Ever Since I learnt the closures of Circuity City, Radio Shack…along with Vallco Mall issues during 2000 and 2008, I was watching the Mall REITs coming down.
Going forward, Mall REITs will get hurt and will diminish in future. Restaurants or other essential shops may take over the shopping centers.
Someone wrote about Mall REITs “Is not over and will play out over the next 3-5 years as retailers start admitting (as the Macy’s CEO did) that retail is overbuilt in this country and store counts are unfortunately going to have to come down. Macy’s was first, Sears is going to go and there will be others who realize they have to shrink (Kohl’s, JCP, Office Depot, Nordstrom, Gap, etc.) Malls are going to start losing anchors and for a number of lower-tier malls that’s going to cause a domino effect.”
I’ve had land use planners mention that the acres of parking at large retail centers (Slatten Ranch in Antioch) and malls are a waste of usable land and should be leveraged for better uses.
My friend, who has few bay area restaurants, indicated that bowling centers, with added food and beverages attract than simple restaurants. This has higher profit margin than regular ones.
One year before, my family friends visited on a Friday. We just want to spend 3-5 hours in bowling mall, went to local bowling place (MH), they said all lanes booked that day(Fri), sat and sun ! As long as economy is full swing, these centers will be full.
The only business that Sears does is the tire store I think. Yes, that’s a big drag. If you want to put in a department store at least do a Macy or Nordstrom.
Amazon is good for many things, but clothing and shoes are not one of them. These are items you want to try on before you buy them. Sizes vary and you don’t want to get stuck trying to return something by mail.
I bought a stainless steel refrigerator and stove at Sears and am very happy with them. I got them at a good price 4 years ago and have not had any problems with them. I wanted a gas stove but my wife wanted electric. Guess who won that argument.
Please cite your sources. I have not heard anything remotely close to this at all (at least not around here). Macy’s is downsizing big time by closing many stores including its men’s store in Union Square. Amazon is increasingly gaining market share and strength.
The traditional retail that sells everything under the sun is suffering. Because you can’t compete with the infinite selection on Amazon. That includes department stores like Macy and big box stores like Walmart.
But specialty stores like Home Depot is still going strong. Also the small stores that are strong on curation can prosper. Even though Amazon has an infinite selection, how do you search for something without knowing you want it? Someone said the physical bookstores are more about the tables than the shelves. On the tables they can highlight their selections.
The next disruption of physical retail will likely be VR. There are two aspects of physical stores that are hard to duplicate online. One is the physical layout that highlights curation. Our brain is very good at 3D processing, but buying online today is just searching on a 2D webpage. The other one is the social aspect of shopping together with friends. A good VR experience will solve both.
I bet Bezos already has teams of hundred plus people working on Amazon VR. The final KO punch to physical malls.
First of all, I don’t think ONE brick and mortar store constitutes what you said, "FWIW, brick and mortar is come back, retail is booming." Sheesh, you should work for the National Enquirer…
When you see a reference on the internet about “brick and mortar”, it refers to a place with a physical location, not to the building materials. It was common when internet gambling was all the rage to refer to regular casinos as brick and mortar even though they were built from other materials. There is, however, and serious shortage of bricks causing a housing shortage in England. They are backlogged 6 months to a years on orders.