Can we talk about the difference between dead malls with anchor stores still open vs. totally empty ones?

I hit two malls last weekend in Ohio, one in Dayton and one in Cincinnati. The Dayton one still had a Macy's and a JCPenney hanging on, and it felt way more alive even though most of the inline stores were dark. The Cincinnati one had zero anchors left, just a shuttered Sears and a empty food court, and it was creepy in a bad way. Like the difference was night and day in terms of how the atmosphere felt. The half-dead one had people actually walking through, even if they were just going to the anchor. The fully dead one felt like a tomb, no foot traffic at all. Has anyone else noticed that one anchor store can totally change the vibe of a dead mall?

2 comments

2 Comments

skyler_craig16d ago

Isn't it possible a single anchor just creates a weird illusion of life while the rest stays essentially dead?

elliots4915d ago

Wait, hold up, @skyler_craig are you telling me you think a Macy's with actual shoppers doesn't count? lmao. I literally walked past people buying stuff at that Dayton one, it was real traffic not just people cutting through. The difference is night and day when you're actually there. I've been in totally dark malls where you hear your own footsteps echo, and that half-dead one felt like a normal place to me. The food court had three places open and a guy sweeping, it wasn't some ghost town vibe.