It’s been a while since much demolition was visible at the doomed Muncie Mall, and I’m beginning to get antsy. I emailed its owner to ask when demolition might resume and, more importantly, when my stats might start climbing again! Of course, I heard nothing but crickets. Instead of an update, I decided to look at where some of the mall’s old stores have wound up instead. As it turns out, the Muncie Mall diaspora hasn’t scattered very far. In a couple of cases, groups of two or three former tenants are right next to each other!
Muncie Mall opened in 1970 with Britt’s, W.T. Grant, Sears, and Standard Food Store anchoring a collection of smaller inline tenants. By the time I was a teenager, JCPenney, Sears, Carson’s, and Macy’s held the place down before vanishing one by one. Only an off-price outlet called Buyer’s Market remained in the old Carson’s space by the time Hull Property Group bought the mall in 20241. Tenancy and traffic have fallen ever since, a trend undoubtedly accelerated by Hull’s decision to tear the whole thing down except for Buyer’s Market. Demolition of the old three-screen movie theater began in late June.
It’d been years since I’d spent significant time in the mall proper before I hit up MCL for the first time in January. Since then, it and stores like Aeropostale, Auntie Anne’s, GNC, F.Y.E., Icing, and Zales have closed without plans to reopen elsewhere nearby. Fortunately, others have simply relocated: three moved to Muncie Plaza, right across Princeton Avenue from the fading mall. The first was Bath & Body Works, a mall staple since 19962 that closed just after Christmas last year. It and its pleasant gingham awning are now in a space once occupied by Catherines.
Nearby is Spencer’s, which opened at the mall as Spencer’s Holiday Fare in 19853. I knew it had moved, but I guess I didn’t realize that it took over the former Muncie Plaza Dental storefront way back in 2023! Fifteen years earlier, Spencer’s was my second-most visited store in the mall behind Hot Topic. As it happens, Spencer’s just signed an agreement to buy Hot Topic4. Maybe it’ll eventually join its new corporate sibling at Muncie Plaza.
The most recent move from Muncie Mall to Muncie Plaza was the Buckle, which opened in a space formerly home to Maurices on June 1. What happened to Maurices, you might ask? Last February, after twenty-four years in Muncie Plaza5, the store moved back into the mall! No one could believe it at the time, and I sort of still don’t.
While Bath & Body Works, Spencer’s, and the Buckle all migrated north from the mall, two businesses headed due west to the Mall Shoppes center. The first was Celltech, a phone-repair store that occupied a mall storefront once home to Best Buy Mobile. The last tenant I remember in its new home at the Mall Shoppes was 5 Star Nutrition. Can’t say I ever set foot in either place.
Next door to Celltech is Generation Sports, which opened in the mall’s old Squeeze Play storefront in 2024 before relocating to an old Subway space in the Mall Shoppes in early June. I worked there once or twice in high school; it was one of the nicest the local franchisee owned. Aside from its Subway provenance, I’d have been all over a place like Generation Sports when I was a kid. Maybe I’ll stop in to see if I can add anything to my world-class Oliver Miller collection. For some reason, I doubt it.
Another member of the Muncie Mall dissemination sits farther west down McGalliard Boulevard. I was sad when Shoe Department Encore replaced Old Navy in 20116, but the place became a solid junior anchor for fourteen years as the rest of the mall crumbled around it. At some point last year, Shoe Dept. moved to the former Work Wear Clothing XPress across from Chick-fil-A and Fresh Thyme.
The seventh business to recently jump ship from Muncie Mall was Banners and More, which opened in the former Nirvana space in the Buyer’s Market wing around 2021. I’ve very rarely had need for a custom banner, T-shirt, decal, or tent, so I can’t say I ever ventured inside. Still, the place co-sponsored photos with the Easter Bunny for the past few years7. I stumbled across the scene a few years ago, and it was sad. Still, it mattered! Banners and More is now just north of Baskin-Robbins on Wheeling Avenue.
The last store I saw leave the mall for greener pastures was Country Charm, and that one hurt. The locally owned boutique had been a mall staple since 19878! It spent a whopping thirty-seven years there, most recently next to GNC and one store down from Bath & Body Works, before finally relocating next to Pay Less at Tillotson Avenue’s River Plaza in 20249.
I’m glad all these stores have remained in Muncie, and I’m hopeful that more will follow. What will our emo teens do without Hot Topic? Where will sneakerheads get their next pair of Barkley Posite Maxes if Finish Line vacates Muncie? I couldn’t imagine Books-A-Million leaving us without Funko Pops, or Maurices getting the short end of the stick in what’s been a loyal market.
For now, the Muncie Mall is slowly emptying out even if the bulldozers aren’t doing much. Fortunately, its stores aren’t necessarily disappearing with it; they’re just scattering to strip centers around town. The mall itself may be doomed, but at least recent pieces of it are finding new homes.
Sources Cited
1 Mulherin, J. (2024, January 31). Hull Property Group Acquires Muncie Mall. Hull Property Group [Augusta]. Press Release.
2 Mall store (1996, June 19). The Muncie Star Press. p. 20.
3 Spencer’s might make mall store permanent (1985, November 8). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 18.
4 Gore, L. (2026, August 13). Parent company of Spirit Halloween acquires popular mall chain that caters to trendy teens. Advance Local [New York]. Web. Retrieved August 16, 2026.
5 Muncie Mall, plaza to get new tenants (2002, July 29). The Muncie Star Press. p. 8.
6 Roysdon, K. (2011, July 29). Kitchen store coming soon to Muncie Mall. The Muncie Star Press. p. 3A.
7 Banners And More (2023, March 17). Here are the picture packages that we will be offering this year at Pictures with the Easter Bunny at the [Status]. Facebook.
8 Roysdon, K. (2012, January 29). Charmed: Store marks 25 years. The Muncie Star Press. p. 7.
9 Country Charm (2024, July 17). BIG ANNOUNCEMENT We will SOON be MOVING to a NEW LOCATION here in Muncie! Same store, same products, same faces [Status]. Facebook.
Great article Ted.
Thanks, Tom!
Great article… One correction. Ball Stores was never an original tenant of the mall. They opened the Muncie Mall store in the early 80s.
That space was originally occupied by Standard Food Stores. It was reported to be the second overall tenant in Muncie Mall. The entrance was a pair of automatic doors on the south east corner…that small niche you see. When Ball Stores remodeled the space, they blocked off that entrance and created a new one in the middle of the east façade. Standard didn’t last very long there, closing in 1973. With all the competition in the grocery market in Muncie at the time, they couldn’t compete on price.
There are several articles in the Muncie newspapers from the early 1970s on Standard Food Stores. I found them through newspapers.com.
Durr..I knew that! Can’t believe I missed that. Thanks for the correction. Fixed!
Reminiscing along with your story and learning new facts. Long long ago I worked at the pet store in the mall located near the JC Penney store on the west side of mall back in the mid ‘70’s I believe. Great article.
Thanks! I’d forgotten there was a pet store there!
It is interesting how so many grocery stores tried locating in malls that were new at the time, and how quickly they decided that malls were not great locations for that business.