Anyone who can read Italian might find this article interesting.
http://bari.repubblica.it/cronaca/2013/0...showShareBarUI%3Ap%3Dfacebook-like%22%7D
Basically in Bari, Italy the downtown retail streets have been suffering from the economy and these suburban malls. Now the crisis has hit the malls to. One of the most famous malls now has 20 stores closed just on one floor alone.
They are already speaking of dead malls, and these malls are not even that old. I am sure things will pick up when the economy does. But weird to hear malls I visited just over a year and a half ago are now almost ghost towns.