Why is it that the major shopping areas on State Street and Michigan Avenue close so darned early on Saturdays?? Does it make sense for, say, Water Tower Place and Northbridge (or whatever it’s called) to shut down at 7:00pm (and from what I’m told, other places in the area shut down even earlier)?? After all, malls in the suburbs are open until 9:00 and 10:00…
It’s a symptom that downtown is, or is becoming, becoming a “drive-in-drive-out” destination. People drive in to do one or two specific things, or maybe that’s where there job is, but they don’t hang around. They get out ASAP, either because they’re worried about getting stuck in traffic, or they’re paranoid about muggers. Shopping, as mall operators and tenants would have it, is essentially an open-ended, unstructured activity in which potential customers feel no urgency to get out of the mall, but favor milling around and perhaps making further purchases. So presumably they see no point in keeping the lights and heat on later in the evening.
Chicago’s not as bad as L.A. in this respect, but on my visits there I have definitely noticed that type of behavior among the suburbanites.