Death of American malls

[schmuckley]

I didn't see any mention of "People have much less disposable income than 10 yrs ago."
so..Now it's been mentioned.

 

[ericlp]

malls are dying because there are no jobs. The jobs that are being created are mostly minimum wage jobs. Who can afford to go to a mall on minimum wage? I suppose if you just wanted to walk around a mall with out buying anything.

 

[Engineer]

Rebirth of American Shopping Malls:

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/the-rebirth-of-the-american-shopping-mall-164010106.html

Thought this was interesting based on the thread title alone!

OT but I met my wife of over 23 years in a shopping mall. I don't go to malls today unless I'm dropping my daughter off or picking her up. That may change once the new Cheesecake Factory opens in the local mall though! :biggrin:

 

[k3n]

i don't know about american malls but where i live the mall goes: clothing store, clothing store, clothing store, jewelry store, clothing store, clothing store, eb games, then clothing clothing clothing clothing, food court.

i wonder why malls are dying.

Same in here. I only go to malls for their Food Courts. It seems malls in the Baltimore metro are catered to women; since they control 80% of consumer/debt spending?

 

[Newell Steamer]

Good riddance.

It was a hive/nest of human filth.

Long live online shopping.

 

[SlickSnake]

Not reading this whole thread ATM, maybe later, but here is the main problems with enclosed malls versus outdoor strip shopping centers, which are still booming and being built in affluent areas.

If you want to go to multiple stores to buy anything at an enclosed mall, you have to fight traffic and pedestrians just to find a parking place some what near those stores, and those stores are usually going to be a LOT farther away to get to buried inside the malls labyrinth. At an outdoor strip mall, you can simply park directly in front of the store you want, load up, then drive easily to the next store. The only time at an enclosed mall you can usually somewhat easily get to the store you want is if it's a large anchor store with an outside mall entrance.

And obnoxious and bored kids slumming around at the enclosed malls all day don't help the retail mall tenants at all, and even drive off adults who don't want to deal with teenagers loitering and other BS problems they cause like vehicle vandalism and thefts. Which is why most malls now don't allow teenagers to loiter in them all day, and actively try to deter them.

And the rise of internet shopping obviously didn't help malls very much, either.

 

[Wreckem]

Best Buy and Frys are not going to price match with an online source. They do price match items that are being sold at other B&M stores in the area.

Fry's does price match online prices. I've price matched Amazon pricing at Frys plenty of times since Amazon started collecting sales tax in Texas. Anything more than a 25% price adjustment needs a manager's override but they still allow it.

 

[Wreckem]

Wait, malls are dying? Could have fooled me....Bellevue Square Mall is booming. Going there on weekends is awful. I'm usually going there for a single store, which means I spend as much time trying to park as I do shopping.

That said, the outdoor shops at U Village in Seattle seem to be doing pretty well.

Certain malls are dying and certain ones are booming. It depends on the areas affluence/disposable income.