3 ms·

Are they? Anecdotally, I'm in St. Louis and Houston regularly and every mall I know of in both cities has always been busy every time I've been to it in the pas

by nilkn 11y ago

Are they? Anecdotally, I'm in St. Louis and Houston regularly and every mall I know of in both cities has always been busy every time I've been to it in the past five years. The more upscale malls in Houston are actually so busy that I can't bear to go more than once or twice a year, and I'll usually take Uber when I do because parking is so congested and difficult. Granted, these are both relatively large cities, so perhaps that's a factor here. Also, I've seen B&N stores in malls before.

fluxquanta 11y ago
>Are they? They are. See for example this article[0] from earlier this year and the HN comments[1] from about a month ago. [0] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/business/the-economics-and-nostalgia-of-dead-malls.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/business/the-economics-and... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10597487 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10597487
- ghaff 11y ago
  As the linked article says, it does vary with higher-end malls tending to be in better shape. This matches my personal experience. One local mall that counts a Penney's and a Sears among its primary anchors doesn't seem to be in great shape. But if I go into Boston, something like Copley Place seems to do just fine. The shopping malls across the border in NH also seem to be regularly packed but that's something of a special situation because of sales tax.
jonknee 11y ago
Yes. They have stopped building malls. http://www.businessinsider.com/shopping-malls-are-going-extinct-2014-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/shopping-malls-are-going-exti...
angersock 11y ago
The Galleria is basically there to serve out-of-town oil money and the rich folks in West U, Upper Kirby, Rice, and whatnot areas, I would say. EDIT: On the plus side, we still have some good book stores, like Brown Technical Book Shop (http://www.browntechnical.org/ http://www.browntechnical.org/). :)
bdcravens 11y ago
> The more upscale malls in Houston Yes, but for every Galleria or Woodlands Mall there's a number of malls like Greenspoint or Northwest, losing anchor stores and becoming very low quality. Even malls like Deerbrook, which while still containing mainstream stores and staying pretty busy, are very obviously becoming run down.
- nilkn 11y ago
  Well, to be fair, Greenspoint (also affectionately called "Gunspoint") is not exactly a thriving area. I don't think it's surprising that a mall in a run-down area might be run-down.
  - bdcravens 11y ago
    It wasn't always that way - it was originally intended to be a thriving area (see the office buildings in the area), but during development, the economy went sideways.
acheron 11y ago
> Are they? No, but that's a point that a certain type of person likes to push. As this article [1] starts, "maybe it's that reporters don't like malls". You could add "and Hacker News commenters" after "reporters" there. [1] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/07/malls-aren-t-dying-they-re-thriving.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/07/malls-aren-...

by nilkn 11y ago

fluxquanta 11y ago

>Are they? They are. See for example this article[0] from earlier this year and the HN comments[1] from about a month ago. [0] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/business/the-economics-and-nostalgia-of-dead-malls.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/business/the-economics-and... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10597487 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10597487

ghaff 11y ago
As the linked article says, it does vary with higher-end malls tending to be in better shape. This matches my personal experience. One local mall that counts a Penney's and a Sears among its primary anchors doesn't seem to be in great shape. But if I go into Boston, something like Copley Place seems to do just fine. The shopping malls across the border in NH also seem to be regularly packed but that's something of a special situation because of sales tax.

jonknee 11y ago

Yes. They have stopped building malls. http://www.businessinsider.com/shopping-malls-are-going-extinct-2014-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/shopping-malls-are-going-exti...

angersock 11y ago

The Galleria is basically there to serve out-of-town oil money and the rich folks in West U, Upper Kirby, Rice, and whatnot areas, I would say. EDIT: On the plus side, we still have some good book stores, like Brown Technical Book Shop (http://www.browntechnical.org/ http://www.browntechnical.org/). :)

bdcravens 11y ago

> The more upscale malls in Houston Yes, but for every Galleria or Woodlands Mall there's a number of malls like Greenspoint or Northwest, losing anchor stores and becoming very low quality. Even malls like Deerbrook, which while still containing mainstream stores and staying pretty busy, are very obviously becoming run down.

nilkn 11y ago
Well, to be fair, Greenspoint (also affectionately called "Gunspoint") is not exactly a thriving area. I don't think it's surprising that a mall in a run-down area might be run-down.
- bdcravens 11y ago
  It wasn't always that way - it was originally intended to be a thriving area (see the office buildings in the area), but during development, the economy went sideways.

acheron 11y ago

> Are they? No, but that's a point that a certain type of person likes to push. As this article [1] starts, "maybe it's that reporters don't like malls". You could add "and Hacker News commenters" after "reporters" there. [1] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/07/malls-aren-t-dying-they-re-thriving.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/07/malls-aren-...