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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: 5, Interesting) by edIII on Tuesday April 25 2017, @08:39PM (5 children)
^ THIS ^
The only reason a business owner is going to put with extortionate rent is if it is profitable. What killed malls? Technology killed the malls. They were a distribution model if you will, and they controlled the distribution channels ruthlessly. There was a time that malls were premium locations that made a business owner a lot of money. Specifically, a long time ago.
When I was a kid, if you wanted to know who was calling, you needed to pick up the damn phone and start talking. It wasn't my phone, it was my parents phone. So I talked to many adults on many occasions informing them of my complete ignorance about my parents location and/or activities. All I cared about is my friend was calling to tell me where the action was going to be on that day. The only time I had access to a cell phone was when my father gave me his at the mall so *he* could reach out and find me at any time.
Malls were logistical.
When there were no Nintendos and ubiquitous PC gaming, you went to the mall to feed quarters to some business owner playing arcade video machines. However, it became clear to kids that playing Nintendo at home after hitting a rental place was just as fun. It was also easier to get the parents to agree because they were also very aware they were no longer feeding quarters to the mall. Then the arcades started to die off, get more expensive, and frankly, became irrelevant.
When there were no online shopping giants, your only choice was the mall or some strip mall to visit a brick and mortar establishment. The mall won very quickly because it cultivated a go to place for kids to both hang out and spend money on consumer goods. They either had allowance money to spend, or their parents dropped them off with $20-$40. Cheap for the parents to go spend sometime with each other elsewhere, or just roam the malls while their kids terrorized the hall ways. The key take away though, was that those business owners were making enough profit to afford the extortion placed upon them.
For a kid, the malls were simply the best logistical choice to hang out with other kids, have some fun spending money on food and consumer goods, and exchange information.
The logistical requirements that the mall satisfied have been outmoded by technology. Kids now sext each other. That's fucking amazing to me as a guy that had practically no technology growing up at all. Girls sending naked pics of each other. If I transmitted that information to my 15 year old self, I would have been shocked and amazed. You mean, I don't have to go anywhere? All I have to do is participate with these technological devices and I get to see naked girls? Holy shit. Of course, that's offset by the incredibly problematic enforcement of laws against children because of their irresponsible use. They are online with us and finding out about the pitfalls at the same time as the adults. Not an ideal situation at all.
That's it in a nutshell. The Internet became the mall, but only much, much, much better from the perspective of children. From the perspective of parents, perhaps not so much. Although, now parents have ways to find their kids because they own the damn cell phones and can text and call them instantly. If you really needed some pizza, well, that's a couple of swipes on a cell phone app to get it delivered. Possibly by fucking Amazon drones! All of the kids moved to the Internet and their new digital hang outs. That information exchange no longer requires a logistical staging area like the mall to find each other, but an upload to YouTube, Instagram, etc. Either that, or direct and instant location information shared between each other and Google maps to tell them exactly where to walk to get to each other. That's incredible to anybody from even 70 years ago. We kinda take that for granted mostly.
Older people not at the malls? Well that's explained by the fucking economy. Working stiffs figured out they could save a lot of money by going online, and that means being able to clothe, feed, and provide shelter for their families better. Like you said, the extortion didn't help keep the adults stay around because there was not enough money being made anymore. For that matter, my younger relatives have actually told me that staying home and just playing with their tech hanging online is cheaper. Not preferred, but cheaper. It was a monetary decision which tells me that the trickle down effect where kids get allowances has largely dried up.
Lastly, why spend hundreds of dollars at the mall when your Internet connectivity fees need to be paid? That in of itself is though to be a reason why younger people no longer buy cars like they use too. It's a systemic problem being recognized because that monthly income has been reallocated towards other industries. They can no longer count on getting hundreds out of young people's wallets each month.
The mall is a remnant of ancient times when we had more primitive models of distribution and information exchange.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 26 2017, @01:34AM (3 children)
This is all good. But there are a couple of other things that kill malls.
Rent. Yep the 'rent is too damn high'. I talked to one owner. He was paying 12,000 PER month to rent a small location on the food court. Also at any moment they can come in and say 'move to this other location you have 1 day'. Suddenly your rent is still high but your foot traffic is in the dumpster.
Another thing that is killing malls? Better malls. In my area there are some really nice malls. They are thriving. The 70/80s malls are dying.
Then get this. Most malls kick anyone under 16 out. They never really spent any money. But now they do not even think about the place to shop. Why? They were kicked out.
Oh the malls are making money but they are killing themselves as the stores leave due to high rent and traffic that does not cover the overhead.
One mall I went into they had 20 or so stores empty out of 200.
The mall management is mismanaging themselves into irrelevance. Then when they figure it out they fill it with cheap junk stores. Which people with disposable income do not really shop at...
(Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday April 26 2017, @05:15AM (2 children)
Same observation here in Southern California. I have three malls close to me. One "appears" to be thriving, while the other two have lots of blanked-out storefronts.
I am quite puzzled as to why the mall management does not simply award the window display area of vacant spaces to still existing merchants instead of all that green stick-on plastic film. C'mon, lighting is not all that expensive, and only the window area has to be lit. At least it gives the shopper the *illusion* the mall isn't dying. And the existing merchants probably need all the help they can get trying to promote their merchandise.
Kids.. they will be your future customers. Would Disneyland evict kids? No... they know those kids are gonna grow up, and they want to keep the Disney memories alive in the parents so they will pass it to their kids, otherwise why would anyone want to visit this overpriced venue? I do know religions go to great lengths to plant their seed in the kids - one of the local churches in my area even has big moving-van like things they park outside the school in order to get their message into the kids.. the signs on the side go something like "released time Christian study" and they park just outside the school. Yes, getting your stuff into kids is really important. A shunned kid will remember a bad experience as well as I remember a bad experience I had with Sears when I was a kid. I wanted to buy a record for my sister's birthday - and I had just a few minutes to make a purchase while Mom kept sis occupied at another area of the store. I waited in line to buy the thing, but one adult after another kept walking up, and took priority. Mom came back with sis, and I still had not been able to make the purchase. I *still* remember that and hated to go to Sears since.
Kinds speculative, as I went through adolescence before malls were around - the "shopping center" strip malls of the 50's were what I had. You know, maybe a dozen stores sharing a parking lot. Most of which had absolutely nothing of interest to me.... stuff like women's shoes, nails, or those rows of bomb-shaped things women liked to stick their heads in.
The one that appears to be thriving puzzles me... they just re-did it about ten years ago, and I remember having teary-eyes as I saw workmen destroying that beautiful fiberglass artwork around the RonJon Surf Shop, which was to become just another retail box. I guess that surf-motif kept triggering fond memories of when I was a kid, and surfing and hanging out with friends. Now, it was going to become just another "pay amount due" store. I can't figure out what to hell's in that mall that attracts anybody.
All my favorite stores died out. I did not think Borders would ever go, but they did. They were frantic for sales before the end, and I remember the manager getting on my nerves about how I placed a coffee order, trying to tell me I could not order coffee in a way that it imitated one of their six-dollar specialty offerings. I simply could not afford to go there and drink six dollar coffees, but I could afford a two-dollar coffee. If I was gonna spend six dollars, I would go to DelTaco and get the whole meal.
They took out a sizeable amount of the parking lot for yet more stores which have nothing in them I would want... even if you put a "free" sign on everything in it. About all I could use are the displays. They even brought in a valet service for those who cannot find a parking space. The existence of this thing is an enigma to me - like watching something run with no apparent source of energy.
They are competing with a 24 hour WalMart nearby. Target's open till Midnight. Mall closes at 9.
My guess is the movie house is the source of all the traffic.
But personally, since they doubled their ticket price and refused to honor their "silver experience" voucher for admission, demanding surcharges, I simply ceased going to the movies. I was pissed before even finding a seat. From what I could see, it was mostly young people there, with a date, trying to find some way of spending a couple of hours with their partner in a "safe" space. The last movies I saw there was "An Inconvenient Truth", and "Sicko", as the theatre would run these documentaries on the side instead of having a completely dead room.
There sure are a lot of documentaries on YouTube over dead malls.
I never thought I would see something that cost so much money be abandoned like that. But I now know how this works. Its called a "Real Estate Investment Trust". A few suit-people go out and sell the concept to a bunch of people as a retirement investment. All the suit-guys reap management fees, the legal guys get paid, and all the investor gets back is reams of printed paper detailing the slow and painful evaporation of their now illiquid investment. Personal experience here. The people behind the mall I invested in had just found a bunch of words, which when hocked up, would persuade people like me to invest. They would constantly hock up "backed by real estate", and rates of return from leasing to wealthy money-making merchants. They were management types who got paid as long as there was any money in the system. Same with all the legal folks.
The investor, of which I was one of many, lost our shirt on that one. Once the money changed hands, I never saw a dime of it again, as I helplessly watched them grazing away on my retirement investment, sending me all sorts of business paperwork until I finally got the final letter saying all the money was gone.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Wednesday April 26 2017, @01:38PM (1 child)
I still remember feeling helpless and insignificant when I was a little kid while passed over time after time while waiting patiently in line while adults were served in front of me. I made myself a promise that I would never do that when I was an adult. Forty years later, I have kept that promise to myself. And if I witness it in my presence, I make a big scene in front of EVERYONE to make sure that the child is acknowledged. Nobody gets away with ignoring a customer around me just because that customer is a minor.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday April 27 2017, @06:37AM
Bet you are a hero to quite a few kids!
You have shown them that you consider the rules apply to everyone, and no one has the right to tromple another just because he can.
Way too many kids seem to be shown these days that the rules only apply to those who will willingly obey the rules, while the winners don't have to honor them. Only the losers.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 26 2017, @04:56PM
The malls around here were only d-baggy kids, families on an outing, or people with money. As Software Etc+Electronics Boutique merged into what eventually became GameStop, and other places like KB toys and then the book stores died out, being replaced by high end stores who never marked down stock enough to warrant purchases, I stopped going to the mall. The social circles I would have fit in with were already other places (either regional hobby shops, book stores, or other places, often not all that much less condescending than the mall was.)
Point being: The ambiance had worn off, and the veneer of awe malls once had turned into the same sort of ambivalence I had after my first (and last!) trip to Vegas, and how walking one block off the old strip turned the place into a veritable ghetto.
And much like your statement above, I chose to move to online devices and access, where you move somewhere else if the people you were associating with turned out to be douchebags, rather than being stuck with those 'ackward moments' running into/avoiding them at the mall. Plus as you said, it was often much cheaper to buy a couple of video games (especially from the discount bin!) and have weeks or months of entertainment for less than a day out at the mall/movie/etc would cost.
Nowadays we're instead seeing that same rent seeking behavior mentioned above moved into direct to consumer 'IP', and instead of the retailers getting fucked, consumers can get fucked manufacturer/producer direct with no middlemen! (Except Steam, Amazon, Newegg, etc... Ooops, middlemen!)