what kills a shopping mall?

cm1179

cm1179

cm1179

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mostly aimed at american members i suppose but (i don't know why) i have just been watching videos of abandoned shopping malls on youtube. one of which was in euclid, ohio. i've been there but not since 2003, the video i watched was from 2007 and it was practically empty. i then watched videos of other malls in other states and just wondered why they go this way? they look pretty big places so i don't think it's because every shop moved elsewhere is it?
 
Not getting the custom, cost to much to run stores not making profit. Slowly the whole place dies, especially in areas that are getting higher unemployment and personal debt
 
There's too many in North America.

I live in a very small city at the moment in B.C and there are atleast 5 shopping centres that I can think of the top of my head. They usually all have the same shops or very similar and none of them have anything decent :D. My gf hated coming back here as London and Europe in general is so much more advanced when it comes to fashion.
 
Big company fails, high percentage of the local population lose their jobs, so they relocate. Which in turn affects the shops in the mall, which ends up closing. People over here think nothing of moving 1000 miles for a job.
 
People in debt.

Wigan had a new "centre" built and the old one is now a ghost town with all the stores moving to the new one and the old one getting crap stores like poundshops etc.

http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/newgallery/gallery5.php?opt=ga < new one massive and has about 20 stores and the company that owns it went into administration.

tbh I prefer internet shopping, cheaper and hassle free, plus you dont have to put up with all the singles mums and people on the dole walking around and all the immigrants.
 
franco_22 said:
There's too many in North America.
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This. Strip malls (which would admittedly just be a row of shops here) turn up all over the place. For example, you'd think the I-drive area has enough shops already, including its own strip malls, but oh no, go a few blocks either side and you find more of them.

That's the problem with having so much space. Someone decides they need to fill it with something, even if that something isn't needed.
 
Yep, there's too many.

About shopping malls though. I think it's way better to go there rather than to go shopping in a high street etc. You can sit down, have something to eat, not go out in bad weather and buy everything in one place. But here there is basically none. In Norway, shopping centres are the only ones who survive basically. Wish there was some here :p
 
twentyone said:
Yep, there's too many.

About shopping malls though. I think it's way better to go there rather than to go shopping in a high street etc. You can sit down, have something to eat, not go out in bad weather and buy everything in one place. But here there is basically none. In Norway, shopping centres are the only ones who survive basically. Wish there was some here :p
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Really? I prefer high streets and I believe there are reasons why shopping centres might be better but your arguements are flawed.

"buy everything in one place"

That's why it's a high street, all the shops are concentrated in one area so you can buy everything in the same place.

"You can sit down, have something to eat"

There's lots of cafes and fast food joints in the high street including Starbucks, Cafe Nero, Costa, MacDonalds, Burger King, KFC, etc.

"not go out in bad weather "

Well, you have a point here but I prefer the touch of pavement under my feet, the wet rain under my umbrella and on a sunny day it's much nicer to be out in the sun then to be stuck inside artificially illuminated Shopping centre.


Personal preference I guess but I don't think High streets are that bad but then again, I imagine Norway to be 10x colder then most parts of the UK :D
 
You tend to get two kinds of malls over here. There's the huge ones with all the big name stores - they're constantly packed and (usually..) very successful. Then you get the strip malls and smaller "boutique" malls that nearly always seem to struggle. If they're lucky there might be a KFC or BK located there that at least creates a bit of extra traffic for them. They also tend to be stuck in rubbish places. Even in the best of times they always seem to be up against it - in the current economic climate they don't stand a chance.
 
franco_22 said:
Really? I prefer high streets and I believe there are reasons why shopping centres might be better but your arguements are flawed.

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Personal preference I guess but I don't think High streets are that bad but then again, I imagine Norway to be 10x colder then most parts of the UK :D
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My arguments might be a bit flawed I agree with that :p Maybe because the high streets around here are not exactly very good.

I just like it because you can park inside, leave your jacket at the car and walk around for a few hours. It's very practical indeed when it's -15 outside :) I also notice (around here at least, got no idea what it's like in other places) that the shops tend to be in older buildings so they have to lay out the shop according to that and it tends to get a bit cramped, which is not too nice when it's busy.

And you also rarely see any individual shops around, always the same big ones whereas in the shopping centres you can get smaller independent shops that survive because of two things I think, it's quite open in the entrance so it's easy to attract people in, and because you are in a shopping mall there are always going to be people walking by. The price to rent a shop in a shopping mall I would say is probably a bit cheaper than one in a high street (I know for sure it is in Norway). I mean how many times do people go look at the shops that are a bit out of the way if everything they need is in the big stores in the high street?

Bah, this turned out long :p
 
[FnG]magnolia;17334853 said:
A new shopping mall opening up nearby. That or people moving away to other areas en masse.
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That's exactly what happened to our seaside mall here. New malls opened elsewhere in more convenient locations.
 
I was in Barstow, CA, at a mall about 3 days ago and found the same thing. It was a shadow of its former self and about 80% of the units were unoccupied. Felt really weird walking around it...
 
There's too many of them and always more being built ... London wasn't too bad for this as there wasn't too many, here in Kuala Lumpur its terrible. Here's what we have - all not that far away (to give you an idea of size comparison, Westfields shopping center is 150,000m²)

  • Mid Valley Megamall - 420,000m²
  • 1Utama - 465,000m²
  • Suria KLCC - 139,000m²
  • Berjaya Times Square - 700,000m²
  • Pavilion - 210,000m²
  • Sunway Pyramid - 232,000m²

I hope those figures are correct, Wikipedia :D
And of course, there's more on the way :rolleyes:
 
[TW]Fox;17335958 said:
There is one in China as well - isn't it the worlds largest mall? It is 98% unoccupied :eek:
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Yeah I think that's in Guangzhou

According to Wikipedia - total floor area of over 800,000m²!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_China_Mall

They love their malls here - too hot outside, so better to have a mall directly connected to a train station or really close by to avoid having to be outside for too long :p
 
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