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American Dream - The 3 million square foot, $5 billion "Post-Shopping Mall" opens
- Thread starter EviLore
- Start date
Rest
All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
I give this thing six or seven years until it closes.
Rest
All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
Malls in the US are fine, but mall owners have been trying to kill them from the inside for 15 years. Crazy high rents, treating tenants like shit, dirty bathrooms. Shoppers like malls, but there are no local stores in malls because small businesses can't afford the rent. If all that you can find in a mall are national corporate chains, you can just shop online. The rents are so high that food courts have inflated prices, and there is, again, no local flavor or anything unique. If the Taco Bell at the mall charges 30% more to be in the mall, why eat there? You can drive down the street and get the same food cheaper.
The malls that don't price gouge their tenants and keep their public facilities clean don't have many vacancies and people still shop at them. "Millennials are killing malls" is just another angry excuse that out of touch corporate muckety mucks are trying to sell, and corporate media goes along with it because big corporations are so integrated into every market that they can't afford to step on any toes.
Malls are fine. Real estate shit heads are too greedy for their own good.
dr_octagon
Banned
It needs a special name like Super Hyper Omni Consu-Mall Ex Ultra Edition Covid Buster Feat. DJ Khaled
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Increasingly malls are like a showroom for different brands. My local mall has a Casper mattress store, a Warby Parker store stuff that used to be online only.
It's all in the wrist
Member
I miss malls.
Dirk Benedict
Gold Member
I feel COVID hastened the demise of a lot of businesses, and I feel this "Mall" could have fallen either way. Amazon is turning a lot of land into warehouses to store their shit and ship. They bought a chunk of land in the area I live in and even bought out a Church! Then, after everyone voted for it... people decided to change their minds and boot them out... For what? lmao... these people here are fucking inept.. We could have had a nice job surge.... Even I was thinking of applying... what a loss..
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
I think the US is in a different situation than lots of other countries.
That is there's so many businesses. Like overkill. Every time I go to a US city and just look around as a buddy trip, or a business trip and get whisked to the office by a taxi, there just seems to be so many grocery stores, fast food joints, big box stores I dont see how they can all survive even before covid.
Every time I'd go to a US Target or Costco to check them out they'd be dead.
That is there's so many businesses. Like overkill. Every time I go to a US city and just look around as a buddy trip, or a business trip and get whisked to the office by a taxi, there just seems to be so many grocery stores, fast food joints, big box stores I dont see how they can all survive even before covid.
Every time I'd go to a US Target or Costco to check them out they'd be dead.
Master Of Illusion
Member
Why go to an indoor park where only 2 out of the 4 coasters available are always closed when you could go to Six Flags for THE SAME PRICE.
NITRO NEVER CLOSES MOTHERFUCKER.
NITRO NEVER CLOSES MOTHERFUCKER.
BattleMonkey
Member
Malls were already on the outs and dying left and right way before COVID. COVID just accelerated things for many malls which were already on the ropes trying to make it.
Unless you were located in a very unique place that made your mall a destination for locals, folks had little reason to go there anymore with online shopping and just accessibility elsewhere. Also the retail space of malls are typically stupid expensive and management companies like SIMON who control most malls in America are garbage who want insane money for space, which forces stores in malls to have to typically charge more than anywhere else. Malls themselves made it hard for retailers to compete. You went to set up shop in a mall to be seen, to get a premium location essentially, but now that less folks are going, why are rents still going up, why are the malls being so restrictive. As vendors leave the malls instead of trying to bring in new vendors with lowered rents and leases, they just kept raising their prices to compensate.
COVID took much of the traffic from malls and many have no recovered as so many folks have moved onto online shopping as well as convenience shopping via online ordering with curbside pickup.
Aesius
Member
Where on earth are you going that has “dead” Costcos or Targets? And what time of day were you going?
Target is packed on the weekends and Costco is INSANE on the weekends. That’s true in four different cities I’ve lived in that have both.
PSYGN
Member
American Dream... how fitting
But seriously I'm blessed to have been born in this country.
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daffyduck
Member
And an NHL size hockey rink. The “ski hill” would have been redundant.
chromhound
Member
Time to turn it into a Condo Complex
0neAnd0nly
Member
I actually hate it.
This is the mall that has the new Toys R Us that opened last year (December 2021). Big store. Children need a big toy store again, I shutter to think a generation of kids in America have no huge toy store to go look in and look through.
I don't want this mall to fail, I hate that retail is hurting and dying. I think it will be a mistake in the future, as I don't think the main player in online sales has a shred of dignity.
This is the mall that has the new Toys R Us that opened last year (December 2021). Big store. Children need a big toy store again, I shutter to think a generation of kids in America have no huge toy store to go look in and look through.
I don't want this mall to fail, I hate that retail is hurting and dying. I think it will be a mistake in the future, as I don't think the main player in online sales has a shred of dignity.
nush
Member
You're casting a wide net with "Asia" but what I see happen in China is a lot of malls being built and when they are new they are very busy. Then like a new club people get bored of they move onto the next new mall. However population density and good public transport links means the malls are easy to get to and are air conditioned so perfect to get away from the heat and humidity. Online shopping is still taking over. There's lots of dead/dying malls and the old 5 floor department store style malls are dead.
IntentionalPun
Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Depends on where you are.
The high end downtown or urban neighborhood malls aren't.
Big malls that existed to serve a wide area of bored people who didn't mind driving an hour+ to go be a consumer as there was nothing else to do and oh look a movie theater? Those people are shopping on amazon or at Walmart and streaming movies now lol
crumbs
Member
I spent some time at American Dream last summer as part of an event my employer was involved in. I hesitate to compare it to a "normal" mall, but here were my observations at the time:
1. Coming out of COVID restrictions, much of the retail spaces were still empty. I don't think any anchor stores were open (there was a Best Buy, if that counts), nor was the "luxury" wing they had planned.
2. The non-retail attractions were generating most of the foot traffic. The water park, theme park, ice rink, and ski slope were pretty popular. It was weird seeing people lined up in the morning decked out in ski gear in them middle of summer.
3. There were no sit-down restaurants open. They had a large food court, but it wasn't very impressive even compared to a bog-standard suburban mall food court.
4. There's potential for major auto traffic issues due to it's proximity to Met Life Stadium. If the stadium is hosting an event, it would be a mess to get anywhere near the area.
Not sure how much has changed since last summer, but I don't find the financial woes to be surprising. It tries to be so many things, but doesn't really do well at any of them.
1. Coming out of COVID restrictions, much of the retail spaces were still empty. I don't think any anchor stores were open (there was a Best Buy, if that counts), nor was the "luxury" wing they had planned.
2. The non-retail attractions were generating most of the foot traffic. The water park, theme park, ice rink, and ski slope were pretty popular. It was weird seeing people lined up in the morning decked out in ski gear in them middle of summer.
3. There were no sit-down restaurants open. They had a large food court, but it wasn't very impressive even compared to a bog-standard suburban mall food court.
4. There's potential for major auto traffic issues due to it's proximity to Met Life Stadium. If the stadium is hosting an event, it would be a mess to get anywhere near the area.
Not sure how much has changed since last summer, but I don't find the financial woes to be surprising. It tries to be so many things, but doesn't really do well at any of them.
Porcile
Member
You're casting a wide net with "Asia" but what I see happen in China is a lot of malls being built and when they are new they are very busy. Then like a new club people get bored of they move onto the next new mall. However population density and good public transport links means the malls are easy to get to and are air conditioned so perfect to get away from the heat and humidity. Online shopping is still taking over. There's lots of dead/dying malls and the old 5 floor department store style malls are dead.
Yeah it was a pretty loose definition, and I don't have any business evidence to back it up, but anecdotally from my experience of cities in Japan, Tokyo and Kyoto for example, going to a shopping mall is just an exercise in waiting in queues to get a seat at even the most average chain restaurant or cafe. There is always a queue out the door at the McDonald's in Sunshine City in Ikebukuro, or even a 30 minute queue just to pay at some shops sometimes depending on the day. Haven't visited China, but my experience of Hong Kong and Taipei before the pandemic was pretty similar. Getting a table for two at Din Tai Fung in Taipei 101 is always an hour+ wait no matter what day or time it is. I have to imagine other middle class consumer driven countries like Singapore are pretty similar too. Is there even a single mall in the entirety of The US like one you could find in even a smallish Asian city in Japan like Nagoya or Sapporo on Saturday? Doubt it.
Nobody_Important
“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
Opening up a massive over the top mega-mall the year before the pandemic?
That has to fucking SUCK. Imagine being in the board room when reports started rolling in about Covid.
That has to fucking SUCK. Imagine being in the board room when reports started rolling in about Covid.
nush
Member
Malls here do seem to have a floor dedicated just to restaurants, not just a food court like in the US. I imagine a lot of the foot traffic is just there for the restaurants, coffee shops and food stalls. But a lot of those eateries don't last too long even when evenings and weekends they seem to be packed.