fortune from the chain, which had 18 locations across the country – including one on the ground floor of the Shore Theater, pictured here in 1979.
The restaurant chain closed decades ago, but passersby have still managed to photograph the inside. Tables and chairs are strewn across the room and bits of the ceiling have fallen to the floor, but the menu is still readable, with shrimp baskets and a 15-piece bucket of chicken among the items on offer. A property company bought the old theater from Kansas Fried Chicken in 2016 with plans to turn it into a boutique hotel, but work only started in April 2023.
From 1983 until 2008, diners looking for a taste of ancient Egypt in Texas were treated to mystifying magic shows and flashy entertainment at Magic Island, a grand two-story restaurant along the Southwest Freeway in Houston. The dining spot was known for the gold pharaoh head on its roof, and was decked out in ornate Ancient Egyptian–style furnishings. Sadly, when Hurricane Ike hit in 2008, the building caught fire and had to close. It has stood empty ever since.
Now resembling a setting from a horror movie, this is the theater where the restaurant's famous magic shows were once held. It's hard to imagine any fun times ever happened here, but many families have fond memories of celebrating anniversaries and birthdays in this very room, with dazzling after-dinner entertainment provided by visiting performers.
Before its demise, the restaurant area featured gold doors, red carpets, an enormous chandelier, colorful murals, hieroglyphics, and Egyptian-style mummy statues. Magic Island's owner, neurologist Mohammed Athari, announced plans to restore the 22,000-square-foot (2,044sqm) property to its former glory in 2018, but building works have since been delayed indefinitely.
The food court at Ashtabula Mall, now known as Ashtabula Towne Square, looks eerily quiet in these pictures from 2014. Though it's now completely desolate, it once featured a Ruby Tuesday, Mr. Hero, Sbarro, Sakkio Japan, and a Wendy’s, and was regularly flooded with hungry customers stopping by for a fast food fix. These days, all the eateries are shuttered, and the seating area is closed off.
Though Ashtabula Towne Square is still open, it struggles to keep customers coming in, with just a few stores fighting to retain interest. In early 2020, it was purchased for more than $10 million by the owners of another mall in Akron; however, aside from its movie theater and JCPenney closing down for good, there have been no further developments since then.
From 2014-19, this vast Super Kmart stood ominous and empty on John R Road, Madison Heights. Built in 1962, it was originally an E.J. Korvette discount department store, before becoming a Kmart in 1981, and a Super Kmart in 2000. The 143,000 square-foot (13,285sqm) store had everything you'd expect to find at a regular Kmart, plus a deli and a grocery section stocked with garden produce, baked goods, and a huge selection of meat, seafood, and poultry.
Despite its huge size and extensive range of products, Madison Heights' Super Kmart never proved particularly popular with customers. In early 2019, after the store had been closed for almost five years and its signs had been taken down, it was announced that it would be demolished to make way for a new members-only store, similar to Costco. The much-anticipated BJ's Wholesale Club finally opened its doors at the end of 2019.
Fondly known as 'the Sears shopping center', Lincoln Park Shopping Center first opened way back in 1957. Once a busy mall, its anchor store was a giant Sears – one of the best-performing in the country – and, over the years, it played host to Dollar Tree, Rainbow USA, Arlan’s, Winkelman’s, and China Buffet outlets. It also famously hosted a re-election rally for President Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Despite its success in the 20th century, by 2000 the mall was mostly empty. One of the final tenants to leave was China Buffet (pictured) – a buffet and takeout restaurant serving fried appetizers, chicken and broccoli, egg drop soup, and egg rolls, among other dishes. Dated and dilapidated, China Buffet's musty carpets, purple walls, blue marble tables, and wooden sections were left to go to rack and ruin in 2015.
Pictured is the shell of a Farmer Jack grocery store – fondly remembered for its catchy jingle, 'It's always savings time at Farmer Jack' – that once stood proud in the retail park next to Lincoln Park Shopping Center. Lonely and empty in this 2015 photo, its signs have been taken away, and only the outlines remain to indicate what it once was.
Once a Kroger store, this spooky space was transformed into a Dunham's Sports outlet in the 1980s, but you can still see the turnstiles from its grocery store glory days. After being empty for years, it was demolished in January 2018, along with Farmer Jack and the rest of Lincoln Park Shopping Center. Although it shuttered in 2019, the former Sears store, which was connected to the strip mall by a covered walkway, remains – although there are rumors that it will soon meet a similar fate.
Despite the crumbling paint and rusty, run-down exterior, you can still appreciate the retro charms of Tom’s Diner in these images taken in 2014. The Silk City–style dining cart, built in the early 1940s, used to sit on Route 46 in Ledgewood, and was operated by the Seretis family from 1958 until the 2004 death of owner Frank Seretis. After years of efforts by the family owners to preserve the beloved burger spot for future generations, it was demolished in 2021.
In this image, the menu above the counter shows what breakfast dishes locals would have ordered, along with how much they cost at the time the diner closed; pancakes, French toast, omelets, bacon sandwiches, and corned beef hash were all on offer. The diner even achieved legendary status in 1983, when it was used as the setting for Cyndi's Lauper's Time After Time music video.
Now check out these charming retro diners you can actually visit