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

washingtonpost.com

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

#251

Post by citizenkeen »

vasco wrote: post #121
samatman wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok but the perfect isn't the enemy of the good here. Being able to go for a climate-controlled one-kilometer walk every lunch break is a real luxury for a lot of people, it's way better than a cell in some high-rise near the highway. The mall could have a hackerspace too! It has potential.

The simple solution is work from home because most people already have a home, and simple solutions win. The only reason you're mentioning malls is because they are there, but unless you're a mall-walker on the weekends, I'm pretty sure the average developer's definition of a good lunch break isn't "walking past the mall McDonald's 3 times before returning to your mall wework" or whatever.

Why are you assuming developers?

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

#252

Post by Spooky23 »

brudgers wrote: post #152
Spooky23 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really captured the real driver of a lot of real estate policy — the cash. Money people need things as simple as possible to package risk.

People think there are ways for the market to produce non-market outcomes. And don’t realize the scale at which market makers operate is qualitatively different from normal experience with real-estate. For big money quick profits are a problem.

As a layman, it almost seems like a either “quick profit” or “zero risk”.

A family friend opened a bakery. Finding a storefront was an insane process, in some cases it’s apparent that the landlord doesn’t want to rent out the space, it’s been vacant for 4 years and rent is... aspirational.

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

#253

Post by selimthegrim »

cableshaft wrote: post #224
selimthegrim wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sbarro seems to have redone itself in the last few years so I’ll renounce my previous hatred but I have an unreasonable affection for Orange Julius, even if I have to sit in a DQ drive thru. It’s unpretentious and undemanding. The Jeffrey Archer novel (ok maybe I should say mindless instead of unpretentious) of drinks.

A car oasis that used to be along my commute has a Sbarro that serves breakfast, and it's pretty great. Scrambled eggs, sausage links, potatoes, and several different breakfast calzones. I often stopped there in the mornings.

Yes, the ones on the PA turnpike have redone themselves to great effect.

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

#254

Post by bradlys »

csomar wrote: post #229
barbazoo wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% agree. It drives me bonkers that even now with towns and cities expanding and new town centres forming, there's still a strict separation between residential and commercial use. Why not allow spaces for light commercial use in apartment buildings?

> Why not allow spaces for light commercial use in apartment buildings? Noise.

Solvable with quality construction but probably asking too much. No one wants to pay that bill.

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

#255

Post by admax88q »

pharmakom wrote: post #201
beambot wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where does the money come from? Cities are cash-strapped, which makes demolition & park development unlikely. Existing property owners aren't exactly in the business of giving away prime realestate or operating charities -- they'd probably opt for more suburban housing developments.

Cities are cash strapped due to low density sprawl, of which malls are just one kind.

Cities are not cash strapped, they just claim to be when they don't want to pay for something. Most cities have tons of cash flow paying for roads, services like garbage/recycling, maintaining existing parks.

If they really cant find the money sell it to developers to make condos or single family homes.

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

#256

Post by noir_lord »

alistairSH wrote: post #241
noir_lord wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are 3 up (two adults, 1 child) in a 2 bed flat (apartment) with no garden and for the last year both my partner and I have been WFH full time (in my case I changed job to one that is 100% remote forever). I couldn't agree more, the transition for me was trivial - I'm a developer who plays games, I already had a nice chair, two 27" 4K displays and a fast desktop so for me my hardware/comfort improved - for my partn…

Just curious, where are you that you're moving from a small-ish flat to a home with enough garden space for a stand-alone ADU/man-cave/office? I assume you're moving out of the city and into the suburbs or similar? I wonder if the last year of WFH will actually make suburban sprawl worse in the short- to medium-term? Lots of people moving out of city flats into suburban homes for just the reasons you mention. I can't…

Apartment thats 10m from city center I had when we got together to a much larger house in a smaller town on the outskirts (actually the town I grew up in, small world).

I'm in the UK but in the north earning a southern developers salary so that gives us a lot of options.

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

#257

Post by SquibblesRedux »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #88
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.

Malls as coworking space would be literally the arcologies of dystopian cyberpunk. No windows, no natural light, never going outside in the real, natural world. Just one giant homogenised hermetically sealed world. It wouldn't be "best" for many people. Maybe "convenient" for bosses who don't like how much productivity they lose when a Meat Flavoured Productivity Unit has to go get a haircut or imbibe sustenance....

I think you have described Logan's Run. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run_(film)

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

#258

Post by emodendroket »

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.

Rackspace used to do this a lot but I guess they’ve probably scaled back.

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

#259

Post by emodendroket »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #88
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.

Malls as coworking space would be literally the arcologies of dystopian cyberpunk. No windows, no natural light, never going outside in the real, natural world. Just one giant homogenised hermetically sealed world. It wouldn't be "best" for many people. Maybe "convenient" for bosses who don't like how much productivity they lose when a Meat Flavoured Productivity Unit has to go get a haircut or imbibe sustenance....

Have you considered that when the mall was prosperous there were already a ton of people working there?

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

#260

Post by emodendroket »

vasco wrote: post #121
samatman wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok but the perfect isn't the enemy of the good here. Being able to go for a climate-controlled one-kilometer walk every lunch break is a real luxury for a lot of people, it's way better than a cell in some high-rise near the highway. The mall could have a hackerspace too! It has potential.

The simple solution is work from home because most people already have a home, and simple solutions win. The only reason you're mentioning malls is because they are there, but unless you're a mall-walker on the weekends, I'm pretty sure the average developer's definition of a good lunch break isn't "walking past the mall McDonald's 3 times before returning to your mall wework" or whatever.

Not sure that everybody having large home offices is simpler or more practical.
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