The Decline of Shopping Malls

[seicer]

The Decline of Shopping Malls

The American retail landscape is changing. The love affair with the enclosed shopping center peaked about a decade ago and has been waning as consumers seek out revitalized urban centers and mixed-use retail, office and residential developments.
Between 1956 and 2005, approximately 1,500 indoor malls were constructed. Aided in part thanks to the Interstate Highway Act that allowed for the development of 54,000 miles of interstate highways, residents began moving from rural settlements and dense, urban cities to suburban tracts. Whereas shopping was once done in downtowns and neighborhood business districts, roomy shopping centers took their place. Customers could now drive their automobiles to a sea of asphalt and fit their vehicles within generously-sized parking spaces, and then spend their time within an artificial and heated concourse.

Few traditional malls have been constructed in the 21st century, though. The rise of the Internet shopping have been partly to blame, as the convenience of one-click ordering made it easier to acquire hard-to-acquire items, but a physical shift also occurred. Suburban mixed-use developments that incorporated retail, office and residential components became favored, such as Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio or Crocker Park in west Cleveland. To an extent, urban projects, such as Pullman Square in Huntington, West Virginia, have siphoned some of the glitz and attention away from traditional malls. There is also direct competition with newer malls that have caused older facilities to languish and be forgotten, too.

Randall Park Mall is one of those malls. When it was completed during the mall boom of the 1970's, it boasted its motto, "Much More Than Everything."  It boasted five anchors and more than 100 inline stores, and was surrounded physically with other department stores, restaurants and hotels. Randall Park, a rural settlement turned suburban powerhouse, even put an image of a shopping bag into its municipal seal.

But newer developments in newer suburbs began to siphon away business. One by one, retailers left and ownership changed until the mall closed in March 2009. After being in a state of abandonment, demolition began in December 2014. It is to be replaced with an industrial park, arguably more sustainable and tax-producing than a mall, but only time will tell if it will be a success.

Higbee's/Dillard's






Sears wing








JCPenny wing












Dillard's wing






General Cinema 3-screen movie theater




Magic Johnson Theaters

Even my hometown was not spared. When Cedar Knoll Galleria opened in 1989 on the outskirts of Ashland, Kentucky, it's developers boasted that it would become a powerful regional shopping destination. It was a risk that was not well received: Ashland Town Center opened shortly before near downtown.

Cedar Knoll Galleria, never boasting an occupancy above 69%, featured Sears, Elder-Beerman, K-Mart and Phar-Mor as its anchors, but in 2002, Phar-Mor closed all of their stores in the southern United States, including the Cedar Knoll location. K-Mart also pulled out later in the year and was replaced by Artrip's Market and a flea market in late 2004. Inline stores began leaving and in 2014, Sears left. Elder-Beerman is the only major tenant remaining, other than a movie theater that relocated in the former Phar-Mor.

Elder-Beerman


Former Sears


Food Court entrance








Former K-Mart


Former Sears

There is no redevelopment proposal for Cedar Knoll, though. It's languishing with a scattering of offices inside, some moribund retailers and some eateries — and while it's not completely devoid of activity, it will never be fully appreciated at what it was once destined for. Far better uses of the building and land could surely be found.

The American retail landscape is changing, and thankfully it is no longer favoring just enclosed shopping malls.

[1995hoo]

The mall that amuses me is Landmark Mall in Alexandria, Virginia. Google Maps satellite view here: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8154126,-77.1304096,836m/data=!3m1!1e3

When I was a little kid, it was an outdoor pedestrian mall. Sears at one end, Hecht's at the other, Woodward & Lothrop in between, with the other stores fronting on outdoor walkways. At some point in the 1980s, they converted it to a conventional indoor mall. Sears and Hecht's remained (they both owned their own buildings) and after the Woodies chain went out of business that space became a Lord & Taylor, which has since closed (in part because it's too upscale a retailer for that location). Hecht's became Macy's in 2005 or 2006.

The indoor mall at that location never really succeeded due to competition from other nicer nearby malls and demographic issues (my brother used to be head of loss prevention at Sears there and he said that store is considered "inner-city" due to customer demographics) and now the plan is to turn it back into an outdoor mall along the original lines. Sears and Macy's will stay. Don't know about the Lord & Taylor space. The mall has been dying for years as stores inside close down in preparation for the demolition. I find it somewhat amusing and somewhat pathetic that they want to change it back to the way it used to be.



The pictures of Randall Park Mall in the first post in this thread remind me a lot of the old interior of Springfield Mall near where I live. Strikingly similar-looking interior. Springfield Mall was troubled for years due to crime, stores closing, a weird design, and an apathetic owner. It finally closed (except the three anchors–JC Penney, Macy's, and Target) and it re-opened last fall as "Springfield Town Center." It's still an indoor mall but they have more grandiose plans for the surrounding sea of parking. I have not been there yet. It's only three miles from home, but there's nothing there I feel the need to patronize, and the one movie I've wanted to see in the past few months was not playing at their cinema (the final Hobbit flick; I saw it in Florida instead over Christmas). Big thing is, though, the parking is always jammed whenever I drive past. I don't know if that's a sign of lots of customers or lots of employees due to there being more stores.

[seicer]

I dunno. A lot of malls started out as open-air centers, which were designed to be reliefs from the crowded urban centers that were often portrayed as grimy, dirty and smelly places. The malls were out on the fringes of the city, in the country, where the air was generally cleaner, but most were later enclosed. I'm posting up my Westland Mall in Columbus, Ohio gallery below - it's an example of this, and it too is a dead mall.

I'm a huge advocate of downtown and inner city developments, but even there, retail can struggle. Columbus, Ohio had City Center Mall, anchored by the flagship Lazarus, but it died a fast death after Easton Town Center, an open-air mixed-use development, opened on the far northeast side. More sustainable residential, retail and office space has replaced City Center - and has probably marked the end of the mall concept in downtown.

--

Westland Mall

As a child of the 1980's, I recall many memories at the Huntington Mall in Barboursville, West Virginia. With it's beige floor tiles, fountains, wooden oak benches and retro shops, you could spend hours exploring. Shops like the San Francisco Music Box Company, Hickory Farms and Radio Shack were my mainstays. Of course, the Huntington Mall sucked the shopping experience from downtown Huntington into a suburban wasteland, surrounded not by historic buildings but by a sea of asphalt.

The Westland Mall in Columbus, Ohio was similar. Built upon the promise of open-air shopping in suburbia, the mall boasted three anchors and over 40 stores, from stores that peddled drapes to sewing equipment and eccentric clothing.The mall was one of four directionally-named shopping centers in the metropolitan area built in the same time period: Westland, Northland, Eastland and Southland. Westland was later enclosed in the early 1980's.

But the Westland Mall evoked a similar feeling to the Huntington Mall that I remembered as a child. By 2011, Westland was on its deathbed, but it's interior was simply vintage, having never been renovated after it's enclosure. Brown tiles adorned the floor, dark-tinted lights were fastened on the pillars and remnants of stores long gone lined the concourse. There was not a soul inside and for the 30 minutes I walked around, all I could hear was the water dripping from the deteriorated ceiling.

Several weeks ago, I revisited Westland Mall, only to find it practically boarded up and abandoned. The only tenants that remained were Staples and Sears, both of who have no entrances to the concourse. Boarded up windows cover panes of broken glass at the entrances to the concourse. Inside, sad and pathetic signs on whiteboard tell of a mall with no ATM and restroom facilities. Outside, transformers that once fed into the course lay in pieces, stripped of any valuable metal.

Front entrance in 2011










Front entrance in 2014


Sears






Sears Auto Center


JC Penny






Lazarus and later Macy's

I have posted over 60 historical photos of Westland Mall, but since reposting them here would be a nightmare, I have put a sample of what the shopping center once was.

Over 100 photos of Westland, and a complete history, at http://abandonedonline.net/locations/malls-and-shopping-centers/westland-mall/

[oscar]

The mall that amuses me is Landmark Mall in Alexandria, Virginia. Google Maps satellite view here: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8154126,-77.1304096,836m/data=!3m1!1e3

When I was a little kid, it was an outdoor pedestrian mall. Sears at one end, Hecht's at the other, Woodward & Lothrop in between, with the other stores fronting on outdoor walkways. At some point in the 1980s, they converted it to a conventional indoor mall. Sears and Hecht's remained (they both owned their own buildings) and after the Woodies chain went out of business that space became a Lord & Taylor, which has since closed (in part because it's too upscale a retailer for that location). Hecht's became Macy's in 2005 or 2006.

The indoor mall at that location never really succeeded due to competition from other nicer nearby malls and demographic issues (my brother used to be head of loss prevention at Sears there and he said that store is considered "inner-city" due to customer demographics) and now the plan is to turn it back into an outdoor mall along the original lines. Sears and Macy's will stay. Don't know about the Lord & Taylor space. The mall has been dying for years as stores inside close down in preparation for the demolition. I find it somewhat amusing and somewhat pathetic that they want to change it back to the way it used to be.

Seven Corners mall, another inside-the-Beltway shopping mall with roughly similar demographics, went the other way, converting from a two-level mall with interior store entrances, to a bi-level strip mall (upper level facing VA 7, lower facing US 50) with only exterior entrances and the old interior corridors added to the new stores' floor space.  The old Woodward & Lothrop (mid-scale department store) became a Shoppers Food grocery store (upper level) and Home Depot (lower level).  The Garfinkel's (upper mid-scale department store) that was the anchor at the other end of the old mall also went downscale, with a Ross now occupying the lower level, and an Off Broadway Shoe on the upper level.

The pictures of Randall Park Mall in the first post in this thread remind me a lot of the old interior of Springfield Mall near where I live. Strikingly similar-looking interior. Springfield Mall was troubled for years due to crime, stores closing, a weird design, and an apathetic owner. It finally closed (except the three anchors–JC Penney, Macy's, and Target) and it re-opened last fall as "Springfield Town Center." It's still an indoor mall but they have more grandiose plans for the surrounding sea of parking. I have not been there yet. It's only three miles from home, but there's nothing there I feel the need to patronize, and the one movie I've wanted to see in the past few months was not playing at their cinema (the final Hobbit flick; I saw it in Florida instead over Christmas). Big thing is, though, the parking is always jammed whenever I drive past. I don't know if that's a sign of lots of customers or lots of employees due to there being more stores.

I did a little Christmas shopping at the re-christened Springfield Town Center, and was disappointed at how little it had changed.  No reason for me to go back there (not real close to where I live).

That Target is a converted former Montgomery Ward's.  It's a bi-level store, with an escalator converted to move shopping carts between levels.

[1995hoo]

....

That Target is a converted former Montgomery Ward's.  It's a bi-level store, with an escalator converted to move shopping carts between levels.

That shopping cart escalator is quite cool and is the best thing about that store. Off the top of my head I do not ever remember seeing anything like it elsewhere. The other Target stores I've been into (only two....the one in Burke and the Super Target in Viera, Florida) are single-level.

I remember when it was Montgomery Ward but I do not remember ever going in there back then. Ward's had another location near Seven Corners on the far side of Route 50 past the traffic light at Patrick Henry Drive. I think it is also a Target now, though I'm not positive–when I was a kid and we lived near Fairfax Hospital, we used Route 50 all the time to get to DC in the days before I-66 and Metrorail, but given where I live now, there's just not much reason to use that road.

Funny thing, there is an abandoned building across the car park from Springfield Mal...errr, Town Center to the west of the Silver Diner along Franconia Road. If you look closely, you can see the outline of the old lettering for the Montgomery Ward HR department. I think the mailbox outside still mentions Ward's as well. (I sometimes go to the bank next door there and I recall noting several indications of the building's old use.) That building has been empty for a LONG time now....

BTW, I remember back in the 1980s when the Prince and Princess of Wales (i.e., Charles and Diana) went shopping at the JC Penney at Springfield Mall. Even as a kid I remember wondering why in the world they would go THERE. Turns out there was some sort of product line by a British designer and they wanted to lend some prestige to it.

[Takumi]

Walnut Mall in Petersburg, VA has always intrigued me. I remember going there when I was very young, and I've worked at its former site since 2008. It closed in the early 1990s, but stood abandoned until 2006 when it was demolished and partially replaced with a strip mall. Part of the original parking lot is still there, and about half the mall's footprint is now a field.

[Pink Jazz]

Here in the Phoenix area we currently have three malls in decline: Desert Sky Mall in the Maryvale neighborhood in Phoenix, Metrocenter Mall in north Phoenix, and Fiesta Mall in western Mesa.

[ZLoth]

The convenience of the shopping mall has been replaced by the convenience of online shopping. Plus, most of the mall prices were usually near retail. Why? The rental agreement between the merchant and the landlord meant you paid monthly rent plus a percentage of your gross sales.

[bandit957]

Malls have ruined life for people in the cities. Why should I have to travel 20 miles out of town just to buy a book or a TV set?

[Billy F 1988]

I vouch to say that malls in Montana in particular haven't ruined lives per se, but there have been times where some hood rat or redneck drunk roam parts of the mall and reek havoc on the place to the point where people have chosen a different way to shop, a la the online method. The Southgate Mall in Missoula is definitely seeing change, though it isn't declining per se, because that's really the bulk of Missoula County's annual income on top of some other known businesses. The city of Missoula and Missoula County would take a big hit if we lost the Southgate Mall to something else other than online shopping.

[GCrites]

The convenience of the shopping mall has been replaced by the convenience of online shopping. Plus, most of the mall prices were usually near retail. Why? The rental agreement between the merchant and the landlord meant you paid monthly rent plus a percentage of your gross sales.

Only 6% of retail purchases take place online, even today. There are also many different types of mall leases that exist.

[NJRoadfan]

North Jersey's malls don't seem to have a problem. Its likely due to the population density. South Jersey is a different story. Retail vacancies in strip malls are high however (this is a nationwide problem). Many of them are completely empty with leasing companies unwilling to rehab them or still charging high rents. Retail blight doesn't last long though as land is valuable and there isn't much empty space left to build on, so stuff actually gets knocked down and redeveloped.

Down in NC, I see tons of new retail construction despite existing buildings laying vacant. There is one strip mall near my uncle's that was built in 2007, but has stood empty to this day except for one tenant. During that time at least 3 more large shopping centers were built nearby, none of them fully leased.

[hbelkins]

Malls have ruined life for people in the cities. Why should I have to travel 20 miles out of town just to buy a book or a TV set?

Conversely, why should people have to travel downtown and fight traffic and compete for limited parking?

[PHLBOS]

Another reason why new malls aren't being constructed as well as some malls being converted to 'strip' malls (what many of us used to call shopping centers) can be blamed on the skyrocketing heating & cooling costs that occurred within the last 10 years.

Those atrium spaces & corridors of those closed malls that the OP posted as well as those of other malls, I'm sure costed a bundle to heat and/or cool.

One small mall near me, the MacDade Mall, has been converted to a strip mall a few years ago.  A proposal to turn the old mall into an upscale establishment shopping complex literally crashed & burned a few years ago when it was realized that there weren't any potential upscale partons (read Yuppies) in the immediate area.

There's also off-and-on rumors regarding whether the Granite Run Mall in Media (Middletown Twp.), Delaware County, PA will close (to make way for an expanded Riddle Hospital complex) or not.

Personally, I'm surprised that the Tri-State Mall in Claymont, DE hasn't closed down yet.  That place always seems to be dead in terms of customers.  A far cry from what it was 20 years ago.

Suburban malls aren't the only malls in decline.  After years of decline, the Gallery Mall in Center City Philadelphia adjacent to the Reading Terminal Market, the Pennsylvania Convention Center, SEPTA's Jefferson (formerly Market East) Regional Rail Station, two SEPTA Market-Frankford subway and one PATCO station; is slated to be transformed into a more upscale shopping establishment. 

As a means of purging many of the older-established business tennants (for more upscale business tennants); the property owner drastically raised the rents resulting in several vacant and would-be vacant spaces within the last month or so.

For colony of merchants, Gallery makeover is painful

In November, the Gallery's owners, the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust and the Macerich Co., began to tell dozens of merchants that they would have deadlines to leave - some by the end of December, others at the end of January or February.

Transformation is in the offing, they say, combining high-end shops and residential, part of the planned remake of what had become the tired Market Street East retail corridor.
...
Whatever business reasons there are for changes at the Gallery - and some are long overdue at the city's largest mall - a world is ending.

One question that I or others might ask, where are these high-end shops or customers going to come from?  The adjacent Lits building (on 7th & Market Sts.) still has had vacancies since the recession began.

Further down:

But Carlos Morales, 75, eats there every day, nursing a dollar cup of coffee from McDonald's. On Tuesday, he had lunch with a friend he met four years ago in the food court. As far as the friend is concerned, the makeover can't come soon enough.

"Basura," trash, he sneered. Drugs, prostitution, noisy schoolkids fighting, people sleeping.

Folks drift in from the methadone clinic across the street.

This morning, while walking from Jefferson Station to work (I go through the Galley to/from the sation and where I work whenever I take the train); I heard & saw one guy (possibly a vagrant) yelling at the top of his lungs being lead out/prodded by 3 and then later 4 security guards.  One guard actually held a canister of pepper spray and was ready to use it. 

The perp yelled to the guards, "GO AHEAD, SPRAY ME!"

Not sure whether or not the guard did such (I was further away from them at the time); but that's one issue that most Gallery partons will not miss.

[1995hoo]

Obviously some malls are thriving. Tysons Corner Center is a fine example of that. I think it will be interesting to see how things change there due to the arrival of Metrorail service last summer. I've seen multiple reports suggesting shoplifting has increased, for example. At the Pentagon City mall (across I-395 from the Pentagon), the department stores have long used cable locks to secure items such as blue jeans. I wonder if that sort of thing will become routine at Tysons.

[GCrites]

The main things that make or break a mall financially are the presence of middle-to-upper-class middle age, married women with children in the area. If you're not getting them you're done.

[Pete from Boston]

North Jersey's malls don't seem to have a problem. Its likely due to the population density.

Yes and no.  The demands on malls have changed even where they haven't ebbed, and this leaves some malls, notably the smaller ones, perpetually reinventing themselves to stay current.

The Fashion Center, once the smallest but most upscale of Paramus's four large malls, went into a steady decline once its lowbrow but much larger competitor Garden State Plaza enclosed and started creeping upscale (eventually doubling in size).  Fashion Center finally inside-outed and became a string of big-box discounters.  As Bergen County got richer, the market for "elite" was just too big for a comparatively tiny mall.

Middle-class Paramus Park has lost a lot of the eclectic charm that made it a major draw, and it has been struggling since the turn of the century to expand and reinvent in a market where it somehow now feels constrained and limited.

The languishing Bergen Mall, always the lowest-brow of Paramus, zeroed in on desirable chains that weren't in Paramus yet–Target, Century 21, and in a return to past times where supermarkets were common at malls, Whole Foods.  It seems to be a raging success.

And Garden State Plaza still churns on as immense as ever, as does Palisades Center a few miles north over the state line, because immense is apparently where the baseline is now.  Even in North Jersey, those that can't be 2,000,000 sq. ft. have to find a special niche to compete for the scraps.

[seicer]

Tysons Corner is an interesting case, as they are applying the principles of urban development in a suburban setting. Some of the more recent developments include the phased implementation of a street grid and lower density streets, the retrofitting of walkable and bicycle-friendly streets in an automobile-centric development, and the phased implementation of urban and dense developments - especially closer to the rail station. That will help Tysons Corner Center survive in the long-run, whereas other centers are declining because of a variety of reasons.

Many suburban malls often fail because of several factors:
a) Newer shopping centers open up or older centers are redeveloped/renovated;
b) An anchor or two leave, causing a cascading effect on mainline, Class A tenants. Replacement tenants often pay a lot less in rents/percentages and are often Class B/C tenants;
c) Demographic shifts or shifts in traffic patterns;
d) Just not needed (see Cedar Knoll Galleria above).

I was in Cleveland a lot last year for work and they have three malls failing or failed. Randall Park Mall is the most obvious of those due to its size and sudden decline, but Euclid Square Mall on the suburban east side is also dead. It's now home to 20+ churches but has no anchors. It needs major work, both cosmetically and structurally, and it's long-term viability is in doubt. Churches, after all, are not huge money makers in most cases. You can also add Richmond Town Square, which is losing a major tenant and has bled mainline tenants for a few years now - despite major renovations earlier in the decade. On the west side is a failed shopping center due to Wal-Mart pulling out (and moving to a slightly newer center). To the south is a never-finished and failed shopping center due to structural problems. To the east are vacant shopping centers in a part of the suburban fabric that never became built out and was overbuilt commercially.

[thenetwork]

Toledo, OH used to have a slew of malls -- all but one remain:

-  Franklin Park Mall -- The lone survivor, opened in the mid-late 70s.
-  Woodville Mall -- Opened mid 60's, closed 4-5 years ago -- torn down.
-  Southwyck Mall -- Opened late 60s-early 70s -- closed 4-5 years ago -- torn down.
-  NorthTowne Square -- Opened late 70s-early 80s -- closed mid-late 90s -- abandoned.

Meanwhile, over in Cleveland, the only enclosed malls that still have a somewhat strong pulse are:
-  Great Northern Mall
-  South Park Mall -- the last enclosed mall to be built
-  Beachwood Place -- an upscale mall.

Those that have been razed, abandoned or converted to outdoor "life centers""

- Parmatown -- currently in conversion mode
- Westgate Mall -- converted in mid 00's
- Euclid Square -- largely abandoned, some parts still in use.
- Randall Park -- currently in tear-down mode, as mentioned above.

The following are on life support:
-  Midway Mall
-  Richmond Town Square -- Macy's just announced their closing there.
-  Great Lakes Mall


And down in Akron, of the 3 malls, Summit Mall was near extinction in the 90s, but is now the strongest mall.  Chapel Hill is close to closing, and Rolling Acres Mall -- the last to be built in the 70s -- is now the poster child of dead & abandoned malls nationwide.


One interesting dead mall, the Dixie Square Mall outside of Chicago, had the honor of being the only mall that stood abandoned longer than it was actually in business.  It was used in the Blues Brothers mall-wrecking scene around 1980, and the mall had just recently been closed by that time after less than 15 years in business.  It stood vacant & abandoned until it was finally torn down within the last couple of years or so. 

[bandit957]

Malls have ruined life for people in the cities. Why should I have to travel 20 miles out of town just to buy a book or a TV set?

Conversely, why should people have to travel downtown and fight traffic and compete for limited parking?

Just live near enough to downtown that you don't have to drive.

[Pete from Boston]

Malls have ruined life for people in the cities. Why should I have to travel 20 miles out of town just to buy a book or a TV set?

20 miles?  You need to move to a better city.

[Stephane Dumas]

Northland Mall in Southfield, north of Detroit with the closure of Macy's is on the death knell. Ironic to see that mall opened by Hudson's stores, was the beginning of the decline of the big Hudson's store in downtown Motown.
http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthread.php?19658-Northland-Macy-s-targeted-for-closure
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20150107/BLOG014/150109908/macys-plans-to-close-northland-center-store-says-southfields-acting

Northland Mall was built in the early-to-mid 1950s and had even some atomic shelter
http://curbed.com/archives/2014/06/11/how-the-cold-war-shaped-the-design-of-american-malls.php
http://www.michigancivildefense.com/northlandcentermallsouthfield.html

[KEVIN_224]

Yes, the Gallery Mall in Philadelphia sure does need a makeover! Despite that, I go there every time I'm in Center City (I'm from central CT).

The Providence Place Mall in RI is at least three levels. Four if you count the top areas with the IMAX movie theater. I believe it opened in 1999. It's right next to I-95, with the state capitol and the Amtrak station a short distance away.

The hoity-toity mall in greater Hartford is definitely WestFarms Mall. The one thing it lacks is a food court, probably not something anybody thought of when it opened in 1974 (I'm usually across the street at Red Robin anyways). The place seems to thrive, however. It's on busy New Britain Avenue (CT Route 71), with both I-84 and CT Route 9 close by. The Corbins Corner shopping plaza has been across the way from it seemingly forever.

I haven't been to the Buckland Hills Mall in Manchester in years.

I've only been to Westfield Shoppingtown, a.k.a. Meriden Square Mall twice in the last two years. That, despite the fact that the city bus to it runs right past my house every half hour. They have a so-so food court on the second level. They recently lost their JC Penney anchor. I think it was the only CT location to close.

[Roadrunner75]

Suburban malls aren't the only malls in decline.  After years of decline, the Gallery Mall in Center City Philadelphia adjacent to the Reading Terminal Market, the Pennsylvania Convention Center, SEPTA's Jefferson (formerly Market East) Regional Rail Station, two SEPTA Market-Frankford subway and one PATCO station; is slated to be transformed into a more upscale shopping establishment. 

I remember the Gallery well - My mother used to take me over on PATCO from NJ for an afternoon walking the Gallery and adjacent stores (early 80s).  It was more because I enjoyed the train ride, than anything particular about the Gallery since we had plenty mall-wise in NJ.  Mostly I wanted to walk the underground concourses and ride the subways.  I remember the expansions to the west and the new Market East station, which was pretty neat for a kid to watch the trains come and go through the big glass windows on the ticketing level (I think it's time to look for AATrains). 

Closer to where I live now, the Seaview Square Mall near Asbury Park tried to compete with the nearby Monmouth Mall in Eatontown (both your typical enclosed malls).  Not long before its demise, I remember it being a complete ghost town with most of the stores closed.  Those that were open were unusual for a somewhat modern looking mall - I believe there was a radio station, I think maybe a church, etc. - whatever they could get in there to pay the rent.  Eventually they tore down the mall, leaving the two anchors, Sears and Value City (also now closed), and jammed in a Target and your other typical strip mall stores in its place.

[NJRoadfan]

Another trend I'm seeing locally is the development of additional free standing stores, or even entire strip malls, in mall parking lots. Lets face it, some of these places have WAY too much parking even when they are extremely busy. Seems that 60's planners over estimated parking. Things got more reasonable at newer malls.

Whats odd is that popular malls seem to have the smallest parking lots and are stuck with parking decks. Menlo Park Mall and Short Hills Mall in NJ come to mind. The worst I've dealt with is the Crabtree Valley Mall (or as I like to call it, the Crabby Tree Valley Mall) in Raleigh, NC. The spots in that deck are tiny and ingress egress out of the mall parking lot is a PITA!