How did your mall die? (map, highway, Cleveland, class)
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Yes, Mall's definitely don't serve as much of a purpose as they used to.
I grew up in the Washington D.C./Baltimore MD area back in the '80's, and those who are familiar with that area may remember the high-end White Flint Mall in Rockville, MD. I didn't go there that often (it wasn't that close to where I lived), but do remember the few times I went there as a kid & young adult ('80's & '90's) - it was an interesting mall, and had a nice movie theater, food court, a glass elevator in the middle of the mall - and, later, there was a huge, multi-floor Border's Books there.
Well, I was surprised to find out that this Mall closed recently:
Part of the problem was a change in the way mall construction was financed, which happened about 1970.
The early malls were usually the vision of the major department store that would form the anchor of the mall. The anchor store benefited both by having a suburban satellite store (they were already concerned with suburban shoppers spending their money at suburban competitors because they didn't want to deal with buses or downtown parking), and the rents they would rake in from the smaller tenant stores.
Later malls were often built by a third-party developer. To attract the anchor department stores, the developer would build them and offer the department store free rent. To make up the obvious shortfall, the smaller tenant stores had to pay higher rent. The immediate consequence of this was that the new malls no longer offered stores of all types - jewelry and women's clothing became more prevalent as dime stores and groceries - who had less sales per square foot - disappeared.
By the turn of this century, specialty stores learned to build across the street or even go online. Since the newer malls were dependent on the little stores for rent, they could die quite quickly if too many little tenants struggled.
Actually, the mall I grew up with is not quite dead, thought it's "twin" 10 miles to the west died two months ago and my old mall seems destined to follow in its footsteps.
In the case of the area I'm in now, they built too many malls in an about an eight - mile square, the biggest mall (also in the best location) got the most business, and all five of the other, unnecessary malls died as the economy soured.
A bit happier story than the rest here. The mall in my town almost died in the height of the recession. The food court went from about 8 resteraunts to one, and close to half the stores were empty. It was really depressing to walk around in, not many people where there. Now, somehow it revived itself and most stores are open. People go actually go there, there's always lots of cars in the parking lot, it's really bounced back. They demolished most of the food court and put in a Buffalo Wild Wings (which is wildly popular) and that one restaraunt in the food court is still hanging on. I'm glad it's thriving, it makes me feel good about my town and it's future.
Allegheny Center Mall died when Sears downsized and eliminated stores, Zayres and Woolworths closed their stores nationwide and the small supermarket no longer met industry standards.
It was a great mall, but without anchors or store rooms big enough to attract new anchors and newer malls being built nearby, it failed and converted to offices.
The convenience of parking underneath and taking an escalator to the stores was great in the winter.
Our local mall is still alive and well. It is dead on week days but booming on weekends. Texas still loves the mall. There is a nice outlet mall but it's 45 miles away and I still prefer the indoor mall here in town because it's air-conditioned throughout. Even walking in and out of the outlet mall stores that are air-conditioned is very uncomfortable in the 100 degree summer heat here in Texas.
Revitalized downtown shopping and dining is killing malls here, along with the big anchor stores leaving/going out of business. The last trip I made to a mall was about two months ago. It was a Sunday afternoon and hardly anyone was there. I stopped in a shoe store to try on some dress shoes and the clerk told me they sold two pairs of shoes all day and probably only five pair the day before. Hardly enough to pay someone to man the store...
I'm temporally living in UAE and there must be a mall every 3 or 4 miles apart, even more downtown. Big malls and lots of people.
I think maybe the reason is there are fewer things to do over here and then too, these folks have lots and lots of money to spend. Thanks America for all the oil you buy from us.
Our local mall is still alive and well. It is dead on week days but booming on weekends. Texas still loves the mall. There is a nice outlet mall but it's 45 miles away and I still prefer the indoor mall here in town because it's air-conditioned throughout. Even walking in and out of the outlet mall stores that are air-conditioned is very uncomfortable in the 100 degree summer heat here in Texas.
It depends on your location in TX. We have some malls still thriving, but they are definitely not bursting with people as they used to be. I find shopping there unaffordable and inconvenient, and I suspect others have also. I don't mind a walk, but walking from one end to the other, then searching for my car is not my idea of a good time. Strip centers are much more enjoyable. Online shopping is even better.
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