[Allegra]

I will say this seems to be a problem with indoor malls only. Outdoor shopping malls, especially outlet malls, seem to do fine. I guess the youths don’t like being exposed to weather.

I hadn’t thought about that. Good point. There is an indoor mall and an outdoor mall where I live.

The outdoor mall does very well, despite our brutal summer weather. I’ve never been to the indoor mall, but I hear it only has notable crowds during the holiday season.

[SamAdams76]

The early 1980s was the heyday of the shopping mall.

You could spend the entire day in one. Hang out in a bookstore, check out the gadgets at Radio Shack, Brookstones and Sharper Image. Get an Orange Julius. See a movie. Go bowling. Get a plate of Chinese food at the Food Court with a a cellophane wrapped egg roll. Buy a Journey cassette at Tape World.

[rbg81]

I have a few indoor malls within a 30 mile radius of me. Only one is what I would call a going concern. The others have lost all their good stores and (at most) have one anchor store (like a Macys or Dillards). Sears used to be the standard mall anchor store, but they are gone. So really, there is almost nothing in many indoor malls even worth buying. One local mall had a bookstore for a while. I checked it out and the price of their books was almost 2X what it was on Amazon. No thanks.