SoylentNews

Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

In the 1980's people wrote about malls as cultural centers, as temples to shopping. Now, they're dying [treehugger.com].

Many observers are speculating about the growing trend of so-called dead malls [treehugger.com]: 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 [treehugger.com]?

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 [nytimes.com] or The Atlantic [theatlantic.com], but film footage can say much more than words.

Is Amazon to blame?

Original Submission