page_title: Dead mall
section_title: Changes in the retail climate
hierarchical_section_title: Dead mall / Changes in the retail climate
caption_attribution_description: English: Southampton's Bargate shopping centre. The Bargate itself (which gives the centre its name) is just about vsible to the left.
context_page_description: A dead mall, is a shopping mall with a high vacancy rate or a low consumer traffic level, or that is deteriorating in some manner.
  Many malls in North America are considered "dead" when they have no surviving anchor store or successor that could attract people to the mall.
  Without the pedestrian traffic that department stores previously generated, sales volumes decline for almost all stores and rental revenues from those stores can no longer sustain the costly maintenance of the malls. Without good pedestrian access, smaller stores inside malls are difficult to reach.
context_section_description: Structural changes in the department-store industry have also made survival of these malls difficult. These changes have contributed to some areas or suburbs having insufficient traditional department stores to fill all the existing larger-lease-area anchor spaces. A few large national chains have replaced many local and regional chains, and some national chains are defunct.
  United States: Alexander's, Montgomery Ward, Woolworth's, Ames, Service Merchandise, Mervyn's, Gottschalks, The Bon-Ton, Shopko, and Lord & Taylor are all defunct. Some brands such as Marshall Field's, Filene's, Stern's, and Hecht's were converted to Macy's. Sears and Kmart have closed almost all of their stores due to their declining sales. Other major department store chains such as Nordstrom, Macy's and J.C. Penney have closed a portion of their stores.
  Canada: Simpsons, Eaton's, Kmart, Target Canada, Woolco, Woodwards, Zellers and Sears Canada are all defunct. Eaton's was a partner in many malls so its bankruptcy and closure of these stores robbed many shopping centers of their anchor. Walmart once held a large presence in Canadian shopping malls after taking over the Woolco chain; however, most of these spaces were abandoned in favor of larger freestanding big-box stores. Zellers sold most of its store leases to Target Corporation, and the remaining Zellers stores were closed since it was not economically viable to service these remaining locations, which were far-flung and in less desirable areas. Target Canada closed all Canadian stores in 2015 and, unlike the other defunct stores, Target has no successor to lease their vacant space. Canadian Tire and Walmart have since acquired a number of Target locations.
  United Kingdom: Allders, British Home Stores, Lewis's, Owen Owen, and Vergo Retail are all defunct.
  Australia: Grace Bros., Venture, and Waltons are defunct. David Jones Limited, Kmart, Myer, and Target have closed numerous stores due to declining sales.
  In the US and Canada, newer "big box" chains (also referred to as "category killers") such as Walmart, Target Corporation and Best Buy normally prefer purpose-built free-standing buildings rather than using mall-anchor spaces. 21st-century retailing trends favor open air lifestyle centers; which resemble elements of power centers, big box stores, and strip malls; and (most disruptively for storefronts) online shopping over indoor malls. The massive change led Newsweek to declare the indoor mall format obsolete in 2008. The year 2007 marked the first time since the 1950s that no new malls were built in the United States. Most Canadian malls still remain indoors after renovations due to the harsh winter climate throughout most of the country, however the Don Mills Centre was turned into an open-air shopping plaza. Attitudes about malls have also been changing. With changing priorities, people have less time to spend driving to and strolling through malls and, during the Great Recession, specialty stores offered what many shoppers saw as useless luxuries they could no longer afford. In this respect, big box stores and conventional strip malls have a time-saving advantage.
  The number of dead malls has increased significantly because the economic health of malls across the United States has been in decline, with high vacancy rates in many of these malls. From 2006 to 2010, the percentage of malls that are considered to be "dying" by real estate experts (have a vacancy rate of at least 40%), unhealthy (20-40%), or in trouble (10-20%) all increased greatly, and these high vacancy rates only partially decreased from 2010 to 2014. In 2014, nearly 3% of all malls in the United States were considered to be "dying" (40% or higher vacancy rates) and nearly one-fifth of all malls had vacancy rates considered "troubling" (10% or higher).
  Some real estate experts say the "fundamental problem" is a glut of malls in many parts of the country creating a market that is "extremely over-retailed". Cowen Research reported that the number of malls in the U.S. grew more than twice as fast as the population between
caption: Between early 2013 and November 2017 the Bargate Centre was empty.
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