“New”??? Haven’t those been around forever (well, not literally forever, but since before I was born)?
In the town I grew up in (Springfield, IL), it was a big deal when “the mall” opened, in 1977, but there had long since been several major shopping centers like what you describe (“a collection of separate stores spread about a giant parking lot”). From what I understand, the first of these opened in 1961. Before then, people mainly went downtown to do their shopping: that was where all the major stores (and movie theaters and restaurants) were.
Great post and thank goodness for that. Other than groceries, I get pretty much everything on line. At some point in the late 90s I was able to buy something off of a wedding registry with like three mouse clicks instead of having to schlep to fucking Nordstrom and I could practically hear the angels singing.
I think shopping malls are increasingly more about socializing and experiences, rather than just buying stuff. So they’ll have restaurants, movie theaters, family entertainment centers (think Dave & Busters), escape rooms and the like, just to draw people in.
I don’t believe that’s the explanation for the decline of traditional shopping malls. Over the years they suffered two big hits, any one of which alone would have been fatal to many of them.
The first big hit was the decline and ultimately the demise of many department stores. This was critical because these giant stores were typically the malls’ anchors. Here in Canada at one time I could have named no less than five big department stores, led of course by Eaton’s, an iconic Canadian institution. Every one is now gone except Hudson’s Bay, which is hanging on for dear life in a specialty niche as an upscale department store. Even Sears has been gone for several years now, though I gather still on life support in the US.
The second big hit they took was the decline of brick-and-mortar retailing in general in favour of online shopping, particularly with the dominance of Amazon.
That’s an interesting observation, and indeed, I can’t think of any strip mall I know of that doesn’t have a big grocery store. The closest I can come to it is one strip mall that has a Walmart, but that’s a co-anchor along with a big supermarket.
As a side note, I live in a fairly new suburban development and there’s a thing here that I never thought of as a “mall”, but I guess in a sense it is, though I don’t think it has any central management or ownership. It’s essentially a small “retail neighbourhood” smack in the middle of residential suburbia. It has a large supermarket, a Home Depot, liquor store, and many random little retail stores along with a lot of takeout and fast-food joints, connected by a series of roads like a residential neighbourhood. Instead of a large parking lot there are many smaller ones connected by these roads. Never really gave it much thought, but it’s an interesting concept that I certainly find convenient.
New in this city. Which has very cold winters. One of them was converted from an enclosed mall. The other was built like that a few years ago.
I go to one of them somewhat regularly, but only to an anchor store I suppose. Which is separated quite a bit from the cluster of smaller stores.
Quite a few malls are adding a lot of separate stores and restaurants along the periphery of their parking lots as well.
Pacific Northwest: open malls with no covered walkways = plentiful cold rain, so I don’t want to walk between stores, especially with purchases in hand. The routing in the local ones is twisty and not at all country lane-charming, just hard to navigate and very poorly signed. No thanks.
University Village in Seattle is an open mall that has been very successful. There are restaurants, Apple Store, Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, pizza places, plant stores, Tesla store, etc. It’s vibrant, clean, and active. I hate “malls” and am not a fan of shopping in general, but I like what they’ve accomplished there. Rain or shine, it’s a nice experience. (occasionally)
Heh, I remember having to trek down to Newport Beach/Fashion Island to fill my Guerlain/Bal a Versailles addiction. Now? All done online. I’m an old, and I do occasionally feel a rush of nostalgia for the big glamorous department stores. And given my perfume obsession, I’ve filled it by purchasing several large (or as they’re usually referred to “giant”) factices. As a little kid, I was fascinated by them. The height of glamour! I thought they were filled with actual perfume.
Reading the glowing reviews of many of these types of malls, suggests that the two instances of them that I have visited in this city are not fully realized. Maybe due to the limitations imposed by climate here. Which I can understand. They do not have the full outdoor amenities and ambience that the malls in warmer climes seem to have. This would mean added expense for things that are not used enough throughout the year.
Maybe they will manage to strike some better balance. But so far they seem an awkward situation. I will continue to use the one or two stores located in them. But I will not likely take the effort to browse the oddly spread out domain. If an online search points me to one, then good. I will go to it.
It still seems a step backwards in many ways to me. I particularly question the energy efficiency. I am sure older malls may be inefficient in many ways. But a modern enclosed mall designed well, may be the best.
One of our most successful malls that is the newest and largest fully enclosed mall is doing very well, in spite of quite a distant location.
The energy efficiency is individualized environments for each store. Unoccupied stores and communal areas don’t have to be heated/cooled. Separate furnaces, AC units and gas/electric meters can be installed for each store and the bills will be sent to the occupants. Open air malls have far fewer communal energy expenses that the developers and property owners would otherwise have to take responsibility for. The only normal weather related expense is plowing the parking lot and watering the plants.
I was just going to mention the Don Mills Centre. This was a mall that my family went to with some frequency as it was near my parents’ place of work. Not a big mall, but a very nice one. The Eaton’s department store, a cool toy store, nice little food court, benches where a tired old person could actually sit down. There might have been a small movie theater too, I don’t remember now. Then they tore it down and built that awful open-air mall in its place, “The Shops at Don Mills”, a concept which has become increasingly common.
I hate it. For me, it’s not much different than going to a place like Walmart. When I was a kid, going to the mall was a bit of an event. So many things to do in one place, which is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Now these malls are dying or being re-conceived. And fewer department stores to choose from as well (certainly in and around Toronto).
We can complain about it here, but we’re probably just old farts used to a concept of retail that is dying out. Maybe the young people of today will never miss it.
As a kid, I grew up at York Mills and Bayview. In the mid-70s we had a few choices:
Bayview Village - an open streetscape, anchored by a Loblaws Grocery store and a Kmart. Enclosed in ‘77 or so and had my local movie theatre
Don Mills Centre - a mid-size mall with an Eatons. I think there was a theatre, but not attached. It was near Dominion and the arena
Fairview Mall - bigger, Simpsons and Eatons, and movies
Yorkdale Mall - similar to Fairview
Fast forward 45 (gulp) years, and Yorkdale and Fairview are hugely expanded, Bayview Village is somewhat expanded. Kmart long gone of course.
Malls in Canada generally still do well, but they are all looking at adding residential to the mix.
Power Centres also do well have largely replaced the strip mall. If I want to get groceries and go to Home Depot I will likely drive from one to the other. The urban cityscape malls still don’t make sense to me in our climate.
There does seem to be a trend toward non-enclosed malls - reversing a long-standing trend of enclosing existing open-air malls.
We live where there’s real winter, but there are two large outlet malls not that far away where everything is outdoors; no “mall” really at all. Definitely not conducive to hanging out and doing leisurely shopping. Precisely the opposite of what designers were going for, not that long ago: they made it hard to dash in and out and accomplish your business, as they wanted you to hang around longer, and make impulse purchases.
I read someplace that one advantage of the open-air malls is that you can park directly in front of the store you’re visiting. Some people find that more secure.
Also, a person with limited mobility can be dropped off near the front door of the store. Indoor malls were a no-go for people not capable of walking more than a few hundred feet.
There are basically two types of outdoor malls that I see. One has the stores in the middle surrounded by parking and I’m going to have a bit of a walk to any store no matter where I park. The other type has the parking in the middle surrounded by stores, and depending on exactly when I go, I might be able to park directly in front of the store. If I’m spending the day shopping and will go to multiple stores, the mall layout doesn’t really matter to me. But I won’t go to the “stores in the middle” layout ( or an indoor mall) if I just want to buy a pair of shoes - it’s too much hassle to go to one store.
One of the local “all under one roof” shopping malls has been on the skids for several years, and lost one of the major anchors. An big company leased the space and made it additional office space for salaried workers. I knew one of the people who worked there and he said it was very pleasant, a lot of the people would come in before their “shift” started and walk around the mall for exercise - even though the stores hadn’t opened yet. (I often wondered if someone at the big company main office was jealous of the amenities.)
What a great repurposing. Not like another local site where the mall was simply demolished and replaced by a big box store.
