Dead Mall Syndrome?

[wayiwalk]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

Thanks to amazon, I have not been inside a mall once since moving to New Jersey nearly 9 years ago, and only outside once to pick the kids up from a movie.

My only shopping is at food stores, and on a few occasions, big box stores for home goods.

Amazon has been VERY disruptive for my life, but in a good way.

[shiny!]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

Thanks to amazon, I have not been inside a mall once since moving to New Jersey nearly 9 years ago, and only outside once to pick the kids up from a movie.

My only shopping is at food stores, and on a few occasions, big box stores for home goods.

Amazon has been VERY disruptive for my life, but in a good way.

Same here.

[don]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

My monthly Amazon bill looks enormous. My mall bill doesn't exit. Guess there's a connection

[charliebrown]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

Why drive 8 miles to a mall to choose between "can opener" a and "can opener b"? On amazon I can choose between a,b,c,d,e ... maybe get a better price and have it on my door step in a few days. I can read better product descriptions, and have customer feedback too. There are some items though that I really need to to inspect tactically, and visibly (some clothes, shoes etc) come to mind. I do suspect some customer feedback are plants.
The way Illinois tax code is set up, if you don't make X amount of online purchases, you have to "prove" that you didn't. So best to ring up the online
sales.

As wayiwalk says, most retail is done at target. I have not made a mall purchase in 10??? years.

When there was an indoor mini-golf course at the mall near me, I could make an afternoon with the family of a few rounds of golf, and lunch at the food court. It was a good distraction in winter or 100+ THI days in July to get out of the house. Really, Really good bourbon chicken stir fry there too best I ever had. However in the last year the mini golf closed up. It was next to Sears and Sears closed their mall store the previous year.

[flintlock]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

The time savings alone makes Amazon a no-brainer. Throw in the gas savings and its steal. Need a teapot? $10 and two days later its on my doorstep. No more wasted trips, no lines to wait in, better selection. Its not for everything but more and more I can find almost anything I need. I even find electrical supplies that the wholesalers won't carry because they don't sell enough. Usually at a better price too. If you have a return then its saving even more time. Have only stepped foot in a Mall once in about 10 years. Malls are for recreational shoppers. I get it, some people like to shop. Most don't.

[Milton Kuo]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

There are some items though that I really need to to inspect tactically, and visibly (some clothes, shoes etc) come to mind.

The difficulty with buying certain products on-line is that it's sometimes very difficult to ascertain where the product was manufactured, which matters greatly. Overall, I have fairly good confidence buying products sight unseen if they are from countries with a good reputation for making high-quality products: U.S.A. (kind of hit and miss but when we actually try, very few countries can top us), Germany, Japan, and Canada.

It's also interesting that you mention shoes as a product that needs to be inspected in-person. A couple of years ago, I purchased two pairs of New Balance sneakers through Amazon: one pair clearly marked as made in U.S.A. and one pair not made in U.S.A. I ordered both pairs of shoes in the same size, which is a size that I wear for all my other shoes. Upon arrival, the shoes made in New Balance's Massachusetts facility fit exactly as I expected them to. However, the other pair of shoes, which upon inspection was shown to be made in Indonesia, was too small.

I ended up having to exchange the shoes made in Indonesia with another pair that was one whole shoe size larger! Shoes made by the same company using the same sizing standards shouldn't be seeing those kinds of discrepancies. And don't even get me started on any product from China, India, etc. which is where I spend most of my shopping research time trying to avoid products from these places.

If on-line retailers went to the trouble of fully detailing where the products they sell were manufacturerd, I'd probably never buy anything from a bricks and mortar store again.

[jk]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

While we are talking mall and Amazon, let me tell you that if you are thinking of getting a high-tech flashlight THIS is the most incredible thing for the price. Will run 4AA's, has 4 setting plus strobe, and is blindingly bright for it's size. As of tonite it is $60 and quite the deal. I own one, my neighbor bought one because of mine, and he loves his as well. we use them every night while walking the dogs.


http://www.amazon.com/Fenix-Tactical...rds=fenix+ld41

try this for only $10. it's amazing.
i carry one of these in my pocket at all times. very handy, weighs next to nothing, very small.

[BadJuju]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

Honestly, I don't care for flashlights these days. I much prefer a good ol' LED headlamp. Who wants to hold a light when you can strap it to your head? Also, you can pretend to be a spelunker. Or you could be a spelunker.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is a pretty damn good product. And it is made in the USA by a good company.

[jk]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is a pretty damn good product. And it is made in the USA by a good company.

yeah, i have that one too, and 2nd your endorsement. same company that makes the $10 item i noted above.

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

Thanks to amazon, I have not been inside a mall once since moving to New Jersey nearly 9 years ago, and only outside once to pick the kids up from a movie.

My only shopping is at food stores, and on a few occasions, big box stores for home goods.

Amazon has been VERY disruptive for my life, but in a good way.

The need for human interaction is too great for me.

I am younger than most here and I can count on one hand how many times I have ordered something from Amazon.

[BadJuju]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

The need for human interaction is too great for me.

I am younger than most here and I can count on one hand how many times I have ordered something from Amazon.

You do great shame to your generation!

[kriden]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

Speaking of AMZN, this is one of the best lectures I've listened to in quite a while:

Robert Steele at Amazon:

http://youtu.be/l9eaAYvDiXo

[wayiwalk]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

The need for human interaction is too great for me.

I am younger than most here and I can count on one hand how many times I have ordered something from Amazon.

You must have good interactions at malls.

I admit I like shopping at stores if I make a trip in to NYC if I can bring my daughter along, she enjoys the shopping experience, but something about malls - I can't quite get the picture of the american consumer as depicted by George Romero in "Dawn of the Dead" as the zombies returned to the mall; seeing too many "consumers" in one place give me chills as I envision the future for the sheeple.

The social interaction? I think you mentioned you study BJJ, so you can appreciate my next comment. My non-work connection with people is through a dojo for Tae Kwon Do where I train (ok, try to train, I'm a bit grey). A rotating cast of more than 40 people with their heads on straight and fairly balanced in the work/life needs. That what works for me!

[ocelotl]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

Due to my work, I tend to be around malls of all sizes around, and have seen all that you are talking about. I've seen zombie malls whose only functioning stores were the anchors and the ones next to the anchors, others whose anchor has an exterior entrance and are just empty corpses, others that have lost an anchor and have died, and others that simply never have had full occupation. I was of the opinion that we were saturated of retail space in the city where I live by 2000, and that any subsequent opening of retail space was going to be followed by a decay on foot transit in everyone of them... Really very few of the malls that I've seen opened since 2000 have been a success. When the disposable income of a given population doesn't grow, their spending habits evolve towards seeking lower prices and weeding out non essential expenses. This trend is valid all over the world.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

I like more bang for the buck.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Small enough for a pocket. Cheap enough to lose. Hella bright.

Note that there are a lot of different Chinese sellers and you might want to look closely at the seller ratings.

ditto!

ive got a bakers dozen of them.

Great to work on a single AA battery. Can confirm they work under absolutely horrific cold/wet conditions and rough treatment.