Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

What Killed The Malls Of The ’70s & ’80s? Newer, Better Malls, Not Amazon

Why are American malls dying? Conventional wisdom often points the finger of blame at Amazon and a desire for shopping from home in your pajamas, but a new analysis claims that the real culprit is competition from newer, better malls that aren’t feeling the same pain as their withering forefathers.

While patterns of commerce in the coming decades are sure to change, Wells Fargo Securities recently performed a study of dead malls in its property database to figure out what killed them. The Wall Street Journal reports that out of the 1,000 or so malls in the database, 72 were officially closed and could be considered “dead.” Almost all had been demolished, and most were redeveloped into either a strip mall or some use not related to shopping.

The autopsy of these dead malls turned up a predictable cause of death: Newer malls killed them. It usually took a long time for the malls to die after a new upstart moved into the area, but their demise followed a consistent pattern.

More

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, just what we need. Another newer, better mall.

Why not combine it with the new city government office building for added convenience and foot traffic?

Anonymous said...

Malls are a thing of the past. Crime including minor things like loitering just jeopardize safety at the mall like in Salisbury. Large Strip malls are coming back stronger than ever with large box stores and restaurants.

Anonymous said...

We are turning into Europe the only small businesses there are pubs and the sex industry nothing else can afford to operate there.

Anonymous said...

10:36 That's not a bad idea. Combine the mall and city/county services all in one complex. Put the main police building there too. That way you can keep control of the criminal element and get your shopping done while you take care of your government business.