Culture | December 27, 2007 | 5 comments

The rise and fall of the shopping mall

source: http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10278717

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julietp
The shopping mall was invented in order to evoke a European city feel, that downtown busy feel. Soon however it became viewed as a staple of American surburbia. Are Americans still going to the mall?
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5 comments // The rise and fall of the shopping mall

  • common_sense_allowed
    • 0
      common_sense_allowed  

    • traditional malls, strip centers and sprawl in general is slowly coming to a much needed end. more of americana is moving back to the city and the demand (manufactured or otherwise) has been dissipating for the past couple decades. 'demalling' is a major part of this equation. namely... ever heard of a little store called wal-mart. what happens when the economics change from store-to-store or region-to-region, they leave large amounts of space unoccupied that is often absorb by local businessess... so the decline begins. retail development has been addressing this in the design and development of 'lifestyle centers' or 'town centers'. unless these new development pockets are connected by mass transit or other placemakers, 30 years from now we'll be reading about how stupid an idea it was in the first place.

    • 4 years ago
  • gNicole
    • 0
      gNicole  

    • This article reminded me of Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone." The book argues that our "social capital" and sense of community has rapidly decreased due to malls, tv, cars, etc.

    • 4 years ago
  • khsing
    • 0
      khsing  

    • Great article! It should be no surprise that I find these artificial city centres just as superficial and shallow as indoor shopping malls. It simply manifests larger social ills of America in a different way -- rampant commercialism and the overvaluation of cheap commodities still pave the way.

    • 4 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  

    • And in Europe, shopping malls were built in order to evoke an American lifestyle feel! They are more frequented during cold and rainy days or sweltering dog days and heat-waves than when the weather is fine.

    • 4 years ago
  • Swiyyah
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