There are a lot of malls within a 25 mile radius of our home in Northern Virginia. Pentagon City Mall seems to be one of the most successful ones. Landmark Mall, the one closest to us, closed recently, except for the Sears store. The deterioration of this Mall from the time we moved here 30+ years ago to the present is just sad. Originally, it was an “open air” mall with national anchors, as well as some lovely smaller local department stores and small specialty stores. When they expanded it and enclosed it about 20 years ago, it was still nice and served the area well. During the years before its closure, it had really gotten seedy. Even the Macy’s was pathetic - not much selection and mediocre quality. I stopped shopping at the mall because I didn’t feel safe walking in the mall by myself. They’re planning to turn it into a multi-use facility with apartments, stores, movie theaters, etc. I’ll be interested to see how that goes (and if it happens in my lifetime).
Springfield Mall’s a little farther down I-395 and we go there sometimes to eat and/or return something I bought online. They’ve got a lot of new restaurants and the usual stores. I’m sorry to say that the customer service leaves something to be desired. When I returned something to the Soma store there, the clerk was very helpful, but the store was so small that I had a hard time finding something in exchange for my return. Shortly before Christmas, I went to the Chico’s there to return something. There were 2 clerks there - the manager and a Christmas temp who had started the previous day. The manager couldn’t be bothered to talk to me. The temp was very nice and tried to help me, but she needed the manager to help process the return. I waited 20 to 30 minutes, trying on some other items while I was waiting. When she finally deigned to help me, the manager was pretty rude to the temp and didn’t offer any apology for the fact that she’d ignored me for so long. I won’t be going there again.
When you compare that to online ordering, it’s not surprising that shoppers are abandoning malls. If I have questions about merchandise while I’m on a website, I can initiate an online chat. The reps are knowledgeable or know who to consult if they can’t answer your questions. If I have a question for Amazon, I can ask them to call me back and they usually do so within a minute. Best of all, I can shop from the comfort of my home. I have no worries about parking, getting mugged at the mall, waiting in long lines, etc. I love to shop and would be happy to patronize a mall if it was a positive experience. Increasingly, that just isn’t the case anymore, so I’ll shop online (except for my Talbots clearance store 😉).
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