Retail experts have long sounded the alarm on malls in the US.
But malls are not going extinct, they are merely adapting to a new environment. In fact, many have reported robust occupancy levels and bigger crowds than before the pandemic, according to a recent market analysis from Coresight Research.
The mall here is doing really well because they let a bunch of local businesses in. There’s a local toy store, an antique mall and, best of all, a pinball arcade. And we’re a small city in Indiana.
Malls in my area are mostly doing great.
I think there were just a lot of middling malls, and malls in areas without the population to support them. What the article calls “top tier” malls in large cities are doing fine.
Indoor malls are gonna have a resurgence as temperatures get higher and higher and it’s no longer feasible to spend time outdoors for prolonged periods.
If they can afford the power bill for all of that A/C maybe.
The traditional mall is dying. Mixed use developments are thriving.
My nearest mall has only survived because it pivoted away from retail and is now almost entirely restaurants.
That sounds kinda cool actually. When you’re hungry and don’t know what you want, just walk around until something sounds good!
I like going to the mall for pretzels
I live in Utah and all of the malls have a shitty knock-off Auntie Anne’s called Pretzelmaker that never fails to disappoint.
I was going to ask how you feel about Pretzel Ti🥨e, but then I saw that they turned into Pretzelmaker.
I hadn’t been to a mall in a really long time until a friend of mine dragged me to one to kill some time before a thing we had going on later that night. I was surprised how busy it was, and how much it had expanded in terms of content. There were a couple of art galleries and even a little tabletop gaming store with a few people playing Catan. The only area that was kind of deserted was surprisingly the food court, which only had a bubble tea place and a sandwich place open.
I know the one mall in my hometown isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Sure it’s a far cry from what it probably was a long time ago, but it’s still a great place to go.
I hope it doesn’t close because it’s the most convenient place for me to go to get both bubble tea and copies of older manga.
Most of my bigger local malls have been pretty great, too. Whenever I go, they’re bustling with activity and I love it. It’s fun to make an outing out of it. Hit up the food court for so many guilty pleasure options, look around some cool stores, and be able to try on clothes before buying them (the lack of being the biggest reason not to buy clothes online – some companies have really inconvenient return policies, too).
But that’s definitely not the case for every mall. There’s a small one near me that is just sad. Despite being in a fairly busy area outside, it contain a bunch of empty storefronts that went out of business during COVID and still haven’t found new tenants. I’m not sure why it’s been that way for so long. Are there that few people looking to start businesses in that area? Or could the landlords just be massively overcharging? It sucks, though, cause I like being able to visit interesting shops in person.
Shout out to your username! The voice in my head sang it as I read it
The large ‘malls’ here are all seeing to do very well, and those that were previously struggling have seemed to have seen success pivoting away from being just a place to go and ‘buy’ things and into places to ‘do’ and ‘experience’ things.
We millennials have a fascination with mixing alcohol and activities we did growing up, with bowling, mini-golf and ticket arcades doing well by feeding off our nostalgia.
I watched some American Gladiators today. No alcohol was involved, just pure nostalgia
Removed by mod
This bot is annoying.
The current title is still “The US mall is not dying”