Submitted 3 months ago by Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world to showerthoughts@lemmy.world
Imagine apartments built into what used to be department stores, (Oh, you’re JC Penny 203? I’m at Sears 106). Get those old arcades up and running. Set up meal stations at the food court. Once people actually live there, stores will start to move back in.
If I’m unable to finish my life in my own home, that doesn’t sound like a terrible option.
As is often mentioned, the plumbing situation makes this somewhat untenable.
But, as the world warms and outdoor recreation becomes impossible, I think they could be repurposed into indoor recreation centers, not that different from a regular mall, just less focused on shopping and more on fun and exercise.
Pssh! That’ll NEVER sell!
But what if it were a subscription service? And we can add AI for no reason!
they’ve already started turning them into rental units because that’s apparently the entire American economy now
when internet still basically consisted of angelfire and geocities (yes, even before myspace), we used to go to the mall and pester the goth kids smoking cigarettes by the mall entrances who were there because they also had nothing else to do
Whatever.
Go to Abercrombie and buy another polo shirt, conformist. /S
Imagine how much money you could make by ripping off retired people who cannot leave the mall anymore due to old age.
Not that I would endorse this. Combining retirement homes with retail sounds dangerous for the retired.
In Austin (when I lived there) the main mall finally closed down in the 2Ks. It was obvious that nobody was going to pick it up so the city turned it into an Austin Community College campus.
Malls are actually doing fine.
Apparently they were already shutting down the too many malls that there were, but there are still a few hundred and they’re doing well.
Specifically, for the reasons you’re saying, because they have a food court and arcade stations and basically our community centers, more than just shopping outlets.
It looked like all the malls were dying out because they already realized that there were too many moles for the American population, but now that number’s kind of stabilized and to slowly growing again.
But as for the disused ones that were built during the boom 20 years ago? sure.
They’d make good housing.
The malls that are succeeding still are the ones that are transitioning to hosting nearly exclusively luxury and fashion stores, i.e., retailers that don’t have to compete with Wal Mart and Amazon. These are obviously only viable in areas that are fairly affluent to begin with.
As far as I understand, the malls that are succeeding are the ones focused on the community itself.
High end retailers have always had an important part in the mall, since inspecting luxury goods in person is preferable to trusting the online process, but they don’t keep malls full.
There were already too many malls for the American population, then online shopping showed up, but what still gets people to go to malls are the social aspects.
People assume malls as cultural hubs are dying because the excess malls have been dying off for over a decade and the popularity of Amazon or whatever, but the hundreds that are still standing are very popular, especially since covid, like apparently over 90% occupancy.
www.usatoday.com/story/money/…/70649848007/
Consequently, malls are focusing on those social aspects rather than any sort of retail specifically. They’re coming around to the realization that the experience of going to the mall is much more important than the products sold.
In other countries, malls are still alive and well. In Philippines, that is where people literally chill in a hot tropical climate because of 24/7 air conditioning!
Malls are also seen as a sign of progress and modernity for many developing countries, so there is some cultural expectations to building and maintaining malls.
In US, we way overbuilt malls. There’s just too many. While I’m not a fan (shopping is not a destination, and I want to get it done as quickly as possible), I’m not entirely convinced they’re dying here either. Some people do like shopping. 3/4 of them need to die, but we’ll see if it settles on a more sustainable number, or if online shopping ate their face
In the US we’re having a bit of a crisis of “third places”. Where do people hang out as a community? Where do you go? So many newly built suburbs don’t have any approximation of town center or community places. Malls served that need for a few decades, but many are going away. Now we’re trying to replace malls with “shopping districts”, basically rebuilding town centers that too many suburbs never had…. Plus they seem to be just a mall with less roof
There’s a mall near where I live that’s still pretty rad. I go there sometimes
A working exemplar of the original vision is still functioning beautifully: “The Grove Arcade” in Asheville, NC.
Oh damn…
God, imagine living in a retirement community that has a Hot Topic.
This is now my favorite housing idea ever.
My current job is in an office/call center that used to be a Famous Barr at a mall. It’s funny, I worked in that mall as a teen/early 20’s. Now I’m back working at the fucking mall XD (tho now I’m provisioning telephone service and processing telecom orders, not sweeping up in a movie theater or trying to upsell people at a shop)
I absolutely hate malls in Russia. I’d prefer them all demolished and replaced with grass, but this seems a valid option too.
I kind of like having windows where i live although it could be cool to live in a gamestop
Live under one of the skylights
Hopefully Tiffany will tour them
I dunno, man, she wouldn’t have much of a crowd since malls these days are pretty much dead. I’m at a local mall right now (getting a kiosk phone case), but there doesn’t seem to be anyone around.
I've thought about this a lot, on account of infinite people having an insane amount of trouble just keeping consistent shelter over their heads. My gal had suggested this as a means for the homeless. I know that right now malls are being lent out to many individual small organizations (namely churches as far as I know it). But I am not sure this is sustainable as a whole. Due to maintenance costs, hazardous situations like mold and lack of privacy.
I also think about how people keep saying cost of living is why people aren't having kids. But I have lived in multiple places that were once a much larger living space that had been jankily peacemealed into several much smaller apartments. I am a human that enjoys having space of my own, even if it's micro in nature. I can't imagine I am alone in that. And I don't believe people will want to further invest in divvying up spaces in malls. At least, unless they're getting kickbacks. And they'll probably do it in the worst of ways. Leading to spaces that will be barely sound and fast to degrade but slow to fix. I mean shelter is super duper important. But I swear to god your surroundings can affect your mental state. And when you're wedged together in a decaying mold filled building with a bunch of aging individuals facing a slew of different health-issues it'll probably deteriorate your wellness faster than if we tore the places down and utilized some sort of cheap eco-friendly building material/robo-builder to assist making healthier homes.
Also mind you, I don't think we're gunna have beautiful low-income or middle-income homes if the greige, vinyl, orange-peel, chrome take-over points towards anything.
Good riddance
There’s a mall in my city that’s currently under construction, but I have a feeling it’ll be forgotten the week after it opens.
And this is the FIRST mall in my city.
I’m surprised they’re building more after watching so many die and rot.
In some places they still make sense. In a place where one can be built relatively close to a number of well off suburbs, while being closer than more urban area commercial districts, malls are still doing alright. The hey day of malls being in every suburb is dead though.
My country doesn’t have many malls to begin with. The only one I’ve been to is in Casablanca.
I do not live in Casablanca.
Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 months ago
It’ll be just like “Dawn of the Dead”