Online shopping didn’t kill malls, America just built too many they never needed

[How Sway?]

The nearest mall by me is dying and hasn't been poppin since like 2011/12. Which is ironic because the area has grown tremendously since then.

But there's another mall halfway across town that still vibrant to this day and is constantly packed.

 

[Ol’Otis]

I prefer stand alone stores

 

[feelosofer]

One mall near me (Livingston) totally died but Short Hills is off and popping.

 

[Mrhateeverything]

3 around me. one in a mid class area popping , other 2 in lower class , one dead asl and one is doing okay ..
last time I went to the dead one there was like 5-6 open shops . movie theater and huge arcade type center keeping it alive

 

[Lonj]

Where I live malls are on life support but I was just in west palm beach over Thanksgiving, and the malls out there were jumping off.

 

[darealvelle]

Gwinnett place mall rip. I had two potnas that own stores inside that mall and they had to bounce.

 

[The_Truth]

One mall near me (Livingston) totally died but Short Hills is off and popping.

It's so strange that Livingston mall is practically dead with Livingston being a very wealthy town.

 

[Dreamchaser]

It's a mixed bag. The high end malls and outlets seem to do well. The malls that suffered are the ones that don't tailor to those two groups.

 

[Duke Dixon]

The mall near me was empty for awhile. They started building a Borders there and stopped halfway

The Regal that I used to always go to was attached to this mall, and closed down with covid. Eventually the mall closed. The only store that's active is the Bass Pro Shop.

The other mall by me is dead and was always the less popular one. I stopped by there sometime in July to get something at the food court. I was going to stop at the movie theatre they had there and it was closed for good. I went there in October to stop at the Spirit Halloween and it was surrounded by closed department store that are vacant spaces.

 

[Bryan Danielson]

They’re still popping in my area. We have one that’s definitely on the decline(north lake) but at least they’re letting smaller local businesses occupy those spaces in the mall which is super smart. It’s a case by case basis with these malls.. just because they aint popping in your city that don’t mean they ain’t popping in others

we gotta tell the whole story if we gonna tell it local breh…..

the one in decline in NL…. A lot that decline was due to the violence and shootout there


They honestly never should’ve closed Eastland

 

[Sonny Bonds]

Gwinnett place mall rip. I had two potnas that own stores inside that mall and they had to bounce.

Last time I was down that way, it was all Korean over there. Has it changed any?

 

[Ozymandeas]

King of Prussia and Tyson's Corner in DC stays packed

 

[MicIsGod]

Gwinnett place mall rip. I had two potnas that own stores inside that mall and they had to bounce.

shyt feels eerie in there. It’s been empty for a real long time now.

 

[Yagirlcheatinonus]

I honestly think the online shopping killed malls. I think it was planned as well. I think the elite want the people to stay inside and be controlled through algorithms. They don’t want people lined up outside 5:30 am waiting on Jordans to drop and all that. I remember the mall used to be the hangout spot. They don’t want people hanging around taking up space.

 

[concise]

No, online shopping (or better yet the internet) killed (or lead to the degradation of) malls.

Malls were spaces a ton of people could congregate at once, meet new people, buy new product that is out. Since the internet and online shopping has become so normalized, malls had to incorporate other things to stay alive. Movie theaters, amusement parks, large fitness centers, and other unique entertainment venues werent really a thing in malls 20 years ago. I'm going to guess that all the malls that are "poppin" nearby you have a combination of these things.

All of these were in malls in the 90s.






Mall of America opened in 1992 and was the blueprint for a while. Online shopping was still over a decade away from being a factor.