What Happened to the American Shopping Mall? 

Eye?

@@Periwinkleaccount as in “i” lol

You can blame capitalists for that. They killed the working class' momentum.

I’m a kid, but there is this area I live near that my parents used to go to. They said it was really cool and had many things to do. Now the place is full of abandoned buildings, closed businesses, dead mall, and just looks ugly. Kinda sad tbh

@@saturn6563 Kinda sad boomers let that happen.

There was an abandoned mall near my house however, they turned it into a Amazon factory

weird, there was a daycare near my area which is now a boba store

That’s basically what malls originally were envisioned as

I want malls to stay malls

There actually is a place like that in Providence Rhode Island. (This is an edit. Originally I said it was in Boston MA because I forgot.) It was a very old mall, one of the very first indoor malls ever built. I think it was from the late 18 or early 1900's. I think, by the 2000's, it started to die and the city wanted to get rid of it, but some guy bought it and turned all the upper level stores into tiny apartments. They still have some stores on the bottom level. The residents love it because they can go get food and stuff without having to go outside. There are a few videos about it on RU-vid. I think it would make a great home for elderly and disabled people, who would otherwise live in nursing homes. Having a converted mall store all to yourself and having the freedom to go out and shop and socialize "outside," in the indoor courtyard of a mall, regardless of the weather, would be 100 million times better than being imprisoned in a tiny hospital room with strangers and not being able to ever see the inside of a store or restaurant ever again.

Thats a very good reason to keep malls. Quality over quantity. Because lets be real, what you get online is always a gamble. And lets not get into what Shein is

@@semekiizuio If I don’t see the products in front of me it’s hard to browse when I am shopping for someone else.

The mall I live near is pretty popular too and I see people my age there :)

Yep, if JC Penney or Sears is your anchor store then your mall is in trouble. If Bloomingdale's or Saks Fifth Avenue are anchoring your mall its probably doing ok. I live in Glendale which is a few miles north of downtown Los Angeles. Not only is the local mall built in the 1970s still doing well, they built another shopping center across the street. Then right nextdoor to the original mall they built a very upscale shopping mall with commercial and residential properties. All these places are doing great. I was there last Christmas to see a movie and do some shopping. Packed with people of all ages. There were teenagers there hanging out, shopping, and eating at the food court just like I did when I was young.

Do you live in a major city ?

Some are like that but not all there's one in a college town in Arkansas that's in an urban area and my local mall is within 3 miles of a high school which has a lot of houses near it and its also close to a hotel so if people want they can walk though I don't know anyone who did

It´s similar in South America, malls are on major cities, no so close to everyone, but in the downtown, and full or people specially the weekends because there are everything, not only stores, the most successful business are the restaurants and all related with food

I've seen Walmart supercenters inside malls but for some reason Walmart hates being connected to the rest of the mall and almost always has the inside entrance sealed off, instead of drawing more people to the mall they only draw customers to themselves and if someone inside the mall decides to go to Walmart they have to go back out to their car and drive it around to the Walmart side.

It's the same in the UK, but local councils jacking up parking fees and several chains going bust have made what should be thriving inner-urban malls become dead, with out-of-town retail parks and large superegional malls like Lakeside in Thurrock, Essex, ironically thriving, though some urban shopping centres are thriving, but most, however, tend to be in really large towns and important cities like Manchester. Even malls in Continental Europe are thriving.

to be fair i think thats its less that asia is special its more so that america just fucking sucks

I feel that. I remember when I was really small and being excited to go strolling in a mall with my friends in my "sweet 16 car present™." By the time I was old enough, I didn't have a license, I didn't have friends to go to the mall with, and the mall was dead lololol.

Same. I grew up going to the mall every few weeks as a little kid and now I'm a proud mallrat.

Jesus Christ loves you

Eh, I beg to differ on the Black Fridays. I worked at Victoria’s Secret on a Black Friday. Never again. **shudders**

My local mall is still always packed, especially on the weekends

A few malls in my area have that too, the one closest to me is getting 90% rebuilt as a shopping, eating and living complex

I love that ❤ I’m glad that some towns are putting in effort to make malls functional for the newer generation

me too

I've noticed most malls can revitalize themselves if they let local business take over the empty space, some real estate companies practically ignore everything that isn't corporate and end up with an empty mall

Yeah we still have a fairly strong mall game I reckon because Westfield has quite a monopoly, they are usually right outside public transport, it's a cheaper way to escape hot weather than cranking up the AC and a convenient place to catch up with friends when you can't decide what to eat. That said, a lot of retail outlets including the one I worked at cannot afford the exorbitant rent and close down or move to an online only model. Even David Jones is closing down!!

also for us online shopping can be really expensive or take months to deliver if we order from other countries :(

We just didn't make the same mistake of overbuilding

​@@s8wc3that's true however I feel to many malls are closing down. Cites like Columbus and Kansas City don't have as many as they should.

Malls in America have been dying for many years

@@manicpepsicola3431 yep, it's why I'm asking what makes Philippine malls different from the American malls in that many Philippine ones are thriving compared to American ones Don't get me wrong, some Philippine malls have died as well, but many are thriving even more after the pandemic

If your still interested on why US malls fell off Ordinary Things did a video called the Rise and Fall of the Mall.

I think the issue with American malls is that the stores have become utilitarian and boring. They've become just like any other store with boring merchandise in boxes on boring shelves, where you just want to buy something and get out. That's fine for big box stores, (Like Walmart and Target,) but malls need the kind of stores where it's fun to just hang out and browse even if you don't intend to buy anything. In the 90's, when I was a kid, there were a lot of mall stores where you almost felt you were visiting an interactive children's science museum, or something. We had stores like Zany Brainy, where they had all kinds of educational toys out and kids could just hang out in there and play. They had a store called Natural Wonders, that sold nature and science related gift items, and toys such as all different kinds of lava and plasma lamps, polished rocks, and science kits, that would be out on display. They always played meditation music and showed time capture videos in the store. I LOVED that place and would never leave the mall without stopping by there. It was almost like going to a science museum. They also had a Warner Brothers store with Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny statues out front, that had a toy spaceship with videos of WB cartoons playing inside. For the adults, there was also Brookstone, where you could go and try all kinds of different massage chairs. Now they've gotten rid of all these stores because they can't compete when there's so much less foot traffic because of online shopping. Does the Philippines still have stores like these? Because if they do, that's why the malls are still going strong there. Also, do they have music performances and events? Because that's another thing that American malls used to do all the time, but now they kind of suck at it.

Are there a lot of malls though or are there only a select few you can go to? Because in the US - i think there were too many malls, malls grew too fast and they were everywhere. I think thats why once the recession hit in 2008 and didnt really improve, they began to die out. Americans couldnt afford to shop like they could when malls first began being built.

Unfortunately, yes

And for some reason the part of Massachusetts I live in.

Because of how they designed. They have better parking spaces unlike US (which it tooks large space to park) and accessible for walking.

I'm from the US but now live in Belgium and there are 2 malls that I frequent. They both seem to be doing very well, no empty stores and there are always people there even at unpopular times. In fact I was just at the mall yesterday (big 3 level one) because of winter sales and it was packed! Took forever to get into the parking garage, there were so many people. Not just adults/families but many groups of teen girls too. It is interesting, because it's not like Belgium doesn't have online shopping. However, in my experience it can be hard to find things online often enough. Amazon BE recently opened and it sucks, everything is overpriced and there's hardly anything on there in the first place. Amazon FR has poor stock too imo. Some other sites, like local toy store chains, have very few items online compared to what's in their physical stores. Yet most mall stores like H&M, Zara, Bershka etc do have decent websites but that doesn't seem to stop people shopping there in person.

as a southeast asian who literally just dealt with borderline "black friday" level crowding for an entire month (probably because of christmas and new year), i can confirm how insane mall culture is here. Also, it probably also has to do with how most of the largest malls in the world are mostly located in southeast asia.

I know how you feel

It is kind of sad. A local mall in a town north of me was where my first job was : a Halloween store in a dying mall. After it died and was torn down, eventually a big apartment collection and mixed use outdoor mall finally completed in I think mid 2020. It has slowly had tenants move in over the past two years as it's becoming slowly a "lifestyle center"

The mall near me is so deadbthat a sears ans izoss moved out, for heavens sake a izoss moved

I feel this, except it happened to my elementary school. Now it’s just a parking lot. It’s surreal

recently my favorite mall got rid of their giant two story carousel and it was heartbreaking.

Right? I stopped going to the mall when I was 16 and realized that my only options would be Hallmark and 12 different clothing stores.

From the UK here, we also have supermarkets in our malls/shopping centre's and its weird to me that that's not a thing in America, here malls are still pretty popular and its always my choice to buy things in public than to buy online along with the social element of meeting with others to browse.

Same thing in Mexico too!!

Very interesting! I wonder why that did not catch on here in America. It makes sense to have a supermarket in a mall!

Where?

@@mirzaahmed6589 around phoenix some malls are doing good

@@mirzaahmed6589 same here. i live near the valley fair mall in santa clara (not the Wisconsin one, california haha.) and it’s constantly packed. as are the other malls near me.

yea same my mall is extremely popular, there's always a ton of people and whenever i go it's a struggle to find a good parking spot

@@personwitharat9039 i mean youre near a big city so that might be why, but at the same time i live in a decent sized city and the mall is doing fine so maybe it depends on the area

I’m actually living in Australia and I agree! When I was writing this video and I’d go out to the busy shopping centers it was such a weird juxtaposition to my American brain

@@dreamyjellies oh that’s so cool! It’s honestly a whole worlds difference between the shopping culture in America vs the rest of the earth, and watching dead mall and abandoned building exploration videos have always been part of my own fascination for it all! Things just don’t seem to get abandoned as much here and if they are they’re torn down so quickly you don’t really get the chance to explore. It’s living vicariously through someone else but in a weirdly dystopian way lmao

About 10 years ago a whole bunch of restaurants began opening in my local shopping centre. One level has a cinema and mid to high end restaurants, as well as a laser tag place. Then the escalator goes straight down into the food court for the fast food.

​@@dreamyjelliescongrats welcome to the crummy country with no freedoms 🎉

I’m also Canadian and I feel the same way. Shipping is so expensive (unless it’s Amazon, usually) so I prefer shopping in person. I’m also very impatient and don’t like to wait on my orders to come lol.

Also Canadian! Thinking about the malls in my area, many of them are constantly renovating and opening new stores, or rebuilding completely.The older malls I visit are usually for a specialty store but they are also quite busy, especially for food

@@AllycatlovesAG A lot of cool stores I personally like have closed down in the past like the Disney store and local hobby stores, replaced by clothing or vpe stores I don't really care about. I'm especially sad about one local hobby store closing because I never got some cool figures from there based on characters like the Indoraptor or Spyro the Dragon. Still peeved about never getting an Indoraptor figure, now it's overpriced in the secondhand market... I just want the funny killing machine raptor hybrid.

@@bluetimesskyrii We have lots of vpe stores too but I never see them in malls

@@AllycatlovesAG A few of them popped up in my favorite mall for some reason. You can't get a glimpse of whatever is inside from outside the store, presumably for legal reasons, and I have no intention to find out anytime soon

yea same my mall is extremely popular, there's always a ton of people and whenever i go it's a struggle to find a good parking spot

It would really help to bring in essential stores ( Hence Target) Entertainment ( Theatres) family activities, good restaurants they can do really well revamping is key.

@@FitPassonyeah my local mall got an outdoor expansion 7 years ago that included actual restaurants, a Dave and busters, and a movie theater. It’s far from dead and actually made traffic awful this holiday season. Malls just need to evolve in order to survive.

@@FitPasson This is essentially what malls are like here in Australia. They tend to have loads of people especially on weekends and at peak times for traffic, like afternoons after school, and the lunch time area in general. Even smaller malls will have the supermarket (either Woolworths, Coles, or both here), essential department store (Kmart, Target and/or Big W, yeah Australia has some weird department store trends as Target is the weakest of these 3), a theatre, and some great typically local restaurants and cafes with some chains as well.

@@FitPasson Here pretty much every big mall has that (aside from those with completely noname shops, but even there are exceptions).

Long live the mall!

lucky, i wanna go to mall america so bad but i live down in the south, super far away from it

I also live by the MOA. Burnsville and Roseville malls are dead right now. I used to hate going to the MOA- but now if I need to go to the mall, it's the only one left with stores and people. Woodbury's outdoor mall is still hoppin' though, but when its -20 and snowing every day, outdoor malls suuuuuck

I'm in a similar boat. I'm by the MOA and it's still kicking. Smaller malls in MN, however, are either dying or dead

I would love to go back, i had 2 weeks of testing done when i was 15 at the mayo clinic so my parents managed to take me there two times for a day of fun. My dad not giving a crap about malls was however a amusement park person leading me into the magic of carnival rides since age 2. I'm in the Chicago area so the closest to the MOA would be our Gurnee Mills, the 5 mile mall conveniently located across from 6 flags Great America, which makes for a nifty weekend. Or did in my teens. I still have the brochure from my trip to the mall of America 1995 which is pretty epic as I can only imagine how much has changed!

I am moving to Eagan from TX. Is MOA the best place to shop?

I strongly agree, coming from someone who also uses a lot of social media

You talking about Highland Mall in Austin? It was for the best that mall died. There was a lot of crazy stuff always going on lol there. At least since it closed ACC was able to renovate it and somewhat build up that area. Still pretty hood over in that area though

@@homedeezyfasheezy5662 yeah it's highland! and i agree, it had to pass on as a mall but i'm glad it got repurpoused at least. also yeah it's a mix, it's a hotspot for shopping and eating since lots of asian places like kura sushi and kinokuniya are there but also yeah it is very hood, it all just depends on what part from my experience.

so cool!!!!

Nice. Rich guy

which suburb is it?

@@caitlingill in Long Island, the mall is Roosevelt field, it’s also HUGE lol