The Economics and Nostalgia of Dead Malls

The simplified reason old malls are dying is the same reason fast food restaurants remodel, and the ones that don't die.

The experience that the mall provides is the core feature. If that experience is not attractive it has no features.

New malls beat the old mall trends, and the outlet mall format adds a second feature to the mix which extends their viability time before a remodel is required.

The catch 22 is that remodeling something the size of a mall is rarely feasible.

Sobering that income inequality is a driving force behind the death of a lot of the malls aimed at the middle class:

<< With income inequality continuing to widen, high-end malls are thriving, even as stolid retail chains like Sears, Kmart and J. C. Penney falter, taking the middle- and working-class malls they anchored with them.

“It is very much a haves and have-nots situation,” said D. J. Busch, a senior analyst at Green Street. Affluent Americans “will keep going to Short Hills Mall in New Jersey or other properties aimed at the top 5 or 10 percent of consumers. But there’s been very little income growth in the belly of the economy.” >>

I won't miss (suburban) malls (shopping centers). I was never a mall rat, so maybe my perspective is skewed. That said, why not repurpose dying malls as living space for: homeless, hackerspaces, and those in more prime locations, raze and use the land to make into condominiums --malls typically have good transport connections. Make use of the land and buildings. That said some malls are built with expiration dates of 30 years or so, it would seem.