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  #1  
Old Posted Feb 12, 2018, 7:14 AM
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1982 CBS Special Report documentary on the Shopping Mall phenomenon

A real relic, how times have changed, step back into the time when the mall was the zeitgeist...
1982 Charles Kuralt CBS Reports "The Mall: After the Dream Comes True" documentary on the shopping mall phenomenon at the very time when the mall was becoming prolific and a dominant part of American life and culture. The documentary gives an overview of the rise of the mall and how it became a part of everyday American life then focuses on Oak Park Mall outside Kansas City as representative of the typical mall. This documentary was also the same year that Fast Times at Ridgemont High debuted in theaters focused around suburban mall culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2BlyvN6EeI
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Old Posted Feb 12, 2018, 5:09 PM
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yeah that was pretty famous, even at the time it came out. i watched it again recently and google mapped it afterward. as i recall i dont think it is a ghost mall, but it has declined over the years. someone who lives in the area can say more no doubt. anyway, its a fascinating document of a cheesy retail phenomenon no one misses that is for sure. i wonder what people will say about the similarly sterile lifestyle malls of more recent times?
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Old Posted Feb 15, 2018, 5:55 PM
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The video looks cool, I need to find a spare 50 minutes to watch it all. I did watch the first 5 minutes though.
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  #4  
Old Posted Feb 15, 2018, 6:41 PM
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Malls are culture-driven (or not):

Quote:
Why So Many Shopping Malls Are Being Built in Mexico
By Robbie Whelan | Photographs by Adriana Zehbrauskas for The Wall Street Journal
Feb. 13, 2018 7:00 a.m. ET

MEXICO CITY—

. . . While U.S. malls are dying a slow, painful death, malls in Mexico are thriving.

In all, there are 34 shopping mall projects under construction in Mexico right now comprising a total of 15.8 million square feet of leasable retail space expected to be completed in 2018. That is roughly twice the amount of mall square footage delivered last year, according to MAC Arquitectos, a Mexico City design firm and consultancy.

In the U.S., by contrast, one quarter of the country’s roughly 1,200 malls are expected to close over the next five years, according to a recent Credit Suisse report.

Part of the reason is simple supply and demand. The U.S. is vastly over-retailed, with nearly 2,751 square feet for every 1,000 people in 2017, compared with just 210 square feet per 1,000 inhabitants in Mexico, according to brokerage JLL.

What’s more, a growing middle class in Mexico is gravitating toward more formal retail—shops and malls instead of the urban outdoor markets, also known as tianguis, that dot the cities across the country.

Meanwhile, online shopping has barely penetrated here, as low credit-card usage and challenging shipping logistics keep the Amazon.com effect at bay.

Perhaps most important, Mexican mall developers learned long ago—partly by watching the struggles in the U.S.—that shopping centers do better with a diverse mix of tenants. Instead of relying on department store anchors to drive foot traffic to smaller apparel shops, a shopping mall should also have a grocery store, play areas for children, sit-down restaurants, and yes, even roller-coasters.

“The U.S. has had a very different philosophy of development than we have here,” said Elias Mizrahi Daniel, head of investor relations for Fibra Danhos, the large Mexican real-estate investment trust that is building Parque Antenas. “It’s much more urban here. You would never build a mall in Mexico far away from a city on the side of a big highway. And you always have a big focus on entertainment” . . . .
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mexicos...s&page=1&pos=2
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Old Posted Feb 15, 2018, 8:14 PM
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Wow that was a pretty interesting documentary. It’s a lot more incisive than I would’ve expected for a piece from the 80s, getting into the origins of suburbia, the racist undertones of the distaste for urban shopping centers, etc. The long digression into teenage angst was a little weird, but I think it’s a prescient take on the suburban ennui that may be playing a small role in the millennial return to the city.
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Old Posted Feb 16, 2018, 12:41 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Khantilever View Post
Wow that was a pretty interesting documentary. It’s a lot more incisive than I would’ve expected for a piece from the 80s, getting into the origins of suburbia, the racist undertones of the distaste for urban shopping centers, etc. The long digression into teenage angst was a little weird, but I think it’s a prescient take on the suburban ennui that may be playing a small role in the millennial return to the city.
It was a very interesting piece, at least the part I watched.

I found it to be a neat period piece as well. Of particular note is just how there is practically zero obesity, and even very few overweight people, present.
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  #7  
Old Posted Feb 16, 2018, 3:58 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mrnyc View Post
yeah that was pretty famous, even at the time it came out. i watched it again recently and google mapped it afterward. as i recall i dont think it is a ghost mall, but it has declined over the years. someone who lives in the area can say more no doubt. anyway, its a fascinating document of a cheesy retail phenomenon no one misses that is for sure. i wonder what people will say about the similarly sterile lifestyle malls of more recent times?
Oak Park Mall is still a pretty busy mall, not as busy as in the 80's or 90's but still pretty busy. Has a few vacant stores but I've seen worse.
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Old Posted Feb 16, 2018, 5:15 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by the urban politician View Post
It was a very interesting piece, at least the part I watched.

I found it to be a neat period piece as well. Of particular note is just how there is practically zero obesity, and even very few overweight people, present.
Keep an eye out for the guy in the documentary who is microfiche salesman

Quote:
Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007
Oak Park Mall is still a pretty busy mall, not as busy as in the 80's or 90's but still pretty busy. Has a few vacant stores but I've seen worse.
I looked up the mall after watching the film to see where it stands now (even if it was still standing)... I see its Nordstrom is moving to Country Club Plaza
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  #9  
Old Posted Feb 18, 2018, 5:06 AM
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One of the most interesting things about that video is the prevalence of Southern accents. Nowadays you don't hear many of them in Johnson County.

I'm tempted to go through the mall with my phone and make a video showing all the same shots as they look today. A lot of it still looks a lot like it did back then.
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  #10  
Old Posted Feb 18, 2018, 5:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by the urban politician View Post
It was a very interesting piece, at least the part I watched.

I found it to be a neat period piece as well. Of particular note is just how there is practically zero obesity, and even very few overweight people, present.
Also everyone smoked, no ethnic minorities of any color and 15 year olds kept bottles of Whiskey in their rooms.

Funny some kids said they escaped to the malls go get away from phone calls they would get at home. When the younger people needed to come home it was on a payphone to their mom and or dad. No children of divorce in this video. Those under 15 that didn't call got rides from men old enough to drive. I tend to think they 13-16 crowd back than was more independent and more mature than the same age group now but not as mature as past generations ago.

I grew up in this era but did not frequent malls, only occasionally.
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  #11  
Old Posted Feb 18, 2018, 5:43 PM
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^Good times that are long gone to never return.

I remember getting dropped off at the mall with my buddies. We probably only had $10 in our pockets spend.

We had to be at a certain place and time for our ride home and everybody back then was somehow able to read clocks and stick to commitments without the modern convenience of cell phones, texts, FaceTime, gps, navigation - cell phones.
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Old Posted Feb 18, 2018, 9:21 PM
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Originally Posted by Sun Belt View Post
^Good times that are long gone to never return.

I remember getting dropped off at the mall with my buddies. We probably only had $10 in our pockets spend.

We had to be at a certain place and time for our ride home and everybody back then was somehow able to read clocks and stick to commitments without the modern convenience of cell phones, texts, FaceTime, gps, navigation - cell phones.
It was a fun time, they arent the same today. Ive noticed they are now trending toward either very low end or very high end to survive.

Its funny how people lamented the change from shopping downtown or midtown to the shopping mall and the loss of a way of life. Now the same is happening to the shopping malls, being supplanted by online shopping and resurging urban shopping spots. I will say the urban shopping areas learned alot from malls as well.
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Last edited by SLO; Feb 18, 2018 at 9:39 PM.
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  #13  
Old Posted Feb 18, 2018, 10:07 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SLO View Post
Its funny how people lamented the change from shopping downtown or midtown to the shopping mall and the loss of a way of life. Now the same is happening to the shopping malls, being supplanted by online shopping and resurging urban shopping spots. I will say the urban shopping areas learned alot from malls as well.
Yeah, at one point in the video they had a segment about the decline of the old downtown Overland Park. These days it's making a nice comeback with lots of trendy shops and a good amount of construction, while the mall is just kinda going sideways.
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Old Posted Mar 30, 2018, 11:59 PM
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While the sector is struggling in the US, in Brazil it ignored the crisis and it's booming:

Shopping malls
2007: 363
2017: 571

Gross leasable area (m²)
2007: 8.253 million m²
2017: 15.58 million m²

Stores
2007: 62,086
2017: 102,300

Revenue
2007: R$ 58.0 billion
2017: R$ 167.7 billion

Jobs
2007: 629,700
2017: 1,029,367

Visitors/month
2007: 305 million
2017: 463 million

Source

I believe that's the case in other countries in Latin America (as Pedestrian posted) and Asia.
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Old Posted Mar 31, 2018, 8:02 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedestrian View Post
What a shame. Mexico’s traditional markets are awesome.

50 years from now, Mexican urbanites and hipsters are going to be struggling to recreate what they have now, having grown up with suburban malls.
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  #16  
Old Posted Mar 31, 2018, 8:46 AM
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Originally Posted by 10023 View Post
What a shame. Mexico’s traditional markets are awesome.

50 years from now, Mexican urbanites and hipsters are going to be struggling to recreate what they have now, having grown up with suburban malls.
It’s a huge shame. Pretty much the whole suburban lifestyle that was big in he states 20 years ago is picking up in Mexico.
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Old Posted Mar 31, 2018, 4:47 PM
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They're doing it juuuust as the internets are taking big market share.

And yes a damned shame.
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  #18  
Old Posted Mar 31, 2018, 5:42 PM
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It’s a huge shame. Pretty much the whole suburban lifestyle that was big in he states 20 years ago is picking up in Mexico.
Yeah. . . it's weird. . . I was in Monterrey over the weekend and surprised by the number of suburban American franchise outlets there were just about everywhere. . . 23 years ago, when I was there last, there were only a few and now it's all over the place. . .

I will say though, that their malls are more geared toward the upscale market and are quite nice as far as shopping malls are concerned. . . the Pueblo Serena and Esfera City Center are right across the street from each other and appear to be somewhat recently built for the upper middle class folk. . .

. . .
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Old Posted Apr 2, 2018, 10:28 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by the urban politician View Post
It was a very interesting piece, at least the part I watched.

I found it to be a neat period piece as well. Of particular note is just how there is practically zero obesity, and even very few overweight people, present.
This is the mall near where I grew up, and we used to ride our bikes up to the mall and waste time in the arcade. It was interesting to see it the way I remember as a kid (I wasn't a teenager when this was filmed), but it's so typical of Kansas City suburbs, especially this area, where people were racist and thought they were better than people in the urban core. Even the jerk manager was obviously racist.

The mall is still there today and successful, and definitely racially integrated now. But there are plenty of fat people too lol! I never liked living there and left home after high school and never lived there again. When I have to go back now and then to deal with family, it seems strange to go into this mall and realize it's the place I went all the time as a little kid.
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Old Posted Apr 2, 2018, 10:32 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007 View Post
One of the most interesting things about that video is the prevalence of Southern accents. Nowadays you don't hear many of them in Johnson County.

I'm tempted to go through the mall with my phone and make a video showing all the same shots as they look today. A lot of it still looks a lot like it did back then.
I noticed the southern accents too. Although having grown up in JoCo and left at age 18 (I've lived mostly in LA and Denver), there is definitely an accent in KC. I wouldn't call it Southern, but can be twangy. I know it when I hear it.
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