Many of the malls in the Seattle area are thriving, but one, in a bedroom community, has been dying a slow, painful death since it opened ~20 years ago. It’s called the “Super Mall.” Part of the reason for its unpopularity is it’s location. You can’t get there from here, or from anywhere else, for that matter.
They put it in anticipating a new exit off the highway, but the exit turned out to be very complicated and people just got fed up.
It’s morphed into an outlet mall now, but, that’s not even doing so well.
ZipperJJ about covered it for northeast Ohio, with the exception of mentioning Summit Mall in west Akron. The thing I find interesting about Summit is that the did a huge renovation a few years ago during which many of the stores gained outside entrances so you don’t have to go into the mall to get to them. That’s gotta help business. I hate having to traipse all the way through a mall to get to one specific store.
Nah. You just need to find malls which make an effort to keep the kids out during school hours and require anyone wearing hoodies keep the hoods down at all times. Unless you think this is “ChiChi with a needless markup”.
Even with a curfew for the underage thugs in place, St Louis Galleria is a disaster. Cars get broken into and crime is rampant. It actually has some semi-upscale stores like Nordie but the Metro brings it all right to their doorstep.
“Needless Markup” is Neiman Marcus. That mall you posted isnt even close!
The two closest to me (in East Orlando) are on the verge of collapse. Only Sears and Macy’s are keeping them open; the smaller storefronts are being shuttered every day. However, the Waterford Lakes Town Center, a horribly designed “open air” shopping center, is thriving.
As is the Mall at Millennia, which caters to well-heeled patrons (it has Louis Vuitton, Cartier and Chanel company stores.)
I work in the commercial landscaping industry and all the new mall plans I’ve seen in the last couple years (Chicago area) have been for the “outdoor living” (i.e. regional shopping center) concept. Open layout, lots of green spaces, small amphitheater for live music, fountains and water features, one even has a boat launch (?!). I think they tend to rely less on major anchor stores as well although that aspect really isn’t in my wheelhouse. The obvious goal being to make it seem like a pleasant destination to travel to even if you weren’t shopping.
You would think the threat of Chicago winters during Christmas season would push towards enclosed spaces but I guess the success of outdoor spots like Oak Brook Mall and Bolingbrook Promenade showed that’s not a big enough concern to warrant the cost of building/maintaining a giant building.
In Colorado, all the old 80’s style malls are long gone. They’ve been replaced with what you could call “shopping districts” that have one big under one roof area with a ton of small stores anchored by a Nordstorm and a Macy’s, and a bunch of outlying stand alone stores and even big box retailers. You have to take a shuttle bus to get from one end to the other.
