So much for the golden age of the mall

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So much for the golden age of the mall

Sunday, June 28th, 2009 | Home Life |

I was at the mall yesterday buying clothes. (Foothills Mall in Maryville, TN, FWIW). My four year old wanted to walk around the mall, so we did.

The mall opened in 1981 when I was in 7th grade. Back then it had two book stores, two record stores, one or two toystores, an arcade or two, and a Walgreen’s drug store, plus the usual department stores and clothing stores.

Except for the department stores and clothing stores all of that is gone. No bookstores, record stores, toy stores, arcades, nothing. Just clothes and worthless crap. With high rents and the competition from the Internet and big box stores I can see how some of those business can’t compete these days. There’s just no reason to go to the mall any more, even for kids, unless you want to buy clothes or you’re going to Sears for Kenmore appliances, Craftsman tools, or Diehard batteries.

Katie is four year old, so she didn’t notice the absense of anything worthwhile. We entertained ourselves with gumball machines, some frogs for sale at a sunglass kiosk, and massage chairs. Even as a ‘tween I can’t imagine her being very entertained as a mall rat in what’s left of the malls these days.

I imagine some malls will have to go through the same decline that many downtown business districts suffered. Once the rents get low enough someone will figure out a way to do something with the malls to bring back businesses and customers.

4 Comments to So much for the golden age of the mall

Dave
June 28, 2009

You sure?

Vote For David
June 29, 2009

The only problem with the “rents will get low enough to repopulate the malls eventually” theory is the fact that mall “owners” are going bust. No guarantee there is a buyer for the property that will want a mall where one just failed.
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Les Jones
June 29, 2009

“mall “owners” are going bust”

That’s part of the process, unfortunately. They go bankrupt and discharge some of their debts. Or they’re liquidated in a Chapter 7 and someone buys the assets cheap. Either way, once the debt on the property is reduced the property can be leased at a lower monthly rent and still satisfy the owner’s debt obligations.

Commercial real estate goes through this process all the time. Someone builds a fancy new restaurant from scratch, using a combination of investment capital and loans. It goes bust. Someone else buys the property and kitchen equipment at a discount, making it more likely they’ll be able to turn a profit. It sometimes takes several cycles of this process before someone can turn a profit in a particular location.

Ian Random
July 16, 2009

I find it sad to go to the mall. I just wonder how some of the businesses can stay open. I’d see an interesting shop, stop by a few times and a couple months later they’re gone. I’d love to visit a locally owned dollar store after seeing a second run movie. It finally succumbed and now there isn’t a whole lot of reason to go there. I think the mandatory store hours coupled with the minimum wage hikes really make it hard.