The death of the shopping mall, and the rot at the heart of our society

border_humper

border_humper

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But our capacity to fill the material void these brands leave is beside the point. The death of mid-tier retail should concern us all – because those empty storefronts are a direct reflection of our society.
The mass prosperity of the 1950s, 60s and 70s gave birth to much of the retail now decaying around us. We have arrived, instead, at a world of thriving luxury malls at one end of the income spectrum and resale shops, dollar stores and discount chains at the other. E-commerce accelerated the decline, but the root illness has always been economic. Artificial intelligence will only deepen it, further decoupling business productivity from the need for white-collar labour and concentrating the gains accordingly.
This isn’t merely a retail problem. It’s a societal one – for two reasons. First, the wealthy cannot buy enough to fill the hole the middle class is leaving behind. The rich may buy more expensive socks, but they don’t have more feet to put them on. Second, every new closing drives greater market share into the hands of already-enormous companies like Walmart and Amazon, creating a monopsony dynamic that pushes employee wages down and consumer prices up. When markets concentrate, everyone loses – workers, consumers and suppliers alike, exacerbating the downward spiral and further widening the mid-market chasm.
And the damage runs deeper than economics. Extreme polarization erodes faith in public institutions, in the basic fairness of capitalism and ultimately, in democracy itself. In a May, 2023, survey by the Angus Reid Institute, fully one-third of the 1,600 Canadians polled claimed to have lost all trust in democracy. It’s hard to blame them. Democracy did not insulate them from the reality of a K-shaped economy, with growth for the top 20 per cent of earners and stagnation for the rest.
None of this is new. It is the result of a 50-year march toward a society of haves and have-nots – a co-production of business and government, from both sides of the aisle. From the automation and offshoring of manufacturing in the 1970s and 80s to the spectre of AI causing a white-collar wipeout today, the gains of rising productivity over the past half century have flowed almost entirely to capital and away from labour. What we are witnessing now is simply the harsh inflection point – the visible tip of a very large iceberg.
Those closed stores and hollowed-out shopping centres are a bellwether, for where our society stands today and where it is headed. And whether they recognize it or not, every business has a stake in reversing the trend, including those benefiting from the fallout. The long-term health of the consumer economy, and of our society, depends on it.
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Where do you buy clothes and housewares now? Where do kids gather? Totally agree that the death of malls is ominous for our civil society, already diluted.
 
Upvote 7
I am quite demoralized to be honest.

When I was young, there were lots of cute girls, I had friends to hang out with, we all had fun. NOBODY talked politics, that would have been very weird.

Now I am older and moderately successful, but I have maybe one or two friends that really know me, and they don't live here anymore. Lots of my friends left Canada. I can't because of some personal circumstances.

Politics in shoved in your face everywhere. Women are mostly nasty/huge and/or have more ink than an entire boat of sailors. Thank God I got married 20 years ago, I sure as shit wouldn't find a good wife if I was looking now. Sorry young men, you mostly be fucked.

The mall was just one of those places we would go to meet chicks/hang out/check out the cool shops. I don't see kids or even young people there now. I only went there to get a new case for my smartphone (a demonic device)

Didn't have to worry about competing with the entire world on a smartphone hook up app.
 
border_humper said:
Where do you buy clothes and housewares now?
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border_humperCostco. Costco put Sears and the other department stores out of business for the exact and obvious reasons a retailer should succeed, higher quality wares; the products are above the minimum viable as the chain’s buyers are discerning, and there’s a generous return policy to help the customer.
 
That’s where I tend to spend my money, but they are ultra woke, and stores experience is no longer fun due to hordes.
 
Yeah I know, I used to like a trip to the mall which was always park at Sears, walk a lap to see what’s new and people watch, stop at the pizza place that was my favourite since I was a kid, grab what I came for and leave.

Then things changed and the only reason to go to the mall was the Christmas shop.

Now you can’t stay far enough away from the place.

The horde is a big part of that.
 
The people who successfully used malls as social settings are the same kids that have fake Tinder accounts at 14yo and are already getting all the "social settings" they would have got with malls anyhow. The socially inept people went to malls and talked to no one. The loss of malls in itself doesn't mean much. The real change to our society is the following:

  • Increased non-Whites in society makes socializing harder. The more racially mixed your society the less socializing that occurs.
  • Online dating. Most socializing is actually just an excuse to find a mate. Since finding a mate can be done through online dating, a lot of people don't bother with socializing anymore since they don't need to.
  • Taxes (including sin taxes), social programs and government regulations. Combined these things make it more expensive to the point of not being worth it to socializing anywhere that isn't inside someone's home. Alcohol has been the "social drug" in our society for centuries but alcohol was significantly targeted by the government through regulations and taxes to the point that the young generation isn't drinking but it doesn't mean they aren't doing something. Young people know a research chemical they can order online for everything but a lot of them aren't really "social drugs" nor are they acceptable in public so it's hidden but this leads to less socializing.

If you want to increase socializing in society you need to do the following:

  • Lower taxes by 90%
  • Cut all social programs and government spending by 90%
  • Remove 75% of all government regulations, especially those related to drinking and establishments for partying/drinking/socializing.
  • Deport all non-Whites from society.
  • Ban immigration of non-Whites to society.

How to fix the drug situation in Canada is the following:

  • Legalize ALL recreational drugs (not decriminalize but legalize). Do not regulate either. Our current consumer protection laws are good enough.
  • Make it illegal to use drugs in an anti-social manner. Basically, getting high and passing out on the side of the road is illegal. Getting high and harassing people in public is illegal. Taking fentanyl and doing the fold in the middle of the road is illegal. However, you do not get a criminal record if you're caught under the influence and being anti-social, instead if you're charged with being anti-social under the influence 2-3 times you get forced (compulsory) into rehabilitation similar to our prison system such that it cannot be avoided.

You implement the above and socializing will go way up in society.
 
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