Fiesta Mall: The Fiesta Is Over - DEAD MALL in Mesa, AZ Mini Documentary

The death of the American mall is fascinating to many, just ask Erik Pierson.

"Some of my videos have close to 200,000 views. I think my channel total has one million," he said.

Pierson was so interested in these once mighty retail havens going belly up, he started Retail Archaeology, a successful YouTube channel that has been exploring shopping centers in the valley.

"To me, the being in the places, like when I'm in a dead mall, it's super fascinating being there," he said.

Pierson is a valley native, but you wouldn't exactly call him a fashionista or hardcore shopper. His hobby started thanks to a little bit of nostalgia.

"The first thing I filmed was Fiesta Mall, and that's a mall that I used to hang out there quite a bit, and I hadn't been there in like 15 years.. a friend of mine said to me one day, he had just gone there recently, he says you gotta see it, it's weird, it's empty, it's creepy.. it was eerie, it was creepy, it was very empty, I pulled out my phone and started filming it."

And after the Fiesta Mall, it was MetroCenter.

"Fiesta  Mall is probably the most kind of famous dead mall in the area, MetroCenter mall," he said.

And from  MetroCenter, it was Paradise Valley Mall.

"A lot of these places do look a lot like they did, there may be some different product on the shelves and stuff."