AA5B , 11 months ago

I just went to one of the big nearby malls. It is just off a major highway across the state line, where there is no sales tax. It used to have a guaranteed customer base from my city, just based on tax savings. Admittedly I haven’t been there in 15 years, as driving a pan hour for shopping is something we no longer did with kids. However this weekend I went up there and found boarded up stores and weeds growing in the parking lot.

However the interesting thing was there was tons of surrounding retail built up, so the area is still doing well for shopping, but not the mall. Before anyone asks, no, there were no sidewalks or paths connecting shopping centers.

Anyhow, I think it’s all much simpler than headlines seem to make it: we built out too many malls. Now we have other options from plazas to online, so don’t need so many. I expect the number of malls to stabilize at a point where everyone can still get to one, but that’s not the only place