Mall department stores were struggling; the pandemic has pushed them to the edge • Hacker News Board

Re: Mall department stores were struggling; the pandemic has pushed them to the edge

#211

Post by newsbinator » Sat, Apr 24, 2021, 10:14 AM UTC

beambot wrote: post #79

Malls could be the best co-working offices. Ample daytime parking, baller food courts, medical facilities, hair dressers, dentists, cafes, movie theaters, entertainment, etc all under one roof.

Waydowntown (2000)

> The film centres on a group of office colleagues in downtown Calgary, Alberta, who bet a month's salary on who can last the longest without going outside by using the system of covered walkways that connect the buildings. The film takes place over one lunch hour on day 28 of the month-long competition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waydowntown

Re: Mall department stores were struggling; the pandemic has pushed them to the edge

#212

Post by drzhouq » Sat, Apr 24, 2021, 10:16 AM UTC

bsder wrote: post #12

How many of these are genuinely because the store couldn't make a profit vs got saddled by a bunch of private equity financial engineering debt? Guitar Center is a good example--if you sent them through a full blown Chapter 7 where they could finally discharge the stupid private equity debt they would be a perfectly profitable running business.

Wow. Thanks. I didn't know this is a thing. Had to Google and learn. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2017/01/23/how-privat...

Re: Mall department stores were struggling; the pandemic has pushed them to the edge

#213

Post by cableshaft » Sat, Apr 24, 2021, 10:20 AM UTC

ilyanep wrote: post #122

beambot wrote: post #79

Malls could be the best co-working offices. Ample daytime parking, baller food courts, medical facilities, hair dressers, dentists, cafes, movie theaters, entertainment, etc all under one roof.

I love how in the US, instead of building all these services and offices near each other and walkable from people's homes, we insist on ideas that force people to drive dozens of miles to get a walkable and convenient experience.

I once had a thought experiment of how a suburban city could be reworked with a focus on coworking centers.

Like the center of a neighborhood would be a coworking center and a park, it could be surrounded on each side by a subdivision, and the corners could be commercial/services. That way you'd be able to easily walk to your job if you wanted, and head home to let out pets or have lunch, no problem.

It would require pretty much everyone to move to coworking for it to be viable, though, and you might find out you don't like spending so much time with your neighbors.

Re: Mall department stores were struggling; the pandemic has pushed them to the edge

#214

Post by cableshaft » Sat, Apr 24, 2021, 10:31 AM UTC

agogdog wrote: post #160

ilyanep wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love how in the US, instead of building all these services and offices near each other and walkable from people's homes, we insist on ideas that force people to drive dozens of miles to get a walkable and convenient experience.

After living in various parts of Europe for a few years and coming back, the US way of doing it seems mind-boggingly wasteful. Huge swaths of our country are long roads that lead to massive parking lots. And of course we're obese, many people couldn't walk to accomplish errands if they wanted to.

I've been watching some Virtual Japan videos on YouTube lately, and it was really interesting how so many major streets in Japan don't seem to even be built for cars, people just walk in the center of the street and from location to location no problem, there might be some motorbikes but that's about it.

I don't think I've ever been to a city where they decide they don't need cars on their major streets. All of our cities presuppose that enough people will need to drive through it, and everything is much more spaced out because of it.

I'm sure Europe is similar.

Like here's one of Harajuku: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VXKHlhJzd0

Re: Mall department stores were struggling; the pandemic has pushed them to the edge

#215

Post by pram » Sat, Apr 24, 2021, 10:33 AM UTC

proc0 wrote: post #141

beambot wrote: post #79

Malls could be the best co-working offices. Ample daytime parking, baller food courts, medical facilities, hair dressers, dentists, cafes, movie theaters, entertainment, etc all under one roof.

Many malls I've been to had working offices on some floor or section of it, but they're not as visible as the store fronts. I'm sure they are great offices as well.

AWS in Dallas was literally in a mall (dunno if it still is)

Re: Mall department stores were struggling; the pandemic has pushed them to the edge

#216

Post by Tade0 » Sat, Apr 24, 2021, 10:36 AM UTC

rlayton2 wrote: post #155

Malls (shopping centres here in Australia) are terrible experiences. I don't like shopping, but the general process for shopping at a such a place is: 1) Drive some distance to get there 2) Park in a cramped car park, where the size of the parks is generally as small as legally allowed 3) Walk through the same car park, which bizarrely doesn't have walking ways for people to safely go through 4) Go to the shop and se…

I'm kind of thankful for the pandemic, because it forced more businesses to provide an option to shop for groceries online.

I know I won't be going back to this exhausting 3h weekly ritual.

Re: Mall department stores were struggling; the pandemic has pushed them to the edge

#217

Post by timcederman » Sat, Apr 24, 2021, 10:39 AM UTC

rlayton2 wrote: post #155

Malls (shopping centres here in Australia) are terrible experiences. I don't like shopping, but the general process for shopping at a such a place is: 1) Drive some distance to get there 2) Park in a cramped car park, where the size of the parks is generally as small as legally allowed 3) Walk through the same car park, which bizarrely doesn't have walking ways for people to safely go through 4) Go to the shop and se…

I am baffled at the shopping culture in Australia and how happy most people seem to be with it.

Re: Mall department stores were struggling; the pandemic has pushed them to the edge

#218

Post by koolba » Sat, Apr 24, 2021, 10:40 AM UTC

The end state of US malls is going to be when Amazon secretly purchases a large number of them, converts the department stores into distribution centers, opens them en masse, and provides a $1/item discount for orders picked up at the mall.

That will provide the necessary foot traffic to rent out the rest of the mall to small time players that will try to compete with Amazon. Unfortunately, they'll have all their sales tracked by Ring cameras, and eventually have their offerings cloned as Amazon Basics knock offs. On the plus side the food court and restaurants will do fine as there will be plenty of people burning $2 of gas to save $1 on a $10 made in China knickknack.

Re: Mall department stores were struggling; the pandemic has pushed them to the edge

#219

Post by GordonS » Sat, Apr 24, 2021, 10:49 AM UTC

rlayton2 wrote: post #155

Malls (shopping centres here in Australia) are terrible experiences. I don't like shopping, but the general process for shopping at a such a place is: 1) Drive some distance to get there 2) Park in a cramped car park, where the size of the parks is generally as small as legally allowed 3) Walk through the same car park, which bizarrely doesn't have walking ways for people to safely go through 4) Go to the shop and se…

This exactly the same in the UK - I absolutely hate parking in those cramped multi-storey car parks, where after parking you can only open your door about an inch, and have to kind of ooze out of your car. Getting back in is even worse!

I would have imagined things in Australia were different (more like US), what with how much land there is.

Re: Mall department stores were struggling; the pandemic has pushed them to the edge

#220

Post by cableshaft » Sat, Apr 24, 2021, 10:49 AM UTC

hossbeast wrote: post #132

JoeDaDude wrote: post #64

First they got rid of the music stores. Then bookstores disappeared. Without them, there is no fun in going to the mall, haven't been to one in ages.

And before that, the arcades.

I loved going to arcades. They're still somewhat around here (including the largest arcade in the US, Galloping Ghost), but they're almost exclusively older games at this point, and they're mainly free-play. Which is still good, but it used to be cool having a stack of quarters and seeing how far you could stretch them.

https://www.gallopingghostarcade.com/