Malls Forced to Reformulate. NYTimes Story.

[CrysG]

I like the Regency Mall and shop there a lot. I'm a curvier girl and they have Torrid.  So I make the trek from the Westside once a month to go into that store. As for the OP mall I rarely go into that mall. It's become a teenage mecca with parents dropping them off, letting the mall be a babysitter.

As for the SJTC, I almost never go over there. The traffic is a joke and I can get most of the stores that I would be interested in at the Oakleaf Town Center.

[Cliffs_Daughter]

I am guessing you are referring to ritz camera.  If Regency had a simon managing it I think it could go in a successful direction.  The east wing (old mall) seems to be the more profitable side.

Yep. I really, really do not want that Ritz store to close.

I forgot that the east is the "old" mall! That's the renovated new-looking half, so of course it's more profitable. The bigger-name stores and the food court are there. I still remember when it was icky looking, and the movies were crammed up in the food court corner. Course, we're talking about when I was the teenager searching for Mecca.
Anyway, they have a JSO sub-station right there. I know that's supposed to make you feel safe, but knowing it's there kinda does the opposite in that you expect they're needed all the time.

[copperfiend]

I haven't been to the Regency Mall in at least a year and a half and I live about 10 minutes away. And the only reason I went there was to pick something up at JCPennys. I go to other stores in the Regency area (THD, Target, Lowes) but don't go to the mall. I am not sure there is anything they can do to change alot of people's minds and get them to shop there.

[fatcat]

i used to love the big message place owned by some Asian immigrants across from the movie theater. Now the clearance (whatever store) is closing so early practically prevent movie goers to go to the mall to kill time. I do not see Orange or Ave mall have any more attraction. The only reason I go to SJTC is for the Apple store. I do not know Regency is dying aside from the poor management.

On the other hand, maybe they can move all the homeless housing and social services to regency mall. Everything can be in one place. I am not suggesting anything like a semi-prison. In Boston, the JFK building houses all Federal government stuff. It is very convenient. To convert a mall into homeless/social service center would kill 4 birds in one stone.
1) For the mall, they get tenants instead of empty space 2) for the organizations, they can move out of their expensive downtown real estate and have more space for the money. 3) for the homeless, they can have food, shelter, job training,  consultation, religious service etc.... all in one place. 4) for volunteers, social workers, and people who wish make donations, there are plenty of parking and specific delivery entrance for each store (organizations) .

[mtraininjax]

Soon, only Macy's will be around, as all the others consolidate. So you have Macy's or Wal-Mart.

Who goes to the Mall to shop these days when its all available online?

[BridgeTroll]

Who goes to the Mall to shop these days when its all available online?

Your not married are you?

[fatcat]

hi, BT: I usually think you are cool. But you are open yourself (and many others) to a lot of trouble by suggesting malls are female recreational destination.

[BridgeTroll]

It was just a small joke fatcat... from a married guy whose wife likes the mall.

[Doctor_K]

Hell, it's not about married/single, nor male/female gay/straight either.

I'm a guy who likes going to malls and 'shopping,' if not religiously or regularly.  The fiancee and I live in very close proximity to the SJTC.  We love walking over and walking around and just generally 'being there.' 

It is indeed a 'lifestyle center,' as it is correctly called, in that it's more than just a clustering of retail stores and restaurants in one mostly-centralized location.  It's a neat place.  It can be its own destination.  It's more than the sum of its parts. 

I could very easily buy practically everything I'd ever need online.  But why?  I can take a walk, get some exercise, and get out of the house for a couple hours by visiting my local retail establishment.

Enclosed malls of bygone decades were most likely destinations in their own right and in their prime, but whose time has come.  Enclosed malls of the past giving way to open malls of the present is emblematic of a paradigm shift, just as practically everything else over a given length of time is.

The Regency Mall was *the* place to be once.  Well, who wants to go hang out at a place where it was cool for their parents to hang out?  How 'down' is that?  Not very.  Gotta have a new place that we can call 'our own.'  In another 15 years, the SJTC might very well be in the same state as Regency is now, and we'll all have a 'new' SJTC to talk about and rehash this very same conversation.