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America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

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Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#191

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

Retail stores don't sell what I want. Their inventory has become too limited.

After the dot com bust/mini recession, most department stores stopped stocking clothes in my size so I buy much of it online. I frequently try to hold out and find some electronic item or replacement part in local stores. I almost always fail and resort to Amazon.

I'm currently looking for a cheap Bissel vacuum that is available on Amazon. I have yet to see a retailer anywhere carrying that model. Expensive, overpriced vacuums are all you can get retail these days.

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#192

Post by hkmurakami »

ericseppanen wrote: post #120
hkmurakami wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stanford Shopping Center and the Santa Monica downtown thing (I forget what it's called) are very close to what you describe. What malls do have is space, and that kind of large space owned by a single entity is rare these days within a reasonable travel time away. Redevelopment potential is definitely there. Also, a professor of mine once wondered why we don't have great public spaces like they do in Europe. Then he…

Look at Stanford Shopping Center in the satellite view sometime: a bunch of rectangles surrounded by an ocean of surface parking. It's much more like a conventional mall than a downtown: It's effectively walled off from the rest of the neighbordood. You're expected to go there by driving your car, and it's isolated by its massive parking lots so nobody would consider walking in or out a pleasant experience.

That's true -- but it's a requirement of SV suburbia tbh. Density isn't high enough anywhere to support retail activity without a huge investment in parking, even in downtown MV or PA.

The personal vehicle oriented commutes exacerbate this.

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#193

Post by Digory »

emodendroket wrote: post #99
radix07 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but the point is how many jobs does Amazon create delivering all those goods to you compared to say a Sears or Walmart? The modern day middlemen are doing a better job with way less people. Hence the Retail Apocalypse...

But if you read the article it describes a lot of businesses which are profitable and could plod along, except they're saddled with tons of debt from leveraged buyouts.

That struck me as bogus.

In other words, they're saying the businesses aren't profitable enough to service debt loads that were thought to be sustainable debt loads a few years ago.

That still points to lower than expected retail profit. Interest rates have been unusually low for more than a decade, so it's not like a credit spike changed the assumptions.

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#194

Post by Ologn »

For years the Roosevelt Field mall outside of New York City had a rather crummy food court. The food was mostly junk fast food, the tables were scarce and tightly packed together.

In more recent times, they redid the food court. It is bigger, with a lot more room to sit comfortably and relax a while. They have some more upscale dining choices, organic food, vegetarian food. It makes it more likely that I would stop and eat there.

I would think the competition from online made them do this. They are in a good location and didn't have to worry much about bringing in customers before.

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#196

Post by Spooky23 »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #179
unabst wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even Beverly Hills has great parking. The major bottleneck downtown is parking right now and has been for a while. SM moved fast to build multiple parking structures... and that's where all the foot traffic comes from. Not sure why DTLA is so nonchalant about this. Don't see any construction whatsoever.

You don’t see any construction in DTLA? Are we both living in 2017? It seems like every other day a new 40+ story mixed-use tower, with requisite parking structure, is breaking ground around here. The thing that baffled me about downtown’s parking situation was how so many otherwise undeveloped parking lots managed to stick around given the opportunity cost of land downtown. That was until I realized a production cre…

Parking lots are speculators.

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#197

Post by gbacon »

sanderjd wrote: post #125
onion2k wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spend, spend, spend: shop till you drop mentality. If you think malls are only about consumerism then you've misunderstood a big part of their appeal for a lot of people. Young people and groups of friends don't go to the mall on their own. Malls merge consumerism with social activity - they're for people who enjoy shopping with their friends. If that's not you then fair enough, but don't disparage malls simply becau…

I'm not a sociologist, but my feeling is that malls are just a last resort place for young people to socialize that is unstructured and free of charge. That is: there isn't really anywhere else to go be with your friends without paying for the privilege, that isn't organized by adults (like school sports or church groups for instance). When I was growing up, we had the mall and we had parking lots, and the latter was…

A recent video called “Why The Kids Need Stranger Things”[0] made exactly this point about the nostalgia of the Netflix series and how malls were a symbol of free-range kids[1]. Circumstances have changed so much that the creators assert Stranger Things could not be set in the present day.

[0]: https://youtu.be/qHl-BQXYg3s

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-range_parenting

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#198

Post by 23443463453 »

samsolomon wrote: post #102

I live near Lenox Mall and Phipps Plaza in Atlanta, and they could not be any busier. It's packed at 2pm on a Tuesday when I'm going to an eye doctor appointment. On the weekends there are often traffic issues in from people entering and leaving. I feel like it's not that malls or retailers are dying, but instead all the revenue is going to a few places with wealthy, urban locations. Perhaps this has to do with the i…

I think what this is really about is what has been going on for a while, especially since the Obama administration further imposed it upon society; the consolidation and concentration of all the things. It's the age old tradeoff between risk and efficiency; dictatorship or liberty, concentration or diversification, freedom or subjugation.

As with social "diversity" that is really about the shattering of real diversity by mixing, muddling, breaking boundaries, and polluting distinct and unique characteristics; the consolidation and concentration of people and culture, and the consolidation and concentration of the internet, among others, have all led to a "great sucking sound" of an emerging monoculture, the destruction of ACTUAL diversity, which leaves unsustainable networks in its wake that collapses upon themselves in what is in this instance being called the retail apocalypse.

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#199

Post by _ea1k »

Cyph0n wrote: post #156
nihonde wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aeon mall in Nagoya, Japan[1] was my primary daily grocery and pharmacy for years. Aeon's format is pretty much the same as most suburban American malls, but they seem to run a tighter ship and do a better job of vertical integration. (I used to marvel at how insanely mirror-clean the floors were in a place where probably a few tens of thousands of people tread daily.) Prices for things like groceries are not the low…

The UAE is similar in that malls are very organized and controlled. A typical mall would have a food court, a large arcade for kids, a daycare (or two), pharmacies, coffee shops, a book store, a furniture store, and so on. Also, unlike from what I've seen here in the US, any decent mall must contain a large supermarket (usually Carrefour). Malls in the UAE are therefore a "one stop shop" that people go to every week…

In the US, that market has been taken over by Walmart. It is effectively the "one stop shop" that people visit weekly for everything from groceries to small furniture.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if Walmart has had almost as much of a negative impact on malls as Amazon and its ilk have.

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#200

Post by lotsofpulp »

fhood wrote: post #127
falcolas wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And return them just as quickly. My wife will go through 4-5 online orders to find clothing that fits as advertised, returning a majority of each purchase. Hard for anyone but Amazon to maintain that kind of return throughput.

Plus most of us don't feel that returning five orders is more convenient than going to the store.

Also depends on how often you can find your size. The return packaging is usually pretty easy and a label is inside too.
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