This year I did about 80% of my Christmas shopping online. The rest was at individual stores for gift cards/certificates. Never visited a mall. The closest I came was a strip mall.
The shopping mall has had its day. In its prime it was great, but now it is something to avoid.
We live in a small rural town. The closest mall is 3.5 hours away, near where we go to the doctors. I avoided malls for years but now that I have a 15 month old, who has no children anywhere near her age in our town (her ‘best friend’ is the neighbor’s 8 year old who helps babysit), we go to the mall when we are in Sioux Falls just so she can play and have some interaction with other kids. My Father in law is elderly and recently had heart surgery so he is fine sitting there and watching her for a few hours while we did some Christmas shopping - but I probably did about 70% of mine online as well.
The covered shopping area where all stores are under the roof is dead in most areas. Those have been rebuilt as separate individual stores with distance between them. Just like it was 50 years ago. Cuts down on rampages quite a bit. No places to hang out inside.
It works pretty well.
So, did you get a good deal on any strippers?