so what exactly killed malls? and don't say online shopping. still plenty of strip malls being built. they're just not indoors.
Among other things, the increased connectivity we have, today. Online shopping by itself only killed off the likes of dedicated consumer appliance stores and service centers that were mixed in with major retail outlets, IMO. So much of mall time was loitering and socializing, that were gradually made redundant with small cheap cell phones, and internet technologies. What died wasn't the shopping, but the event of,
going to the mall. All the chit-chat, all the catching up, all the competitive egging, can be done from home or sometimes anywhere. People still go to malls, but it's not the same thing. I'm not so nostalgic, however, to call it much better back then, except for our average health.
Several major stores that used to be at the indoor malls around here have moved to the larger outdoor malls, which are just strip centers connected together. The big department stores are around the periphery, and rarely busy. 12-year-olds can still pretend to not be paying attention, whilst ogling the
airbrushedphotoshopped underwear models on the window posters, just from the open outdoors.
Nostalgic thought: remember when the posters on the sides of those stores occasionally had some bush showing through (nostalgic thought 2: remember when you were so hormone-addled you couldn't help but pay attention to that sort of thing? )? I've seen enough of those models nekkid on the interwebs to know they don't all shave and wax smooth...damn you, photoshop!