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"We Are Extremely Over-Retailed" Picturing The Death Of America's Malls
Zero Hedge ^ | 01/05/2015 | Tyler Durden

Posted on 01/06/2015 7:33:54 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Starting in the mid-1990s, "the mall genie was out of the bottle," says one mall analyst, "and it was never going to come back." While about 80% of the country’s 1,200 malls are considered healthy (vacancy rates of 10% or less), that compares with 94% in 2006; and more than 30 million square feet of malls are more than 40% empty, a threshold that signals the beginning of what one one analyst called "the death spiral."

 

As The NY Times reports, like beached whales, dead malls draw fascination as well as dismay, "nobody ever thinks a mall is going to up and die," but as the following images show - dead or dying they are.

 

“It’s depressing,” Jill Kalata, 46, said as she tried on a few of the last sneakers for sale at the Athlete’s Foot, scheduled to close in a few weeks. “This place used to be packed. And Christmas, the lines were out the door. Now I’m surprised anything is still open.”

“I have no doubt some malls will survive, but major segments of our society have gotten sick of them,” said Mark Hinshaw, a Seattle architect, urban planner and author.

“It is very much a haves and have-nots situation,” said D. J. Busch, a senior analyst at Green Street. Affluent Americans “will keep going to Short Hills Mall in New Jersey or other properties aimed at the top 5 or 10 percent of consumers. But there’s been very little income growth in the belly of the economy.”

“We are extremely over-retailed,” said Christopher Zahas, a real estate economist and urban planner in Portland, Ore. “Filling a million square feet is a tall order.”

“Everybody has memories from childhood of going to the mall,” said Jack Thomas, 26, one of three partners who run the site in their spare time. “Nobody ever thinks a mall is going to up and die.”

Nearly 15 percent are 10 to 40 percent vacant, up from 5 percent in 2006. And 3.4 percent — representing more than 30 million square feet — are more than 40 percent empty, a threshold that signals the beginning of what Mr. Busch of Green Street calls “the death spiral.”

Industry executives freely admit that the mall business has undergone a profound bifurcation since the recession.

“Our business is more regional and high-end focused,” he said. “There are gradients of dead or dying or flat, but anything that’s caught in the middle of the market is problematic."

 

“The mall genie was out of the bottle,” Mr. Simmons said, “and it was never going to come back.”

Read more here...



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: bhoeconomy; ecommerce; mall; retail; shoppingmall; trends
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To: SeekAndFind

Some began earlier as newer malls were built nearby and folks moved their shopping there and others due to bh0; thus a mix.


41 posted on 01/06/2015 8:02:35 AM PST by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: RayChuang88
Indeed, the Mall of America near the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has done extremely well because they very well knew the mall must have retailers and attractions to make it a destination everybody wants to go to.

Not so sure, I would want to go there....

Chanting 'Black Lives Matter,' Protesters Shut Down Part of Mall of ...

New York Times‎ - Dec 20, 2014
A mass of demonstrators chanting “Black lives matter” converged in the Mall of America rotunda on Saturday as part of a protest against police ...

Mall of America protest attracts thousands on busy shopping day Minneapolis Star Tribune
Police brutality protesters rally at Mall of America U.S. News & World Report
Arrested Mall of America protesters to be charged USA TODAY
Reuters - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
 

42 posted on 01/06/2015 8:02:57 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: ifinnegan

Zero Hedge sells gold futures with fear-mongering.

The internet and Walmart killed the mall. Why wade through a parking lots and crowds to pay twice as much?


43 posted on 01/06/2015 8:06:58 AM PST by stinkerpot65 (Global warming is a Marxist lie.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I hear the Pinedale Shopping Mall in Cincinnati is still thriving. People always gobble up the deals.


44 posted on 01/06/2015 8:07:57 AM PST by Autonomous User (During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.)
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To: PapaBear3625

Very true. I remember back in the 90’s the bus drivers went on strike. The shoplifting at the Mall of America came to a complete stop!

Everyone was hoping the drivers never came off strike.


45 posted on 01/06/2015 8:10:58 AM PST by MNDude
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To: knarf
I don't know where you are, but most of the malls closer to Pittsburgh aren't doing well. They're becoming gangsta hangouts. Part of the problem is the availability of public transportation. I appreciate having bus service to these malls since I don't drive, but public transit also makes it easy for the thugs and lowlifes to infest these malls. People hear of brawls, such as the recent one at Monroeville Mall, or robbery/assaults, such as a recent incident at South Hills Village, and they become reluctant to shop in these malls.

Malls further away from the city, such as those in outlying counties have few or no public transportation options. These malls are flourishing.

Malls had better invest in better security. It's no longer enough to have a handful of security guards around. I think at some point, malls are going to have to adopt some TSA-style measures such as scanners and metal detectors. Sure, those procedures aren't fun, but malls are no longer safe, and if the malls want to stay in business, they are going to have to make some safety improvements to attract and keep shoppers.

46 posted on 01/06/2015 8:15:06 AM PST by fatnotlazy
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To: SeekAndFind

This NYT story is a day late and dollar short: even their occupancy & health stats are misleading as most covered malls have already been torn down in the U.S. in the preceding decades.

I know that almost all the covered malls ever built in Colorado have already been torn down and replaced with clusters of drive-up big box stores. There’s only a handful of covered malls still in operation in Colorado.

And it’s got nothing to do with haves and have-nots, which of course is the prism that NYT exclusively views the world.

The real reasons covered malls have died:

1. Internet shopping: infinitely better selection, much better prices, MUCH more convenient, and MUCH quicker than mall (or any other kind) of shopping.

2. Shift in merchandise preferences: most people are more interested in buying stuff like electronic gadgets from Best Busy and the like, rather than candles and Hallmark Cards and the other kind of useless crap sold in covered malls.

3. Time: most people are in a hurry and don’t have time to browse and/or walk for miles past hundreds of stores they could care less about to purchase something from the store they DO want to buy something from; they want to drive up to the front door of the store they need something from, go in, buy it, and then leave.


47 posted on 01/06/2015 8:15:53 AM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Personally, there are very few things that I endure the “mall experience” in order to purchase.

I may visit a retail store, but it matters not to me if the actual store is in a mall or self contained.

But one pays a premium to purchase from a brick-and-mortar store, not to mention the cost in gasoline to get there and the time spent. Malls seem to be designed to prevent you from parking, getting in, making a purchase, and getting out. When possible, buying online is cheaper and more time-efficient.


48 posted on 01/06/2015 8:17:49 AM PST by chrisser (When do we get to tell the Middle East to stop clinging to their guns and religion?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Wait until the Carle Place seniors hit the casino!


49 posted on 01/06/2015 8:20:59 AM PST by Dr. Ursus
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To: SeekAndFind

“Are these dead malls only occurring the past six years, or have they started on this trend longer than that?”

See post 47.


50 posted on 01/06/2015 8:21:18 AM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Always thought the whole mall retail business to be on unstable ground. Making all your money in 2 months of the year, while paying staff to mill around for the rest of the year doesn’t appear to be good business to me.


51 posted on 01/06/2015 8:23:42 AM PST by Sam Gamgee (May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't. - Patton)
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To: angcat

The wine store isn’t bringing in the crowds?


52 posted on 01/06/2015 8:24:23 AM PST by Dr. Ursus
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To: central_va
Blame it on Nixon for selling us out to the Chicoms.
53 posted on 01/06/2015 8:24:28 AM PST by Sam Gamgee (May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't. - Patton)
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To: Dr. Ursus
LOL I guess you know about the Laurel Mall. I only go for my nails and hair and to visit Boscov’s. I have never been to the Wine Store. I don't even like to walk thru it. I park near the store I am visiting. I like to shop at the outlets in Flemington NJ.
54 posted on 01/06/2015 8:27:30 AM PST by angcat
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To: SeekAndFind

Malls...hyper-controlled, anti-democratic, socialist hell holes of the suburban workers’ paradise.

Good riddance!


55 posted on 01/06/2015 8:28:33 AM PST by mkboyce
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To: MrB

“Teen” crime is a major part of it. I also loathe seeing EBT morons shopping in their PJ’s and not even taking the time to properly dress or fix themselves.

Malls are slothpool magnets.


56 posted on 01/06/2015 8:29:44 AM PST by Roman_War_Criminal
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

Reminds me of a quote that I read in an article...

“I like going to the Dollar Store because you don’t have to dress up like when you’re going to Walmart”


57 posted on 01/06/2015 8:34:36 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Responsibility2nd
We do not have the problem of an urban underclass where I live, and, moreover, the local mall was cleverly co-located with the city downtown, but retail occupancy in the mall (and simultaneously in some of the less tony strip malls in town) has plunged (and will get worse when the announced closure of the Sears which was one of the anchor stores of the mall takes place) for precisely the reasons the article cites: the town is over-retailed since a new redevelopment project brought in a host of new big-box stores and opened a lot of shops in more upscale strip-malls.

You can also see a map of the phenomenon here that just by location shows that a lot of mall closures are not due to "teens from the hoods", and are better explained by the country being "over-retailed".

58 posted on 01/06/2015 8:36:52 AM PST by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know...)
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To: Autonomous User
Pinedale Shopping Mall

Nah, that place started to bomb out back in the early 80s.

59 posted on 01/06/2015 8:37:02 AM PST by wbill
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To: Autonomous User

Good deals on stereo equipment? Turkey friendly access too?


60 posted on 01/06/2015 8:37:08 AM PST by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
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