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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 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.