I still remember my first trip to the mall without my parents. It was a unique step toward adulthood — using the small amount of money that I had accumulated from holidays and what not, I went off to the mall to buy clothes that I didn’t need my mom to buy. Malls at that time were not just places to shop. They were another branch of the community: a place to hang and maybe even accidentally run into your crush. In so many movies set in their heyday, malls were also a location for critical plot points, like in “Mean Girls” when Cady first goes shopping with the Plastics in pink. In the more recent movie, “Holidate,” the mall is where the two main characters meet and then — spoiler alert — end up declaring their love for each other. Unfortunately, that is no longer what malls represent.
The prevalence of malls has been declining sharply after a rise in popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1980s, there were nearly 2,500 malls in the United States. Now, there are only about 700, with the number surely dropping further in the next couple of years. While the reason for this decline is multifaceted, it is likely that the largest contributor is the online shopping trend and the ease with which online stores bring goods right to your home. This has likely contributed to a decrease in footwork traffic in department stores, making it harder for malls to stay afloat.
Perhaps this is part of the economics of our new lifestyle. Malls historically took clientele away from small businesses; now online storefronts and an apathetic societal attitude towards malls is forcing them to either change their business models or fail.
I think it’s important to understand the larger roles such places have in society. For malls, that is the role they played in fostering community, in providing a space where teenagers could hang out after school in a relatively safe space and learn certain skills that they may not learn in schools. Losing those places is something local policymakers and community members should take note of and keep in mind when making decisions about public spaces within their town.
However, they must also look at the sociological effects of this trend; otherwise, some of the key needs of the community will be left unaddressed. They must ask themselves: What does the community need more of? An office space? A parking lot? Or a place where younger adults can interact and hang? But I think the more difficult question — and the one that has to be answered by all of us — is what does this communal space even look like as we move toward a future of fewer malls and more technology?
It is a challenge that needs to be mounted or else brick-and-mortar stores might find new ways to generate income and create jobs, leaving society with fewer and fewer places dedicated to community gathering.