Read time: 10 min.

Make that thirteen threads: in February, people in Muncie learned that all of our mall would be demolished, beginning with the long-vacant Sears, J.C. Penney, and old three-screen cinema. At first, the wrecking ball was supposed to arrive in March¹. Later, the timeline was pushed back to April². Now, with two-thirds of May already gone and no visible signs of demolition outside, a strange limbo has settled over the property. Curious, I ventured in. A baker’s dozen of tenants are still hanging on compared to sixty-seven in 2004.

Before yesterday, I last visited Muncie Mall on March 14 to eat at MCL Restaurant and Bakery. Even in its diminished state, the mall still had enough life left to feel familiar for a little while. Since then, though, the place has changed again: the biggest blow came on March 29, when MCL closed after fifty-one years³. Even though I’d only discovered it a few months prior, the loss really stung! I was saddened to see its entrance gated off like so many others. 

More surprising was the darkened Auntie Anne’s storefront directly across the hallway. Unlike many of the mall’s more recent tenants, the pretzel shop was a staple for twenty-nine years⁴. That’s long enough for generations of shoppers to associate the mall with the smell of warm buckets, dogs, and nuggets drifting through the concourse! In a place where so many storefronts had already faded away, Auntie Anne’s still seemed alive right up until, all of the sudden, it wasn’t.

One recent closure that didn’t pack the same emotional punch as MCL or Auntie Annie’s was Cell Tech (or Cell Tek, depending on which sign you looked at). The former phone store stood in a spot that, from 2011 to 2018, was home to Best Buy Mobile⁵. Walking past was another reminder of how quickly retail trends come and go. How long has it been since you went to the mall for a phone upgrade? 

Another fresh casualty was GNC, which operated inside Muncie Mall for fifty-five years⁶. Its closure left the south wing of the mall without a single remaining tenant, an eerie milestone for a corridor that once carried a steady stream of shoppers headed towards J.C. Penney. Empty storefronts are one thing, but a wing entirely abandoned completely changed the mall’s atmosphere. 

The last new vacancy I noticed was the Mainstream Arcade in the hallway leading toward the old movie theater. The arcade had operated there since shortly after the cinema closed in 2005⁷ but never came close to capturing the magic of Sultan’s Castle⁸. More than the absent cabinets and claw machines, what really caught my attention was the open door that led to the theater’s box office. For a second, I seriously considered peeking inside! Unfortunately, I had more photos to take and didn’t want kicked out. I suppressed my urge and kept walking.

After spending so much time noticing what had disappeared from Muncie Mall, I finally turned my attention toward what remained. One of the most prominent survivors was The Buckle, which has been in the mall since 1993⁹. By the time of my visit, the store was the lone remaining tenant in the entire south concourse. Unfortunately, even that final holdout is preparing to leave: on June 1st, it’ll move to Muncie Mall Plaza in a space formerly occupied by Maurice’s. 

That’s another story: Maurice’s has followed a particularly strange path through the mall’s long decline! The clothing retailer first opened at Muncie Mall in 1990¹⁰ after a stint at Northwest Plaza. Twelve years later, it abandoned the mall for the nearby Muncie Mall Plaza¹¹. Oddly enough, though, Maurice’s recently came full circle: in February, it came back inside just weeks before owners announced the entire place would be torn down. How long Maurice’s lasts is anyone’s guess. 

Aside from the Buckle and Maurices, I found myself wondering how much longer Hot Topic would remain. It’s been at Muncie Mall for twenty-six years¹², making it one of the mall’s longest-running surviving tenants- and one of the few that still connects directly to my own memories of the place. Nothing explicitly announced impending closure, but the liquidation sales seemed to tell their own story. 

Next to Hot Topic, the mall’s de facto anchor and raison d’etre, Books-A-Million, was alive and nearly as busy as it was when it replaced Osco Drug in 2006¹³. I’ve heard that corporate officials appreciate the Muncie market and hope to relocate somewhere nearby once the mall finally goes the way of the dodo. I hope that rumor is true! Losing the mall is inevitable, but losing one of Muncie’s last real bookstores would feel far worse.

Just south of Books-A-Million, next to the old MCL, sits another unlikely survivor: Zales. Believe it or not, the jewelry store has been at Muncie Mall ever since opening day in 1970¹⁴! The store is a survivor, but the contrast around it feels almost surreal. As I walked past, I heard an employee say to someone, “Well, of course, our numbers are down. We’re in an empty building!” 

From that vacant building’s eastern entryway, I wandered north past the old Sears before turning west into the concourse once anchored by L. S. Ayres and, later, Macy’s. That stretch of Muncie Mall once felt like one of the property’s busiest corridors, and it still is, in a way. Tradehome has been there since around 2005¹⁵. As I approached, though, the store was shuttered by its security gate. Fortunately, the it suddenly rattled to life and rolled upward just as I passed. 

Further west, Nirvana still clings to life. Back when I was in middle school, it was called Rare Image, one of those quintessential mall stores overflowing with band shirts, chain wallets, posters, lava lamps, and incense. My sister worked there for a while before the store relocated times¹⁶. Eventually, it took on its present name in lockstep with other locations I remember at Mounds Mall in Anderson and Bloomington’s College Mall. 

Most of the mall’s remaining stores and stubborn holdouts now cluster around Buyer’s Market, the off-price retailer occupying much of the former L. S. Ayres and Macy’s space. The store operates in the same vein as Ollie’s Bargain Outlet or Big Lots by filling its shelves with closeouts, secondary merchandise, and whatever oddball deals happen to come through the pipeline. Since arriving in 2021¹⁷, Buyer’s Market has effectively served as the mall’s lone anchor tenant! It seems surprisingly successful. Unfortunately, the store shuttered its mall-facing entrance sometime after my last visit there in 2024. 

Aside from Books-A-Million, Finish Line is probably the last truly major inline tenant left inside Muncie Mall. The athletic shoe retailer occupies a large corner storefront just southeast of Buyer’s Market, and it appears the store has been in business since 1987¹⁸. The lights were on, displays were arranged neatly, and rows of brightly colored sneakers lined the walls exactly as they would in a healthy mall somewhere else. That said, the context around it has changed so dramatically that the place almost feels detached from reality. I can’t say the store looked especially busy during my visit, but simply remaining open at all felt impressive. 

The rest of Muncie Mall’s businesses sit in close proximity to Finish Line and Buyer’s Market. One is Louie’s Tux Shop, based in South Bend. The company was founded in 1948 by Lous A. And Stella Buczynski¹⁹, and its Muncie Mall outpost has existed at least since 2020²⁰. 

As for the rest of the places, I have no clue of their provenance. Here’s Generation Sports Cards And More in the former Squeeze Play site. 

Next door is Banners and More, a relatively recent addition to the mall that took one of Nirvana’s old spots. The company’s website doesn’t promote its Muncie location, but other outlets appear in Anderson, Carmel, Fort Wayne, Indy, and Noblesville. 

Finally, here’s Serenity Spa and Boutique. I have no idea what this used to be and didn’t venture in. Maybe I should have! I could really use a massage as existential dread has permeated my being over the past six months. 

I left Muncie Mall feeling unsettled. It didn’t feel completely dead! Parts of it certainly do, of course, but reminders of the mall’s vitality remain scattered through its concourses. I think the mall’s limbo may be why it and other similar places continue to fascinate me: a dying mall becomes a layered record of changing habits, vanished stores, fading trends, and entire eras of local life. 

Yesterday’s trip to Muncie Mall felt like moving through several different eras of the place at once: Zales represented the optimism of opening day in 1970, places like the Buckle reminded me of packed weekends and crowded concourses of the 1990s, shuttered storefront indicated the long slow unraveling, and recent exits like GNC recall these strange final months before demolition is said to begin. Although the mall’s exterior barely reflects any of that turmoil aside from fencing that’s been there for months, the property looks almost exactly as it has for years. Inside, however, the sense of ending hangs over everything. Even so, thirteen tenants still unlock their doors and roll up the gates every morning inside a mall that somehow continues operating.

Sources Cited
1 Wiechmann, S. (2026, February 26). Muncie Mall to be fully demolished. Indiana Public Radio [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved May 18, 2026.
2 Vaughn, J. (2026, March 23). The planned demolition of the Muncie Mall makes way for potential retailers. Cardinal Media. Ball State University [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved May 18, 2026.
3 MCL Plans Cafeteria in Muncie (1975, October 22). The Muncie Star. p. 8. 
4 Hand-rolled pretzel shop now open in Muncie Mall (1997, June 8). The Muncie Star Press. p. 47. 
5 Gibson, R. (2020, February 16). A timeline of retail trends and turnover. The Muncie Star Press. pp. A2-A9.
6 Grand Opening (1971, February 9). The Muncie Star. p. 18. 
7 McBride, M. (2005, May 11). The buck (movie) stops here beginning in June. the Muncie Star Press. p. 1. 
8 Roysdon, K. (2006, July 30). Family fun. The Muncie Star Press. p. 33. 
9 Full & Part-Time Sales (1993, September 12). The Muncie Star. p. 42.
10 Completion Set (1990, September 16). The Muncie Star. p. 42. 
|11 Muncie Mall, plaza to get new tenants (2002, July 29). The Muncie Star Press. p. 8.
12 Mall stores open; another remodels (2000, August 27). The Muncie Star Press. p. 43.
13 Roysdon, K. (2006, April 2). Paper Tiger? The Muncie Star Press. p. 33.
14 Take Your Coffee Break With Him! (1970, October 14). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 10.
15 Building Permits (2005, March 5). The Muncie Star Press. p. 11.
16 Stores changing at Muncie Mall (2011, October 11). The Muncie Star Press. p. 17.
17 Ohlenkamp, C. (2021, June 17). Buyer’s Market to open at Muncie Mall this Friday. The Muncie Star Press. p. 1.
18 Manager Trainee (1987, September 17). The Muncie Evening press. p. 34.
19 Louie’s Tux Shop near promenade (1974, September 16). The Hammond Times. p. 55. 
20 (See footnote 5).