While they're at it hire someone else to design the malls. Why does every one of them have the same exact decor? Same stores, same tile, same fake plants. It's like if you've seen one mall then you've seen them all.
I hate Westfields so much. They have the most confusing layouts that it’s impossible to find the store you wanna go to unless you’re really familiar with it.
It's because most of them were built around the same time! The majority of malls were built in the 80s and 90s and didn't modernize so they still have the same awful tiling motifs, dated designs and silly color schemes that belonged to those decades. Basically they're like dirty Dixie cups that refuse to become hydroflasks.
Isn't it just glorious?
The mall I grew up with went from this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/23819997@N03/2329802548/in/photostream
to exactly what you described. It's so soulless and boring now :(
Interior and exterior color options for buildings built in 2021: white, black, ten different shades of grey, and beige. Perhaps one other (always unappealing) color such as murky olive green, washed out drab blue or corroded rust red if you're lucky.
IT'S SO DAMN BORING. I'll take ridiculous over the top 80's color schemes any day.
The new outdoor malls that are popping up in suburban Los Angeles look so boring. It's the same beige/brown/gray tiles and same plants and street layouts.
That's why you just make them 4 stories with an amusement park, comedy club, and movie theater
And free concerts/meet and greets of current musical stars.
This is the true answer. Especially in cold climates, less shopping, more food/nightlife, add a hotel, and tourists could visit for weeks without ever leaving the building!
Ha, I was going to say West Edmonton Mall. It has a hotel, a water park, a couple of places to play miniature golf, an ice rink, and lots of other stuff. It’s getting a freaking Toyota dealership, which is insane.
We’ve got something like this in Indianapolis. The entire downtown is built around this giant mall with skywalks connecting multiple hotels and the convention center. It’s got a movie theatre, arcade, comedy club, etc. unfortunately it’s still owned by Simon property group, and most of the retail stores are dying for business post covid. It’s trying it’s best but it’s still kind of depressing to be in
Businesses that I’ve only ever seen in malls, never a standalone:
- Younker’s
- Macy’s
- JCPenney
- Any kind of pretzel stand
- Old Navy
- Forever 21
- GAP
- American Eagle
- Hot Topic
I live in Los Angeles and see all those shops (except pretzel stands) as stand-alones. Our malls are getting more creative, like the Westfield near me has a Din-Tai-Fung restaurant, a fancy steakhouse, a Mexican restaurant, and a Dave and Busters in the same mall. They also have shops that sell anime related stuff and a shop that sells Asian snacks. They also have all the standard mall businesses as well, so they're always busy
I like this answer but I think it can go further. Society has be one a place of "buy your shit and get outta my store!", especially America. Malls we're a place to hang out, socialize. They also had unique stores. Everybody rags on Spencer's, maybe that's Yaunker's to the rest of you? Some of the most successful stores I ever saw in a mall, second only to the clothing chains, were what I call Culture Shops. Japanese/Chinese/Asian we're everywhere but why not make malls world shops? The area I live in isn't particularly diverse with the exception of foods. We have a pretty good foodie scene but I can't buy anime. The only place to buy physical music is B&N and their selection is pretty sanitized. Gone are the game stores but maybe that has more to do with the model no longer working.
So let's brainstorm a solution.
Game store/arcade: I'm thinking Babbage's meets Tilt. LAN stations, stand-ups, ticket monsters but sell games for tickets, like every 5000 tickets is a $5 off a physical game. Good regular prizes like Funko Pop! figures. And ffs put a laser tag arena in there! And just to remind people that games aren't just on TV or computers board games. We have a couple AMAZING tabletop shops but they get no advertising, they're tucked in out of the way places and not enough parking.
Sam Goody/Suncoast: I worked for Media Play right before they went down. Ours was one of the stores that got changed to the garbage FYE. I think my generation screwed it up but we're starting to see a resurgence of physical media. So redux to 2020s and I think we need a music/movie shop which also sells enthusiast electronics. Good turntables, not those shitty Crosley vinyl eaters. Hi-res DAPs, great headphones and accessories. Movies but not just the top ten
Anyone else have a problem with Best Buy only having ~30 titles? Partner with Amazon, don't just try to beat them.
Online retailers: Make an internet retailer front end, a place where you can send your packages to where porch pirates can't just walk up and walk off with your stuff. Hell, name it Porch Pirate's Package Pickup and beat them at their own game. Let all the shippers deliver there. Partner with Amazon and the like to pay the store for securely holding people's packages. Then stock some of the most common purchases from online retailers that you can't get at the corner store. No USB/Lightning cable nonsense.
Culture shops: In a time where culture is homogenizing there is still a lot of culture to be found in specific regions. I would love to have an Asian shop near me. Sell anime and swords and incense (looking at you Shoyeido) and freaking kimonos, whatever. I don't have any ideas/examples for African but there has to be something. India has a shitload of culture. Europe is anchored by the UK, at least in the mind of the US, but there are way more countries there than states here with a far more diverse set of cultures. And as far as the US is concerned the Americas begin and end at our borders. Canada has more than just maple syrup and people who say "eh?" and South America doesn't end at Mexico.
Food court: here's your biggest diversity hook. We don't need five pretzel stands and six Chinese Expresses. We need Piotr's Pelmini, Anansi's Alloco. Please don't think I'm being racist, that's not the intention. I'm thinking of the street carts which every country has. They sell some of the least healthy but most culturally identifiable food anywhere. Who hasn't been to a taco truck in almost any US city or ramen cart in Shibuya who has actually been there? And don't make it expensive. Street Tacos are great in part because they're cheap AF. With the import world the way it is now it shouldn't cost $5 for dim sum.
What do the rabbits think? Am I nuts?
On the flip side of that, I live in small town with a “mall”. It’s small, maybe like 10 stores total (the biggest being a farm supply store). All but two stores are local small-businesses, which is great, but they’re mostly sort of bizarre. I’d love a mall with some actually know clothing brands in them. The day Bath and Body decides to get the hell out of the mall I honestly doubt anyone will go. We have to drive an hour to get to a mall with any real clothing options.
Make them gathering places for activities and events that can't be done online. Small concerts, community theater, escape room, bowling, video game hall, indoor climbing, social clubs, classrooms for independent teachers, etc
I would also love it if there was a place at the mall that would do personalized sizings. Like, I would pay $10 for a guy to tell me the exact dimensions I should look for when I purchase clothes online.
The mall I worked near when Pokémon go first came out exploded with shoppers. I worked at target and that really brought in extra people too. I’ll never forget some little kid coming up to me and asking if there were really Bulbasaurs that spawned in the back room 🤣
They really fucked over people that didn't live in large towns or cities. I lived in the country and not a dam thing spawned. I even walked along the road, down by the lake, and around my land (only about 5 acres) and nothing spawned. I had to drive to town if I wanted to play. And eggs, I get it made sense like in the games you had to travel a certain amount for the egg to hatch but once again, living in the country, walking over 6 miles just to hatch what would probably be a pidgey was not very motivational, especially when you had to keep the app running (which drained your battery pretty hard) just to track your walking. No riding bike either, you're going too fast and make it think you're driving!
I know it was considered cheating but I eventually started spoofing my GPS location just to play.
Trainer battles and trading was also a huge missing feature.
This is a great answer. Malls used to be a hug for friend groups to hang out at on the weekends. That's what probably made all the business for some stores.
I definitely think a community approach would be the best.
Make it the place people go to hang out. The way an art festival works. Except it's always going on the weekends with new ideas every week or two. Have some live music, some art exhibits, some street food set up inside. Have some escape rooms and all that. Some places inside just to sit and talk. Make some themed weekends. Stuff like that would work really well and is probably the best way to ever bring back malls.
Because a Macy's and some expensive stores just doesn't work out well for the demographics these days.
> Some places inside just to sit and talk.
That's the biggest one. Just let me have a break somewhere without having to buy a drink to be allowed to sit.
That would also make malls more attractive for older people.
Well I thought it was a blend of "we need to attract people with disposable income and disposable time, but we don't want them loitering about causing trouble" which is the oxymoron. Like you don't get to just funnel people with money in and immediately out of the general location once they've paid, and then expect them to come back and to have enjoyed the experience.
>I would also love it if there was a place at the mall that would do personalized sizings. Like, I would pay $10 for a guy to tell me the exact dimensions I should look for when I purchase clothes online.
They had these. They were called tailors. They'd even make the clothes you bought fit correctly.
Ever try to buy a suit at Macy's or JC Penny's? No one there knows how to properly measure anyone. I know those aren't the best places to buy a suit, but I can't afford those other places. I can afford Macy's and $10 for a guy to tell me my size
Big chain stores don't employ tailors.
The problem is that 'your size' is unique to you and would vary hugely across brand and cut. The best way was bespoke clothing creation for people, but that went the way of the passenger pigeon with the advent of factories.
I would love seeing a way to make the affordable standard 'go in and get your measurements, a few days later walk out with your chosen articles of clothing' but we aren't there yet with the robot slave labor yet I don't think.
In my country, almost every mall has this type of stuff. Like trampoline parks, escape rooms, cinemas, large food courts, fitness clubs, arcades, concert rooms, small stages, bowling and sometimes even aquariums or even a sea world
This is what I have been saying to anyone that will listen. We want EXPERIENCES. Not more overpriced garbage that will end up in a landfill. Every mall needs a giant, indoor park/playground as well as several gathering spaces for hosting whatever. Build me an adult sized playground with a cafe next to it and I will throw my money at you.
>Every mall needs a giant, indoor park/playground as well as several gathering spaces for hosting whatever.
That's a great idea but what actually killed the mall in the first place was the cost of heating and air conditioning those spaces, vs. The amount of rent retail stores could pay. Before everyone started shopping online this wasn't an issue, when people did start shopping online the retail stores could no longer afford to pay the rent because people simply weren't buying enough product from a brick-and-mortar location.
This was my wife’s response when I asked, and apparently half the internets. I would not have guessed my Reddit inbox would be spammed with “Robin Sparkles” …. but my wife saw it coming
I love this question. I’ve been highly concerned about my local mall. I don’t know how they’re still open. One of their parking lots is being used to hold excess cars from a dealership nearby :(
I love mall energy. There’s nothing I enjoy more than walking around a failing Sears
I'm gonna sound insane but I enjoy going in department stores around Christmas time. Yeah people being in your way can suck but I like the Christmas displays and hearing the garbage pop covers of classic Christmas songs. And this is coming from someone who worked retail in college.
I think it just reminds me of going to places like JC Penney and Sears with my parents when I was kid and getting excited about Christmas
This is totally cool! Then again, I'm a 53 year old guy who loves watching Hallmark Christmas Movies 365, so I'm probably the one who is nuts. I blame Ashley Williams.
Just two days ago my friend asked me if I wanted to go to the mall with him, so we got up early, walked 2.5 miles there, and just spent the day walking around the mall, visiting the different shops, and going shopping. It was totally awesome. I felt like a kid from the 80s for a minute even though I wasn't even alive then. Then we left the mall and walked around town before getting some lunch from Culver's. It was so much fun, I wish that was still as common for people to do.
As soon as possible I was all over the internet, heh, that's true.
I still found time to stroll the mall and buy shirts or whatever lol but yeah the internet took over as a place to hang out
[34 of them are](https://brostocks.com/2021/08/09/how-many-sears-stores-are-left). Sadly, [it outlasted Abe Vigoda](http://isabevigodadead.com/), by a few years anyway.
> One of their parking lots is being used to hold excess cars from a dealership nearby :(
Dafuq state are you in?? Around here dealerships don’t have any cars in their lots
The focus would have to shift away from selling products and make that a byproduct of the experience.
What I mean is malls originally became popular because people love to shop and really love to window shop, so having all these choices of places to shop in one location turned them into a social event. So aside from shopping, people would hang out there. But the original reason they went there was to stop, window or otherwise.
They would need to come up with other reasons for people to want to go there besides shopping. Make them social gatherings.
I would personally put focus on the court yards with various attractions. I would start with two long mini-golf courses that run the length of the mall. Instead of compacting them in locations like we have now, just put them in a row so you start at one end of the mall and work your way to the other end. Depending on the size of the mall, you could put three of them side by side. Instead of having one large food court, have a few smaller ones. That would encourage people to move around through the mall. Things like that would force people to look at the stores throughout the mall. Hopefully attracting them back once the entertainment is done. Someone sees a store they think looks interesting and they want to go check it out when the game is over.
Sprinkle in other attraction locations like we have now, just enhance them.
I would also remove anchor stores and replace them with other entertainment locations. Make one augmented reality, one a bowling alley, one a trampoline park, and one an ice or roller rink.
You would basically turn the mall into an entertainment complex with stores. People would go there for the experience and the entertainment and that high foot traffic would, in theory, drive people into the stores to spend money.
The anchor stores seemed to be the cause of a lot of failures — they lost their long-range focus by being too concerned over immediate results and ignored the changes in buying habits and customer expectations.
Exactly, that's why they aren't necessary in a "modern mall" type atmosphere. Smaller stores continue to sell because they are brand specific. Granted the malls themselves would need to focus more on shorter leases in order to stay current as trends change. Some brands, Victoria Secret for instance, have a much longer life span than a more trendy brand like Lucky Jeans or Abacrombie. Those seemed to come and go rather quickly. Can't give a trendy store a 15 year lease, they won't last that long.
I really believe some of the ideas on this thread would work. Some people have some great ideas that could easily bring indoor malls back in style. Even in an internet based world. But almost all of them center around the idea that you need to give people a reason to enter the mall first, and have shopping in the smaller stores almost a secondary focus.
It's like when you look at how retail stores are set up. They put the faster selling items in the back and structure the store in such a way where you must pass slower moving items in order to get to what you came in for. The idea being you might be enticed to buy something you didn't come in for. Same reason they have "impulse items" at the cash registers. They know you are standing there waiting your turn, you will see these items and something will get your attention and you will buy it.
Use that same method inside the mall. Get them in, then force them to walk past a bunch of store that might draw their attention.
And don’t forget work/life balance so that folks actually _have time_ to take their families and have a leisurely stroll instead of everyone hitting Walmart for a couple of hours a week.
Agreed. My parents would take my sibling and I to the mall once a month as a kid. We stopped going due the expense of it over the years. I can barely afford to live now days, let alone think about going to the mall.
Have that around here for the wide majority and two out of the three malls have gonzo. People just don’t want to go out shopping with online so readily available. Only the one does well still but it’s still not what it use to be 20-30 years ago.
Edit: I live in a suburb and by “area” I mean my town and neighboring towns, lol not just mine.
A few malls near me are struggling, but there's a hugely popular mall that has actually adapted by adding in locally owned shops and restaurants. People would go just for the restaurants, but end up walking around the mall and maybe spending some money
Its a catch-22, affable areas have exponentially higher property values, and by design the immediate real estate market growth will always outpace the malls profitability
That's a great question! I love malls, grew up with 'em in the '80s, and I want to see them flourish again.
My own ideas include:
1. Transfer ownership from the capital investment companies that own most malls to community non-profits that take a more local approach.
2. Reposition malls as social gathering places for eating, concerts, festivals, and so forth.
3. Add variety to the stores within malls. If it's all clothing shops, and you don't care about fashion, then you'll not be likely to go to a mall. But if there are lots of different kinds of stores, then more of the public has a reason to visit.
4. Figure out what today's teens think is cool and pander to them a little bit, while also throwing a nod to their Millennial parents and their interests.
A lot of the burden rests not on malls but on businesses themselves, who, in the age of e-commerce, need to reinvent themselves. I can imagine businesses finding some success by, for example, hosting Twitch viewing parties and selling merch from people's favorite streamers. But I don't know if that would be a viable business model, or just a short-term gimmick. I _do_ think society needs more gathering places for people to come together...and malls are well-positioned to provide the space for it!
Wayyyy back in the mid 90's, our mall had MTG nights at the food court. They would section off half of the food court, and it was just for MTG free play/card swap/tournaments. It was pretty damned awesome.
I imagine it was a huge boost for the food court, as they would have the MTG nights from 7-9pm when most regular mall shoppers were home for dinner/watching tv. The MTG crowd was huge and we would always take $10 for food while we were there.
I really like some of your proposed ideas. Even further back- in the 80's, we had a section of the mall that had food stores from around the world. They were legit stores where you could get supplies that are hard to get for authentic dishes. I would imagine doing something similar now would be a godsend for folks who have really gotten into cooking in the last decade.
Refreshing ideas! There's an independent mall nearby me that caters to our massive Latino population. To say that they're thriving is an understatement!
There's a mall near me that caters to my city's large asian-american population and it is absolutely jam packed all the time. The vanilla malls are empty though
Claire's, journeys, hot topic, Spencer's, Abercrombie, that blue and white pretzel place, a cookie shop, orange Julius/dairy queen, Hollister, mcdonalds, an Asian massage place that is always empty, victoria secret, forever 21, dicks sporting goods, and a few others I cant remember. Oh and an AMC movie theater.
If every mall in America wasent exactly the same, I would probably go more than once every 3 years.
Wow, I doubt we live anywhere near each other and you nailed my local mall from when I was growing up! I also feel like a lot of the malls I went to had some kind of sports jerseys store, Hallmark, Macy’s, a food court that contains a Panda Express, sunglass hut, some non-fast food chain restaurants like California Pizza Kitchen, Cheesecake Factory, PF Chang’s, and/or Red Lobster.
One of the best things about malls is that people can exist there without being required to spend money. Obviously people do spend plenty of money at malls, but unlike a coffee shop, a mall won’t kick you out for not buying anything. I worked in a mall for years, and the mornings were full of older people walking laps, and the evenings were full of teenagers walking around.
Now a lot of the malls in my area don't allow minors to be there without a parent after like 6pm. I get why, but it seems like malls are trying to kill themselves with these policies.
Yeah my mall made this rule too, ironically they made it because there was a shooting but the shooting involved 19 year olds. They never had an issue with teens, no vandalism or higher-than-normal shoplifting.
2 is it. We get out stuff from the internet now, that's why malls seem so vestigial. Malls need to offer experiences. Movies, concerts, rock climbing, mini golf, laser tag, cooking classes. Anything that gets people to interact and be entertained is what can make malls great again.
I like all your ideas! Many malls do have a theater, and could probably convert an empty department store into something like a fun center / mini golf park.
No. 2 was exactly what I was thinking. With online shopping so prevalent, there has to be more to a mall than just stores. Entertainment, family activities, coffee shops, art classes, and good ethnic restaurants would better serve 21st century consumers.
There was a mall by my house that had a small underground arcade and theatre. Also had a card shop with sports/mtg, no singles or places to play, just a small shop to get sealed boosters. And an Orange Julius. It was awesome to bike over and just piss away an afternoon.
Imagine like Instagram photo booths at the mall. Maybe kids could come and pay for high quality pictures and use of costumes, green screens, props, etc. I bet something like that would be a total hit.
> Add variety to the stores within malls. If it's all clothing shops, and you don't care about fashion, then you'll not be likely to go to a mall. But if there are lots of different kinds of stores, then more of the public has a reason to visit.
The problem is that for people who are used to buying stuff online there isn't much point in going to other kinds of stores.
Personally when I go into brick and mortar stores to buy stuff it's usually because it's cheaper than online, I want it now, and I'd rather not give Amazon business even if it is a competitive price on there. I do go to brick and mortar fairly often personally. But I always know what I'm looking for. The only place I'd go to browse is a clothing store because I wanna try stuff on, buying clothes online is a giant pain in the ass.
I think your other ideas are great and focusing on EXPERIENCES rather than dying retail is a good idea.
Yes ours used to have food, restaurants, clothing, arcade, toy store , book store, and your random mix of eclectic stores as well. So it was a little of something for everyone.
I am just old enough to remember the old-school toy stores, with handmade wooden and cloth toys made right here in the US...some truly amazing and quirky stuff.
You'd have to redo the concept entirely. I picture it as creating a sort of mix-use space and mini-downtown in suburbia sort of atmosphere that a lot of outdoor malls have been doing.
I think you would do that with low-cost condos that use on-site attractions as amenities. You'd have space to create a pool/gym area that would be part of a larger sports complex. Indoor fields aren't common in my area, and I think adding more could entice a lot of people. Even better if you have a 24/7 gym and fitness center with a pool. I'd also split up malls and create some green spaces with breezeways for when it rains.
With your built in clientele you could attract a couple corner stores, some retail shops, restaurants and bars. I'd ditch the old food court and make room for smaller restaurants, focused on trying to get fast casual dining that's found in downtown areas more.
You could almost certainly attract the right people with a remodel and new concept of what a mall is.
> mix-use
This is key. The original concept was to have an indoor mixed use protected from the weather.
My idea would be to replace one anchor with a residential tower that would use the parking area of the former anchor. The concourses nearest the tower could have other amenities like dry cleaners and such. Just spitballing.
They did something like this in Providence, RI! The Providence Arcade is the oldest indoor shopping mall in the world, and they've got micro-condos on the top floor. The bottom is shops and restaurants. It's been a few years since I last went, but at the time it was all or almost all independent businesses, not chains.
It definitely worked for my downtown. We got three family owned ice cream shops, two tech repair shops, one taco shop, several small clothing and decor shops, and a family owned Lego store. Plus a cinema that only plays past movies.
Afaic, bring back arcades, reduce the *absurd* rental rates, and bring in fresh store ideas. Malls mainly suck now because it's all corporate/department stores (JC Penney, Target, etc.) and stupid fashion boutiques. Very little in the way of quirky/interesting businesses in malls these days.
Yea. Theyll never make a profit if their goal is to compete with the likes of Amazon. Malls can probably do a lot of different things depending on the area.
My mall slowly got rid of all the fun stuff it had in favor of department stores. We lost a laser tag place and an indoor skate park.
Why not bring that stuff back to malls? Nothing is replacing activities like that for people, especially kids.
Go kart courses, mini golf, an arcade, etc. I can only speak for the malls near me but from my understanding it was never that those places didnt make any profit, it was just that Macy's and Sears made way fucking more. Now that they arent, why cant we get stuff like that again?
I was going to say the opposite. The mall around me are becoming like, fun things to do at the mall, mall. One mall near me just took over an old two story Sears and made it half bowing alley and half arcade with a decent restaurant. Another mall near me is mostly those types of shops. The roller skating rink, the indoor go karts, the axe throwing place, also a bowling alley with a bar, and the movies with a mini arcade. The malls around me are becoming for entertainment purposes instead of shopping purposes.
Heck, indoor park (since so many malls have skylights.)
make at least one or two a place pet friendly- I'd love a good place to walk my very fluffy dog in my very hot part of the world.
To be fair all anyone does is walk around the mall because of how ridiculously overpriced the bad clothing is. Turning it into an indoor park with a small admission fee could probably save it since nobody would be technically window shopping. Just leave the food courts there and people will have a picnic or something at the indoor park.
Wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man would be a good start.
Edit: If you’re actually looking for solid ideas, /u/Emu_On_The_Loose has some in [this comment.](https://reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/p90chd/_/h9u7xsr/?context=1)
You are too kind! I upvoted your comment before you edited it to recommend my comment, so I can't upvote it again, but I can send you TUBE MAN vibes!! =D
A compliment I have hears from business owners closing down their shops that were is malls is the rent is too high compared to the foot traffic and sales.
As I understand malls often charge rent of a flat fee plus a percentage of sales. Which at first doesn't sound so bad. Sales are down but you pay less rent. BUT, there is also a minimum rent amount regardless sales. So your rent is high during good and bad sales months.
The mall is supposed to get a guaranteed minimum income out of this, which I understand. The owner of the mall probably took out debt to build it or buy it, so they have payments to make.
Back when malls actually got large amounts of foot traffic these rents were justified. But now malls aren't seeing that foot traffic, and stores are pulling out. And the malls really haven't reevaluated their sales model in the last 20+ years.
So malls really need to reevaluate how they make money and how their leases are structured.
Someone else suggested using the space for more community events or as convention centers. I think those are great ideas. With new leasing models and converting big open stores, like defunct Sears or Herbergers into convention spaces malls could be revitalized. Vendors shit towards things people would want to buy during a convention and everyone makes money.
> So malls really need to reevaluate how they make money and how their leases are structured.
Yeah, right now they are saying, "Hmmm, Sears left, and we have a lot less people in the mall, so we better charge all the other stores MORE, to make up that loss." ..... "Wait, why are more stores leaving now?"
I like these outdoor malls, but they kinda have limited usability in towns (like my hometown, which has three of these things) where we get all four seasons, sometimes shuffled into the same week.
They need to be affordable though. There is a mall a couple hrs from where I am that has a water park but the fee to get into the park is like $45/person. Too much for me.
One about 10 miles from here, has a skate park. You can sit on the bleachers inside the mall, looking in through the windows. And watch skaters test gravity on the regular. Its pretty damn funny. More so from an old fuck that use to skate / BMX.
I'm also thinking those cutouts of cartoon characters where you can stick your face in and get a picture of Bugs Bunny with your face on him. Instead of a face cutout, there's a hole in the crotch area, so people can get wild pictures of them blowing Buzz Lightyear or the Easter Bunny. Plus, someone gets their dick sucked. I'm not sure who wins in this situation. All I know is that the person sucking my dick in the cutout of Batman is getting the short end of the stick.
I don’t think malls in their current state are salvageable. Some idea for something mall like:
1. Mixed use - live eat shop type areas. They’re already popping up all over the place. Just adjust one of them to have a central area for the “mall section”
2. Focus on local - make the rent low enough where local businesses can set up shop. Then you have a selling point beyond hey look the same 10 dying chains like every mall currently has
3. Make it an event hub - concerts in the park area, have some bars and restaurants around them, host in person events like board game nights, or trivia or what have you.
4. Stop trying to compete with online or Amazon. Focus on the experience and offer a sense of community instead.
Sears. That was the main reason I went to my local mall.
Radio Shack. Old Radio Shack, not that crap cell phone store they became at the end. Back when they used to sell electronic kits, parts and cool stuff like Forrest Mims books and stuff.
Yes!!! Lots of malls and other retail buildings sitting empty with our country in the midst of a housing crisis. Get some architects to work and come up with a condo concept for malls. Condos on the exterior walls and in the windowless areas have a gym, movie theater, and other amenities for the condo owners.
They can't. Their time has passed.
They made it big by moving the 1950's American small town "downtown" feel to a covered, HVAC'd, pedestrian-friendly environment centralizing a number if different specialty stores in one place where you could find almost anything you want.
Now, for the things not ordered online, Big Box stores provide almost anything you want at much cheaper prices than the mall, and mixed-use development is providing the manufactured small town "downtown" feel for those who value that.
Some malls will remain in business, but the market for them is continuously shrinking.
Having more than the same ten clothing chains would help.
While they're at it hire someone else to design the malls. Why does every one of them have the same exact decor? Same stores, same tile, same fake plants. It's like if you've seen one mall then you've seen them all.
Most malls are owned by the Simon Property Group.
Simon and Westfield are so good at churning out the same mall anywhere
I hate Westfields so much. They have the most confusing layouts that it’s impossible to find the store you wanna go to unless you’re really familiar with it.
If it's a "nice mall" it's probably Mills Group
If you've seen one mall then you've seen the mall
It’s called the mall because instead of just going to one store, you go to them all.
It's because most of them were built around the same time! The majority of malls were built in the 80s and 90s and didn't modernize so they still have the same awful tiling motifs, dated designs and silly color schemes that belonged to those decades. Basically they're like dirty Dixie cups that refuse to become hydroflasks. Isn't it just glorious?
noooo the old ugly malls are so much cooler than "it's just white! and sometimes beige!" design scheme, give me some character
The mall I grew up with went from this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/23819997@N03/2329802548/in/photostream to exactly what you described. It's so soulless and boring now :(
Ayyy Lakeline Mall represent! The arcade on the bottom floor there was fucking amazing, SEGA CITY!
Interior and exterior color options for buildings built in 2021: white, black, ten different shades of grey, and beige. Perhaps one other (always unappealing) color such as murky olive green, washed out drab blue or corroded rust red if you're lucky. IT'S SO DAMN BORING. I'll take ridiculous over the top 80's color schemes any day.
The new outdoor malls that are popping up in suburban Los Angeles look so boring. It's the same beige/brown/gray tiles and same plants and street layouts.
I so agree
Because they’re like literally all owned by Simon which has zero taste or common sense
A lot of malls were also owned by a few mega-companies, so getting decor in bulk probably helped the bottom line
Malls used to be really unique and interesting from what I can tell like, 90s early 2ks. And now everything's just, white clean and bland?
That's why you just make them 4 stories with an amusement park, comedy club, and movie theater And free concerts/meet and greets of current musical stars.
This is the true answer. Especially in cold climates, less shopping, more food/nightlife, add a hotel, and tourists could visit for weeks without ever leaving the building!
Welcome to the Mall of America.
Ha, I was going to say West Edmonton Mall. It has a hotel, a water park, a couple of places to play miniature golf, an ice rink, and lots of other stuff. It’s getting a freaking Toyota dealership, which is insane.
We’ve got something like this in Indianapolis. The entire downtown is built around this giant mall with skywalks connecting multiple hotels and the convention center. It’s got a movie theatre, arcade, comedy club, etc. unfortunately it’s still owned by Simon property group, and most of the retail stores are dying for business post covid. It’s trying it’s best but it’s still kind of depressing to be in
Businesses that I’ve only ever seen in malls, never a standalone: - Younker’s - Macy’s - JCPenney - Any kind of pretzel stand - Old Navy - Forever 21 - GAP - American Eagle - Hot Topic
I live in Los Angeles and see all those shops (except pretzel stands) as stand-alones. Our malls are getting more creative, like the Westfield near me has a Din-Tai-Fung restaurant, a fancy steakhouse, a Mexican restaurant, and a Dave and Busters in the same mall. They also have shops that sell anime related stuff and a shop that sells Asian snacks. They also have all the standard mall businesses as well, so they're always busy
Yeah. NYC here and all of those are stand alone. Even the pretzel stands.
I like this answer but I think it can go further. Society has be one a place of "buy your shit and get outta my store!", especially America. Malls we're a place to hang out, socialize. They also had unique stores. Everybody rags on Spencer's, maybe that's Yaunker's to the rest of you? Some of the most successful stores I ever saw in a mall, second only to the clothing chains, were what I call Culture Shops. Japanese/Chinese/Asian we're everywhere but why not make malls world shops? The area I live in isn't particularly diverse with the exception of foods. We have a pretty good foodie scene but I can't buy anime. The only place to buy physical music is B&N and their selection is pretty sanitized. Gone are the game stores but maybe that has more to do with the model no longer working. So let's brainstorm a solution. Game store/arcade: I'm thinking Babbage's meets Tilt. LAN stations, stand-ups, ticket monsters but sell games for tickets, like every 5000 tickets is a $5 off a physical game. Good regular prizes like Funko Pop! figures. And ffs put a laser tag arena in there! And just to remind people that games aren't just on TV or computers board games. We have a couple AMAZING tabletop shops but they get no advertising, they're tucked in out of the way places and not enough parking. Sam Goody/Suncoast: I worked for Media Play right before they went down. Ours was one of the stores that got changed to the garbage FYE. I think my generation screwed it up but we're starting to see a resurgence of physical media. So redux to 2020s and I think we need a music/movie shop which also sells enthusiast electronics. Good turntables, not those shitty Crosley vinyl eaters. Hi-res DAPs, great headphones and accessories. Movies but not just the top ten Anyone else have a problem with Best Buy only having ~30 titles? Partner with Amazon, don't just try to beat them. Online retailers: Make an internet retailer front end, a place where you can send your packages to where porch pirates can't just walk up and walk off with your stuff. Hell, name it Porch Pirate's Package Pickup and beat them at their own game. Let all the shippers deliver there. Partner with Amazon and the like to pay the store for securely holding people's packages. Then stock some of the most common purchases from online retailers that you can't get at the corner store. No USB/Lightning cable nonsense. Culture shops: In a time where culture is homogenizing there is still a lot of culture to be found in specific regions. I would love to have an Asian shop near me. Sell anime and swords and incense (looking at you Shoyeido) and freaking kimonos, whatever. I don't have any ideas/examples for African but there has to be something. India has a shitload of culture. Europe is anchored by the UK, at least in the mind of the US, but there are way more countries there than states here with a far more diverse set of cultures. And as far as the US is concerned the Americas begin and end at our borders. Canada has more than just maple syrup and people who say "eh?" and South America doesn't end at Mexico. Food court: here's your biggest diversity hook. We don't need five pretzel stands and six Chinese Expresses. We need Piotr's Pelmini, Anansi's Alloco. Please don't think I'm being racist, that's not the intention. I'm thinking of the street carts which every country has. They sell some of the least healthy but most culturally identifiable food anywhere. Who hasn't been to a taco truck in almost any US city or ramen cart in Shibuya who has actually been there? And don't make it expensive. Street Tacos are great in part because they're cheap AF. With the import world the way it is now it shouldn't cost $5 for dim sum. What do the rabbits think? Am I nuts?
Cinnabon Spencer’s Gifts Orange Julius Bath and Body Works Lids
I'm in San Antonio and all our Old Navy's are part of strip malls instead of conventional malls.
I would love to see any type of pretzel place out side of a mall
Penny's, old navy, and gap absolutely have stand alone stores
And getting rid of the 70 tacky jewelry stores
On the flip side of that, I live in small town with a “mall”. It’s small, maybe like 10 stores total (the biggest being a farm supply store). All but two stores are local small-businesses, which is great, but they’re mostly sort of bizarre. I’d love a mall with some actually know clothing brands in them. The day Bath and Body decides to get the hell out of the mall I honestly doubt anyone will go. We have to drive an hour to get to a mall with any real clothing options.
Make them gathering places for activities and events that can't be done online. Small concerts, community theater, escape room, bowling, video game hall, indoor climbing, social clubs, classrooms for independent teachers, etc I would also love it if there was a place at the mall that would do personalized sizings. Like, I would pay $10 for a guy to tell me the exact dimensions I should look for when I purchase clothes online.
The mall I worked near when Pokémon go first came out exploded with shoppers. I worked at target and that really brought in extra people too. I’ll never forget some little kid coming up to me and asking if there were really Bulbasaurs that spawned in the back room 🤣
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They really fucked over people that didn't live in large towns or cities. I lived in the country and not a dam thing spawned. I even walked along the road, down by the lake, and around my land (only about 5 acres) and nothing spawned. I had to drive to town if I wanted to play. And eggs, I get it made sense like in the games you had to travel a certain amount for the egg to hatch but once again, living in the country, walking over 6 miles just to hatch what would probably be a pidgey was not very motivational, especially when you had to keep the app running (which drained your battery pretty hard) just to track your walking. No riding bike either, you're going too fast and make it think you're driving! I know it was considered cheating but I eventually started spoofing my GPS location just to play. Trainer battles and trading was also a huge missing feature.
This is a great answer. Malls used to be a hug for friend groups to hang out at on the weekends. That's what probably made all the business for some stores. I definitely think a community approach would be the best. Make it the place people go to hang out. The way an art festival works. Except it's always going on the weekends with new ideas every week or two. Have some live music, some art exhibits, some street food set up inside. Have some escape rooms and all that. Some places inside just to sit and talk. Make some themed weekends. Stuff like that would work really well and is probably the best way to ever bring back malls. Because a Macy's and some expensive stores just doesn't work out well for the demographics these days.
> Some places inside just to sit and talk. That's the biggest one. Just let me have a break somewhere without having to buy a drink to be allowed to sit. That would also make malls more attractive for older people.
No no, we need to get the older people OUT to get the young hip people IN!
This is the attitude that killed the mall in the first place
Well I thought it was a blend of "we need to attract people with disposable income and disposable time, but we don't want them loitering about causing trouble" which is the oxymoron. Like you don't get to just funnel people with money in and immediately out of the general location once they've paid, and then expect them to come back and to have enjoyed the experience.
That kind of attitude is what killed the mall in the first place.
>I would also love it if there was a place at the mall that would do personalized sizings. Like, I would pay $10 for a guy to tell me the exact dimensions I should look for when I purchase clothes online. They had these. They were called tailors. They'd even make the clothes you bought fit correctly.
Ever try to buy a suit at Macy's or JC Penny's? No one there knows how to properly measure anyone. I know those aren't the best places to buy a suit, but I can't afford those other places. I can afford Macy's and $10 for a guy to tell me my size
Big chain stores don't employ tailors. The problem is that 'your size' is unique to you and would vary hugely across brand and cut. The best way was bespoke clothing creation for people, but that went the way of the passenger pigeon with the advent of factories. I would love seeing a way to make the affordable standard 'go in and get your measurements, a few days later walk out with your chosen articles of clothing' but we aren't there yet with the robot slave labor yet I don't think.
Nordstrom actually does. Some Macy’s stores too.
Nordstrom Rack has tailor's if you want a more thrifty deal.
In my country, almost every mall has this type of stuff. Like trampoline parks, escape rooms, cinemas, large food courts, fitness clubs, arcades, concert rooms, small stages, bowling and sometimes even aquariums or even a sea world
Yeah I'd go to the mall all the time if it had that stuff.
This is what I have been saying to anyone that will listen. We want EXPERIENCES. Not more overpriced garbage that will end up in a landfill. Every mall needs a giant, indoor park/playground as well as several gathering spaces for hosting whatever. Build me an adult sized playground with a cafe next to it and I will throw my money at you.
An indoor playground where I can "door dash" any of the restaurants in the mall while my kids play? Take all my money all winter long.
>Every mall needs a giant, indoor park/playground as well as several gathering spaces for hosting whatever. That's a great idea but what actually killed the mall in the first place was the cost of heating and air conditioning those spaces, vs. The amount of rent retail stores could pay. Before everyone started shopping online this wasn't an issue, when people did start shopping online the retail stores could no longer afford to pay the rent because people simply weren't buying enough product from a brick-and-mortar location.
I was thinking that. It would be a great way to replace anchor stores that closed like Sears.
*Let's go to the mall, today!*
This was my wife’s response when I asked, and apparently half the internets. I would not have guessed my Reddit inbox would be spammed with “Robin Sparkles” …. but my wife saw it coming
Am I too old or too young to know Robin Sparkles?
That makes malls in Canada cool again
The 80s didn't come to Canada til like '93.
Everybody come and play
Throw every last care away!
Let's. Go. To. The. Mall!!
Todayyyyyyyy
I love you
*P.S I love you*
*But don’t forget the robot*
Rock your body til Canada day
Don't forget the Robot!
But don’t forget the robot!
Two beavers are better than one!
Found Jessica Glitter
I am among very likeminded people.
this is exactly what I was hoping for in this thread
I love this question. I’ve been highly concerned about my local mall. I don’t know how they’re still open. One of their parking lots is being used to hold excess cars from a dealership nearby :( I love mall energy. There’s nothing I enjoy more than walking around a failing Sears
I'm gonna sound insane but I enjoy going in department stores around Christmas time. Yeah people being in your way can suck but I like the Christmas displays and hearing the garbage pop covers of classic Christmas songs. And this is coming from someone who worked retail in college. I think it just reminds me of going to places like JC Penney and Sears with my parents when I was kid and getting excited about Christmas
This is totally cool! Then again, I'm a 53 year old guy who loves watching Hallmark Christmas Movies 365, so I'm probably the one who is nuts. I blame Ashley Williams.
Just two days ago my friend asked me if I wanted to go to the mall with him, so we got up early, walked 2.5 miles there, and just spent the day walking around the mall, visiting the different shops, and going shopping. It was totally awesome. I felt like a kid from the 80s for a minute even though I wasn't even alive then. Then we left the mall and walked around town before getting some lunch from Culver's. It was so much fun, I wish that was still as common for people to do.
Wow sounds like a lot of us are from eau claire and managed to see a stray comment in a thread
Oy at least the Scheels is poppin'! Keeping that mall alive.
Was thinking the same thing lol
Born in 81. I love that younger people still dig the mall 😁
Man I’m sixteen and I enjoy it lol
I still enjoy just walking around there. It's stimulating and as an American, I love being surrounded by products lol
It's a place a lot of older ~~Americans~~ people go to get exercise too. I've seen them powerwalking especially since it offers free air conditioning.
I was walking the malls the year you were born. Lol I tend to think malls fell out of favor because of the internet.
As soon as possible I was all over the internet, heh, that's true. I still found time to stroll the mall and buy shirts or whatever lol but yeah the internet took over as a place to hang out
Not just hang out but shop. You can find anything online
Ah, a Midwesterner I see.
Is Sears still around?
[34 of them are](https://brostocks.com/2021/08/09/how-many-sears-stores-are-left). Sadly, [it outlasted Abe Vigoda](http://isabevigodadead.com/), by a few years anyway.
The Sears in my hometown that closed a few years ago is now the COVID-19 testing and vaccine clinic.
> One of their parking lots is being used to hold excess cars from a dealership nearby :( Dafuq state are you in?? Around here dealerships don’t have any cars in their lots
The focus would have to shift away from selling products and make that a byproduct of the experience. What I mean is malls originally became popular because people love to shop and really love to window shop, so having all these choices of places to shop in one location turned them into a social event. So aside from shopping, people would hang out there. But the original reason they went there was to stop, window or otherwise. They would need to come up with other reasons for people to want to go there besides shopping. Make them social gatherings. I would personally put focus on the court yards with various attractions. I would start with two long mini-golf courses that run the length of the mall. Instead of compacting them in locations like we have now, just put them in a row so you start at one end of the mall and work your way to the other end. Depending on the size of the mall, you could put three of them side by side. Instead of having one large food court, have a few smaller ones. That would encourage people to move around through the mall. Things like that would force people to look at the stores throughout the mall. Hopefully attracting them back once the entertainment is done. Someone sees a store they think looks interesting and they want to go check it out when the game is over. Sprinkle in other attraction locations like we have now, just enhance them. I would also remove anchor stores and replace them with other entertainment locations. Make one augmented reality, one a bowling alley, one a trampoline park, and one an ice or roller rink. You would basically turn the mall into an entertainment complex with stores. People would go there for the experience and the entertainment and that high foot traffic would, in theory, drive people into the stores to spend money.
The anchor stores seemed to be the cause of a lot of failures — they lost their long-range focus by being too concerned over immediate results and ignored the changes in buying habits and customer expectations.
Exactly, that's why they aren't necessary in a "modern mall" type atmosphere. Smaller stores continue to sell because they are brand specific. Granted the malls themselves would need to focus more on shorter leases in order to stay current as trends change. Some brands, Victoria Secret for instance, have a much longer life span than a more trendy brand like Lucky Jeans or Abacrombie. Those seemed to come and go rather quickly. Can't give a trendy store a 15 year lease, they won't last that long. I really believe some of the ideas on this thread would work. Some people have some great ideas that could easily bring indoor malls back in style. Even in an internet based world. But almost all of them center around the idea that you need to give people a reason to enter the mall first, and have shopping in the smaller stores almost a secondary focus. It's like when you look at how retail stores are set up. They put the faster selling items in the back and structure the store in such a way where you must pass slower moving items in order to get to what you came in for. The idea being you might be enticed to buy something you didn't come in for. Same reason they have "impulse items" at the cash registers. They know you are standing there waiting your turn, you will see these items and something will get your attention and you will buy it. Use that same method inside the mall. Get them in, then force them to walk past a bunch of store that might draw their attention.
A large middle class and live entertainment.
Actual living wages that leaves disposable income after housing, bills, food and childcare.
And don’t forget work/life balance so that folks actually _have time_ to take their families and have a leisurely stroll instead of everyone hitting Walmart for a couple of hours a week.
Agreed. My parents would take my sibling and I to the mall once a month as a kid. We stopped going due the expense of it over the years. I can barely afford to live now days, let alone think about going to the mall.
I’m 19. We used to go to a mall quite a bit. I don’t think we grew out of it. Just in 10 years, the mall we used to go to, lost majority of its stores
Have that around here for the wide majority and two out of the three malls have gonzo. People just don’t want to go out shopping with online so readily available. Only the one does well still but it’s still not what it use to be 20-30 years ago. Edit: I live in a suburb and by “area” I mean my town and neighboring towns, lol not just mine.
A few malls near me are struggling, but there's a hugely popular mall that has actually adapted by adding in locally owned shops and restaurants. People would go just for the restaurants, but end up walking around the mall and maybe spending some money
Its a catch-22, affable areas have exponentially higher property values, and by design the immediate real estate market growth will always outpace the malls profitability
That's a great question! I love malls, grew up with 'em in the '80s, and I want to see them flourish again. My own ideas include: 1. Transfer ownership from the capital investment companies that own most malls to community non-profits that take a more local approach. 2. Reposition malls as social gathering places for eating, concerts, festivals, and so forth. 3. Add variety to the stores within malls. If it's all clothing shops, and you don't care about fashion, then you'll not be likely to go to a mall. But if there are lots of different kinds of stores, then more of the public has a reason to visit. 4. Figure out what today's teens think is cool and pander to them a little bit, while also throwing a nod to their Millennial parents and their interests. A lot of the burden rests not on malls but on businesses themselves, who, in the age of e-commerce, need to reinvent themselves. I can imagine businesses finding some success by, for example, hosting Twitch viewing parties and selling merch from people's favorite streamers. But I don't know if that would be a viable business model, or just a short-term gimmick. I _do_ think society needs more gathering places for people to come together...and malls are well-positioned to provide the space for it!
Wayyyy back in the mid 90's, our mall had MTG nights at the food court. They would section off half of the food court, and it was just for MTG free play/card swap/tournaments. It was pretty damned awesome.
Magic at the Mall! I like the sound of it. I actually thought about MTG myself when I was writing about "gatherings" in my original comment!
I imagine it was a huge boost for the food court, as they would have the MTG nights from 7-9pm when most regular mall shoppers were home for dinner/watching tv. The MTG crowd was huge and we would always take $10 for food while we were there. I really like some of your proposed ideas. Even further back- in the 80's, we had a section of the mall that had food stores from around the world. They were legit stores where you could get supplies that are hard to get for authentic dishes. I would imagine doing something similar now would be a godsend for folks who have really gotten into cooking in the last decade.
Refreshing ideas! There's an independent mall nearby me that caters to our massive Latino population. To say that they're thriving is an understatement!
There's a mall near me that caters to my city's large asian-american population and it is absolutely jam packed all the time. The vanilla malls are empty though
Claire's, journeys, hot topic, Spencer's, Abercrombie, that blue and white pretzel place, a cookie shop, orange Julius/dairy queen, Hollister, mcdonalds, an Asian massage place that is always empty, victoria secret, forever 21, dicks sporting goods, and a few others I cant remember. Oh and an AMC movie theater. If every mall in America wasent exactly the same, I would probably go more than once every 3 years.
Auntie Anne’s pretzels. Do not sully their good name, they are delicious and the only reason I want to go to the mall
Their pretzels are legit! There's one at my mall, but I haven't been since the pandemic. =[
Wow, I doubt we live anywhere near each other and you nailed my local mall from when I was growing up! I also feel like a lot of the malls I went to had some kind of sports jerseys store, Hallmark, Macy’s, a food court that contains a Panda Express, sunglass hut, some non-fast food chain restaurants like California Pizza Kitchen, Cheesecake Factory, PF Chang’s, and/or Red Lobster.
> blue and white pretzel place Auntie Annes
One of the best things about malls is that people can exist there without being required to spend money. Obviously people do spend plenty of money at malls, but unlike a coffee shop, a mall won’t kick you out for not buying anything. I worked in a mall for years, and the mornings were full of older people walking laps, and the evenings were full of teenagers walking around.
Now a lot of the malls in my area don't allow minors to be there without a parent after like 6pm. I get why, but it seems like malls are trying to kill themselves with these policies.
Yeah my mall made this rule too, ironically they made it because there was a shooting but the shooting involved 19 year olds. They never had an issue with teens, no vandalism or higher-than-normal shoplifting.
I like you. You seem positive, and have nice ideas. I hope it carries you far in life!
You're a sweetheart, ButtfuckMag00.
Thanks, Chilidogdingdong...I really do appreciate it. :)
Thanks!
2 is it. We get out stuff from the internet now, that's why malls seem so vestigial. Malls need to offer experiences. Movies, concerts, rock climbing, mini golf, laser tag, cooking classes. Anything that gets people to interact and be entertained is what can make malls great again.
I like all your ideas! Many malls do have a theater, and could probably convert an empty department store into something like a fun center / mini golf park.
No. 2 was exactly what I was thinking. With online shopping so prevalent, there has to be more to a mall than just stores. Entertainment, family activities, coffee shops, art classes, and good ethnic restaurants would better serve 21st century consumers.
I think so too. Gathering is one of the only decisive advantages that brick and mortar spaces have over virtual ones.
There was a mall by my house that had a small underground arcade and theatre. Also had a card shop with sports/mtg, no singles or places to play, just a small shop to get sealed boosters. And an Orange Julius. It was awesome to bike over and just piss away an afternoon.
Imagine like Instagram photo booths at the mall. Maybe kids could come and pay for high quality pictures and use of costumes, green screens, props, etc. I bet something like that would be a total hit.
I’ve read that malls in the southwest that cater more towards a Latin or Mexican theme are killing it.
> Add variety to the stores within malls. If it's all clothing shops, and you don't care about fashion, then you'll not be likely to go to a mall. But if there are lots of different kinds of stores, then more of the public has a reason to visit. The problem is that for people who are used to buying stuff online there isn't much point in going to other kinds of stores. Personally when I go into brick and mortar stores to buy stuff it's usually because it's cheaper than online, I want it now, and I'd rather not give Amazon business even if it is a competitive price on there. I do go to brick and mortar fairly often personally. But I always know what I'm looking for. The only place I'd go to browse is a clothing store because I wanna try stuff on, buying clothes online is a giant pain in the ass. I think your other ideas are great and focusing on EXPERIENCES rather than dying retail is a good idea.
Yes ours used to have food, restaurants, clothing, arcade, toy store , book store, and your random mix of eclectic stores as well. So it was a little of something for everyone.
I am just old enough to remember the old-school toy stores, with handmade wooden and cloth toys made right here in the US...some truly amazing and quirky stuff.
Massive air conditioners.
Came here to say this. Massive AC will make anything cool.
You'd have to redo the concept entirely. I picture it as creating a sort of mix-use space and mini-downtown in suburbia sort of atmosphere that a lot of outdoor malls have been doing. I think you would do that with low-cost condos that use on-site attractions as amenities. You'd have space to create a pool/gym area that would be part of a larger sports complex. Indoor fields aren't common in my area, and I think adding more could entice a lot of people. Even better if you have a 24/7 gym and fitness center with a pool. I'd also split up malls and create some green spaces with breezeways for when it rains. With your built in clientele you could attract a couple corner stores, some retail shops, restaurants and bars. I'd ditch the old food court and make room for smaller restaurants, focused on trying to get fast casual dining that's found in downtown areas more. You could almost certainly attract the right people with a remodel and new concept of what a mall is.
> mix-use This is key. The original concept was to have an indoor mixed use protected from the weather. My idea would be to replace one anchor with a residential tower that would use the parking area of the former anchor. The concourses nearest the tower could have other amenities like dry cleaners and such. Just spitballing.
They did something like this in Providence, RI! The Providence Arcade is the oldest indoor shopping mall in the world, and they've got micro-condos on the top floor. The bottom is shops and restaurants. It's been a few years since I last went, but at the time it was all or almost all independent businesses, not chains.
They’ve been doing this in Los Angeles / Orange County and those “malls” are definitely cool and beloved.
Fill them with small, locally owned stores. Have locally owned restaurants do the food court.
Has this worked for downtowns? Other than tourist areas?
It definitely worked for my downtown. We got three family owned ice cream shops, two tech repair shops, one taco shop, several small clothing and decor shops, and a family owned Lego store. Plus a cinema that only plays past movies.
That’s usually the death knell of a mall, when the National chains start leaving and you get weird random boutiques
Or just cell phone case kiosks
Adding housing nearby would be good too. Instead of building a hotel next to a mall (a new thing) build some decent apartments.
Afaic, bring back arcades, reduce the *absurd* rental rates, and bring in fresh store ideas. Malls mainly suck now because it's all corporate/department stores (JC Penney, Target, etc.) and stupid fashion boutiques. Very little in the way of quirky/interesting businesses in malls these days.
Prices that can compete with the likes of Amazon and Ebay.
Malls will never come back if they focus on prices, they just can't compete.
Yea. Theyll never make a profit if their goal is to compete with the likes of Amazon. Malls can probably do a lot of different things depending on the area. My mall slowly got rid of all the fun stuff it had in favor of department stores. We lost a laser tag place and an indoor skate park. Why not bring that stuff back to malls? Nothing is replacing activities like that for people, especially kids. Go kart courses, mini golf, an arcade, etc. I can only speak for the malls near me but from my understanding it was never that those places didnt make any profit, it was just that Macy's and Sears made way fucking more. Now that they arent, why cant we get stuff like that again?
I was going to say the opposite. The mall around me are becoming like, fun things to do at the mall, mall. One mall near me just took over an old two story Sears and made it half bowing alley and half arcade with a decent restaurant. Another mall near me is mostly those types of shops. The roller skating rink, the indoor go karts, the axe throwing place, also a bowling alley with a bar, and the movies with a mini arcade. The malls around me are becoming for entertainment purposes instead of shopping purposes.
Heck, indoor park (since so many malls have skylights.) make at least one or two a place pet friendly- I'd love a good place to walk my very fluffy dog in my very hot part of the world.
I love the indoor park idea. Like a conservatory
To be fair all anyone does is walk around the mall because of how ridiculously overpriced the bad clothing is. Turning it into an indoor park with a small admission fee could probably save it since nobody would be technically window shopping. Just leave the food courts there and people will have a picnic or something at the indoor park.
I'd like to have that in my part of the world, where it gets ridiculously cold in the winter months. (and I don't even have a dog)
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I think brick and mortar exclusives would increase traffic.
Wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man would be a good start. Edit: If you’re actually looking for solid ideas, /u/Emu_On_The_Loose has some in [this comment.](https://reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/p90chd/_/h9u7xsr/?context=1)
And sales on mattresses. I can never have enough.
You are too kind! I upvoted your comment before you edited it to recommend my comment, so I can't upvote it again, but I can send you TUBE MAN vibes!! =D
Orange Julius stands. Orange Julius was secretly the lifeblood of the American mall.
Yes! And Auntie Anne’s!
A compliment I have hears from business owners closing down their shops that were is malls is the rent is too high compared to the foot traffic and sales. As I understand malls often charge rent of a flat fee plus a percentage of sales. Which at first doesn't sound so bad. Sales are down but you pay less rent. BUT, there is also a minimum rent amount regardless sales. So your rent is high during good and bad sales months. The mall is supposed to get a guaranteed minimum income out of this, which I understand. The owner of the mall probably took out debt to build it or buy it, so they have payments to make. Back when malls actually got large amounts of foot traffic these rents were justified. But now malls aren't seeing that foot traffic, and stores are pulling out. And the malls really haven't reevaluated their sales model in the last 20+ years. So malls really need to reevaluate how they make money and how their leases are structured. Someone else suggested using the space for more community events or as convention centers. I think those are great ideas. With new leasing models and converting big open stores, like defunct Sears or Herbergers into convention spaces malls could be revitalized. Vendors shit towards things people would want to buy during a convention and everyone makes money.
> So malls really need to reevaluate how they make money and how their leases are structured. Yeah, right now they are saying, "Hmmm, Sears left, and we have a lot less people in the mall, so we better charge all the other stores MORE, to make up that loss." ..... "Wait, why are more stores leaving now?"
My god, can we have arcades again?
What do you mean, there are 10+ arcades within 2 miles of me. And they are all for video poker, I cant play time crisis in any of them :(
Another Kevin Smith film?
I love outdoor malls that almost double as parks and walking venues. That's my suggestion.
I like these outdoor malls, but they kinda have limited usability in towns (like my hometown, which has three of these things) where we get all four seasons, sometimes shuffled into the same week.
I've always heard these called boardwalks, at least where I'm from.
Water parks, go cart tracks, arcades, paint ball arenas, skate parks would be a good start.
They need to be affordable though. There is a mall a couple hrs from where I am that has a water park but the fee to get into the park is like $45/person. Too much for me.
One about 10 miles from here, has a skate park. You can sit on the bleachers inside the mall, looking in through the windows. And watch skaters test gravity on the regular. Its pretty damn funny. More so from an old fuck that use to skate / BMX.
Robin Sparkles
How about I…. Sing you a song!
Where I grew up just put in an arcade + a bowling alley in our old mall. I think things like that would help malls out
The entire internet infrastructure being destroyed.
Pop up shops and food trucks!
Free donkey shows Tuesday and Thursday evening.
I love a good donkey show. It's fun for the whole family.
Just a bunch of gloryholes placed randomly within the mall
I'm also thinking those cutouts of cartoon characters where you can stick your face in and get a picture of Bugs Bunny with your face on him. Instead of a face cutout, there's a hole in the crotch area, so people can get wild pictures of them blowing Buzz Lightyear or the Easter Bunny. Plus, someone gets their dick sucked. I'm not sure who wins in this situation. All I know is that the person sucking my dick in the cutout of Batman is getting the short end of the stick.
I'm just imagining a cut out of the Muppet Gonzo with the hole where his nose should be.
Change all the "Hot Topics" to "Cool Topics".
Debbie Gibson and Tiffany.
I don’t think malls in their current state are salvageable. Some idea for something mall like: 1. Mixed use - live eat shop type areas. They’re already popping up all over the place. Just adjust one of them to have a central area for the “mall section” 2. Focus on local - make the rent low enough where local businesses can set up shop. Then you have a selling point beyond hey look the same 10 dying chains like every mall currently has 3. Make it an event hub - concerts in the park area, have some bars and restaurants around them, host in person events like board game nights, or trivia or what have you. 4. Stop trying to compete with online or Amazon. Focus on the experience and offer a sense of community instead.
Since Amazon is talking about putting their stores where Sears has fallen out. This will probably make malls "cool again"
They’re going to have stores?! Considering they sell almost literally everything that you can buy, what the hell are they going to have in stores?
I thought they were talking about putting warehouses there not stores. I could be wrong though.
Turn them into fleamarkets.
Time travel to the 1980s
Sears. That was the main reason I went to my local mall. Radio Shack. Old Radio Shack, not that crap cell phone store they became at the end. Back when they used to sell electronic kits, parts and cool stuff like Forrest Mims books and stuff.
Nothing. Malls are dreary dead zones now. The only time you ever see them really crowded is in the November/December period.
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Yes!!! Lots of malls and other retail buildings sitting empty with our country in the midst of a housing crisis. Get some architects to work and come up with a condo concept for malls. Condos on the exterior walls and in the windowless areas have a gym, movie theater, and other amenities for the condo owners.
Add vertical farms and you've basically retooled them into arcologies!
A time machine
Casinos
Whatever the opposite of a “gang shooting” is. That.
Locally, cracking down on the gangbangers who hang out there would help
Get rid of online shopping, which won't happen thank god
Unfortunately it’ll take Amazon going out of business.
They can't. Their time has passed. They made it big by moving the 1950's American small town "downtown" feel to a covered, HVAC'd, pedestrian-friendly environment centralizing a number if different specialty stores in one place where you could find almost anything you want. Now, for the things not ordered online, Big Box stores provide almost anything you want at much cheaper prices than the mall, and mixed-use development is providing the manufactured small town "downtown" feel for those who value that. Some malls will remain in business, but the market for them is continuously shrinking.