01-01-2017, 12:27 AM
Website on dead malls, called "Dead Malls"
Why do malls die?
1. Aging structures. All buildings deteriorate with age, and when maintenance becomes unjustifiably expensive for a for-profit entity, maintenance ends or gets scaled back, a mall goes very bad very fast. The oldest ones are over 50 years old -- and as I say of 50-year-old houses, the places are too old to not have problems and too new to have any charm.
2. Competition. A bigger and better mall nearby and with better access to highways and better parking, and an older one can lose customers and rental revenues. Profits dwindle, and so does the mall.
3. Death of retailers. Any mall that had to depend heavily upon Montgomery-Ward was in big trouble when Montgomery-Ward shut down.
4. Demographic change. Shopping malls are expensive infrastructure to build and maintain, and they require well-heeled customers as big spenders. As the potential customer base goes from middle-class to poor, the customer revenue can no longer support the cost of maintenance.
But even ethnic change can hurt the mall. The boutique stores inside are tailor-made for well-heeled white middle-class shoppers but because of their rigid style of management, they can't adapt to ethnic change even if the potential clientele is still middle-class if the potential customers in the area are now black, Asian, or Hispanic.
5. The general death of the traditional department store. The idea that one can get anything that one can get any dry goods that one wants from Sears unless very specialized is no longer relevant. See also J C Penney, which may be dying. Wal*Mart, Target, and Kohl's are taking over much of this business.
The idea behind the traditional department store was that the clerks who would remain employed for some time would be knowledgeable about the merchandise. That is over. Kohl's does not even pretend to have specialized clerks who stock a department, give advice to customers, and ring up sales; people largely do self-service and go through a checkout like that of a grocery-store checkout.
Note what I said about retail clerks: they are usually the low end of white-collar employees in formal education, and the person who graduates with an unmarketable college degree doesn't usually stay long. About thirty-five years ago I heard retail clerks where I worked say things like "I don't want to do factory work" or "I don't want to be a file clerk". Within a few months they were doing what they professed that they did not want to do. Retailing is a horrible job for someone who has a strong work ethic, imagination, talent, attention for detail, specialized skills, or willingness to get their hands dirty.
I saw the employee discount as a good way to get good clothes at modest cost for interviews, and if one works weekends, one usually gets a couple of days off in which one might go to job interviews.
Why do malls die?
1. Aging structures. All buildings deteriorate with age, and when maintenance becomes unjustifiably expensive for a for-profit entity, maintenance ends or gets scaled back, a mall goes very bad very fast. The oldest ones are over 50 years old -- and as I say of 50-year-old houses, the places are too old to not have problems and too new to have any charm.
2. Competition. A bigger and better mall nearby and with better access to highways and better parking, and an older one can lose customers and rental revenues. Profits dwindle, and so does the mall.
3. Death of retailers. Any mall that had to depend heavily upon Montgomery-Ward was in big trouble when Montgomery-Ward shut down.
4. Demographic change. Shopping malls are expensive infrastructure to build and maintain, and they require well-heeled customers as big spenders. As the potential customer base goes from middle-class to poor, the customer revenue can no longer support the cost of maintenance.
But even ethnic change can hurt the mall. The boutique stores inside are tailor-made for well-heeled white middle-class shoppers but because of their rigid style of management, they can't adapt to ethnic change even if the potential clientele is still middle-class if the potential customers in the area are now black, Asian, or Hispanic.
5. The general death of the traditional department store. The idea that one can get anything that one can get any dry goods that one wants from Sears unless very specialized is no longer relevant. See also J C Penney, which may be dying. Wal*Mart, Target, and Kohl's are taking over much of this business.
The idea behind the traditional department store was that the clerks who would remain employed for some time would be knowledgeable about the merchandise. That is over. Kohl's does not even pretend to have specialized clerks who stock a department, give advice to customers, and ring up sales; people largely do self-service and go through a checkout like that of a grocery-store checkout.
Note what I said about retail clerks: they are usually the low end of white-collar employees in formal education, and the person who graduates with an unmarketable college degree doesn't usually stay long. About thirty-five years ago I heard retail clerks where I worked say things like "I don't want to do factory work" or "I don't want to be a file clerk". Within a few months they were doing what they professed that they did not want to do. Retailing is a horrible job for someone who has a strong work ethic, imagination, talent, attention for detail, specialized skills, or willingness to get their hands dirty.
I saw the employee discount as a good way to get good clothes at modest cost for interviews, and if one works weekends, one usually gets a couple of days off in which one might go to job interviews.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.