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America’s malls seek a life beyond retail
The Financial Times ^ | February 8, 2013 | Barney Jopson in New York

Posted on 02/09/2013 7:54:56 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

The winter sunlight barely touches the depths of the abandoned store, where wires dangle from the ceiling, wood shavings scatter the floor, a King Lear shelf marker lies on the stairs, and a Led Zeppelin poster hangs spurned in a rack.

The standalone building in Danbury, Connecticut, still bears the name of the Borders book chain that collapsed in 2011, and strewn on its cash register are fire-sale price lists for its fixtures and fittings. But nobody wanted them either.

Instead its 8ft book cases stand bare and upright in the gloom, like the ruins of a bygone age. In a country that built its towns around consumerism, it is an eerie preview of the future for acres of retail property that Americans no longer need.

The ranks of bricks-and-mortar shoppers have thinned since the financial crisis as a weak economy and the rise of ecommerce have made the dated interiors and badly chosen locations of many stores even less attractive.

“The reality is we’re over-built,” says Gerry Mason, executive managing director at property group Savills, who predicts that about 15 per cent of the US’s 1,300 biggest enclosed malls will go out of business over the next five years.

Real estate agents say that even properties with a future cannot build it on retail alone: services such as dry cleaners, nail salons and sports clubs are likely to occupy many former shops as the face of America’s built environment is redrawn...

(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: bhoeconomy; connecticut; economy; jcpenney; michigan; northdakota; obama; retail; shopping
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To: napscoordinator

“In Annapolis, we have 3 malls within 20 minutes of each other. It is rather crazy.”

If you do an economic analysis, in the present retail environment, it would tell you not to build a mall. However, the analysis results change when you take into account tax incentives, development incentives and other lucrative deals made by politicians at all levels. That’s how we end up so over-built. Rest assured the developer gets his profit. It’s the retailer who gets stuck. Then, you add into the equation kill-the-retail political correctness. A mall in Tampa, next to the stadium, wanted to close when teams from historically black colleges played. This is because of flash mobs and riots that occurred EVERY time these teams played. The ALCU took them to court and they were ordered to stay open. The stores all abandoned their leases and the mall is now a parking lot.

I’d imagine that Obamacare will further hit the retail industry as most stores are marginal at best. A sudden mandated increase in labor costs will cause them to go into the red and the will be forced to close.


21 posted on 02/10/2013 2:59:33 AM PST by Gen.Blather
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To: cicero2k
Aging customers who used to shop at malls can no longer deal with the amount of walking required. Even large box stores can seem foreboding.
22 posted on 02/10/2013 5:12:23 AM PST by Average Al
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To: 3Fingas
LOL! Hammerjacks. That place was legendary.

There used to be a dwarf headbanger that was a minor celebrity, because she was there all the time.

I remember it had the most expensive beer in town, something like 3 dollars for a can of Budweiser. In 1985.

23 posted on 02/10/2013 9:29:18 AM PST by boop ("You don't look so bad, here's another")
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To: BBell

“Roving bands of yutes tend to dampen shoppers feelings.”

I remember visiting the actual Borders store that is the subject of the article, back when it was open.

There were no “yutes” there.
It’s not even in a “mall”, per se.
It was a Borders bookstore mated to a Circuit City in one large building. Not connected to a mall.

The Circuit CIty closed too, and is now occupied by a P.C. Richard electronics store.


24 posted on 02/10/2013 10:28:26 AM PST by Road Glide
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To: napscoordinator

There’s a casino in Maryland? I like Annapolis Mall, it’s a nice place to shop.


25 posted on 02/10/2013 10:34:54 AM PST by rabidralph (http://www.cafepress.com/westernwis)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

I loved Landover Mall when I was a kid. Yes, it was eventually overrun. Very sad. But then the Capital Centre was re-imagined as a mall/amusement atmosphere and I have not had a desire to visit it. Has anybody here visited that place?


26 posted on 02/10/2013 10:41:29 AM PST by rabidralph (http://www.cafepress.com/westernwis)
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To: 3Fingas

LOL. Hammerjacks! Just seeing the ads in the Baltimore alternative weekly and hearing the ads on DC101 made me think, “I’ll just stay in town and go to a movie or to the 9:30 Club.”


27 posted on 02/10/2013 10:44:11 AM PST by rabidralph (http://www.cafepress.com/westernwis)
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To: 3Fingas

It seems as though Maryland has become one giant John Waters movie. But I enjoyed growing up there and wouldn’t have traded those experiences for anything else. ‘HFS and Kemp Mill Records made it all worthwhile.


28 posted on 02/10/2013 10:48:14 AM PST by rabidralph (http://www.cafepress.com/westernwis)
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To: rabidralph

It was glorious, my FRiend, just glorius!

None of that auto-tuned, Euro-weenie dance music that followed me home from my last deployment and is now so prevalent on music stations catering to today’s yutes.

We were metal, we were proud, and we ruled suburbia with a with knuckles open glove and a iron fist. lulz...


29 posted on 02/10/2013 10:55:43 AM PST by 3Fingas (Sons and Daughters of Freedom, Committee of Correspondence)
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To: 3Fingas

To be fair, Wikipedia included this bit “After the Baltimore riot of 1968 produced white flight, the mall revenues declined and Sears left.”


30 posted on 02/10/2013 10:59:03 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: boop

I may have seen this dwarf you are referring to, but I saw a lot of things back then that I can’t remember. I do remember smoke filled rooms, blaring metal music, amateur pole-dancing, glitter covered Patty Smyth vixens, and magical unicorns floating through the air but that was probably just the Jim Beam talking.

It was something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIDaBF8LILk
(ROTFLMAO)....


31 posted on 02/10/2013 11:04:04 AM PST by 3Fingas (Sons and Daughters of Freedom, Committee of Correspondence)
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To: Average Al
Aging customers who used to shop at malls can no longer deal with the amount of walking required. Even large box stores can seem foreboding.

That's another thing. Our demographics are collapsing. Want to see the future of our country? Just take a look at Japan. They're 20 years ahead of us.

32 posted on 02/10/2013 11:04:13 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKPeYrrhIvQ


33 posted on 02/10/2013 11:17:24 AM PST by 3Fingas (Sons and Daughters of Freedom, Committee of Correspondence)
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To: 3Fingas

LOL! True. I guess I was happy enough to listen to the cassettes in my truck as I waited in endless Beltway traffic to get somewhere! “Oooooh-ooooh, growing up.”


34 posted on 02/10/2013 12:08:51 PM PST by rabidralph (http://www.cafepress.com/westernwis)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

http://deadmalls.com/


35 posted on 02/11/2013 10:04:14 AM PST by US Navy Vet (Go Packers! Go Rockies! Go Boston Bruins! See, I'm "Diverse"!)
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