The author harps on "networks" too much. In general, brick and mortar retail sectors which can be done better on line have tanked. From Sears to Radio Shack to Toys-R-Us, that's happened. Malls in general are hurting badly.
The idiotic thing is that Sears was the original Amazon, with their mail-order catalog business. It worked out well for them for a long time. But they became your grandparents' favorite place to shop (and their product offerings reflected this) within a few generations, and in their desperate bid to stay relevant they've decided to mimic the business model of Service Merchandise, which paid the price for its own irrelevance 20 years ago.
Everybody overhypes Amazon but it's not (entirely) online shopping that Sears is competing with-- it's Walmart, the neighboring, booming B&M business.
Radio Shack is not much better. "You have questions, we have blank stares" gave way to "you need solder, we have cell phones." Somewhere along the way they were forced to sell nothing but phones and lost any cachet they had as the only electronics vendor in most towns, as they were now competing with the 5 or 6 phone stores even the smallest of towns already had. I don't know where they went wrong in the first place but in this overteched age the market for consumer electronics is clearly there.
It's like watching a horror film where all you can do is scream silently "don't do that!" as the debutante goes into the basement to investigate the strange noise. Some of these pivots are just painfully short-sighted.
I suspect malls may yet make a modest recovery. More and more of them are starting to attract "lifestyle" businesses to prop them up and drive foot traffic, such as movie theaters, events, bars and (actual) restaurants.
I guess I'm getting old, because I've been hearing that malls are dying for at least the last 20 years. The suit is back?
https://theweek.com/articles/761124/how-vulture-capitalists-...
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/toys-r-...
Bah, maybe I should get a job that lets me wear Hawaiian shirts to work everyday.
The local Apple Store just moved from the local mall to one of those communities. It also has the standard cliched collection of yuppie stores - a Tesla showroom, Whole Foods, Gap, Bonobos, Container Store, Pottery Barn, a Pilates Studio, etc....
It's amazing how on the nose they are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm5BOoS3ihA
http://www.experienceavalon.com/
I just watched the video of "sodasopa". If they didn't have the South Park characters in it, I would have thought it was a real ad for either Avalon or one of the other areas in Atlanta.
I think that's an article about that space too.