Anyone notice since the financial collapse happened less and less ppl have been seen in malls.
Every time I go to a mall its hardly ever full of people. I will have 2 say 2008 is when the malls
started getting dead. Although some will argue late 90s is when the mall culture died.

Not where I live.

Anyone notice since the financial collapse happened less and less ppl have been seen in malls.
Every time I go to a mall its hardly ever full of people. I will have 2 say 2008 is when the malls
started getting dead. Although some will argue late 90s is when the mall culture died.


Shopping Malls are doing well in the UK, especially with the chain of Wesfield.

They're still here.

No.  ???

I always see tons of people when I go to the mall closest to me. It is located in a town with only 25,000 too so it is a relatively small community too.

People still shop in malls But the whole mall culture and trend with younger people, etc died around the early to mid 2000s.

I think most of them were swallowed up by WalMart.

Anyone notice since the financial collapse happened less and less ppl have been seen in malls.
Every time I go to a mall its hardly ever full of people. I will have 2 say 2008 is when the malls
started getting dead. Although some will argue late 90s is when the mall culture died.


Not in the Bay Area here in California. We have a lot of shopping malls and they are packed especially in the weekend. I usually get my stuff in the weekday when I'm off from work. I like the malls here when they have comic book and sports memorabilia conventions. Those are fun to hang around in for nostalgia of my youth back in the 1970s and 80s.

In Germany (and Europe I suppose) they grew in the 2000's and they are still very popular.

But I have to add, that a lot of typical American things came much later to us. There is sometimes a decade and more between the two continents.

No.  ???



I'm with you.

I think they lost some of their novelty, but are still very much alive.

I think they will always be 'in' with teens, young people, etc, etc.

I miss mall culture. I hate how a lot of the indoor malls have been torn down the past few years and replaced with outdoor individual stores. I also HATE that Westfield took over almost all the remaining malls. Westfield strips the malls of any individual character. I definitely wish malls would make a comeback. I think they got rid of them because they just don't make as much money, stores inside malls. People mainly go to just walk around. Sucks. When I go to Europe, I see lots of cool malls and I wish we could make some malls like that here in the USA. I just miss the days of ditching school with my friends and going to the mall and meeting boys. Best days before all this social media. After I got MySpace in 2006 when I was 18, everything changed. Then in 08 and 09, I started on Facebook and nothing has ever been the same! I love social networking, but I miss just being a teenager when I only used my phone to call my mom when I was out.

Anyone notice since the financial collapse happened less and less ppl have been seen in malls.
Every time I go to a mall its hardly ever full of people. I will have 2 say 2008 is when the malls
started getting dead. Although some will argue late 90s is when the mall culture died.


The more upscale malls are still doing very well.  They are packed virtually all the time no matter where you live.

The smaller, middle class malls are dying and have been replaced by big box stores such as Wal-Mart and Target.  The city I live in had three major malls in the year 2000.  One is high end, the other mid-range to high range, and the last low-range to mid-range.  The high end one is extremely successful and is actually currently remodeling and expanding.  The mid-range one is holding its own but is showing signs of decline.  The low to mid-range one only has a few stores left.  It was still full in 2006 but since has lost all four of its anchors and most of its remaining stores.

No the malls here are always packed.

No the malls here are always packed.
...and will be for the rest of this year.

If you think malls are dead, go to any mall in Canada and you will change your mind.

Not here in Rhode Island. We have TOO many malls!

Another Westfield is planned for Croydon in south London and the Shepherd's Bush Westfield is planned to be extended.

When I was a teenager in the early/mid 90's the mall was the place to be, I lived in Iowa where there was not much else to do.  When I was 16 I always went there to hang out with my friends, walk around holding hands with my girlfriend, and smoke cigarettes.  We used to be able to smoke in the mall, I remember when they banned smoking in the mall in the mid 90's we were upset.  Older people thought of us mall hanging teens as trouble makers, but we were all nice kids that just liked to hang out.  There is one mall by me that is almost nothing left, but another that is fairly crowded.  There are still a lot of teenagers that hang out at the mall in the evening and senior citizens in the morning.

We used to be able to smoke in the mall, I remember when they banned smoking in the mall in the mid 90's we were upset. 


Thank God that's banned now. It used to be allowed in Germany until the late 00's and it was really annoying. Same goes for restaurants and bars (banned in 2007/08).

I think most of them were swallowed up by WalMart.


and dollar stores.

and dollar stores.


Actually, in lower to some mid-level malls, there were/are dollar stores inside of them, plus some in that range also have big-box anchors attached to them, thus keeping them stable. Some mid-to-upscale malls decided or are deciding to have either an ajacent outdoor wing or build an "outdoor lifestyle center" based on personal trends. But the shopping mall is very much alive and well, despite being well past its heyday of the 1970s and 1980s. Its like strip malls in a sense; some of which evolved into "village centers" that are like mini-lifestyle centers in some communities, but are still very common and still get built. I do find more urban malls complete with skywalks, underground passages, large atriums, and adjacent to mass transit to have a better future, while suburban malls will try to become more urban by improving transit service (bus, light rail), have more condos/apartments surrounding the mall, and adjust their layouts/styles in order to survive. You still can't get your goods instantly by shopping online and you can't check for defects; plus shipping is sometimes more expensive than buying many items at once and paying less for gas. Of course at the end of each year with the holiday season, mall culture seems anything but dead.

I see more people shopping at 99 cent and dollar stores sometimes,They just want a quick bargain and save some money.