I Went to a Mall Yesterday

[Teasing the Korean]

For the first time in many years, I went to an old-school, large, enclosed suburban mall yesterday.  Long story, but I had to go to this particular location.

Aside from the fact that malls seem like an anachronism in the age of Amazon, there was the added element of our pandemic-era reality.

The space that had been a Sears was empty, as was the parking lot around it.  The functioning part of the mall had almost a post-apocalyptic quality about it.  There was an Apple store and a Verizon store that were both packed to the gills, but many of the other stores looked empty.  Employees all seemed to be wearing masks.  The shoppers' mask status was about 50/50.  When I was finished, I exited through a department store that had very nice displays, but almost no shoppers or employees.  

I lived in NE cities for many years, so malls were not at all a thing in my life.  In the area where I've lived for about 18 years, many of the old-school malls have closed, and there are enough shopping options to avoid the two surviving malls. 

I had a mixture of feelings.  I always hated 70s suburban mall culture on the one hand, but on the other, it seemed a little sad to see a mall on life support.  

That's my dispatch for today.

[Ken Dryden]

Mall owners have always gouged their tenants and charged a percentage of gross sales. Many stores and chains realize that the added expense, traffic hassle and crime around many malls isn’t worth it any more.

[Teasing the Korean]

Just now, Ken Dryden said:

Mall owners have always gouged their tenants and charged a percentage of gross sales. Many stores and chains realize that the added expense, traffic hassle and crime around many malls isn’t worth it any more.

Exactly, especially when the so-called "anchor stores" like Sears aren't there to create the foot traffic anymore.

[Ken Dryden]

There have been a number of shootings in Lenox Square in Atlanta. 

[Milestones]

In the Cleveland area a couple of malls have gone down entirely.  Another seems pretty notorious for the crime.  

Just before the turn of the century malls were a still a hot thing.  I personally lost interest quite some time ago.  The last visit was over two years back, and only because I needed a pair of glasses in a hurry.

But I do have a bit of fondness for the old days.

And they do make sense in the northern part of the country.  You park once and then you can stay in one big warm space for hour upon hour.

 

 

[sidewinder]

1 hour ago, Milestones said:

And they do make sense in the northern part of the country.  You park once and then you can stay in one big warm space for hour upon hour.

 

 

Very true. They certainly made/make sense in Canada - saved freezing to death in the transit between shops. A whole alternative universe in fact !  Having said that, I lost my car in those places on at least one occasion, necessitating a search circuit or two.

[Teasing the Korean]

1 hour ago, Milestones said:

And they do make sense in the northern part of the country.  You park once and then you can stay in one big warm space for hour upon hour.

They make sense in the south, too, where your cars can heat up to lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes.  

[JSngry]

http://www.deadmalls.com/

Not as "current" as it was a few years ago, but perhaps that's appropriate for the subject.

[danasgoodstuff]

I've always had mixed feelings about malls, at best, but it would be very strange to see them go.

[Rooster_Ties]

Never liked malls, but that was as much about not being interested in 90% of the wares being plied.

Mall music stores were usually shit too, though occasionally their cut-out bins might hold some surprises now and again.

[Brad]

I’ve been to a mall one in the last two years and that was only to use the bathroom a few weeks ago. It was pretty quiet. 

[Patrick]

The mall of my youth in suburban Cleveland, Randall Park Mall, has been been purchased/repurposed by Amazon. Ditto a few others in NE Ohio

[JSngry]

10 minutes ago, Patrick said:

The mall of my youth in suburban Cleveland, Randall Park Mall, has been been purchased/repurposed by Amazon. Ditto a few others in NE Ohio

The mall of my kids' youth has been razed and new construction has begun on one of these new-fangled mixed use residential/retail jobs that are supposedly the wave of tomorrow's new future.

Personally, I think that the wave of tomorrow's new future is going to be pestilence, famine, and a general fascistic violent dystopia, but, hey, I like thier optimism...but maybe this will be what they're hoping for?

[Teasing the Korean]

6 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Personally, I think that the wave of tomorrow's new future is going to be pestilence, famine, and a general fascistic violent dystopia, but, hey, I like thier optimism...but maybe this will be what they're hoping for?

Well, if that's the future, it will be convenient to have a supermarket in the same building where you live.

[JSngry]

True, but it doesn't seem that they're leaving room for the 15 foot high walls and the heliports.

Oh well, they'll figure it out next time.

[Dan Gould]

On 10/4/2021 at 9:17 AM, Brad said:

I’ve been to a mall one in the last two years and that was only to use the bathroom a few weeks ago. It was pretty quiet. 

Funny in the same circumstances I'd have stopped at the McDonalds or whatever fast food restaurant had an out-parcel for that purpose. Faster ingress and egress for sure.

As for malls in general when I was a kid there was a major mall in Nassau county Mom shopped at but at the moment I have no clue what it was called. I'd bet its still in operation though.

Later when I was an adolescent in CT, no malls near to Wilton (big one in Stamford that Mom went to as the nearest Macy's (I think)). The opening of the Danbury Mall (20 minute drive) was a pretty big thing as I recall but pretty sure that one has bitten the dust.

When I went to Tallahassee for college, malls played a bigger role in my shopping for sure. Governor's Square on Appalachee Parkway, just down the road from Graham's Erection (then-governor Bob Graham, and really you don't think the capitol and the office tower in between don't look like one? Heaven forbid Florida elects a female Governor I don't know what the locals would start calling it.)

 

 

[JSngry]