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Shopping - the FUTURE!
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What will be the future of the brick and mortar RETAIL SHOPPING MALL?
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With the advent of online shopping on the internet, a cultural change is slowly happening
that will impact, if not already underway, the economic stability of the once famous retail
shopping malls across America, and possibly the world.
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In one city after another we keep hearing that Shopping Malls are closing down. There is even
a web site that tracks closings and conversions of covered shopping malls. With the economic
pressures of today people are driving less due to the extreme fuel prices, staying closer to
home for vacations, trying to cut credit card debt, and in general cutting back on spending.
This, to a large degree, is a shift in the cultural makeup that we grew up with by “going to the mall”.
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There are over 1,000 large malls in the United States. What will happen to all those massive
malls across the country as they start to fade into obsolescence? Developers are trying to
find alternative solutions such as multipurpose community space and mixed use centers by
redesigning them to add pedestrian walkways, outdoor dining, and even residential units.
There goes the shopping mall as we knew!
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Redeveloping the mall into usable centers of some kind is reversing the process of urban sprawl.
Mall’s, once surrounded by parking lots and located far from residential neighborhoods, encouraged
the expansion of the travel culture. Current economic recessionary pressures are forcing a change
in this culture. These sprawling malls present an opportunity to revive neighborhoods in suburbs
around a central location. The challenge is to find an appropriate solution for each unique situation.
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In some instances however, abandoned malls aren't able to be redeveloped. Whether it is caused by
new owners going out of business or poor construction, some must be demolished. An alternative
solution is deconstruction.
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This brings us to the question of how will people shop in the future? What will happen to the
small specialty shops? Retail stores will not disappear, however, this author feels that shopping
on the internet at sites such as http://www.i-shopping-mall.com will take the place of the retail
shopping malls. People want convenience when shopping and the home computer will provide that for
all shoppers.
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There are so-called online shopping malls today. However, upon observation, the web sites that
profess to be “Online Shopping Malls” are really only retail stores selling specific products to
consumers. Typically there does not seem to be a variety of selections for consumers. There is
no real presentation of the shopping mall environment compared to the retail shopping mall that we
came to know and love in the past.
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Additionally, when using the internet a person becomes very tired of spending hours searching
the internet one web store at a time to find the products or services that they need.
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Today, given the innovation and technology, there a site that exist that recognizes what is missing
when it comes to a real online shopping mall; http://www.i-shopping-mall.com. On observation this
web site does bear some resemblance to a retail shopping mall. As this site matures, there is no
doubt that the owners are branding a solution and a concept that will replace the retail shopping mall.
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