The Demise of the Regional Shopping Mall in America
Consumers were motivated to move and shop from store to store by the combination of convenience, the number and variety of stores, brand names, and national advertising campaigns. This successful combination convinced mall developers that if they built one, the people would come. Also, mall owners knew that the more time people spent at a mall, the more money they would spend. This knowledge encouraged them to find ways to keep the people at their malls for as long as possible. Hence, they began to include restaurants and movies in numerous malls.
The growth in home ownership was the spark that ignited the explosion to develop new shopping malls in suburban America. It began in the 1950s. In 1950 55% of the household formations owned their own home. That number increased to 64.4% in 1980. As of the second quarter of 2006, 68.7% of household formations owned where they lived. Because the higher percentage is from a larger number of household formations, the increase was even more profound. In 1950 there were 43,554,000 households. By 2005, there were over 114 million households. Households that owned their own home had increased from 23,954,700 in 1950 to 78,582,000 in 2005. The largest part of this new home ownership occurred in the suburbs.
Right behind this explosion of home ownership in the suburbs came the development of new regional shopping malls. Between 1964 and 2004, shopping malls in the United States grew from 7,600 to 46,990.
During that same time period, some very profound sociological changes began to take place. Unfortunately, when you looked at regional shopping malls and the sociological changes that were taking place, it was clear that there was no way they could both remain on parallel paths. Regional shopping malls were comprised of tons of inflexible, immovable bricks and mortar. Sociological changes are resilient and constant. The two don’t foot.
By now the stage was set. America was inundated with new regional malls ready to be shopped, but who made that important decision to go to shopping malls? Women. Women were the decision makers when it came to spending time and money at the malls.
It was during this time that the role of the American woman was changing, and with it the allocation of her time and activities. More women were entering the work force. From 1950 to 2006 the percentage of women in the work force increased from 29.6% to 61%. This was even more profound than it may appear. From 1950 to 2006 people in the work force increased from 58,918,000 to over 144 million. That means women in the work force increased from 17,439,728 to 87,840,000. That’s 70,400,272 more women who were working and didn’t have as much time to spend at malls.
As more women entered the work force and more were promoted, they were exposed to more opportunities and different interests. They developed new ways of spending their time. Whether single or married, they became more interested in exercise, travel, museums, shows, hobbies, and spending quality time with family and friends. There was simply less time for the malls. This reallocation of time spent resulted in women changing their habits when it came to shopping.
Activities that were part of traditional shopping at the regional malls now became burdens. American consumers started to look for ways to shop that reduced or eliminated parking, driving, walking, the expense of gas, automobile maintenance, dealing with the weather, getting dressed, and shopping on the retailers’ time schedules.
