Kaybees I loved going to when I was kid back in the day. The store may loooked small from the outside in the hallways of the malls, but once you get inside a Kaybees store its bigger than it looks inside. all I remember about Kaybees is that it had tons of Toybiz Marvel and DC action figures, Terminator 2 halloween makeup etc and some G.I. Joe stuff which were mostly the 1990s 12 inch dolls.
Plus videogames which were mostly NES and Super Nintendo games at Kaybees were a bit pricey at 40 bucks.
Software Etc by the way is now Gamestop. True story especially when Funcoland used to be the primitive caveman Gamestop. Funcoland then turned into Software Etc at the mall and then awhile after Software Etc at the mall turned into Gamestop
Alco went under last year, but they closed a large number of their stores back in the early 90s and never really recovered. My hometown had one of the stores that went belly up.
Damn, I loved malls. I guess I'd better since I spend 40+ hours a week in one and have to know what's going on with all the malls in a 100-mile radius as a part of my business! See, the thing about malls today is that they're pretty much just clothing, housewares, jewelry, hair salons and video games. There used to be a much wider variety of stuff in them. Other changes in retail since the '80s and '90s that you can see in the above pics as compared to today:
Signs: back then they were almost all internally lit and custom shaped. Lots of neon. Yes today's signs are of course made by sign shops, but they're mostly molded fonts rather than logotypes. Many aren't lit or have regular LED lights shining on them. Today's signs are much, much cheaper. My store's sign is very contemporary, 3d and unlit. Despite having 13 letters and being 20 feet long it only cost $450. Mall management was very impressed with the quality of my sign. The fancy signs from the '80s cost $2500-10,000 back then.
Wide open fronts: My store is an old unremodeled Kay-Bee and the opening is 30 feet wide. That was very typical of the time ('80s). The "gate" (the metal part that rolls down) is also 30 feet wide and has to be opened electrically due to the weight. Most of the modern stores in malls have maybe an 8-10 feet opening with a manual gate and glass covering the rest of the front. This is for inventory and crowd controls.
Mirrors, fountains and chrome everywhere: Used to be the theory was that mirrors, water and chrome everywhere made people spend more money because our caveman brains are attracted to water (and by proxy, reflections in chrome and mirrors) in order to survive. The theory still "holds water", but in the interest of modernity white and light beige have replaced that. Current trends are away from "gauche" and "gaudy". Whatever sells, I guess. I like money. Also, those fountains were very, very expensive to maintain. My mall has eliminated all fountains as have many others. You definitely don't want an non-functional fountain sitting around.
Plants: much less flora and fauna in today's malls. Again, lots of work to keep up. Also distracting maybe?
Wood: Much more natural-looking wood in malls in the past.
Ramps/oddly shaped seating areas: Most things are square and flat now. This is partially due to the Americans with Disabilities Act of the early '90s, but also due to decreased interest in angular shapes.
Overall, things today are less creative to be honest. But we are all product of our time.
Cars in malls constantly: Local car dealers used to advertise in malls a lot and it was very popular to have classic car shows in malls. Car dealers advertise on TV a LOT more now. The white, porous, matte finish tile in modern malls gets tracks on it much easier than then brown/red, sealed, shiny tile in older malls. My mall had classic car shows in it all the time before they changed the tile. Now you might see the odd UTV or Jet Ski displayed, but those tires' trax are easily cleaned. The other thing is that now malls have concrete bollards in front of the doors to stop terrorism. UTVs and Jet Ski trailers can slip through but cars cant.
Thought I'd mention if anyone is interested in malls they should check out Dan Bell's Dead Mall series on Youtube, which basically shows just how much of a devastating state the whole concept of the mall is in these days. Really puts into perspective how it's becoming a thing of the past. I wouldn't be surprised if 50 years from now the mall as we knew it is a completely dead concept. Kinda sad when you think about it, but to be honest, without the 16 to 32-bit era of gaming and all the products that existed in those times, I don't think malls can ever reclaim their former glory anymore.
Speaking of dead stores, btw, has anyone heard of Kohne's Video? It used to be a rental chain here in the bay area. My very first contact with video games ever was there when we went in when I was like 6 back in 1993 and I saw Jurassic Park for NES and could not figure out what I was looking at. Didn't help they put shots of the movie on the back of the box, I thought you could actually play the movie once the guy working there told us it was a game I've done general Google searches and it seems this rental chain is largely forgotten by time.
Thought I'd mention if anyone is interested in malls they should check out Dan Bell's Dead Mall series on Youtube, which basically shows just how much of a devastating state the whole concept of the mall is in these days. Really puts into perspective how it's becoming a thing of the past. I wouldn't be surprised if 50 years from now the mall as we knew it is a completely dead concept. Kinda sad when you think about it, but to be honest, without the 16 to 32-bit era of gaming and all the products that existed in those times, I don't think malls can ever reclaim their former glory anymore.
I'm so thankful I grew up in the 90's and was able to experience malls. It's definitely one of those things upcoming kids will be clueless about...kind of like how drive-ins were a thing of the past. I see the bigger malls (Mall of America, etc) remaing, but the "local galleria arcade" is definitely a thing of the past.
There are still several malls around Columbus, but they're a shell of their former selves. Even our big and bright Easton Town Center is becoming a haven for thugs and gangs. When I was a kid in the 80's Eastland Mall was "the" nice mall to go to, and now I feel like I need to wear a kevlar vest any time I go there. City Center was an amazing multi-floor mall in the middle of downtown Columbus, but it closed up years ago. That mall was neat because it was HUGE, but mostly underground, and if you didn't know the area, you'd stroll right past it. Like some kind of hidden dwarven stronghold, lol.
^Most malls that have died were either replaced with another mall such as Eastland being replaced by Easton or Westland being replaced by Tuttle or malls being built too close to other malls such as Forest Fair being too close to Tri-County and Northgate in Cincinnati or Cedar Knoll Galleria being too close to Ashland Town Center and Huntington Mall in Ashland/Huntington. Now that no new malls have been built in the US since 2006, the glut of malls is subsiding. Another big problem for new retail spaces is that Wal-Marts now tend to be built all on their own rather than a part of a strip mall. Stores MUST cluster in order to succeed in the internet shopping era, and with today's isolated Wal-Marts and no new malls the older, low-vacancy malls such as Polaris, Tuttle, River Valley, Eastgate, Florence, Dayton Mall and Huntington Mall have actually become very important.
The thing with City Center is that it was a downtown mall. When it was built the industry didn't know that downtown malls don't work unless they are also a train/subway station. Modern post-gentrification urbanites spend most of their money on expensive rents, going out to eat, bars and live entertainment rather than stuff. All their extra money goes in their mouths.
There are quite a few malls out here in Austin. One in particular looks like a wasteland. The others are so far out or have expensive apartments built on top in order to justify their location. Still striving here. The is also a local arcade building their second location because it's constantly packed throughout the year because arcades don't exist anymore.
However, this topic brought a nostalgic tear to my eye. I remember those days of Kay Bee fondly, and remember when Wal-Mart and other major retail chains had dedicated video-game sections instead of just some cases in electronics. Those days are gone, but will live on in my heart.
A younger version of me was allowed to walk into KB and buy one Nintendo game. I tried to buy Marble Madness, but when dad explained you're supposed to buy something you don't already have at home, I got Bubble Bobble instead. In retrospect, a great decision.
The one I miss dearly, Stone Cold Lock of the Century of the Week
Damn, I loved malls. I guess I'd better since I spend 40+ hours a week in one and have to know what's going on with all the malls in a 100-mile radius as a part of my business! See, the thing about malls today is that they're pretty much just clothing, housewares, jewelry, hair salons and video games. There used to be a much wider variety of stuff in them. Other changes in retail since the '80s and '90s that you can see in the above pics as compared to today:
Signs: back then they were almost all internally lit and custom shaped. Lots of neon. Yes today's signs are of course made by sign shops, but they're mostly molded fonts rather than logotypes. Many aren't lit or have regular LED lights shining on them. Today's signs are much, much cheaper. My store's sign is very contemporary, 3d and unlit. Despite having 13 letters and being 20 feet long it only cost $450. Mall management was very impressed with the quality of my sign. The fancy signs from the '80s cost $2500-10,000 back then.
Wide open fronts: My store is an old unremodeled Kay-Bee and the opening is 30 feet wide. That was very typical of the time ('80s). The "gate" (the metal part that rolls down) is also 30 feet wide and has to be opened electrically due to the weight. Most of the modern stores in malls have maybe an 8-10 feet opening with a manual gate and glass covering the rest of the front. This is for inventory and crowd controls.
Mirrors, fountains and chrome everywhere: Used to be the theory was that mirrors, water and chrome everywhere made people spend more money because our caveman brains are attracted to water (and by proxy, reflections in chrome and mirrors) in order to survive. The theory still "holds water", but in the interest of modernity white and light beige have replaced that. Current trends are away from "gauche" and "gaudy". Whatever sells, I guess. I like money. Also, those fountains were very, very expensive to maintain. My mall has eliminated all fountains as have many others. You definitely don't want an non-functional fountain sitting around.
Plants: much less flora and fauna in today's malls. Again, lots of work to keep up. Also distracting maybe?
Wood: Much more natural-looking wood in malls in the past.
Ramps/oddly shaped seating areas: Most things are square and flat now. This is partially due to the Americans with Disabilities Act of the early '90s, but also due to decreased interest in angular shapes.
Overall, things today are less creative to be honest. But we are all product of our time.
Great insight! I'm a retail man myself, albeit not mall-centric, so it's interesting to me.
However, this topic brought a nostalgic tear to my eye. I remember those days of Kay Bee fondly, and remember when Wal-Mart and other major retail chains had dedicated video-game sections instead of just some cases in electronics. Those days are gone, but will live on in my heart.
That reminds me of Sears. They used to have their own video game area lit up with neon lights. It was the coolest section of the store to see. Now it's become just like you said, a boring section of the electronics area. Just not the same. I remember in the late '90s my local Sears (Newpark Mall in Fremont) was still holing onto old stuff for years. There were several copies of Ecco the Dolphin for Sega CD going for like $20 that no one ever bought. A selection of some 32X games and plenty of brand new SNES games (Mario All-Stars and Mario RPG for like $70!!) were still hanging around their gaming section for awhile. Think that all phased out around the time of the Xbox, though
And who remembers Macy's Nintendo section? You would never think of Macy's as being somewhere that sold video games today, but I can remember being like 7 years old and seeing a huge Nintendo section at the Macy's in Fremont Newpark Mall. It had those classic Nintendo cases with the neon lights that everyone still goes nuts about on here. I can remember plenty of Mario graphics from SMB3, too. I wonder why Macy's phased that out of their store, it used to be so neat.
I would cry if someone had a photo of a game area in Sears during the late 90's. My most cherished memories of video games from childhood come from my local Sears and it's video game section, off by itself. I've spent years trying to recreate it in my head! Now that Sears doesn't have video games period and I suspect I'll see it close in my lifetime. I walk by the area it used to sit in every now and then to funny looks from employees. To be fair, it's now children's clothes so I suppose a grown adult sighing in its direction would come off as a little strange . . .
Toys R Us use to be a very unique experience back in the day. Barcode slips that you had to pay for at which point you waited at a counter to get your items. Still to this day I have never played a Virtual Boy except for the demo of Mario Tennis, THANKS TRU :]
And where do I even begin with KB Toys. Ahhhhhh the memories, The day I found Mega Man 6 and Chip & Dale RR2 will be forever ingrained into my head. I had no idea those games existed back then and was fortunate they were 9.99 clearanced out, being that I was a huge fan of Mega Man and C&D these were no brainers to buy. Now I think the thing that sticks out the most about that story was the game I didn't pick up that was also 9.99 and they literally had dozens of them hanging on the rack >>>>> and that would be Little Samson. If only 9 year old me would have bought that too > <
I would cry if someone had a photo of a game area in Sears during the late 90's. My most cherished memories of video games from childhood come from my local Sears and it's video game section, off by itself. I've spent years trying to recreate it in my head! Now that Sears doesn't have video games period and I suspect I'll see it close in my lifetime. I walk by the area it used to sit in every now and then to funny looks from employees. To be fair, it's now children's clothes so I suppose a grown adult sighing in its direction would come off as a little strange . . .
I determined that I didn't like Zelda 2 by playing it multiple times on an M82 at the Eastland Mall Sears.
Thought I'd mention if anyone is interested in malls they should check out Dan Bell's Dead Mall series on Youtube, which basically shows just how much of a devastating state the whole concept of the mall is in these days. Really puts into perspective how it's becoming a thing of the past. I wouldn't be surprised if 50 years from now the mall as we knew it is a completely dead concept. Kinda sad when you think about it, but to be honest, without the 16 to 32-bit era of gaming and all the products that existed in those times, I don't think malls can ever reclaim their former glory anymore.
Speaking of dead stores, btw, has anyone heard of Kohne's Video? It used to be a rental chain here in the bay area. My very first contact with video games ever was there when we went in when I was like 6 back in 1993 and I saw Jurassic Park for NES and could not figure out what I was looking at. Didn't help they put shots of the movie on the back of the box, I thought you could actually play the movie once the guy working there told us it was a game I've done general Google searches and it seems this rental chain is largely forgotten by time.
Good God yes. That series is amazing. I never thought I'd ever be interesting in watching something like that, but it's so fascinating. I guess I just have a morbid curiousity in that sense.
What's interesting is that malls here in Minnesota are still doing well, from my perspective anyway, in the more populated areas. Seems like the threshold is 20,000 people. Under that and the malls all die off.
Fun Fact about Sears. It's not really video game related, but...
I used to cross ole' Richard's railroad tracks upwards of 4 times a day to get to-and-from school. It's where he started the business off an unwanted freight cart of pocket watches.
Not many people know the origin story either, which is kind of sad.
What's interesting is that malls here in Minnesota are still doing well, from my perspective anyway, in the more populated areas. Seems like the threshold is 20,000 people. Under that and the malls all die off.
COLD. When the weather's crappy (winter, summer here) malls do well, but outodoor lifestyle centers don't. Since you guys spend much more time in the cold than the rest of the country, developers aren't going to build a trillion lifestyle centers all over the place.
What's interesting is that malls here in Minnesota are still doing well, from my perspective anyway, in the more populated areas. Seems like the threshold is 20,000 people. Under that and the malls all die off.
COLD. When the weather's crappy (winter, summer here) malls do well, but outodoor lifestyle centers don't. Since you guys spend much more time in the cold than the rest of the country, developers aren't going to build a trillion lifestyle centers all over the place.
That's a big factor, that's for sure. I guess buying online isn't yet effecient enough to totally replace going to the mall.
The thing is though, at least out here, the smaller-town malls are falling apart. I think the threshold is 20,000 people. Anything over that and they are fine, although I think that bar is starting the raise itself too.
Pundits prject a slowdown in the growth of online retail as all the things that make sense to buy online vs. offline become maximized in the near future. Just not that many more people are going to start buying more and more things online. Too many things are better purchased in person.
Comments
Electronics Boutique in 1982
Ultima creator Lord British sitting outside of a Software ETC in 1980s
Software ETC in Spring 1997 by photobucket user Lord Alfred
I remember these days like yesterday - This was every N64 game that existed at the time (except Wayne Gretzky?)
Babbages in 1999
Plus videogames which were mostly NES and Super Nintendo games at Kaybees were a bit pricey at 40 bucks.
then there's obscure stores like Alco.
Alco stores still around these days or not?
Alco stores still around these days or not?
Alco went under last year, but they closed a large number of their stores back in the early 90s and never really recovered. My hometown had one of the stores that went belly up.
This mall is still open but is described as "ailing" on Wikipedia.
These photos are undoubtly the glory days. I feel bad for the people that didn't live through the 90's
Signs: back then they were almost all internally lit and custom shaped. Lots of neon. Yes today's signs are of course made by sign shops, but they're mostly molded fonts rather than logotypes. Many aren't lit or have regular LED lights shining on them. Today's signs are much, much cheaper. My store's sign is very contemporary, 3d and unlit. Despite having 13 letters and being 20 feet long it only cost $450. Mall management was very impressed with the quality of my sign. The fancy signs from the '80s cost $2500-10,000 back then.
Wide open fronts: My store is an old unremodeled Kay-Bee and the opening is 30 feet wide. That was very typical of the time ('80s). The "gate" (the metal part that rolls down) is also 30 feet wide and has to be opened electrically due to the weight. Most of the modern stores in malls have maybe an 8-10 feet opening with a manual gate and glass covering the rest of the front. This is for inventory and crowd controls.
Mirrors, fountains and chrome everywhere: Used to be the theory was that mirrors, water and chrome everywhere made people spend more money because our caveman brains are attracted to water (and by proxy, reflections in chrome and mirrors) in order to survive. The theory still "holds water", but in the interest of modernity white and light beige have replaced that. Current trends are away from "gauche" and "gaudy". Whatever sells, I guess. I like money. Also, those fountains were very, very expensive to maintain. My mall has eliminated all fountains as have many others. You definitely don't want an non-functional fountain sitting around.
Plants: much less flora and fauna in today's malls. Again, lots of work to keep up. Also distracting maybe?
Wood: Much more natural-looking wood in malls in the past.
Ramps/oddly shaped seating areas: Most things are square and flat now. This is partially due to the Americans with Disabilities Act of the early '90s, but also due to decreased interest in angular shapes.
Overall, things today are less creative to be honest. But we are all product of our time.
Cars in malls constantly: Local car dealers used to advertise in malls a lot and it was very popular to have classic car shows in malls. Car dealers advertise on TV a LOT more now. The white, porous, matte finish tile in modern malls gets tracks on it much easier than then brown/red, sealed, shiny tile in older malls. My mall had classic car shows in it all the time before they changed the tile. Now you might see the odd UTV or Jet Ski displayed, but those tires' trax are easily cleaned. The other thing is that now malls have concrete bollards in front of the doors to stop terrorism. UTVs and Jet Ski trailers can slip through but cars cant.
Speaking of dead stores, btw, has anyone heard of Kohne's Video? It used to be a rental chain here in the bay area. My very first contact with video games ever was there when we went in when I was like 6 back in 1993 and I saw Jurassic Park for NES and could not figure out what I was looking at. Didn't help they put shots of the movie on the back of the box, I thought you could actually play the movie once the guy working there told us it was a game I've done general Google searches and it seems this rental chain is largely forgotten by time.
Thought I'd mention if anyone is interested in malls they should check out Dan Bell's Dead Mall series on Youtube, which basically shows just how much of a devastating state the whole concept of the mall is in these days. Really puts into perspective how it's becoming a thing of the past. I wouldn't be surprised if 50 years from now the mall as we knew it is a completely dead concept. Kinda sad when you think about it, but to be honest, without the 16 to 32-bit era of gaming and all the products that existed in those times, I don't think malls can ever reclaim their former glory anymore.
I'm so thankful I grew up in the 90's and was able to experience malls. It's definitely one of those things upcoming kids will be clueless about...kind of like how drive-ins were a thing of the past. I see the bigger malls (Mall of America, etc) remaing, but the "local galleria arcade" is definitely a thing of the past.
The thing with City Center is that it was a downtown mall. When it was built the industry didn't know that downtown malls don't work unless they are also a train/subway station. Modern post-gentrification urbanites spend most of their money on expensive rents, going out to eat, bars and live entertainment rather than stuff. All their extra money goes in their mouths.
However, this topic brought a nostalgic tear to my eye. I remember those days of Kay Bee fondly, and remember when Wal-Mart and other major retail chains had dedicated video-game sections instead of just some cases in electronics. Those days are gone, but will live on in my heart.
The one I miss dearly, Stone Cold Lock of the Century of the Week
Damn, I loved malls. I guess I'd better since I spend 40+ hours a week in one and have to know what's going on with all the malls in a 100-mile radius as a part of my business! See, the thing about malls today is that they're pretty much just clothing, housewares, jewelry, hair salons and video games. There used to be a much wider variety of stuff in them. Other changes in retail since the '80s and '90s that you can see in the above pics as compared to today:
Signs: back then they were almost all internally lit and custom shaped. Lots of neon. Yes today's signs are of course made by sign shops, but they're mostly molded fonts rather than logotypes. Many aren't lit or have regular LED lights shining on them. Today's signs are much, much cheaper. My store's sign is very contemporary, 3d and unlit. Despite having 13 letters and being 20 feet long it only cost $450. Mall management was very impressed with the quality of my sign. The fancy signs from the '80s cost $2500-10,000 back then.
Wide open fronts: My store is an old unremodeled Kay-Bee and the opening is 30 feet wide. That was very typical of the time ('80s). The "gate" (the metal part that rolls down) is also 30 feet wide and has to be opened electrically due to the weight. Most of the modern stores in malls have maybe an 8-10 feet opening with a manual gate and glass covering the rest of the front. This is for inventory and crowd controls.
Mirrors, fountains and chrome everywhere: Used to be the theory was that mirrors, water and chrome everywhere made people spend more money because our caveman brains are attracted to water (and by proxy, reflections in chrome and mirrors) in order to survive. The theory still "holds water", but in the interest of modernity white and light beige have replaced that. Current trends are away from "gauche" and "gaudy". Whatever sells, I guess. I like money. Also, those fountains were very, very expensive to maintain. My mall has eliminated all fountains as have many others. You definitely don't want an non-functional fountain sitting around.
Plants: much less flora and fauna in today's malls. Again, lots of work to keep up. Also distracting maybe?
Wood: Much more natural-looking wood in malls in the past.
Ramps/oddly shaped seating areas: Most things are square and flat now. This is partially due to the Americans with Disabilities Act of the early '90s, but also due to decreased interest in angular shapes.
Overall, things today are less creative to be honest. But we are all product of our time.
Great insight! I'm a retail man myself, albeit not mall-centric, so it's interesting to me.
However, this topic brought a nostalgic tear to my eye. I remember those days of Kay Bee fondly, and remember when Wal-Mart and other major retail chains had dedicated video-game sections instead of just some cases in electronics. Those days are gone, but will live on in my heart.
That reminds me of Sears. They used to have their own video game area lit up with neon lights. It was the coolest section of the store to see. Now it's become just like you said, a boring section of the electronics area. Just not the same. I remember in the late '90s my local Sears (Newpark Mall in Fremont) was still holing onto old stuff for years. There were several copies of Ecco the Dolphin for Sega CD going for like $20 that no one ever bought. A selection of some 32X games and plenty of brand new SNES games (Mario All-Stars and Mario RPG for like $70!!) were still hanging around their gaming section for awhile. Think that all phased out around the time of the Xbox, though
And who remembers Macy's Nintendo section? You would never think of Macy's as being somewhere that sold video games today, but I can remember being like 7 years old and seeing a huge Nintendo section at the Macy's in Fremont Newpark Mall. It had those classic Nintendo cases with the neon lights that everyone still goes nuts about on here. I can remember plenty of Mario graphics from SMB3, too. I wonder why Macy's phased that out of their store, it used to be so neat.
And where do I even begin with KB Toys. Ahhhhhh the memories, The day I found Mega Man 6 and Chip & Dale RR2 will be forever ingrained into my head. I had no idea those games existed back then and was fortunate they were 9.99 clearanced out, being that I was a huge fan of Mega Man and C&D these were no brainers to buy. Now I think the thing that sticks out the most about that story was the game I didn't pick up that was also 9.99 and they literally had dozens of them hanging on the rack >>>>> and that would be Little Samson. If only 9 year old me would have bought that too > <
I would cry if someone had a photo of a game area in Sears during the late 90's. My most cherished memories of video games from childhood come from my local Sears and it's video game section, off by itself. I've spent years trying to recreate it in my head! Now that Sears doesn't have video games period and I suspect I'll see it close in my lifetime. I walk by the area it used to sit in every now and then to funny looks from employees. To be fair, it's now children's clothes so I suppose a grown adult sighing in its direction would come off as a little strange . . .
I determined that I didn't like Zelda 2 by playing it multiple times on an M82 at the Eastland Mall Sears.
Thought I'd mention if anyone is interested in malls they should check out Dan Bell's Dead Mall series on Youtube, which basically shows just how much of a devastating state the whole concept of the mall is in these days. Really puts into perspective how it's becoming a thing of the past. I wouldn't be surprised if 50 years from now the mall as we knew it is a completely dead concept. Kinda sad when you think about it, but to be honest, without the 16 to 32-bit era of gaming and all the products that existed in those times, I don't think malls can ever reclaim their former glory anymore.
Speaking of dead stores, btw, has anyone heard of Kohne's Video? It used to be a rental chain here in the bay area. My very first contact with video games ever was there when we went in when I was like 6 back in 1993 and I saw Jurassic Park for NES and could not figure out what I was looking at. Didn't help they put shots of the movie on the back of the box, I thought you could actually play the movie once the guy working there told us it was a game I've done general Google searches and it seems this rental chain is largely forgotten by time.
Good God yes. That series is amazing. I never thought I'd ever be interesting in watching something like that, but it's so fascinating. I guess I just have a morbid curiousity in that sense.
What's interesting is that malls here in Minnesota are still doing well, from my perspective anyway, in the more populated areas. Seems like the threshold is 20,000 people. Under that and the malls all die off.
I used to cross ole' Richard's railroad tracks upwards of 4 times a day to get to-and-from school. It's where he started the business off an unwanted freight cart of pocket watches.
Not many people know the origin story either, which is kind of sad.
What's interesting is that malls here in Minnesota are still doing well, from my perspective anyway, in the more populated areas. Seems like the threshold is 20,000 people. Under that and the malls all die off.
COLD. When the weather's crappy (winter, summer here) malls do well, but outodoor lifestyle centers don't. Since you guys spend much more time in the cold than the rest of the country, developers aren't going to build a trillion lifestyle centers all over the place.
What's interesting is that malls here in Minnesota are still doing well, from my perspective anyway, in the more populated areas. Seems like the threshold is 20,000 people. Under that and the malls all die off.
COLD. When the weather's crappy (winter, summer here) malls do well, but outodoor lifestyle centers don't. Since you guys spend much more time in the cold than the rest of the country, developers aren't going to build a trillion lifestyle centers all over the place.
That's a big factor, that's for sure. I guess buying online isn't yet effecient enough to totally replace going to the mall.
The thing is though, at least out here, the smaller-town malls are falling apart. I think the threshold is 20,000 people. Anything over that and they are fine, although I think that bar is starting the raise itself too.