From “Let’s Go To the Mall,” sung by fictional popstar, Robin Sparkles, in the sitcom “How I Met Your Mother,” to Eleven telling Mike “I dump your ass!” in season 3 of Stranger Things, malls have been ingrained into American culture for decades.
Since their peak in the 1980s-90s, malls have been suffering a major decline in foot traffic following the rise of online shopping and the effects of COVID. While there were nearly 2500 malls open in the U.S. in the 80s, there are around 700 remaining today according to Total Retail, a news and analysis source for the retail industry.
According to the American Prospect, an American magazine, “Twenty-nine retail companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, leading to the shuttering of 2,368 apparel stores, 1,433 home furnishing stores, and 907 department stores,” following the COVID-19 pandemic, and this was merely aided with the rise of fast fashion, the rapid nature of consumer culture, and microtrends.
The growth of fast fashion is accredited to a “desire to capture current trends and deliver them to consumers at an affordable price,” according to the University of San Diego. This can lead to shoppers becoming increasingly impulsive with purchases, and in turn can cause the environment to suffer.
The manufacturing of clothing is responsible for 2-8% of annual greenhouse gas emissions. This is more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined, according to EarthDay.org. Despite the many negative effects that online shopping has, it is still appealing to consumers due to its ease.
“I prefer to shop online,” said senior Stella Yarusso, who rarely shops at malls, “I feel like it’s easier and more convenient, and most of the shopping malls are more in the suburb areas, and I live in more of the city area of Chicago, and it’s just less convenient for me.”
Senior Luka Thompson, an infrequent mall shopper, shared a similar viewpoint on online vs. in person shopping. “I find [online shopping] helpful, it’s easy to find things that you’re actually looking for, because if you go to a store and it’s not there, that could be a big time waster. Then, you have to go somewhere else to find it.”
While online shopping may serve as an easy tool to get shopping done quickly, that neglects the fact of shopping malls serving as a “third space.” The term created by Ray Oldenburg, an American sociologist, describes the home as the first place, one’s workplace or school as the second place, and the third place as a space “where people go to converse with others and connect with their community,” according to the University of Chicago.
“I feel like most of the time [I attend a mall], it’s been with friends to hang out, because I don’t buy things that often,” said Thompson, “So, most of the time I’d say it’s for leisure, unless I actually need something.” Yarusso similarly said “I’d say [I go to the mall] more often in the summer when I have more free time and I’m not in school. But even then, it’s only when my friends want to go.”
With certain retail chains such as Target placing age restrictions only allowing those 18+ to enter their stores, it deters young people from being able to spend their time there. According to the New York Post, “The teen problem has less to do with shoplifting… and more to do with general delinquent behavior and loitering,” and was set in place as an attempt to lessen fights taking place in the store.
For junior Mila Maksimovic, the main draw of the entire mall is the Target and in regards to the age restriction, “it makes me feel a little bit less welcomed, because it means I have to take my mom with me in order to go into the Target,” said Maksimovic.
However, this idea is contrasted by junior Eva Sharma. “I like that there’s a lot of options from different places I can go to [in the mall], and it’s a nice environment,” said Sharma. But, despite this welcoming environment, there has been a shift in her reasons for attending the mall.
“Usually, I go to the mall just to pick up one or two things or to go with my friends just for fun,” said Sharma, “But I feel like it used to be a lot different, where I used to go to the mall genuinely to just have fun with people.” This once again relates to the shift in malls becoming less of a welcoming third space for teenagers.
With this decrease in welcoming nature, it has also led to a decline in popularity. “I feel like [malls have] become a lot less popular over time just because you used to see a lot more people going to the mall on any random given day, but now there’s not as many of them,” said Maksimovic, “so, I would say it’s a lot less popular.”
Through the increasing amount of mall closings and bankruptcies of popular chain stores, the prevalence of in person shopping will merely continue to decrease. Only time will be able to tell what the future of shopping malls will look like.
