The Unmalling of America
"What's up with this mall?" Myles asked me.
"Is it too new to have stores in it?"
His frame of reference, of course, was based on our experiences in China, where new malls open with regularity.
No, I had to tell him. This mall was quite old, as malls go. It was a bustling place when I was in high school, back in the 80s. Every space was occupied, mostly with stores we don't use anymore, like Waldenbooks and National Record Mart, because they have been replaced with online sales. Some of the remaining stores that are often seen today in small-town malls (like Maurice's, Claire's and a nail salon) had relocated to a new Wal-Mart anchored strip mall down the road.
It would be too easy to use this to draw comparisons between China and the declining fortunes of the region where I grew up. Too easy, and perhaps inaccurate. Not only have American shopping habits changed, but also social habits. This mall, originally opened in 1979, is no longer as important to the area's commercial or social landscape as it once was.
Chinese real estate developers continue to build shopping malls, some with mixed results.
And while it took thirty years for the mall pictured above to become irrelevant, some malls in China accomplish that in just over ten.
However, Myles hasn't really seen these yet. He's only been mostly to newly opened Chinese malls. I just found it funny that what he saw in the US he confused for the wrong end of the life cycle of a mall.
"Is it too new to have stores in it?"
His frame of reference, of course, was based on our experiences in China, where new malls open with regularity.
No, I had to tell him. This mall was quite old, as malls go. It was a bustling place when I was in high school, back in the 80s. Every space was occupied, mostly with stores we don't use anymore, like Waldenbooks and National Record Mart, because they have been replaced with online sales. Some of the remaining stores that are often seen today in small-town malls (like Maurice's, Claire's and a nail salon) had relocated to a new Wal-Mart anchored strip mall down the road.
It would be too easy to use this to draw comparisons between China and the declining fortunes of the region where I grew up. Too easy, and perhaps inaccurate. Not only have American shopping habits changed, but also social habits. This mall, originally opened in 1979, is no longer as important to the area's commercial or social landscape as it once was.
Chinese real estate developers continue to build shopping malls, some with mixed results.
And while it took thirty years for the mall pictured above to become irrelevant, some malls in China accomplish that in just over ten.
However, Myles hasn't really seen these yet. He's only been mostly to newly opened Chinese malls. I just found it funny that what he saw in the US he confused for the wrong end of the life cycle of a mall.
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