[Niuhuru]

Malls are turning into daycare for irresponsible teenagers
Malls are becoming battlegrounds for thugs
Malls are becoming too crowded
Malls are becoming too large to walk around in easily
Malls are filled with things that are too expensive
Malls aren’t selling anything interesting.

I don’t see why we need to many malls in this country and considering how many teenagers are acting, I don’t blame people for just shopping online or selling online. I find better things on Ebay than I do at most malls.

[RayChuang88]

Some shopping centers do survive--if they're close to downtown of a city and could attract the type of stores everybody wants to go to. Both Arden Fair in Sacramento, CA (with very close freeway access to downtown Sacramento) and Westfield Valley Fair in San Jose, CA (with freeway access to Interstates 280 and 880 near downtown San Jose) have done very well despite the current economic times, and of course it really helps both shopping centers have the Apple Store to REALLY bring in customers.

[hinckley buzzard]

The fact is, that shopping malls were designed essentially as something akin to amusement parks, back in the day when shopping was widely considered and accepted as a form of entertainment.

It is a form of entertainment that has become too expensive and the people are finding cheaper ways to spend their leisure time.

[Secret Agent Man]

Obama’s saying things are better.

Someone needs to ask him “better than what?”

[dila813]

A store I shopped at all the time is closing, it had a lot of traffic and was a low cost grocery store.

They are closing because they said with the price of food going up so much they are having their margins squeezed so much that they have to consolidate stores.

These guys were initially benefiting from the economic downturn, opening stores all over.

If these stores are starting to get killed off due to inflation, how many more will fall?

[Rational Thought]

Yep, this is a recovery!

[calex59]

The higher Gas prices go, the more people will shop online. The only reason more people don’t do it now is because many just don’t have computers. I do a lot of my shopping on line, much of it with the same stores I would shop in in person.

[this_ol_patriot]

Last weekend I went to Target, Kohls and Walmart looking for a small electric grill, nobody had one. Went online and ordered one in 5 minutes and got it 4 days later.

It's not like it was an estoric product, Presto Liddle Griddle, they sure had enough George Foreman junk nobody was buying.

[Chode]

if Wally doesn't have it, online... haven't been to the mall in years

[gogogodzilla]

The problem for me is that local stores never have what I want. And when asked how long it’d take to get what I want... it turns out that ordering via the internet is 4-5 times faster than ordering from the store.

When local stores can match or beat the delivery times of internet merchants, they will regain their competitive advantage.

Failing that, they’ll need to expand their inventory to better meet the customer’s desires.