For decades, shopping malls were more than just commercial zones. They were social hubs, cultural hotbeds, and even fonts of information.
Time was, if you wanted to know the next hot game’s release date or keep up with current trends, you headed down to the mall and marinated in the zeitgeist.
If you’ve read this blog for a while, you know we’ve discussed sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s concept of the Third Place—a setting distinct from home and work where people can network and build relationships. And from the late 1970s through the early aughts, the mall was the Third Place par excellence.
From arcades and bookstores to pizzerias and music shops, malls offered something for everyone. We went there to hang out with friends, meet new people, and even get paid.
Related: The Idea of a Mall
Today, the American mall is a shell of its former glory–a victim of fiscal, cultural, and generational decay. Yes, big box stores and e-commerce cut into malls’ profit margins starting in the 1990s, but economic pressures weren’t the only culprits.
By the early aughts, the demographic changes begun in the 1960s had made themselves felt, alienating key groups like young men. Arcades vanished, replaced by impersonal online gaming. Meanwhile, stores tailored to broad audiences gave way to niche retailers.
The 2008 financial crash delivered the final blow to many malls. As anchor stores shut down, smaller tenants followed. The result was Dead Mall Syndrome: once-bustling centers of activity reduced to pale shadows.
This decline mirrors broader trends in American life, including rising social isolation and the loss of free association. While malls replaced traditional gathering spots like churches and men’s clubs, they too became victims of an increasingly atomized society.
So the questions facing us now are:
- Can the decline be reversed?
- Would we want to reverse it if we could?
First things first, is there a way for malls to make a comeback?
Related: After the Mall: Can We Build a New Third Place?
While the hurdles are high, they might not be insurmountable. Here are a few suggestions for how we might restore a semblance of the mall’s former majesty:
Experience-Based Enterprises
To compete with the convenience of online shopping, malls must offer experiences that can’t be replicated online. Think entertainment venues, gyms, or workshops. Events like live music, craft shows, and themed festivals could draw crowds, a portion of which could become repeat business.
My local mall is already trying some of these tactics, including a VRcade, a mini golf course, arts and crafts fairs, and even comic book conventions. They do indeed seem to drum up foot traffic.
Reinvent the Third Place
Malls could reclaim their role as Third Places by adding public gathering spots. Cozy seating, free Wi-Fi, and open areas for casual meetups could make malls attractive as social destinations once again.
Again, my local mall has been trying this approach. They placed new tables and chairs in quiet nooks and added small group seating in the center aisles. Time will tell if it helps.
Capitalize on Nostalgia
A key to any business is knowing your market. And it doesn’t take a million-dollar study to identify malls’ core demographic: Gen X and Y men.
That means regaining success involves bringing back features that appeal to those men. Updated arcades, gaming stores, and hobby shops are all essential. And now that the former mallrats are middle-aged, shopping venues will also need amenities for their families. But that need itself is an opportunity. Recall that McDonald’s went from huge to colossal by marketing to kids in the 80s. So stock the arcades with all-ages games families can play together, and add an ice cream shop or playground to keep the kids happy while Dad browses Spider-Man back issues.
Think Local
Instead of relying on national chains, malls could prioritize local businesses. This approach would not only restore some of the local flavor that’s been lost to gray goo corporatism, it would foster sorely missed solidarity.
Consider Mixed-Use Development
Many successful malls overseas have integrated residential, office, and retail space. Adding apartments, hotels, or offices could help stabilize revenue while creating a built-in audience for mall retailers.
It’s probably just me having a Gen Y moment, here. But I must admit the notion of living at and working from the mall sounds appealing. It’s reminiscent of the old arcology idea cyberpunk authors once promised us.
Tighten Security to Rebuild Social Trust
To address the root issue of crumbling social trust, malls should invest in visible, proactive security.
Because local law enforcement can’t always be counted on, these security forces would need to be private. And I don’t just mean mall cops. They’d need the obvious presence of uniformed personnel from serious security firms to send troublemakers a clear message. Once again, my mall’s arcade brought in private security to get gang activity under control, and it seemed to work. And while the expense is an issue, it’s just the cost of doing business these days.
The mall’s decline reflects more fundamental social rot. But it also highlights the ongoing need for Third Places. While rebuilding the cultural cohesion of the past may seem daunting, the mall—reinvented for the 21st century—could once again become a cornerstone of American socioeconomic life.
By refocusing on their core customer base and adapting to subsequent chagnes since their heyday, malls might just find a way to thrive in our post-digital age.
So maybe we don’t need a new Third Place. Just maybe it’s been there all along, waiting to make a comeback.
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America is full of potential Mall Ninjas just waiting for the call.
Ha ha!
The economics of malls were always unstable by my understanding, which admittedly has been a long time since I double checked.
The vast majority of the profits of most of the stores were at Christmas time.
One month of profits kept most of the stores in the black for the other 11 months. That would necessarily include mall rent, which is a huge amount of overhead for most retailers. Most small business retailers look at rents and generally in terms of “How many widgets would I have to move” to cover it, along with any payroll. There is a reason for those little carts in the middle of walking paths, rather than a full store fronts, that exist in most malls.
It does work out vaguely okay to have most (or all) profits in one month, but the profits have to come. Online shopping killed the one month that made the other 11 possible.
The only malls around me with much life are “destination” malls that have very high end stores that appeal to tourists. I presume their profits are more stable, but mostly confined to weekends/travel seasons.
In terms of wanting them back, I don’t know. Even during my teen years I found them rather sterile and repetitive. It didn’t help that I was always poor during those years, so most of my activity looked a lot more like the elderly mall walkers. We do need third spaces. Locally there seems to be movement of attaching a small, low maintenance restaurant to bookstores, yarn stores etc. That might work, as there’s a reason to keep visiting and pay the bills everyday. They won’t be big malls though.
Most malls around here have roughly half of their shops as “pop-up” shops, i.e. shops that are only open certain times of the year and which often share their floor space with another store that is active then they aren’t.
This dodges the problem of needing to spend 12 months of rent on 1 month of profit, but it also means that the mall is more dead than usual outside of December and the summer.
>To compete with the convenience of online shopping, malls must offer experiences that can’t be replicated online.
Was thinking something similar after you mentioned we might see a mall revival the other day. A food court offering what we always used to joke about doing might be another option.
I present to you: Fast Food Tapas Crawl
The mall offers a punch card. Each restaurant offers a small portion item, like an appetizer. It should be quirky and fun. Buying it gets your card punched for that restaurant.
Fill out the card by hitting all, uh, 6 restaurants? Free specialty soft serve cone for dessert. Maybe the mall has a special Boysenberry soft serve. This is the only way to get it. Change it up once every month or so.
Also, should have one of those cat cafes in the mall. Because that would be neat.
I turned 50 this year. In my entire life, not counting clothes from a department store or Christmas purchases, I can remember buying four things from a mall:
1) The 1986 TPB of The Dark Knight Return
2) Sandman #8
3) Scruffy the Cat’s Tiny Days LP
3) the City expansion for Talisman (2nd edition)
I bought #1 because I was on a field trip to a big city and my small-town bookstore didn’t carry such things, #2 because I had just moved to that big city and hadn’t discovered the LCS yet, #3 because it was 99 cents at Sam Goody, and #4 because for whatever reason (don’t remember) we were closer to the mall and its hobby store the day the City expansion came out than our local freestanding hobby store where we usually bought gaming stuff.
In many ways, I was lucky to grow up in a major metro area when I did; we had freestanding stores for books, records, and games. Also we just hung out in the basements of our houses, so we never really felt the need for a third space.
And so the mall was never really that interesting to me.
I bought the first
Perhaps for some communities something similar to fiber installations: more municipalities are installing fiber that they own, then hiring an ISP to provide service over the fiber network. One service provider is state-owned and operates as a utility. Fixed fee for X speed.
Municipalities taking over a mall as a park or mixed use facility might work in some areas. Bring in local businesses to populate it and convert areas into shared or community spaces.
Is it not possible to imagine a Third Space that isn’t dependent on commerce?
Some megachurches have plazas with benches and maybe bookstores that people could meet up at, and sometimes there is stuff like concerts or orchestras, but ofcourse the whole thing is funded like a business with people being guilted into giving tithes so that the pastor can live in a big house 50 miles away in Long Beach and drive expensive cars and pass the business/Church down to his son.