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The Death of the Mall?
Howard Lindzon
July 10, 2017
My niece and her boyfriend bought a condo today in Toronto. This was the text exchange that ensued on the news:
These crazy millennials!
Ok now to the real point of today’s post…malls!
I read this excellent two part piece from the Adventure Capitalist called ‘Mall Tour’.
Kuppy is a hedgie and he really wanted to dive into the following question:
Is retail suffering because of Amazon.com cannibalizing store-fronts or are rising health care costs, with stagnant wage growth, what’s really cannibalizing disposable spending power in middle-America? Is shopping still America’s pastime or do we prefer food and “experiences” instead? Every industry evolves. Why hasn’t the mall changed in the past three decades—it’s still the same cinema, crappy food court and undifferentiated retailers that I knew when I was a teen—where’s the fun in that? Other countries are perfecting “shoppertainment,” why hasn’t America? In summary, what is the real issue with retail?
Here is the first piece.
Here is part two.
As a product of the mall generation I don’t care what happens to them. They led to a generation of anxiety and depression.
This generation has had the smartphone, Google, Facebook, Uber, Netflix, Youtube, Tinder, Snapchat and Amazon.
The next generation will have voice and robots.
Today, I am happy to own Apple, Nike and Amazon as my proxies for the ‘mall’ and the future of retail.
But, as Kuppy outlines in his posts, there are fortunes to be made off the reimagining and repurposing of America’s store-fronts.
Hope you enjoy and get a few ideas.
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