Are Times Changing?

Many of us have forgotten, but when the nation’s first mall opened in Minnesota in 1956, it was celebrated as the most modern, convenient and pleasant shopping experience that could possibly be had. It featured 70 stores under one roof, and was considered revolutionary.

It was called Southdale, and the mall still operates to this very day.

However, the idea of the shopping mall experience has lost a lot of its luster since then. Retailers, and the general public, are turning back to old fashioned values. Shoppers are gravitating toward the outdoor, mixed-use “Main Street” formula that ironically, enclosed, indoor shopping malls were originally designed to replace.

A striking statistic: of the 102,000 shopping centers in the United States, some 99 percent are open-air centers. Enclosed malls, on the other hand, are increasingly found empty or nearly empty. Architects and owners are desperate to find new ways to use the space.

And a new concept has emerged: “de-malling”. It is a process in which once-vaunted roofs are removed, and malls are starting to enact it. How times have changed.