Dying Shopping Malls.

I stay out of Columbus and away from Polaris too. Too many crazy drivers there.

 

Buying groceries online and getting them delivered.

I find its a lot easier to stick with what you are supposed to eat, with that


As I have my list already set up, and adjust if necessary.

Whereas if I were to actually go to the supermarket, far more likely to buy a lot of crap I wouldnt otherwise as its in shiny packaging or on the shelf thats at eye level

 

I would rather be shot in the leg than to shop at the mall. egads...nooooooooooo!

In the 80's I used to hang out with my teenage gal pals at the mall, but that was when our mall was cool. We had a duck pond, a little river/stream that the ducks swam in and a little bridge that we crossed to get from one side to the other.

We also had huge, and when I say huge I mean 40-50 foot tall, bird cages. There wre parrots and other birds, that was the coolest.


Now the mall just sucks. I try to go to the *end* stores, Penneys and Sears. Get my crap fast and get out! (Sears for all the Craftsman supplies and replacement batteries for power tools)

 

I think we are kind of shooting ourselves in the foot with the online shopping thing

How many employees needed for a despatch center where much more can be automated vs a "traditional" setup in a store in a shopping mall.

First world countries manufacturing is dead, now retail is headed the same way

Where are the kids supposed to get jobs nowadays?

 

Online groceries also saves money because you can't impulse buy. =p

 

Yeah, I dont really like online shopping for anything other than groceries.

But as for online groceries, I'm staying put

The last order took me about 10 mins, would have taken me at least an hour in store

Delivery charge was $11 dollars which really also includes picking and packing

But its easier to find specials on line, so probably did save 20/30 bucks there, and no impulse buying, so probably saved another 20/30 there.

So for a $200 order, its is kind of up to 50 bucks cheaper, plus an extra hour of free time not having to zig zag around old ladies or screaming kids

 

online shopping is a more efficient business model, because it eliminates many intermediary and inefficient steps in logistics.

there's still plenty of stores to go to for buying on a whim, but if you're looking for specific products, or unpopular items there is no better place than to find it somewhere online. with the internet, you literally have access to just about any production product in existance. before the internet to look for some types of products you would have to open a phone book and call many stores to attempt to find a store that had that particular item in stock. with the internet there is no question that search engines can make locating a particular item both faster, and more efficient, as well as easier to compare prices quickly and source from the best supplier.

there's plenty of brick and mortar stores that you can shop at when you don't really have anything in particular in mind to purchase, but if one is looking for a particular item, or an unpopular item you may not find it, or it may take a lot of stores to find. some items it is just not profitable to keep stocked in a physical store for logistics reasons and these items are going to be much cheaper online. not to mention you aren't limited to the selection of items of one particular store, or what that store has determined to be the most popular or most profitable items to stock.

this is very true when you are looking for electronic componenets. electronics stores carry the most popular, newest consumer electronics but you aren't going to find the niche items, they aren't going to have a large selection of different types and speeds of memory, motherboards, a large selection of power supplies, thermal paste etc. if you had a custom system in mind to build and had picked out all the components you want, you'd be hard pressed to find it, and you wouldn't find it all at one store. there actually aren't really too many stores like this anymore in NYC .. and most people just buy stuff like this online anyway so there's not a big incentive for stores to stock a large selection of this type of item.

i needed a 2200uf capacitor the other day and went had to go to two different radioshacks in washington heights because neither of them had any big caps but one did have it and i got the last one. i don't know if it's just me, but it seems like radioshack used to be more about this type of stuff, and now it's far more about consumer electronic devices. i did notice that they had some cool embedded computer kits there tho that i didn't expect they would have, arduino kits, and robotics kits .. i would still buy something like that online tho, because of the far greater selection, not to mention the fact that the companies website has way more information about these things than you could learn about at radioshack, i seriously doubt the employees there know much about those things.

i've seen ads about services that will deliver your groceries the same day even i think, and for free as long as it's not a walk up apartment more than 5 floors .. i've never done it though.

there are some things that are always going to be bought in physical stores i think tho, such as clothing, jewelry etc that you want to physically see and try on before you buy. as well as things that are bought on a whim, or things that people need quickly but don't necessarily plan on needing.

 

We have 3 malls relatively close to where I am that are no longer being used. The one I used to hang out at back in high school is the worst off of them all. I think it would make a great place for a movie or a few youtube videos. They've been talking of tearing down 2 of them for at least 5 years now, but nothing has happened and I'm not sure why.

Now they refer to these as Zombie Malls! A reference to George Romero's Dawn of the Dead.

This is my mall now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTMLDu3C0Rs

Here's another
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cikfGrRNOVc

This one isn't a mall, but it's some really cool footage of a place that a man by the name of Bob Cassily, who founded and helped build St. Louis City Museum. Sadly, he passed away not long ago and construction of "Cement Land" has been postponed, perhaps indefinitely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfbfllFmmEU

Also, here's a glimpse of City Museum if you're interested. Thought up and built by the wonderful mind of Bob Cassily. VERY cool stuff! I've been there a few times when I was more physically able. If you ever stop in St. Louis, I highly recommend you stop by and check it out. There's no other place like it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSGah-u3cMw

 

Justin, #8,


Maybe just a small sample, but NOT ONE obese person in your pics of malls.