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Are Malls Over?

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Re: Are Malls Over?

#211

Post by navbaker »

dagw wrote: post #167
WalterBright wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years ago I went to a mall in Stuttgart. The interesting thing was I could have been in any mall in America. The layout, architecture, parking garage, etc., was right out of the US, and even the advertising was all in English. It's like eating at McDonald's in Tokyo. What's the point?

What's the point? To quote Pulp fiction "It's the little differences". I love going to malls and supermarkets when I'm in a new country or city. Sure they're 95% the same, but those other 5% are often unique for the area and quite telling.

The Villagio in Doha is a good example of little differences, like an ice skating rink located in the middle of the food court and a knock-off of the Venetian's canal running through it.

Re: Are Malls Over?

#212

Post by mortenjorck »

pimlottc wrote: post #206
Spooky23 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great point. The article's example of the Apple store as a model of a retailer that "just plunks a glass cube on busy shopping streets" is pretty clueless. Most Apple stores are in malls! I think the issue with Malls is that in 1980-something, your choices were dying downtowns, department stores or the Sears/LL Bean/whatever catalog. For food it was local places, McDonalds/Burger King/Wendy's. The mall offered more c…

> Most Apple stores are in malls! Are they? Do you have data on that? I am by no means an expert on Apple stores but of the ones I've seen, only one was in a traditional enclosed mall.

In my experience, Apple stores are freestanding in dense urban centers, and located in shopping malls in suburban areas. I haven't seen any exceptions to this rule so far.

Re: Are Malls Over?

#213

Post by mortenjorck »

jarek wrote: post #150
Patrick_Devine wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a picture of where I went to college: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Courtyard... You can think of it as Caprica from Battlestar Galactica, or the FBI HQ in the X Files. Brutalism in its full glory. Even crazier is the library: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Library-SFU-Burnaby-Britis...

I know some people have a rather low opinion about SFU academics, but maybe calling it a college is a little harsh ;) U of T did you one better: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Robarts_Library.JPG

I consider myself a fan of Brutalist architecture in all its bulky, muscular glory, but Robarts just about borders on frightening to me.

Re: Are Malls Over?

#214

Post by Spooky23 »

pimlottc wrote: post #206
Spooky23 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great point. The article's example of the Apple store as a model of a retailer that "just plunks a glass cube on busy shopping streets" is pretty clueless. Most Apple stores are in malls! I think the issue with Malls is that in 1980-something, your choices were dying downtowns, department stores or the Sears/LL Bean/whatever catalog. For food it was local places, McDonalds/Burger King/Wendy's. The mall offered more c…

> Most Apple stores are in malls! Are they? Do you have data on that? I am by no means an expert on Apple stores but of the ones I've seen, only one was in a traditional enclosed mall.

They definitely have many stores in large urban centers. Click around on the store list, the majority are mall based.

If your city has a freestanding, non-outlet Gap, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel or Williams Sonoma, you are probably worthy of a freestanding Apple store. Otherwise, it will be in an upscale mall near those stores.

Re: Are Malls Over?

#215

Post by [deleted] »

pimlottc wrote: post #206
Spooky23 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great point. The article's example of the Apple store as a model of a retailer that "just plunks a glass cube on busy shopping streets" is pretty clueless. Most Apple stores are in malls! I think the issue with Malls is that in 1980-something, your choices were dying downtowns, department stores or the Sears/LL Bean/whatever catalog. For food it was local places, McDonalds/Burger King/Wendy's. The mall offered more c…

> Most Apple stores are in malls! Are they? Do you have data on that? I am by no means an expert on Apple stores but of the ones I've seen, only one was in a traditional enclosed mall.

[deleted]

Re: Are Malls Over?

#216

Post by zevyoura »

yasth wrote: post #28
untog wrote: post #23

NYTimes 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 i…

> just as you can see the remains of failed fast food chains

There was an interesting recent episode of 99% Invisible about re-using old Pizza Huts: http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/u-t-b-a-p-h/

Re: Are Malls Over?

#217

Post by ryanhuff »

sizzle wrote: post #159
ryanhuff wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

there are more "open air" shopping plazas here in socal than I can count, which I think is the reason indoor malls are a dying breed here: our weather isn't bad enough to warrant indoor shopping + the population/foot traffic here in California is growing and highly congested compared to other states.

Agreed. Some very popular malls in socal are of the open-air variety. I was replying to the parent, who mentioned "city center".

Re: Are Malls Over?

#218

Post by erdle2 »

untog wrote: post #23

NYTimes 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…

And bare in mind that the average mall was only able to be financed by the big tentpole retailers such as JC Penny, Sears, Best Buy, etc. So if Sbarro can't pay their rent... how much longer can the big boys?

Except the larger stores that anchor a mall actually pay less per square foot than the smaller stores. In order to get financing for a large mall, backers want to see big names signed on. So a mall developer goes out and lands a big fish and promises them a sweetheart deal. So right now you have the little guys paying full price not being able to pay. So it's only a matter of time before the discounted big boys can't. One of the big exceptions being sporting good stores such as Dick's.

Source: Worked on a very sad customer loyalty program for Simon Property Group, Inc.

Re: Are Malls Over?

#219

Post by PakG1 »

mortenjorck wrote: post #212
pimlottc wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most Apple stores are in malls! Are they? Do you have data on that? I am by no means an expert on Apple stores but of the ones I've seen, only one was in a traditional enclosed mall.

In my experience, Apple stores are freestanding in dense urban centers, and located in shopping malls in suburban areas. I haven't seen any exceptions to this rule so far.

That's interesting, I've never seen a single freestanding Apple store before.

Re: Are Malls Over?

#220

Post by pjbrunet »

I find "indoor" malls are great for working on code. Even in bad weather you can take a break and stretch your legs, do some window shopping and then get back down to work. It's nice to have a predictable environment like that. Also malls tend to have high, airy ceilings. I'm no architect but I find large open spaces to be pleasant, for lack of a better word, especially for cerebral work. IKEA is a great place to work on code too. Free coffee.
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