Believe it or not, Sears used to be the largest retailer in the world. Now, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone under the age of 23 who’s heard of it.
The financial decline of Sears, which at one point represented 1% of the entire U.S. economy, was, in many ways, a sign of what was to come. The popular name brand stores I grew up going to (Kohl’s, Macy’s, etc.) are all struggling to stay afloat as the online shopping industry continues to surge. And as these retailers start to go down, the shopping malls that housed them are sinking too.
Real estate analytics firm Green Street estimates that at the 1,000 malls it tracks across the country, there are nearly 750 vacant stores that once housed retail chains, according to the New York Times. The inability to fill these anchor boxes has sent many malls into a financial spiral: Over the past several years, more than 1,000 malls have shut down completely. One research firm estimates that another 1,000 malls will close over the next three to five years.
For those of us who grew up going to our local malls, this is a tragedy that feels a lot like the plight of movie theaters. But, if I’m being honest, I can’t remember the last time I stepped foot in a mall. My shopping habits, like that of many other people, have drifted toward the internet. And as any good shopaholic will tell you, once you start shopping online, it’s almost impossible to stop.
But a return to in-person shopping is one of the only ways to save the malls that are on their last legs. Other solutions have been proposed, but none of them have really worked. For example, just a few years ago, Amazon began converting some of the shuttered Sears and J.C. Penney department stores into fulfillment centers. The retail giant even entered into talks with Simon Property Group, the country’s biggest mall owner, to buy up space across the country. But so far, Amazon has only successfully converted around 25 shopping malls, in large part because the rezoning process that this conversion requires is so long and tedious that it often turns out to be more trouble than it’s worth.
Of course, the shopping mall isn’t extinct yet. Ritzy malls that house expensive stores and fashion houses will be around for a long time because they can afford to be. I wonder how many people said that about Sears, too.
