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The Economics and Nostalgia of Dead Malls

8 points by kanamekun 12y ago

frankydp 12y ago
The simplified reason old malls are dying is the same reason fast food restaurants remodel, and the ones that don't die. The experience that the mall provides is the core feature. If that experience is not attractive it has no features. New malls beat the old mall trends, and the outlet mall format adds a second feature to the mix which extends their viability time before a remodel is required. The catch 22 is that remodeling something the size of a mall is rarely feasible.
- danjayh 12y ago
  FYI, One of the malls in the linked article was extensively remodeled in 1998. Personally, I dislike the trend toward open-air, outlet style shopping since I live in an area that regularly gets below 15f in the winter.
  - frankydp 12y ago
    Thats a good point, and I think the really difficult thing for the current C mall owners is that a remodel will probably only get you from a C to a B where the experience gain is still pretty low. Other smaller foot print B&Ms usually scrape and rebuild when they hit some age, which seems nearly impossible for something the size of a mall.
mc32 12y ago
I won't miss (suburban) malls (shopping centers). I was never a mall rat, so maybe my perspective is skewed. That said, why not repurpose dying malls as living space for: homeless, hackerspaces, and those in more prime locations, raze and use the land to make into condominiums --malls typically have good transport connections. Make use of the land and buildings. That said some malls are built with expiration dates of 30 years or so, it would seem.
- greenjellybean 12y ago
  This is happening in some areas and it's a trend I hope will continue. For example, my hometown mall was dead (~3-4 open shops out of ~50 available) for the better part of the last decade but management has recently started renting out most of space to local colleges and other non-commercial entities.
kanamekun 12y ago
Sobering that income inequality is a driving force behind the death of a lot of the malls aimed at the middle class: << With income inequality continuing to widen, high-end malls are thriving, even as stolid retail chains like Sears, Kmart and J. C. Penney falter, taking the middle- and working-class malls they anchored with them. “It is very much a haves and have-nots situation,” said D. J. Busch, a senior analyst at Green Street. Affluent Americans “will keep going to Short Hills Mall in New Jersey or other properties aimed at the top 5 or 10 percent of consumers. But there’s been very little income growth in the belly of the economy.” >>

8 points by kanamekun 12y ago

The simplified reason old malls are dying is the same reason fast food restaurants remodel, and the ones that don't die. The experience that the mall provides is the core feature. If that experience is not attractive it has no features. New malls beat the old mall trends, and the outlet mall format adds a second feature to the mix which extends their viability time before a remodel is required. The catch 22 is that remodeling something the size of a mall is rarely feasible.

danjayh 12y ago
FYI, One of the malls in the linked article was extensively remodeled in 1998. Personally, I dislike the trend toward open-air, outlet style shopping since I live in an area that regularly gets below 15f in the winter.
- frankydp 12y ago
  Thats a good point, and I think the really difficult thing for the current C mall owners is that a remodel will probably only get you from a C to a B where the experience gain is still pretty low. Other smaller foot print B&Ms usually scrape and rebuild when they hit some age, which seems nearly impossible for something the size of a mall.

mc32 12y ago

I won't miss (suburban) malls (shopping centers). I was never a mall rat, so maybe my perspective is skewed. That said, why not repurpose dying malls as living space for: homeless, hackerspaces, and those in more prime locations, raze and use the land to make into condominiums --malls typically have good transport connections. Make use of the land and buildings. That said some malls are built with expiration dates of 30 years or so, it would seem.

greenjellybean 12y ago
This is happening in some areas and it's a trend I hope will continue. For example, my hometown mall was dead (~3-4 open shops out of ~50 available) for the better part of the last decade but management has recently started renting out most of space to local colleges and other non-commercial entities.

kanamekun 12y ago

Sobering that income inequality is a driving force behind the death of a lot of the malls aimed at the middle class: << With income inequality continuing to widen, high-end malls are thriving, even as stolid retail chains like Sears, Kmart and J. C. Penney falter, taking the middle- and working-class malls they anchored with them. “It is very much a haves and have-nots situation,” said D. J. Busch, a senior analyst at Green Street. Affluent Americans “will keep going to Short Hills Mall in New Jersey or other properties aimed at the top 5 or 10 percent of consumers. But there’s been very little income growth in the belly of the economy.” >>