Never having left Europe myself, I could relate to the former, but not to the latter. What makes those malls so... relevant?
These empty husks tend to take the surrounding communities down with them. It can take decades to get them either resold or at least demolished. They invite homeless people and gangs. There's an abandoned mall in Cleveland, Oh that usually has about 4 bodies found in it a year. But its stuck in court because the city doesn't want to take on cost of back taxes.
In general, people in America really aren't upset about the trend of dying malls. They just choose to shop elsewhere such as the newer open-air shopping centers or online places line Amazon. The resulting decline of malls is just collateral damage and most have no emotional attachment about it. (Note that the CNN article isn't reporting on any sentiments about it. It's just relaying the economic reality that more stores are closing which lead to more dead malls.)
Also, suburban malls have been in decline since the mid 1980s long before Amazon came on the scene. Amazon is just accelerating the decline.
>What makes those malls so... relevant?
They're less relevant now but malls were a phenomenon in the USA because of cars and cheap suburban land away from city downtowns. Before the World Wars, Americans shopped in downtown "main streets".[1] The rise of car ownership by middle-class families in the 1950s enabled suburban single-family homes which fueled the rise of the malls.
[1] https://www.google.com/search?biw=1312&bih=1423&tbm=isch&q=d...
The Circle of Fashion has been completed. The early, 1950s-era malls were outdoor. In the Chicago area, at least two of them survive to this day (Oakbrook Center and Old Orchard). Park Forest Plaza didn't fare so well after the enclosed Lincoln Mall opened in 1973 a few miles west in Matteson.
Now, though, Lincoln Mall has been demolished except for the Carson Pirie Scott store, which was made freestanding.
Over in Orland Park, in the wake of enclosed Orland Square's success, a second enclosed mall was built just to the south. It was not a success, and it was eventually turned inside out as a sort of double-sided strip mall, which now thrives.
She said it was the place all the kids went to when their parents kicked them out (don't watch tv all day!) because they had aircondition. There was a social component as well.
Another factor in SE Asia is that most people (esp. young people) do not make purchases with credit cards like they do in the US and which makes Amazon's dominance assured and hastens the decline of malls. Mobile is huge, and mobile payments and cash are still king. Lazada is big in the Philippines because they accept mobile payments, e-wallet funds, and COD.
In more recent years it's not as important and the day trips probably aren't there, but many still flock to malls around holidays for shopping and also during the summers in places where climate control is either too expensive or unavailable for people (same with theaters). Likewise, just having a large availability of stores and a place to put the kids (or just to meet in general) is still really important. Older folk also enjoy walking the mall as it's a large and safe area (also climate controlled).
So basically, it still has some functions in society beyond being representative of general economic health.
But thank you, that does clarify it indeed. :)
This means "I can leave my teenagers there without worrying". Malls have private security. They can (and do) escort people out who are doing things that are bad for business. That includes all sorts of things that are legal (and should be legal!) but aren't appropriate in that context. Other things are illegal but impossible to eliminate from public life (and public parks). Many of those things are things you'd worry about your teenager being around.
Like public drinking. Drug use (legal and not). Misdemeanor violence. Sexual harassment from random citizens (creepy middle aged people with panel vans). Public sexual conduct (sex in the bushes or in the bathroom stall).
In other words, "safe area" is code for "free low-grade babysitting".
Safe Area is a weird choice of words. I guess it means parents can drop kids off at a place that has decent rent a cops. Generally keeping kids safe from themselves or weirdos I presume. My parents would’ve never said I like dropping my kids at the mall because it’s safe.
As for safe, again, maybe just different up north, but it's absolutely common to just give your kid $20-$40 go to the mall to hang out with friends or to kill time shopping, or at an arcade (for the few that still have one), or to go to a movie at the mall or whatever. The security tends to be pretty strict. One of the malls where I grew up had such strict security they wouldn't let minors in without guardian being present). The adult would go shopping or grab lunch or read, the kids would run off and do whatever.
So, sorry that our experiences don't mesh, but it absolutely did happen. Here's a video from Anaheim Fire and Rescue recommending that people go to the mall during a heat wave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msk2Qd4TkJs
Edit: added clarity to last sentence
I also took Safe Place as a symbol for violence the media portrays in the US or something. Maybe watched too much news last night.
I understand what you were saying now!
Small town main streets are going away sure, but those towns are slowly emptying anyway.
If money continues to move around the system, surely this is something that looks like an economic indicator, but is really more of a cultural shift. (Separately there could well be economic problems with the decline of manufacturing etc.).
Are shopping malls somehow deeply rooted in the American psyche? Watching US movies from the 80's and 90's might suggest that they are...
crydas' and mseebach's answers make a good point that for some reasons, malls in the US started taking on other roles than just the places of exchange for everyday goods. so from that perspective, if malls fail, those roles need to be filled by some other entity.
When the local mall closes, a bunch of people who've spent much of the past decade sitting on their couches, and aren't necessarily happy about that situation, realize that this is probably how they're going to be spending the next decade, too.
Amazon can automate the hell out of getting goods to me, so we essentially don't need 1000's of stores and millions of retail workers anymore.
One factor not mentioned so far is that they are large employers of low skilled labor. If malls disappear, this will be one less employment option.