Here in Japan, malls are doing fine, AFAICT. They're a little different from American malls though: they tend to have a lot of nicer restaurants in addition to

Here in Japan, malls are doing fine, AFAICT. They're a little different from American malls though: they tend to have a lot of nicer restaurants in addition to the food court. They also frequently have very specialized shops catering to specific hobbies. Finally, large grocery stores are not uncommon as "anchor stores". We also have "open-air malls" called shotengai, which are basically shopping streets but typically with a roof installed overhead. A lot of these aren't doing so well though. Another comment mentioned logistics in America as being very good, but they're better here. Stuff gets shipped across the country very cheaply in 2 days here, or within the metro area in a day. You can even send frozen stuff to your relatives quite cheaply. The country's small size and urban density probably has something to do with this. But in-person shopping still is doing a lot better here than in America. Personally, I think a few factors contribute: 1) homes (esp. in the city) are quite small, so people like having 3rd spaces, and malls serve this purpose (as well as shopping streets and the city in general, but when the weather is bad, people understandably don't want to wander around outside that much). In America, people can stay in their homes more easily. 2) Civility in Japan is probably best in the world, whereas in America it's really gone down the toilet. Lots of Americans I've read about dread going outside because there's so much rudeness and incivility with daily interactions with strangers, when driving, etc. Whereas in a large Japanese city, you can take the subway somewhere, go shopping, go to a restaurant, etc., and it's extremely unlikely you'll have a highly negative experience with some angry karen or MAGA-head. Even going to a cafe, restaurant, etc., you can always expect polite service, whereas in America these days, rude service seems to have become the norm. So with such a negative environment outside their doors, it makes sense that Americans wouldn't want to even go to the mall just to walk around.