Heard a mall manager talking, gave me the chills about the old food court

I was poking around the abandoned Oak Ridge Mall in Nashville last Saturday and overheard this guy on the phone who I think was the old property manager. He was saying the food court sinks had grease traps that hadn't been cleaned in over ten YEARS before they shut down. He said the pipes were basically solid with old cooking fat and it cost the city like $50,000 just to dig them out. That really made me think about all the malls we visit where the plumbing was just left to rot for years before they finally closed. Makes me wonder what other hidden messes are lurking under those empty corridors that nobody talks about. Has anyone else ever stumbled on maintenance records or heard old staff spill the real dirt on why a mall actually pulled the plug?

2 comments

2 Comments

karenlee1d ago

oh and heres another thing nobody brings up, those old food court vents probably had decades of grease buildup too. like the air ducts could be basically coated in flammable gunk. i bet half those old mall fires nobody talks about started from a spark hitting a vent full of burnt cooking oil. the plumbing was bad but the fire hazard part is what gets me.

ryanh7718h agoMost Upvoted

I actually worked in mall maintenance for like 3 years in the late 90s and those vents got cleaned way more often than people think. Health inspectors would flag grease buildup in the hoods and ducts monthly, so management had to stay on top of it or lose their food court entirely.