I had a discussion on a British message board a month ago (yes, I realize that the UK is NOT Oz), where I gave the common definition around these parts (Long Island, NY) of a ‘strip retail center’/strip mall (i.e. row of small stores, usually in a straight line*, and usually parallel to the main road, with parking sandwiched between the stores and the main road) - there are about 3 of those within reasonable walking distance of my home - and none of the UKian participants in that thread knew of an exact UK analog of that.
*We have several such malls that form an “L”, each leg facing the parking lot, and they count as strip malls - also, after some debate, even with a large chain drug store the retail center can keep it’s strip mall status, but give it a supermarket or anything bigger (e.g. Walmart or such) and it’s no longer a strip mall.
I’ve always wondered why each new strip mall I’ve seen built has a giant store dedicated to golfing. They’re always the first store to fail. I’ll never understand why people keep thinking, “Yeah, but MY golf superstore will succeed!”
Where in Northern Virginia are you seeing this? I spend quite a bit of time in Alexandria and Arlington and haven’t noticed this at all. I spend some time in Falls Church and Fairfax as well, and haven’t really noticed any empty strip malls. Either the place is full, or it is getting redeveloped. Where I live in DC, there is a strip mall that the owners are planning to tear down and build a six or seven story building with commercial property on the ground floor,.
Enclosed malls fell victim to big box stores which, in turn, are yielding to internet commerce.
As for the OP, I don’t like strip malls (a.k.a., mini malls) either. They’re certainly not built for aesthetic beauty or to enhance the community. They’re just designed to be functional during their relatively short life-spans (which is usually no longer than 30 years). Strip malls are basically disposable commercial architecture.
Also, I find that communities that consist of strip malls, fast food places, and other car-oriented commercial buildings give me less sense of place than those with traditional downtowns and old-school neighborhood business districts. It’s like Gertrude Stein’s quote about Oakland: there’s no there there.*
*I know I’m taking Stein’s quote out of context but it accurately describes the feeling I get.
I’d be curious to know where this figure comes from. Certainly the builders don’t intend the lifetime to be short, and many strip malls are older. I don’t think any predate the 1950s, and the one near where I grew up is still functioning over 60 years after it was built. (Only one of the original tenants is still there, but it has 100% occupancy). I know that this isn’t anomalous – plenty of strip malls in my experience are still around after over 40 years.
The people who open these stores generally are not businesspeople, but golf enthusiasts who believe that enthusiasm will overcome all. They might be good and avid golfers, but that doesn’t mean that they possess the skill sets needed to start and run a business.
It’s not scientific. It’s just what I’ve observed with the strip malls–and enclosed malls–where I live. Once they get to the 30-40 year old range (or sometimes even sooner), they are usually extensively remodeled, torn down and replaced with a big box store, or become ghost malls as their tenants leave for newer and nicer shopping centers.
We have half a dozen of these half-filled malls near my home. In one case, the big offender was Kroger’s who’d built an anchor store back in the 70’s, and then decided it wasn’t big enough. Instead of adding to their existing building, they bought up a bunch of houses less than a mile down the street, tore them down and erected a superstore. The lucky neighbors who weren’t in the zone that was bought now get Kroger, and all its traffic, as their new neighbor.
The original Kroger location now has a huge space sitting empty. It’s too big for a mom-and-pop place; it’s too small for a Home Depot. So there it sits.
In a few years, Kroger will want to expand their existing store to a super-duper store, and we’ll wash, rinse and repeat the cycle.
My wag for all the strip malls is that they are built and viewed strictly as investments for those into REIT’s0real estate investement trusts). Forget supply and demand or even demographics, it’s the money managers looking for big returns who have pushed the envelope iwth retail/office space.
Same problem where I am. It’s sickening the way this city is being run into the ground by the greedy ass city council who only want their tax revenue so that they can kiss the ass of the giant golf course/housing development they tore out acres upon acres of historic orange groves to put in. They call it “progress”. I call it “ruining”. My hate burns.
A couple of towns over they just finished re-developing a huge old lot that once held a grocery store, a K-mart or something, and a bunch of little strip-mall-type stores. It had been abandoned for a good solid ten years (and the K-mart closed longer than that). I was amazed when I first saw it knocked down and the new construction going up. (Same sorts of stuff, not condos or anything.)
Down the street a fire station was just closed and they’re building something new there, too.
But then the grocery store in my town closed two years ago and is still abandoned (along with everything else on the property). A new one opened about six months ago, all of maybe 200 yards away. Literally the next large formerly-undeveloped lot over.
Yo know, you are right!
Much as I am a libertarian, surely we can have commercial districts better planned than these shitty strip malls.
Imagine…if Frank Lloyd Wright designed a strip mall-it would be a thing of beaty…instead of this ugly shit!
