The slow death of the American shopping mall

[Kern Dog]

Before Christmas, I went shopping at the nearby Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, CA.....

It is a beautiful place. Built in 1972 and remodeled a few years ago with a food court, new decor throughout...

This was the Saturday before Christmas.

The Mall is not closed to the public. There are other Malls in the area that are open for business and have plenty of shoppers.
Like most of them, THIS mall had a Sears store as a major "anchor" and when Sears closed, several small stores closed down.

This is really sad.

How much of the downfall can be blamed on THIS?

That sign was on the wall of a nail salon business that must have been unable to reopen for some reason.

How much blame is at the hands of Online shopping stores?
It is a sad thing to see American institutions fade away.

 

[JimKueneman]

Same is occurring in Tucson. One mall tore out the halls and made a cluster of stand alone buildings. One is virtually deserted like the one you show. A third tried reinventing itself a few years ago and the 4th is surviving.

 

[Billccm]

I won't miss malls myself. They seemed to be an attraction for vagrants and crime. At one time a car was stolen from a Tucson shopping mall every hour every day.
With excessive rents and other overhead I think it is better that the mall go away.

 

[toolmanmike]

We have a couple here that are almost gone. Small stores in 4 unit strip malls seem to be where it's at.

 

[Don Frelier]

They are turning malls here into urgent care and medical facilities. They are practically abandoned usually easy to get to and have ample parking.

 

[turbine68rt]

One of two local malls was just demolished here. Opened in fall of '80. Lots of good memories.

 

[mopar 3 B]

Been a dying breed for the last 20 years. Can count the remaining ones on almost one hand. There use to be almost to many to count.
Over priced rental put most out of business. Taxes went through the roof when abatements ran out. What were the owners to do. They made their money and ran.

 

[Tony Tee]

I'll take the mall ! I'll turn it into a climate controlled Mopar junkyard / restoration center and show room. With a indoor dragstrip! Anybody have the winning lottery numbers?

 

[Fran Blacker]

Make them into condo's.

 

[mopar 3 B]

Retirement centers

 

[YY1]

Small mall nearest me got razed in 1992.

Put in 2 strip malls facing each other. Main store Lowes.

 

[gkent]

What goes around comes around. Malls killed main streets and small retailers world wide. Their high rents escalated prices and kept wages low. Karma is a bitch.

 

[moparedtn]

It's not the 'Rona that's killing off malls; it's been happening for a while now.
Online sales and the likes of Wally World have about done them in.
Check out a channel on YouTube by "Dan Bell" on this. He's the original documenter
of what is called the "dead mall series" and does a great job on them; there are now
MANY imitators who also travel the country, doing nothing but documenting dying
malls now.

 

[That_Tall_Dude]

Yeah... online shopping and Walmart has been a big competitor to malls for decades now.

Malls have been trying to be more attractive and seemed to be working.

What goes around comes around. Malls killed main streets and small retailers world wide. Their high rents escalated prices and kept wages low. Karma is a bitch.

good point

 

[Kern Dog]

You can KEEP Wal Mart.
I loathe the place. It is the Harbor Freight of America.

 

[That_Tall_Dude]

Trying to avoid the borg (Amazon) and other online and most big box retailers; except Costco they seem to treat staff better.

Was harder last year, but did ok with it

 

[Budnicks]

I remember Sunrise Mall well used to cruise the mall
in my 68 Charger R/T, 50+ miles each way
we'd go to pick up chicks or think we were
(there was really slim pickings in Georgetown/Garden Valley Ca. rural area)
go there get/arrange street races, to go out El Camino Friday Sat nights
(before we'd go to the J-Street cruise after dark)
we'd even go shopping every so often, mostly cruising
back in my HS days class of 77' baby
it "was" always crowded, lots of the younger crowd there...

When I lived in Concord Ca. long before I moved up to
Garden Valley/in the sticks, to live with my dad, stepmother & stepbros
& adopted sisters on 165+ acres in the foothills ElDorado co.
we'd cruise & go to
Concord/Pleasant Hill, to Sun Valley shopping mall
do much of the same stuff we did at Sunrise mall, in Sacramento
I was just younger, didn't have a license "yet"
dropped off by my parents (oh the humility)
or go with my oldest sister or go with my older cousin Joe
or ride our bikes there

fun times

 

[Kern Dog]

Sunrise Mall was a cruising spot in the late 70s, early 80s. I started driving in late '82 as the cops cracked down on cruising there. It was perfect for that sort of thing...You could drive around the mall for hours, park in the lot and talk to buddies, make out with the girls, etc.

 

[moparedtn]

Yeah... online shopping and Walmart has been a big competitor to malls for decades now.
Malls have been trying to be more attractive and seemed to be working.
good point

Absolutely.
Now you gotta wonder - what's going to replace WallyWorld....
because something surely will one day.
Will we be 100% shop at home??

 

[moparedtn]

You can KEEP Wal Mart.
I loathe the place. It is the Harbor Freight of America.

Yeah, but for small towns like this one, it's the only game in town for a lot of stuff -
especially since the death of other retailers like KMart, Monkey Wards and such.
It's actually amazing to this day to me that a county this small (approx. 55k population)
HAS a WalMart!
Of course, this is a regional hub of sorts, totally surrounded by sparsely populated
regions...so Wally has a stranglehold on a lot of items by default.