The worst is yet to come for American shopping malls
money.cnn.com
The worst is yet to come for American shopping malls
1–10 of 54 posts
Re: The worst is yet to come for American shopping malls
#2Someone told me about a mall in Cincinnati that was now a ghost town. I visited it a few months ago and it's surreal. Over half the storefronts have blacked out windows. Almost all the remaining stores have all conglomerated on one side of the building. I was pretty shocked when I saw my favourite body jewelry store was still there. I bought some earrings.
Re: The worst is yet to come for American shopping malls
#3I clicked this headline thinking "hmm it's not going to be Howard Davidowitz banging this old drum?" and sure enough it's Howard Davidowitz with his same talking points one decade later...
Re: The worst is yet to come for American shopping malls
#4Maybe someone from the US can clarify this for me: are people upset about this as an indicator for the economic changes happening at the moment, or are they genuinely concerned about the malls themselves?
Never having left Europe myself, I could relate to the former, but not to the latter. What makes those malls so... relevant?
Re: The worst is yet to come for American shopping malls
#5Dan Bell's Dead Mall Series is oddly depressing and he often gives some back story into their declines.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNz4Un92pGNxQ9vNgmnCx...
A common theme appears to be either struggling footfall or the fact that what I guess are major US anchor stores (Maceys, Sears, KMart) going through tough times. Once the anchors move out, it becomes difficult to run the mall.
Interestingly, in one video, the Mall was half turned into offices, and it had a thriving food hall which I thought was a great idea to keep it relevant. No other dead malls in the series appear to adapt so they become ghost towns then abandoned and later demolished.
A shame really.
Re: The worst is yet to come for American shopping malls
#6In New Zealand and Australia (and I'm sure many other places, but those are the ones I know first-hand) malls also feature supermarkets, post offices, and banks. They're designed to be a destination for not just "recreational" shopping but day-to-day errands. Always missed that when in US malls, and apparently they're still not cottoning on.
Re: The worst is yet to come for American shopping malls
#7To summarise the summary:
- Amazon is taking all their business and will continue to do so even more
Longer summary:
- shopping malls have been in decline for years
- the decline seems likely to continue due to amazon's growth
- once large department stores leave, smaller shops lose customers who would have passed them on the way to the larger store
- smaller stores often have break clauses in their leases in case this very thing happens
- this has been said before
Re: The worst is yet to come for American shopping malls
#8In New Zealand and Australia (and I'm sure many other places, but those are the ones I know first-hand) malls also feature supermarkets, post offices, and banks. They're designed to be a destination for not just "recreational" shopping but day-to-day errands. Always missed that when in US malls, and apparently they're still not cottoning on.
In the US, malls have been fighting that trend. Until recently they saw those stores as a cancer. Grocery stores and work-out locations would 'push out' the high dollar customers. Of course the internet is taking away those high dollar customers so the malls need those stores now.
I stay away from the big local mall because of the lack of security. Also 2/3's of the mall are women's clothing stores. There nothing really there for me anyone more.
The next closest mall is a rotting heap that is kept alive by the marker space and a theater. They need to repave the parking lot and fix the roof to attract new good stores.
Re: The worst is yet to come for American shopping malls
#9Maybe someone from the US can clarify this for me: are people upset about this as an indicator for the economic changes happening at the moment, or are they genuinely concerned about the malls themselves? Never having left Europe myself, I could relate to the former, but not to the latter. What makes those malls so... relevant?
Malls have roughly the same function as "main streets" do in European towns - a relatively neutral public space - and I suspect the worry for their demise is largely the same as the worry for the demise of the main street in Europe.
Re: The worst is yet to come for American shopping malls
#10Maybe someone from the US can clarify this for me: are people upset about this as an indicator for the economic changes happening at the moment, or are they genuinely concerned about the malls themselves? Never having left Europe myself, I could relate to the former, but not to the latter. What makes those malls so... relevant?
Mostly the former probably, but for many it's the latter as well. Malls historically were a central gathering point where many people burnt an entire day just shopping around, grabbing lunch at the food court, and just in general "hanging out". It's where the term Mallrat (and the move _Mallrats_) gets their naming from.
In more recent years it's not as important and the day trips probably aren't there, but many still flock to malls around holidays for shopping and also during the summers in places where climate control is either too expensive or unavailable for people (same with theaters). Likewise, just having a large availability of stores and a place to put the kids (or just to meet in general) is still really important. Older folk also enjoy walking the mall as it's a large and safe area (also climate controlled).
So basically, it still has some functions in society beyond being representative of general economic health.