Witness the many YouTube videos on the topic of dying, dead, abandoned and demolished shopping malls. On-line is the way of the future. COVID-19 is just speeding up the inevitable. In a way, purchasing goods has come full circle. Many people shopped by catalog a century and more ago. Wards, Sears and other companies were able to sell products to people in even the most rural areas. Often, what they could buy via catalog was unavailable locally, or significantly more expensive than what it would cost from a catalog if available locally. Amazon is really just a modern version of the Sears or Wards catalog.
In a way, it is sad to know the shopping mall is going away. I grew up in the late 70s through the early 90s, the heyday of the mall. The mall was not just a place to go buy things, but for people of my generation, it was social hangout. At the same time, I see malls as a force that wiped out much center city commerce. When our local mall opened, our center city became a ghost town. What I hate most about malls going away is the hulk left behind. A dead mall represents acres of asphalt, steel and concrete left abandoned like a child's old toy when the next big plaything comes around. At least sometimes they can be put to new use, but that doesn't always happen.
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