Save The Malls

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Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-retail-apocalypse-has-officially-descended-on-america-2017-3

quote:

The retail apocalypse has officially descended on America

Thousands of mall-based stores are shutting down in what's fast becoming one of the biggest waves of retail closures in decades.

More than 3,500 stores are expected to close in the next couple months.

Department stores like JCPenney, Macy's, Sears, and Kmart are among the many companies shutting down stores, along with middle-of-the-mall chains like Crocs, BCBG, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Guess.

Some retailers are exiting the brick-and-mortar business altogether and trying to shift to an all-online model.

...

Visits to shopping malls have been declining for years with the rise of ecommerce, as well as titanic shifts in how shoppers are spending their money.

Visits to malls declined by 50% between 2010 and 2013, according to real estate research firm Cushman & Wakefield.

...

The nation's worst-performing malls � those classified in the industry as C- and D-rated � will be hit the hardest by the store closures.

The real estate research firm Green Street Advisors estimates that about 30% of all malls fall under that category.

That means that nearly a third of all shopping malls are at risk of dying off as a result of the store closures.

There goes all the "low skill" retail jobs.

love 2 live in late stage capitalism's degeneration from a consumer-based economy to a capitalist luxury economy

# ¿ Mar 22, 2017 14:38

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 12:53

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

KIND OF A KIM DEAL posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL7-CKirWZE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAoh_yteKkc

# ¿ Mar 22, 2017 15:20

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

A gritty send off to the classically beloved character, Kevin James in his last portrayal of the beloved private security officer patrols the empty skeleton of a decaying shopping center in Blart (2019).

# ¿ Mar 22, 2017 17:15

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

ate poo poo on live tv posted:

It's a good thing Malls are dying, but that has been the case for a long time so it's not really a big deal. Also who the gently caress wants to "save" the mall?

lol

The main thrust of this thread is that hundreds of thousands of jobs are gonna be lost and there won't be any replacements.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2017 19:20

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

The real reason nobody goes to malls is that wages have been stagnant for decades, and nobody wants to finance consumption through credit any more. Capitalism is hollowing out its own consumer base, meaning more and more of our energies are being directed towards servicing the desires of the capitalists who stole our wages to begin with. If malls survive it'll be because they're renting out space to churches or commercial interests.

Fallen Hamprince posted:

but what will happen to the american dream of working minimum wage at the cash at hot topic until u die????

Well without income or welfare, I guess you just die.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2017 19:38

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

call to action posted:

It's a bad thing because these malls killed Main Street, and now there's nothing left in these towns. Older malls in particular used to bring in a lot of tax money, too, before developers got smart with PIFs and made the shoppers pay for it all.

I used to live one county over from Nowata, Oklahoma, which became infamous for being one of the first towns that was destroyed by Wal-Mart. They moved a shopping center into the area, which wiped out all of the mainstreet businesses - but after a decade they decided that there wasn't enough of a consumer market to support the store - so they closed up and left the economy in complete ruins. It took another decade before businesses came back to mainstreet, but by then the town was already half depopulated.

When the malls start shutting down the same thing is going to happen to rural towns all across the country.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2017 20:26

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

resar posted:

Its good because they are all sexist racism monsters.

Imagine how hosed they'll be when they close the racism factories.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2017 20:54

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

Badger of Basra posted:

could it not just be that people don't like going to the mall anymore

Why would you like going to the mall if you can't afford to shop?

# ¿ Mar 23, 2017 00:02

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

It's pretty insidious how online retailers try to emulate impulse purchases with things like "people who bought this item also bought THESE:"

# ¿ Mar 23, 2017 00:07

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

The Muppets On PCP posted:

rural depopulation's been a thing for a couple generations now

Rural depopulation has always been coupled with the prospect of earning urban employment. That was the whole point going all the way back to the English Enclosure Laws, when communal lands were effectively stolen by the aristocracy so peasants would be dispossessed and forced to work in urban factories. It was a miserable, squalid existence but they could at least eat (some). That's not going to happen this time. We're in an economic crunch and the jobs just aren't there anymore. Maybe you can cook the books and create incentives for more low-level low-paying work like Obama did, but it's just not going to be enough. This isn't the inevitable march of progress towards urban concentration, it's an unemployment crisis.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2017 02:34

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

The Muppets On PCP posted:

yeah because agricultural jobs have largely been mechanized over the past half century, and the ones that aren't are mostly poo poo handled by migrant workers or prisoners

dying malls has gently caress all to do with why people are leaving the sticks

Maybe those century long processes aren't relevant to what's happening in the present, is my point.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2017 02:38

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

The Muppets On PCP posted:

they absolutely are

the one thing that made living in rural areas possible for working people i.e. work has largely disappeared

There isn't anything to live on in the urban areas either.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2017 02:55

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

Scrub-Niggurath posted:

That's just flat out not true. You can make a point about rent rates being too high or something but there's jobs in the cities

quote:

https://medium.com/@Brookings/americas-male-employment-crisis-is-both-urban-and-rural-60078600e83b#.gv1gcxen8

...

Rates of work among prime-aged men are below average in both cities and smaller, less urbanized communities. The latest available data, which reflect conditions between 2010 and 2014, indicate that slightly over 80 percent of all prime-aged men nationwide were working during that time.[2] Prevailing rates were lower, however, in both large cities and smaller, less urban communities (Figure 2). In big cities and smaller metro areas, 79 percent of prime-aged men were employed during those years. The shares dropped to 75 and 72 percent, respectively, in micropolitan and rural areas.

...

Low rates of work among prime-aged men also affect many big cities with diverse populations. Among the 139 primary cities, 18 exhibited employment rates below 70 percent for these men from 2010�2014. Interestingly, Rust Belt cities � including three in Ohio and one each in Michigan and Pennsylvania � figure most prominently among those with very low prime-aged male employment rates. Other racially segregated cities in the Northeast (Hartford, Newark, Rochester, Springfield, and Syracuse) exhibit similarly low rates of work among these men.

Employment rates among men fell dramatically in smaller communities, but rose in cities. Considerably lower rates of work among prime-aged men in micropolitan and rural areas reflect a long-term decline in their employment. From 2000 to 2010�2014, the share of males ages 25�54 who were employed dropped by 4.8 percentage points in micropolitan counties, and by 5.4 percentage points in rural counties (Figure 4). By contrast, employment among this group in cities rose by 2 percentage points during that time and fell only modestly in high-density suburbs. This suggests that a community�s level of urbanization was closely related to its employment outcomes for prime-aged male workers.

...

Many cities saw equivalent gains in employment rates among this group, including the largest (New York), second-largest (Los Angeles), and fourth-largest (Houston) cities in the country. Some of the changes in non-metro areas and cities may be attributable to changes in the strength of local economies and their demand for workers. At the same time, the changes may also reflect shifts in the underlying populations of those areas over time, as small communities lose more employable residents to out-migration and big cities gain them through in-migration. Notwithstanding those widespread gains, older industrial cities like Akron, Allentown, Augusta, Detroit, Syracuse, and Tacoma experienced declines in prime-aged male employment similar to those occurring in rural areas nationwide.

...

Big cities remain home to more out-of-work prime-aged men than other types of communities. As shown in Figure 2, prime-aged men in cities exhibited below-average employment rates in 2010�2014, as did those in small metro areas, micropolitan areas, and rural communities. This finding � combined with the fact that primary cities are the most populous of the seven community types analyzed here (see Figure 1) � shows that cities contain a larger number of out-of-work prime-aged men than any other community type (see Figure 6). An estimated 2.9 million non-working males ages 25�54 lived in big cities in 2010�2014. The next-largest group occupied small metro areas, followed by high-density and mature suburbs. If micropolitan and rural areas are considered together, they still contained fewer out-of-work prime-aged men than either primary cities or small metro areas.

...

In the wake of the election, analysis has focused on the white working class and how to alleviate the economic distress facing the smaller communities in which many of those individuals live. But just a year and a half ago, the conversation focused on urban places like Baltimore and Ferguson, where tensions between communities of color and law enforcement exposed longstanding economic frustrations. Addressing the employment challenges faced by both types of communities will take serious, long-term commitment and public policy focus untethered from the news cycle.

This is all within the context of the economy generating 15 million (poor quality, low pay) jobs during the Obama administration. If mall closures are coupled with another market crisis, the knock-on effects could be catastrophic, at a time when major cities still cannot contend with their already existing unemployed population - and several cities have contracted due to industrial decay. I don't think I need to remind this thread that, if such a crisis does hit, who is in power right now and what their politics are.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2017 03:27

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

Badger of Basra posted:

so do you think the government should be subsidizing malls as a jobs program or what

The better solution would be to just have the government make jobs that service the public, but if it really came to that then sure why not. Russia has several "model cities" left over from the Soviet era which they're still subsidizing, because otherwise market forces would wipe them out and create an internal refugee crisis.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2017 03:29

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

The Muppets On PCP posted:

hey look at that, the employment rate of prime working age men in rural areas is significantly lower than everywhere else, and unemployment among the same cohort has risen in cities because that's where those people are moving

how bout dem apples

This will surely continue forever under the guidance of our God Emperor.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2017 03:43

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

Nebakenezzer posted:

So I *can* sign you up for "Mall Aid"

Like seriously what do you want to do about this

socialism, duh

# ¿ Mar 23, 2017 21:10

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

all the space in those malls would be more than enough for classrooms if you really think about it. Just have to install some soundproofed walls in the empty department stores and you're set.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2017 21:49

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 12:53

Pener Kropoopkin: Jan 30, 2013

I had a very interesting conversation about malls with my Sikh cab driver yesterday...

# ¿ Mar 24, 2017 04:46

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > Save The Malls