The Life and Death of the American Mall

Re:The Life and Death of the American Mall by jemmyw on Thursday January 11, 2024 @04:40AM (#38949917)

One notable difference I think with many malls in Europe and other countries, compared to America, is that they tend to be integrated with the surrounding town/shopping area. They are less likely to be a standalone place you drive to. Both of the malls I grew up near were like that, you could park at the mall, then walk out of the mall into the busy high street. Rather than feeling like a completely separate entity it was a continuation that also had the food court.

I know there were big out of town malls in the UK, but going there was a special trip, and then they were always a disappointment, despite the grandeur.

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Re:The Life and Death of the American Mall by sandworm101 on Thursday January 11, 2024 @07:03AM (#38951110)

The word mall used to mean street. The original malls were streets with stores, not a single structure. The old scheme was a natural evolution of the local market and grew or shrunk with demand. Todays malls are large rental properties populated by shops, with little ability to adapt as markets change.

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Re:The Life and Death of the American Mall by drewcoo on Thursday January 11, 2024 @01:10PM (#38956151)

Clearly here what's meant by mall is "shopping center," modeled on the first one in the 1950s in the twin cities, not places like the National Mall in D.C.

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Re:The Life and Death of the American Mall by gvurrdon on Thursday January 11, 2024 @05:44AM (#38950444)

I recall one of those; right in the centre, as you describe. It was open by the mid 1980s, IIRC. It had a cafe and various pleasant seating areas within, such as this: https://www.peterboroughimages.co.uk/currys-store-queensgate... Last time I looked these had all been removed, and the main "flagship" store closed down; certainly no longer the exciting day out I remember from when it was new. Perhaps this is due to the increasing number of retail parks which have appeared in the area this century.

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Re:The Life and Death of the American Mall by jemmyw on Thursday January 11, 2024 @07:31PM (#38961782)

I moved away from the UK in 2007 and I understand there have been quite significant changes to the high street in general over there since then. I live in NZ now and the malls around here are integrated like I described. They're also quite small because population.

I will call bullshit on my own original post though. I used to live near Santa Rosa CA and that had a mall that spilt into the street stores that I had forgotten about, so it's not actually a difference between the US and the rest of the world. My general point though is I think those are friendlier malls than the out of town variety.

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Re:The Life and Death of the American Mall by A_D_E_P_T on Thursday January 11, 2024 @04:46AM (#38949976)

That's true, but I'd say that in Europe the ratio is close to 50/50. Prague, for instance, has a few malls in the city proper, and several more (like, e.g., "Europark" and "Fashion Arena") that are primarily accessible via car or public transit. I wouldn't say that one type is in decline whereas the other type isn't.

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