Struggling malls suffer when Sears, Penney leave

Wall Street Journal via Yahoo News ^ | May 12, 2014 | Suzanne Kapner and Robbie Whelan

[John W]

NORFOLK, Va.—With J.C. Penney Co. and Sears Holdings Corp. racing to close stores, America's weakest malls are being pushed to the brink.

Nearly half of the 1,050 indoor and open air malls in the U.S. have both of those struggling chains as anchor tenants, according to real-estate research firm Green Street Advisors. Of those malls, nearly a quarter are struggling with sales below $300 per square foot and vacancy rates above 20%, meaning they will have a hard time finding new tenants if old ones leave.

For an already-weakened mall industry, the negative turn for two once-reliable anchors is promising more stress at a time when the Internet is steadily stealing traffic. And the pressure is only growing. Sears Chief Executive Eddie Lampert last week said he plans to close more stores to help return the company to profitability.

[SamAdams76]

I used to like the malls pre-Internet. During the 1980s, I would hang out there. I'd get a book or a magazine, an Orange Julius or an Au Bon Pain coffee, and just sit in the food court while my wife or girlfriend shopped. I'd watch all those 1980s girls walk buy with their Pat Benatar haircuts and their best Molly Ringwald "pouty" expressions. The guys all tried to look like George Michael - but never figured out why.

The Food Court always had some interesting food items, like shish kabobs, giant pretzels, and tacos - which were a novelty food back on those days. The shops in the mall were pretty much 90% women's clothes. Didn't have Apple Stores, mini-Best Buys and Sharper Images like they do today. They did have a Radio Shack, which was just as awful then as it is today.

Don't forget the CD stores. Except I never bought one there because they always seemed to charge $17.99 for a CD at the mall. They did have "cut-out bins" with discounted music but they always seemed to be filled with Pablo Cruise, Toto and Huey Lewis & The News recordings.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

The low lifes start hanging out at the mall and decent people find that buying on line is a lot safer spells doom for the malls. Plus mall owners are big demorats and ban concealed carry. Screw ‘em.

[meatloaf]

It’s already been termed the Great Recession. They’ve also stopped talking about the dips.

[AAABEST]

Another mall killer I haven't seen mentioned is the introduction of bus routes and terminals to local malls - often at the insistence or threats of local pols.

Gee, you mean people don't want to shop with roving packs of feral youths?

[Mad Dawgg]

"Don't bother looking for the paragraph, or for that matter even the sentence, that mentions The Obama Economy in any great detail. Pay no attention to The Failure Behind The Curtain."

Well it isn't helping but brick and mortar stores are mostly dying because of the internet. The time and effort saved when you sit down in front of a computer and check out your fav retail sites OR use Google/Bing etc. to search is hard to beat. Especially when gas is near 4 bucks a gallon and everything at the malls is usually more expensive.

[kearnyirish2]

“Sure signs of a dying mall.”

You left out “Tattoo parlors renting space”...

Here in NJ we had a “stillborn” mall; the Xanadu mall in the Meadowlands (next to Giants Stadium) was completed years ago and never opened due to lack of shoppers. The retailers that were signed on all opted for the minimum space they could occupy, and it never opened its doors. It is a big ugly thing, complete with indoor ski slope; very eerie when you stand outside it.

A couple of years after it was finished without opening, officials admitted it was built for foreign tourists to NYC. In the meantime, every Saturday the “replacement Americans” (mainly Hispanic & Asian) flock to the Meadowlands flea market in the adjoining parking lot to buy tools and household goods from the Americans that no longer use them - all transactions in cash, of course. Right on about the Third World road!

[Recompennation]

I ordered a machinist tool from McMaster Carr and it was delivered to my doorstep in the boondocks early the next day by FedEx. They both seem to work together and now have my patronage

[goldstategop]

But they were overpriced to begin with. It wasn’t a problem as long as they had captive customers.

Once that was gone, they began hemorrhaging cash and malls began closing left and right.

They’ll still exist but they’re a shadow in the retail economy of what they used to be in the 70s and 80s.

[dangerdoc]

Malls started failing long before Zero’s attack on the economy and before Internet shopping. It started when women started feeling unsafe at the mall. I’ll leave it up to you to speculate why.

[bert]

Still is..... Lands End is a Sears company

[exit82]

Dead malls.com

Great site with state by state info on malls that died.

[Alberta's Child]

Actually, the businesses in the mall are often the strongest advocates for those mass transit facilities. They rely on this for their low-income employees.

[napscoordinator]

It is 99 dollars a year now but still a bargain.

[kearnyirish2]

An absolute disgrace; when our government sold the US public on the benefits of globalization years ago, they never told Americans this would mean that if they were lucky, they’d be serving wealthy foreigners in a mall food court for minimum wage...

I was shocked how they were able to keep that mall out of the Super Bowl coverage; it is right there.

[fatnotlazy]

You’re right. The gangs have wrecked a couple of malls in my area. Many of these malls invested little to nothing in security, so the gangs roamed the malls trashing them, assaulting customers and stealing merchandise. The parking lots, particularly at night, were unsafe. One local mall has spent some money and effort on better security. There is even a local police substation in the mall. Much of the problem has been relieved.