Malls probably "failed" in the same way car movies did. They run their course, they never were a goal, just a means to an end. To get people to shop. The shoppi

Malls probably "failed" in the same way car movies did. They run their course, they never were a goal, just a means to an end. To get people to shop. The shopping industry as a whole is raking in more money than ever before, the actual mall buildings never had that much value (as evidenced by how now they are sitting empty and waiting for someone to eventually want to build something new, maybe a warehouse or a community center or whatever in their place.) Amazon happened because having a mall with ~20-50 shops for a few thousand people regionally is so big of a waste of resources compared to having one warehouse that is shared by all the shops close to the folks. Of course this was enabled by ubiquitous online presence. Algorithmically curated catalog. It wouldn't have worked with a big paper catalog shipped to people every week/month.