Posted on 05/13/2014 3:28:27 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
The public sector destroyed the northeast and is preventing any recovery; there is no way to attract businesses (corporate or individual) when families and businesses are saddled with the costs of maintaining this upper middle class that really produces nothing (children aren’t educated in schools, and cops aren’t allowed to enforce the law due to political correctness). Here in Irvington NJ (next to Newark) they literally ran out of money to fuel police cars; Newark itself laid off 160 cops at the height of a record-setting year for murders because the money ran out (the usual system of having the state bail them out fell apart because the state had no money left to do so).
When the few public servants I know point out the need for their services, I respond that we simply can’t afford them anymore (without getting into the merits of the services themselves). A bloated civil service had become such the norm for decades here that people can’t imagine turning the clock back, but they have no choice - there is no money left, and pretending there isn’t a problem is just chasing more Anglo taxpayers out of the state. The underground economy that is replacing them (illegal apartments, under-the-table wages) won’t pay the “government class”, so layoffs follow...
The austerity that hit private-sector Americans due to globalization is coming to the government-worker class whether they like it or not.
Amazon’s shipping strategies, esp. for Prime members, know no bounds. They trip over themselves to make sure that “guaranteed delivery” date is accurate.
Was it the Richland fashion mall? It is virtually deserted and attempts to do something with it have gone nowhere.
The only good thing for me is a comedy mystery dinner theater that has a show every so often.
Nobody “decided” that. The transition to a service economy is an inevitable progression whenever a nation’s standard of living rises ... just as the transition from an agrarian to an industrial economy was.
Shopping centers only survive if they have two important tenants to draw in business: Nordstrom and the Apple Store. That’s exactly what is happening at Arden Fair in Sacramento, CA and the Westfield Galleria in Roseville, CA. I won’t be surprised that Apple wants a larger retail space at both malls, though.
I too remember when it was cool to hang out at the malls. I was a twenty-something in the late 1970’s starting out on a geology career in Texas. That meant field work in the boondocks all week long. On the weekends when we came into town, the routine was going out clubbing on Friday night, Saturday morning golf, and the rest of the day spent at the mall.
San Antonio had three nice malls on the north side, so you even had variety. Haven’t been back there in years, I wonder if any of them are still left?
Lived in Dallas during the 1980’s: I know most of the malls that we frequented there are gone.
Today I work across from the Greenspoint Mall in Houston. After Sears left, it turned into a ghost town. I used to walk there at lunch for excercise - I don’t consider it a safe place to walk anymore.
Of the malls that still appear to be doing well in my area, I notice there is little for guys there. It’s mostly boutiques, women’s clothes, and jewelry. I do most of my shopping on the internet.
You’re right, and I believe that is why they are setting up the police state (with military equipment, surveillance, etc.). The scales have fallen from most Americans’ eyes, and they are furious.
I always bought at a small local chain which did two things. First, they opened every CD case in their main stock and kept the CDs behind the counter. This cut down on theft and let you read the liner notes. Also you could then try out the CD before buying, unlike buying a sealed CD at the mall. But one Amazon started giving 30 second clips even that advantage disappeared. Between that and mp3, they switched to mainly used CDs and then gradually closed.
If all Sears stores closed would anybody notice?
The economy was bad before Obama, but Obama is the proverbial gasoline thrown on the fire.
That brings back some fond memories. Back in the late 70's a few of us would walk from Pier 12 NOB to Military Circle Mall and back just for something to do and see a movie. It was usually on Sunday when the rest of the city was shut down and buses didn't run out there. Nothing opened on Sunday back then but the movies. My favorite place was right up the road from the mall called Peaches Records. I bought quite a few there.
When I got a vehicle I spent less off duty time in Norfolk and more driving down 17 through the Dismal Swamp area towards Nags Head just to get out of town.
Then there was the unofficial swimming hole just off I-64 close to the south end of town near a bridge. I'm assuming it was an old quarry but it was a popular swimming hole back then LOL.
If a mall sits more than a year or two unoccupied it deteriorates due to maintenance issues. Maintenance cost is staggering.
Oh, if a republican was in office the last six years the only story 24x7 would be the dismal state of the economy, the hordes of homeless, the unemployed, the victims of all sorts of institutionalized racism. The horror, oh, the absolute horror.
But we have dear leader Barack Boko Haram Hussein Obama to make everything good.
And if you don’t live in the boonies and live somewhere near the depot, if you order the item before about 11:30am, you get it by 3pm in the afternoon via lightning delivery.
My company has been using McMaster for 10+ years now. Their website is the best for drilling into exactly what you need when it comes to tools and everything mechanical. The best part is that I cannot recall something not being in stock. Sometimes it comes out of the Chicago warehouse, but that’s rare.
Their prices are usually higher when compared to shopping around the web but you can’t compete with their stock and speed of delivery.
I have Amazon Prime and in the past several months have observed a young man in a beat up white sedan stop in front of my home and drop off my purchases. Usually it is UPS that delivers but all of these packages arrived in 24 hours instead of the two day promise from Prime.
Don’t bother with the fact that both Penny and Sears committed economic suicide....
Amusing anecdote...my last visit to a capital city in South America, the cars looked newer and cleaner than in downtown Phoenix.
I wouldn’t miss Sears. There was a time when I bought almost everything from Sears — clothing, appliances, electronics... Same with my parents. Dad bought his lawnmower, tools and other guy stuff from Sears. The products were a good value and they lasted forever. Not anymore. Now it’s just like its sister chain, Kmart, only higher prices.
The other thing that bugs me is the bilingual signage throughout the store. I’m part Italian, part German. Where are signs in those languages?
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