What is a “lifestyle center?” I’m picturing a strip mall populated with herbal supplement stores, travel agencies, cheap gyms, and doctors’ offices with names like “The Wellness Clinic.” Maybe a liquor store on one end.
the one or two ive seen that’s pretty much it
Don’t forget the spas that are glorified beauty salons
The “Lifestyle center” malls I’ve seen are all upscale outdoor malls, often made of of several “strips” (ie. – they’re not all lined up along one exterior sidewalk, but several). I get the impression that making it an outdoor mall keeps out the riff-raff – teens hanging out, the homeless, seniors doing walk-aerobics -=- that climate-controlled indoor malls attract.
There are usually more restaurants than indoor malls (and no “food court” – you have bigger, more expensive food venues) and they’re more likely to have an actual bookstore.
So kind of like an amalgamation of a traditional mall and a open public market. I’ve been to exactly one of those that I can remember. An outlet mall in Woodburn OR.
Which are quickly going the way of the dodo.
Fond memories of KMart, I bought my first good camera, a Minolta, in 1977 and it was my only camera until 2006 when I finally went digital. But like Josie said, ya get to likin’ somethin’ and it ain’t around long.
I wish I could understand the dynamics of how the world changed under me. I mean, I LOVE Amazon because I can get what I want. Clothes in my size! Stuff I want in stock, not at the whims of the manager. Losing KMart is hard to take but losing indoor malls? What the heck happened? If they were replaced by on-line shopping, OK, but malls are outdoors now? WTF, how is that better? And so poorly laid out that it has to be deliberate. No one can accidentally design such a poor arrangement of stores.
Our Oshkosh KMart was about a mile from a similar store called Copps. I loved going there, usually one had something great for a kid! And then they added Fleet Farm! Shopping heaven!
Precisely my point.
Yep, I don’t even have enough generic nostalgia for K-Mart to miss them, enough to overcome their general lousiness. Indoor malls are a different story. They weren’t perfect but they’re good enough for me to miss them nostalgically.
I think the main real reason we’re losing indoor malls is that it’s harder to maintain and condition indoor spaces than outdoor spaces. There’s the psychological part where people think a half-empty mall is creepy, but you first have to get to the “half-empty mall” stage in the first place.
There’s also, in America at least, the lack of real grocery stores in indoor malls, which wasn’t a barrier before supercenters. Now, I just go to a supercenter if I need clothes or something else you can get at the mall because I can stock up with groceries at the same time. It’s an oddly specific lack of groceries, as well, like an “f you in particular” to my shopping preferences. I’ve seen one actual grocery store attached to an indoor mall, but it didn’t open up to the mall corridor, so that part of the mall was in effect outdoors. And I know of a Target that does open into a mall, but it’s not a Supercenter so doesn’t have a large selection of groceries. So weird.
But there’s no real reason we can’t have a mall with a grocery store. It’s not a structural barrier or anything.
I don’t miss indoor malls at all. You had to park in a huge lot, figure out what entrance is nearest the store you were trying to get to (and inevitably guess wrong if you didn’t already know where it was), then walk forever to get to the store, which was often a different level which meant you had to find an escalator going the right way. The do everything in reverse to get out.
Malls are set up for browsing and going from store to store. I don’t have the time or inclination for that. I want to get in and get out.
Also some malls have lots of interior natural light, whereas others are more claustrophobic and closed off from the outside world. The thought of spending any time in one of the latter is anathema to me.
With outdoor malls, I can see where the store I want to go to is located from the outside, park nearby, then go in and get out. I much prefer them. Many of them also have pretty landscaping and paths as well. And personally, if I have to go for a walk, I’d rather it be outside. (I think being cooped up in a submarine for months at a time permanently affected me. 
)
In the 1970s the city of Minneapolis bought a twelve-acre site to build a Kmart on the south side of the city, as part of a huge development that never took off. It included closing a MAJOR thoroughfare, Nicollet Avenue, and cutting off entire neighborhoods. The back of the building would face the affected community, seemingly a big fuck-you to their neighbors.
Since the KMart closed many years ago, the city has repurchased the site with the intention of reopening the street and reconnecting the affected neighborhoods. It’s taking forever, with lease issues and many competing alternatives. But everyone agrees that closing and tearing down that KMart was a major step forward.
I’m not from Minneapolis, so it hasn’t affected me, except when I try to navigate that part of the city (as in, why does this major street end in a big empty parking lot). I’d like to hear the viewpoints of any Minneapolis citizens.
The first link below is from 2019, but gives a good overview of the decisions made back then. The second link is the progress made up to date.
I bet it was the HVAC that killed them. An indoor mall must be air conditioning 2-3 times the square footage per selling space.
I remember twenty five years ago seeing major construction on route 28 in Pittsburgh. We heard they were building a mall and shopping complex that was named Pittsburgh Mills.
My first thought was, “What the hell?! Malls are dead?!” and I was right. The mall businesses change constantly. Senior citizens in jogging outfits walk the mall, but that’s it.
I just happened to ride by that mall on Sunday morning. It’s a more upscale mall than expected for a Kmart (Bridgehampton being an upscale town) and kind of camouflaged from the highway by shrubbery rather than having a big open parking lot. So, I didn’t realize that it was the Kmart until we were almost past it. The parking lot looked well populated, so I don’t know whether it was the last day it was open: the article says “due to close October 20”, which was that Sunday.
The ones I’ve seen around here look like they’re trying to replicate the old fashioned small town Main Street. There’s a street running down the middle with some parking on either side, and shops lining both sides of the street. And and anchor which is often like a movie theater or something at the end of the street in the “town square”. And since the street parking can’t provide all the parking spaces they’re required to provide, there’s a parking garage somewhere, but it’s hidden behind the shops as to not detract from the quaint small town vibe they’re trying to create.
When I was a youbng mom my bestie and I would take our kids to the mall. Itv was a fun day for us. We live in Michigan; I can’t imagine doing that with a bunch of little kids, in winter, in an outdoor mall.
We have a, “mall,” in our small town. The population as of 07/01/2023 was just under 6000. During urban renewal in the 70’s the plowed under our very sweet if direly in need of attention, main street. In its place they plunked down an eyesore of 70’s worst architecture. It is almost empty. I couldn’t really tell you what’s in there as I never have a reason to go in. I used to go to Rite-Aid for scrips, but all of those shut down in Mi. The Rite-Aid had an out door entrance which is how I came and went. I know at least one exit is permanently closed. I’ve heard the cost of utilities drives most businesses out. Whatever, it was a waste of millions of dollars. It’s an empty, cold, ugly, barn of an eyesore.