DailyDirt: Decaying Bricks And Mortar

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Big shopping malls were really popular in the US, but it's getting harder and harder to compete with online shopping and free shipping. The result is a lot of depressing, empty malls just about everywhere. Obviously, some shopping centers are thriving and doing well. But unfortunately, it's not too hard to find an old mall that used to be a great place to hang out -- and now there's not much reason to go there anymore. Here are just a few notable shopping malls from around the world. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: catfish, new south china mall, new world shopping mall, randall park mall, retail, shopping malls, vacancy


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • icon
    silverscarcat (profile), 8 Jul 2014 @ 4:29pm

    Well...

    When malls turn into glorified clothing/department stores, there's not a lot of reason to go. Sure, Barnes and Noble, some Gamestops, movie theaters...

    But what about music? Movies? There's no stores that have those exclusively anymore.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    TRX (profile), 8 Jul 2014 @ 5:24pm

    We got our first mall in the middle 1970s. It was a cool place for a while, and saved a lot of driving... but it kept getting harder and harder to get around inside, as the once-generous walkways filled up with booths, vendor carts, fountains, etc. The pedestrian traffic jam was so bad we started just driving somewhere else if we could.

    Later, the "youths" (gangbangers) pretty much took it over, walking with arms interlocked, six or eight abreast, and shoving people into the wall as they passed by. I decided I'd had enough.

    The closest mall is still technically open. The next two, further away, got the gangbanger problem bad, stores moved out, and both were demolished a few years ago.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2014 @ 7:29pm

    I'm not exactly gonna cry over the death of the mall. Or its brother, suburbia.

    For the record, I'm cool with living on a big plot of land in a rural/country environment. And while I'm not completely anti-suburb, I don't like the craptastic urban "planning" that has led to how they've developed for the past 60+ years.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    mdarius (profile), 9 Jul 2014 @ 1:34am

    Its good that internet sles groving up :)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Groaker (profile), 9 Jul 2014 @ 7:11am

    I can't say that I am sorry to see the "cookie cutter" malls crumbling. They all sold pretty much the same things, 3 months ahead of the season. If you wanted a swimsuit in July, or a snowblower in January, you were out of luck. There was generally little choice with rows and rows of the same merchandise that would continue to decrease in price.

    While as a person who has wide and deep interests, I could rarely find what I wanted or needed at a mall or chain store anyway. I generally had no choice but to send away to a specialty provider.

    Although shipping costs appear to be onerous, driving costs are superficially viewed as being the cost of gasoline. But are much higher. A consumers magazine put such costs at over a $1.00 a mile for most cars. So a $6 box of screws may cost me $26 in driving costs, yet I balk at $8 for shipping them to me, nevermind the hour it takes out of my day. I don't even know where to buy an IC from locally -- I have to buy it online or from a catalog.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mike B, 9 Jul 2014 @ 7:50am

    Flattened

    A few years ago some friends of mine bought a Mall that had fallen out of favor with tenants and shoppers. Their solution was to get rid of the retailers and filled the space with medical professionals. Totally repurposed the mall as a medical center ... over the years average rents have gone from 6.00 to the mid 20's PSF. Also didn't hurt that the mall was within a couple miles of a hospital.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    TestPilotDummy, 9 Jul 2014 @ 8:55am

    This is why I collected crap for all these years

    now I have fresh finals for my radio, or your radio, or probably any radio now! lol

    How many days have you spent with a propane torch and circuit boards and pliars?

    Oh that's right, your on that Surface mount crap nobody can see.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      John Fenderson (profile), 9 Jul 2014 @ 9:17am

      Re: This is why I collected crap for all these years

      I have desoldered/resoldered/reused many surface mount components. It's more of a hassle than the older large components and takes slightly different techniques (although I still use a propane torch), but it's 100% doable.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Groaker (profile), 9 Jul 2014 @ 9:27am

    Re: Collections

    Yeah, but the problem is that I have collected so much stuff that without a photographic memory (and I don't have one,) it is difficult to find what I need. For example, woodscrews aren't usually a problem, though it can depend. OTOH machine screws are a freaking pain. Always the wrong diameter, thread, length, or cap. And I have a 4'x6' "screw case," as well as tubs of misc fasteners.

    Electronics are worse. There is always some chip that will cut the wiring in half, activate relays without running a separate higher voltage circuit, or just can't be done without.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.