Are Malls Over? • Hacker News Board

Re: Are Malls Over?

#51

Post by interstitial » Sun, Mar 16, 2014, 4:40 PM UTC

bluedino wrote: post #48

Malls are on life support. Our local mall has 3 anchor stores: Macys, JC Penny, and Sears. Two of those three have reported sales increases in the last quarter but it's a mystery on how Sears stays in business. The other popular stores are all gone - American Eagle, The Gap, etc. Instead, new tenants have replaced them which make the place look like an indoor flea market. Also enhancing the flea market look are the k…

Those anchor stores are on life support. New channel anchors: American Girl, Apple Stores, etc, etc. What is dead is price-based stores the internet has replaced.

Re: Are Malls Over?

#52

Post by kimmel » Sun, Mar 16, 2014, 4:41 PM UTC

The city I live in now only has 2 traditional style malls left. When I moved here numerous years ago it had 7 malls, all of which were accessible by bus. That is a major change and there has been no new malls built. The buildings just stand there like relics of a time gone past. Retail and restaurants have moved into existing strip malls that had space available due to businesses folding. Back where I grew up it is the same story.

I miss the tradition malls because some had unique and good food places. As well as arcades, movie theaters, and places to hang out. Malls that are thriving do so because there is enough population around to support the businesses and they have new stores coming in to fill out the empty spaces.

Re: Are Malls Over?

#53

Post by mikeleeorg » Sun, Mar 16, 2014, 4:41 PM UTC

bhauer wrote: post #33

This again? I remember reading malls were over 15 years ago and yet all of the malls in my corner of Los Angeles are still open and thriving. All have been renovated at least once since the first batch of "malls are over" articles many years back. Some have converted a bit of their indoor space to outdoor (such as Del Amo in Torrance, which was one of the largest in the United States). Some have converted from outdoo…

I think the malls in LA and Southern California in general have done a good job in reinventing themselves as destinations rather than merely shopping centers. Especially for teens. Downtown Disney is a good example.

A lot of those outdoor destinations even seem centered around a movie theater now, which one might predict is also on the decline - though every time I've visited these places, they seem pretty packed. (At least, on weekends.)

Re: Are Malls Over?

#54

Post by jimktrains2 » Sun, Mar 16, 2014, 4:44 PM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #25

jimktrains2 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Doesn't have to be a big city. Imagine if a small town center had stores and restaurants now!

I think parking can be dealt with in a city center.

I like winter :-p I know not everyone does, though.

Re: Are Malls Over?

#55

Post by jimktrains2 » Sun, Mar 16, 2014, 4:45 PM UTC

ryanhuff wrote: post #26

jimktrains2 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's by design though. There isn't a reason your town (or a close one) center can't have stores in it.

Re: Are Malls Over?

#56

Post by interstitial » Sun, Mar 16, 2014, 4:45 PM UTC

mbillie1 wrote: post #40

I hope they're dying - malls are miserable places to spend time.

As opposed to the DMV, the post office, the ER waiting room and other paragons of bureaucracy?

Re: Are Malls Over?

#57

Post by giantrobothead » Sun, Mar 16, 2014, 4:50 PM UTC

When I was a wee lad, my Grandmother used to spend days with me while my parents were working, and after say, a morning in the park, we'd go to the mall and get lunch at the restaurant in JC Penney's.

It was run by a gentleman of Greek descent, whom my Grandmother knew, as she seemed to know everyone, and served brunch, lunch, dinner, like any other small cafe. I would routinely get a hot dog, served on toasted white bread. It was tremendous.

I miss those days, and the subsequent teen years of the nineties spent mall-ratting with my friends, hitting the record store, book store, the arcade (don't get me started on the demise of the video game arcade) people-watching...

Times change, and I assume, so will these structures, whether it be to fade into irrelevance or transform into something vibrant and communal again.

Re: Are Malls Over?

#58

Post by ams6110 » Sun, Mar 16, 2014, 4:51 PM UTC

meddlepal wrote: post #16

6cxs2hd6 wrote: post #12

Instead 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.

Mass transit is OK for commuters who can tolerate the homeless-shelter-on-wheels aspect of it, but not good for shoppers, since it limits your per-trip purchases to what you can carry.

Re: Are Malls Over?

#59

Post by jimmaswell » Sun, Mar 16, 2014, 4:52 PM UTC

The malls around me are doing just fine. My friends and I find them to be a fine place to go occasionally. I've always found them to be a nice place to be around. I don't really get the complaints about them in this thread. That law of headlines thing applies here.

Re: Are Malls Over?

#60

Post by pessimizer » Sun, Mar 16, 2014, 4:54 PM UTC

Yes. They were a horrible substitute for public spaces anyway. Now the malls aren't the only alternative to teenagers wandering the streets engaging in aimless vandalism; they can stare into screens 12 hours a day, yet still shop and gossip (and engage in aimless vandalism.) Also, Amazon.com doesn't have to pay taxes, because Internet, so that's accelerating the decline of all physical retail. Malls weren't doing great before Amazon - deadmalls is nearly a dead site, it's been around so long.

The only good places for malls are cute little cities that attract a lot of small town tourists, and places with a lot of people too old to understand the internet but rich enough to not have to work.