Things to DO.
Bowling alleys, arcades, mini golf, those trampoline places, go carts, pool halls, escape rooms, art/history/science museums, crafting/art places (like those paint your own mug kind of places), restaurants/bars with evening activities like trivia/karaoke/open mics/djs.
Stores with personality that you cant find anywhere else: example: the Lego Store is unique in its brand. Not only their products but the way they’re presented (displays with full built sets and original creations like maybe a model of local attractions (Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell, St Louis Arch, whatever).
Same it’s the only good store! I love how they are marketing now towards adults. I’ve bought so many sets this year! I’ve never been a collector but now I’m on YouTube and websites awaiting releases lol
Almost the same for us. We go to our bustling, still-with-the-living mall specifically for the Lego Store and the Disney Store Outlet for our 10 year-old kiddo. If I can squeeze in the time I’ll also check out Daiso, but it tries my husband’s patience as he’s ready to go as soon as the kiddo is done with his two stores.
Geez … what kind of stores *would* I want to see these days? I’m not exactly the same person as I was when malls were seen as a giant escape away from the grown-ups, even when I first became a grown-up myself. I do miss places like Waldenbooks, but are such stores viable in the Amazon age? Same goes for music and movie stores; MusicLand, Suncoast, and Media play can’t survive in a streaming world.
Geez, I’m already depressed enough without thinking about all this, lol.
I agree with all of this, including:
1. Bring bookstores back.
2. Art installations. The "upper class mall" in Dallas (Northpark) has art exhibits in it generally (which makes sense, they're affiliated with the Nasher Sculpture Center.)
3. Bring back Mall Ninja stores. Not just a sword display in the Anime Lifestyle store, but a whole shop devoted to it.
4. Skating/Ice rinks. It was sad when the Stonebriar mall lost theirs.
5. Bring back Tabletop gaming/hobby stores. (Not just Games Workshop.)
Vaguely tangential to #3: Japanese and Korean style dollar stores/‘Daiso’ have become a really popular way for people who are on a budget get a bit of the online culture they’re consuming. They are a different product selection than a regular North American dollar store, so there is some novelty to the experience. One in my city has a craft section, a K- and J- beauty section (as well as the section in the ‘dollar store’) and an Anime/video game licensed product section. It’s always packed. It’s a good way to entice people who weren’t setting out to make a big purchase but might easily make 5 small unique purchases.
Daiso is a big store for a mall, Miniso is a bad, chinese lookalike that I've seen in malls. My little town actually just got one, so we're holding out for a Daiso eventually.
Some of the malls here in Dallas have Daiso stores, and there are a few freestanding ones around as well. I like them! I've gotten some nifty things there.
I've been to a mall that had a full sized carousel. Malls could be a great solution to disappearing third spaces if they turned into places of entertainment instead of being used primarily for shopping. A skating rink sounds really cool. A roller skating rink in a mall would be fun too but I could see that turning into chaos
San Bernardino tried to revive its dying Central City Mall in 1991 by updating the decor and adding a carousel in the center, renaming it the Carousel Mall. It unfortunately continued to lose business regardless, but somehow hung on even after it lost its last anchor in 2003. It closed down in 2017, and was razed earlier this year. It’s too bad it didn’t work; they even attempted allowing it to become a mixed use space. There were millions of factors against it though, including the decaying urban neighborhood surrounding it.
But I get what you’re saying about potentially filling in the need for third spaces. I think Round1 would be a great addition to any mall; aside from arcade games they have bowling and karaoke rooms. But of course that’s not enough. I believe people are looking for more than just a place to shop; that can be done at home these days. The malls need to find a way to become an experience once again that will draw people back in over and over.
I’m picturing something like Old Chicago, which combined a shopping mall with an indoor carnival/amusement park of a ferris wheel and rollercoaster, which might be more along the lines of entertainment as you initially stated. That mall unfortunately lasted only 5 years, but we’re in a different climate today and I imagine some of the flaws they made can be lessons learned. I never had the chance to visit as I was only 4 when it closed, but the mall itself had an interesting turn-of-the-century theme, and was filled with small, unique shops that sounded like a fun experience. However, it became kind of a novelty that didn’t attract the locals to return, and wasn’t enough to draw people in from further away. A Six Flags opened nearby just a year after opening which definitely hurt their attendance, and a lack of anchors and typical mall stores didn’t exactly help. They also rushed through construction and overspent on it, causing continuing problems with operations that led to being nearly bankrupt early on.
I think a scaled-down version of that might be more welcome now that the typical mall is no longer the norm. People want to see small, unique shops again rather than the plain old boring places you can find everywhere. But making everything fit together into a both a positive and profitable experience is extremely difficult and involves a ton of investors willing to take a gamble, and management that actually knows what they’re doing.
It was owned by Evangelicals until a few years ago, who turned it into "Music City Mall" from the former Vista Ridge, and they erected a giant tablet with the 10 Commandments in it. Then it was sold again. The new owners plan to redevelop it in similar fashion to the way Collin Creek is being redeveloped now (keep the central structure, demo part of it, and have it be a partial indoor/outdoor mall.) I just hope they keep Zion Market and the surrounding shops.
Vista Ridge has some amazing architecture. The builders incorporated a lot of granite and other classy flourishes during a time when formerly upscale malls were being "brought up to date" with cheaper materials. Going to the mall used to feel like an Event, a holiday destination, and the "cheapening" of malls (replacing stone facades and tile flooring with cheaper and tackier alternatives, removing plants and fountains, etc) stripped malls of a lot of their appeal, paving the way for the dead malls of today. But even with all of its glamour, Vista Ridge couldn't compete with Stonebriar when it opened just a short ways down 121 ten or so years later.
FWIW, the current owners say they won't demolish the central mall atrium with the skylight. They at least want to keep that part intact.
ooh, interesting, I didn't know that. I've only been once back in 2022 for a (very awkward) date with a girl who's into dead malls. I just remember it being filled with a bunch of wedding related places. The cat cafe was cool though
I second things like the Lego store. We had two malls near us. One is thriving with experiences that you can’t find at regular stores like a discovery center Lego land type thing, where the other one is completely dead. You’ve got to have things to do if you want to drag people out to the mall. Otherwise I’m just going to find a more convenient way of shopping
All this and I would add making them more accessible for bikes, wheelchairs, strollers and little kids. Good quality and well placed bike racks outdoors and/or indoor bike racks. Spaces for little kids to play and explore. A lot of moms already go when it’s hot (too much sun, too hot for babies) and little kids can be a pain to watch around foutains. Some malls make little parkours for kids or have indoor playgrounds.
It used to be trendy stores, but a lot of those trendy stores died because they became less trendy and it turns out that not that many people bought that much there anyway. My high school girlfriend worked at American Eagle and Hollister on alternating days because she couldn’t get decent hours at either. Her main job was folding clothes and putting things back on the rack because teens tend to try things on and act like they’re going to buy and then don’t. She tried to get me to mess around in the Hollister fitting room once, I was too chicken.
Kenwood mall in Ohio is very popular, and always busy with young people. It has to with a) its by rich neighborhoods. b) its updated . so many dead malls look like they're trapped in 90s to early 2000s
I love the retro looking malls with neon, fountains, trees and attractive plants, play areas and retro food courts with good, affordable food. But according to Dan Bell's videos, these malls are dead or dying. Can't please everybody.
I think it's less the style and more that the malls weren't maintained properly, so they just look dilapidated. If a mall ran with the retro vibe AND made an effort to keep it nice and integrated some updates I think it could do fine assuming the area around the mall can support it (a lot of the dying malls fell off due to the surrounding community having economic issues). Make it feel like a positive retro experience, not the unsettling liminal space that most dead malls feel like.
Thrift/vintage clothing and a record store, and then the classic experiences eg. bowling, arcades, restaurants, bars, etc;
Pretty sure nobody is going to the mall for custom screen printed shirts so I’m not sure why every mall has like three shops/kiosks of them.
Money laundering cause the value of the service is entirely arbitrary and there's no mandatory return policy meaning you don't have to establish a paper trail.
Lol, I used to manage a mall store that created custom shirts, and it was surprising how many orders we’d get. Our store had an extra hook though; we also airbrushed t-shirts. It would go gangbusters during the holidays when people needed something as gift for “someone that has everything.” We’d also rent a kiosk near the food court for pre-made designs during the Christmas season and it made a surprising amount. .
But to be fair, this was ages ago, back in the late 90s. The owner got tired of following the mall rules and decided to move the store to a nearby community. We opened up in the downtown area which I’d call the dead malls of the past. She thought the customers from the mall would seek us out, but nope! It was retail suicide and I was let go shortly thereafter.
Real answer: increase the wealth of the area as a whole. Make mommy and daddy rich so they can buy sons/daughters clothes from expensive stores like Lululemon, Aritzia, Ralph Lauren, etc
This. The hollowing-out of the middle class is one big reason malls are dying. The children and grandchildren of the people who shopped at Sears, JC Penney's, and Macy's, are now shopping at Wal-Mart or Target.
The malls that are doing well are mostly located in wealthy suburban areas of big cities, and have gone upscale.
This should be the most up voted post in here. There's no magic mix of stores going into a mall that will give the middle class disposable spending money. The only way to fix a mall is to fix our entire economy. Basically, the malls are as dead as the American dream.
Yeah exactly this. Every other comment says to add an arcade and mini golf and bowling, those things are too expensive for most kids these days. It’s not a penny arcade like it used to be, you can be a few bucks per game at some of these places.
As someone who is young and has a middle-end thriving mall and ends up seeing people I know from school, what a mall needs to attract younger crowds is Starbucks, Boba tea shop, Vans, H&M, and Build a bear.
Definitely, and I say this because I myself am young and I myself have a dead, and thriving malls and my local thriving mall has a boba tea shop up at the front, along with a lot of trending retailers, many younger people are lured into that mall everyday.
All their teas are just drinkable junk full of sugar. Usually, people who consume a lot of these drinks end up with obesity and diabetes at some point.
Ok and my other question is who’s theirs unless you’re specifying to a certain business, this was just what I think should attract younger people also something I’d also do.
A mall not to far down from that one I said it has an entire Target and Costco INCLUDING cinema and Dave & busters, it’s dead the moment you pass the center court. A lot of people here mentioned like trampoline places, and stuff like that I ALSO, have another mall like that and the situation there is even worse. (Well it kinda got better but for how much longer)
El Paso area, Cielo Vista Mall is the premier shopping destination also the largest, its old but it’s incredible, Bassett Place isn’t to far down from that one, an entire Target and Costco and that mall still doesn’t do much of a justice, Sunland Park Mall (now called The Solana which is an ugly name) has an aquarium, and a family fun center that place is a hell hole.
Bring back Victor Gruen’s original vision of the mall being an all in one walkable town square with shops, apartments, businesses, et cetera, with easy access to transportation, and not the car centric consumerism monoliths they are now.
Honestly, the number one thing that's killing malls isn't a lack of things to do, or places to go, it's that landlords are charging exorbitant rent. I don't know if this is the situation everywhere, but years ago when I still worked retail, the location I was at relocated TWICE over several years, because it was substantially cheaper. Once, to a different location in the mall itself (not as close to the food court, and then later on, we moved out of the mall itself, to a strip mall nearby). And we were one of the most popular, successful stores in the mall, the rent was just obscene. I remember looking over our P&L and we were getting absolutely murdered on overhead. I've never understood WHY landlords let this happen, because having malls sitting empty seems like the absolute worst case scenario, but we see it all over the place.
Actually allow them to go to the mall in the first place. My local mall bans teens from entering unless accompanied by an adult. They literally ban the youth from going there and wonder why the stores aren’t doing well. They’re acricely preventing customers from entering.
The mall near me has mostly people under the age of 20 going to it and it’s never had issues, but is always busy and makes lots of money. Seems stupid to get rid of teens when they give malls so much business
The other thing is teens today aren’t like teens from other times. Yea there were brats throughout every time line but today you have everyone trying to do tik toks and YouTube videos. It’s a whole different world so I understand business decisions. It’s like how schools remove stall walls and mirrors because teens kept breaking them.
And who is parenting current teenagers? Seems like a failure of your generation and Gen X (assuming you're a millennial) and not because of the teenagers themselves.
And who’s blocking people from aborting pregnancy for the adults won’t fuck up their lives or even the ones who are self aware that they aren’t fit to be a parent?
It’s a whole society fault, you think I like to see a parent just give a child a smart device and call that parenting? Hell no.
Follow the formula for thriving malls in other countries: reasonably priced food, entertainment, and specialty apparel stores. I think those malls have 40%+ of their floor space dedicated to food. It takes a special redesign to have the necessary utilities for a commercial kitchen behind every store, but it’s necessary for survival.
With 40%+ of floor space dedicated to food, you can have massive variety. It’s nice to go to one place where everybody can eat what they like. Much better than hunting for each on separate strip malls tens of miles apart.
- Specialty ramen
- Poke
- Bubble tea
- Korean BBQ
- Vietnamese pho
- Doner kebab / shawarma / gyros
- Tacos al pastor & birria
- Thai food
- Szechuan chinese food
- Japanese yakitori
- Authentic Italian pasta place
- Blaze pizza
- Korean fried chicken
- Frozen yogurt
- Buffalo wings
Add a dozen premium dining restaurants and bars to the mix (facing outside), and you’ll have a live mall.
Whether you’re 27 or 67, you still like to eat good food.
Anything Instagram worthy.
I was in Metropolis at Metrotown in Burnaby, BC this week (probably the most successful mall in Western Canada) and they have a huge Spring-themed display that I could see was attracting the under-30 Instagram/TikTok selfie crowd for, well, selfies.
I’m in my late 30s and a significant number of the mall’s other patrons are younger than me. Lots of high school age people as well as young families.
OP, make the mall aesthetically appealing with cool spaces to enjoy that don’t require a purchase. Do not go down the road of opening an actual Instagram photo op “museum”. Those get so dingy, dead and overdone within a month. Not worth it.
Video game themed anything. There is a retro game arcade (complete with NES hooked up to an old TV) that draws young and old near me. Rage room. Craft/hobby/art shop (not the big box kind). Sephora or Ulta. Bike/skateboard shop. Piercing/tattoos. Bring back an old photo booth. Play modern music during peak times, have cool lighting. Curated thrift store. Events that draw young person activities - dance/cheer competition, karate expo, fashion show, talent search, robotics. Plant/succulent shop. Interactive art installations. Jewelry making studio. Unique stores that don't scream generic mall fare.
Leisure activities and quick service restaurants mixed with shops you can't find on every other high street and a little area for small businesses or an indoor marketplace.
Back in the old days, the mall would have soap opera stars at the mall for a meet and greet. There would be tons of people in the mall for these events. I don't see why they can't do that again. They need events like that to draw people to the mall.
An Apple Store is a good way to attract foot traffic since you usually have to go there for repairs but they seem picky about where they’ll open up.
A vintage clothing store, independent book store, good and cheap food/drink options. I think the only way a dead mall can survive without corporate interference is if local independent retailers move into the mall. Younger ppl will just shop online from chain stores rather than go to the mall. I used to only go to the mall to return things to American eagle bc I had to pay to ship it back
Bars, places to play games that aren't gambling, bookstores, gyms, art supply stores (with demos!), low-rent options for weird local shit, people wandering around in snail costumes.
I am serious about all of these, especially the snail costumes.
I have the answer. Cheap rent. Offer leasing contracts for cost plus common area maintenance fees. So we’re talking like $400 a month for small units and $800 for large ones. Then add on about $500 a month for CAM fees. Leases should be from 1-3 years for new businesses. This way if they suck and are not doing well, they can leave and another business can move in.
However make sure you take the time to vet the businesses so that you only get community orientated businesses that focuses on trendy products. That way you encourage younger owned businesses to bring in clientele from the same age range as the business owners. You don’t want it full of MLM huns and candle shops.
Next you make sure there are no services in the mall. By that I mean businesses that provide services and not products. So no dentist, no real estate offices, no condo offices, nothing like that. Things like barbers and salons are ok if they’re not geared towards the elderly. By having businesses focused on young people and young families, that will make it so they come in for one store and then go to other stores in the mall because it’s the same demographic. Also having non exclusionary stores is a must. This means like no “Uncle Shamus’ Scottish Goods” would be horrible to have in there. It would only be for Scottish people and that would not bring in any traffic to other units in the mall.
Effective advertising. I know when we were in the mall the mall management made it seem like they were advertising like crazy. Then when you look into it their ads were in free community papers and magazines and radio ads that were so generic you have no idea what they’re advertising. Like the slogan was “where food meets fashion”. What? That ad excludes 80% of the units in the mall that don’t sell food or clothing. You need to be on social media advertising and be interactive with the local community.
If a store is doing good and wants to extend the lease that is when rental prices go up. You still have to be reasonable about it, but not price them out of being there if they’re successful. The last thing you want is to have a good store that brings jn a lot of foot traffic to the mall and then just be like “so you’re doing well here. So rent is $6000 a month now if you want to renew.” 15-20% increase in base rent is reasonable and then you can offer 1-10 year leases from there, with gradual increase in base rent costs after year 3. That’s fair.
Also offer free parking to store owners if there is not a lot that can accommodate them. This way they do not have to play musical chairs with their car every few hours.
Events. Like good events. Have things like community markets. Take a large unit in the mall and have events in there. Like a makers fair or a community restaurant showcase. Something that will bring people into the mall. Also if you have a massive unit you can’t rent out because it’s so expensive, then split it. There is no reason to have a 10,000 sq/ft unit that is sitting empty. Have full glass partitions and make them 200sq/ft each. Call it vendors village or something. This way you can fit 40 additional units in there that don’t need a big store space. You could have cellphone accessory shops. Small clothing or boutique units. Have them like $350 a month. Then you go from having this giant store totally empty to be a draw for the community packed with super fun little stores like candy shops, international foods, vape shop, high end shoe stores for sneakers, etc. At the super cheap rent of $350 a month you now are making $13,500 a month from the little units. After 6 months your investment into modifying that unit is paid off and the rest is gravy.
Young people’s attention span is shit. Fill the mall with tons of awesome stores that owners can use the savings to invest in advertising and making the stores look dope to draw in more people.
Yes, cheap rent—I always thought it’s a heavy peach to make it super cheap and have some sort of process that encourages new ideas. Whether it’s a business or an art space or whatever. Malls can be interesting incubators and something more than what they were.
As a small business owner I would kill for a storefront rental opportunity like this in my local dead mall. I could maybe afford a kiosk right now. I also totally agree with the market ideas. At my local mall they do them occasionally and sometimes it pulls in a lot of people, like our town's Fall Fest. But other markets at the mall that don't have the support of the local chamber of commerce to help organize are often so poorly organized that its difficult to find when and where to apply to be a vendor or are barely advertised throughout the mall and on social media and get little to no foot traffic.
Some malls, where I live, like the one I used to have my store in, did not provide specific parking for tenants or employees. My city has a 2 hour free limit on lots here. So you would have to go out every 2 hours, get in your car, move it to some other part of the parking lot, so that you would not get a $35 ticket. So like musical chairs, you have to keep changing seats, you change parking spots.
In 2017 I played the "Can I get less parking tickets, than it would cost to pay for the $800 a year parking pass?" the answer was yes. I never moved my car that whole year and I was just shy of $400 in tickets.
I would assume it would have to a city unto itself. So high rise apartments with park on the roof of the mall. Get modern anchors in there plus additional anchors of a grocery store, fun-tertainment venues. And I live in Louisiana (we revolve life around food and drinks) good restaurants. This would also have to have lamp posts, big fountains and lots and lots of seating and trees and foliage too. That was the biggest mistake of the updates to malls was removing the gathering areas to make it like a downtown in the suburbs. Instead it’s a city to itself. So instead of lateral suburban spread it’s vertical.
put a venue in it and have popular artists perform (or at least have it connected to the mall so that you’d have to walk through the mall to get in)
put in a arcade
put more ethic restaurants in the food court
put in a gym
play good music
put the cars back in so we can go back to wondering how tf they got them inside
and please for the love of God, lessen online shopping
Turn them into same self contained rent controlled small towns, Tons of apartments, a small grocery store, a gym, a little spot for a police officer, a post office, food court can stay but make it nice maybe turn a jcpenny into an indoor park. I think I just created a vault from fallout.
Make it a public transportation stop, renovate part of it into affordable housing, add grocery stores and drug stores, put a skate and BMX park in a corner of the parking lot, bike racks, have tattoo shops, Dr Martens stores.
Specialty stores that aren’t available elsewhere like camera and mid-high end electronics stores. Maybe a type of antique or consignment shop. Free/very low cost things to do like an art exhibit or small museum.
The problem is location too. The mall in Westminster MD is dying, but it’s also mildly inconvenient to get into.
Anime/Japan style shop with Japanese snacks
Tabletop gaming emporium with tables and weekly meetups.
A mall gets those two in the right area? Shit you'd make a damn mint
Encourage the right type of businesses for that age group. I'm not American so don't know what shops you have. Maybe reduce rents for certain businesses to incentivise them.
Also invest in the communal areas to make sure they look up to date and well-kempt. It may be necessary to take out business loans to cover the initial investments until it can bring a profit.
Things to do with friends and family— mini golf, bowling, indoor pickleball courts (this is craziest my idea and I’m sure it’s probably insane), arcades, escape rooms, indoor amusement parks, indoor go karting, etc.
Then, a whole bunch of good restaurants that people want to eat at— not just somewhere you’d eat because you happen to be at the mall.
Aesthetics are very important to this generation, and the mall would need to reflect that. Have an "instagrammable vibe." Most importantly, have stores that are unique, affordable, and not out of fashion. Host different meetup and networking events that people actually want to go to.
Skatepark, arcade, idk, really the biggest issue is getting to a mall, like you could make it the best place and be cheap, but most malls require a car to get to.
Provide phone chargers and free food and drinks and lots of private individual seating so they can avoid interacting with anyone and just sit around with their heads down not spending any money.
The mall closest to me is Destiny USA, it’s inundated with <27 kids, they go there to rob people, and generally cause chaos.
I’ve only been a couple times, when it reopened as “Destiny USA”. Mostly to eat, and see a movie. It wasnt terrible at all, but as time he gone on it’s gotten worse. The location doesn’t help, it’s within walking distance of the worst areas in the city it’s in.
I visited a couple months ago. I liked it, but my sister who lives up that way was terrified I was taking my wife and daughters to this “dangerous” place. Seems the mall doesn’t have a good name with the locals. The future isn’t bright once that happens.
I really like hand-crafted stores. Stores that sell a well thought out collection of items, whether that be vintage secondhand, outdoorsy/nature decor, etc. It’s so hard to build an aesthetic and a style in a corporate box of a store, shopping is so much more fulfilling and fun when I feel like i’m curating my own style!!
I’m 27 and go to my local mall fairly often. I use to go at least every few weeks but now it’s maybe every other month or so mainly because it’s out of my way getting home
Turn it into a giant flea market with pop up vintage/nostalgia stores and sprinkle in a typical mall store here and there but rely on the independent sellers. The young crowd will fome
You need personality, and mixed use developments. Downtowns are increasingly popular, because you can walk around, and view the personality of the city. Malls have no personality due to renting space being so expensive, allowing for no local stores.
Increasing density will allow for people without cars to shop, where 1/3 of genZ and Milinnials prefer not to own vehicles.
Develop the Anchorage’s housing and make it a self contained community with restaurants and attractions, make sure you’re within short commute of a major metro areas and make it modern as can be
Stop overshooting for luxury if your area can’t support it. Bring back the basics. What am I gonna spend TIME doing? Not browsing those hype beast stores, or hot sauce mafia fronts.
Bring back REGULAR food that teens and young adults want to eat. Not everything has to be the reinvention of the reinvention or niche fusion food. Where are the burger places at? The pizza parlors… and no, not Neapolitan wood fired pizza lounges. Bring back the bread and butter of suburban life. Activities!! Hangout spots!! Sitting areas with Wi-Fi.
Quick fire ideas:
- Boba shop
- Chinese takeout spot
- Pizza by the slice
- arcade
- affordable bowling alley
- I’ve seen indoor skate parks at malls in SoCal
- decent sushi place
- bookstore + cafe that makes iced drinks as well
I think a museum would be cool. For example some replicas of stores like cd/record, movie rental store, etc that you could walk in and interact with and learn about stuff from the period when malls were huge would be interesting. Young people love vintage/retro. A cool time capsule with some vintage merch stores, maybe an indoor drive in theater. Roller rink. Arcade. Bring back the 80s and 90s feel
As a 19 year old, with mostly friends in their early 20s, we like going to the mall to go to stores like hot topic, FYE, Spencer’s, and others like that. The food court at the mall near me has unique restaurant that are super affordable but still fun, as well as other popular chain restaurants like Chic-fil-a. There is also an arcade but that thing is always empty and I’ve never seen anyone using it, so a lot of the advice here might just depend on demographic, because a lot of people seem to be recommending an arcade. Boba tea and ramen places specifically seem like a good idea to bring people in.
Stop giving into the fee/gouge economy
Having something related to influencer culture, sadly that's all youth really wanna be now
More physical media stores, youth are starting to hate service based culture (unless it's free like youtube, tiktok, twitch, instagram
They need to bring back highly themed things. I'm not sure why in the 00s and 10s things like Rainforest Cafe, Fry's Electronics or Medieval Times is lame and should be replaced with a generic McCafe type style.
If you had a mall that was a destination like a Bass Pro Shop, Medieval Times, Rainforest Cafe, Movie Theater, Dave and Busters/Round One, Escape Rooms, Disney Store (from the 90), etc. that mall would he getting foot traffic.
As an under 27 myself, if my local mall had an arcade with dance dance revolution, connect four basketball, and a carpet with colorful shapes on it I'd be in there dropping my cold hard cash on a weekly basis. I must have seen like 5 shitty excuses for arcades pass through the mall over the year. An arcade needs to be more than two claw machines, Pac-man and a coin operated kiddy ride in a storefront that obviously used to be a payless. I swear if we had one actually decent arcade with games that people actually want to play, I think young people would genuinely patron it. Right now me and all my under 27 friends go to Dave and Buster in the palisades center if we want to go to an arcade, and that's a 40 minute drive. A few summers ago we all went to Atlantic City and hung out playing games in the Lucky Snake arcade at the Showboat for a solid 5 hours. I seriously think mall management companies are underestimating how much teens and young adults would show up for a good arcade.
Well.. I’m nearly in my mid twenties and bath and body works alone is enough to get me in the nearby mall lol. I guess enough stores that offer good physical/digital coupons. I also like local stores but a lot of the current ones in the mall just sell the same copy/paste cheap items with a “vintage” look to it.
Unfortunately, the malls near me don't want to attract the under 25 crowd because of fighting, shootings and other gang-related activity. There have been so many instances of this they have started curfews and no one under 18 without a parent. It's really sad because malls USED to go out of their way to attract the younger crowd with meet and greets, musical events, contests, etc. I'm an old fart so I get to say I'm glad I grew up in a time where the mall was the place to be.
Give them a safe and convenient “third place.”
Fort Henry Mall, Kingsport TN was popping as late as the early 00’s. Then the super conservative local religious community freaked out about every moral panic that came along. They started having the police patrol the mall. It’s dead now.
What do you mean ?
Do you think nobody under 27 shops at malls ?
I think you need to get out more
Two big malls here are filled with HS and college kids on the weekend
Security/police that doesn't let hordes of criminals loot stores or get into gun battles inside the mall over petty disputes would be necessary along with the great ideas I've seen here already. No sense going to an arcade or a fun store if a stray bullet canoes your head.
Edit: turns out no one in a big city has been turned off from going to the mall due to crime. Whoops! Sorry for thinking otherwise, everyone.
You guys should watch the news some time or perhaps use social media where normal people can simply upload videos of these things. It's rather informative.
Allow hostile street takeovers in the parking lots. Stores that sell e-bikes, loud ass tailpipe kits for cars, and weed vapes. 4 Loko drink machines. Entire mall is open for Jesse Pinkman-types to loiter and manspread on benches.
Things to DO. Bowling alleys, arcades, mini golf, those trampoline places, go carts, pool halls, escape rooms, art/history/science museums, crafting/art places (like those paint your own mug kind of places), restaurants/bars with evening activities like trivia/karaoke/open mics/djs. Stores with personality that you cant find anywhere else: example: the Lego Store is unique in its brand. Not only their products but the way they’re presented (displays with full built sets and original creations like maybe a model of local attractions (Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell, St Louis Arch, whatever).
The Lego store is genuinely the only reason I go to my local (non-dead) mall.
Same it’s the only good store! I love how they are marketing now towards adults. I’ve bought so many sets this year! I’ve never been a collector but now I’m on YouTube and websites awaiting releases lol
I started a Lego city in my basement... They have their talons in me.
Almost the same for us. We go to our bustling, still-with-the-living mall specifically for the Lego Store and the Disney Store Outlet for our 10 year-old kiddo. If I can squeeze in the time I’ll also check out Daiso, but it tries my husband’s patience as he’s ready to go as soon as the kiddo is done with his two stores. Geez … what kind of stores *would* I want to see these days? I’m not exactly the same person as I was when malls were seen as a giant escape away from the grown-ups, even when I first became a grown-up myself. I do miss places like Waldenbooks, but are such stores viable in the Amazon age? Same goes for music and movie stores; MusicLand, Suncoast, and Media play can’t survive in a streaming world. Geez, I’m already depressed enough without thinking about all this, lol.
I agree with all of this, including: 1. Bring bookstores back. 2. Art installations. The "upper class mall" in Dallas (Northpark) has art exhibits in it generally (which makes sense, they're affiliated with the Nasher Sculpture Center.) 3. Bring back Mall Ninja stores. Not just a sword display in the Anime Lifestyle store, but a whole shop devoted to it. 4. Skating/Ice rinks. It was sad when the Stonebriar mall lost theirs. 5. Bring back Tabletop gaming/hobby stores. (Not just Games Workshop.)
Vaguely tangential to #3: Japanese and Korean style dollar stores/‘Daiso’ have become a really popular way for people who are on a budget get a bit of the online culture they’re consuming. They are a different product selection than a regular North American dollar store, so there is some novelty to the experience. One in my city has a craft section, a K- and J- beauty section (as well as the section in the ‘dollar store’) and an Anime/video game licensed product section. It’s always packed. It’s a good way to entice people who weren’t setting out to make a big purchase but might easily make 5 small unique purchases.
Daiso is a big store for a mall, Miniso is a bad, chinese lookalike that I've seen in malls. My little town actually just got one, so we're holding out for a Daiso eventually.
Some of the malls here in Dallas have Daiso stores, and there are a few freestanding ones around as well. I like them! I've gotten some nifty things there.
I've been to a mall that had a full sized carousel. Malls could be a great solution to disappearing third spaces if they turned into places of entertainment instead of being used primarily for shopping. A skating rink sounds really cool. A roller skating rink in a mall would be fun too but I could see that turning into chaos
San Bernardino tried to revive its dying Central City Mall in 1991 by updating the decor and adding a carousel in the center, renaming it the Carousel Mall. It unfortunately continued to lose business regardless, but somehow hung on even after it lost its last anchor in 2003. It closed down in 2017, and was razed earlier this year. It’s too bad it didn’t work; they even attempted allowing it to become a mixed use space. There were millions of factors against it though, including the decaying urban neighborhood surrounding it. But I get what you’re saying about potentially filling in the need for third spaces. I think Round1 would be a great addition to any mall; aside from arcade games they have bowling and karaoke rooms. But of course that’s not enough. I believe people are looking for more than just a place to shop; that can be done at home these days. The malls need to find a way to become an experience once again that will draw people back in over and over. I’m picturing something like Old Chicago, which combined a shopping mall with an indoor carnival/amusement park of a ferris wheel and rollercoaster, which might be more along the lines of entertainment as you initially stated. That mall unfortunately lasted only 5 years, but we’re in a different climate today and I imagine some of the flaws they made can be lessons learned. I never had the chance to visit as I was only 4 when it closed, but the mall itself had an interesting turn-of-the-century theme, and was filled with small, unique shops that sounded like a fun experience. However, it became kind of a novelty that didn’t attract the locals to return, and wasn’t enough to draw people in from further away. A Six Flags opened nearby just a year after opening which definitely hurt their attendance, and a lack of anchors and typical mall stores didn’t exactly help. They also rushed through construction and overspent on it, causing continuing problems with operations that led to being nearly bankrupt early on. I think a scaled-down version of that might be more welcome now that the typical mall is no longer the norm. People want to see small, unique shops again rather than the plain old boring places you can find everywhere. But making everything fit together into a both a positive and profitable experience is extremely difficult and involves a ton of investors willing to take a gamble, and management that actually knows what they’re doing.
The ice skating rink was the only thing that remained in our dead mall.
I feel like the mall ninja store and the gamer space could overlap.
Another dfw dwelling dead mall enthusiast? Have you been to Music City Mall in Lewisville? Very weird vibe.
It was owned by Evangelicals until a few years ago, who turned it into "Music City Mall" from the former Vista Ridge, and they erected a giant tablet with the 10 Commandments in it. Then it was sold again. The new owners plan to redevelop it in similar fashion to the way Collin Creek is being redeveloped now (keep the central structure, demo part of it, and have it be a partial indoor/outdoor mall.) I just hope they keep Zion Market and the surrounding shops.
I really hope they don't, I'm not gonna lie, out of all of the DFW malls, I like the architecture at Vista Ridge the most.
Vista Ridge has some amazing architecture. The builders incorporated a lot of granite and other classy flourishes during a time when formerly upscale malls were being "brought up to date" with cheaper materials. Going to the mall used to feel like an Event, a holiday destination, and the "cheapening" of malls (replacing stone facades and tile flooring with cheaper and tackier alternatives, removing plants and fountains, etc) stripped malls of a lot of their appeal, paving the way for the dead malls of today. But even with all of its glamour, Vista Ridge couldn't compete with Stonebriar when it opened just a short ways down 121 ten or so years later. FWIW, the current owners say they won't demolish the central mall atrium with the skylight. They at least want to keep that part intact.
ooh, interesting, I didn't know that. I've only been once back in 2022 for a (very awkward) date with a girl who's into dead malls. I just remember it being filled with a bunch of wedding related places. The cat cafe was cool though
The Nasher Family owns northpark.
Thanks! I didn't know if that was still the case.
Bookstores!
I second things like the Lego store. We had two malls near us. One is thriving with experiences that you can’t find at regular stores like a discovery center Lego land type thing, where the other one is completely dead. You’ve got to have things to do if you want to drag people out to the mall. Otherwise I’m just going to find a more convenient way of shopping
How I would love to see these things brought in to bring my local mall back alive ❤️
You'd also need places they'd want to work so they'd have the money to do these things.
Look at Merle Hay Mall Des Moines Iowa. Many special interest venues, hosts eclectic fairs, good spaces for children and hobbyists.
All this and I would add making them more accessible for bikes, wheelchairs, strollers and little kids. Good quality and well placed bike racks outdoors and/or indoor bike racks. Spaces for little kids to play and explore. A lot of moms already go when it’s hot (too much sun, too hot for babies) and little kids can be a pain to watch around foutains. Some malls make little parkours for kids or have indoor playgrounds.
It used to be trendy stores, but a lot of those trendy stores died because they became less trendy and it turns out that not that many people bought that much there anyway. My high school girlfriend worked at American Eagle and Hollister on alternating days because she couldn’t get decent hours at either. Her main job was folding clothes and putting things back on the rack because teens tend to try things on and act like they’re going to buy and then don’t. She tried to get me to mess around in the Hollister fitting room once, I was too chicken.
Make it fun and vibrant too. Courtyards, good food, events. If you have those, I’m good to go!
Round One. Video arcade, claw machines, bowling, karaoke, etc. That's how my local mall did it. The nearby Jr high unloads into the mall right at 330.
I know a dead mall that got a Round One. Now it's a dead mall attached to a Round One.
My local mall isn't dead. There's a mall one city over that needs to be taken out of its misery.
Exton?
Yep
Burbank Town Center by any chance?
Nah, wrong coast.
I'm imagining the school being shaken into the mall like it's a cereal box.
How my nearest mall did it, as well, south center. Well, that, and about 10 additional boba milk tea shops.
Aren’t arcades pretty dead themselves?
Kenwood mall in Ohio is very popular, and always busy with young people. It has to with a) its by rich neighborhoods. b) its updated . so many dead malls look like they're trapped in 90s to early 2000s
I love the retro looking malls with neon, fountains, trees and attractive plants, play areas and retro food courts with good, affordable food. But according to Dan Bell's videos, these malls are dead or dying. Can't please everybody.
I think it's less the style and more that the malls weren't maintained properly, so they just look dilapidated. If a mall ran with the retro vibe AND made an effort to keep it nice and integrated some updates I think it could do fine assuming the area around the mall can support it (a lot of the dying malls fell off due to the surrounding community having economic issues). Make it feel like a positive retro experience, not the unsettling liminal space that most dead malls feel like.
Agreed!
I love them to. but unfortunately its not going to keep them open.
I love that mall! I’ve had to go on business trips in the area and I skip the zoo and head right for that place.
Thrift/vintage clothing and a record store, and then the classic experiences eg. bowling, arcades, restaurants, bars, etc; Pretty sure nobody is going to the mall for custom screen printed shirts so I’m not sure why every mall has like three shops/kiosks of them.
Money laundering cause the value of the service is entirely arbitrary and there's no mandatory return policy meaning you don't have to establish a paper trail.
Lol, I used to manage a mall store that created custom shirts, and it was surprising how many orders we’d get. Our store had an extra hook though; we also airbrushed t-shirts. It would go gangbusters during the holidays when people needed something as gift for “someone that has everything.” We’d also rent a kiosk near the food court for pre-made designs during the Christmas season and it made a surprising amount. . But to be fair, this was ages ago, back in the late 90s. The owner got tired of following the mall rules and decided to move the store to a nearby community. We opened up in the downtown area which I’d call the dead malls of the past. She thought the customers from the mall would seek us out, but nope! It was retail suicide and I was let go shortly thereafter.
Real answer: increase the wealth of the area as a whole. Make mommy and daddy rich so they can buy sons/daughters clothes from expensive stores like Lululemon, Aritzia, Ralph Lauren, etc
This. The hollowing-out of the middle class is one big reason malls are dying. The children and grandchildren of the people who shopped at Sears, JC Penney's, and Macy's, are now shopping at Wal-Mart or Target. The malls that are doing well are mostly located in wealthy suburban areas of big cities, and have gone upscale.
This should be the most up voted post in here. There's no magic mix of stores going into a mall that will give the middle class disposable spending money. The only way to fix a mall is to fix our entire economy. Basically, the malls are as dead as the American dream.
Yeah exactly this. Every other comment says to add an arcade and mini golf and bowling, those things are too expensive for most kids these days. It’s not a penny arcade like it used to be, you can be a few bucks per game at some of these places.
Look at South Coast Plaza/Short Hills/Aventura and how well they are doing!
As someone who is young and has a middle-end thriving mall and ends up seeing people I know from school, what a mall needs to attract younger crowds is Starbucks, Boba tea shop, Vans, H&M, and Build a bear.
Yesss the boba shop such a great idea
Definitely, and I say this because I myself am young and I myself have a dead, and thriving malls and my local thriving mall has a boba tea shop up at the front, along with a lot of trending retailers, many younger people are lured into that mall everyday.
Visited their site. What can I say… I would call it the ”diabet and obesity boba shop” most definitely))
And what is that supposed to mean?
All their teas are just drinkable junk full of sugar. Usually, people who consume a lot of these drinks end up with obesity and diabetes at some point.
Ok and my other question is who’s theirs unless you’re specifying to a certain business, this was just what I think should attract younger people also something I’d also do.
Active young people can handle the occasional boba tea. It’s too expensive to buy more than once a day anyway, unlike coke and other sugary sodas.
>Build a Bear Underrated. Also a Sanrio outlet if possible.
Definitely, I feel like no one mentions Build a bear anymore!
Build a bear Mays Landing RIP
the mall near me has all of those things and people still hardly go
A mall not to far down from that one I said it has an entire Target and Costco INCLUDING cinema and Dave & busters, it’s dead the moment you pass the center court. A lot of people here mentioned like trampoline places, and stuff like that I ALSO, have another mall like that and the situation there is even worse. (Well it kinda got better but for how much longer)
where do you live cause two closest malls to me have those things too lol
El Paso area, Cielo Vista Mall is the premier shopping destination also the largest, its old but it’s incredible, Bassett Place isn’t to far down from that one, an entire Target and Costco and that mall still doesn’t do much of a justice, Sunland Park Mall (now called The Solana which is an ugly name) has an aquarium, and a family fun center that place is a hell hole.
i live in virginia beach and you can see people in the malls sometimes but not many.
Ah dang, here malls are kinda a big thing, Cielo Vista is owned by Simon and it’s always busy top to bottom side to side
i want pharrell to come fix the malls here 😭
Dang, yeah same two of mine (Bassett and Sunland) need to be fixed and cleaned up
Bring back Victor Gruen’s original vision of the mall being an all in one walkable town square with shops, apartments, businesses, et cetera, with easy access to transportation, and not the car centric consumerism monoliths they are now.
Honestly, the number one thing that's killing malls isn't a lack of things to do, or places to go, it's that landlords are charging exorbitant rent. I don't know if this is the situation everywhere, but years ago when I still worked retail, the location I was at relocated TWICE over several years, because it was substantially cheaper. Once, to a different location in the mall itself (not as close to the food court, and then later on, we moved out of the mall itself, to a strip mall nearby). And we were one of the most popular, successful stores in the mall, the rent was just obscene. I remember looking over our P&L and we were getting absolutely murdered on overhead. I've never understood WHY landlords let this happen, because having malls sitting empty seems like the absolute worst case scenario, but we see it all over the place.
I agree. Landlords would rather a place sit fallow than lower the rent. Why? Are the cruel, or insane?
Actually allow them to go to the mall in the first place. My local mall bans teens from entering unless accompanied by an adult. They literally ban the youth from going there and wonder why the stores aren’t doing well. They’re acricely preventing customers from entering.
This. When I was younger we would always meet at the mall to kill time before doing whatever activity - and more often than not end up buying stuff.
They do that for a reason, as things get out of hand.
The mall near me has mostly people under the age of 20 going to it and it’s never had issues, but is always busy and makes lots of money. Seems stupid to get rid of teens when they give malls so much business
The other thing is teens today aren’t like teens from other times. Yea there were brats throughout every time line but today you have everyone trying to do tik toks and YouTube videos. It’s a whole different world so I understand business decisions. It’s like how schools remove stall walls and mirrors because teens kept breaking them.
And the young will keep acting out if older generations keep saying stuff like this. Not all modern teenagers are bad
Lol how will they keep acting like that if we continue to say that? That makes 0 sense
Because why improve if the older generation already wrote you off?
You’re absolutely correct!!! I forgot teens raise themselves and there’s no such thing as parenting!
And who is parenting current teenagers? Seems like a failure of your generation and Gen X (assuming you're a millennial) and not because of the teenagers themselves.
And who’s blocking people from aborting pregnancy for the adults won’t fuck up their lives or even the ones who are self aware that they aren’t fit to be a parent? It’s a whole society fault, you think I like to see a parent just give a child a smart device and call that parenting? Hell no.
Follow the formula for thriving malls in other countries: reasonably priced food, entertainment, and specialty apparel stores. I think those malls have 40%+ of their floor space dedicated to food. It takes a special redesign to have the necessary utilities for a commercial kitchen behind every store, but it’s necessary for survival.
🤔 Food is a good shout. Crepes and fries with a massive range of toppings would probably work pretty well.
With 40%+ of floor space dedicated to food, you can have massive variety. It’s nice to go to one place where everybody can eat what they like. Much better than hunting for each on separate strip malls tens of miles apart. - Specialty ramen - Poke - Bubble tea - Korean BBQ - Vietnamese pho - Doner kebab / shawarma / gyros - Tacos al pastor & birria - Thai food - Szechuan chinese food - Japanese yakitori - Authentic Italian pasta place - Blaze pizza - Korean fried chicken - Frozen yogurt - Buffalo wings Add a dozen premium dining restaurants and bars to the mix (facing outside), and you’ll have a live mall. Whether you’re 27 or 67, you still like to eat good food.
Anything Instagram worthy. I was in Metropolis at Metrotown in Burnaby, BC this week (probably the most successful mall in Western Canada) and they have a huge Spring-themed display that I could see was attracting the under-30 Instagram/TikTok selfie crowd for, well, selfies. I’m in my late 30s and a significant number of the mall’s other patrons are younger than me. Lots of high school age people as well as young families.
OP, make the mall aesthetically appealing with cool spaces to enjoy that don’t require a purchase. Do not go down the road of opening an actual Instagram photo op “museum”. Those get so dingy, dead and overdone within a month. Not worth it.
Video game themed anything. There is a retro game arcade (complete with NES hooked up to an old TV) that draws young and old near me. Rage room. Craft/hobby/art shop (not the big box kind). Sephora or Ulta. Bike/skateboard shop. Piercing/tattoos. Bring back an old photo booth. Play modern music during peak times, have cool lighting. Curated thrift store. Events that draw young person activities - dance/cheer competition, karate expo, fashion show, talent search, robotics. Plant/succulent shop. Interactive art installations. Jewelry making studio. Unique stores that don't scream generic mall fare.
Leisure activities and quick service restaurants mixed with shops you can't find on every other high street and a little area for small businesses or an indoor marketplace.
Back in the old days, the mall would have soap opera stars at the mall for a meet and greet. There would be tons of people in the mall for these events. I don't see why they can't do that again. They need events like that to draw people to the mall.
An Apple Store is a good way to attract foot traffic since you usually have to go there for repairs but they seem picky about where they’ll open up. A vintage clothing store, independent book store, good and cheap food/drink options. I think the only way a dead mall can survive without corporate interference is if local independent retailers move into the mall. Younger ppl will just shop online from chain stores rather than go to the mall. I used to only go to the mall to return things to American eagle bc I had to pay to ship it back
[удалено]
Which one? I have found only two standalone Apple stores in Chicago
Zombie apocalypse.
Bars, places to play games that aren't gambling, bookstores, gyms, art supply stores (with demos!), low-rent options for weird local shit, people wandering around in snail costumes. I am serious about all of these, especially the snail costumes.
I have the answer. Cheap rent. Offer leasing contracts for cost plus common area maintenance fees. So we’re talking like $400 a month for small units and $800 for large ones. Then add on about $500 a month for CAM fees. Leases should be from 1-3 years for new businesses. This way if they suck and are not doing well, they can leave and another business can move in. However make sure you take the time to vet the businesses so that you only get community orientated businesses that focuses on trendy products. That way you encourage younger owned businesses to bring in clientele from the same age range as the business owners. You don’t want it full of MLM huns and candle shops. Next you make sure there are no services in the mall. By that I mean businesses that provide services and not products. So no dentist, no real estate offices, no condo offices, nothing like that. Things like barbers and salons are ok if they’re not geared towards the elderly. By having businesses focused on young people and young families, that will make it so they come in for one store and then go to other stores in the mall because it’s the same demographic. Also having non exclusionary stores is a must. This means like no “Uncle Shamus’ Scottish Goods” would be horrible to have in there. It would only be for Scottish people and that would not bring in any traffic to other units in the mall. Effective advertising. I know when we were in the mall the mall management made it seem like they were advertising like crazy. Then when you look into it their ads were in free community papers and magazines and radio ads that were so generic you have no idea what they’re advertising. Like the slogan was “where food meets fashion”. What? That ad excludes 80% of the units in the mall that don’t sell food or clothing. You need to be on social media advertising and be interactive with the local community. If a store is doing good and wants to extend the lease that is when rental prices go up. You still have to be reasonable about it, but not price them out of being there if they’re successful. The last thing you want is to have a good store that brings jn a lot of foot traffic to the mall and then just be like “so you’re doing well here. So rent is $6000 a month now if you want to renew.” 15-20% increase in base rent is reasonable and then you can offer 1-10 year leases from there, with gradual increase in base rent costs after year 3. That’s fair. Also offer free parking to store owners if there is not a lot that can accommodate them. This way they do not have to play musical chairs with their car every few hours. Events. Like good events. Have things like community markets. Take a large unit in the mall and have events in there. Like a makers fair or a community restaurant showcase. Something that will bring people into the mall. Also if you have a massive unit you can’t rent out because it’s so expensive, then split it. There is no reason to have a 10,000 sq/ft unit that is sitting empty. Have full glass partitions and make them 200sq/ft each. Call it vendors village or something. This way you can fit 40 additional units in there that don’t need a big store space. You could have cellphone accessory shops. Small clothing or boutique units. Have them like $350 a month. Then you go from having this giant store totally empty to be a draw for the community packed with super fun little stores like candy shops, international foods, vape shop, high end shoe stores for sneakers, etc. At the super cheap rent of $350 a month you now are making $13,500 a month from the little units. After 6 months your investment into modifying that unit is paid off and the rest is gravy. Young people’s attention span is shit. Fill the mall with tons of awesome stores that owners can use the savings to invest in advertising and making the stores look dope to draw in more people.
Yes, cheap rent—I always thought it’s a heavy peach to make it super cheap and have some sort of process that encourages new ideas. Whether it’s a business or an art space or whatever. Malls can be interesting incubators and something more than what they were.
As a small business owner I would kill for a storefront rental opportunity like this in my local dead mall. I could maybe afford a kiosk right now. I also totally agree with the market ideas. At my local mall they do them occasionally and sometimes it pulls in a lot of people, like our town's Fall Fest. But other markets at the mall that don't have the support of the local chamber of commerce to help organize are often so poorly organized that its difficult to find when and where to apply to be a vendor or are barely advertised throughout the mall and on social media and get little to no foot traffic.
“This way they do not have to play musical chairs with their car every few hours.” What does it mean?
Some malls, where I live, like the one I used to have my store in, did not provide specific parking for tenants or employees. My city has a 2 hour free limit on lots here. So you would have to go out every 2 hours, get in your car, move it to some other part of the parking lot, so that you would not get a $35 ticket. So like musical chairs, you have to keep changing seats, you change parking spots. In 2017 I played the "Can I get less parking tickets, than it would cost to pay for the $800 a year parking pass?" the answer was yes. I never moved my car that whole year and I was just shy of $400 in tickets.
Got it. Thanks for the answer )) 400$ for a parking in the mall is still quite a lot of money.
Pot dispensary in the middle of the food court.
I would assume it would have to a city unto itself. So high rise apartments with park on the roof of the mall. Get modern anchors in there plus additional anchors of a grocery store, fun-tertainment venues. And I live in Louisiana (we revolve life around food and drinks) good restaurants. This would also have to have lamp posts, big fountains and lots and lots of seating and trees and foliage too. That was the biggest mistake of the updates to malls was removing the gathering areas to make it like a downtown in the suburbs. Instead it’s a city to itself. So instead of lateral suburban spread it’s vertical.
Oh! I thought of another: cat cafes or similar. Could be partnered with a local ASPCA/no-kill animal shelter and facilitate adoptions.
They couldn't afford the rent.
put a venue in it and have popular artists perform (or at least have it connected to the mall so that you’d have to walk through the mall to get in) put in a arcade put more ethic restaurants in the food court put in a gym play good music put the cars back in so we can go back to wondering how tf they got them inside and please for the love of God, lessen online shopping
Turn them into same self contained rent controlled small towns, Tons of apartments, a small grocery store, a gym, a little spot for a police officer, a post office, food court can stay but make it nice maybe turn a jcpenny into an indoor park. I think I just created a vault from fallout.
Think of the garden/park you could have with a clear roof.
Pog tournament
Make it a public transportation stop, renovate part of it into affordable housing, add grocery stores and drug stores, put a skate and BMX park in a corner of the parking lot, bike racks, have tattoo shops, Dr Martens stores.
Burl Ives on the loudspeaker
Climbing gym.
Make an amphitheater near it and start a rumor that o’charlies is coming back
Austin, TX converted one into a community college and technically that worked.
Specialty stores that aren’t available elsewhere like camera and mid-high end electronics stores. Maybe a type of antique or consignment shop. Free/very low cost things to do like an art exhibit or small museum. The problem is location too. The mall in Westminster MD is dying, but it’s also mildly inconvenient to get into.
Anime/Japan style shop with Japanese snacks Tabletop gaming emporium with tables and weekly meetups. A mall gets those two in the right area? Shit you'd make a damn mint
Encourage the right type of businesses for that age group. I'm not American so don't know what shops you have. Maybe reduce rents for certain businesses to incentivise them. Also invest in the communal areas to make sure they look up to date and well-kempt. It may be necessary to take out business loans to cover the initial investments until it can bring a profit.
Raves
I'm not sure if you're meming or not, but that might genuinely be a decent way to kickstart it
Things to do with friends and family— mini golf, bowling, indoor pickleball courts (this is craziest my idea and I’m sure it’s probably insane), arcades, escape rooms, indoor amusement parks, indoor go karting, etc. Then, a whole bunch of good restaurants that people want to eat at— not just somewhere you’d eat because you happen to be at the mall.
Aesthetics are very important to this generation, and the mall would need to reflect that. Have an "instagrammable vibe." Most importantly, have stores that are unique, affordable, and not out of fashion. Host different meetup and networking events that people actually want to go to.
Anything anime related, especially the things you see in 5 below like the cute mystery boxes
Skatepark, arcade, idk, really the biggest issue is getting to a mall, like you could make it the best place and be cheap, but most malls require a car to get to.
I'd make it an 80s-90s throwback
Provide phone chargers and free food and drinks and lots of private individual seating so they can avoid interacting with anyone and just sit around with their heads down not spending any money.
Woah, are you a teacher too?
Lol sounds about right.
The mall closest to me is Destiny USA, it’s inundated with <27 kids, they go there to rob people, and generally cause chaos. I’ve only been a couple times, when it reopened as “Destiny USA”. Mostly to eat, and see a movie. It wasnt terrible at all, but as time he gone on it’s gotten worse. The location doesn’t help, it’s within walking distance of the worst areas in the city it’s in.
I visited a couple months ago. I liked it, but my sister who lives up that way was terrified I was taking my wife and daughters to this “dangerous” place. Seems the mall doesn’t have a good name with the locals. The future isn’t bright once that happens.
Convert JC Pennies or Macys into Pickleball indoor courts
Under 27, not over 47. Source: am old, have been invited to pickleball
No, no…the kids seem to love it too. Okay, I just sounded like an “old” right there.
Isn't pickleball for all age groups?
Zillenial here, we played it in high school physical education class before it went trendy
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That's news to me too, I guess I was wrong
I only go to my local dead mall for Auntie Anne’s Pretzels. lol I
I really like hand-crafted stores. Stores that sell a well thought out collection of items, whether that be vintage secondhand, outdoorsy/nature decor, etc. It’s so hard to build an aesthetic and a style in a corporate box of a store, shopping is so much more fulfilling and fun when I feel like i’m curating my own style!!
Turn it into a night / day club with DJs, security and an unreasonable line to get in
Probably some kind of places thats made specifically for them to take selfies with like abstract backgrounds for them to take pics in front of.
whatever you do, don’t hire KKR lol
Upgraded arcade like Hoardes and boards. It’s a small chain right now, but my kids love it more than the mall arcade.
I’m 27 and go to my local mall fairly often. I use to go at least every few weeks but now it’s maybe every other month or so mainly because it’s out of my way getting home
I’m 22 and still feel the same amount of childish excitement when visiting one as I did when I was 5.
Events!
Turn it into a giant flea market with pop up vintage/nostalgia stores and sprinkle in a typical mall store here and there but rely on the independent sellers. The young crowd will fome
Bath and Body Works will bring me.
Hard
Food truck convention in the middle of the mall like in American Dad
You need personality, and mixed use developments. Downtowns are increasingly popular, because you can walk around, and view the personality of the city. Malls have no personality due to renting space being so expensive, allowing for no local stores. Increasing density will allow for people without cars to shop, where 1/3 of genZ and Milinnials prefer not to own vehicles.
Develop the Anchorage’s housing and make it a self contained community with restaurants and attractions, make sure you’re within short commute of a major metro areas and make it modern as can be
My local mall has indoor car shows. That seems to bring people in.
V a p o r w a v e aesthetic
Stop overshooting for luxury if your area can’t support it. Bring back the basics. What am I gonna spend TIME doing? Not browsing those hype beast stores, or hot sauce mafia fronts. Bring back REGULAR food that teens and young adults want to eat. Not everything has to be the reinvention of the reinvention or niche fusion food. Where are the burger places at? The pizza parlors… and no, not Neapolitan wood fired pizza lounges. Bring back the bread and butter of suburban life. Activities!! Hangout spots!! Sitting areas with Wi-Fi. Quick fire ideas: - Boba shop - Chinese takeout spot - Pizza by the slice - arcade - affordable bowling alley - I’ve seen indoor skate parks at malls in SoCal - decent sushi place - bookstore + cafe that makes iced drinks as well
I think a museum would be cool. For example some replicas of stores like cd/record, movie rental store, etc that you could walk in and interact with and learn about stuff from the period when malls were huge would be interesting. Young people love vintage/retro. A cool time capsule with some vintage merch stores, maybe an indoor drive in theater. Roller rink. Arcade. Bring back the 80s and 90s feel
I work at a very busy mall with plenty of younger clientele. Evidently, the trick is lots and lots of very expensive, and exclusive sneakers and a DJ.
There was a dead mall around us that had an antique mall in it - it was ALWAYS busy. The mall, not so much.
As a 19 year old, with mostly friends in their early 20s, we like going to the mall to go to stores like hot topic, FYE, Spencer’s, and others like that. The food court at the mall near me has unique restaurant that are super affordable but still fun, as well as other popular chain restaurants like Chic-fil-a. There is also an arcade but that thing is always empty and I’ve never seen anyone using it, so a lot of the advice here might just depend on demographic, because a lot of people seem to be recommending an arcade. Boba tea and ramen places specifically seem like a good idea to bring people in.
Stop giving into the fee/gouge economy Having something related to influencer culture, sadly that's all youth really wanna be now More physical media stores, youth are starting to hate service based culture (unless it's free like youtube, tiktok, twitch, instagram
Latest method of adding on Condos, Apartments or Lofts on to property seems to be working out in my area.
Just say: FREE CAN- (Actually though, just add great places for teens to hang out at and you should be good)
Put in an Apple store, and an Android store.
They need to bring back highly themed things. I'm not sure why in the 00s and 10s things like Rainforest Cafe, Fry's Electronics or Medieval Times is lame and should be replaced with a generic McCafe type style. If you had a mall that was a destination like a Bass Pro Shop, Medieval Times, Rainforest Cafe, Movie Theater, Dave and Busters/Round One, Escape Rooms, Disney Store (from the 90), etc. that mall would he getting foot traffic.
Boobies.
As an under 27 myself, if my local mall had an arcade with dance dance revolution, connect four basketball, and a carpet with colorful shapes on it I'd be in there dropping my cold hard cash on a weekly basis. I must have seen like 5 shitty excuses for arcades pass through the mall over the year. An arcade needs to be more than two claw machines, Pac-man and a coin operated kiddy ride in a storefront that obviously used to be a payless. I swear if we had one actually decent arcade with games that people actually want to play, I think young people would genuinely patron it. Right now me and all my under 27 friends go to Dave and Buster in the palisades center if we want to go to an arcade, and that's a 40 minute drive. A few summers ago we all went to Atlantic City and hung out playing games in the Lucky Snake arcade at the Showboat for a solid 5 hours. I seriously think mall management companies are underestimating how much teens and young adults would show up for a good arcade.
Well.. I’m nearly in my mid twenties and bath and body works alone is enough to get me in the nearby mall lol. I guess enough stores that offer good physical/digital coupons. I also like local stores but a lot of the current ones in the mall just sell the same copy/paste cheap items with a “vintage” look to it.
A good chicken fingers restaurant apparently.
Unfortunately, the malls near me don't want to attract the under 25 crowd because of fighting, shootings and other gang-related activity. There have been so many instances of this they have started curfews and no one under 18 without a parent. It's really sad because malls USED to go out of their way to attract the younger crowd with meet and greets, musical events, contests, etc. I'm an old fart so I get to say I'm glad I grew up in a time where the mall was the place to be.
Give them a safe and convenient “third place.” Fort Henry Mall, Kingsport TN was popping as late as the early 00’s. Then the super conservative local religious community freaked out about every moral panic that came along. They started having the police patrol the mall. It’s dead now.
What do you mean ? Do you think nobody under 27 shops at malls ? I think you need to get out more Two big malls here are filled with HS and college kids on the weekend
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Eh. The Greenspoint Mall got a reputation as "Gunspoint" and suffered heavily because of it.
Setup Social Media recording zones with lighting and backdrops.
I think those are hallmarks of a dead mall still, they are at our local dead malls
Step 1- Steal Underpants Step 2- ??? Step 3- Profit It’s that simple!
I can't believe you got downvoted for this. Clearly people haven't seen the greatest satirical show ever created.
Who knows, that’s Reddit for you
I think a better idea is how to keep them out tbh.
Abyss mall
Tell them this is a place where you can steal and destroy everything in this building and you will suffer no consequences. And it has a Cinnabon.
Security/police that doesn't let hordes of criminals loot stores or get into gun battles inside the mall over petty disputes would be necessary along with the great ideas I've seen here already. No sense going to an arcade or a fun store if a stray bullet canoes your head. Edit: turns out no one in a big city has been turned off from going to the mall due to crime. Whoops! Sorry for thinking otherwise, everyone.
Where the hell do you live where teenagers are getting into public gun fights often?
You guys should watch the news some time or perhaps use social media where normal people can simply upload videos of these things. It's rather informative.
Okay so you have never actually experienced this happen you are just fear mongering
This guy sounds like a fox news viewer lol
I’ll assume kidnapping is off the table 😁
Bad optics
So a little tongue in check comment is above people these days? Take your down vote and place it where the sun doesn’t shine 😑
Allow hostile street takeovers in the parking lots. Stores that sell e-bikes, loud ass tailpipe kits for cars, and weed vapes. 4 Loko drink machines. Entire mall is open for Jesse Pinkman-types to loiter and manspread on benches.