SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 25 2017, @05:28PM (8 children)
Amazon is partially to blame but the die off happens when the mall is on a bus line and the blacks start taking over. White people quit going there and the revenue drops. Eventually it becomes nothing stores selling shoes, cell phones, and hair extensions. If you see an instant check cashing store open you know its time to move.
(Score: 2) by Techwolf on Tuesday April 25 2017, @06:06PM
While the parent was probably trolling, it hits very close to the truth as a friend of mine literally watch the above played out a few times at the local malls.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 25 2017, @06:21PM
Posting AC because... Obviously...
This is absolutely correct. Our town fought the bus line for years but finally caved. Now the mall traffic has declined noticeably. I knew it was heading to shit when I saw a store, run by some middle easterner, selling nothing but cell phone cases. But hey... It's more diverse now.
(Score: 2) by fubari on Tuesday April 25 2017, @06:54PM (3 children)
Could say Amazon is partly to thank.
Amazon makes my life easier vs. going to malls.
Amazon should remind us "disruptors" have a long history.
For example, excerpt from Sears(history) [wikipedia.org]:
(emphasis added)
If you look at blogs from the 1890s or early 1900s you could find writing about the "tragic decline of general stores". (historical idiom: "blogs" used to be published in a hardcopy medium called newspapers).
Sears did well for a while.
Amazon is doing well now.
Who knows what will be happening 50 years from now.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday April 25 2017, @08:24PM (1 child)
>Amazon makes my life easier vs. going to malls.
Sure, if you like buying counterfeit goods.
Not only have malls gone down the tubes these days, so has Amazon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 26 2017, @12:59AM
And those Amazon scams happen how? BECAUSE you can't see the metchandise in person.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday April 26 2017, @01:11AM
Perhaps 3D-printers or robotic assembler will do well soon.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday April 25 2017, @06:58PM
Another store type right before the mall closes is "ethnic urban clothing"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 25 2017, @08:39PM
The local mall was ahead of that, and removed the bus stops years ago.