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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 AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday April 25 2017, @07:24PM (6 children)
I know this deals in stereotypes, but I think malls likely cater to women because women are more likely to actually "shop." I put that in quotes to differentiate between simply buying and the more extended wandering that constitutes shopping.
Typical guy back in the day if he had to go to the mall to buy a shirt and pants would likely walk into the first store, find the men's section, find something vaguely okay, find his size, and check out. The stereotypical woman would spend 45 minutes in a dressing room trying various things.
Now, introduce online shopping and the man can now do exactly what he did before but even more conveniently from his own home sitting in his boxers. The woman cannot.
I know this is all a generalization, but I'm old enough to recall the difference between going to the mall with male friends (usually something only teenagers did -- and spent time at the arcade or eating mall food or whatever) vs. going to the mall with girlfriends. The latter could consume many hours seemingly doing nothing other than "shopping," and adult women continue to do it.
So, why do malls cater to women? Because men have learned they can basically do their transactions online (and were rarely big "shoppers" anyway), while women still value the shopping experience... Particularly for things like women's clothing stores (as you note).
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday April 25 2017, @08:18PM
but I'm old enough to recall the difference between going to the mall with male friends (usually something only teenagers did -- and spent time at the arcade or eating mall food or whatever) vs. going to the mall with girlfriends.
Yep, that describes my teenage years pretty well: going to the mall with male friends, and hanging out at:
1) the arcade
2) food court
3) the ice cream shop
4) the music store
5) the book store (usu. Waldenbooks)
6) Radio Shack (making fun of their computers)
7) Sears electronics sections (and making fun of their computers too)
(Score: 5, Funny) by VLM on Tuesday April 25 2017, @08:24PM (4 children)
find his size
My wife has repeatedly and exhaustively informed me that men only have like 4 measurements tee shirt size, dress shirt collar size, pants size, shoe size. Well and another that is off topic. I can and have online clothes shopped knowing those 4 dimensions. But she claims women are all curvy in random fashion and there is no standard measurements like for men and there's some BS about size inflation to make fat chicks feel better by providing fake lower numbers, so they gotta try on everything and its a random guess if it fits right.
I admit mens underwear is like S, M, L, XL and all we gotta remember is which one we are, whereas women have entire departments for their underwear and use alphanumeric codes that sound like 1950s vacuum tubes. "I wear dual triode 12AU7 on top" sounds like something madonna or katy perry would wear on stage. And even then she has to try everything on to make sure it doesn't rub her grid cap connectors wrong or WTF.
I can buy a suit off the rack and it'll fit, perhaps not perfectly, but adequately, without even trying it on, but she claims that's physically impossible for women for anything fancier looking than army BDUs.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday April 26 2017, @01:51AM (1 child)
Women's clothing tends to be more form-fitting, while men's tends to "drape" more. If a woman has a part of her body she wants to accentuate/downplay, she has to look around for something that "fits" in the right places and "drapes" over the undesirable bits.
Despite recent trends of some young men wearing skinny jeans, most men's fashion is considered fine if somewhat baggy. And the solutions to men's body type issues are standard -- unnecessarily large shoulders on suit jackets which make upper body appear larger while draping over a gut, baggy (a.k.a. "pleated") pants that hide extra large thighs and butts, etc. The more formal men's clothing is, the more it tends to hide body issues.. While the more formal types of female clothing tend to cause more problems.
All of this is to say while we joke about it, I completely understand why women spend more time shopping for clothes, given fashion norms.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 26 2017, @02:24AM
I sold women's suits and dresses (and hosiery and bathing suits, too) for a couple years and can vouch for what you posted. Dress sizes are an approximation, at best. I've seen a woman try on a size 8 dress that was too small, and a size 6 that was too large. (For those who do not know, size 0-2 is twig-like, and size 20 is for a rather "substantial" woman.)
Even worse, dress size is only one part of it — there is also body shape. Buxom with slim hips? Flat-chested with big hips? Pretty much even between top and bottom? I'd recommend very different outfits for each of these body types.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday April 26 2017, @02:00AM (1 child)
Oh, and by the way, size inflation (deflation?) is a real thing, and not just for women. And the less "hip" the store, generally the more screwy the sizes get. Try actually measuring the size of your pants waist sometime. Unless you buy pants from outside the U.S. or from an honest suit store, expect the marked size to be 2-4 inches less than measured. Some stores are now even doing 6 or 8 inches larger than claimed size.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday April 26 2017, @02:54PM
That sounds like a meme legacy brick and mortar stores would advertise against online shopping.
I've never experienced anything like that when online shopping and it sounds like it would be extremely expensive and difficult to implement.
So as a practical engineering matter how does one manufacture mens pants such that my 32 inch inseam is delivered as 32 inches plus or minus like half an inch at most, yet somehow the inches around the waist is 8 inches bigger or whatever?
My second best theory about this, after the false rumor theory, is its just legendary Chinese quality control at work and people retcon the hopelessly too large clothing as intentional commie plot while "forgetting" the miscut mismanufactured pants that were 8 inches too small to put on. Note that kind of mistake isn't a minor error in shrinkage or calibration but is approaching 25% error, which is staggering, like they rebooted the fabric cutting machine while it was cutting or something.
8 inches is no laughing matter, man, that would turn "kinda short" pants inseam into something like capri's or board shorts if they cut 8 inches short. Nobody ever put 32 inseam pants on a 32 inseam body and saw its actually 24 and I'm showing 7 or so inches of hair calves. Or imagine me trying to wear 40 inch inseam pants on a 32 inch inseam frame, the pants would go past my toes, I think? It would be close anyway. It would be like onesie pajamas which admittedly were pretty cool when I was about 4.
My third best theory is its the fashion industry being more insane than normal and the logical next step beyond pants that hang down to my knees is parachute pants so incredibly baggy I could fit a petite chick in there with me. It might be the clothing designer has simply gone temporarily insane, which doesn't count.