# Malls you've seen the biggest decline in **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2015, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malls-youve-seen-the-biggest-decline-in/719940 "2015-05-13T15:17:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malls-youve-seen-the-biggest-decline-in/719940/81 "2015-05-20T13:57:12Z")
In the Twin Cities area we used to have The Dales: Southdale to the south (Edina), Rosedale to the east (Roseville), Ridgedale to the west (Minnetonka) and Brookdale to the north (Brooklyn Center). Brookdale, where I pretty much grew up, is gone. Only half of the Sears anchor store is left. Literally half - they removed the second floor. The rest of the mall has been replaced with a WalMart, Michaels Crafts, TJ Maxx and other assorted strip mall shops. My second job ever was at the B Dalton Books at Brookdale, I also worked at the Fanny Farmers and The Cutlery. Odd side note - those who posted about Cutlery World? I did all the signage for them in the early 90’s, as they were owned by the same guy. I loved that mall. By the mid 90’s, it was declining, by the mid 00’s, it was a wasteland. Few stores. Management would try to hype it, by having concerts to bring in the youth, which would end up in violence. It officially closed in 2010. The other malls are still around - Ridgedale is still a madhouse during the holidays. Rosedale has a lot of empty or local stores. I very rarely went to Southdale, and even now I have no reason to go there. As far as Mall of America goes, during the weeks it’s quiet, and the curfew helps it clear out pretty early. You couldn’t pay me to go there on a Saturday afternoon. There are still shuttled trips to MoA - I can’t grasp the thought of people flying in JUST to go to a mall. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malls-youve-seen-the-biggest-decline-in/719940/82 "2015-05-20T16:51:12Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I wonder what the design life of malls is? Most of them are cheaply constructed, with concrete block walls and cheap facades. I would bet that the are probably designed to last no more than 30 years or so-and probably designed for ease of demolition as well. I don’t know about the design life of big malls, but for small strip malls it is very low. I saw an insider plan for one company that relied on basically making all their profits in about 5 years. After that, the costs of upkeep, the loss of better tenants, etc., made it no longer a money maker. They would sell it off to a secondary company which tended to bring it the _really_ cheapo tenants and skimped on maintenance. E.g., leaks in roofs are “fixed” using buckets. Building a roof that more-or-less isn’t going to leak for 20 years costs a fortune. Make one that, on paper, won’t leak for 10, hope it lasts 5. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malls-youve-seen-the-biggest-decline-in/719940/83 "2015-05-20T19:36:43Z")
I remember when Randall Park Mall [Randall Park Mall - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_Park_Mall) opened in suburban Cleveland. It was the first ‘two-floor’ indoor mall with four major department stores and I spent more than a few days in there. It is now being demolished. Another memory from my youth gone. OTOH, I have been in two of the newest and largest malls in the world–of course, if you’re in the USA, it’s a bit of a trip… [Mall of the Emirates - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirates_mall) > **[The Dubai Mall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dubai_Mall)** > > Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}25°11′51″N 55°16′45″E / 25.19750°N 55.27917°E / 25.19750; 55.27917 > Dubai Mall (Arabic: دبي مول "Dubai Mall") is a shopping mall in Dubai. It is the largest mall in the world by total land area and the 26th-largest shopping mal... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malls-youve-seen-the-biggest-decline-in/719940.md?page=4)