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) by Kilo110 on Tuesday April 25 2017, @11:39PM
I sometimes have to work with leases and I can confirm this.
This was back in 2012 ish. So not even that long ago. It was with a major multinational that owned many malls. The guys that wrote the lease thought they were still in the 80s. They handed us a 80 page legal tome. It was completely one sided and the rent was insanely high. Way higher than 10 per sqft with annual rent increases of 5% and they were entitled to a portion of our top line revenue after a certain sales point.
We laughed at it and politely told the leasing agent to fuck himself.