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OT: The changing face of Malls and Retail


Outkaster

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Sometime in the last 2 weeks, I heard a story on National Public Radio about this very subject. They talked to one developer who was having success rebooting dying malls, having a dozen or so mall resurrections under his belt. His solution? Market them to Latino/Hispanic businesses and shoppers.
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Not trying to hijack this thread (well, only for one post), but since the Park City Mall in Lancaster, PA was mentioned just wanted to tell anyone within driving distance of the area: There is a park across from the southern end of the mall called Long's Park (it's actually accessible through a tunnel going from the southern parking lot underneath Rt. 30). They have a series of concerts there every summer. Tomorrow, Sun. June 5th starts the series & the artist this week is Brian Auger. It's always free to attend. Starting time is 7:30 PM. The only possible problem is that it's an outside concert & there is a good chance of violent weather at that time. Weather permitting I'll definitely be there.
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The Florida trend seems to be outdoor malls...which I dislike. We have blazing sun following by a monsoon out of nowhere, plus driving and parking around them is dangerous.

 

Yep. The "lifestyle" centers full of big box stores and also the "outlet" centers are very popular in Orlando. Mall at Millenia is a very nice indoor mall if it's too hot or rainy for the outdoor places.

 

Florida Mall is OK, but it can get a little rough around there. :bang:

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Tomorrow, Sun. June 5th starts the series & the artist this week is Brian Auger. It's always free to attend. Starting time is 7:30 PM. The only possible problem is that it's an outside concert & there is a good chance of violent weather at that time. Weather permitting I'll definitely be there.

 

Sunday June 5th is not going to be a good weather day in the Mid-Atlantic region. When I lived in Baltimore City many years ago I could drive to Lancaster in 45 minutes. Would like to see Mr. Augar but I would bet it is going to be cancelled/rescheduled.

:nopity:
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since the Park City Mall in Lancaster, PA was mentioned just wanted to tell anyone within driving distance of the area: There is a park across from the southern end of the mall called Long's Park (it's actually accessible through a tunnel going from the southern parking lot underneath Rt. 30).

 

Watch out for the muggers in the tunnel. :cool:

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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Realize that almost 50% of Americans don't have $400 in savings to cover even a minor emergency.

 

The middle class in the US has been gutted. Mall shopping is a luxury most can no longer afford. Malls at best are for indoor exercise in bad weather now, the main activity for those who go there to do anything but see a movie.

 

Amazon involves no cost of gas, stress of fighting clogged streets and parking lots, risk of damaging car accidents, waste of lots of time. Even then, it's mainly good for quick access to the basics, mostly.

 

Not just malls but physical retail in general is in crisis, look up reports from a group called RSR Research.

 

Advertising, the same; ad blockers are killing online advertising, along with mobile and the rapid realization that ads eat your expensive data plan's bandwidth as well as your phone's battery.

 

It's a changing world; consumerism has gone the way of of manufacturing jobs in the US, and hi-tech is a raze it to the ground and then salt-the-earth proposition, long-term.

 

We've seen the early examples of what it can do, to music, book publishing, journalism, those things most easily trashed by digital simulacra. Well, now the rest is getting dissolved the same way, and plundering the economics of everything associated with it.

 

Apple, Alphabet/Google, Facebook, Microsoft are the temporary winners, but their fortunes are based on illusion, and could easily vanish overnight, with a change of mood or mass loss of interest.

 

Going to be interesting to see what happens after that.

 

Moogfest and local farmers' markets are hints. The future economy will be very local and physical, and require little in the way of tech to facilitate it. It will not rely on fossil fuel-powered transportation, either.

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Realize that almost 50% of Americans don't have $400 in savings to cover even a minor emergency.

 

50%? I'm rather surprised with that figure. :freak:

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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People making $100,000+ per year have little savings available... and some struggle to make ends meet?

 

Eeesh, that's pathetic. Cancel the cable/satellite TV, sell the luxury cars/boats/summer homes, and stop dining out every other night. :rolleyes:

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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In my rural area even WalMart is taking a big hit as Dollar Stores pop up in every neighborhood. It is the alternative to Amazon. Need a gallon of milk, an electrical extension cord, some wrapping paper and a bag of cat food? Why drive all the way to WalMart and fight the crowds when you can go two blocks away and get it at a Dollar Store?

 

My old choices: Local WalMart or drive to the city and go to the mall.

 

My new choices: Order from Amazon, stop at the neighborhood Dollar Store, or drive to the city and go to Costco.

This post edited for speling.

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Realize that almost 50% of Americans don't have $400 in savings to cover even a minor emergency.

 

...

 

The negative effect of shortsighted Greenspan economics. Speed up the economy by lowering interest rates and encouraging people to spend, spend, spend. CD interest rates are a joke and way too often stocks and mutual funds are subject to greedy CEO's. We've mortgaged our future and the due date is coming fast.

This post edited for speling.

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At one point Lexington, KY had three prosperous malls. Only one remains. It had to do a major renovation when the central anchor store closed and they could not find a new tenant. It is attracting restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory. Large restaurants seem to do better there than large stores. There is a large shopping area that helped put the two malls out of business. I hate going there because the layout is a mess. You drive from store to store and traffic can be a mess.

 

That seems to be the new trend. Create a large shopping area with multiple sections of outdoor shopping centers, lay out a road system that causes backups, and watch people stay at home and use Amazon.

 

I would disagree that all three malls were that prosperous. Richmond Mall was hardly ever busy. In fact it kind of sucked. But I agree that the days of those indoor malls are coming to an end and the shopping messes like Hamburg are trending. Who are those idiot planners and engineers???

 

But Richmond Mall is in Richmond, not Lexington. I was talking about Lexington Mall, Fayette Mall, and Turfland Mall. Two of those are now churches. Only Fayette Mall has survived.

 

This post edited for speling.

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Since I posted this the very mall becoming an Outlet Mall just lost their Macy's. I was talking to an employee last Sunday who said that they didn't want to be associated with an Outlet environment. I heard once that once a mall loses an anchor store (Macy's, Von Maur, JC Penny's etc.) the mall is doomed.

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The Florida trend seems to be outdoor malls...which I dislike. We have blazing sun following by a monsoon out of nowhere, plus driving and parking around them is dangerous.

 

Yep. The "lifestyle" centers full of big box stores and also the "outlet" centers are very popular in Orlando. Mall at Millenia is a very nice indoor mall if it's too hot or rainy for the outdoor places.

 

Florida Mall is OK, but it can get a little rough around there. :bang:

 

I hate outdoor malls, like the ones in Winter Park or Waterford Lakes (I live in Orlando, but on the Northeast side so I getting to Millenia/FL Mall is a chore). They must be cheaper, though I would wonder how much so given all the extra individual construction vs shared space...I literally know nothing in that area :) The traffic around them is horrendous and tends to be confusing and dangerous...and as was said you are typically trying to either get out of the oven heat as fast as possible or trying to avoid a solid wall of water (and lightning).

 

When my kids were younger we loved Festival Bay mall--an almost-deserted indoor spot where the kids could run around :)

 

Sears stores just closed in the area (at the least two of them); kind of a shame because I liked Sears.

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My wife and I went to the Louis Vuitton Museum in Paris last year after finding the museum we intended to go to closed. I think I said something like let's see if this place has a handbag that matches my outfit :facepalm: . It's actually a very cool museum especially if you're into modern art.They had an asynchronous metronome exhibit that was very (cough) unique. The architecture is fabulous. See, I even talk like them now. :D

 

http://www.thefashionspot.com/assets/uploads/2014/06/louis-vuitton-institute.jpg

 

Why did I immediately know this was a Gehry building? Always interesting to look at but I always wonder if they are practical use of space internally. He has done buildings at both of my alma maters. In particular, I once heard someone describe the Stata Center in Cambridge as "looking like a housing project after it's been hit by a tornado."

 

Wfm_stata_center.jpg

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Why did I immediately know this was a Gehry building? Always interesting to look at but I always wonder if they are practical use of space internally. He has done buildings at both of my alma maters. In particular, I once heard someone describe the Stata Center in Cambridge as "looking like a housing project after it's been hit by a tornado."

 

Wfm_stata_center.jpg

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When I hit my teenage years, malls were becoming ubiquitous and the place to hang out. I remember people lamenting how the malls were putting the small town stores out of business. The upkeep for the indoor area (heating, cooling, cleaning, etc) for a mall tacks on a lot of overhead on the rent for a business. Also, some of the malls near me had 4 of one kind of store (sneakers) next to each. Competition that close to each other is tough. Is there enough demand for a commodity to support that many stores in one location?
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