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Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jade408
I never lived in Oakland when the malls were actually thriving. There is one traditional mall left. But it is a dead mall. It has see. Some new development recently - the first new grocery for 50+ years on that side of town opened a couple of years ago. There are a few shops but it is mostly community stuff - a police station, army recruiting and non profits. I have never actually been. It is about 10 miles from me. And it used to be super sketchy and dangerous. So there is no need for me to go.
There was a mall super close to my apartment. When I moved in it was basically completely dead. There was some sort of discount store. And Kaiser had bought the area for a new hospital. Before they started construction Kaiser opened a pharmacy and mini healthy grocery store in the space. Now it is long gone and a shiny new hospital took its place. There is more public space too.
The last mall I know about is in downtown. I have no idea when it closed, but I think it was more like a vertical mall. Now it is offices, coworking, with a little bit of retail - a gym, banks, Kinkos and CVS on the ground floor.
The only other "mall" is the City Center. I think it opened right around the time I got to college so I have no idea what was there before. It isn't really a mall, now most of the actual
Retail is long gone. It is basically a food court for the government and nonprofit workers in the building and nearby. Almost all of the stuff is closed on the weekend so it is a ghost town. I really wanted it to be an actual mall and a decade ago there were some shops. But they turned over into casual eateries.
I generally do my shopping in San Francisco or Walnut Creek. Oakland and Berkeley are anti chains.
Even when we lived in Castro Valley 1978-1993 Bayfair in San Leandro and Southland in Hayward were known for crime, with gang activity, and car break-ins keeping people away. I remember when Eastmont in Oakland was a thriving mall, and when in College we'd sometimes stop by there for an Orange Julius, before it became too dangerous to go near there. We still did go to MacArthur/Broadway a lot since it was so close to Kaiser where we had our medical then, and we liked the great international food court. The more successful malls like Sun Valley in Concord started to take over business from farther away, and then the larger, more modern Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton become the popular place to shop. Last time we were there, even Sun Valley looked tired.
As a self-proclaimed "mall rat" as a kid back in the '80's, I'm amazed at how much time I spent (wasted?!) going to the mall. I can't imagine spending any time there now - not that there are a lot of malls in my are anymore. I would consider it boring these days.
Though, there is definitely some bittersweet nostalgia related to going to these malls during the '80's era. Here are a couple of articles about some Malls that used to be huge in the '80's & '90's in the Baltimore MD/Washington D.C. area - where I grew up. These are now being closed down:
That being said, I don't miss shopping at retail stores whatsoever. These days, I really like the convenience of online shopping - it's the best thing since sliced bread! Also, there is the time factor as well. When I was younger I had more time to go shopping at these brick & mortar stores. In recent years, however, my job & other issues have resulted in my having less free time; I also hate driving. So, online shipping is a godsend - given that the items are delivered right to your door without much effort on your part.
However, even if you want to frequent brick & mortar stores for items, you can't always find them around anymore. For example, I used to be a huge music fan & would buy CD's on a regular basis. And, I would go out of my way to frequent a particular store that carried both used & new CD's; their prices were comparable to Amazon re: new CD's. However, this place closed down a couple of years ago & so there are now very few places around that carry the older CD's I want (i.e., music from the '60's - '90's). So, in some cases you have to go online to buy this material - even if that's not your first choice.
On the news this morning, I just heard that in the next 5 years, 25% of entire malls will be closing up! I really HATE to hear that. I like shopping online, but not for EVERYTHING! I like casually strolling around, relaxing & actually looking around in the brick & mortar stores!
On the news this morning, I just heard that in the next 5 years, 25% of entire malls will be closing up! I really HATE to hear that. I like shopping online, but not for EVERYTHING! I like casually strolling around, relaxing & actually looking around in the brick & mortar stores!
There seems to be a resurgence in independent small retailers in downtowns that have been revitalized. If you're lucky enough to live near one of these towns, you'll still be able to shop in those, but your options will be more limited.
I've always disliked indoor shopping malls -- even the good ones tend to have a shallow and artificial / plastic feel to them, so I'm not sad to see the majority of them go; but the process of actually watching them wither and die is sad and depressing. Being inside of a dying mall is such a soul-sucking feeling. Perhaps it's because of the sheer scale of emptiness -- it's easier for people to disregard or overlook a few abandoned houses or small buildings than it is to overlook millions of empty square footage in an enclosed space.
I believe there are a number of reasons why the shopping mall as we know it has died. Many malls attracted disproportionately large numbers of urban teens, which (justified or not) caused the perception of higher crime and drove away many middle class shoppers. Other malls were done in by the constant construction of newer, shinier malls capable of better competing for customers. And ultimately yes, online shopping made the trend of declining mall activity an irreversible one.
It is what it is.
I still think there's a lot of good that can come from malls dying if we jump off the ship rather than naively believe we can stop it from sinking. People are not shopping less, they're shopping in different ways. If we adapt to the clear signals of what shopping will look like in the future, we can more rapidly progress towards a model that's both profitable for retailers are pleasant for shoppers.
There are two distinct patterns in how people are gradually preferring to shop: one, they prefer online shopping whenever possible; and two, outside of shopping for necessities people are gradually becoming more likely to shell out cash on experiences rather than the accumulation of surplus possessions.
To adjust to shopper's preferences there should be a drastic reduction in the number of brick-and-mortar stores for most retailers -- they should be consolidated into stores that combine as warehouses for the retailers plus social venues for customers. It may sound like some kind of zoning nightmare, but this is really just an expansion of trends that are already in place.
For example the partnership between Barnes and Noble and Starbucks has brought more consumers to both businesses: imagine reducing the number of these facilities but making the ones that do exist much larger, and adding virtually unlimited selections of e-readers, new hardcover books and refurbished used books, plus regularly scheduled open-mike contests where local writers can engage in poetry-slam like contests. Each metro area would have to reduce its number of stores from, say, a half-dozen or more to just one or two, but those one or two would remain profitable and would be better able to further adjust to the evolving whims of the marketplace.
Another example is how amazon.com is opening brick and mortar stores to provide a way for consumers to shop in person for items Amazon ultimately still expects them to purchase online: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/25/t...ight.html?_r=1
Much of this retail future being envisioned will be a lot easier to achieve if a much larger percentage of brick and mortar stores in the future are located in city centers versus in sprawling suburban complexes, which Americans developed a sharp preference for when suburbs first exploded in growth and fully committed to after the urban riots of the late 1960s. Had we simply beefed up police presence in our downtowns a long time ago rather than abandoned our downtowns for the suburbs, urban life in the country night not have decayed to the extent that it did, and the arms race to see who could build the newest, most remote shopping complexes might not have gotten so out of hand.
There seems to be a resurgence in independent small retailers in downtowns that have been revitalized. If you're lucky enough to live near one of these towns, you'll still be able to shop in those, but your options will be more limited.
That's not the case in any of the revitalized d/ts that I'm familiar with. They're mostly restaurants, boutiques, etc. If you want clothes, shoes, you still have to go elsewhere, usually a mall or one of those "Town Centers".
I generally do my shopping in San Francisco or Walnut Creek. Oakland and Berkeley are anti chains.
You take BART into San Francisco for shopping? And drive for Walnut Creek?
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