Do you think malls are a thing of the past?

[BeagleMama]

Yes, I'd agree traditional malls, like what I grew up with, are dying:
www.deadmalls.com

[ginger]

No. Our mal is always busy, but when I worked in Architecture they were going to more open centers rather than everything in one building.

[cutecloud]

The malls here (DC area, so Tyson's, Pentagon City, hell even Fair Oaks which is less upscale, and the damn outlets at Potomac mills) are insane with people 99% of the time. I've read that malls in general are dying but I'm just not seeing it. We have some malls here that aren't great but they'll get renovated eventually.

[zoomzoom]

We have one main mall here that's always busy. But we have a lot of outdoor malls instead of the traditional indoor malls. The only other mall I can think of is dying a painfully slow death.

I personally do not like indoor malls. I hate crowds. And I hate those kiosks in the middle where they constantly try to stop you to try their product for free. So annoying. When I do have to go, I park at Nordstrom's and am in and out of there PDQ. Scotsdale's Fashion Mall is the exception for me. I love that mall.

[adhdfashion]

I have to hunt for a place to park every time. The mall here is packed.

[karmasabiotch]

They're still busy around here, especially the high end malls. Teens will never stop going to the mall.

[picaflora]

My current town used to boast of the biggest mall in eastern NC. Definitely not the case now. The area was hit hard in the downturn, and jobs didn't really come back. Most of the anchors pulled out, and crime came in. The 4 screen movie theater shut down a few years after the 14 screen opened up elsewhere. Now most of the retail spaces are either empty, or turning into the hood mall 05heel described.  There's been numerous fights and guns have been pulled a few times.  A Best Buy lasted 1.5 years before they had to close due to high levels of theft.  

Go an hour west to the bigger city - and malls are alive and well.  All the ones in the area have "nicer" restaurants attached or around, and a few have an open-air concept as part of the plan.  The bulk of the stores are inside.  One mall stays SO busy near the holidays that it causes traffic jams on the beltline.  People from other areas come into town to shop JUST at that mall.  I think those people are a bit insane. 

[sydney02]

Considering how much we all hate the kiosk people, haven't mall managers come to realize how much they kill business? They can't be paying enough in rent to the mall to compensate for people who avoid the mall just to avoid them.


I don't see malls as dying so much as evolving. The ones that haven't evolved have died. There is a beautiful open air mall by me, Short Pump Town Center, that opened in 2003 and already they are remodeling it, bringing in all new stores, making a park with a large fireplace and outdoor seating. It does seem that malls are turning into places where people can take the kids and spend the day or people can go for dinner and movie as well as shopping. The typical indoor only 80s mall with Sears and JCPenny as their anchors? RIP

[harmony11]

Aug 10, 2014 21:06:02 GMT -5 05heel said:

Well I hope the good old hood mall doesn't die. Some of you may not be familiar with these, but they generally contain a dollar movie theater with an impressive selection of Tyler Perry movies, at least five stores wherein you can purchase a personalized airbrushed t-shirt, a DMV office, a foot locker with bars on the windows, and knockoffs of your favorite food court options. Think, Cousin Pam's Soft Pretzels and Cinnastop. Oh yeah, and some kind of buffet restaurant. Shop on Friday night at your own risk.

Sounds like a few malls in Houston and definitely one in Corpus Christi, Tx.

[lime]

They are still crowded here and parking is usually a shark fest.

[alm0nd88]

Malls around here are usually pretty dang busy. At one of the malls north of downtown, parking is horrific and near impossible to find at times.

I love the mall...online shopping never works that well for me because I have such an odd body shape. 90% of things get returned immediately. I love being able to take like 3 sizes into the fitting room at once because I have no clue how something will fit.

[malibu]

Aug 10, 2014 20:22:54 GMT -5 EmilieMadison said:

Also, they are expanding the MOA to nearly twice it's current size, and a brand new premium outlet mall with over 100 shops just opened this week in the southern suburbs of the Twin Cities. Hardly the death of mall shopping for this kind of expansion/creation, IMO.

Really? I need to check this out. I love a good outlet mall! I also didn't know they're expanding MOA. I wouldn't think they even have the room now unless they're taking something down around it.

MOA is always packed. I don't notice that the other malls around here are slow, they always seem pretty busy.

[joshlyman]

Aug 11, 2014 0:18:32 GMT -5 @kirkette said:

Aug 10, 2014 21:08:11 GMT -5 joshlyman said:

Malls are still insanely busy around here for the most part, but I will say the most popular place by far is the Spectrum, which is an outdoor mall area. It's huge and definitely a go to place over the mall for me.

I totally remember when The Spectrum opened. LOL

Me too - it was THE THING TO DO haha. It was so small (comparatively) then. Crazy how huge it is now.

[delawarejen]

Our local mall seems to be doing very well, by becoming part of a huge shopping destination. (It already was because of the tax-free shopping. The Apple store receives busloads of people from out-of-state every weekend). Our anchor stores are Nordstrom, Macy's, JC Penney, and Target. Yes, quite a variety there. People would go to Target anyway. We have several restaurants attached but not accessible from inside the mall, and the mall campus also includes a Cabela's, Costco, multiple other restaurants, a movie theatre under construction, a few other stand-alone stores, and another 900K square feet in process out back (the mall itself is only 1.1M sq feet). You could conceivably do all of your shopping on that campus.

(And there's even more stuff planned within 2 miles of there. Thank goodness the roads were improved.)

[joshlyman]

Aug 11, 2014 0:24:49 GMT -5 @kirkette said:

Aug 10, 2014 23:23:39 GMT -5 farmvillelover said:

we have a local mall that people come from out of the country to shop at - south coast plaza. almost every high end designer shop in there. the mall joshlyman referenced is also popular.

they are def not a dying breed in most of OC.

Growing up, someone once told me that we don't have community centers in the OC, we have malls. Just think, in less than a 10 mile radius, not counting all the home stores,  there's SCP, Metro Pointe, Fashion Island, Spectrum, Kaleidoscope, Tustin Marketplace, The District, The Lab, The Camp, and the shitty Laguna Beach Mall with the cheap as hell movie theater. 

They are tearing down Laguna Hills Mall and turning it into on outdoor mall. Not sure exactly when, but the mall bought out Sears and it's in the process of closing (or may be closed now). It's about time, that mall has sucked for awhile.

[mrsjuleshs]

The malls around here (with a couple exceptions) are still doing really well. It depends more on the area though. DD & I tend to spend a lot of time at the mall right by us.

[anastasia517]

Aug 11, 2014 12:14:35 GMT -5 @gracie6414 said:

Aug 10, 2014 20:07:39 GMT -5 UMaineTeach said:

I saw some news piece on this, malls are dying (there hasn't been a new mall built for like 10 years, I guess) and they are bringing back the strip mall, but modern. Creating shopping "villages" where you can enter to an open air courtyard and have your pick of stores like you are shopping in a suburban downtown full of chain stores.

see: www.onefreeportvillagestation.com/ but not just with outlets

We just had a new one of these built two years ago, which is funny to me because we get more rain than sun here.

And another regular mall was just fully renovated, like it's still being finished now.

Malls in Canada will always be a thing until shipping from US or UK based retailers decreases. Paying $25 for shipping plus $38 for duty is just dumb.

Yep.  I tried to order two pieces of clothing from the US once and it $50 for shipping and duty charges.  From the company site. Hahahahaha no, not going to happen.

[oliveyou]

Aug 11, 2014 10:01:15 GMT -5 puddleofgrace said:

The Mall of America turns 22 today! LOL

omg, that makes me feel so old!