but the reasons i used to spend an occasional sunday afternoon have disappeared from my local mall. the book store, record store, arcade all gone.

our local mall just put ina wonderful fully stocked book store

newer ones are soul-sucking McMansion "machines for living"

It has never served all the people as it was geared heavily towards the students at Texas A & M. The biggest draw for my family were some of the smaller stores but it appears the mall owners want too much money for a little space. One poster suggested the decline of the middle class, perhaps that is so but I have noticed many people expressing the same distaste and going to the mall as myself. BTW they feel the same thing about WalMart.

We made a visit recently and it appears that Post Oak Mall in College Station is on the down swing. The place appears dirty, there are few people to wait on customers, few customers (regular term is out at A & M) and a lack of goods that I would buy.

is that there is nothing unique anymore. Every mall has the exact same stores, big international chains selling the exact stuff. When malls first opened, you could find local shops there, there was a sense of one's own community. That is long gone. Maybe that is why people are going downtown again.

I've spent at least the last hour reading about the malls as well as stores/businesses/chains that are no more.

I feel kind of sad, seeing so many names that I remember (I grew up in the Portland, OR area) that disappeared.

They don't socialize like earlier generations (for example, in malls), they don't buy cars so they don't drive to malls, and they're tech-saavy so they're more likely to buy thing online.

since they waste a lot of good land that may have displaced wildlife.

Americans have been shifting back to cities and glorifying urban car-free living. Its cheaper to live in many suburbs. Plus online shopping has changed everything. I go to malls mainly for lunch or to watch a movie or something, rarely for shopping.

And then there's also malls like Tyson's Corner where people get into fist fights over parking spots and they will rob you at gunpoint to get your apple store purchases. They also have valet parking for a price. I hate that place. Most malls in the DC suburbs seem to always be crowded. I got towed from a Target once for parking in a restricted lot.

where families would gather to spend an afternoon or evening. The Internet has made shopping much easier and cheaper because travel is taken out of the cost of shopping and overhead has been reduced, thus lowering the cost of goods.
We're spending less and getting more, but we're sacrificing social interfacing and the requisite skills that are required to deal with one another upfront and personal. Unfriending people is much easier than talking to them face to face.
I'd prefer human contact over self absorbed dingle berries who text and drive because they can't contain their brain farts.

lets build a new one bigger and more fabulous. Thats seems to be the answer in many places. In my area the neighboring city died because of white fright, then the business district increasingly moved west. Its moved so far it went to a new (outside) mall in the town which failed in less than 20 yrs. They then enclosed some of it and it got a breath of new life when a major supermarket built new where Penny's was. The then million dollar answer was lets build a new one, enclosed. Well that one was the place for about 30yrs and its sputtering out. Sears is hanging on but many of the commonplace store left and some were divided up. They just built a new free standing China buffet next to the bed and bathstore (former supermarket). There has been talk about building a new one now for more than 10ys if only the local government gives them tax breaks and funding.....

Meanwhile, the old shopping business district is a smatttering of close up buildings and new small enterprises and bodegas. People still willing to take a chance, many new immigrants...even the secondary streets have shops and eaterys.

So the answer is always lets build a new mall....

I do very little shopping any more. I'm 65, divorced, adult children who live in other parts of the country, no grandkids. So my needs (not to mention my income) are very modest. I buy groceries and pay my various bills (mortgage, utilities, a Visa). I rarely buy books, preferring to go to the library, although I make a conscious effort to buy from the independent bookstores when I do. I don't need new clothes very often, and had not needed to maintain a professional wardrobe very much of my adult life.

Were I younger, if I had children at home or grandchildren nearby I'd be shopping more.

People dressing up to go shopping is long, long gone. Even I don't recall doing that.

you don't need it.

they are doubling the size of MOA.

Perhaps that place is in a category of it's own?

http://www.startribune.com/business/250815941.html

MOA is a destination, not just a mall. In the meantime, other malls, like the Maplewood Mall near where I am in Minnesota, are deserted. Here's why:

Malls are accessible pretty much only by automobile. Smaller malls, like the Simon-owned Maplewood mall, still require that you drive there. So, why drive to that mall, when you can go to the Mall of America in just a few more minutes of driving. Instead of being anchored by a couple of moribund chain department stores, including Sears, the MOA lets you visit many places. Instead of four jewelry discount chains all selling the same crap, you can visit dozens of stores, some even with unique merchandise. Instead of a food court with typical fast food chains (most are gone at the Maplewood Mall), you can dine in two dozen places.

The mid-sized mall is dying, and good riddance to it, IMO.

The people in malls look like zombies to me. Their eyes are glazed as they scan the goods in the windows. A lot of times you have to step out of their way cuz they aren't even watching where they are walking. All the product is homogenized. I can get all that shit online & not have to deal with the zombies, the driving & the unhappy clerks checking me out.

In my town, Walmart left the south end of town for the north end of town. That was in '08 & the south end collapsed. The past 18 months, we've gotten a very decent retailer take two large spaces on the south end of town & it is now really taking off. There was a little strip mall that was run down & practically vacant. They've put a lot of money into the south end & it's really starting to flourish & with mostly local business. We even have a farmer's market twice a week. This is what more & more Americans want.

cookie are touted as the cures for all that ails you.

You can eat junk food while you buy junk fashion from retailers who need 75% mark up on everything in order to pay the rent and their CEOs. Dead end minimum wage junk jobs.

The future is a "less is more" equation. Less waste, more durability. Less travel and time and parking and gasoline. More value.

Less Hot Dog on stick, more Chipotle. Less Radio Shack, more Apple store. Less Montgomery Wards, more eBay.

Before blogs and Amazon and online content, people would go to a mall and browse the two bookstores and newsrack there to see what new and interesting was being said.

Before Netflix and Hulu, people would go to the mall to watch a movie.

Before Facebook and every teenager having a smartphone, teens would go to the mall to talk with other teens.

Before everyone had a smart phone and game console, people would go to the mall to play video games in the arcade there.

The really neat thing about the mall is that you could do any combination of the above. And maybe a little shopping, all in one afternoon, in one place. Now, all of those things -- news, games, film, books, casual socializing -- are done online. More, they're mostly done better online.

Which leaves malls only for shopping and eating. Now, malls do have one advantage over Amazon for shopping, in that you can try on that pair of shoes or hold that tool physically in your hand, and buy it the same day. As for eating -- well, mall food was a joke even when malls were big.

So what killed the mall? I say the internet. That's not changing.