NY Times: Our Love Affair With Malls is on the Rocks

[marmar]

By DAVID SEGAL
Published: January 31, 2009


BLOOMINGTON, Minn.


DEARLY beloved.

We are gathered here today, in the midst of economic calamity, to ask if we really should be gathered here today, in a funhouse of merchandise designed to send us deeper into debt.

Specifically, we are gathered in the Chapel of Love, sandwiched between a LensCrafters and a Bloomingdale’s and tucked into a relatively quiet corner of the vast prairie of retail and amusements that is the Mall of America.

It’s a convenient starting point for rethinking the 50-year marriage between the American shopper and the American mall. Because we’ve been married to the mall for so long that some of us are now getting married in the mall — 5,000 couples in this chapel since it opened 10 years ago.

And one recent Sunday afternoon, Brianna and Jesse Bergmann are standing here under a white wedding arch, beside an ordained minister, having promised to cherish each other in sickness and in health. There was a homily about forgiveness, an exchange of vows and finally a kiss and some applause. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/business/01mall.html?_r=1

[ThomWV]

1. Malls make more sense now than they ever did

When transportation was cheap we created malls which concentrated sellers in one convenient place. Now that energy costs, and transportation, are high do we want to disperse them. Also, it costs less to heat or cool places of business when they are all under one roof and with adjoining walls.

[marmar]

2. Centralized cities where people aren't driving all over the earth make more sense.....

..... than malls situated all over suburban hell.

[NashVegas]

3. No, We Have the Internet to Babysit Now

In 1970s/1980s suburbia, mall growth and profits were driven in a huge way by teens hanging out there in place of non-existent playgrounds, and after-school activities.

Those kids are all grown now; the ones who were all doing track & field and the chess and drama clubs all went onto better paying jobs, while the mall-rats didn't.


What you're going to see more of, I believe, are mixed-use zoning rules for suburban neighborhoods.

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. Here's a man with teeth like God's shoeshine

He sparkles, shimmers, and shines
Let's all have another Orange Julius
Thick syrup standing in lines
The malls are the soon-to-be ghost towns
Well so long, farewell, good-bye...

[MadHound]

5. This article hits on the crux of this economic problem

We live in an economy that is built on people consuming, endlessly consuming. Yet when people endlessly consume, we wind up with a major credit crunch. Then people don't spend, which sends the economy into an even steeper dive, whose only solution is for us to spend.

We've created a Catch-22 economy, like many other imperial powers before us. If we're going to save our economy and our country we need to quickly get back to a manufacturing base, get real jobs. You simply can't base an economy on people in retail selling crap to others who work in retail.

Oh, and as far as the malls go, they suck. I rarely go into one, and frankly if they all go belly up, so much the better, especially for local businesses.

[KittyWampus]

6. No, the Crux of the economic problem is that banks sliced, diced and bundled mortgages

into investment vehicles and no one knows who owns what and what anything is worth.

[marmar]

7. "as the malls go, they suck"

Amen to that. I really hate them - the same chain stores and restaurants laid out the same arrangement in every city in the country. Mass Generica.