As sacred as ancestral shrines in Japan, mosques in Iran, or beaches in Brazil, the shopping mall has for decades been a place of worship in the United States. Since its inception in the 1940s, it’s grown to define and represent the very culture of mainstream America – and like other representations of the American culture, the mall has been copied and appropriated by nations the world over. But now, while sprawling indoor shopping centers and hypermarkets flourish in far-off countries of the first, second, and third worlds, the mall in America might be on its way out. Not one new indoor shopping mall will be built in America till at least 2009, compared to 5 built in 2005. In 2002 just 19% of U.S. retail purchases were made in malls, down from 38% in 1995.
A December 19 article in the Economist tries to pinpoint the reasons behind the decline:
One reason for the malls’ problems is that the suburbs have changed. When the Southdale shopping centre opened on the outskirts of Minneapolis, the suburbs were almost entirely white and middle-class. Whites were fleeing a wave of new arrivals from the South (the black population of Minneapolis rose by 155% between 1940 and 1960). Although Gruen could not bear to admit it, his invention appealed to those who wanted downtown’s shops without its purported dangers. These days, in Minneapolis as in much of America, the ethnic drift is in the opposite direction. The suburbs are becoming much more racially mixed while the cities fill up with hip, affluent whites. As a result, suburban malls no longer provide a refuge from diversity.
The precipitous decline of the indoor shopping mall does not, as we all know, mean that Americans have stopped shopping. Instead, the article notes that consumerism is thriving in downtown shopping districts and outdoor shopping meccas.
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I’m currently half way through the novel “Kingdom Come” by JG Ballard- In which Ballard describes a british suburb (brooklands) and it’s dystopian relationship with it’s shopping mall there- How the mall has now become a cultural center with shopping it’s new religion/borderline fascism. Racial wars ensue and take on the middle class.. alas, it’s england, and quite different form the dying malls here..
January 4th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Ummmmm, Economist? One word: E-COMMERCE!
I haven’t read the article, but did it ever occur to the writer that upscale suburban shoppers in two-income families are the same folks who were the earliest and most avid propronents of buying online?
Add the continuing decline in what we used to call ‘manners’ among pretty much every person working in those stores, the result of endless cost-cutting and lousy working conditions. Ask any teen: Mall jobs are McJobs, the lowest common denominator, about as prestigious as crossing guard.
Together, you’ve got the recipe for “Ugh, I’m not going there any more if I can possibly help it.”
January 5th, 2008 at 8:17 am
We’re moving from covered malls as we migrate back to “main street.” Lifestyle centers and mixed use developments are all trying to replicate what we all once had — a trip downtown to take care of whatever you needed…shopping, entertainment, socializing, dining and whatnot.
January 5th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
I liked the Economist article a lot. I wrote something about dead malls a few months back read it here:
http://thepiratesdilemma.com/ethernomics/scenes-from-a-dead-mall
January 6th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
It is intresting to note the decline of “Shopping Malls” in the United States. The only observation I can make – based on my experience here in South Africa – Shopping Malls have taken on a new life…and these essential “work,live,play” enviornments provide a security that no singular main shop or group of Shops ofer. The only problem with malls are the unfeted greed of the owners of these malls, and the draconian rentals and share of profits the retailers make on their tenants.
These rental demands are becomming totally unreasonable…it pushes up the actual price of goods – as the consumer pays for the rental, assistant and “profit-share”.
I see a trend where on-line shopping – ex a warehouse being the way we all will prefer to shop – albiet, we will not be able to see, feel and touch our good.
April 27th, 2008 at 4:14 am