The Atlanta metro area has 17 malls. A third are struggling and a third are thriving.
Are Malls Over?
21–30 of 242 posts
Re: Are Malls Over?
#22How does the profit hierarchy work in a mall? Do the owners of the real estate see a larger margin than they would if owning an aggregate of locations outside of the mall?
Re: Are Malls Over?
#23NYTimes had an article a few days ago[1] about Sbarro's bankruptcy that touched on this topic - basically, Sbarro bet big on shopping mall food courts, and that bet has not paid off.
But the more interesting part is at the end - as shopping malls become less desirable, rents will go down. This could lead to a radical reinvention of what a mall looks and feels like. So malls as we know them might be dead, but "the mall" isn't done yet.
[1] http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/this-is-the-rea...
Re: Are Malls Over?
#24Not in Australia. We've probably had over $2 billion in re-development and upgrades integer biggest six shopping centres around the city I live in over the last three years... The one a ten minute drive from my house is wrapping up a two year, $450 million upgrade this half of the year. Pretty crazy, but they are doing pretty well making them places where you might actually want to be, which is important now online shopping has meant they are no longer places you need to go.
Re: Are Malls Over?
#25I sure hope not. Some of my fondest memories when I was growing up in the States was visiting stores like JC Penny, the random Electronics store or Jack's Joke Shop with my parents, then swinging by the food court and eating some Sbarros pizza. When I come back home, I would like to take my son to the mall as well and spend the morning just browsing around and buying trinkets. It's fun! Amazon may be cheaper but come…
What about if you did all that, but in your city center? I'd argue that that would have been a better experience than the mall.
1. Not everyone lives in or near a city.
2. Parking
3. Convenience. It's much easier to walk around a mall in winter than it is a city centre.
Re: Are Malls Over?
#26I sure hope not. Some of my fondest memories when I was growing up in the States was visiting stores like JC Penny, the random Electronics store or Jack's Joke Shop with my parents, then swinging by the food court and eating some Sbarros pizza. When I come back home, I would like to take my son to the mall as well and spend the morning just browsing around and buying trinkets. It's fun! Amazon may be cheaper but come…
What about if you did all that, but in your city center? I'd argue that that would have been a better experience than the mall.
I live in Southern California suburbia. The nearest true city center is an hour metro train ride away, while the nearest mall is a ten minute drive. For me (and millions of others here) the malls are more convenient.
Re: Are Malls Over?
#27I can't even remember the last time I set foot in a mall. I think it was to try on a suit, but even trying on clothes will be virtualized with augmented reality. Other than being a destination place to hang out, I don't see much utility in malls.
Whether a suit fits you and you like how it feels are two different things.
Re: Are Malls Over?
#28NYTimes had an article a few days ago[1] about Sbarro's bankruptcy that touched on this topic - basically, Sbarro bet big on shopping mall food courts, and that bet has not paid off. But the more interesting part is at the end - as shopping malls become less desirable, rents will go down. This could lead to a radical reinvention of what a mall looks and feels like. So malls as we know them might be dead, but "the mal…
Rents may well go down, and many malls may live a second life as anything from indoor paintball arena ( http://www.specialopspaintball.com/forum/index.php?showtopic... ), megachurch ( http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/report-megachurch-in-... ) to a secure datacenter ( http://www.lifelinedatacenters.com/data-center/indianapolis%... ) , but will anyone build new malls? I mean carriage houses have been renovated into everything from B & Bs to pubs to studios, but the carriage house is still dead.
If no one is willing to spend the money to seriously build a new mall then the mall is dead. It will still be part of the landscape for a while, just as you can see the remains of failed fast food chains, nuclear weapon launch sites, and pre-bussing decentralized high schools, but that is just reuse.
Re: Are Malls Over?
#29I can't even remember the last time I set foot in a mall. I think it was to try on a suit, but even trying on clothes will be virtualized with augmented reality. Other than being a destination place to hang out, I don't see much utility in malls.
Augmented reality won't tell me that two pairs of pants, from the same store, that say they are 30 inches long at the waist, are really 29 and 31. Different colors mean different suppliers and different results.
The technology that will tell us if some pants are a good fit or not is still nowhere near where it need to be.
Many other stores will die quickly though.
Re: Are Malls Over?
#30Instead of "reinventing malls", how about "reinventing" what's left of the downtown shopping district in cities and towns? I think the only way to compete with online shopping and with Wal-Mart, is with an experience that goes beyond efficient commerce. Some people, some of the time, will gravitate toward an authentic in-person social environment that is interesting overall, and which happens to include interesting s…
You get it. We need to fix a lot of American mass transit infrastructure though to make this feasible. Getting into the city is not easy or cheap in many places in the United States. And we cannot just rely on the cheap trick of using parking garages and highways to get people into the city anymore - that's part of what killed cities in the first place.
I agree, and I'm definitely thinking of larger cities, in part.
I'm also thinking of smaller towns. People may drive there, park, then walk around and enjoy it -- and spend money. There are towns like this around New England, for example. They're destinations people want to visit or live in. If instead the town had a Wal-Mart, it wouldn't be the same economic benefit to the town. Who would visit for that?
Of course even better if there were rail service to the town. I'm not disagreeing with you, there. I'm just pointing out that this isn't only an urbanista issue. I think it matters as much, maybe even more so, for smaller cities and towns.