The Rise and Fall of the Shopping Mall

The Smithsonian’s article turned to the New Yorker magazine’s great writer, Malcolm Gladwell, to explain how mall developers were allowed to “ ‘deduct much larger sums, which would be counted, technically, as depreciation loss — completely tax-free money.’ ”

“ ‘Suddenly it was possible to make much more money investing in things like shopping centers than buying stocks,’ Gladwell writes, “ ‘so money poured into real-estate investment companies.’ ”

Over 1,200 shopping malls shot up in the U.S. after the earliest examples were built in the 1950s, according to World Market.

A massive amount of money was made by investors in new malls, but there was an unintended social cost.

As millions of suburbanites switched their shopping to the malls, many large retailers in the downtown cores of major cities and small stores on local main streets were devastated and put out of business.

Malls had their Golden Åge, but they’ve been in decline for years.

They’ve been bleeding shoppers and revenues because of the growth of online shopping and now, after being crushed by a year and a half of covid lockdowns, they’re being shuttered in big numbers.

Some malls, like my old teenage stamping ground, appear to be hanging in there. Sears is long gone, but Target and Dick’s appear to be doing well.

Some mall owners, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, are introducing innovative ideas to remain relevant — and viable.

Others, says NPR, are remaking their vast, rarely busy spaces into apartments, medical facilities, office spaces and other important re-uses.

I wish all of them better luck than Ayres, Klingler and I had 40-some years ago. We spent hundreds of hours walking up and down our mall’s crowded corridors, but never once met any girls!

Tom Purcell is an author and humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Email him at Tom@TomPurcell.com.