Posted on 01/05/2015 7:45:37 AM PST by C19fan
Inside the gleaming mall here on the Sunday before Christmas, just one thing was missing: shoppers.
The upbeat music of “Jingle Bell Rock” bounced off the tiles, and the smell of teriyaki chicken drifted from the food court, but only a handful of stores were open at the sprawling enclosed shopping center. A few visitors walked down the long hallways and peered through locked metal gates into vacant spaces once home to retailers like H&M, Wet Seal and Kay Jewelers.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Malls are amusement parks for the easily led cup droolers and old America types who were convinced they had unlimited money to shop every week for doodads and trinkets.
For the most part, those days are way over.
What I have seen in my neck of the woods is malls that are struggling or closed are typically older and now within the travel range of unsupervised urban teens. Not surprisingly, a herd of young teens girls attracts a herd of young teen gang members. Viola, no sensible adult urban or suburban dweller will shop there anymore. Same thing happened to downtown city centers in the early 70’s. Interestingly, many city centers are reviving again to create a thriving inner ring and outer ring separated by center ring of urban blight.
On-line is the only way to go...Ya don’t have to mix it up with the criminals, crazies, old kinky gawkers and sales people with sadistic vile attitudes and parking lots brawls.
Tiffany.
Could you elaborate on that with NE Philly examples? :) King of Prussia I know pretty well. What's a second tier mall? Roosevelt? Oxford Valley?
Been out of the area for a while, though I did see the Bucks County Mall turn into an outdoor shopping center.
Malls killed downtown.
Internet online shopping killing malls.
There’s nothing at a mall that you can’t get cheaper and with much less hassle at an outlet.
I NEVER go to malls-you’re just paying their rent for them
The last time I was in a gawdy mall was about 5 years ago...The rude pushy obnoxious were over the top....I couldn’t wait to get the hell out...Never went back to one.
Haven’t been to a mall in 10 years, at least.
I’ve made a few shopping trips to unique free-standing stores when I had to get very specific items.
I used to call on the phone and have what I want delivered.
Now I buy almost exclusively on-line.
I don’t buy on impulse, so waiting one day for delivery is never an issue.
The Mall craze of the 1980’s is long over.
As for the “Exclusive Malls”, it’s all made in China/Pakistan/India or some other low-wage hell hole.
Those “Italian leather” boots came from Bulgaria, those “Egyptian Cotton” sheets came from India, that oh so chic kitchen ware is recycled Pintos melted down in Pakistan, and that interesting sounding fillet you are so keen on is actually a renamed “Garbage Fish” spawned in a Chinese fish farm reminiscent of a blocked-up leech field.
Recovery comes when we begin to recognize true value once again. A bright and shiny apple your kid picks from a tree you planted in your own backyard.
We HAD to go to JC Penney’s recently. Went to one store that is a brand new (2 years old) stand alone store. 3 days before Christmas and there weren’t 30 cars in the parking lot. Their selection of men’s suits was paltry. We went to another mall based one later. Selection was better yet, for an infrequent and relatively high end purchase, there was no one on the floor to help.
Major mall leases have risen far beyond the financial grasp of interesting local stores, so today you see nothing but the same national chains. Forty years ago, you could visit a mall in another city and - apart form Sears and JC Penney - all the stores would be different from the ones you found at home. Now major malls are virtually identical and shoppers who still have means are simply bored with them.
““We need to keep malls as safe havens when the undead attack.”
Indeed.
But always remember....cardio and double tap!”
Check the back seat!
KYPD
Excellent post. The real inexpensive things in life have made a big come back for us..
Gawdy malls filled with foreign garbage with hordes of the rude with their credit card, spend till ya drop mentality, is all but dead on the floor.
The good part is, every dollar less we spend, is less money for evil corrupt government. We feed that controlling monster as little as we possibly can.
The malls in Austin, TX are doing fine. The oldest one, Highland, has been over run with an unsavory crowd. During high school UIL track and field team contests, obama sons (and daughters) hang out there and cause more than the usual problems. The mall wanted to shut down during those dates but the lib treehugging city council cried racists and ordered the mall to stay open.
I never wanted to walk around a crowded mall for hours and hours. When I need something, all I want to do is drive to that particular store, park at their front door, go in and purchase said thing and am on my way home in 15 minutes.
Landover Mall was in thug central, filled with black feral urban youth. Most of the “shoppers” were, or acted like they wanted to be perceived as, violent criminals. In gun-controlled Maryland, it was a particularly unsafe place to be.
It no longer exists.
I go to the mall for one reason. To walk in a climate controlled environment. Haven’t bought anything from the mall in years. Well, maybe a pretzel.
I'm must the reverse. I like the new outdoor "malls" that are built to mimic old fashioned main streets. I feel claustrophobic and crowded in enclosed malls. And I dislike wandering endlessly through a maze of an indoor mall to get to the shop I want. I go to a mall on a mission to get something, and get out. I'm not there to be entertained by extended exploration.
I absolutely hate those "outdoor" malls. They are a complete traffic nightmare around holidays, with pedestrians darting to and fro out in front of cars. And there's seemingly no way (at least at the ones I've visited) to enter the far end of the lot and just park where you don't have to fight your way into the lot, and then back out. Access is way too limited.
Give me an old fashioned mall, or a shopping center any day. One without the fancy dividers and pretty tree-lined parking lanes. I want fast in, and fast out.
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