Death of the Mallrat

Paper or plastic? No, not bags, but cash v. credit card. How about physical v. virtual?

In the United States, approximately 1,000 shopping malls are left in existence. Just a few decades ago, online shopping was a luxury, not a common reality. Malls with an assortment of stores were packed with shoppers, and not simply at Christmas time.

Locally, malls are fading away quicker and quicker. Once big box stores close, the smaller ones vanish without a trace. How does this affect small businesses? What about prices and availability? Has society become so lazy that people can no longer bear walking into a store to pick up their own clothes and groceries?

Consumerism wasn’t always this way, so what contributed to the disappearance of physical stores? How did malls go from becoming cool to being deserted?

It’s time to perform an autopsy on the mall rat.

Mallrat: (noun)

A person who spends an enormous amount of time in a shopping mall or center.

Back in the day, physical stores were everywhere, and there was no shortage of diversity in store names and wares. People could spend all day in stores browsing, eating, and hanging out. In the 1980s, singers were even discovered in malls!

Physical Stores v. Online Shopping

Physical stores may be disappearing due to bankruptcy and online trends, but this doesn’t mean that these stores are ineffective. Grocery stores are essential. If you’re low on milk and bread, you can’t afford to wait for a 24-hour delivery! Not every piece of merchandise should be bought online, at least for all shoppers. Older shoppers who struggle with technology rely on physical stores. If stores continue to vanish at rapid rates, then the older populations are limited to what they can purchase and where they can do so.

Online shopping, however, is simple and convenient. With a few clicks, a shopper can have virtually anything shipped and delivered to the comforts of home. Because, at least in America, people are working longer hours and are highly stressed, online shopping provides a convenient way to order necessities and desires without having to carve out substantial time each week to drive to a store and navigate aisles with crowds of people.

At times the conveniency of online shopping seems dangerous to human independence. With COVID, store delivery was a genius, safe option for shoppers to get what they needed and then travel back home without extra exposure to the virus. This option is also helpful for the elderly who can’t walk around a big box store as well as they used to.

However, with the number of infections slowly receding, consumers have stayed on the delivery bandwagon. Why go into a store when someone else can shop for you? But what about autonomy? Our society has become lazier by relying on the newest technologies that can turn off your lights and closeyour garage door. If shoppers who are perfectly capable of navigating physical stores simply bow out, then physical stores become even more dependent on other people. Why should store employees be servants to the consumers? Here, “consumer” is a more accurate word because people are receiving and using the items instead of shopping for themselves. They consume.

Then again, not everything can be found in a physical store. Looking for the perfect, customized birthday gift? Wal-Mart will not be customizing an ornament for you if you’re standing in the store. However, online shopping is the perfect place for gift-givers. Between Etsy and Amazon, finding that spot-on gift through the internet is a synch!

Could our society come to a point where we rely entirely on online shopping? I personally don’t believe physical grocery stores could disappear. That would be way too risky. Besides, some people don’t even have internet access due to income or location. We’re not going to completely starve our own people, hopefully.

What about clothes? I also don’t believe we’ll ever have stores without any clothing (see reasons above). Society can’t require all peoples to rely on the internet to satisfy basic needs like food and clothing.

Men’s clothing, for the most part, is simple to buy online. Women, however, vary in size and body type, including bust size. Sure, websites offer sizing charts and product details, such as clothing material, but is shopping for clothes online worth the hassle? If the clothes don’t fit, then the customers are in charge of preparing for the return: boxes and shipping labels! On the other hand, most physical stores allow customers to try on clothes before buying them. Wouldn’t customers be better off trying before buying?

In analyzing mall closures, the small businesses must be mentioned first and foremost. Stores like JC Penney and Macy’s will always earn a profit because of both physical and online sales. However, consider an independently-owned gift shop or collectible store. These businesses need people to be physically present in their stores. Depending on the business and the owner, online sales may not be the most efficient method for revenue.

When malls close, small businesses truly fall into jeopardy. The owners must decide how to keep their business and relocate. Or, these stores may simply close down for good. Even smaller restaurants and concessions falls into the same consumer pit.

The disappearance of store chains also contributes to higher prices. The stores that still contain hard-to-find items will no doubt boost prices to earn a profit.

Finally, a colleague recently pointed out to me that shopping is a social experience. It’s true, whether that experiences is positive or annoying. Nonetheless, humans are interacting with each other, even by being present in the same aisle. Online shopping is antisocial, making it a popular pasttime for people who come home from work and want nothing to do with people. Reading product reviews is nothing compared to two people in an aisle discussing the differences between two vacuum cleaners!

Malls used to be a social experience. People would run into neighbors or peers. There were concessions and restaurants galore, not to mention games and arcades.

Perhaps, at the end of the day, Malls would bring people back together, back into the social, physical world.

1,000 malls sounds like a lot, but remember that these malls aren’t at full capacity. Stores come and go, and many have gaps from where stores were once booming.

The next time you shop, remember your malls and local shops!