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Comment by badman_ting | Hacker News Reader

I don't go to them much anymore, but every time I do, I notice what a strange place it is. The stores are mostly bad, the food is of course terrible, very limited natural light, the list goes on. I can't imagine what "experience" we all thought we were enjoying in these grayboxes for so many years. True, there is a human need to congregate. But why do it in there?

There is a reluctance among posters here to consider a "yes" to the question in the title. Which seems strange and perhaps self-conscious. Consider:

"Mall traffic, for a number of years, has been slowing down. Whether it continues to decline somewhat over time, I think that’s realistic to assume."

People from companies as large as the Gap rarely get more explicit than that when talking about dying aspects of their business. The writing is on the wall, folks.

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I can't imagine what "experience" we all thought we were enjoying in these grayboxes for so many years.

The indoor shopping mall was, initially, a huge convenience. You could drive to one place, park once (usually for free), and visit a variety of shops in climate-controlled comfort (nice in rainy/winter seasons or hot summers). Most people found this preferable to driving all over town or even to a central downtown or shopping district, hunting and paying to park on the street or in a remote garage, and having to walk from shop to shop outdoors. As malls got bigger and bigger, though, the shops became more and more specialized and less interesting to most shoppers. Walking vast distances between the one or two shops you want to visit just recreated the original problem.

Young people used to like to hang out at malls because it was something to do. There was usually a video game arcade and movie theatres, offering entertainment you could not get at home. You could browse shops with friends, and catch up on gossip. Before mobile phones, Facebook, Twitter, etc. you actually had to stay in touch face-to-face and meeting at the mall was easy.

So malls are dying because a) most of them are too big and b) most of the social and entertainment opportunities have been replaced by technology.

This is the perfect characterization of the demise of malls that I can think of. They fill a niche that just isn't needed anymore.

Sad. I miss my local arcade and video stores... there's only one video store left and the arcade closed up shop back in 2008.

I wish people would get off their asses for once and experience life! Convenience isn't everything. You don't make memories by sitting in front of a black rectangular slab with buttons and menus to choose from, you make memories from experiences. Like going places.. walking. Biking. Breathing. Seeing.

If we're not using all 5 senses I think there's no point in doing something.

I thought the experience of malls were essentially like that of casinos, in that they were designed so you would lose track of time and buy/gamble more?

The allure was that you knew you could look at one store, and then another, without having to drive across town.

Now that we order online, comparison shop online, etc, why would I want to walk through Sears vs JC Penney? (for example) The internet ate the convenience aspect of the malls, and left only the social aspect or the Shopping Experience itself.

>So malls are dying because a) most of them are too big and b) most of the social and entertainment opportunities have been replaced by technology.

Also, they decided that a bunch of loitering teens were more trouble than they were worth, and made bunches of rules designed to make teenaged mall rats go elsewhere. Those rules went horribly right.

> I can't imagine what "experience" we all thought we were enjoying in these grayboxes for so many years.

Are you being serious? There are many stores all next to each other. Don't overthink it, it's as simple as that.

I can't imagine what "experience" we all thought we were enjoying in these grayboxes for so many years.

Did you actually attend malls in their heyday? Today's mall is a sad shadow of their former selves, and as a result a poor way to judge how or why we enjoyed them in decades past.

agreed. back in the 80s, the closest mall to me was pretty good - a decent mix of entertainment stores (music, games) and arcades, and water slide for a while, movie theater, and a decent mix of food (well, some of the better food was anchor restaurants in the parking lot). My recollection is there was a lot of natural light on sunny days - large glass sections in the ceiling structure let in quite a lot of light. I seem to remember one wing (of the 5?) being a bit drearier than the others, but might be bad memory (or... it was the 'lord and taylor' wing and I rarely ever went there!)

Biggest drawback I see to the older style 'mall' areas was lack of expandability - the structure was forever in place - you couldn't change the character with a new wing/section very easily. Outdoor shopping areas have a bit more flexibility in that respect.

Much like radio and tv have far more competition for our time, so too do malls have more competition for our time and money. But they had a good run :)

The indoor style exists because of extreme weather. I personally suspect California got indoor shopping malls back then because most everywhere else had indoor malls too- and they had indoor malls for the same reason they have indoor highschools.

You refer to outdoor schools. My middle schoool was sort of like that. Of course the classrooms were indoors, but the campus was several small building not one big one. So to go to art, or music, or gym, or lunch you would walk outside to another building. It was nice to get outside four or five times a day even if just for a few minutes. Of course it kind of sucked in a heavy rain....

Inland central and southern California need air-conditioned spaces to escape the summer heat. Coastal, not so much.

Or were you referring to the consumer productivity lost studying the grass or feeding squirrels and pigeons rather than paying attention to the fabulous product offerings in the mall curriculum? God forbid people obtain value without anyone profiting; think of the children!

Alright, let me rephrase:

I personally suspect coastal California got indoor shopping malls...

What were they like?

Among other things,

- A sanctioned place to hang out with friends outside of school

- A predecessor to online shopping. If you buy it online today, and you can't get it from Target/Walmart/Etc, chances are you would have gone to a mall back then.

- Lots and lots of different clothes stores. The HN crowd probably doesn't care for this much, but other people liked that part a lot!

- Bustling and full of people. This has its downsides to be sure, but it can be nice to be around other people, and they didn't feel like the ghost towns they do today.

>and you can't get it from Target/Walmart/Etc,

When malls were in their heyday when I was growing up, there was no Target or Walmart. At least not anywhere close to where I lived.

>A sanctioned place to hang out with friends outside of school

Malls now are starting to outright not let kids in unless they are accompanied by an adult. I am dead serious, I got carded entering a mall in 2008 and was told the policy is nobody under 18 unless accompanied by an adult. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/shopping-malls-increasingly-p...

Yeah, I couldn't remember exactly what was around, when. But I meant warehouse stores and the like. Home Depot, perhaps? Or in my case, Orchard Supply. Which really shows you the Valley's origins.

Pre-internet, if you wanted to peruse music, toys, books, movies, and/or video games and software, you essentially had to go to a mall. Or at least you wanted to because it was so convenient to access one or more of these sources of entertainment. Now it's pretty much only a good source for clothes.

> Pre-internet, if you wanted to peruse music, toys, books, movies, and/or video games and software, you essentially had to go to a mall. Or at least you wanted to because it was so convenient to access one or more of these sources of entertainment.

Well, actually, as I recall, malls were typically where you went for stores for those things that tended to be overpriced and had limited selection, but were conveniently located together along with restaurants and places for the kids to be entertained (like arcades and sometimes play areas, carousels, etc.)

'60s architecture is terrible, and my response to a lot of it is "what were they thinking?". But modern malls can be beautiful; light, airy, with great shops and food.

I think one thing is seriously damaging malls: we're now allowing huge corporate-owned "public spaces" in a way we never used to, which give the retailers the advantages of a mall while being out in the open. But where I live new malls are still opening, and they're still great places to go (as is what claims to be the first ever mall, on Jermyn Street).

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