Why Do We Have Malls

Last night I went with my youngest daughter to do some Christmas shopping. She had a list of places that she wanted to go and one of them was at the local shopping mall. I was amazed that we parked only 3 spaces from the front door. Then I was even more amazed at how empty it was inside. Sure it was a Tuesday evening, but I remember not being able to walk through a mall when I was a kid trying to do my own Christmas shopping.

I think online retailers have really taken a significant share of business from the local malls. How can small businesses compete with online prices? Everyone wants to get a good deal and an online presence is a lot less expensive than a brick-and-mortar storefront.

We visited exactly 3 stores in the mall. The first was the Vans store because I wanted to see what cool styles they had. I am looking for something specific and wanted to see if they had it. Nope, they didn't. However they did have a display where you could custom order your own shoes. No need to go to the mall though, just visit their website and order it from there.

The next store was a candy store where they had every candy I could think of. Naturally I had to get a little something for myself. That was one store worth going back to visit later.

The last store was Bed, Bath, and Beyond. While some of the stores had nobody in them, this one was full of women and girls picking up items. There were 4 check-out stations running as fast as they could and there was still a 5 minute line. It was as if the whole mall existed for that one store.

Naturally I came home and surfed the Internet for gifts to give my siblings. 20 minutes later, I had everybody shopped for and got the best prices available. I could see why the mall was seemingly empty. This leads me to the question of why we still have malls? Surely it can't be because of Bed, Bath, and Beyond.