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Comment by zinckiwi | Hacker News Reader

In New Zealand and Australia (and I'm sure many other places, but those are the ones I know first-hand) malls also feature supermarkets, post offices, and banks. They're designed to be a destination for not just "recreational" shopping but day-to-day errands. Always missed that when in US malls, and apparently they're still not cottoning on.

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In the US, malls have been fighting that trend. Until recently they saw those stores as a cancer. Grocery stores and work-out locations would 'push out' the high dollar customers. Of course the internet is taking away those high dollar customers so the malls need those stores now.

I stay away from the big local mall because of the lack of security. Also 2/3's of the mall are women's clothing stores. There nothing really there for me anyone more.

The next closest mall is a rotting heap that is kept alive by the marker space and a theater. They need to repave the parking lot and fix the roof to attract new good stores.

What do you mean by lack of security? Do you feel you're in danger of being robbed in a mall?

Probably in the parking lot.

The podcast 99% Invisible has an episode about the history of shopping malls. As conceived by Victor Gruen, a European immigrant, malls originally included these everyday places. He imagined them as "third places" for the suburbs beyond home and work. Later he became a critic of what malls became. It's worth a listen/read:

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-gruen-effect/

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