If Sears goes under, what will it mean for our malls?

[observer53]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

I much prefer the convenience of a strip mall. Park near the store I want, get what I need, and go.

There is a lot to be said for that. I used to not mind the extra walking. I used to go to malls TO walk. Not so much any more.

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

I much prefer the convenience of a strip mall. Park near the store I want, get what I need, and go.

And then after a decade or so strip malls start looking crappy with empty storefront that make an area look blighted.

[Prickly Pear]

Originally Posted by phetaroi

And then after a decade or so strip malls start looking crappy with empty storefront that make an area look blighted.

I hate strip malls. Give us walkable retail areas with apartments above them. This single-use land zoning is making Phoenix's sprawl worse, ruining our beautiful desert, and increasing our summer temperatures.

Malls can easily become housing, hospitals, hotels, so many things malls can become. They will not go to waste, even if the way we shop changes.

[cactusland]

I just wish they would start building some of these strip malls with a bit more care in terms of aesthetics akin to how some of the larger malls are (even many that closed down were really just amazing inside) because we have to look at them every day. I understand that shopping patterns have changed drastically over the last decade, but that doesn't mean we should throw aesthetics in the bin. These places are hideous on the outside and on the inside as well.

[grad_student200]

Originally Posted by LLCNYC

+1.

Soon they'll be extinct.

As a realist, I am aware of the rise of eCommerce as a major factor in the demise of the shopping mall. Back in 2000 I was working at a marketing startup that was trying to automate marketing campaigns using web apps - an early form of business intelligence and data mining. The concept of data science was a root for this application, and it was focused on the web. I did my research and saw IT business articles proclaiming shopping malls would become extinct in coming decades due largely to eCommerce. That was around the fall of 2000. It was an extremely accurate article in hindsight now that in 2018 many malls across the country are dead.

But as an Arizonan, I miss the malls of my childhood: Los Arcos, Tri City, Fiesta, and Metro Center. In its hey day Los Arcos Mall was awesome with Sears and the Pancho's food buffet. Metro Center had a huge variety of shops adjacent to its malls like "Atomic Comics". I remember the line went around the block when "Star Wars - Return of the Jedi" opened at theater near Fiesta Mall in the summer of 1983. The arcade at Fiesta Mall was the "go to" place for early 80s teens when home video games were of very poor quality (think of games like "Pong" or "Asteroids").

In the midst of that was Sears. Out in rural Arizona at higher altitude where mud, rain, and snow are far more common, ranchers or game rangers who needed tire chains oftentimes would not be able to find it in those rural cities or even Phoenix. But in the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s they could order hard-to-find tire chains in a Sears catalog. Nowadays, the tire chains can just be ordered on Amazon for rural Arizonans who can't find it in local stores or Phoenix. The internet led to the demise of Sears. But I have fond memories of shopping there in childhood at places like Los Arcos Mall. Sears owned the 1970s retail market.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4h7chFGQw8

[eaton53]

Their stores are such neglected dumps that I wonder how many will just get the business end of a wrecking ball instead of trying to fix?
The Sears store at the mall here (not in AZ) was so nice that they tore it down when the Sears closed.
They put up a new Dicks Sporting Goods in its place.

[Pink Jazz]

Another Sears location was just added to the closure list today - Paradise Valley Mall. This leaves Arrowhead Towne Center as the only remaining location in the Phoenix area.

[phetaroi]

Sometimes I think people forget.

Sure, we've had and have stores like Montgomery Wards and Sears going under.
But we've also gotten stores like Wal-Mart and Target.
I never heard of Kohl's growing up.

Things change.