
The Mall of Shame - replicatorblog
https://medium.com/@foundercollective/the-mall-of-shame-5c9de67df34
======
crushcrashcrush
This piece is hilariously out of touch.

“Middle-class staples like Williams & Sonoma, Coach, Lush, and an Apple store
(along with the obligatory food court Sbarro) help account for $1.8B in annual
sales.”

Those are not middle class “staples” - the US middle class can not afford to
shop at Williams Sonoma. Apple is a luxury or near-luxury brand, same with
Coach.

~~~
swarnie_
Never heard of Williams Sonoma before, visiting their website gives me an idea
as to why...

"PAGE IS NOT AVAILABLE IN YOUR REGION

TO OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS,

We regret that due to technical challenges caused by new regulations in
Europe, we can for the time being no longer accept orders from the European
Union.

If you reside in the UK you can continue to order from our UK websites or shop
from our locations and partners."

~~~
beat
It's a fancy kitchen store for malls. The kind of place to go if you think a
set of beautiful hammered copper French pans will make you a better cook, or
you want a really Italian-looking espresso maker. Nice place to buy a serving
dish for your mother-in-law.

And yes, middle class people can afford to shop for luxury goods, and do so.
It's not unusual to have a moderately expensive hobby.

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ergothus
> many of the products in these stores seem to be dubiously sourced, the
> commitments of some, e.g. Christmas Town, are definitionally short, and the
> branding is banal. Currently, 10% of the storefronts are occupied by these
> independent brands, but one wonders what happens when this shrine to
> shopping begins to feel more like a swank swapmeet?

Other than the dubiously sourced products (which is a problem at Amazon too,
so hardly unique to this space), I'm unclear on why this is such a problem?
What happens when a "shrine to shopping" begins to feel more like a "swank
swapmeet"? Presumably people buy stuff, which is the point, and honestly,
after a lifetime of being deceived by or taken advantage of non-"banal"
brands, banality doesn't sound so threatening. The rest of the article (not
that there's much of it) leaves me likewise uncertain of what need is going
unfulfilled. Is there anything I'm missing?

~~~
replicatorblog
Apple never co-locates with a Dollar Tree store. There's a point at which
Apple and other high-end retailers will decide that their brands are being
diminished by being located next to an Alpaca-based clothing store. This may
create a death spiral that accelerates the demise of the mall.

~~~
ghaff
The NH malls across the border from Massachusetts are a somewhat unique
situation. I'm not really familiar with the mall the author is writing about
but the other one across the border is definitely lowish end by Apple
standards. However, because lots of people cross the border to save on sales
taxes, it makes sense Apple would be there--and is one of the busier stores in
the whole mall.

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markbnj
I don't get this piece at all, starting with the title. What's shameful, or
even mysterious? Malls all over are closing/shrinking due to disruption of the
retail business by Amazon and others. In this specific case the mall is
located at a sales tax gulf between NH and MA (I used to live in Londonderry
and shop at Rockingham) and so the shrinking fortunes of the mall owner have
provided an opportunity for independents to move in and acquire "first class"
store frontage they otherwise couldn't afford.

~~~
replicatorblog
Author here. My point is that if a mall that is by all accounts one of the
success stories can only fill space with low-quality retailers, maybe the
situation is more dire than we're being led to believe. I live in that area
and was shocked to see how many storefronts had suddenly gone low-rent. But
YMMV.

~~~
ghaff
I'm much more familiar with the other NH mall in Nashua (Pheasant Lane). I
guess I would have said that it, at least, has long been midrange at best--not
that I've made a study of it. It does have an Apple Store which is something
of an outlier for the mall as a whole but, as you allude to, Salem and Nashua
are both somewhat unusual because of the sales tax situation.

~~~
cbm-vic-20
For more context for people not in the area, the Pheasant Lane Mall is close
enough to the border that part of the parking lot is in Massachusetts.

Also, the Merrimack outlet mall that opened a few years ago is also almost
certainly taking foot traffic away from the southern NH malls.

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oceanplexian
I grew up going to this mall. I think the premise of this article is a bit
misleading.

Sure, some malls are not doing well, some will go out of business, and some
will evolve. For example, the nearby Bedford mall lost tenants, turned into a
ghost mall, and was demolished a few years ago. But in its place, they built a
Whole Foods. And right down the road, a large outdoor mall with outlet stores
opened and is thriving with over 100 stores filled with upscale national
retailers.

Lots of large chains and even anchors have died. Circuit City, CompUSA,
Filene's, KB Toys, Ames, and so on. Amazon didn't kill these companies. These
stores were killed by poor management (For example Best Buy is thriving in the
age of Amazon). Tech giants would do well to learn from big box retail
failures because having a website does not make one immune to poor management
or a failure to innovate.

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bluedino
Our local mall has lost most of the bigger stores, anchored by a Sears and JC
Penny. McDonald’s, subway, and Taco Bell have left the food court.

It almost looks like a flea market inside. Tattoo shops, stands that sell gold
by the inch and cheap phone cases, bootleg t-shirt vendors, nail salons,
there’s even what’s basically a convienence store.

Cheap rents sound good, but they bring in low-end retailers that don’t stick
around and sell gray market product.

~~~
ghaff
My closest mall still has its Sears and JC Penney but we'll see for how long.
Macy's is its _most_ successful anchor store. The complex has already lost
Toys R' Us. There's a successful local grocery chain and a Home Depot that are
always busy in the same shopping center; the mall itself has stores but very
little traffic.

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martin-adams
As someone who has worked for a startup in this space, I understand the
sentiment of this article. Shopping malls desire anchor stores to be the
driving force of footfall traffic. Those stores are very keen on knowing the
spending power of where they operate which the malls use survey data to
collect that information. When the profile of stores change in the mall, it
changes the spending power of people visiting. That in turn can cause those
anchor stores to relocate elsewhere.

Retail is suffering right now. High street brands in the UK are collapsing
with HMV in just the past week. Mike Ashley (Sports Direct CEO) has called to
tax online retailers to make it a level playing field for the high street[1].
I personally disagree because I honestly don't think the retail experience is
helping themselves to innovate and train staff correctly (at least in the UK).
When visiting shops becomes a frustrating experience for the consumer, then no
wonder people turn to shopping online for convenience.

I think the article is saying that if things continue on their trend, it will
get a lot worse before it gets better.

[https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/03/mike-
ashley-...](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/03/mike-ashley-wants-
tax-on-retailers-with-online-sales-of-more-than-20-per-cent-sports-direct)

------
beat
While the mall obviously needs some revamping, I don't think tech entrepreneur
magic is going to revamp it. It's ultimately a problem of customers wanting a
physical space to shop in, otherwise, why bother leaving the couch at all? Why
not just get what you want on Amazon? The invisible hand of the market will
refine the malls, if it can get past the coarse-grained lumpiness of large,
expensive facilities.

I'm almost more interested in online boutique stores, and their fates. How do
they compete against Amazon? I hate going to buy some obscure thing, and then
getting hit with a ten buck shipping charge for something that will arrive two
weeks later, when Amazon Prime has me used to "free" two day shipping. But
when I want that fancy smoked salt, or the obscure imported Japanese pen, I
have to go to the boutiques.

~~~
will_brown
>why bother leaving the couch at all? Why not just get what you want on
Amazon?

You are obviously pro-amazon...but my experiences with amazon are awful.

From counterfeit goods, to just shit products (examples: dress ties that stain
my white dress shirts, ill fitting clothing, to goods that never arrive, even
amazon basic products have turned out to be embarrassingly shit quality).

I recently purchased a new snowboard jacket and would never have thought about
rolling the dice on amazon when I could buy online from the manufacturer
direct at the same price and know I’m getting the real deal.

I completely understand someone opting for an in person shopping experience
over amazon. buying online direct from manufacturers is one thing, but I
honestly can’t understand why anyone would buy from amazon after my
experiences.

~~~
beat
I don't think I'm "pro-Amazon", but I'm generally a happy customer. Then
again, I use them mostly for name brand goods. Prices that are too good to be
true are a warning sign for me.

~~~
will_brown
>Then again, I use them mostly for name brand goods.

Why not buy straight from the manufacturer for name brand goods? I’m guessing
price or maybe the name brand products you buy the manufacturers don’t sell
direct. If it’s the former, isn’t that a warning sign?

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dexwiz
I don’t understand the point of this article. It starts off with by discussing
that the most successful mall is a tax haven, and then muses about possible
future mall occupants.

Also this article has a suspicious number of upvotes, no comments, and is
realitivily low quality. Smells like vote manipulation.

~~~
replicatorblog
Hey, author here. If you look at my submission history, you'll note vote
manipulation is not my foray :)

If you want a clear point, how about "At what percent of mom and pop retail
occupancy do malls, even successful ones, become unattractive destinations for
the stores that are still driving retail sales."

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ungzd
Related series of videos:
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNz4Un92pGNxQ9vNgmnCx...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNz4Un92pGNxQ9vNgmnCx7dwchPJGJ3IQ)
"Dead Mall Series: Informative tours of some of the most depressed shopping
malls in the mid-atlantic region and beyond."

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megaman8
I hope all these mostly useless malls get replaced with things are that more
needed: libraries, decent grocery stores, farm co-ops/local farming, and
especially housing. At the end of the day, humans need shelter more than they
need stuff to put in their shelters.

~~~
KozmoNau7
Absolutely agreed, we need more empathy and less stuff in our lives.

