Malls are going extinct
It has been six years
since my cross-state mall tour in 2013. A lot has happened in six years, but
three major developments have resulted in a change in direction for me.
1)
In 2014, I got married. During our honeymoon, I
toured a few Sarasota, FL malls. But after that, we settled into a routine and
I did not have time to travel around the state so much, especially for the sake
of simply walking in a mall.
2)
In 2018, I became a mom. Now when I’m not at
work, my life is centered around caring for a baby and on the weekends I go
where I can take baby along easily. A mall is great for walking with a
stroller, but not if the mall is hours away.
3)
I found new passions. Food reviews, Facebook
group moderating and supporting local restaurants are some of them, and this
takes up enough of my time.
However, I still take a moment to observe what’s going on
around me. At one point, my visits to
the Avenues Mall in Jacksonville and the St. Johns Town Center, also
Jacksonville, were every weekend. I was in a rut socially and my new husband
was busy studying for school, so it was easy for me to just take a long walk
around the malls on Saturday or Sunday. What was I even doing with my time?
This was a point where I was asking “What is my life?” Because I was kind of
stuck in limbo waiting for the next big thing. Unfortunately, I think a number
of unnecessary purchases of little clothing items came out of these weekends.
This turned out to be clothing that I didn’t love enough to wear for long and
would sell later. My husband and I went
through some financial issues in 2017 and 2018, and then we had our baby. I
stopped having time to go shopping or even window shopping. The mall went from
being a leisurely hangout for me to a place only visited in times of necessity.
When I needed maternity clothes. When I needed a few new work pants. Most of
the time, I was going to second hand shops like Clothes Mentor or Uptown
Cheapskate to find things I needed.
After the baby was born and we drew closer to the holidays
last year, as the finances improved some, I finally made some visits to the
malls again. I was taken aback by the shift in the occupancy in our local
indoor malls.
Changes at The
Avenues
-The anchors are still holding out strong in Jacksonville’s
favorite family mall but the corridors are losing some tenants.
-At some point, Banana Republic vacated its double-space
downstairs.
-Some of the jewelry stores are gone.
-A few of the boutiques that had just come in rather
experimentally in the past few years have been replaced by off-brand
bottom-dollar fashion. These types of stores sell colorful party outfits made
of the cheapest materials.
-FYE has adapted to change by replacing its rows and rows of
CD’s with shelves of Bluetooth and media player accessories, posters and
cutouts of famous movie and TV characters, little trinkets themed after popular
cartoons and music, and some clothing similar to the music and TV themed
clothing at Hot Topic next door.
-While the massive Forever 21 is still chugging along
(despite parts of the ceiling falling in when it rains), some of the other big
names in teen fashion have gone bankrupt and shut down. Charlotte Russe and
Papaya have disappeared not just from this mall, but everywhere.
-Seasonal monogram stores, a paint-your-own pottery studio,
sports-themed stores and a few other family owned themed retailers try their
luck in spaces that belonged to brand name shops before.
Overall, there are maybe 20% more vacant spots
than there were, and about 30% of the mall is off-brand and family-owned retail
ventures.
The St. Augustine Premium Outlet Mall
This one is the busier, and still more populated mall of two outlets that face each other across I-95. It is still seemingly doing well, but has seen the closure of Nine West and Gymboree as the brands went bankrupt. The mall also lost Cotton-On which is also struggling and has closed 300 stores. There may be a few others, which I will have to update next weekend when I can drive by again.
The St. Augustine
Prime Outlet Mall
This case is the saddest.
In 2008, the ailing Prime Outlet (called Belz at the time)
was given a new start with an outward-facing expansion and the addition of a
few dozen new stores and the large Saks Off Fifth free standing department
store by the front entryway.
This expanse created hundreds of new jobs, including one for
me at Hugo Boss outlet. I was hired just as Obama was elected president. In
spring 2009, the recession began and I was laid off as the store trimmed down
its staff. I found another job in the same mall with less reliable hours before
moving on to other types of retail and ultimately banking.
After I left retail, I watched the outlet mall slowly
decline.
A few of these outlets of very high fashion failed quickly.
Guicci and Escada, for example, only lasted a few years. But as we made our way
through the 2010’s, the stores began dropping like flies.
-Some of the “somewhat expensive but more moderately priced”
retailers failed, like American Apparel. The entire company went out of
business shortly after.
-Almost everything on the left side that faced the
interstate disappeared. Juicy Couture went first, as the era of the velour
tracksuit with “Juicy” written on the butt finally ended. Luckily, this was replaced by Francesca's. The 2B Bebe went
down, then the Maxazria, then the Kenneth Cole. Coldwater Creek was replaced by
Vanity Fair which moved over from the far right side so Old Navy could move in.
(The Guess and the Talbots still remain on the far left).
-Shortly After this, as we neared the end of the 2010’s, The
massive H&M store opened and is still sustaining but many of the other
affordable teen brands vanished. Pacsun filed bankruptcy and closed its outlet
(but not its Avenues mall store). Rue 21 Closed its store after filing
bankruptcy protection. Charlotte Russe and Papaya both went fully bankrupt and
closed all their stores everywhere.
-Dress Barn closed its store in this mall but not the other
one across the street. The company has since been bought out and renamed. The
leather outlet closed around that same time and is used for a Halloween store
seasonally. Disney closed soon after and is now a sports store. The mall has at
least 3 of these.
It is incredibly sad walking along the interior, passing
shuttered store after shuttered store. Some were highly experimental and didn’t
last long. Others were there for years but the end of their time finally
came. Of the batch opened in 2008, only
Saks, Hugo Boss, Jones NY, Cole Haan, Dooney and Bourke, Michael Kors and Loft
remain on the outside. Lucky Brand is the only lucky survivor on the inside.
The main draws that keep the mall open are Saks, Old Navy,
H&M, Bealls Outlet and the food court with its occasional holiday events.
Longer term tenants still there include Bath and Bodyworks,
Bon worth, a kitchenware and a tool store, Sunglass Hut, Famous Footwear, NY
& Co, Rocky Mountain Chocolate, Christopher and Banks, Nautica and a couple
of off-brand fashion or cellular stores. They are scattered among rows of dark
and shuttered storefronts. Even though the entire structure was remodeled not
too long ago, parts of it are already falling into disrepair such as the back
entrance where Dress Barn used to be having many wet-floor signs out to mark
broken tiles that may be a tripping hazard and buckets to catch rain from a
leaky ceiling.
Prime Outlets basically looks now how Ponce Mall did ten
years ago.
Which brings me to my next thought.
Ponce Mall was
officially closed to the public in 2015. The JCPenney and the Belk were
still up and running, as well as the Sears appliances, but nothing was left
inside except for GNC and one other small business. They relocated and the mall
was sealed off. The doors were locked and the mall entrances from inside
Penney’s and Belk were covered up. The old movie theater had been in use for a
couple of years by Anchor Faith Church at this point. The church has to be
accessed from behind the mall building, but they are considering buying out the
inside of the mall in the future. Or so I’ve heard. JCPenney, which was
downgraded to an outlet store, is set to close permanently.
Up in Jacksonville’s Arlington district, Regency Square Mall
is in similar shape. I haven’t been there since 2014, but last I heard it only
had one anchor left and maybe a small handful of stores inside. There was a
rumor of it being repurposed for an outlet mall for tools and hardware. Now a
food bank has arrived.
Read these TripAdvisor reviews, from people who were there
more recently.
All of this decline
begs the question: What is happening to the indoor shopping mall? It’s not
just Jacksonville. Log on to Google Earth and see satellite photos of massive
rounded vacant plots of land encircled by small roads. They once held popular
monolithic shopping structures like Mall of Memphis in Memphis, TN; Rolling
Acres Mall in Akron, OH; or Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, IL. Around the
country, other malls that are still open are slowly having their brand-name
stores replaced by off brands or left shuttered. A lucky few were repurposed,
such as the Church at the Mall in Lakeland, FL. What happened to the classic
shopping mall we all knew and loved? I grew up with them in the 1990’s.
Online shopping, quite plain and simple, is the culprit.
Remember that 80’s hit “Video killed the radio star”? Well, “online shopping
killed the mall”. As technology advances online shopping becomes simpler and
the range of items that can be bought only becomes wider. As mobile devices
become sleeker and faster, people can take care of more functions on the go, at
home or at the office. Paypal is not the only secured money exchange online.
Venmo and Apple Pay are among many that have popped up and made it safe to
order something from anywhere at any time.
Social media like Pinterest brings us inspiration that we
had to get by going to the store to purchase a magazine or going to the mall to
window shop just fifteen years ago.
Facebook brings us the profiles to people’s shops, pictures of what’s
for sale and links to go and make a purchase when it was only for students to
find each other in the past. Amazon doesn’t just bring books, it brings
everything from clothes to baby gear to tools to food now, and at the best
prices it can find. Famous retailers like Forever 21, Walmart and Old Navy have
made shopping on their sites more convenient and more secure.
Online shopping has made it so people’s free time can be
spent at home or somewhere else other than the mall. For those who prefer to
get out, socialize and be active, lifestyle centers are popping up in more and
more towns. A huge one was just completed in my hometown of Lakeland, FL (The
same city where a mall became a church). Palm Coast, FL, already had one and it
is basically all there is to do there. St. Johns Town Center in Jacksonville is
perhaps the largest one of all, incorporating designer retailers with an
“everyday needs” type of stores. It too is changing some, but is still
expanding. These types of giant strip malls typically sport retailers for every
category of the family’s needs:
-Best Buy or equivalent for dad’s technology needs
-Target for groceries, pharmacy, home decor and family
clothing
-Marshall’s and/or Ross for discounted higher end family
clothing and home needs
-PetSmart or equivalent for the animals
-Dick’s for the family’s outdoor supplies
-Hobby Lobby for grandma and mom’s crafting
-Rack Room Shoes for the whole family’s shoes
-A handful of retailers like Old Navy, Charming Charlie,
Men’s Warehouse
-A handful of chain restaurants like Panera, Panda Express
and Smoothie King
-A nail salon or two
-A dry cleaner
-A boutique or two
-Ulta Beauty or equivalent for mom and daughter’s makeup
-A dollar store for those last-minute needs you don’t want
to spend a lot on
-A liquor store or two
-GNC or equivalent for Vitamins
-A jeweler like Kay or Jared
-GameStop
-Sometimes a hardware store with a garden center, like
Lowes.
-Sometimes there is a large gym
-There are usually some larger chain restaurants on the
outer edge (Olive Garden, Applebee’s) as well as a few banks and some fast food
with a drive-through (McDonald’s, Wendy’s)
The malls have given way to these giant strips, where you
can park outside the store you need, then later drive down to the next place OR
you can walk along the front, in the sunshine, for exercise. I can see why
people may like this better than being in an enclosed space that mostly only
offers fashion. This is comical because before enclosed shopping malls (so
before the 1960’s and 1970’s), everyone went to the town square where....wait
for it.... there were full blocks of outward-facing specialty shops and you had
to walk in the fresh air to get from one to the next.
But they didn’t have online shopping in 1950..... So,
hopefully, everyone who already did their shopping at home on their iPad is now
taking this newly available free time to go to the gym or church?
