Malls were dying long before Amazon and the reason was big box stores, not Amazon. Also most malls pre-2000 or so were barely giving lip service to the communi

Malls were dying long before Amazon and the reason was big box stores, not Amazon. Also most malls pre-2000 or so were barely giving lip service to the community aspect of malls. It was all about shopping and that's it. Many malls are being successfully revived now specifically because they have meaningfully invested in making them community spaces (stages with daily performances, play areas for kids, even larger and better food courts, chess/checker boards and playing areas, etc) which is something that Amazon can never compete against (unless they get into malls of course). You see a similar thing with "old mainstreet USA" which for many years people lamented were disappearing because of big box stores and white flight (many many cities in the southeast) which now are vibrant and booming because they invested, again, in community and human experience by widening sidewalks, subsidising new theaters, restaurants and bars, adding cheap or free downtown parking - it all worked! Cities like Winston-Salem, NC (the one I'm most familiar with) that were wastelands in the early 2000's but are amazing places to hang out (and shop!) now. Anyway, I disagree that it is all about utility. Malls competing head to head with Amazon just on shopping are doomed because what else in that equation are you even offering except utility and savings? But the idea that utility necessarily trumps (twitch) community doesn't jibe with my understanding of the facts.