More ‘death of the mall’ updates

Two teen clothing stores in Lackawanna county closing..

The Cressona Mall in Cressona, PA, facing foreclosure.. 

And the Schuylkill Mall, one I have been talking about on this site for some time, is most likely going to be having some numbered days with anchor stores abandoning it..

As for the coal region, one quote from the WNEP story worth reading:

“‘It seems like it’s happening to all the malls around here, they’re all closing, the Schuylkill Mall, there’s pretty much going to be nothing left,” said Mandy Galdi of Pottsville.
With more money issues and less shopping options, Gladi said there’s only one thing to do: “move, I’m moving.”

More warnings to the shoppers of America: Holder says malls should increase security.. I hate to say this aloud, but have you visited a mall lately? The security at my local nearly bankrupt and empty shopping plaza features security guards that make Paul Blart look like an FBI agent..

Retail bail: A new book photo journals dead malls. Mine, and yours, may be next

I have fond memories of my local mall.

The Schuylkill Mall in Frackville has been around since two years prior to my birth. It was once a location for endless supplies of elderly smoking cigars–amazing to think of how popular the fateful choice of indoor smoking was before it was outlawed across the land.

For those who have never been there, it’s like a giant vast kingdom on top of an enormous mountain.. roads circle around it like you’re entire a palace. The facade, when you finally reach the pinnacle of the moutain, is brown in color .. It looks a bit like a prison. Or a big school. But the signs for SEARS and KMART illustrate you’re about to enter a shopping paradise..

Well… it was a shopping paradise.

Those fond memories of my mall have vanished over the years.
The place where I’d go to get HE-MAN action figures at a toy store are no more.. the book store is gone.. the restaurants are gone, all that remains is a pizza place–with amazing pizza by the way– and a new SUBWAY—seriously, like any human being needs another SUBWAY ..

The Schuylkill Mall seems to be teetering on the brink of something. Logic would dictate the obvious: A building so large in stature cannot sustain the lack of stores to pay it rent. And stores cannot continue operating without patrons. And patrons aren’t there–neither are kids on weekends, they are probably busy living their virtual teenager years cyber bullying someone on Twitter. But then again, the mall is still operating–years after DEADMALLS.COM declared the Frackville mall ‘dead’ ..  That’s saying something, at least, right?

I have a few notions of what could succeed–maybe drop rent prices for a year and tell anyone who wants to open a store to try it.. now’s the time, real estate abounds. Or maybe a giant organic farm market would work.  However, things seem to be too far gone to try such new and often costly things–I hope I am wrong. I want my son to enjoy the sound of retail at Christmas at a local mall.. but it just looks bleak.
Especially when anchor stores that remain are SEARS and BON TON–stores that nationally are desperate for any light at the end of their very financially dark tunnels, respectively.

So what will happen at the Frackville mall should something dire take place.  A book from a photographer Seph Lawless called BLACK FRIDAY-THE COLLAPSE OF THE AMERICAN MALL may give hints.  Lawless traveled the country for years to find forgotten treasures and the ghost of retail past. He documented decay in buildings that used to house the sounds of laughter, talking, and cash registers printing. There’s pictures with broken glass.. crumbling walls..

Most of the pictures were taken in Michigan and Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.. These seem to be the locations where most of the malls are dying–and it could be a symptom of the bigger problem.. the fever from the flu of an economic failure on the rust belt and other locations where populations relied on manufacturing. Jobs were sent away.. they ain’t comin’ back. And neither are the malls where Lawless traveled to.

According to Lawless, he cannot easily gain access to closed malls. So instead, he breaks in–and has had arrest warrants issued for him for that very action. Imagine–breaking and entering into dilapidated structures.. I can only imagine the immense feeling of loss within them.

I  have been busy reading up on this book and checking out some of the photos that actually have been published online. It’s a tempting book to purchase if ever get an extra infusion of cash to do so.. But I think it may be a monumentally upsetting book, too.

Malls were built on the dreams and aspirations of a generation. The Wikipedia page for the Schuylkill Mall is actually filled with some good history ..

But memories aside, realities prevail.

I fear that as malls die, it will also take the Schuylkill Mall.
Vacant stores are eating up the inside.. Lots of very bored employees flip through their iPhones or laptops looking for something to do, as customers aren’t there busting down doors..

While this article has focused on my own personal surroundings, it’s not just the Steamtown Mall in Scranton, or the Schuylkill Mall in Frackville, and everywhere in between, suffering.  Atlantic City is going bust, too, as casinos are shuttered and thousands are losing jobs. Ironically, the Jersey Shore was the prime vacation spot for coal regioners for generations.. Maybe we cursed it.

There is a bigger picture to why malls are declining. It’s not just malls. And it’s not just that people are buying online (though the online purchases are a major factor) .. there’s something else at play, I fear. At least for my own area. Since I have been a kid, I have seen every school with the exception of my college close down. I have seen my local hospital shut down only two years ago.. Car dealerships, grocery stores, local stores, restaurants.. closed. And when that property goes vacant, it gets lifeless. Almost immediately and overgrowth of vines and shrubs take over.. What was once a center of life is now one of decline. The coal region of Pennsylvania is finished. Over. Sadly there is so much potential for it to be amazing–look no further than Jim Thorpe, PA, to see how it should be done.  Every little town in this area would have the potential to be the next Jim Thorpe. Missing from the equation: People to make it happen. This area has a lack of positive feelings, and instead, an underbelly of poverty and grief.. The youth move out and the elderly are dying out.. A new population has moved in that never saw the area when it was amazing. There’s no connection to the past, or to history.  And quite frankly, there’s no one who has taken up the mantle of creating something amazing again.

And that is why I fear the Seth Lawless photos will soon be taken at a mall near me..

Jobs aren’t coming back.
Neither are stores.
Neither are malls.

Unless there’s an American miracle, this same story and song and dance will play out not only in a town near me, but one near you, too..

Arby's Employees React to Sudden Store Closures

If you’re living in, or driving through, Northeastern Pennsylvania, don’t expect to get a dried up roast beast sandwich or curly fries.. most of the Arby’s have shut down in a Black Friday bankruptcy, so sudden that employees had no clue.

One of the stores closed was in the Schuylkill Mall, my local diving shopping center. Another retail bail .. biting the dust in Frackville. This one was not in the mall’s control, obviously.. but it’s an example and showcase of the real economic problems that this part of the state is having.. 

The end may be nigh for the mall up high. 

Arby's Employees React to Sudden Store Closures

A story of local note

Here in Schuylkill County, where the trees even look sad lately, there is an aura of depression.. an aura of sadness, perhaps the raping of the land by coal barons has finally hit, now that the generations are changing .. 

The Schuylkill Mall in Frackville, PA, is a symbol of this.. It stands nearly vacant, a few stores peppered about and maybe a handful of people shopping. A new movie theater with an awesome bar has livened things up. And just when you thought there was hope that the giant mall could survive to die another day, this news comes: A SUBWAY is coming to the mall.

How I loathe Subway and its processed meat.. how I despise that smell of the restaurant, which somehow can stick on your clothing for days.. How i disdain their bread—though they removed the rubber, I suppose.

Subway?

Seriously? This is the best that a dying mall can do? 

My idea for this mall—and any other mall across this nation where shopping is going down hill in favor of online retail: Let the people have their malls back. 

Rent is too damn high—yes a candidate for office in New York said that, but when it comes to malls, he was right. The rent in malls in too high.. it’s impossible to sustain your dream of having your own business when you get little traffic in a dying mall but still pay through the roof to have it. 

So why not this: Lower rent for a year—maybe even do rent-free for six months. Advertise to ANY PERSON IN THE AREA who has a dream about owning their own store and their own business. How about getting a farmer’s market of fresh food once a week? A grand experiment to buy local—imagine the idea of NO BIG CHAIN STORES, and no big chain restaurants ?? Instead fresh and locally made, locally sold, and locally grown.. It would be amazing and cool.

And perhaps reinvigorate malls.. Not only in Frackville PA but everywhere else a dying mall threatens to blight the landscape with a giant vacant shell.. 

Pity the once great mall

It’s a tough job these days holding up a mall.

Wayback in time to last century, when main street was killed by the way of shopping, with floors shiny and new and fountains rolling fresh water for background news. Yes, indeed, those were the days. Food courts… stores as far as the eye could see.. Even small kiosks selling things you’ve never buy but sure were happy to laugh at as you walked by..

The great American mall. The shopping experience of your lifetime, whenever you wanted it.

Fast forward to the new age… Walmart has everything you need.. No matter where it was made and how good or bad the quality may be.. And what’s not there can be found online. No need for bookstores when you have Amazon, or even your Kindle. No need for food courts when you have McDonalds and drive throughs..
We seemingly have chosen less quality simply because with it comes convenience.

These days, though, the great American mall is struggling to stick around.. Some think they have overstayed their welcome.. others feel they’ll be missed.

My local mall is no different.. Three stores there have closed within the last month alone. Walking the halls of the immense Schuylkill Mall has turned into a pretty lonely venture. 

But it’s not just the abandoned coal mines of Pennsylvania facing the prospect of a future without a central shopping location.. it’s nationwide: A simply Google news search will bring back results from all over the nation of malls and stores closing in rapid style.. Even more: Go for a Google image search of mall closings from all over.

All of that, along with continuing weak numbers in the retail salescategory, is spelling out trouble for the near future. Specifically speaking: Do you know WHY retail sales are up? … and if you look deep into the numbers, PURCHASES ARE DOWN. The disconnection is easy to understand: Inflation has caused a surge in prices. So while there are more dollars coming in there aren’t really more products going out..

The nation’s economy is crumbling.. Infrastructure is at its most horrendous in many areas of the United States.. Inflation is rearing its ugly head. Gas prices are dangerously high. Food prices are extremely dangerous too.. And all the way, people are deciding: No shopping, no books, no jewelry. 

Hence the death of the mall.

.I remember a time, early in my life last century, when a family visit to the mall was exciting. I’d be allowed to buy a He-Man action figure.. my sister would shop in those hip stores where most clothing looked like Madonna wore it.. And after all was over, we’d eat at one of the many choices for food.

Now.. the mall is a quick experience. People do go, but only for what they really need. And when they get there, sometimes they are surprised to see the store they were going to closed down with a sign on not to trespass..

The next bubble is bursting

And you can most likely see it for yourself. It’s at malls, once thriving, now diving. Vacancy rates are reaching some scary highs..