ghostbox

English

Etymology

Compound of ghost +‎ box.

Noun

ghostbox (plural ghostboxes)

1. (informal) An abandoned mall or big-box store.
   • 2014 December 22, Erin Meisenzahl-Peace, “Who Still Hangs Out at the Mall?”, in VICE‎^[1], archived from the original on 2023-06-14:

     Someday in the not-too-distant future, it will become another of the country's numerous "ghostboxes" that are too expensive to tear down but not lucrative enough to actually use.

   • 2017 March 16, “All under one roof: how malls and cities are becoming indistinguishable”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-07-17:

     Oculus was Westfield's $1.4bn bet that New York, a city known for its love of the street, could also have a successful mall. And judging from the crowds, it counters the narrative that the mall is "dead", like those thousands of empty suburban malls dotting the American landscape, "ghostboxes" decaying on cracked asphalt parking lots.