This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.

"We Are Extremely Over-Retailed" Picturing The Death Of America's Malls

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Starting in the mid-1990s, "the mall genie was out of the bottle," says one mall analyst, "and it was never going to come back." While about 80% of the country’s 1,200 malls are considered healthy (vacancy rates of 10% or less), that compares with 94% in 2006; and more than 30 million square feet of malls are more than 40% empty, a threshold that signals the beginning of what one one analyst called "the death spiral."

 

As The NY Times reports, like beached whales, dead malls draw fascination as well as dismay, "nobody ever thinks a mall is going to up and die," but as the following images show - dead or dying they are.

 

“It’s depressing,” Jill Kalata, 46, said as she tried on a few of the last sneakers for sale at the Athlete’s Foot, scheduled to close in a few weeks. “This place used to be packed. And Christmas, the lines were out the door. Now I’m surprised anything is still open.”

“I have no doubt some malls will survive, but major segments of our society have gotten sick of them,” said Mark Hinshaw, a Seattle architect, urban planner and author.

“It is very much a haves and have-nots situation,” said D. J. Busch, a senior analyst at Green Street. Affluent Americans “will keep going to Short Hills Mall in New Jersey or other properties aimed at the top 5 or 10 percent of consumers. But there’s been very little income growth in the belly of the economy.”

“We are extremely over-retailed,” said Christopher Zahas, a real estate economist and urban planner in Portland, Ore. “Filling a million square feet is a tall order.”

“Everybody has memories from childhood of going to the mall,” said Jack Thomas, 26, one of three partners who run the site in their spare time. “Nobody ever thinks a mall is going to up and die.”

Nearly 15 percent are 10 to 40 percent vacant, up from 5 percent in 2006. And 3.4 percent — representing more than 30 million square feet — are more than 40 percent empty, a threshold that signals the beginning of what Mr. Busch of Green Street calls “the death spiral.”

Industry executives freely admit that the mall business has undergone a profound bifurcation since the recession.

“Our business is more regional and high-end focused,” he said. “There are gradients of dead or dying or flat, but anything that’s caught in the middle of the market is problematic."

 

“The mall genie was out of the bottle,” Mr. Simmons said, “and it was never going to come back.”

Read more here...

 

- advertisements -

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Mon, 01/05/2015 - 23:26 | 5626656 Jambo
Jambo's picture

Obligatory "We vacated some malls" line

Mon, 01/05/2015 - 23:29 | 5626661 Playtime's Over
Playtime's Over's picture

Dang dog, mall been groided.  I think George Carlin had some deep thoughts about mall America.  

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41jCCyT5wuA

Mon, 01/05/2015 - 23:30 | 5626671 Thirtyseven
Mon, 01/05/2015 - 23:58 | 5626732 Heavy
Heavy's picture

I guess theres not much chance of getting some clean food in there?

Mon, 01/05/2015 - 23:58 | 5626736 SweetDoug
SweetDoug's picture

'

'

'

When 3d Internet and the oculus rift goggles take over the Internet in 3-5 years, by 10 years out, malls are toast.

The 1920's are back. It's used to be online catalogue shopping, with a new paint job. But now, we'll just walk into a store sitting in our chair at home.

10 years from now? The malls are toast.

•?•
V-V

Mon, 01/05/2015 - 23:59 | 5626737 SweetDoug
SweetDoug's picture

'

'

'

When 3d Internet and the oculus rift goggles take over the Internet in 3-5 years, by 10 years out, malls are toast.

The 1920's are back. It's used to be online catalogue shopping, with a new paint job. But now, we'll just walk into a store sitting in our chair at home.

10 years from now? The malls are toast.

•?•
V-V

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 00:16 | 5626771 First There Is ...
First There Is A Mountain's picture

Goodbye commercial space, hello multi family units. Here in Denver, 2 bedroom 1200 square foot apartments will be starting at $2100/month. The units are not even completed yet and many of them are pre-rented. Of course they're downtown right neer NeoCoors field so you can always take in a $50 game to watch a sub 500 team bat a routine ground ball around with their feet so there is that. 

Otherwise, brick and mortar spaces are still doing very well here. A nearly abandoned commercial area 5 minutes from my house called "The Streets of Southglenn" was reborn with Whole Foods, Victoria's Secret and a host of other losers like Old Navy, H&M and Chicos coming to the rescue at deep discounts. The commercial spaces are faring well here because there's a lot of dwindling oil and gas money that refuses to accept what's happening. Also the bid defense contractors are still in business overbilling Uncle Sam for X-wing fighters and other fantasy nonsense with cost overruns by the billions. 

When individual, regional weaknesses begin to manifest (oil & gas in the Rocky Mts) then these stores will wilt on the vine but until such time as the punchbowl is removed and we see a steep decline in paper wealth among South Denver's economic elite, nothing will change and Escalades and Infinitis crowding the lots will continue to be the norm.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 00:19 | 5626785 dvfco
dvfco's picture

I thought you were making fun of the NY Mets and the new Citi Field in your first paragraph for a second.  

Then I realized you'd underpriced the shitty apartment and tickets to a shitty game by 50%.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 00:18 | 5626773 dvfco
dvfco's picture

Don't worry - Sheldon Aldelson will be a buyer at $0.01 on the dollar.  That is, as soon as he can a Republican in the White House.

He'll have gambling legalized in every state.  He'll also make sure gambling remains illegal on the Internet.

Then, he can convert every dead mall into a local casino - and have them 100% mechanized so he doesn't have to pay the new $15 minimum wage.

And people say Amazon stock is overpriced!

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 05:43 | 5627103 U-P-G-R-A-Y-E-D-D
U-P-G-R-A-Y-E-D-D's picture

Sometimes, I can't believe that the free newspaper "Israel Today", handed out by 50+ year old men for a measely 20 shekels an hour on every street corner in Tel Aviv, is actually owned and funded by a casino magnate and 21st Century dick-cheese Sheldon Adelson.  To think that the gullible and stupid (severely undereducated because education might get too uncomfortable on issues such as fairness and exploitation of others) Israeli population eat up whatever line this man's minions craft to promote his agenda.  The worst part is that the feeble minded provincials here, over half of whom who were once culturally integrated Arab-Jews in their home countries, now take orders from some American huckster and they trust his word because it's written in Hebrew, the language that is only for "insiders".  Fuck Sheldon Adelson.  

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 00:45 | 5626824 jomama
jomama's picture

Just going to leave this here.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 00:48 | 5626829 adr
adr's picture

Malls today are only used to channel stuff inventory for publicly traded companies in publicly traded retail stores. The function of the store is to provide an accounting fudge for a higher P/E as to enrich those who can print themselves shares to sell. New malls are built because almost all publicly traded retailers have new store clauses in vendor contracts that give an extra 20% invoice allowance for new store openings. This helps the accounting fudge.

Dead or dying malls lose the publicly traded stores and get replaced with Asian foot massage joints and Alpaca sweater stores. The sad part is the dying mall does far more in real commerce than any mega mall catering to the 1%. You think all that merchandise gets sold to people? Not in America. Most of the inventory is sold off for $.10 on the dollar to international wholesalers once it serves its channel stuffing purpose and later tax writeoff for unsold inventory.

It's all bullshit to support the biggest con game of all time.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 00:52 | 5626836 honest injun
honest injun's picture

The largest mall company: Simon Property Group has gone from $26 to $186 in the last 5 years.  Perhaps it should be shorted.  Perhaps not.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 01:06 | 5626855 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

Melvin "Mel" Simon has passed away in 2009. The idiots running Simon Empire have no direction.  Today is 2015, the year of his death was 2009. Do the math..

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 01:16 | 5626844 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

 Commercial properties debts have caught up with 2007 retail blow up.  

 

Fuck the Jews that engaged in 2001 business model under 9/11 subsidies to Transform the United States of America. You will suffer, we will thrive. Slim margins and lack of monopoly will crash the family business. Blows a kiss.

 

Edit: The kids cannot draw a horse to a water hole. Mel is rowing in his grave..

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 01:18 | 5626876 dreadnaught
dreadnaught's picture

It wasnt usually a mall operation, but I MISS TOWER RECORDS!

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 01:39 | 5626906 are we there yet
are we there yet's picture

Malls could double as FEMA camps.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 01:43 | 5626914 JoJoJo
JoJoJo's picture

A tip of the hat to DeadMalls.Com

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 01:44 | 5626919 Seasmoke
Seasmoke's picture

I see Dinosaurs.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 02:06 | 5626953 reader2010
reader2010's picture

Just turn them into pig farms because the smell will remind us that consumers are nothing but pieces of shit to a society. 

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 10:01 | 5627468 Grinder74
Grinder74's picture

Why aren't Al Gore and the envirowackos jumping on these properties and returning them to Mother Nature? Wouldn't it Safe Teh Earff(TM) to turn all that concrete back into grass and trees??

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 02:11 | 5626959 Village-idiot
Village-idiot's picture

Great places to make that zombie movie you've always wanted to make.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 02:43 | 5626985 Ward no. 6
Ward no. 6's picture

malls are big here in minnesota... u know mall of america

my favorite place is to go to maple grove which features place like williams sonoma, world market (my favorite place)

pottery barn, whole foods market, etc.

 

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 10:03 | 5627475 Grinder74
Grinder74's picture

Mall of America? You mean Mallistan.  It's nothing but Mooslums and their smelly burqas walking around there now.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 03:06 | 5627008 jmcadg
jmcadg's picture

You could create great gaming ops. Real life zombie apocalypse experience. A few out of work Disney Park 'actors'. You have them back in droves. Or full scale laser quest.

Landlord charges peppercorn rent but takes a 10% cut rising by 1% annually.

What's not to like???

Only problem, no one has any fuckin' money!

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 10:03 | 5627480 Grinder74
Grinder74's picture

Yup, I've got:

- beer money

- snack money

- poker money

but no fuckin' money.  Maybe that's why the wife left?

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 03:43 | 5627040 freedom123
freedom123's picture

Bankruptcy is normal process in capitalism.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 05:50 | 5627107 22winmag
22winmag's picture

The South was right!

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 07:14 | 5627152 rsnoble
rsnoble's picture

I like what I call 'mall chasing' in my area.  The 2 really BIG malls that I went to years ago--one was torn completely down.  Then they opened an outdoor mall (because they are popular? LOL......yes freeze your ass off walking from store to store I'm not sure what propaganda campaign led to that conclusion) a few miles from the other one and it got ran down to 2 stores left in a huge space.  Now they are talking of tearing it down and building an outdoor mall in an attempt to drive back the business from the other one.

LOL.

I know one mall that is doing well but it's in the heart of one of the richest counties in the US.  I go there occasionally just to see some of the young perky titties bouncing around.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 09:58 | 5627447 Grinder74
Grinder74's picture

+1 for the young perky tittes.  Who says those chicks aren't able to "consent"? - Jeffrey Eptsein

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 11:51 | 5627952 Bankster Kibble
Bankster Kibble's picture

There is a brand new mall near me that never got finished because the 2008 financial crisis hit when the builders had only got to the Tyvek lining stage on the walls.  Now the wind whistles through the buildings and not even kids are allowed to play there because the hired security keeps everybody away.  Rampant optimism hit a brick wall and has not yet recovered.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 07:58 | 5627183 Magooo
Magooo's picture

China has ghost cities, US ghost malls

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 08:22 | 5627230 10mm
10mm's picture

Ready to go FEMA camps when i look at pictures.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 08:23 | 5627235 ThisIsBob
ThisIsBob's picture

I did all my Christmas shopping on Ebay, buying from "mom and pop" sellers.

 

 

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 11:01 | 5627747 silverer
silverer's picture

It makes sense in most cases. Mall prices are higher for lots of reasons. Just driving there adds cost. If your mall is 15 miles away the average round trip would be the 2 gallons or so of gas and depreciation on your vehicle, added to the price of what you purchase. Then add the sales tax and the markup for the overhead, plus your time you invest in the trip (most people don't value their time like they should). If they are out of what you want, oops. And these days, box stores are trying to get by with as little inventory as possible and likely agonize over what to put on the shelves.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 08:27 | 5627237 Monty Burns
Monty Burns's picture

I suggest the vibrancy proportion rather than that for occupation to be a better predictor of a mall's survival. The higher the proportion of vibrants, the lower the mall's prospects for survival.

Am I not correct?

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 08:32 | 5627245 Ban KKiller
Ban KKiller's picture

How many times can you rename the mall before it closes? The mall here is dying. I go there to use the post office and all I see are old folks (Ok, I qualify) and the other shiftless members of humanity. Dillards, empty, JC Pennys, empty...etc. 

They remodeled again in an attmept to bring folks in. So what? Sports Authority moved in. So what? Food court lost crap food seller to be replace by new crap food seller. So what? Never ate there as it is not really food. Plenty of carbs though...

A skateboard park is the best idea.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 11:18 | 5627823 Winston of Oceania
Winston of Oceania's picture

Perhaps in addition to retail but stand alone skate parks don't last long either. You need something for everyone so a family can spend time together doing different things I guess. What a distracted society...

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 08:31 | 5627246 Ban KKiller
Ban KKiller's picture

Oh yeah, let's see some dead banksters in the news!

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 08:35 | 5627257 Raoul_Luke
Raoul_Luke's picture

The Internet is now the mall.  That's where people do all their shopping and the kids hang out "together" via the XBox/Playstation online.  The idea that the decline of the physical mall is some sort of a signal that the economy is dying is a false meme.  The economy may well be dying, but not because malls are being vacated.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 09:03 | 5627287 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

r luke says"the idea that the decline of the physical mall is some sort of a signal that the economy is dying is a false meme.  The economy may well be dying, but not because malls are being vacated."

well luke, can't keep your cake and eat it too. malls=jobs, and less jobs = a strong internet economy ..oh wait.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 10:05 | 5627486 Grinder74
Grinder74's picture

Not "less", fewer jobs. You need to take less medication to make fewer mistakes.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 09:42 | 5627395 g'kar
g'kar's picture

Some government genius will convert these malls into nice homes for illegal aliens or FEMA camps for citizens.

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 09:57 | 5627442 Grinder74
Grinder74's picture

But where will I go to pick up 15 yr old chicks like Jeffrey Epstein? (And don't hate: I was born that way!)

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 10:00 | 5627466 Mike Honcho
Mike Honcho's picture

Someone call DOBIS and let the revival begin.

 

Looking at when malls were thriving, if retail stores would bring back stonewashed jeans I predict an uptick.

http://gizmodo.com/11-photos-of-1980s-malls-that-will-like-totally-blow-yo-1461537182

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 10:55 | 5627711 silverer
silverer's picture

Yeah, and bell bottoms! (Just kidding...)

Tue, 01/06/2015 - 11:44 | 5627928 Bankster Kibble
Bankster Kibble's picture

I won't miss them.  Maybe we could convert some to "loft" living, or government offices, or fancy homeless shelters, or film sets for dystopian science fiction movies, or light industrial sites, or . . .

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!