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In the 1980's people wrote about malls as cultural centers, as temples to shopping. Now, they're dying.
Many observers are speculating about the growing trend of so-called dead malls: once-flourishing, large retail spaces that now have a high vacancy rate, low numbers of pedestrian traffic, or the lack of an "anchor" store (typically a department chain). Is it because of economic recession, or stagnant middle-class wages and growing income inequality? Or has the death of these malls been hastened by the rapid growth of online shopping?
It's difficult to say, but the dead mall phenomenon is becoming a cultural item of interest -- for retail historians, urban explorers and documentarians alike. We may read about dead malls in The New York Times or The Atlantic, but film footage can say much more than words.
Is Amazon to blame?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday April 25 2017, @04:53PM (15 children)
I have heard that open air malls are doing well. Get a clothing store, theater, restaurants, etc. Into one area. Lower operating costs than an air conditioned mall.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday April 25 2017, @04:57PM (14 children)
Where did you "hear" this? From the companies pushing these things?
They're nice enough when the weather is nice. What about when it's below freezing, or when it's over 90F? What about when it's raining? There's a reason we humans invented the "roof".
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday April 25 2017, @05:17PM (5 children)
You can have cover to block rain and provide shade. And if it's cold outside, you just enter a shop/restaurant/pub/whatever.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/03/death-enclosed-mall [motherjones.com]
https://newrepublic.com/article/121203/american-malls-are-changing-their-look-and-their-tactics [newrepublic.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday April 25 2017, @06:30PM (3 children)
you just enter a shop/restaurant/pub/whatever.
Yeah whats up with the design pattern that all strip malls seem to have the same stores?
At every intersection of two major arterial roads, there's the Chinese takeout place, the manicure place that is always next door to the Chinese takeout, there's a bank branch or mortgage company or payday loan(shark) (or worst of all, title-loans), a pizza place, some kind of dollar store or a grocery store or pharmacy. 50:50 on a new fitness type of gym (like not a giant Golds but more of a 24-anytime-fitness mini-gym, there's one about every mile in every direction). Again 50:50 on a Starbucks coffee. A fast food joint or panera bread or juice dealer (jamba, whatever) probably in the parking lot. Now repeat that 2000 feet down the road in every direction. Every strip mall is the same.
Now whats interesting is its very unusual to have a store that doesn't fit the formula. I live near the Asians in a wealthy area so we have a Kumon. I don't want to get into a Kumon debate but we'll just say it seems to work very well teaching math to asian kids but not so much my kids. And a town to the east the biggest strip mall has, of all things, a Hooters restaurant. And thats the only variation in formula I can think of for several dozen strip malls, the formula is pretty strict.
(Score: 2) by nethead on Wednesday April 26 2017, @02:52AM (2 children)
When I was young, decades ago, I always wanted to travel America. Now that I have the means and enough vacation a year to do so, why? It's all turned into an infinite loop of what you described. Traveling for business, I found it all mostly the same, Tampa, St. Louis, Huntington Beach, Philly, Boesman, Wasilla, wherever. About the only way I've found to avoid that is to follow the coast through poor little towns that can't afford the strip mall. Anyplace over about 15k population has gone chain.
How did my SN UID end up over 3 times my /. UID?
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Wednesday April 26 2017, @12:50PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday April 26 2017, @03:08PM
If its any consolation, its nothing new, decades ago uncle sam sent me to various military bases in the US (never did get overseas) and obviously military bases are interchangeable but the usual town that grows up around the base was also mostly interchangeable.
Getting out in the field, the wilderness is highly variable, however.
In the field the difference between, I donno, Ft Dix and Redstone is pretty obvious, but in garrison (barracks buildings) or in town you can't tell.
Its very easy to get a Whopper at Ft Dix or at Redstone, or at least it used to be, but its pretty hard to get regional food.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday April 25 2017, @08:37PM
I've been to the newer lifestyle centers in the Phoenix area; there's no cover there. Rain isn't a big problem of course, but sunlight is. So they were really nice to visit in the winter (there is no fall or spring in Phoenix), but in the summer forget it. No thanks, I don't want to stroll around in 115 degree heat.
(Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Tuesday April 25 2017, @06:00PM (4 children)
There is also a regular mall even closer to my house and parking is never an issue there. Store turnover there is brutal and we expect its Macy's, JC Penney and Sears anchor stores to go tits up any minute. Foot traffic inside the mall is not what it was just a few years ago.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday April 25 2017, @08:42PM (2 children)
I'm really starting to wonder how much of this is "white flight": the poorer minorities are hanging out at the older malls, and the richer white people are flocking to the newer "lifestyle centers" despite the exposure to the elements, because the minorities aren't there (and the minorities don't bother because it's outdoors, and because there's no stores there that interest them).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday April 25 2017, @09:27PM (1 child)
There was a recent alt-right discussion about how SWPL left wing people survive as minorities in urban environments by weaponizing SWPL-ness, the 2 million brown people in the city don't care about vegan drum circles and thats how the SWPLs self-preserve in pure white admittedly toxically left wing enclaves, the larger group they live in is very diverse but the people they hang out with at the Kombucha farm or the dredlock hair dresser or antifa bar is less diverse than the right wing people in the burbs experience. I have seen that in person, visiting a Whole Foods in the hood and that was the only building for a couple miles around that was whiter than a Klan meeting. Well, or an antifa meeting, those are always pasty pale white too. Its like using left wing white culture as a gated community to keep the minorities out, which is how they survive.
Its relevant to the discussion because that is basically your "because there's no stores there that interest them"
That's my local mall's strategy. Remember during the election Hillary wore these weird $8K Chairman Mao pantsuit outfits? There's a whole store at the mall selling those and they don't appeal much to the "hip hop urbanware crowd".
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 26 2017, @12:26AM
No msg.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 26 2017, @06:15PM
at ours.
I think they ended up merging a pair of Men's and Women's stores into one at one location, but the rest have closed. Furthermore Sears is awaiting K-Mart going bankrupt and then it will be gone too.
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Tuesday April 25 2017, @09:48PM (2 children)
There's one of these near me. It gets tons of traffic even in the dead of freezing winter (well, such that winter is, these days). I actually went there at such a time thinking I'd enjoy seeing it empty, but was disappointed.
1. There's fire pits in some of the bigger intersections that give off heat; people hang around these. The biggest one has a gazebo-like roof/chimney thing.
2. There's a coffee shop a small one featured in the other big intersection besides the one with the gazebo, plus some other stylish self-serve cafe places that serve hot drinks (besides the restaurants).
3. People mostly seem to hang out at the theatre, the restaurants, the way-too-small/expensive boutique clothing/furniture stores, or around various handsomely decorated little squares.
I assume that's what the kids do these days. You'll note a lack of electronics or videogames or music or such though... all of the stores are clothing or furniture stores, and only one clothing store sells men's clothes.
(Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Wednesday April 26 2017, @01:57PM
Philistines... Our fancy dancy outdoor mall has an Apple Store. And we have a bookstore that's literally as big as an aircraft hanger. They have music, videos, software, calendars, toys, a coffee shop, a yogurt shop, games of all kinds (RPG, Cards, Boards, etc.) and if you search real hard, you might find a book. Don't get you hopes up though, they're tough to find.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday April 26 2017, @02:23PM
Sounds similar to the one I used to live near several years ago. However, it had a giant Barnes & Noble: that's where you go for music these days, if you're a "dinosaur" who still buys it on CD (you can also go to Walmart, but we're talking about "lifestyle center" outdoor malls here and those don't have Walmarts). But games and music these days are almost always sold online so it makes sense there's no stores selling those now, except maybe for weird antique/vintage stores that sell old 8-bit consoles and games from the 80s (again, you won't find those in a trendy outdoor mall). For electronics, there's the Apple Store (a common fixture in trendy/upscale shopping centers), but that's about it; it's the perfect place to pay top dollar for a new set of Bluetooth headphones/earbuds to go with your new iPhone which doesn't have a headphone jack.
As for men's clothes, the outdoor mall I mentioned above did have a "Lids" (or is it "Lidz"?) store, since young men all seem to like wearing stupid-looking baseball caps these days. Most of the shops in that place seemed to be restaurants (both nice sit-down and cheaper ones) and expensive clothing stores, along with the anchors: B&N and the theater.