Posted on 12/24/2023 10:56:14 AM PST by DallasBiff
Shuttered stores at Schuylkill Mall in Pennsylvania in 2017.
By the 1980s, the mall had become the center of American social life and accounted for the bulk of all retail sales.
But a shrinking middle class, the rise of online shopping, and the fact that there were simply too many malls contributed to the decline of the American mall.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Merry Christmas to all.
Culture killed the mall. Patrons no longer feel safe.
I remember going to the Northwest Mall in St. Louis County as soon as I got my license in 1967. It was the teen hang-out of the day.
I’m so old that the Orange Julius put RAW egg in your drink!
All of us teens were well behaved and polite...unlike today’s “teens” that contributed so much to the death of so many malls.
What’s a mall?
Among the things that killed the malls:
Marketing specialists who were determined to make you walk extra miles to get where you wanted just so you could be forced to pass things they wanted to sell that you didn’t want.
People spraying perfume on you at all department store entrances.
Insanely badly managed parking and traffic management.
Access to public transportation...
DIVERSITY
“Culture killed the mall. Patrons no longer feel safe.”
Yes. The article doesn’t even mention because that would be racist. At least they didn’t mention global warming.
Lies. That is where we are as a society.
> Patrons no longer feel safe. <
Bingo. There once was a huge mall about ten miles away from me. It was a wonderful place. Many nice shops and restaurants. It even had a full-size merry-go-round.
Then the mall owner made a fatal mistake. He put a bus stop at one entrance. About three months after that, a local cop told me to avoid the place on Fridays and Saturdays. It was just too dangerous.
The mall is still there, all boarded up. Part of the roof has collapsed. The owner has filed for bankruptcy.
-PJ
i still like an enclosed mall over the open “town center” concept.
I am not going out to shop in crap weather. I will if i can stay warm and dry.
In Memphis it was clear why the malls died out...and it wasn’t online shopping and the economy.
I’m old, too. I took my kids to the big mall to shop for Christmas..in the 79s. Little by litle, towns crated Mini Malls and that’s till what we have in our Town here in Upstate.
LOL, so true to the zeeers.
“Then the mall owner made a fatal mistake. He put a bus stop at one entrance.”
Yup—it would be great to see an article comparing malls with bus stops to those far from any public transit.
I think we all know what the results would be.
Lived through Christmas downtown, Christmas at the mall and eChristmas.
Here in Vegas, the “Fashion Mall” located just off The Strip seems to be thriving but most of the patrons are visitors from out of state.
The new bus stop killed my childhood mall.
One of the first malls in America..
Post WWII and interstates, automobile ownership, and social setting, gave rise to the "Mall Culture". Now you've got friends and goods on your smart phone.
Well idiotic tax laws made opening a mall a guaranteed money maker. So wat way way more were built than were needed
Laws changed and the decline began
Online has harmed retail for sure but the decline started when the tax laws changed
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