[koolba]

The end state of US malls is going to be when Amazon secretly purchases a large number of them, converts the department stores into distribution centers, opens them en masse, and provides a $1/item discount for orders picked up at the mall.

That will provide the necessary foot traffic to rent out the rest of the mall to small time players that will try to compete with Amazon. Unfortunately, they'll have all their sales tracked by Ring cameras, and eventually have their offerings cloned as Amazon Basics knock offs. On the plus side the food court and restaurants will do fine as there will be plenty of people burning $2 of gas to save $1 on a $10 made in China knickknack.

[jeffrallen]

The food courts will be subsidised by Amazon, using 1 day before expired products from Whole Foods. The food courts will have an amazing automated delivery system with robots and overhead tracks whisking around salads and burgers.

Mall security will be offered for free by Pinkerton, on condition that they get to keep the parking lot fines.

Ring cameras on Pinkerton guards will identify known union organisers via facial recognition, and a they will be delivered "special" salads, laced with E Coli bacteria.

This fictional future was brought to you by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_union_busting_in_th... and https://www.parkingpanda.com/blog/post/top-10-cities-with-hi... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajneeshpuram