You nailed it. Whenever I do visit a Mall especially with my younger kids, the attraction is more about the Fun and Social stuff than those boring stores. Yes, unless you are big into buying things in person or luxury stuff, Amazon has pretty much replaced most mundane stuff. Food, there are restaurants and Mall is not the right attraction for food.

Mall is more of a social place where we need to bring back the "it's cool and fun to hang at the mall" vibe. Whichever mall can do that successfully, it is a win.