Then And Now: Mall Deathwatch

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jan 1st 2009 at 9:02AM

It looks like all those door-busting sales didn't do much good this holiday season and it could mean that some malls may be permanently out of business. The slowest retail holiday season in 38 years could end up dooming 2,000 to 3,000 malls by the middle of the year with an estimated 200,000 more businesses shutting down. Even those that are still around will be cutting back on store locations, shutting down stores that aren't making good sales numbers. An ABC News article quotes Howard Davidowitz, the chairman of retail consulting firm Davidowitz & Associates who says that: "The American standard of living is changing forever."

At the beginning of 2008 we mentioned the dying out of the traditional indoor shopping mall which was being replaced by outdoor shopping areas. But the recent economic fallout is affecting both the indoor and outdoor kinds of shopping malls as what is now changing isn't how people shop but whether or not they shop at all.

Tags: malls, shopping, spending, then and now, ThenAndNow

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willzville Jan 1st 2009 10:29AM

Guys, you have to remember that this post was by Deidre Wollard, the same person who said that the last enclosed mall in the US was built in 2006.

Deidre is clearly someone that lives under a rock, and uses the internet to get all her facts. FOR GOD SAKE, LOOK OUTSIDE YOUR WINDOW DEIDRE!! The world isn't over (unfortunately for you) and people are just experiencing a slight downgrade in lifestyle, or have the same lifestyle but with lower figures in their bank accounts (like myself).

People come on Luxist for 'Luxist' news, and not for depressing as well as exaggerated economic news from a woman that probably earns a low 5 figure salary as a primary school teacher.