Posted on 05/13/2014 3:28:27 AM PDT by John W
NORFOLK, Va.—With J.C. Penney Co. and Sears Holdings Corp. racing to close stores, America's weakest malls are being pushed to the brink.
Nearly half of the 1,050 indoor and open air malls in the U.S. have both of those struggling chains as anchor tenants, according to real-estate research firm Green Street Advisors. Of those malls, nearly a quarter are struggling with sales below $300 per square foot and vacancy rates above 20%, meaning they will have a hard time finding new tenants if old ones leave.
For an already-weakened mall industry, the negative turn for two once-reliable anchors is promising more stress at a time when the Internet is steadily stealing traffic. And the pressure is only growing. Sears Chief Executive Eddie Lampert last week said he plans to close more stores to help return the company to profitability.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
And of course, increasing the minimum wage only accelerates this trend, as small businesses can’t afford to hire new workers.
I could live out my life perfectly happy to never go to another mall. Hate them.
Don’t they know that they’re not supposed to report this, like homelessness? Interesting that that problem has vanished since Bush left office.
The two biggest Internet stores are Amazon and Rakuten - both reliable and offer tens of thousands of items at best price. There is no longer a need to drive to the mall when you can shop online and have any thing you want shipped directly to your door with the click of a mouse.
The mall-driven brick business door model is becoming rapidly obsolete in our digital e-economy.
There is a certain irony in this, given that Sears started as a mail order business.
Radio Shack moves out.
Food Court Shrinks.
Retail space is leased to local government.
Anchor restaurants away from the food court close.
Stores like Old Navy and shoes stores move out.
Parking lot looks like a third world nation road.
I ordered fish food from Amazon Prime. Was supposed to come yesterday. Wasn’t on porch at 9:00 last evening but delivery must have come during the night direct from one of their two local warehouses as it was here this morning at 4:30.
Malls worked as long as people had no place else to go. That was true in the pre-Internet Age economy.
But Amazon came along and changed it all.
And urban ferals start using it as a fight club.
Free overnight delivery has been the one thing that has extinguished the mall. Amazon Prime is a pretty good deal at $79 a year and the fee more than makes up for the price because one saves a bundle on shipping costs. Amazon is very profitable.
The simple truth is that even without the growth of internet sales, we don't need all the shopping centers that have been built over the last 50 years.
Who's better than Slim Pickens?
Thats probably most of it.
Go on Eddie...rip up the planks of the deck to make a fire to keep warm. That will keep your ship seaworthy....
Why cant the gays make up the differance in all those gay freindly stores?
Seriously so did Walmart/Sams. A mall in my county has a competitive use restriction on the property held by guess who? It seems a small parcel was purchased to expand to a super store and a use stipulation on the rest of the 50 acre parcel the mall sits on was put into place. The mall sits empty as new strip malls prosper and increase.
I'd still rather go to a specialty store especially for something I need yesterday and want to see first before purchase. About the only thing I use Amazon for is occasionally buying hard to find CD's and I buy most CD's in a second hand book/CD store for prices Amazon can't even meet.
Another factor is high rent. Many stores can’t keep up with the payments. So they move to a strip shopping center or build a standalone store far away where the feral city youth can’t get to them. Cheaper and keeps the business safe from thieves and lowlifes.
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