-- Malls dying? Soon to be gone? - a question...
 

Hi guys,

When's the last time you've stepped foot inside of a mall? I used to love to shop and I'll say it's been over 3 years for me.

Just wanting to get the general consensus on this. No poll - just post your answer.

Thanks

They still exist?

10 - 15 years ago.

Malls are for teenage kids and old people to walk in an controlled environment

Maybe 4 or 5 years

4 or 5 years ago here as well. King of Prussia Mall.

I don't recall seeing a Spencers Gifts or Hickory Farms.

hasn't always been like that - pre-Amazon. So GFY Asshole!

J/K Ptlyon - chill the **** out.

It's tough to differentiate personal mall patronization patterns from population-wide patterns. As people age, their daily need for new stuff goes down. So everyone thinking of their own experiences says 'sure, I go less than I used to.'

That is, unless they are hauling kids there, or otherwise going there to get things for an expanding family.

It's tough to argue with the logic, though, that the virtual environment has replaced the mall environment, both as a place to gather for leisure and a place to obtain consumer goods.

Between Amazon and Facebook [ie, online shopping and social media], there's less of an imperative to go somewhere for either socialization or consumerism.

And things are moving fast, too. 15 years ago, St. Louis Mills was brand new. 2-3 years ago, I went there during the holidays and it was packed. It's been closed [or nearly so] for over a year, and part of it is soon to be converted to a church facility.

Edit - right at 2 years since it's nearly closed

https://fox2now.com/2016/09/07/haunt...is-mills-mall/

Check out how huge and new and clean, . . and empty

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Hey, don't take it out on me cuz our offensive line sucks! :p

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hmm interesting angle.

do you have family up there? Interesting - Pennsylvania has a lot of dead malls - one of the leading states in dead malls, actually.

I ate at a restaurant located in the parking lot of a mall a while back, does that count?

Agreed. Went alot as a newly married adult (got crap to buy), then tapered off alot when the kids were young, and now go there more as the kids tastes have morphed into something where they want stuff at malls. I've gone more in the last 1-2 years than I had in the 5 or more before that.

And to answer the OP question -- like 2 weeks ago.

Out of the 5 in the Pigsknuckle metro area, 3 are dead, 1 is dying, and 1 is still managing to do fairly well.

I went to a Sears that was technically attached to a mall a few weeks ago, but I didn't go in the mall itself. Does that count?

Overall, I've probably been to or near a true indoor mall about 5 times in the past 10 years.

This is kinda interesting, was filmed earlier this year, the place has been dead for years but is still in amazing condition. It's going to be a shame when they finally tear it down.



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Went into a mall this summer to go to a Younkers store that was going out of business after 50 years. Got a 200 ml bottle of Light Blue cologne for $80. Went to the Vans store in the mall about a year ago.

The one down the street from my house is always packed. I’m in San Jose and the mall is currently under a remodel including a new parking structure.

Nah...just in the area for work. That particular mall appeared to still be hopping. Wouldn't have even gone over there, but there is a Legal Seafood in the mall (and it was tasty).

OMG OMG OMG

What is wrong, hun?

Fixed

The mall near me that has managed to survive has shifted to restaurants/clubs/theaters/things to do go cart racing etc to compliment retail.
As wired as young people are they still go to movies more frequently than older folks.
So good movie theaters in a mall can still attract traffic.

The one at the crown center is cool

I must have missed something.??.

Legal seafood as opposed to illegal?


https://inhabitat.com/wp-content/blo...9824451193.jpg

I ****ing love malls. I think they are going away because they became a sanctuary for rambunctious kids. Because everything about a mall makes too much sense.
They are great because
1) You don't have to trudge thru the snow to get to ANY of your stores.
2) You can peruse many stores at once.
3) Great for impulse buying or destination shopping
4) You don't have to go outside to go to another store
5) You can eat, see Santa Claus, shop, and take a shit all at the same time
6) You can get a nice walk
7) People watch and check out chicks

I really don't understand why you would rather go to a strip mall, than a real mall. I get it if you are in Southern California where the weather is always nice, but in the winter or summer when the weather sucks here, the mall is where its at.

where are you in NY, my dude?

posts like this will get you out off the ignore feature!

it's pretty well known

The politically correct term is "undocumented" seafood.

Amazon

OK, not to derail the thread. But went to Boston on a business trip and went into a small bar and asked for a good seafood restaurant that wasn't a chain. Everybody we talked to said Legal Seafood, and it was awesome.

Back to your talking of teenagers and old people.

Why do old people smell funny?

I didn't go to the mall unless I needed something specific. Easier to stay on budget if you don't shop often.

That said I miss having a Marshall Fields(Macy) close by. I loved going through the sale racks when I did need to replace a few shirts. Harder to get a great deal online. Amazon doesn't always have the best price and I have found you need to watch something for months in hopes of finding it at a discounted rate.

I rarely ever bought anything from the mall at full price. Carsons, Macy, all had sales and coupons, even Lord and Taylor has sales and if you get to know the old ladies behind the counters they will call you when they have them. I haven't found that online.

Plus I like to see what I am buying especially if I am going to wear it.

If anyone has tricks to getting great sales online I would like to hear them.

There's a big mall within walking distance of my house, and I'm a regular mall rat. I go there every week and hang out in their big sitting area. Per my established set of moral and ethical values, I always buy something when I go, which is usually a lunch from one of the food vendors. But I sometimes buy bigger ticket items. The mall is generally pretty busy even though they started charging for parking, which I think is a really weird move.

I think it is their gums and breath. Ever have a crown done and have a temp crown taken off? It smells the same as an old lady.

Maybe they don't floss as much because they know they don't need their teeth that long?

I don't think it's the rambunctious kids that are killing malls. In addition to the marginal effect of people being about to browse and impulse buy through the internet, the second biggest factor is likely the rental rates are just too high for even slight reductions in traffic and income.

You could see this 10-15 years ago when CDs and DVDs you could by for $9.99 at Wal-Mart or Best Buy were $16-18 at Sam Goody and the Whopper that was $2 at the next closest Burger King was $4.50-5.00 at the food court. Now that all Whoppers are $4.50-5.00. I have to imagine food court Whoppers are on par with a burger at Kaufmann or a concert venue. What? $10-11?

Hmm, it seems like you probably don't need to worry about malls going out of business as much as all of the stores you shop going out of business.

You've noted your stalking in malls several times on here

There's really no better place to stalk. 3 to 1 female to male ratio, with a concentration on the ones who like fashion and have money. It's way better than the library.

People who like fashion and have money go to malls?

Who knew...

Don't shit on Santa's lap. That's awful...

This brings up a tangentially related question regarding consumer patterns.

How much does price affect you when you have full autonomy?

By this I mean, I can understand 'indulging' in outlandishly priced stuff when you are captive. $15 hot dogs at the ball park. $5 water at a concert.

And I can understand indulging [or not caring] about outlandish prices when it's part of the experience. $1K champagne at a strip club. $100 sandwich at a country club, etc.

What I can't, and can't even imagine being wealthy enough to, reconcile is simply enjoying a burger that is 2-3x times the price of a burger that is just down the road, simply to avoid going down the road.

This also does not help things.

https://www.billingsclinic.com/app/f...ll-walkers.jpg

Take a shit in a mall sounds fun. How does compare to taking a shit Walmart? I worked at a place where the workers shit all over the toilets.

I went to Burlington Coat Factory one time at the Great Mall. It smelled like shit. I think somebody shit on the coats. Then I saw Dane Cook walking around.

Wish I knew how to imbed videos. I took some footage of the inside of a mall I was at in March. Looked like a scene from a post apocalyptic movie. Took me about 5 minutes of walking around before I saw an open store or another human being

I went to mid rivers mall a couple of weeks ago. I’m in a wedding party and had to go to men’s wearhouse. That was dogshit. Asshats tried to sell me a suit for $400. I’m Renting one for $179. I think if your in the military you should be able to wear you ASU. They tried to sell me a shirt, shoes, socks everything. What a rip off. They suck. Sad thing is other poor fools we’re in there buying everything they suggested. Undershirts underwear, people go to goodwill.

Nah

Those are all the Anchor stores that bring people in. The malls near us in the far west Chicago burbs are all failing or they are changing over from stores into places like escape houses and bowling, entertainment places rather than retail.

There's a small mall in St Charles that is being torn down and replaced by Condos.

Macy's still has anchor stores at the big malls, Woodfield and Oak Brook but those aren't as close as the smaller malls are to us.

I do some xmas shopping at the mall. Maybe stop by here and there for a birthday gift or something.

It's not my thing really. But sometimes when you have no gift ideas its good to be able to go into an actual store and see what's available.

Oak Park Mall's closer. So I go there if I go to a mall. When I lived closer to Independence Center I went there. Kids were more of an issue at IC than at OP. The people shopping there were mostly the suburban housewife spending her husband's money, or people where English was not their first language or it wasn't their parent's either

I rarely shop malls anymore, but I'm in them a lot. I do network and POS system upgrades and repairs. They seem to be pretty busy when I'm there. But really, the only indoor malls are Battlefield Mall in Springfield and NorthPark Mall in Joplin.

Burlington, MA by chance? I've been to the Legal attached to that mall many times as it's next to my companies offices. Not bad at all, but it's kind of a chain in that there are something like 20 locations.

Somewhere in Boston. IIRC it was attached to a mall. This was 15 years ago.

Oh and I was reluctant to go there because I knew it was sort of a chain. But you listen to the locals, and they were correct, it was great.

Our mall has a small kids play area not far from the food court. Having the little man, we've gone in a few times. Plus, he loves to people watch.

Enclosed malls seem to be nearing extinction, although there are certainly exceptions.

I just had lunch today with the CEO of a fashion company, and we were talking about this supposed death of retail due to online shopping. His answer was that 92% of retail transactions are still done face to face. 8% are done online.

That's a higher number than in the past, but a far cry from the doom and gloom for retail that many speak of.

YouTube videos? Just click on "share" right below the video, then click "embed" on the pop-up, copy the code and paste it here.

I went in a Burlington Coat Factory once. It smelled like molded clothes and moth balls.

PM one of us for details! Jeez man, why not?

I know it catches a lot of shit - but in the early y2k's - Burlington ruled for men's clothes - they were one of the few that carried double RL at a discount.

I worked a second job in a mall. So the last time I stepped foot in a mall was May.

I did however see them dying off. All that visit are young kids and thieves.

th' ****?

LMAO

Maybe within the specific fashion sector in which he operates those numbers are close to accurate. Overall, given the volume of ecommerce that now occurs, those numbers don’t appear to match reality.
Of course we’d need to see what is being defined by “retail”. Does that include groceries, automobiles for instance?

I hate shopping. I only go when dragged by the women in my house.

about to post basically this same thing - and who knew that doomy (of all people) dealt with fashion conglomerates?

very sexy doomy - do yo thing!

I've done a big study of shopping patterns in Colorado, and the proportion of shopping online more or less matched what doomy said. It's big in some sectors and non-existent in others, but when you look at everything people buy, it was less than 10 percent in the study that I did. That might have included restaurant spending, which isn't exactly online-eligible, but even so, online is smaller than most people think.

i work in Century City next to the tower used in Die Hard.

They just spent over a BILLION dollars renovating the mall here. They put in an Eataly.

It's thriving somehow.

I think the malls in SOCAL are different as many shops tend to cater to a higher end clientele. Jewelry stores are one example of this. Growing up in KC, I never saw a mall carry high end jewelry, like Rolex and Patek Phillipe watches...you would have to go the Plaza for stuff like that. SOCAL malls have stores with items like that available. Plus the SOCAL mall has a high concentration of 'better' eating places etc. Midwest malls had hotdogs, pizza and Orange Julius stands.

I've been to some mall in Costa Mesa that has dresses more expensive than my car. I bet they're profitable selling two dresses a month in some of those stores. I should just hang out there and kidnap women as they come out.

Here in the Midwest we had Mr Bulky's and that meant chocolate covered rat turds.

Its been a minimum of 11 years since I've been in one, but I've heard the one nearest me is still going strong, there apparently isnt an empty store in the place

Thanks now I have to go find out where they sell Orange Julius and feed this craving

Thanks for the hard data. In considering the amount of retail spend in the US, or a given state, ~10% is a signicant $ amount now that I take a minute to think on it.

It’s hard to reconcile the large amount of brick and mortar retailer closings with that seemingly low percentage of ecommerce shopping. In just 2018 Toys R Us, Ann Taylor, Walgreens, Kmart, The Gap, Footlocker, and more have closed all or a large number of their stores.
https://www.businessinsider.com/stor...n-2018-2017-12