By: Dennis Norman
I do not like shopping malls. If you like them, don’t take this personal, I just don’t. I understand they are an excellent place for walking during inclimate weather, a good place to kill time or let kids burn off some excess energy but I just don’t think they are as good at their main purpose as they once were. This purpose of course being bringing shoppers together with retailers.
This year, as usual, I did all of my Christmas shopping online from the comfort of my home. Our family was leaving for a family Christmas trip prior to Christmas so it was imortant to order gifts in time to arrive before we left. Two days before we were to leave my wife mentioned to me she needed a new writing journal. I thought I was done shopping for her but decided to add this one last gift. Even though I was reluctant, due to the fact we were leaving town in two days I went ahead and made the dreaded trip to the mall. I went to Chesterfield Mall located in the suburbs of St. Louis. After driving around for a while I finally found a parking space. It seemed fitting that right as I was pulling into the parking space it began to rain. I manage to get inside the mall without getting totally drenched and started my search for a journal for my wife. As I wandered aimlesslythrough the mall I looked in several stores only to discover I could not find a journal. After walking the length of the mall on the first level I then went to the second level and proceeded to walk the length of the mall again. While I never did locate a journal in a store I did notice a couple of things: One, for being 8 days before Chrstmas the mall did not seem all that busy and two, there were a lot of vacant spaces for lease. I didn’t actually count the number of empty stores but there were probably close to 10. The lack of activity and empty stores did not come as a surprise since the consumer spending numbers though the 3rd quarter of 2008 did not paint a pretty picture…the numbers show consumer spending for durable goods is down at an annual rate of over 15% and spending on non-durable goods is down almost 7%.
More to come in part two….
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[...] before Christmas I did a 3 part series on malls and shopping centers in which I expressed my reluctance to shop at them and asked the question: is the mall going to [...]