Dead Malls of Canada

[wave46]

Some malls will survive and probably do quite well, depending on the clientele they serve. I'd imagine something like Yorkdale Mall in Toronto will be fine.

Some of the businesses in Power Centres I wonder about. Grocery stores, Home Depot, Costco and Wal-Mart will always be draws. Indeed, one-stop shopping used to be a mall thing, but now resides within something like Wal-Mart or Superstore. Why truck between multiple stores in the same mall when one place will do it all?

It's the weird smaller businesses (Ardene, Michael's, etc. etc.) in these Power Centres I wonder about. They aren't really draws by themselves. They're a pain to get to. A mall environment kind of suits them better, but a lot of these businesses have doubled down on the Power Centre thing.

Anyway, I'm not a shopper. 'Retail therapy' is more like 'retail agony' to me. I'd like to think the decline of malls is a result of focusing more on what matters in life as opposed to blind consumption, but I think it's just a shift in preferences, not a change in lifestyle.