[EBH]

Interesting, when the whole country is in a recession.

[SaveFerris]

During the Biden Recession about to become the Biden Depression Part Deux?

Are they crazy?

Crazy gas prices, STILL way higher than under President Trump, food prices WAY higher than under President Trump, War, diesel shortage on the horizon, interest rates climbing, job losses expected, WalMart, etc, cancelling billions of dollars of orders.....

[rdcbn1]

Online shopping was driven by fast, cheap shipping by low overhead operations and as way to avoid sales tax.

Shipping is astronomically expensive and you now have to pay taxes on online sales even on items that are tax exempt due to the difficulty of online payments.

Overhead for online sellers has really increased so the much disdained brick and mortar operations are becoming competitive

I have really cut back on online purchases for these reasons

The days where people run to the mall to test drive merchandise and then go buy it online sales dominance may be coming to an end

[exnavy]

It’s Ohio, kinda splains itself.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Look at a chart of SPG Simon Property Group, the largest mall operator, over the last 6 months or so. Apparently the market doesn’t think malls are dead

[RockyTx]

please everyone

do not build more commercial space

[Gay State Conservative]

There's a big mall in my town,quite nice,in fact. High end stores...Louis Vitton,Burberry,Nordstrom's,etc. It's described as the nicest,the best,mall in New England.

But it's dying. Major stores are leaving...lots and lots of empty space. I spend a lot of time there 1) because it's close 2) because it's a great place to walk and 3) because it has a Wegman's supermarket. When I go there it's *always* almost entirely devoid of shoppers.

The internet will eventually destroy the American mall...and it might be soon.

[exPBRrat]

Malls become hangouts for the people that annoy you.

[ComputerGuy]

That’s nothing a few teens couldn’t fix.

[EEGator]

Nothing I’d rather do then pay too much for products, while being locked inside with bused in ghetto trash…

[ronniesgal]

good. Cleveland is a great place to live.
I like indoor malls much better than the open air market concept.

[cgbg]

This report reminds me of someone driving through Mennonite country and noting the comeback of horses and buggies.

;-)

[FarCenter]

What happened to the Sears store? Did it turn into a luxury auto dealership?

[Vaquero]

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.

[hinckley buzzard]

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..

[catnipman]

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 ...