Posted on 11/13/2022 2:00:08 AM PST by EBH
NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio — Are shopping malls on their last leg and nearing extinction?
It’s a question consumer experts have been asking for years.
However, recent data shows indoor and outdoor malls are actually showing positive gains and nearing a comeback here in Northeast Ohio.
With higher vaccination rates, baby boomers preferring in-person shopping, and a millennial generation loving nostalgia, some experts and investors believe we may have turned a corner in the retail landscape.
Take a walk through Great Northern Mall in North Olmsted and you can’t help but notice the rush of shoppers, vibrant retail spaces, and holiday decorations.
It’s the glimmer of hope and turnaround point Dan Crandall, Marketing and Business Development Manager of Great Northern says they’ve been longing for.
It's a welcome moment in an era where so many malls have shuttered operations or rebranded toward mixed outdoor use.
“They’re coming back to the malls. They wanna touch, feel and experience it—especially with the holidays this time of year!” said Crandall.
In the days when so many were shopping online due to the pandemic, 2022 actually brought a noticeable change.
(Excerpt) Read more at news5cleveland.com ...
I think I’ll be getting rid of ZipRecruiter.
Just awful.
This report reminds me of someone driving through Mennonite country and noting the comeback of horses and buggies.
;-)
What is happening is we are becoming a third world nation with a two tiered third world economy—with a deep split between the have and the have nots.
If the haves are your market you are in good shape.
If your market was the have nots you are in trouble.
North Olmstead is two percent Black. Get the picture?
What happened to the Sears store? Did it turn into a luxury auto dealership?
“North Olmstead is two percent Black.”
Right. My dad was a pastor in Cleveland for 30 years so I’m familiar with the overall demographics. N. Olmstead is a nice area.
Maybe that’s it too. My client base is the well off. Although I do think some are just faking it too. Area is full of young new doctors due to the 3 major hospitals here.
I believe that brick and mortar stores are dead (with the exception of food stores). At least until a major solar storm fries power grids and satellites.
YES! They're called hoodrats, millennials and gen-z's!
Great Northernn has always been a pleasant mall to shop in, and while it suffered during the covid, it escaped the dystopian fate of so many other malls returning to the jungle..
i detest “shopping”, that is browsing in stores looking for some impulse purchase to make ... the only “shopping” i ever do is at Harbor Freight ...
otherwise, i go to stores to buy what i need ... and mostly those stores are grocery stores, discount warehouse grocery stores like Costco and Sam’s, pharmacies, hardware stores, farm supply stores, and building supply stores ...
everything else for me is online purchasing because ALL the retail stores carry EXACTLY the same items and exactly the same colors and exactly the same fads ... merchandise selection is skimpy, uniform and mediocre ...
with online purchasing, i can browse a nearly infinite set of stores, looking for exactly the right item at the best price ... and online reviews can be very useful, once you manage to discount the obvious lies and fraud ...
most of what i need isn’t available locally anyway ... for example, i’m replacing the head gasket on my old JD lawn tractor ... good luck in finding that locally (ha ha) along with the other necessary gaskets ... plus the old muffler on it that i tried to weld back together a few years ago finally bit the dust, so that needed to be replaced as well ...
i’m picky too .... picky about healthy and tasty food items that can’t be bought locally, and picky about repair items ... for example, there are marvelous adhesives that can’t be bought locally ...
and then there’s the issue of driving in wretched traffic, and parking and standing in line to pay or return something, and even worse, driving and parking and NOT finding what you need ... for small items, i won’t hardly go to a local building supply store unless i find it in their online inventory, pre-order and pre-pay, and then pickup it up from an auto-locker or service desk ...
and with gift-giving, all of the above holds as well, PLUS online stores can ship the gift directly to the giftee (usually for free), thus avoiding having to package/repackage the gift, drive it to USPS or a shipping store, again waiting in line, and paying full retail shipping price ...
for me, online buying has immeasurably improved my life, saving invaluable time, avoiding hassle, saving money, and buying better stuff ...
“i detest ‘shopping’”
Me, too. My husband loves that about me.
Before I retired I had a job that had me looking at demographics of a wide variety of local areas.
One shocker was that a pattern was starting to emerge with the type of local employers.
The data is easily available on Wikipedia for any location.
The largest employers tended to be hospitals, schools, local governments.
What do these employers have in common?
They don’t actually manufacture anything.
They are “service” industries serving each other.
This will not end well.
I get posts for jobs that I am not suited or interested in every so often.
Otherwise Ziprecruiter is quiet for me.
There has been a near comatose mall in my area that somehow stays open but it’s in a locked in area.
At last the plan is to redevelop the place as retail for the two big tenants and the rest as upscale apartments and recreational space.
Slated to be completed in about 10 years.
I had changed phone numbers, but ever once in awhile, one slips through. No idea how they got my new phone number, but I started paying for RoboKiller, and it is so good, that I have to check at least once a week to make sure that the V.A. hasn’t tried to contact me from an unknown (contact list) number.
Could it be that seasoned American tech applicants are being passed over for employment?
That might be one perspective, but there is a whole boomer generation that’s hitting retirement. Age, medical needs, and made their $$.
“there is a whole boomer generation that’s hitting retirement. Age, medical needs, and made their $$.”
True.
This is non-sustainable long term.
We are living off of past productivity with no plans for future prosperity.
This can work for a while but in a few decades the party will be over....
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