
The vanishing shopping mall - robg
http://www.theweek.com/article/index/94691/The_vanishing_shopping_mall
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andyking
_Retirees Dick and Anne Saplata work out by walking around the largely empty
halls of the Metcalf South Mall in Leawood, Kan. It’s likely to close soon,
and there’s talk that a developer will raze the place. If the mall goes under,
Dick Saplata asks, “where are we going to walk?”_

Er, outside? Down a street? God forbid, in the country?

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msluyter
I think (mostly) seniors like to walk in malls because they're air
conditioned/heated, relatively safe, and have restrooms. Few other locations
have these amenities for free.

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andyking
It's not something I've ever come across in Britain. People will tend to go
and have a stroll around a local country park, or just round the streets near
home. Personally, I couldn't think of anywhere worse than a shopping centre to
spend a few hours walking!

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ShabbyDoo
When it's below freezing out and you're 75 years old, a mall is preferable to
most anyplace outside.

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jamesbritt
Or you live in Phoenix and a stroll on a summer day is potentially lethal.

Walking around a climate-controlled mall is great exercise.

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ShabbyDoo
As an Ohioian, I hadn't even thought about this.

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electromagnetic
Basic summary and sentiment of the article: "Boo hoo, wah!"

If super-sized shopping malls are disappearing, it's for a reason and probably
because they're too big. The local mall here is currently doing a $60 million
expansion, but then this is basically a middle-class only town and the malls
target this. It's also getting a supermarket in the expansion, and the next
mall over already has one.

Walmart recently opened a supercenter, not far from the older mall, but it
definitely doesn't appear to have affected the amount of people going there.
Walmart certainly gets a large amount of visitors, but it doesn't necessarily
have all what people here want. They have a great selection of electronics,
however their stocking practice sucks monkey butt. They've lost numerous sales
from me because despite the website claiming they have something in stock I
end up going to one of the malls to get it. I don't like walking into the
store one week and seeing something I'd like to get, and the next week it's
gone.

All in all, personally I'll shop at a mall over Walmart, just because I like
being treated like a customer and not a broken ATM with legs.

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pchristensen
I still don't get why malls don't have supermarkets. Almost every shopping
center in Sweden have them, and guess what? People shopping at the mall pick
up food. People grocery shopping browse the mall.

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wallflower
My guess is the grocery carts. Shopping for food can be a high volume
experience. In a place where store owners can get reprimanded or penalized for
closing before 9pm (it's usually in the mall lease), I think carts would
detract from the shopping "experience".

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pchristensen
Makes sense. People in Sweden used baskets, not carts, so it fit with the
other shop experience.

But what grocery store closes before 9pm?

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wallflower
Not the grocery store, the mall.

Most malls in the U.S. close at 9pm or 10pm. If a mall store closes its
storefront before then, it looks bad (similar to a block with abandoned
buildings, a couple not open storefronts break the RetailLand experience).

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weegee
the shopping mall was a product of the 1960s, when land was cheap. I hate
shopping malls. They take up a huge amount of real estate, encourage people to
drive instead of walk and take transit, and house overpriced businesses
selling things I don't want anyway. The only reason I go into Bellevue Square
is to visit the Apple Store, which now is too small for the number of people
shopping there and so crowded it is unpleasant in there so I don't stay.

