I recently went to two malls in my area that, when I last visited them a decade ago were bustling with shoppers.
In one mall, I walked through a Macy's that may have had only 5 shoppers (I'm reserving "customers" as we weren't one until we actually bought something) in the entire store. The tile floor of the store was crumbling, wallpaper was peeling, everything felt old and ancient. I didn't want to be there.
In one mall, there was an entire wing of the mall that was almost completely abandoned and probably 30-40% of the mall was vacant store fronts. The food court I used to spend hours in consisted of a McDonald's and a Chinese fast food place. I remember years ago when it hosted a dozen different places, all with long lines. Getting a table to eat at required a friend to go reserve a table for you. These days? 3 people eat big macs in an empty large echoy room. It used to be the social center for the town, today it's nearly abandoned.
Amazon and other online shopping venues decimated these brick and mortar shopping venues. And it's not clear that it's generating the same amount of raw revenue in return either. It's definitely annihilating retail jobs in a way that Walmart could never hope to approach, yet it's rarely if ever discussed. At best, retail Macy's jobs are being replaced with contract warehouse work at a local fulfillment center, but automation and the loss of the requirement to interface with the customer means these places only require a fraction of the employees to move the same volume of inventory.
I don't know if the pendulum will ever swing the other way. My wife for example, buys clothes almost exclusively on-line. It's almost unthinkable that she does this, you want to try on clothes after all. But she overbuys a little, and only goes to the physical store to return items that don't fit or she doesn't like. The once proud storefront has been turned into the return counter in the customer service center. Why? "I don't like dealing with all the crowds and it's such a hassle to go there to see if things are on sale, I'll just check the web site every few days instead."
About the only brick and mortar we hit with any regularity these days is Costco, and that's largely because their wine selection is cheaper than online and very nearly always well selected and we can buy bulk toiletries and cleaning supplies at a discount.
> Amazon and other online shopping venues decimated these brick and mortar shopping venues
Brick and mortar stores are still just fine (or better thanks to Yuppies). Malls are getting decimated by Amazon and cultural trends against malls. The 80s suburban world where malls are the place to hangout is fading fast.
I think this is spot on. Many of the brick and mortar stores are scrambling, but finding ways to be just fine They have a certain customer base and actually are being forced to provide better service and value. I shop at Macys now more than I ever did because I can buy items online and deal with a live person at the store if I have any issues. I can't say that I ever shopped there often before getting on there mailing list.
Best Buy is being forced to step-up their price matching policies because of the "show-rooming" trend, supposedly leading to better deals for buyers.
Malls have made a huge comeback among the young people in my city, after the central city was decimated by a large earthquake.
One of the statistics that kinda blows me away, on Boxing Day, the largest mall in the city (which is still tiny by American standards) is visited by over 25% (>100000 people) of the population of the city.
Macy's with 5 shoppers is nothing. If you want to see how bad it can get, check out DeadMalls[0], where they classify and document malls that are already dead or otherwise dying.
Rackspace just moved their HQ into one of these dead malls[1], which is highly interesting.
Omigosh, I love exploring dead malls. They're so eerie and surreal. The one I recently went to was ornate - huge tile floors, brass highlights, gigantic hallways, and giant fountains. Yet there were drips in the ceiling, a thin layer of dust on the floors, and half the lights were off. There were maybe a dozen people in the mall. Half the store fronts were filled with fake placeholder things. It was like uncovering a zombie Pompeii.
I encourage everyone to check out their local dead mall, especially one that you visited when you were a kid. Lots of strange nostalgia to be had for sure. Bring rollerblades or a skateboard if you want to get adventurous.
I've never been to a dead mall, but I think I know what the feeling would be like. I remember some years ago going to a Kmart (I don't remember why). I think besides one person running the cash register, and a janitor, I was the only person there. The shelves were fully stocked, it was pristine, and eerily silent.
It was like I was in a research lab's clean room or something.
I wonder if this could lead to a rebirth of the high street? Malls going away. Small speciality stores that sell things you wouldn't buy online. Butchers, greengrocers etc with seasonal stuff that is nice to see before you buy. I might be extrapolating my buying habits too far...?
It depends on which city you live. The malls in urban area are really crowded. I'm talking about bay area. Malls need to adapt to change. by the way, amazon is not the only online business. There are 100s or may be 1000s of online stores today. ALL of them compete with Amazon. That is why we don't see a profit for amazon.
I want to read a good book examining the possible long term effects of the advance of digital technologies (web, mobile apps, cloud computing, etc). I don't think all those jobs are going to be replaced any time soon if at all.
PS: I'm also glad that the thought of a destructive internet has gone from "luddite talk" to "idea worth examining". I've read Paul Krugman talking about this a while ago for whatever is worth.
> I don't think all those jobs are going to be replaced any time soon if at all.
Again, anecdotal, but I wonder if this frees up parts of the workforce to explore other employment they might have not pursued otherwise.
Something I've noticed is that there seems to be a revitalization in the last few years in more..."traditional"...employers (meaning not in the tech industry) all populated by the kinds of folks you'd probably expect to see in the tech industry: chocolate makers, independent sandwich shops, bike shops, etc.
It's almost like the megacorps in the retails world have ignored certain market segments that are now populated by tons of small boutique shops.
Some malls are dying, some are thriving. Antidote is not data. There is one mall I've gone to the theater in a few times in recent memory, and it is swamped, I've almost get run down by shoppers at all times of the day, weekdays and weekends. Parking takes a long time to find. That's the only time I would go to that mall. I'd never shop there. Way too many people, only the theater for me. I've also been to dying malls. I've seen a few of them die over the years and are now dead.
There are so many places where malls are thriving. A few years ago, I used to live in a different city, and at Christmas time I'd have to take a different road to work, because just driving by the mall made my commute twice as long, if not more because of the traffic. On a weekday. Taking the long way was much quicker.
Also I think during the boom time they simply built too many malls. Don't know about the US, but even in Germany they build more and more malls while the malls next door are going bust (still building more as we speak). It's crazy.
Macy's keeps itself upfloat with Bridal and Baby registries. If there is a registry (which by the way, registries are rude), it's with at least Macy's. Seriously, why does everyone register with Macy's overpriced garbage?
The stuff on everyone's Macy's registry can be purchased elsewhere for half the price or less. I've looked.
In one mall, I walked through a Macy's that may have had only 5 shoppers (I'm reserving "customers" as we weren't one until we actually bought something) in the entire store. The tile floor of the store was crumbling, wallpaper was peeling, everything felt old and ancient. I didn't want to be there.
In one mall, there was an entire wing of the mall that was almost completely abandoned and probably 30-40% of the mall was vacant store fronts. The food court I used to spend hours in consisted of a McDonald's and a Chinese fast food place. I remember years ago when it hosted a dozen different places, all with long lines. Getting a table to eat at required a friend to go reserve a table for you. These days? 3 people eat big macs in an empty large echoy room. It used to be the social center for the town, today it's nearly abandoned.
Amazon and other online shopping venues decimated these brick and mortar shopping venues. And it's not clear that it's generating the same amount of raw revenue in return either. It's definitely annihilating retail jobs in a way that Walmart could never hope to approach, yet it's rarely if ever discussed. At best, retail Macy's jobs are being replaced with contract warehouse work at a local fulfillment center, but automation and the loss of the requirement to interface with the customer means these places only require a fraction of the employees to move the same volume of inventory.
I don't know if the pendulum will ever swing the other way. My wife for example, buys clothes almost exclusively on-line. It's almost unthinkable that she does this, you want to try on clothes after all. But she overbuys a little, and only goes to the physical store to return items that don't fit or she doesn't like. The once proud storefront has been turned into the return counter in the customer service center. Why? "I don't like dealing with all the crowds and it's such a hassle to go there to see if things are on sale, I'll just check the web site every few days instead."
About the only brick and mortar we hit with any regularity these days is Costco, and that's largely because their wine selection is cheaper than online and very nearly always well selected and we can buy bulk toiletries and cleaning supplies at a discount.