[emkoemko]

is this a American thing? here in Canada malls are doing well and we keep building even more sometimes next to busy malls... its strange even they tell us Toys R Us is gone? yet they are not closed here basically all the malls have a Toys R Us..

whats up with the states?

[smoovb]

Right. The state of malls in US is quite a contrast to Asia where new malls keep being built, especially here in Thailand.

Malls across Asia represent the height of social interaction.

Teenagers come and hang out. Social events like fashion shows, food fairs, car shows all are held in the clean comfort malls Public area. If you have a child that does any kind of singing dancing or musical instrument the recital is most likely to be held at the mall.

Meeting someone for dinner is easiest done at the mall restaurants - which includes some many chains but also unique sole proprietor restaurants.

I’ve yet to go to a popular mall where the parking lot is not absolutely packed. In this case you use the malls built-in car wash services while you take a stroll.

The pandemic has certainly taken a toll on Thailand’s malls as well, but it does not look their position in society will be uprooted by online shopping anytime soon.

Check out photos of the recently built Icon Siam to see the latest in mall monstrosities.

[emkoemko]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/CrossIro...

we build malls in middle of nowhere and they get packed...

[sk1459]

Bain Capital bought Toys R Us with leverage, put the debt on their books and it crushed them. There’s a great write up by Zachary Yost. https://austrian.economicblogs.org/mises-us/2021/yost-proper...

He looks like he could be 12, but I think the quality of his analyses are always excellent.

[Spooky23]

They overbuilt 20-30 years ago and buildings are designed to go 20-30 years between major capital expenditure. A big part of that business is syndicating and selling tax write offs... no capital investment breaks that.

So now malls are facing envelopement from discount stores and big box, plus the ever growing threat of Amazon and other e-commerce.

The malls that get investment are pivoting to supermarket anchors and entertainment.

[cabacon]

The story I read (https://andrewdamitio-92271.medium.com/the-decline-of-the-am...) says that there was a shift post-WWII that encouraged building real estate, the accelerated depreciation from the article.

Then as things shifted back to linear depreciation, it made building/running malls much less attractive, and we're seeing that play out over the 20-30 year capital lifecycle you mention.

[emkoemko]

oh your thinking they just built to many?

[bysin]

Online retail happened, and it's not just America [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_mall#Changes_in_the_retai...

[emkoemko]

and yet i don't see any of this in Canada, malls packed, more malls built and Toys R Us still in all of them. What could be the difference between Canada and USA?

[agogdog]

I'd wager that Canada has/had many fewer malls than USA (per capita). Even many small nowhere cities would have a mall.

[emkoemko]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/CrossIro...

that was built out of the city middle of no where because there was not enough water and land to do it in the city, and yet still full and now Costco and others opened next to it, plus a new mall built across it. there are like 10+ malls withing 20km

something is different maybe the weather leads more people to liking to go to a warm place in the winter? but then again many parts of the world malls are doing well.