Comment by toofy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by toofy | Hacker News Reader

There are a number of amazing channels on youtube who have been documenting the rising “Dead/Dying Mall” trend over the past couple of decades…

- Dan Bell

- Sal

- Ace’s Adventures

- Retail Archeology

- Bright Sun Films

… are just a few of them. Dying malls has obviously been a trend across the country, but I’m cautiously predicting that this will change as more people crave interaction with actual humans and as more people get tired of being misled about the products they’re purchasing online.

Anecdotal, but it seems like most people whom Ive happened into the subject with have had worse and worse experiences purchasing online over the past couple years—everything from colors not matching the photos, to fitting wrong, to cheap construction, to not living up to what they expected, and on and on and on.

I’ve also noticed more people saying they wish they could just have the item in their hand immediately to get that immediate satisfaction/closure.

All anecdotal of course, but it feels like we may move back in that direction, at least a little.

Until then, there is definitely no shortage of content for the dozens of “dead mall” channels.

Was recently in Bangkok where they have enormous 6 or even 9 story malls completely full of stores. Step outside and walk a block and there's another one. It was mind blowing.

What I noticed was just how useful these malls were, they had multiple bank branches, a grocery store, electronic stores, tons of food options and sometimes even a fitness center. I could certainly see why someone may want to go multiple times per week. Contrast that with the average US mall where you might have half a dozen or more jewelry stores and a ton of clothing stores. My old home mall had a handful of places to eat and couldn't even keep a coffee shop for multiple years (also a Westfield property). A rather useless place. Seems our mall owners just optimized for $ per square foot and called it a day.

The main link missing here is the need to drive to the mall in America. You just can’t support as many people and as many shops because you need more parking square footage than the size of the mall to accommodate the cars.

Without the density the economics of most malls don’t make sense. Well that and we built too many anyway.

Same experience in Colombia (3 different malls, 2 different cities).

And like someone said below, much less space wasted on parking (more buildings, less actual parking since taxis are so cheap)

I think you have a point but part of this was self-inflicted. Instead of knowledgeable salespersons who could help with the purchase, the stores tried to cut costs and replace them with lower cost people who did not know/care as much. If they reverse this trend I think the malls can come back.

Most of what malls around here have are clothes, just a few tiny shops and a supermarket (food, etc.). Considering there's not much choice in elecroics etc. in the first place, and most of the stuff is just clothes, I don't really care about the salespeople, I just wan't the shirt and shoes, pants, etc. to fit. A large t-shirt in C&A fits me perfectly, but in Primark the XL model is too short, and I need an XXL slim size. If i buy nike sneakers, I sometimes need one or even two numbers larger shoe than with other brands (adidas, reebok,...).

Buying online has been a pain and in case of cheaper stuff, a waste of money, since returning a 9eur shirt meant driving to the post office, packing it up, paying postage to return and wait for a couple of weeks to get 9eur back after spending 10eur to ship stuff back.

Does online-purchase-bad => the-rise-of-malls?

Personally, malls are still the last brick and mortar place I would go to shop.

Australia all but copied mall culture, Westfield are the most popular malls here as well and they follow the same pattern as the US malls.

They have never been busier as best I can tell, and during the pandemic they ended up packed as people became more comfortable with the rules and risks, I think for the reason you mentioned, social interaction and just getting out.

That said, you need a strong middle-class to afford the mall, and I think on top of some malls just being too ambitiously placed in the middle of nowhere, a lack of customers who can afford to shop likely drove people away and into eCommerce.

Online shopping gets pointed at most often as a cause-of-death of malls, but another big factor is the rise of mega-supermarkets. Why make an extra stop at Macy's when you can get the same meh-quality pillowcases and khakis on your weekly Kroger trip?

https://youtu.be/586SO9-wWoA

Adam Something explores why European Malls are doing ok and American Malls are dying.

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