Is this going to be the end of malls period?

[danfifepsu]

Is this going to be the end of malls period? due to Amazon and online

When tenants close will malls let them STAY EMPTY? and when MAcys or Sears close how do they get replaced?

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Not at all. In metropolitan areas where there used to be six shopping malls, there would still be two shopping malls that still do well. If the sopping mamall trend did end, they would have to pull the plug on new construction projects involving shopping malls, including American Dream Meadowlands and American Dream Miami. Shopping malls will also have to be creative when finding a new use for the empty spaces vacated by the likes of Sears or Macy's.

You can read more about how shopping malls are adapting to the new retail landscape here: http://amesfanclub.com/forum/index.php?topic=4211.msg64710#new

[shore72]

The American consumer may become content with having everything from soup-to-nuts delivered to their front door, maybe by Amazon drone, and they may decide they want to go up town in a driverless car...but regardless, they won't want to just sit around all the time. They'll still want to get out an do something. Tomorrow's successful retailer will offer an experience, some value-added component that will make the consumer want to get out of their chair & check out the store. It could mean live entertainment, or something the kids will love, or an adventure.

[giantsfan2016]

Tomorrow's successful retailer will offer an experience, some value-added component that will make the consumer want to get out of their chair & check out the store. It could mean live entertainment, or something the kids will love, or an adventure.

Hence the reason Jordan's Furniture has a place in their store(s) to go zip-lining.

[TheFugitive]

The one mall in my area that appears to be rather healthy is South Hills Village.

It may be an outlier for several reasons.

1) It lies in the heart of a suburban community with well-above average incomes.
2) It is an older mall, having first opened in 1965.   But it has been kept fresh and up-to-date
with the latest renovation occurring in 2014. 
3) Being older it is smaller, having around half the square footage of a lot of the other malls
around here.  Hence it does not suffer the death-by-slices as boarded-up storefronts creep
gradually across the mall.
4) Mall management has been aggressive in filling vacancies when they occur.  When Lazarus
went out in the merger with Macy's, Boscov's was quickly brought in to fill that space.  When they
left the space was quickly divided between Dick's and Target.
5) Because residential development creeps right up to it's edge there are relatively few
outparcels and strip centers nearby.  Hence when Target wanted to come to the area they were
forced to seriously consider the mall vacancy as a location.
6) The terminal station for the "T" light rail system is at the edge of the parking lot, making
this the easiest mall in town to reach by public transit.

[EddieJ1984]

There are many things, what do people still go outside of the house to buy?

Thing is, with sears doom impending and jcpenney continuing closing stores along with macy's downsizing a bit, the malls are having struggles couple that with music stores being a thing of the past, gamestop even having trouble (both type of stores are half "pop culture" merchandise crap).

But me, I like to get clothes at an actual store, but even I don't think of sears, usually macy's tho and others.
Of course I don't like what today kids, teenagers like so who knows.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

It would be odd if the former Sears at a shopping mall outside a rural community in Illinois became a Rural King store.

[zonemad96]

I think the problem isn't the mall format or the internet I think the problem is the type of stores that are in them. When you go online and shop you have a extremely diverse variety of items to chose from but when you go to a store it's very limited and and when you have 10 stores that are selling the exact same product that's a problem.

When I needed a new wallet a few months ago I wanted one that was made in USA and couldn't find it anywhere, in 20 seconds I found one on Amazon and it was the same price as the Chinese crap they sell everywhere. Another example I went on a website of a company that makes mini figures which are sold everywhere and they sell apparel which I wanted to buy in a store but I could only find it online. I've also been buying neff watches from Amazon and I haven't seen anything like them in stores.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

I wonder if the death of net neutrality would mean the start of a retail renaissance for brick-and-mortar retailers...